Category Archives: 西藏

We overnighted in Pelbar aka Shelkar aka New Tingri. Accommodations (as the criminally misleading “Snowland Hotel”) were what I would consider “unloved motel”-caliber……but with water disconnected from the sink, shower, and toilet to prevent freezing.

A glacier at 5020m (16,500 ft.)      

At 4900m (16,000 ft.), this was the first of the high passes we navigated.  It looked like the shittiest parts of California to me.  One of the recurring disappointments of Tibet was that most of it was brown & dry … Continue reading →

Somewhere between Lhasa and Shigatse, we made a pit stop.  The facilities were…rudimentary. This cow was the town plumber, as far as I could tell.

The air in Tibet was frigid, but as arid as any desert.  The thin atmosphere meant the sun beat down brutally.  It was common for my skin to burn in the sunlight and my body to shiver in the shade. … Continue reading →