我到天边走一回(1)Going Tibet
我到天边走一回(2)On the way to Tibet
天边走一回(3)步步沉重的Potala Palace
天边走一回(4)Barkhor Street@Lhasa
文接自：天边走一回(5)Norbulingka宝贝公园 
每一秒…真的我都不舍得把眼睛闭上
远远看到皑皑白山就已经惊叹连连~！我们即将向千年积雪奔去啦~！
I could see a glacier peak vividly hiding behind another bare rocky mountain from a distance
As we entered into China National Highway国道318，our tour guide had to register the entry time at a police guarded checkpoint. Almost at every one hour distance there would be a checkpoint… time was strictly recorded as vehicles were not allowed to exceed the limited travel time. If we reached the other checkpoint slightly earlier, a fine might had been given.
China National Highway国道318 was a really long road way. It started from Shanghai and went through many beautiful sceneries all the way until the other west end of China in a total length of 5,476 kilometres
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The scenery along the road; a truck stuck at the drain beside the road, but it did not cause a jam here… haha…
Look carefully, every contour of the mountain has different texture… which was an amazing sight. AuntyLee said if in New Zealand, every mountain would look the same, after half an hour you would have fallen asleep already, but here… we were so anticipating the different mountains after crossing one another.
The photo that I took along the road… does it remind you of the famous painting, François Millet‘s “The Gleaners”? haha….
Admire the wonder of each mountain… I could imagine, simply dig a hole, I might excavate ruby, sapphire. agate or even billion year old fossils… *dreaming…
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It was too beautiful, we could not resist but to stop at the road side to take a photo “I felt as though I was standing in a 4D painting”~!
Looking out from our bus screen… it seemed that we were driving into the painting~!
天越来越蓝…真的是蓝到不象话~！
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小郭导游说山上这是天葬台的地方。如何天葬呢？就是喇嘛祈福烧艾草枝，天葬师把死者朵成很多块放置给秃鹰吃~
According to our tour guide, she said that on top of this mountain was a sky burial location, wherein a human corpse is incised in certain locations and placed on the mountaintop, exposing it to the predatory birds, mostly condors. 
In our itinerary we were going to visit a Tibetan villager’s house. According to our tour guide she said that Tibetans do not like to take bath or shower… simply because of their high altitude climate and the air is very thin and dry. If they shower too often it would reduce their antibody and damage skin tissue. However the thought of visiting their house made some of us wonder.. “can we ask them to shower first before we arrive aaa?”
← 孤立的房子坐落在浩瀚大地，拥有“天上天下唯我独尊”的气派……
这里农民家都隔得好远，他们都练就一身翻山越岭的好功夫。
5:30pm Our tour guide seemed to had spotted her target :"Give me a moment, I’ll go and ask if we can visit her house”.
??? I thought she had pre-arranged a villager’s house for us. She spotted a lady who carried a little boy in her arms talking with another couple beside the road. She went down and talked to them for a few minutes and she happily came back to tell us that they agreed to let us go to their house for a visit. I was surprise with this impromptu arrangement.
← The lady followed by our guide to her house.
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牛牛的迎接~楼下都是牛牛住的吧……
She guided us straight up to a narrow ladder stairs. It seemed that downstairs were stores and cow barn.
Guess what was lying right at their gate way… a big pile of cow dung…
Because of dry air, so it did not cause very strong smell.
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超大的白萝卜……黑漆漆的厨房…
Our tour guide told us if they offer us yak butter tea, in respect we must finish it. However the tour guide said so far she still could not accept that strong flavour. My conclusion… do not ask for the yak butter tea offer then.. haha…
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Our tour guide was doing a simple interview with her, like how many family members were there, what was their family source of income… while some of us toured out to the balcony.
← Scene over looked from their balcony.
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所谓“发粪涂墙”是真的~!!!
The function of cow dung is very important in Tibet. Firstly they will make it into dough to serve like a tile on the wall. Actually the more cow dung on the wall the more wealthy they are. Secondly they will use these dung for fire during winter and fire source for cooking.
← 我闪…我闪…我闪闪闪……
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Though their house looked like in a very poor condition but they seemed to be a wealthy family, judging from the amount of cow dung pasted on the wall, haha... They do have refrigerator and TV as well. Some of us still gave them a small token as an appreciation for letting us to visit their house abruptly.
6:00pm We hopped on the bus and headed off to our next destination.
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7:00pm 【Tashilhumpo】at Shigatse 日喀则的扎什伦布寺。Shigatse is the second-largest city in Tibet. Tashilhumpo monastery is the traditional seat of successive Panchen Lamas and is the largest temple in Shigatse. The tallest building of the monastery housed a gigantic statue of the Maitreya Buddha 弥勒佛 and is 26.2 metres (86 feet) in height. The statue sits on a splendid lotus throne with its hands in the symbolic teaching pose. A single finger of the giant figure is almost 4 feet in length. The statue contains pearl, amber, coral, diamond… other precious stones and 279 kg (614 lbs) of GOLD, 150,000 kg (330,000 lb) of copper and brass moulded on a solid wooden frame . The statue was handcrafted by 900 Tibetan and Nepalese craftsmen in 9 years.
Dogs dogs dogs everywhere…
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走上这个步道我们团已经一半覆没（不见了）因为太累人了，他们都不想折磨自己。哈哈……
剩下的继续向前进~
There was a bell at the entrance of each chapel, we lined up and raised our hand to ring the bell, as a respect to inform of our presence, and we would ring the bell again as we exit as a greeting of leaving.
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远远看到这金顶。都晚上7点多了还能这样金光闪闪~!! Golden rooftop was still glowing under the 7pm+ evening fading sun.
The Stupa-tomb of the Tenth Panchen Lama lies east of the chapel. Covered by 614 kg (1,354 pounds) GOLD, 868 precious stones and 246,794 jewels！！the most splendid and costly mausoleum in China since the 1950s.
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Photo above took by Robert(top) and me (bottom), amazingly matched in one piece~! This was The Great Courtyard of the Kelsang Temple, a place for lamas to practice and debate. The wall around the courtyard is covered by thousands of images of Sakyamuni in different postures and expressions. ← Imagine we were climbing this kind of ladder stairs up and down in the dim light inside the enclosed buidling.
Information for self-traveler, admission Fee: RMB 55, Opening Hours: 09:00 to 17:00 (But I have no idea why we were still able to enter the place after 7pm)
Recommended Time for a Visit: Three hours
8:30pm We proceeded to the Shigatse town for dinner.
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↑ Our tour guide specially ordered 3 preparation of Yak meat dish. 牦牛肉是今晚的主角但我不吃牛~~
9:30pm Finally we set foot at a Tibetan style Shigatse Zanglong Hotel 日喀则藏隆大酒店 4* 
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My brother was having a headache for almost the whole day ever since we reached Tibet. Mum and I thought maybe the cause could be that he did not shower for 2 days. Mum and I had our shower yesterday, moreover I even had a hair wash. So we had made a big mistake by judging that he could have been wearing too thick and stuffy clothes for days, so we encouraged him to have a quick shower. Worst things happened after that…
High Altitude Note: make sure you have a ready supply of sugar rich candies or chocolate bar. Take one immediately once you feel giddy.
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