Shooting Some Stick at NamTso Lake, Tibet, China

Mush and I joined an English friend Alan in renting a Landcruiser for an overnight trip up to NamTso Lake. Leaving from Lhasa at 3700m, I was a little worried about the altitude gain as we would be sleeping at 4800m that night. The drive up was quite spectacular, through mountains, plains with Yaks, and following the brand new Golmud-Lhasa train line (just completed) that they are testing trains on right now! As we were driving up to the pass, we heard a pop, and then steam came bellowing out of the engine. We had blown a rad hose, but no worries, the driver wrapped it in duct tape and some rubber strip, and we were on the move again one hour later! A pitstop at the pass at 5190m must have been my highest bathroom break to date. It did give us views over the deep blue lake surrounded by colourful plains and snow capped mountains.
Nomad tents throughout the plains led us to the tent town at NamTso. We booked in to the Sheng Shui Hotel and Tea Pub - tent hotel - for the night before wandering around the little settlement. Yaks a plenty, offering rides to the sparse tourists. We did climb up the hillside behind, an exhausting little walk at this altitude. The lake is quite large - (90km long) and in true Chinese style, they advertise it as the highest lake in the world. I guess it depends on what you classify a lake! The views were great as we were standing on a peninsula with the lake wrapped around.
Prior to dinner, I challenged Alan to a few games at the pool table with the best view I have seen!! Tibet was pool crazy, and there were outdoor pool tables in every town, village, farm, etc! While Alan and I were playing, we had to take a time out as a yak walked through! During this, Michelle was playing with a really cute little local girl, who was mimicking her every move. The girl joined us for dinner, kept warm by the yak dung stove in the centre of the room.
A cool night awaited us, and a brisk morning with excellent morning light on the flocks of sheep in front of the mountains. Mush's favourite little girl and her family were moving tent that day, so we helped them lug things about 200 ft to their new location. Funniest moment was watching 4 men lift a huge bag of dried yak dung on to a WOMAN's back, and she carried it across!! They were all surprised at our help, but thankful!

Our ride home was uneventful (no breakdowns), but we did stop at a hot spring at 4300m. A huge pool of hot water, right next to a really ugly geothermal energy factory - only in China!!! It did feel good afterwards, but not the most scenic, unless you look over the factory to the moutains! *Stub