May 8, 2007
To Gyantse: Tian Zang Hotel alt 4022
The morning is beautiful, there are clouds in the mountains. We pack up and it is a short easy push back to the road--unusual for us in selecting camp sites. There is one small pass between us and Gyantse ...according to the Cycling in Tibet guidebook. Why we believe that is somewhat of a mystery, same as why we believe the weatherman.
And so we continue our "descent" to Sima La pass. The road is the same until we reach the pass. Again there is construction. It's difficult sometimes to see beyond the roadside building of construction crews, equipment, stacks of rock and construction of retaining walls and see the Tibetan landscape. We still say Tasik Delek even though the crews are mostly Chinese. We climb to a bridge and switchback, then the combination of road surface and steepness is not doable for cycling, at least for Rachel and she walks pushing her bike, Patrick does the same to stay together.
We reach a high point on a curve, there are lots of prayer flags, a view of an old fort and our first view of a hydroelectric project and dam...not until we are close to the dam do we think that we have already crossed the "pass."
So now it is to be downhill to town, right? Wrong! the road is rolling, sometimes steep, the surface is better, sometimes almost hard packed. Then we reach a part of the road that is blocked, we are sent down to the river, over big rocks and pssstt...Rachel's back tire is flat in a second! Patrick quickly changes the inner tube, my tire has a tiny slash that needs watching. We continue on our bums are sore from the bumpy road.
We get our first glimpse of the fort and town, the road levels out a bit, we make our way to Tian Zang Hotel. The parking area is full of land cruisers. Patrick checks out a room that is very nice, hot water and a "western" toilet, TV with Channel 9, a nice treat after camping for 3 days. It's 2:30pm. We clean up and eat dinner in the hotel restaurant that is disappointing, expensive and not filling. So, we go for a second dinner to the Yak restaurant across the street...a Yak burger for Patrick, Pizza for Rachel...what a surprise.
We go looking for internet and find not too far from the hotel. Nathan has loaded new pictures to Picasa. We sort through the Tiger Leaping Gorge Pictures adding captions, answer email then back to our room.
It's been a long day. Tomorrow is a rest day.
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 8,907 km (5,531 miles)
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