7 days in Tibet

Well, 11 days once you include the total of 92 hours train travel there and back.
The train journey to Lhasa went surprisingly fast - once you take out the 2 nights of sleeping 44 hours doesn't seem such a long time. Being used to Indian trains helped though - even the cheap sleeper class seemed like luxury! We even had fun choosing our pot noodles to take on the journey - a far cry from pot noodle at home, these have at least 3 different sachets to add to the pot, including dried vegetables which somehow manage to seem crunchy and fresh once rehydrated.
We arrived in Lhasa in the evening and once we had checked into our (again, luxurious seeming) hotel, we went for a meal for a welcome change from noodles and an even more welcome beer. Yak meat dumplings - tasty!
The next day was time to find out a LOT of details about Buddhism in Tibet. Now, having spent a year living with Buddhist monks I thought myself fairly ok with Buddhist knowledge. Not so simple. Turns out there's an awful lot more Buddhas and Gods and protectors invloved than I was used to! What was particularly fascinating was observing the absolute depth of belief amongst the Tibetan people as they made their Kora (pilgrimage) around the Jokhang temple and prayed to their chosen god, donating money as they went. I did enjoy the sight of one little girl furtively collecting all the notes she could find on her way past... As we went we pressed our guide for as much information as we could about the 'real story' of Tibet. In the afternoon we visited a monastery, where we saw monks debating (in a very angry seeming way!)
The next day saw Palace day, and we began with the Summer palace. This would have been infinitely more interesting had our temporary guide for they day (our being ill)not been in such a hurry to get us through everything - we seemed to spend most of the morning playing catch up! Even the hurrying, however, couldn't spoil the impressive sight of Potala Palace, the chief residence of the Dalai Lama, most recently the 14th Dalai Lama before he went into exile. The inside of the palace is almost as impressive as the outside, with an astonishing amount of gold making up tombs of previous Dalai Lamas. There are a fair number of steps to climb before reaching the open sections of the palace, which was a harsh reminder of the effects of altitude! Other effects to this point had included a nose bleed (my very first EVER..) and a moment on the train when I had 6 locals rushing around me trying to inject me with glucose whilst I sat shaking, as white as a sheet.
The next day was time to head towards Everest! We spent the majority of that day driving towards Base Camp, with enough stops on the way to break up the journey and make it a little more interesting. One highlight was stopping at a breathtakingly beautiful lake, surrounded by snowy mountains and being photographed on top of a yak. Photos to follow.
We slept that night in Shigatse and set off again the next morning bright and early. The views this day were spectacular and we stopped several times when we caught glimpses of Everest through the clouds. as we got nearer, hwever, the clouds seemed to miraculously clear, leaving us with a postcard perfect view of the mountain. We arrived at the tents that were to be our hotel for the night and were pleasantly surprised by the warmth provided by a yak dung stove. No time to rest though - it was time to walk to base camp. Another harsh reminder of the effects of altitude. I almost felt as if I'd climbed the thing by the time we got there!! Freezing cold, breathless but completely blown away by what nature can do.
I had a cosy nights sleep warmed by the stove and 2 duvets. Kev, unfortunately, was really feeling the effects of being at 5,200m that night with a splitting headache and sickness which lasted on and off until we came back to Shigatse. The 2 day journey back towards Lhasa felt much longer than the journey there without Everest to look forward to, but when we finally got there we treated ourselves to a huge yak steak (yak really being the theme in Tibet!) and a well earned beer. Then it was time for a 48 hour journey to Beijing, which (as I'm still behind on this) we are just about to leave!