Another sleepless night. The altitude pills take most of the headache away, produce some interesting tingling sensations in fingers and face as side-effects, but can't get me to sleep. My mind just keeps racing from one thought to the next without following any through to a satisfactory end. And the strange thing is, I don't feel tired at all. I...

Today we had a relatively short drive, with just one 5000 metre pass, Yulung-la, en route to Shigatse. We arrived before lunch, and in the afternoon checked out the Tashilhunpo monastery, the most famous site in the town and the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama (2nd in command to the Dalai Lama). Unfortunately, he's been under house arrest ...

As mentioned on the previous journal, yesterday we traveled from Gyagtse to Xigaze (Shigatse) and that is where I am now. Xigaze is the second largest Tibetan town after Lhasa. By the way, the silly pin map on this website only recognizes Lhasa, and not anywhere else in Tibet. So it will always show me as being in Lhasa (even though I am not) I ...