Day 9: Yamdrok Yum Tso Lake, Tibet

Chinese Version / 中文版本

My first camping experience was pretty successful last night. It was just a little bit packed with 3 people in one small tent. But I could still manage to sleep peacefully with my earplugs on, I even did not want to wake up in the morning. 

Then we all packed our stuff and were ready to go to Yamdrok Yum Tso Lake, which is the second sacred lake in Tibet after Namtso Lake. Fortunately it was sunny today, we could see the stunning side of Yamdrok Yum Tso Lake under the sun. The blue lake and the green grasslands indeed looked like a really nice painting drawn by our almighty mother nature.

Rock carved with Yamdrok Yum Tso (Secretly snapped, because it needed to pay)

Still lake

After the lake tour, we had to return back to Lhasa. However, there were still 2 stops on the way back. The first stop was Tibetan Doctor visit. We were arranged to sit in a room first. Then a group of 6 people was divided to line up to see the doctor. That Tibetan Doctor did not touch us, he just needed to see our palm then he would know what was going on with our bodies. The first 5 people were diagnosed as very healthy and they could leave the room immediately. 

When it came to my turn, I was already the last one remaining in the room. The doctor said my digesting system was very bad (it could be true) and had imbalance menstrual cycle (it is really common to girls, right? Plus mine is very punctual, sometimes I just have some back pain). I was not sure if he knew that I came from Hong Kong that he thought I would be willing to pay loads to buy medicine, or I was really that unhealthy? He continuously forced me to buy the medicine to cure my 'illness'. I knew the Tibetan medicine could be very expensive, hence I told him I did not have enough money. Surprisingly, he said, "Don't worry, we accept credit card!" What the hell?!?! Obviously it's a scam!!! 

No matter how much I insisted, he did not let me go easily. He automatically deducted the price from 400 RMB to 200 RMB, and he also threatened me saying something like "This is your body, there's no reason you don't take good care of it!" (Sounded like I was gonna die soon) In the end, I gave in and agreed to buy the medicine, so that I could leave the "consulting room".

Throwing stones in the lake was the real business

The stone was thrown in the lake

My tour mates waited for me outside and were all curious that I brought a bag out. They asked me why I bought the medicine and I told them the complete story of what happened after they left. They all thought that it was a scam and I was being stupid. Therefore, they took the bag from my hand and went to the cashier to get the refund for me. They even made up some ridiculous reasons and after a while, they finally refunded for me! Yay! 

Afterwards, we went to the second stop which was a big Yak Jerky Store located in the suburb of Lhasa. There were many samples of yak jerky for tasting. Originally I was not interested, but there were actually pork jerky and chicken jerky, the taste was not bad either. Unfortunately I spent all my cash on buying plane ticket to Shanghai, otherwise I would buy a pack of pork jerky back home!

Going uphill to see the panoramic view

When we got back to Lhasa, it was already 3 in the afternoon. We put down our stuff and rushed to the Nepal Embassy at once. While we were lining up to obtain our passports back, I had to solve the renting car problem for tomorrow. Later we got to know that there was a travel van going to Zhangmu daily at 6 p.m., but it was a night bus and we would not be able to see the beautiful scenery on the way. Thus we still decided to rent a jeep instead. 

The drivers in Lhasa were quite strange. Though they did not take us to Zhangmu, they still referred other drivers to us. Hence, the jeep was hardly a problem, as finding other people to share the jeep was more difficult. 

Then it came another shocking news, that the annoying lady gave up visiting Potala Palace and decided to go with us tomorrow. I was startled at that precise moment, since I did not want to trap in the jeep for more than 10 hours with her! And when I thought that I would be stuck with her in Nepal for another one week, it's gonna take my life away. I couldn't help but tried my best to think every possible way to get her a ticket to Potala Palace tomorrow. Despite how I hard I tried, she still made her decision not to go. I finally could feel the ultimate disappointment in my life.

Nonetheless, there's always a way out. She was told that there would be a van leaving at 6 p.m. to Zhangmu and for sure it was cheaper than renting a jeep. So she changed her mind again and took the van to Zhangmu today. I knew, every cloud had a silver lining!

The other side of the lake

After that annoying lady left, I took the taxi back to the guesthouse with Chloe and Eason. Meanwhile, Eason suddenly said, "I don't want to go to Nepal with that annoying lady!" And then Chloe went, "Me either!" Eventually, we found out that all of us did not want to go with her at all. We just did not dare to speak it out! We all felt greatly relieved after she left. When we arrived at the guesthouse, we got to realize that owner J also did not like that annoying lady and hoped that she would leave as soon as possible. When she knew she had left, she wanted to hold a celebration by popping champagne. I am not kidding.

At night, I went out to Lhasa International Youth Hostel with Eason and Xiao Yen to stick ad on the wall to find people to share the jeep with us. Couldn't believe it just took 10 minutes and we got a call from a Shanghai couple. Sticking ad paper really worked! 

After dinner, we went back to the guesthouse to grab our last chance to hang out with the groups and the owners in the living room. It is the last night for us to stay here in Lhasa, I already misse it so much!