After two days in Lhasa we moved to Gyantse today. In Lhasa we did the obligatory sightseeing. Ciprian and I, together with Vincent (a French guy that forms a team with 4 Japanese), also tried to help our acclimatisation a bit by (illegally) climbing about the highest mountain near Lhasa (~3880 m). The taxi driver carefully let us out around the curve of the road so the police did not see us and we climbed 350+ m up. It took a bit longer than we expected but a young farmers couple gave us a ride back to the city on the back of their little electrical truck. This morning (17/4) we drove through the endless Tibetan highlands via the Tibetan mountain highway with passes over 5000 m. We saw the first mountains over 7000 m and arrived safely in Gyantse where Ulrich and I climbed the old, deserted fortress to its highest point (~4200m) which gave s splendid view over the valley. Tomorrow we hope to drive on to Xigatse.
