First photos from Lhasa!

The Potala, you can't help but be drawn to it...


We finally had enough energy to go see the Potala (with all those stairs!), but first we had a picnic in the park :)


This is the park where we had our picnic - it's called People's Park and it has a massive statue to Chinese Power...I like how it is put in it's place in my photo :)


This boating pond is also in the park - if you look really close you can see that the boats have weapons!


This is the Chinese May Bank Holiday week (a Chinese holiday, not a Tibetan one, so Lhasa is full of Chinese holidaymakers)...police presence is very heavy right now - we haven't just seen them at the Potala, they are everywhere, we just managed to sneakily take their photo here :).


When we arrived at the Potala to buy our tickets we were issued with a voucher and told to come back tomorrow. So we did the Potala Kora - a kora is a pilgrim's walk around a holy site - which walks all the way around the outside walls of the Potala. There were prayer wheels about half the way around and tons of pilgrims spinning the wheels and lighting incense and prostrating themselves and begging....




Embedded in the walls of the Potala are many different icons, here is a sampling:










We got the bikes!!!! It was a bit of a pain, but we finally managed to wrench them from the grasp of the train cargo people. The guys that worked there were really helpful and gave us much assistance as we put them together. The bikes arrived a bit battered and bruised but in working order. We are glad to have them back! :)


We rode them into town and snapped this very scenic photo of A posing with her beast in front of the most famous monastery in town :)


On one of our first days walking around town we stumbled upon the Muslim Quarter - there is quite a Muslim presence in Lhasa - and we spotted this multi-lingual sign.


Here are some other streets of the Tibetan Quarter - this is typical Tibetan architecture.



Our hostel hosts this biker bar (for Chinese bicyclists, not motorcyclists :) We have been in to chat with them and they are most helpful.