Total Distance Cycled: 65 kms

Morning altitude: 4520 meters (14,800 feet)

Highest altitude: 4520 meters (14,800 feet)

Evening altitude: 3990 meters (13,000 feet)

I had a very restless night's sleep in our beautiful campsite and woke up with a headache. WE were all quite a sight to see as we all had very puffy faces and eyes (a classic altitude symptom, and were were at 4500 meters). I also was borderline nauseous again, so just choked down some Tibetan bread and tea for breakfast.

All our stuff was wet from the rain last night, so it took us awhile to pack up, but it was a beautiful day today so it was fun to get back on the road. Our ride today was mostly downhill, except for the rather mild Simi La pass. We rolled down a magnificent river valley, and then along a beautiful magic blue lake which was damned from the river we had been riding along. The pass was just a few kilometers long, and we were rewarded on top by wonderful views of the glorious blue lake. From the top it was a really fun descent, thena long straight shot into town. We had a headwind all afternoon, but it really doesn't matter much when the air is so thin.

We got in around 2:30. We had a bit of a panic when Jean Pierre and Annie suddenly weren't following out little caravan through town to the hotel. They had no idea where to go so I rode off looking for them. They had stopped to take a picture so didn't see our turn into the hotel.

I immediately sent out my laundry and had a glorious hot shower in our nice little hotel. We then went up to tour the local monastery. The Pelkor Chode monastery was founded in 1415 and has some really magnificent buddhas. Inside the same compound is the largest stupka in Tibet. We climbed all the was to the 4th floor and got some great views of the city.

The city we are in is Gyantse. Because of its position on the trade routes, it used to be the 3rd largest city in Tibet. It is kind of a neat place, with a wide main street that has a bit of a wild west feel to it, and a small version of the Pakora palace towering above.

Bad news on my computer. As I was working in my rainy tent last night, I let the battery run all the way down, and today it wouldn't boot up again. A file had been corrupted. Stan and I had crazy adventures in Chinese trying to get a copy of a Windows XP CD, but after many hours of trying we had no luck. I hope I can get it fixed in Shigatse tomorrow, because after that we are in the wild for awhile.

Below are a few pictures from the road. No elevation profile for the next few days due to computer problems. Me on the road, me in a typical tibetan town, me on the top of the Simi La, the view from the pass, the descent from the pass, a typical vehicle on this road.