Total DistanceCycled: 93 kms

Morning altitude: 3990 meters (13,000 feet)

Highest altitude: 3990 meters (13,000 feet)

Evening altitude: 3845 meters (12,600 feet)

Today was an absolutely perfect cycling day. Blue skies, mild temperature, tailwinds, flat roads, and great scenery. It doesn't get any better than this!

Today was also decision day for Stan and Laurent. They have to decide if they are going to be able to tolerate the altitude and stay with the trip, or if it is wiser to head back to Katmandu. Neither had a good night, and both were still suffering from headaches. Laurent started out with us in the morning, but Stan left the hotel in the truck, as he really didn't feel up to riding.

Like I said, it was a wonderful ride. The scenery reminded me very much of Kalispell, Montana, and vicinity. We were on a high agricultural plain, ringed with mountains--only our plain was at 4000 meters! We cruised along in the warm sunshine, watching the Tibetans work the fields with their antique tools and methods. We rode 93 kms today, but it was easy riding and the miles rolled by quickly.

Shigatse, our destination town, is the second largest city in Tibet, and our last taste of civilization for awhile. We are in a faded and a bit dirty hotel, likely one of the nicer in town. After showers and laundry, we headed out to see---you guessed it!--the local monastery. The Tashilhunpo Monastery was founded in 1447, and is enormous. It has lots of twisty cobbled lanes winding past ancient buildings. The highlight here is the biggest Buddha in Tibet: a 26 meter tall future Buddha. Very impressive! There are still 600 monks at this place. Then in the town square we found this big bronze stature of a mountain biker...how cool is that?

AFter the monastery tour it was time for my favorite pasttime: computer repair! Let's just say that I had quite an adventure from the time I stepped into the taxi headed for the biggest computer store in town. The store was a bust, but in a small neighboring shop I found a kid who spoke just enough english that we could work together. I now have Chinese windows XP installed, and all my important programs (GPS, Pictures, website) working. The problem is that everything is in Chinese, so I have to guess all the time which button to hit. It looks like this will be a workable solution for the remainder of the trip.

Good news on Stan and Laurent. Stan started Diamox today and it completely helped his symptoms. (Stan has been on it for a few days now.) Neither is planning on leaving us today, though there will be another decision point in a few days when we approach Everest.

In the pictures below you can see what a beautiful and easy day it was. Kalispell, right? Laurent and Stan are back. Our hotel lobby was nice, but the place was pretty run down. The large monastery is just at the edge of town.