Morning of last full day

The morning of our last full day in Tibet we drove about 18 miles outside of Lhasa to Drak Yerpa Monastery. Are you getting the feeling all we did was tour monasteries? You'd be right, but they were all very different and interesting in their own ways. Drak Yerpa is a bunch of meditation caves with a monastery built around them. It was destroyed during the cultural revolution and I found this tidbit in a Google search, "Although it could not have been a military threat to the Chinese, Drak Yerpa was terribly damaged during the Cultural Revolution. Its monasteries were destroyed, its caves were defaced, and its trees and shrubs uprooted. Today, hermits are gradually returning to the caves and its shrines are being restored."

The drive was also very interesting with all the prayer flags draped over the mountains and drying yak dung along the side of the road. This was the stop where Kenny and I were at the highest altitude we've ever been, just over 16,000 feet (4885 meters). I don't think I would have really even noticed it if I hadn't been Dominic's sherpa.

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