Ahh, Tibet. What a fascinating place. China is obviously trying hard to placate the people. There are new freeways, tunnels, railroads, and buildings everywhere you turn. Construction cranes in every direction. I don't know if it is working or not, but they still take their religion very seriously. We happened to arrive right in the middle of a major religious holiday period and it made our visit even the more interesting. The Tibetans are a very handsome people - taller overall than the Chinese I think, and slender of build. I thought the altitude would bother me, but other than a few times when we exerted ourselves, I didn't notice it nearly as much as Cusco. Lhasa is a beautiful city, well worth the short flight. The weather was perfect. The highlight is the Potala Palace, which is visible from any direction in Lhasa and dominates the cityscape. We spent most of a day climbing up to it and exploring the many rooms of the Dalai Lama's home until 1959. We traveled the entire trip with the same group of people - 25 or so in total. Other groups came and went (depending on their itinerary), but our bus stayed the same (we were the "red bus"). This allowed us to get quite chummy, a very nice group of people.
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