Sep 23 Four Points by Sheraton Lhasa
I was really looking forward to today – have heard about Namtso a lot (Christian and Dennis visited two years ago and I was fascinated by the pictures) and especially that we were not going to Ali anymore, Namtso is supposed to be the highlight of the trip.
It took us quite a long time to get there although its only 250 KM from Lhasa – there were total 9 checkpoints and there was tight speed control the whole way!!! Well, its getting closer to Oct 1…
We could see the lake from the top of the mountain (around 5200 meter high): the deep blue color looked completely unreal. There was some fresh snow on the mountains and looked like sugarcoat at Christmas. How magical!
The entrance gate is quite far away from the lake already and the ticket is quite expensive (80RMB per person). We felt a little uncomfortable since there were many tour buses – Tibet is going to lose its charm soon with too many tourists…
The weather was beautiful and after a long drive circling around the lake, we finally arrived at Zhaxi Penisula. Many local people opened shops and restaurants there for the tourists.
The lake （Namtso means Heaven lake) surrounded by the snow mountains (Nyainqentanglha念青唐古拉) looked more or less like a dream. We walked along the lake and then climbed up the hill overlooking the lake, you could just drown in the beauty…
I wish I could have more time to stay overnight, but because of the task next day, we had to leave at around 1730 so I didnt even get to see the sunset – fortunately we left early, the weather became so terrible in the evening that it took us about 6 hours to get back to Lhasa. (We heard the next day that there was bad snow storm in Namtso that the whole area was locked down.)
I need to come back again!!