Hello Vegas! I mean Lhasa 12/26

Annnnnnd we're back! No posts for the last week due to China oppression and their apparent dislike for anything Google. Assholes. 

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Up and ate breakfast at a nearby restaurant of eggs, toast, and masala tea. We decided to walk to the airport or try to jump on a local bus along the way. The walk was only 1.2 hours and we knew we'd be sitting the rest of the day. The walk was easy, flat, we walked by a dead dog. 

Our flight to Lhasa was delayed an hour. Then a short flight over the Himalaya and we landed 1.5 hours later. Everest was to our right as we flew by at 33k ft. The sky was clear and we got a great view of the mountain range. 

Off the plane, through customs (they confiscated Andy's oranges which were in my bag- thanks for that), and we were handed over to our keeper X (names protected). We have a driver X who drives so fucking slow. He was going the speed limit (60 km) the entire way and the highway is straight. That's going to make Andy nuts (and me). 

Tibet is a desert, dry and very cold. We saw the new railroad they built in 2 years and all the new apartment buildings China is putting in "new Tibet". The Chinese aren't allow to live in "old Tibet". We also passed lots of billboards that celebrate the 50 year anniversary of the "liberation of Tibet". Andy and I just looked at each other when X said that. We didn't want to say anything because there's a fucking CAMERA in the car facing us. We'll have to ask X about that one off camera. 

We arrived at our hotel in "old Tibet" at 6. Old Tibet isn't what we expected. It kinda looks like Vegas- lots of lights and shopping down the strip. Weird. We immediately headed for dinner after withdrawing an unknown amount of cash from the ATM (we didn't know what the conversation rate was). Walking down the street a monk straight up laughed at me. Not like a chuckle, but like a you look like a fool LOL. What the hell was that about?!

We ordered a lot of food. We had garlic naan, rugan gosh (mutton), paalek paneer, biryan (cashew rice), hot and sour soup, and Kashmir naan. It was amazing. 

The Kashmir naan was the weirdest thing. She couldn't explain in English what it was so we assumed it was different spices. It wasn't! It was fruit in yogurt on naan w those weird candied cherries you see at Xmas (they were on our rice too, very odd). 

We walked to the hotel at 8:30. There are so many lights and stores. Not sure what to think. Out hotel room heater wasn't working so we got another cold ass room. All we want is a shower. They gave us a space heater so we but the bed cover over it to warm us up in bed. Breakfast isn't until 8:30 tomorrow! We'll have to get a shower in the am I suppose.