Day 1: Arrive in Lhasa
Welcome to Lhasa! Transfer to your hotel and get settled.
Day 2: Lhasa
In the morning, visit the Potala Palace, the greatest monumental structure in all of Tibet. Also visit the Jokhang Temple, which is located in Barkhor square in Lhasa. The Barkhor is a famous shopping street filled with goods and souvenirs from Tibet, Nepal, and India. Pilgrims from all over Tibet visit the Barkhor to pray in front of the Jokhang.
Day 3: Lhasa
Visit Sera monastery, where you can watch monks debate in the courtyard. Afterwards, visit the Norbulingka, the summer Palace of H.H. the Dalai Lama.
Day 4: Lhasa/Tsurphu Monastery
Driving from Lhasa to Tsurphu Monastery takes about 2 hours, and the altitude will go up to 4480m. Today will be spent acclimatizing and visiting this Tsurphu Monastery. Overnight at Tsurphu Monastery.
Day 5: Tsurphu Monastery – Leten (trekking 4 hours, 11km)
A spectacular first day of trekking up a green valley crisscrossed with mountain streams. Be on the look out for various species of mountain goats. Several small nomadic communities camp here for the summer herding months, and you may have a stop into a yak-hair tent for a cup of salt butter tea or some fresh yak milk! Crest the ridge top four hours later, emerging onto a high plateau with a scattering of rock-enclosed huts, and look for a flat area for camping. From day one, the scenery is breathtaking, classic Tibetan beauty.
Day 6: Leten – Bartso (trekking 5-6 hours, 15km)
Have your first small pass, the Damchen Nyingtri, bear to the left at the cairns at the crest, and descend into a magical valley of lichen-coated boulders, meandering streams and expansive, powder-blue sky. Three hours later, you will cross the Lasar La and descend into the Yangpachen valley, with its wide open plateaus, spiky grass hummocks and tundra-like parched, cracked patches of earth, and head towards Bartso. The views of Brize (translated as female yak herder) and Tarze (horse keeper) are superb, and you will feel safe in the care of the local mountain god, Nyenchen Tanglha. Camp near Bartso, a drokpa (nomad) village of five or six houses, surrounded by the juniper used for incense all over the Tibetan world.
Day 7: Bartso – Dorje Ling Nunnery (trekking 4 hours, 15km)
Leaving the village of Bartso behind, head towards a wide trail leading across the valley and over another ridge, from where you will be rewarded with views of Nyenchen Tanghlha (7111m), the holiest mountain in central Tibet. Emerge at Tajung village, and then climb gently up rolling hills where young nomadic boys and girls picnic on the plateaus as they watch their yaks and sheep graze. The vistas are, again, just amazing! Mid-day, you should reach the small Dorje Ling Ani Gompa (nunnery), near which you will set up camp. It is possible that these nuns, some of the friendliest in Tibet, will drag you into the gompa’s tea-house and pass around a heaping plate of yak meat (use the bowie knife provided to hack a piece off) before getting into the requisite photo session.
Day 8: Dorje Ling Nunnery – Yangpachen Monastery and Hotsprings-Lhasa (trekking 4 hours, 14km)
Today, walk for three or four hours, following the ox-bow Nyango Chu River snaking its way through the grassy valley, and head for Yangpachen Gompa. This old Kagyupa monastery, with Tibetan mastiffs keeping guard, overlooks part of the Trans-Himalaya range. The Land Cruiser will wait for you at the monastery, pick you up, take you to the hot springs at Yangbachen, and then back to Lhasa.
Day 9: Depart Lhasa
Say goodbye to Tibet!
Itineraries are subject to change without prior notice.
