The tour bus trip from Lhasa to Shigatse reached the small Tibetan town of Gyantse late in the afternoon just before a storm moved in, making for this dramatic view of the Dzong, an old fort above the town.  One of my favorite pictures from the trip.

The main attraction within the town of Gyantse is the Palkhor Monastery, built nearly 600 years ago.  I didn’t find the inside particularly memorable, though; after visiting so many monasteries during the previous few days, they all began to look similar.  These trees are probably the only ones in a hundred mile radius.

The monastery’s main feature is this huge stupa of nine tiers and 108 chapels.

On the road from Yamdro-Tso Lake to Gyantse, our tour reached the height of the trip - literally.  The bus proceeded along a road near the Himalayas, of which some of the snow-capped northern mountains can be seen here.  While I thought about proceding down to the Mount Everest area from Gyantse (which would have been a long, bumpy, four-wheel drive for a couple of days), I learned that the road was washed out from rains.  Still, it was great to be this close to the highest point in the world.

A glacier caps the top of this mountain.  At this point, the tour bus passed through 6,000 meters elevation - approaching four miles - and a number of people in the bus were having to use oxygen pillows to breathe.  I felt fine, but the five-meter climb to the top of a hill to take this picture left me gasping for air.

A close-up of the glacier top.  Though the weather was pleasant earlier in the day, frosty winds buffeted this area - and this was summertime.

Another glacier close-up.

This is my favorite picture from the entire trip - not only because of the image, but also because of the circumstances in which I took it.  After leaving the glacier area and riding through the most desolate land I have ever seen on the way to Gyantse, a rain storm passed over us - quite dangerous for the rocky, winding road we were traveling.  We traveled along a river for a while, which looked normal enough, but suddenly at the base of one mountain the river turned bright green, presumably from loam or other material washing off the mountain into the water.  With the sun diving out of the fast-moving clouds and dancing on the mountains and river, this other-worldly landscape was created.  I took this picture while the bus was moving, with one hand holding the camera stuck all the way out the window pointing backward.  It was totally a blind shot, and an extremely lucky one; it turned out exactly as I wanted.  If you want to travel to another planet, go to Tibet; it’s the next best thing.