Julianne's Diary Day Nine-Lhasa to Namco Lake and back to Lhasa

As we left Lhasa this morning and headed north we came across an almost endless row of military trucks lining the street on the way out of town. Arriving by procession on the other side were modern style military vehicles. I remain curious about why there were so many, what they were doing and where they were going.

The world famous Tibet railway ran alongside us as we headed north  out of Lhasa. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

As the trucks were parked, we managed to get past them and eventually made our way out of Lhasa for the four-hour drive to Namco Lake, the most holy lake in Tibet.

As we headed out of Lhasa towards the world's highest lake we travelled alongside the world's highest railway. The world famous Tibetan railway cost around $44.2 billion US dollars to build and is considered to be something of an engineering marvel. The original Swiss engineers brought in the consult on building it concluded that trains were not meant to go that high. Apparently this one was.

Today we saw many people standing by the roadside holding plastic bags containing what I assumed was fruit or vegetables and waving them at passing motorists. Just as I was thinking to myself that few people would stop on a highway to buy something, our driver slammed on his brakes and made a dash towards a seller.

He came back with a bag of mushrooms he bought for 40 yuan. I was told that because they were wild mushrooms grown in the mountains they were worth every kuai. I'm still not sure how he knew they were mushrooms in the first place.