First Views of Lhasa

Our trip had a very, very good start ... for the first time ever we had seats in first class!  Wow, what a difference that makes!  Our breakfast included a treat in the shape of the Expo mascot, Haibao.  Pretty excessive.

Arriving in Lhasa, the first thing we noticed was how bright everything was.  Being closer to the sun and in such thin air really did make a difference.

Since no one is allowed into Tibet without being part of an official, government approved tour group, we were picked up at the airport by our tour guides and wisked onto a bus to head into Lhasa.  The scenery that greated us along the way was breaktaking.  I was pleasantly surprised to see some beautiful Fall colors.

I love that on this one you can see the smudges on the bus window showing up in the picture.  Classy.

By the time we reached our hotel, we were both sporting some pretty good headaches from the altitude along with some waves of nausea and decided to take it easy.  We did go out to get some aspirin and passed over 10 booths selling this...

Yummy!  Yak meat anyone??!!?!

Views of Lhasa from our hotel room window. 

I couldn't believe that we could see the famous Potala Palace from our budget class hotel!!