Today was a transit day. Almost 500 kms and nearly all of it on the main road to Lhasa. What was striking, was how little traffic there was. Just us, a few trucks and the odd car. It was a demonstration of how remote and unpopulated an area we have been in. We’ve been closer to Kabul than Lhasa.

The drive was easy and fairly quick. We were alongside the high Himalaya for a lot of it. We had a very clear view of the Annapurna range, which I’m looking forward to seeing at closer quarters from Pokhara.

A few of us stopped for lunch and were treated by my favourite Belgian, Xavier, to a mainly delicious feast in a tiny restaurant, found by Xav’s driver. Pads had ordered all the food with one dud dish. A huge cauldron of steaming stuff with chicken feet sticking out of it. They looked like babies hands.

The organisation found a different hotel in Saga for us tonight and it is a big improvement. Saga, the town that uses generators for electricity and smells of devised fumes, is much warmer than when we were here just over a week ago. Once the wind drops here, the sun is so strong there is real warmth.

Next stop is Jilong ready to cross into Nepal. One more pass of over 5000m and then Jilong, at only 2000m. As usual, it’s 5am. It’s been the first night I haven’t had to sleep in all my clothes for days and days. Warm; a comfy bed and decent wifi. I’m in heaven.

When I’m posting these missives, I’m in such a hurry to get them uploaded before the weak broadband drops out for the 38th time, I don’t proof read and edit. Reading back now, all I see are typos and silly grammatical errors. Sorry.

In the meantime, some pics from earlier.