Journey to Tibet Namtso Lake

It’s time to recap. It’s now the 11th post in the Tibet category and there are more to come. If you haven’t read the rest before that, you may refer to the list below.

Clicking the links below will open a new tab or page.
[Tibet 1] Hello from Lhasa, Tibet
[Tibet 2] The Rough Journey Tibet
[Tibet 3] Another Day in Lhasa
[Tibet 4] Visiting Drepung Monastery Tibet
[Tibet 5] Monastery Visitation Tibet
[Tibet 6] Moving Around Lhasa Tibet
[Tibet 7] The Day I Visited Temples at Lhasa
[Tibet 8] Weird Blue Lake Tibet
[Tibet 9] Randomness at China and Tibet
[Tibet 10] More Monasteries and Mt Everest
[Tibet 11] Journey to Mt Everest

Driving Back Down from Everest

Finally after descending Mount Everest base camp, it’s time to go on to our next destination which is the Namtso Lake. The world’s highest salt water lake. Yes, SALT WATER! Unbelievable? Well, how can there be a salt water lake high up the mountains?Anyway along the way down, there are lots of crazy roads we have to go through.  From roads that are such cramp in between rocks and hills.

Rocky Roads at Nepal

Roads that are in the middle of the mountain are also experienced. We heard a story, just a month ago, there was a cave in and the rock collapsed on the road. We did witness a part of what had happened. Rather it was the history of it.

Drive Out from a Hole in Mountain

Here’s another so called hole in the mountain that we had to go through too. Now look at how wide the road is, and how ‘big‘ is that hole compared to the road. What a way to carry on our journey. Still all of us like so called prayed that the driver that is ferrying us in his van would drive safely and that we reached our destination in one piece.

We were in the van for hours, and considering that a few of us are photographers, we needed some stretching done and with beautiful scenery around in this land of Nepal + Tibet, we make sure we stopped for some shots. Most of us won’t be coming back again, so it’s either you shoot now or you won’t be able to shoot another photo in the coming future.

Superb Lake View at Tibet

The stream, the splendid mountain. These kind of scenery, what a sight to behold. Of course along the way, we could see herdsmen driving the buffaloes and what another view other than just scenery.

Buffalo herdsmen Tribe

Photos taken from inside the van. Not very good composition as we’re in a moving vehicle and I just shoot with my previous settings.

After what seemed to be a long journey, it’s time to move on, and finally a spot to rest and flex our legs.

Buffalo Beyond Snow Capped Mountain

Buffaloes roam the place around here. Something funny happened here though, there was this local guy who was basically walking towards us asking for money for shooting the area here. The funny thing was not that, but more of he was practically following Kenny all the way until he tailed him back to the van. I can’t stop laughing. Seems like he’s a local Tibetan magnet.

The snow capped mountains at the background seems so near but yet so far. Well, I was only able to view only and never did I get to touch them yet.

Ornament before Snow Mountain

Remember I said there was a guy who kept following Kenny all the way. Well basically he was behind this offering structure and then he suddenly stood up and kept going near to us. Kept asking for 50 Yuan. Practically I was using a zoom lens, so I stood kind of far away. He only came near to me once and I just walked the other way.

Finally it’s time to push forward and this time we stopped at another amazing location. Most photos shot are practically taken straight from the camera with their settings.

Scenery By The Lake

I must have set this to vivid. The sky is so blue but I love them. But isn’t it strange to have the mountain being cut in half from the photo. So feast your eyes on a panoramic shot then.

Panaroma Hills Tibet

Click on the photo to get it in 1280 x 501 resolution joined together using Adobe Photoshop CS3 by using this technique to merge the photos.

How to do it? This is the tutorial page.

Well, after what seemed like a hard long journey, took like 6 hours, we’ve finally reached a location that somehow mentioned about the Namtso Lake. Did I mentioned that it was salt water? I guessed I did.

Namtso Lake Welcome Board

Finally the Big Stone wall to welcome us to the entrance to Namtso Lake. Again we have to pay 100 Yuan to go pass the guard house. Everything is money here. Well, the stone wall reads The Highest Lake in the World – Namtso (世界之 ? – 纳木 ? ) . Someone please help me fill in the blanks. I can’t find the han yu pin ying, nor do I know what it reads for the ones with the question mark. Anyone can help?

Now you must be wondering, since we’ve descended from Mount Everest, how high is it right now? The next photo should explained it. It’s 5190m above sea level.

3 Jumpers at LakenLa Stone Tibet in front of Namtso lake

Now don’t you love the way we all jumped. Beyond the horizon is the Namtso Lake and we had a jump before arriving our destination. What a great place to do all our jumping.

13 Comments

  1. louyea May 14, 2010
    • danielctw May 14, 2010
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  3. Nana Lana May 14, 2010
    • danielctw May 14, 2010
  4. jfook May 14, 2010
    • danielctw May 14, 2010
  5. Hong May 14, 2010
    • danielctw May 14, 2010
  6. Glo-w May 14, 2010
    • danielctw May 14, 2010
  7. Michael May 20, 2010

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