Lhasa

It was time to head to Tibet, so we got a start at 4:30 am to transfer to the airport with our “group”. The Chinese have made travelling to Tibet very difficult for the independent traveler, so agencies have gotten around the rule by setting up “group tours” which basically put together a fake group of travelers, get a group permit and set up airport transfer and lodging.
The process was uneventful, arriving at the Chengdu airport and almost immediately getting on to our packed 737 headed to Lhasa. The mix of people was interesting- a lot of Tibetans, some Caucasians and lots of Japanese.
Once we arrived at the Lhasa airport, we got onto a local bus for the 1 ½ hour trip into the city. Our group filled most of the bus, but it waited until every seat was filled with locals before taking off.

We saw our first yak boat and started to get a sense of the altitude. Just dragging your bags from the airport to the bus left you with your heart pounding.
The city of Lhasa was uninspiring. The Chinese have started to build huge concrete structures around the old center city and the roads are well paved and everything is white concrete with blue glass windows. Our hotel, the Snowlands, was in the center of the old section. We got our room and decided that rest was the best option for the day. All advice from other travelers suggested that at least 1-2 days of rest would help with acclimation.
We had a great dinner at the Snowlands restaurant and headed to bed.