Favorite memories

June 11, Day 25, Lhasa Airport, 8:03 a.m. Beijing time, alt 3600 m.

from last long walk in Tibet, June 5, 2006

At nine we have breakfast with Jinpa and Mr. Lee. I still have to pack a ski pole. Then everything will be zipped in. What a huge experience to say good-bye to. There were times it seemed it would never end but it did, as all things do. As I look back on it from this close distance some of my favorite memories are--

1. Coffee in the morning
2. Fried egg with sriracha

prayer drums at the Jokhang Temple

3. Walking the Jokhang temple with Jinpa
4. Sitting in the middle of the Aru Basin at our second campsite
5. The day the chriu came around the hillside in the middle of my mealncholy. I think that was actually the last day of real melancholy
6. The day the cook got lost
7. Going after the "wild" yak [actually domestic] with Jinpa

blue sheep

more blue sheep

8. Going up the valley and seeing blue sheep with Jinpa
9. Tea with the nomad
10. The walk to Memar Tso [lake]
11. Sharing my binoculars with Mr. Lee
12. Reading Parting the Waters in my tent
13. Mr. Lee's auto horn [used frequently on mountain roads]
14. The thermoses of hot water
15 Of course seeing the chiru everywhere
16 Seeing kiang
17. I'm not quite ready for the wind to be a favorite memory but the weather on the Chang Tang is like no other place I've ever been
18. Hot Tang
19. Watching a blur in the distant landscape and realizing that it's kiang or chiru
20. Sheep deciding how to get out of the way of cars. Often they follow the flock all the way across the road when it would be much shorter just to take to the nearby ditch
21. Walking toward Aru Tso at the third campsite
22. Little sand colored lizards at the first campsite--there were so many. I did not see them at the other two. Heinrich said he did, but perhaps the first campsite was sandier, better for sand-colored lizards.