Departed before dawn again, making for lovely views behind us
Up ahead we saw the clear blue of Rakshas taal
Our final valley is full of glorious, garish colored stone...
...as Gurla Mandhata appears ahead of us, its peaks shrouded in cloud
It was becoming clear that we would not see Mount Kailash again, either, but some levity was provided by this clueless sign (at the wrong end of the kora for most people), which went from the Tibetan name, Kan Rinpoche (snowy teacher), by way of Chinese transliteration to arrive at the sublimely wrong English name "Kernel Pochin Hillock."
A stretch of the path back to Darchen was accompanied by a long stone fence covered in engraved "mani" stones.
A familiar plant shows how it paints Tibetan hills purple
Darchen, its southern end growing by the day
The open road home
Orderly sheep near Prayang
Precipitation makes us aware snow has fallen on hills along the road
A big storm gathers over a lake behind us
In the time we've been away, Saga has paved half of its main street
Undistracted by distant himals (concealed by clouds) we notice that whole landscapes are composed of eroding mountains and valleys
A perfect location for a tiny town
The stretch down from Nyalamu was as misty and mysterious as before
The view from our hotel in Zhangmu down across the border to Nepal
The clocks in the hotel lobby: choose your reality!
Departed before dawn again, making for lovely views behind us
Up ahead we saw the clear blue of Rakshas taal
Our final valley is full of glorious, garish colored stone...
...as Gurla Mandhata appears ahead of us, its peaks shrouded in cloud
It was becoming clear that we would not see Mount Kailash again, either, but some levity was provided by this clueless sign (at the wrong end of the kora for most people), which went from the Tibetan name, Kan Rinpoche (snowy teacher), by way of Chinese transliteration to arrive at the sublimely wrong English name "Kernel Pochin Hillock."
A stretch of the path back to Darchen was accompanied by a long stone fence covered in engraved "mani" stones.
A familiar plant shows how it paints Tibetan hills purple 
Darchen, its southern end growing by the day
The open road home
Orderly sheep near Prayang
Precipitation makes us aware snow has fallen on hills along the road
A big storm gathers over a lake behind us
In the time we've been away, Saga has paved half of its main street
Undistracted by distant himals (concealed by clouds) we notice that whole landscapes are composed of eroding mountains and valleys
A perfect location for a tiny town
The clocks in the hotel lobby: choose your reality!