Namtso Lake is the highest salt lake in the world, at 4817m, and has an area of 1870 square km.

Everest North Base Camp is situated at 5,208 meters, in Tibet. During the summer the camp is accessible by road.

Built in the shape of a mandala, Samye monastery is the oldest in Tibet. The legend says that Śāntarakṣita, the abbot from the Nalanda buddhist university in India, found the auspicious location but only after the arrival of Padmasambhava and his taming of the local spirits, was the building successfully completed, around 775AD.

On the two hour ride from the airport to Lhasa, I was expecting to encounter something like in "7 Years in Tibet," forgetting that there are probably very few places in the world where the passing of several decades brought by no change whatsoever.

It took three days to get to the Base camp and though the name of the road (Friendship Highway) implies that it is paved, it was quite a bumpy road.

Bargain, bargain, bargain. The price you are first quoted is most of the time 10 times what you should be looking to pay.