This has been a particularly busy week and I only pre-wrote enough posts to last me through Wednesday. I am about to go and stay at
St. Regis, the huge resort here, for a night so I will just post some pictures of snowy Lhasa.
I was here last January and it didn't snow at all, nor did I see any snow on the mountains surrounding the city. Starting a week and a half ago, there are officially snow-covered mountains around Lhasa.
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| View from the roof Meru Nyingpa Monastery which is in Lhasa proper |
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| More of the same |
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| Even more! |
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| View from the bridge over Kichu River behind Dekang Hotel |
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| View from the my hotel room at Dekang. |
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| View from the hotel room when it's sunny! |
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| The weather is really dramatic here |
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| On top of Meru Nyingpa on another day |
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| That guy was washing his hair on a frigid cold day! |
I also woke up one morning to find snow-covered roofs. After going out to a monastery on the outskirts of the city, I saw that the temple and the fields surrounding were lightly covered in snow. However, by the afternoon, the sun was out in full force and melted all of the snow in the city, except for the occasional drifts on top of cars.
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| Day prior to the snow morning |
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| Day of. I posted these for a little comparison |
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| Yakety Yak |
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| Field outside Yangon Monastery |
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| Yangon! |
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| This was pretty spectacular to see |
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| I was going to curse the car for being smack in the middle of my shot |
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| But, then I maneuvered around it |
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| Courtyard of Uling Monastery |
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| It was very dramatic with the solar panel |
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| Obligatory artistic shot |
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| From the roof of one of the many, many temples in Drepung Monastery |
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| Zoomed out shot. See Lhasa far below! |
There was even a snow storm, and I mean a real storm. There was thunder and lightning and the snow flakes shot down in surprisingly large balls. It felt like I was being pelted.
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| A little bit of snow obscuring the Potala Palace |
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| Goodness gracious, great balls of snow! |
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| Fourth floor balcony in Dekang Hotel |
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| Awesome mountains in the distance |
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| Better shot of the Potala Palace |
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| From a distance |
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| The veloci-geese. They prove evolution: part velociraptor (the noises they make), part geese (their deceptively innocent appearance...) |
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| More veloci-geese |
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| This is how foggy it can get in the mountains. |
I spoke with a nature conservationist who said that this was actually normal weather for Lhasa and hasn't been this way in awhile. Pollution is negatively affecting the weather system here. Hopefully, improvements will be made and a snowy winter season will become the norm again.
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