Day 94: Namucuo (纳木措) – September 19th

On the last leg of the trip, we were out of the backcountry and back into the modern world with PAVED ROADS! We had a relaxing milk tea lunch in the middle of a courtyard before heading back to the road to the last sacred lake of the trip, 纳木措.

The lake itself is a rather popular day-trip spot for tourists visiting Lhasa, but we have to say after seeing all the beautiful lakes of the Ali region, we were a bit underwhelmed. It’s also been a while since we’ve seen so many tourists (not necessarily a good thing)!! So despite being in the middle of nowhere, phone reception was ridiculously good, but prices of everything was very high… and it’ll probably get higher as they continue to ‘improve’ the area. Sometimes though, things are better left simple.

Being a sacred lake, you can already guess what we’re about too do…we’ll walk around the mountain that overlooks the lake! This time, our Tibetan drivers joined us for the trip around. It was a rowdy good time filled with yaks, harnessing wild horses, climbing through rock crevasses and exploring old caves.

We tried to catch a quick meal before climbing to the top of the mountain to see the sunset. Problem is, while we walked up it started hailing sideways, and there wasn’t much left to see so we returned back to town…. until we realized our phone was missing!!! After a furious search, and the restaurant owners help, we concluded that it was definitely stolen and gave up hope…. so now we’ve both lost our phones! Oh well…won’t let it ruin our mood!

Being a lakeside “resort”, there weren’t much in terms of night time activities and we were in our beds by 10:30pm. The problem is though, the overpriced room we stayed in was actually a room within a portable, and we could hear EVERYTHING that happened next door. To our left, was a bunch of snoring uncles, and to our right was a group of over-aged ladies acting like it was a teenagers slumber partying…. giggling, gossiping and SINGING OLDIES SONGS. Ear plugs are a travelers best friend….. (the next morning, I had the privilege of bumping into them and they looked exactly as they sounded…annoying).