Dropping off the end of the world...

Dish washing with the cow.

Market place along the roadside

Real work men on their way to clear yet another slip

One of many faces from the bus window

Rice patties

A first glimpse of life in Nepal

The Friendship Bridge which divides Tibet from Nepal,

we crossed on foot as the bus was stuck in traffic.

Nepali trucks lined up in the 8 kms of no-mans land

on the Tibetan side of the border.

A look out the bus window is not for the faint hearted!

Guard rails have not yet been invented here!

The snow ends, and vegetation again begins!

Prayer flags on the 5200 m pass

before dropping into Nepal.

This will be me next time! Brian from Canada

on the last pass on the plateau

Tibet lies at an average altitude of 4300 m, in the shadow of the Himalayas, this makes it extremely dry, barren and cold. After crossing a pass at 5200 m, the road plummets to Kathmandu at an altitude of just 1340 m. The change in landscape is indescribable! Nepal is a tropical lowland covered in Banana palms, rice patties, monkeys and people everywhere. The pictures show the contrast!
So far the Chinese have not managed to tame this incredible valley! The ride from the

plateau to the lowlands, a trip of less than 200 km, takes more than 12 hours!