Thursday, June 25, 2009

To Namtso

We left at 9:10 on our way to fill our bikes with fuel in preparation for our ride today. At the first gas station they told us that motorcycles were not allowed to fill directly from the pump, rather they need to fill available jugs from the pump , and manually fill the motorcycles.

We thought of this being ridiculous, and decided to go to the next pumping station instead. Well what we found out is that there is a regulation for safety reasons motorcycles need to be filled with fuel manually away from the bumps and this regulation covers all of China. As I could understand they are afraid of fire as a result of the gas touching the hot engines. Who ever made such a regulation undoubtedly didn't understand the nature of gas vapors and modern fuel delivery pumps.

We managed to fill our bikes manually, and then went on our way to visit the highest salt water lake in the world. On our way Husain felt sleepy so we stopped in a grassy field and took a nap in the drizzle.

We reached the town of Damxung where we had lunch, and checked in to the hotel, then we went 60 km to Namtso, Ali and I on Motorcycles, while Husain was in the car with our guide.

The road went through a high altitude pass, but the scenery was magnificent with all the mountains fields, and clouds. We also saw Tibetan Nomads with their tents mad from Yak hair, and herding their sheep.



We rode back , and while we had dinner Husain asked our guide to translate the medication given to him by the doctor in Lhasa two nights ago, since he has been taking it for almost three days with no significant improvement in health. It turned out to be Vitamin C, no wonder Husain wasn't feeling better, as a matter of fact he had a fever today. He finally got the right medication, and hopefully can ride tomorrow since it will be a long day.