Colette's Grand Detour

Today we are departing Shigatse and heading to Sakya. There was the option to continue on the Friendship Highway, but our guide suggested that we take the more scenic and much quieter route along local roads and villages. This way we got to see a lot more of local life, especially as it is barley harvest time and everyone is out in the fields manually cutting down their crop. And it was the original route taken in the 13th and 14th century by monks and Mongol envoys to reach Sakya.

Our first stop was in the village of Shongma, where we took a little walk and could get close up to the design and architecture of the traditional Tibetan homes. Word quickly spread in the village that a bus full of foreigners had stopped by and locals came to chat to our guide and ask who we were. The valleys were stunning with the golden colour of the harvest and the grey of the surrounding mountains.

Our next stop was to have tea and coffee by the side of the road. We stopped by some recently cut barley fields by a river and asked the lady if we could sit in her field to take our break. She sat with us as our guide made fresh ginger and lemon tea.

After our tea break we started our climb up to the pass, zig-zagging back and forth through a mixture of barren rock and moss. At the top of the pass we stopped to appreciate the view and the many prayer flags that had been left over time. We also did our bit for the environment, by doing a rubbish clean up for 20 minutes. Considering there was a big bin provided, plus signs asking people not to litter, the amount of rubbish that was collected was crazy. Our guide posts videos on WeChat, trying to encourage others to do litter picking and change behaviours in Tibet.

As we descended the mountains turn a much more grey-ish brown and look more slate like. But the fields of barley and herds of sheep and goats continued. We passed a number of villages that seemed to be in a state of disrepair, with a lot of construction materials on the side of the roads and many temporary tent structures. Our guide said that these villages had been affected by the 6.8Mw Tingri earthquake that happened in January this year. It was good to see that the new construction was mostly in the same design as traditional Tibetan homes although it looked like it was using modern materials rather than granite stones and rammed earth.

And then we arrived in Sakya after an unrushed easy 4-hour drive ready to explore the monastery the city is famous for. This road was so quiet compared to our journey from Lhasa to Gyantse. We saw no other tourists throughout the drive and just a handful of cars and motorbikes passed us. I also really loved seeing locals dressed in their traditional colored aprons and silver belts, out in the barley fields.