Day two in Lhasa we visited the Potala Palace. It was an effort to get up there, but well worth it. On the way we picked up a Tibetan from the countryside who was fascinated by us, as he'd never seen Westerners before (people with blue eyes) and he grinned inanely at us for ten minutes...

The palace is stunning (public 'toilets' excepting) with 2000 rooms, countless Buddhas (one of which looks like Boy George) and huge gold and precious jewel Chortens where the Dalai Lamas are buried.

In the afternoon we climbed (in a van) to Drepung monastery on the hillside. This was more of a village than a monastery, and used to house 8000 monks. The sheep now seem to outnumber the monks. The Chinese got rid of the monks and made them keep pigs in the temples during the sixties...

Thankfully Drepung is still standing, and is lovely, with water channelled through it off the mountain, and picturesque alleys and courtyards. The views of Lhasa were stunning, if you can avoid the horrendous Chinese sprawl (and train station).

We were invited into a nun's cave (see Flickr site for tonnes of photees)...