Three woman get into a minivan...

Sometimes I wonder if our guide likes to just tell us stuff so we will just stop asking questions. But boy, did Gram and Cait get him today as we were trapped in a car together for over 6 hours.

Yes, what was originally told to us was a "4-hour trip," turned into more than the "6-hour tour (Gilligan's Island theme song here....)" We had a minivan that probably has not had new shocks since the late 80s and a Chinese driver who thought we were in a race car that could take curves on two-wheels. I say all this as I was the one high on Dramamine -- and managed to keep her breakfast down.

What was once a small problem (some amusement rides, a bus ride here and there) my motion sickness has only gotten worse as I aged and I tried to sleep through the bungee-cord ride. As I drifted in and out of consciousness, the radio station was set to 80s/90s soft rock. I had already heard "Lady in Red," "More than Words" and Chicago's "If You Leave." Break out the baby doll dresses and big hair and I felt like I was back at my junior high dances at St.Mary's.

We stopped on the side of the highway at this water burial site where people send their nearly departed off into that lake as fish bait, posed with yak for 10 yuan -- that was sooo Gram's idea -- and slowed for a sheep crossing. All in less than 2 hours early this morning.

And Gram and Cait had been warning me that I had not had the "real" experience with a Chinese toilet yet. All I kept thinking was how could it get worse -- and ladies and gents, it does get worse. Try a cement brick house with just troughs cut into them, no doors, only three-foot partitions and a smell you gag on from 30 feet before you enter the open doorway.

And as I mentioned earlier the questions from Cait and Gram just kept coming. Because Gram was in far back seat and Cait was in the row in front of her, she would relay questions for Cait to ask Dundup (sometimes waking him from his nap...)

Some of the questions: Why do the sheep have markings on their butts? Answer: To tell who belongs to what herd. Why are they drying the yak poo on the rocks? Answer: To use for fires in the winter.

We stop at Yamdrok Lake, which is not visible when we get there. We have now just driven two hours out of our way on a road that winds back and forth and each van/bus is trying to pass each other around each hairpin curve. I just close my eyes cause every time I open them we are almost on the edge of the road with nothing to stop us from going over the ledge. And the mist is starting to make visibility almost impossible for our driver, Lee, to see the road.

The lake sits at 4440 meters high and once the mist clears slightly we can get a view. At first we send the hawkers away, but I have a second thought and make the mistake of looking at one lady's stuff and the rest... well they come running over. I end up paying 150 Yuan for 3 bracelets, 3 necklaces. Eh. Dundup tells me the quality was not so good but I can tell it is still real stone.

Lunch is on a rock in the middle of the highway about an hour outside Shigatse. It is a box lunch the tour group has provided for us and goes down pretty well. Gram remarks at who would have thought we would be sitting on a rock somewhere in Tibet, eating lunch. And we all have to laugh as buses of tourists and Tibetans stare at the three white ladies eating on a large rock in the middle of the field.

Our first stop once we arrive in Shigatse is a monastery (Ta Shi lhun po) that has been under the Chinese government's rule for quite some time. We end up buying out most of the stock of these amulets that the monks make -- you wear them around your neck, hang in a door, hang in a car -- but never touch the ground with them. They bring you protection and luck.

In the monastery, the rooms are covered in paintings that have been recreated after the Chinese Revolution. The paintings are of 1000 buddhas. And the tomb for the Dali lama is made of 660 kg of gold. Most of the structures are original but the tombs are all new and have been re-created with money from what the Tibetans have donated. Also as Cait and I have asked about the situation with the monks, since they are chosen by the government they must obey that order and report to the monastery or they will die or end up in prison. Same for the families -- they threaten them with death or prison if they chose to hide their son from that order. And we noticed that few of the locals don't go to this particular monastery with the appointment of a new Dali lama that they don't believe in.

At the hotel in Shigatse, there is some confusion as to our check-in so we use the guest bathrooms. In just the little time we are in there and get to our rooms, Gram;s jacket goes missing. She goes to the desk and with Dundup's help explains what happened. The hotel staff tries to insult her by saying she left it in Lhasa. She's mad as are Cait and I -- but offers up this advice, "Does it really matter in 10 minutes, 10 days, 10 years?"

At another monastery (the name escapes me), the monks stop Gram to check out her toes. They are fascinated by the red polish (she is wearing her usual flip-flops) and point and bend as if to mock her toes.

We tour the usual chapels, nooks and crannies of the monastery. This one is in somewhat disrepair and there are few monks living at this one. I do get to see a young monk reclining as if he has no cares in the world and watch the tour groups jostle to ring the bell into the entrance of the chapel.

A coffeeshop break (we now realize the owner is friends with our tour guide and this was a complete set-up) yields trying their version of a lassi (lhase in Tibet) which is a yogurt shake. Cait dislikes hers and I get to down it -- I never turn away yogurt -- and have been eating my way through most of the buffets by surviving on it.

Dinner at the hotel is Tibetan food and we meet a young couple traveling through China for the month. They are 18 days in and relish a chance to talk to English speakers. We all swap tales and come to find out that the guy Turner is taking Cipro so he can eat the street food. "What?" I say, "I'm taking it just so I can survive this," (with a hand gesture to the hotel buffet.) I know there are heartier travelers out there and yes, I am jealous cause I found out I forgot to pack the Imodium about 5 days into our trip. Let's just say that I have been a little "winded" and have shared it with most of Tibet.

After dinner, we decide on the Internet cafe and massages. The internet part was fine, the massages -- well a little sketchy. All the young woman masseurs are from China and they are open 24 hours. They ask if we want them in our rooms but we opt for the "salon" area instead. As we are led to the rooms, I notice a few military guys leaving some other rooms. Hmmmmm.....

The massage part was pretty relaxing. She did work some magic on my face again and hit all the right accupressure points, but the odd part was (and all three of us compared notes later and this only happened to me) was that she also massaged my breasts. I've been in foreign countries where they work on your pec muscles but this was downright odd and a little uncomfortable. If I were a man.... well we know what would have happened in that room. I'm far from prudish and pretty open to new things, but that massage was a little odd even for me.

I thought a good shower afterwards would help me sleep but... this hotel's shower just trickled and it was either hot or cold and no in between -- kind of reminded me of the whole Peru situation. But at least there was some hot, and I crawled into bed -- only to be kept awake by a barking dog. I dug through my bag, thinking I still had the ear plugs, but realized I left them with the rest of my luggage in Lhasa. Oh well... I finally passed out to be awakened by Cait's phone alarm in the morning.