Bernard, you got'em all except Potala, which is #3. Potala is the real home of the Dalai Lama.
Yes, they all have great interesting stories to them that we will never forget. My favorite trip, is the Tibet trip. On that trip we visited Chengdu (where the earthquake happened) then on to Potala and from there to Mount Everest.
In Chengdu, we visited the famous Panda Reserve and even got pictures with a baby Panda curled up in our lap. Potala is GREAT and extremely religious and historical. On the way to Everest, crossing the Himilayas, we visited one of the highest lakes in the world, Yamdrok Lake. Also, on our trip through the Himilayas, our guide drove us along roads right on the edges of the cliffs. The lanes are BARELY wide enough to fit 2 small cars, all the while it was snowing so bad that we could only see about 10 feet in front of us. The guide kept driving about 60 mph! He knew that road like the back of his hand or we would not be here today. When we got to the second base camp of Everest, the one in the picture with the Stupa in the foreground, my wife had a tremendous headache because she could not handle the thin air at that altitude. The building you see behind the Stupa is a Chinese guard station. There have been revolts there before. The tents are at the second base camp of Everest where climbers spend about a month getting used to the altitude before deciding on whether they should climb the mountain or not. On the way back, after crossing through the Himilayas again, we stopped on the side of the road to eat a sandwich. The land just looked like flat praires perched at the top of the mountains with the peaks on both sides. Once we sat down, we noticed people coming out of the hills....coming towards us. After 15 minutes or so, about 15 sherpa women had gathered around us just staring at us while we were eating. The guide told us that these sherpa women tended to the sheep and sometimes would not go home for 3 or 4 days. We were their highlight of the month.
I could say so much more about that trip alone, like the story about the head monk touring us around one of the most important temples but that is long one too. Let us just say that we learned so important lessons about some of the people of the earth.
And, finally, I will just say that that is only one place with an extremely edited version of what all happened. There are so many more....sooo many things that I never thought I/We would ever, ever get to do in our lifetimes...in our dreams. Travelling is what we do and there is so much more to come. Let me just say that things are not always what they seem, even in the places that you think you have everything worked out....like Paris....ladies.
op:
