and I kept saying to Eric that we most certainly would not be taking the flight but going our own way, he was having none of it. There was various phone calls thankfully I had answered the first phone call as Rob was getting quite annoyed, Eric was getting annoyed the only person calm was me - funnily enough! After I had explained to Eric for the umpteenth time what we were going to do, he went off to call his parent company then about an hour later he phoned to say ’it is OK you may go on your trip’ I was like gee thanks Eric! What a palaver, if it ain’t in the rules the Chinese can’t handle you changing them, they make such a fuss, most of the time its quite funny but sometimes it does get a bit annoying!

Fortunately the rest the day went a lot more smoothly, we met up with our driver and guide and checked out our land cruiser, we hadn’t paid the extra for a newer model so were

intrigued to see just what we were letting ourselves in for! It was an old basic thing but it was blue so all was not lost, Rob asked the driver some mechanical type questions and all seemed well so we arranged for them to meet us at the hotel at 8.00 am. We went out for our last meal in Lhasa, at in a lovely roof top restaurant overlooking the main square and reflected on our time here. We had really wanted a Tibetan guide to get their side of the Chinese story but unfortunately I don’t think there are many jobs available for Tibetans in Tibet anymore, the Chinese have so much to answer for when it comes to this place, even though Eric had said that the Chinese government had realised it had done some bad things and it was sorry for them, but it had liberated Tibet and was investing heavily so that in his mind seemed to make everything OK, the fact that all the roads are named things like Beijing Highway and stuff, doesn’t seem that they are too bothered about Tibetan culture or the fact that we had