Words by Tim Wong

It has been quite some time since the last post of the series, but I am continuing it now with the final installment. There is will all sorts travels and beautiful landscapes in this post so let’s get to it.

A personal visit to a local Shangri-La home

The traditional dining room where you sit around the stove

While I was there I had a chance to taste of the food and the local barley wine which essentially 100% alcohol.

Woodwork is a big part of the culture and this massive piece is great example of the incredible detail put into the pieces.

Everything is locally grown on farms.

A break for breakfast

The view from the hotel of the Ganden Sumtseling Monastery is more that amazing.

For the most of trip, I rode in a tour bus through normal streets, touge, and dirt paths. On the last day, we rented a caravan of Toyota Land Cruisers setup up for off-roading which should be a foreshadowing of the roads we would be taking that day.

The standard layout with the low gear transmission for a off-roading car.

The amusing part of the altimeter is that we were so high up in the mountains was the the altimeter was maxed all the time.

I have to admit, it was pretty interesting to roll up to the monastery in a caravan of 4x4s. It probably looked like the Rock and his paramilitary team in Fast Five rolling through Rio in several armored trucks.

The monastery was built in 1679 and the largest monastery in Yunnan province It belongs to the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelukpa order of the Dalai Lama.

A mural depicting the entire monastery along with the surrounding scenery.

[Click the image to enlarge the panorama]

[Click the image to enlarge the panorama]

Off the next location

After some serious off roading, we ended up at this beautiful valley.

Another stop for some BBQ picnic lunch.

A shot of the cars. There’s actually 4 Land Cruisers in the group, but the white one is hiding in the back.

A less than perfect panorama.

[Click the image to enlarge the panorama]

I spent quite some time stalking and chasing these wild pigs because I didn’t have a telephoto lens on my trip. I was probably less than 10ft to any of these pigs trying not to spook them.

Back on the road

The next stop was a lake hidden atop a mountain.

The lake was surrounded by all sorts of flowers.

That bokehlious landscape.

Shortly after the scenic mountains roads, we rolled into the city for some typical tourist shopping and what not.

These Tibetan Mastiffs are a pretty unique type of dog.

At the end of the day, we ended up at the airport for our flight back to Kunming, China. That’s post has already been posted and you can find it in our archives (or search bar). This concluded the Asia series, but there will be an upcoming post containing my trip to Hong Kong so be sure to look out for that. Thanks for reading!