In 1993, I had the extraordinary opportunity to travel for three weeks through Tibet. By bus I drove from Dunhuang through the desert via Golmud to Lhasa. The trip took 36 hours. We had to cross two high altitude passes. In Lhasa I was staying in a typical, simple Tibetan Hotel. With a rented bike I visited all the major monasteries in Lhasa and by taxi I went to Samye, Sera and Drepung. Together with four other tourists I rented a car with a Tibetan driver and drove to Gyantse, Shigatse, Ganden, Tingri, Rombok and finally to the Nepalese border. The trip lasted 10 days. We slept in very simple guest houses. The rooms were not heated and so it was pretty cold, even in our sleeping bags. One of the most impressive places was the monastery of Rombok. We were given a small room in the monastery. We had a fantastic view of the north face of Chomolungma, the Mount Everest as it is called in Tibet.

Once in a while our driver had to fix something at the engine of the car, but we managed to get to all the places we had in mind. It was a very impressive and inspiring journey through a gorgeous country and an unfortunately very endangered culture. I hope very much that the Tibetan culture may survive as long as possible.