It sits up in the ether at 12,000 feet, and is renowned in myth as Shangri-La, but
writer Cherilyn
Parsons has nonetheless found Lhasa wanting in her several visits to this capitol city of Tibet. She’s been three
times, she tells us, and each time she arrives with lofty expectations, hoping to find a better place. And each time
she has been disappointed, disgusted by the signs of encroaching globalization, like a photo studio where tourists get
photos of themselves taken dressed in Maoist uniforms.
But it is often required of us as travelers to get off the path beaten by others, and to venture to the places that
cannot be found in the guidebook, and this our dutiful pilgrim does, and manages to salvage another trip to a place far
far away.