Trip to Shungsep Nunnery--Where all the Juniper At?

Shungsep, or Shugsep, is a famous nunnery where Machig Lapdron once meditated and composed practice texts. Later, the famous Longchenpa spent time in a cave above the nunnery, composing his heart essence texts. Alice and Jeannine and I took the bus from Lhasa early in the morning, making it almost all the way before the bus got stuck on the steep road and everyone had to get out and push-start the thing, placing small rocks behind the wheels. The hike up to the Nunnery is beautiful, and soon we were far above the valley and far above the Tsangpo river.
My cohorts, before the first hike up to the nunnery.

My cohorts after the hike? Just kidding, I love you guys.
The view at the end of the road and the beginning of the nunnery. The hillsides no longer have juniper trees but are often covered in yaks, black and white goats, and amazing wild birds. Apparently the juniper was harvested because the "community of comrades" decided they needed the wood all of a sudden. I am sure it had nothing to do with the famous nuns from the area that were known to have...excitable tendencies...
We sat with the nuns for part of their prayers and then took a long hike into the hills above to see the many meditation caves, many of which are occupied now by nuns of various ages.

A few of the nuns who were supposed to be reading their prayers but found us more interesting.

We are hiking up there behind the main temple where the caves are.
The view as we started up the hill from the nunnery.
Who needs lunch before hiking at this altitude? hmm... how much vasa did you bring? No matter, I'll just climb up on this cliff for a bit and check out the scenery...
Wow, those birds are amazing looking! Maybe we should eat one for lunch?

Having fun yet? Yes, we still have water and I can see food less than an hours hike from here.
The meditators and their caves.
This Ani la has been in her small cave for eight years:


This monk and his buddies watch Longchenpa's cave:

Here's the lama in all his glory:
Longchenpa's cave is underneath the building behind him, built more recently for pilgrims.

A little V1 bouldering before heading down for water and two dinners.
Now I'm really hungry...
mmmmm...food.
Our accommodations on the second floor across from the main temple.

The main temple:
What say we hike over that mountain to the next monastery as soon as the sun comes up tomorrow?

"How far does that book say it is to Dorje Drak monastery?"
(translating from the French) "hmmm..."
Maybe we should ask the nuns?
"You should probably get there in the afternoon..."

So after the sun set we slept and awoke before sunrise. As we began the trek across the valley, we met with another nun in a cave and she further described our hike: two valleys to cross and make sure to stay on the left side, making two horse shoes linked by crossings over easy passes, after the second it sounded like we would be at our destination, dorje drak monastery, one of the most famous Nyingma monasteries in Tibet. So off we went, but not before catching this sight in the morning:
The view above is from where we started from, and below is a little more than half way across the first valley, you can just see the ani gompa and the paths around it in the clouds shadow.
From here we crossed our first pass:

Here I think we thought we'd done the hard part already...
And here comes the next yak filled valley...
And the next beautiful pass...
And the next beautiful valley...
We had lunch at 1:30pm right by that rock in front. mmmm instant noodles...
After lunch we headed down into the valley to purify some water and check with the townsfolk about exact directions...
To our surprise, there were many yaks, but no dogs and no humans. This nomad village was empty. And since we couldn't see where the path went from the village, we set out along the river in search of a logical path towards Dorje Drak Monastery. After several more hours we hiked around another valley and up the side of a mountain to get our bearings. Here we had some Oreo cookies and some water. But still, no sign of Dorje Drak.

Maybe Dorje Drak is over by that river, behind those mountains? I had cell service here and texted our classmates that we might not make it back until Monday.
But wait! A nomad with his yaks are way at the bottom of the valley below!
By the time we made it to the yak man, it was 6:30pm, about an hour and a half to two hours of sunlight left. Apparently there was a better way to Dorje Drak, and we might reach there by nightfall. In light of the state of our legs and the lack of food, we elected to be lead to the nearest "town" by the yak man's daughter. As night fell, we had made it to the one tractor town and began bargaining for a ride to the nearest road.
Here is our little savior telling us that 50 or maybe 80 Yuan would be a good price for ride:
Her parents refused to even fix the tractor in order to drive us over to the road unless we paid 200 Yuan. Around 9pm we agreed and we left their village at 9:30, sitting on a steel grate with wheels being dragged by a tractor. The ride was rough to say the least, but the stars were amazing. At 11:30 we reached the road by a tunnel through the mountains near Lhasa. By 11:32 the police man had requested our passports in several languages (conveniently, none of which we understood) and called the station; but by 11:35 we entered a taxi on its way back to Lhasa without giving the police man a second glance.
And so it was that we made plans to one day visit Dorje Drak. Perhaps there is a way to hike from Lhasa?