After a couple of days of sightseeing around lhasa we headed out of the city to Ganden, a hill top monastery 50km to the north-east. We dusted off the bikes (after 3 days of being chained to the garden fence) and negotiated our way to the bridge over the Kyi Chu river that marks the edge of the city. 
As we headed upstream, we were surprised by the amount of development along the previously agricultural valley. It was a mixture of business parks, deserted holiday villages and a run down miniature theme park.  Eventually, after 20km or so the villages became more suited to their farming roots but we have heard that the government wants the population here to increase from 80,000 to 3,000000 in the very near future!!!
A tiny side road with little indication led us to Ganden which was perched a kilometre above us. A 9km climb on steep switchbacks brought us to the entrance and ticket office.  The monks showed us 3 tickets - 45 yuan, 35 yuan and 15 yuan, they then presented us with the 15 yuan ones explaining that it was because we'd cycled there - definitely worth cycling then! We set off in a clockwise direction around the kora which took in many natural manifestations of Lord Buddha (mostly looking  like rocks to our untrained eyes). There were many enclosed shrines and hundreds of colourful prayer flags which lined the path. A family complete with tiny tots were circumnavigating the mountain top at the same time as us, each of them touching their heads to the various sacred rocks and shrines, even the youngest knowing what to do. We, on the other hand needed a little guidance but were lucky enough to be shown what to do by a helpful Tibetan at the 'sin testing' rock. The sin testing rock is a rock decorated by thousands of tiny offerings with a narrow passageway at the back which you have to squeeze through to pass the test. If you have too many sins you presumably get stuck - Thankfully, we both squeezed through and therefore passed the test - looks like the mount Kailash kora worked then!
As we came back round the hill the path led us in to the monastic buildings all rebuilt since the cultural revolution but looking faithful to the original. As we walked past the main assembly hall we heard the hum of monks praying. There were several distinctive sounds, a low droning, an intermittent melodic chant and it's replies and the pounding of the drums. As we peeked behind the curtain we saw a large decorated hall full of burgundy robed monks at prayer.
In other buildings there were huge Buddhas, jewel encrusted tombs and monks going about their daily business. By 3.30 the monks seemed to be closing many of the buildings for the day so we free-wheeled back down to the main road and headed back to base.
 

Visit border cycling for more information on guided cycle trips.