Trekking 4 days from Ganden Monastery to Samye Monastery.

Our young guide and our hired "yak" which was, as you can see, in fact a horse, carrying our packs from the village of Hebu up about an hour to where we were camping for the first night on the way to the first pass.

Hepu is the place to rest for a bit and if you haven't already, a place to hire a yak. It is very likely that you will be approached (if you haven't already) by someone offering one.

A note though: despite the term "yak" being used exclusively, they may actually provide a horse to carry the gear. Language barriers being what it is, "yak" seems to get the meaning across.

When hiring a yak, be very clear how far you want it and how many nights (sleeps) you want the guide for. We had an issue with our guide where there was a misunderstanding between us which pass was the agreed upon one and therefore how far he was to have taken us. Ah, the fun of negotiating via key words in 3 languages, drawings and handsignals.