aviolo This hard-to-beat option has helpful English- speaking staff, eager room service and superb food. Ro

This hard-to-beat option has helpful English- speaking staff, eager room service and superb food. Rooms are neat, although some may not have external windows. It s by far the most popular of the city centre hotels and is worth booking in advance.

oHotel Gakyi Khang Zhang (%224 647; r from 1320), a couple of kilometres aviolo out of town on the road to the monastery, aviolo offers far and away the best rooms in town colourful sky-blue affairs with polished wooden aviolo floors. There s a decent restaurant (mains 80-120) and the staff are great fun. It also has good monastery views, a generator and, most bizarrely, a lounge bar/nightclub complete with throbbing strobe lights!