9/26 In the evening I met up with Erik (sweden) again as I had met
him in Lijiang and then Leon and Arie-Jan (Holland) at Sims cozy
hostel. They would be the 3 people on my tour to tibet. I was very
lucky bc they are all great guys who have lots of travel experience
and we all get along great. I especially like the Dutch guys as they
are quite a lot of fun. The thing with Tibet is that you have to have
a permit to go into the TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region) and in order
to get a permit you must join a tour group. Of course this makes
things more expensive; however, the hostels in Chengdu have helped
backpackers out a lot by making budget oriented trips that don't
included staying at nicer hotels and eating nicer foods that most
chiense tour groups include
We boarded the train at 9pm for a 46 hour train ride through Sichuan
then Qinghai and into Tibet.
9/27 All day on the train of course, past some nice scenery that was
steadily drying out. We had 4 bunks in the 6 bunk cabin (shared with
2 chinese), and we had quite some fun listening to music and playing
cards, escpecially a Swedish game called Plump that Erik taught us.
Eventually we climbed out of the mountains into empty grasslands, then
some nice lakes, and then finally some snowcapped mountains!! I'd
been waiting so long to see some in china.
9/28 We woke up early to watch a gorgeous sunrise under crystal clear
skies. The light lit up the fresh snow all around a magnificent pink.
And of course there were some larger mountains in the distance. As
we went further along the snow on the ground eventually ceased, but
the scenery was still spectacular with rivers running through barren
valleys and huge glaciated peaks (one over 7000m) in the distance. In
some of the valleys were tiny tibetan villages, and you had to wonder
how people could live there. There were of course thousands of yaks
all around. The train is the highest train in the world with a top
elevation of 5100m (about 16,700 ft) at the border of qinghai and
tibet. The train is so high that the pump oxygen into the train when
you are above 4000m and even ban smoking from the city of golmud onto
lhasa...something unheard of in China, though not really followed.
You can also plug up oxygen from you cabin with tubes to go straight
into your nose. I am fairly used to the altitude so had no problem
especially since I made sure to stay hydrated, a key to beating
altitude sickness. I stayed hydrated by drinking a fair amount of
beers, typically a no no as alcohol is bad for altitude, but most
chinese beers are 3%, so they are bacially water, and also cheaper
than water.
In the evening we arrived in Lhasa and were picked up by our tour
guide Dolkar: you are supposed to have your tour guide with you at
almost all points in tibet. Our permits were quickly checked by
police before we were taken to the Tibetan part of the city to find
our accomadation and go out for food. We explored a bit of the square
and bokor area near where our hostel was before going to bed.
9/29 We first visited the Jokhor temple, which is the holiest place
for tibetan buddhists. It is crammed with pilgrims bringing yak
butter to keep the candles burning and turning prayer wheels and doing
other religious things. Inside the temple there is thick incense,
lots of buddhas, and plenty of monks. Outside, there are lots of
pilgrims performing prayer rituals where they go onto their stomach,
slide forward, and then stand up. It looked a little like the
calisthenic drylands we did for swimming. It was quite amazing to see
the old people doing this. I know my parents couldn't walk the next
day if they even did a few of these, let alone most of the day.
Outside the temple is also the bokhor circle in which the pligrims
walk clockwise around the temple turning their hand held prayer
wheels, making prayers, buying incensce and prayer flags and other
suck things. It's a huge mass of a crowd going in the circle.
After visiting Jokhor, we stopped by the potala palace to reserve our
tickets for tomorrow. The palace is way way more impressive than I
thought it would be. It's huge and stunning, sitting on top of this
little hill. It was where the dali lama used to reside before being
forced to flee. It was just impressive sitting up there in all its
whiteness against the bright blue sky.
After lunch (yak noodles of course, yak is the only meat to be found
here), we walked around a bit. There are loads of places to buy very
cheap and of course fake, but seemingly good quality outdoor gear. I
bought a sun hat as the sun is intense here (lhasa sits at 11,750 ft)
and my malaria medicine makes me more susceptible to sun burn. I
might buy my sleeping bag and down jacket here for my treks in nepal,
though I may just wait til I'm there bc I think it will be similar
prices and quality.
In the afternoon we took the bus (no foreigners on a bus without your
guide) to the Sera monastery. There are 800 monks (used to be 5000
before the chinese took over) studying here. We saw the amazing salt
and sand "paintings" that they make as well as saw their library
filled with "books" of wood. We also saw how they now use these books
to make texts out of paper. The last thing we saw was the debates.
They all gather in a shady area and debate each other. They sit in
separate groups and most monks are sitting, but a few will be standing
and really debating hard...clapping and jumping and moving all around.
It's quite cool to see, just wish I knew what they were debating
about...figured who would win the next world cup, but I guess I could
be wrong...haha
Went out for yak at night of course and then Aries, Erik, and I had
some beers for Erik's birthday. Leon was feeling a bit under the
weather likely from altitude and also sun. They hadn't bought sun
screen before so had to buy the chinese stuff...they got spf 30 from
Loreal...though spelled Leroal...so obviously fake and probably not
spf 30. I'm using some 100+spf, so I was ok.
Lhasa is actually a really great city. It feels small, especially
when you are in the tibet portion. THere is no reason to go to the
han chinese portion as it is just typical boring chinese city. The
tibetans here are so colorful, where some crazy outfits, and do their
hair in unique ways. It is really a great place for people watching.
There are some extremely ancient people walking around too. Lhasa is
actually quite dry and the mountains around are very arid. No trees
at this altitude and with the dryness of course. A lot of the people
actually dress and look like cowboys. The dutch think of them as
people from the wild west. To me they look and dress a whole lot like
a mixture of peruvians, mayan mexicans, and navajos, if you can
imagine that. They also speak Tibetan here of course even though the
chinese want them to speak Mandarin. One of the surprising things to
me is the heavy, heavy Chinese military presence here. I didn't
expect that, especially since the tibetans are quite peaceful. If you
have seen 7 years in tibet, they wouldn't even harm worms to build a
temple. There are chinese millitary with big guns, riot gear and all
that everywhere. It's the biggest millitary presence I have ever
seen, and I have been to Papua, Burma, Mindanao, and Kenya. It's a
bit unnerving, and strange to see the military of china everywhere
WITHIN China...just goes to show tibet is still not really part of
China. Our guide laid out a few rules for us such as no photos of
police or army, pants at all temples, and that we are not allowed to
ask her political questions. I think that is to ensure her safety, bc
she could get in trouble if she says anything bad about China.
Tomorrow we will visit the Potala palace. Then the next day is a day
trip to Namtso lake and then after that we leave Lhasa on the
friendship hwy for Nepal going through Gyantse, Shigaste, and everest
base camp
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