Firstly, sorry that the blog hasn't been updated for ages by me. It was virtually impossible to get a good connection in Tibet (plus all the government web restrictions!) and in Nepal as well.
Tibet
The train ride from Chengdu to Lhasa began in the typical Chinese style. Loud, smoky and busy. It got worse after 3 hours on the train when the toilet in our carriage was already blocked. I didn't think it was possible that the big toilet hole in the floor could be blocked by human waste. But then again, China WAS full of surprises. It wasn't long until the toilet in the next carriage was blocked too. We thought it would be an interesting ride when this happened after the first 5 hours of our 44 hour train journey.
Honestly though, the scenery dramatically changed soon after we crossed onto the Tibetan plateau. Hooray! No pollution! You could actually clearly see the mountains 150 metres away from your train window.
I think we spent most of the time playing cards and chatting with other backpackers during the day and as soon as it hit around 8pm, most people were in bed. Bunch of oldies I know!
The railway was a pretty amazing construction though. It's the highest railway in the world and the track passed over 5000m in altitude. By the 3rd day on the train, some passengers had oxygen tubes stuck to their nostrils. It was pretty hilarious seeing these people in their compartments or in the hallway having tubes coming out from their noses. I felt like I was in a hospital ward.
The facilities on the train were generally good (besides the toilets of course!). Apparently the train was pressurised when it went through 5000m and there were constantly salesmen going pass with trays of lunch/dinner sets and drinks for purchase.
The scenery was very beautiful on the 3rd day. We woke up in the morning with snow everywhere on the ground outside the train and high peaks in front of us. Everything was white and vast. It looked so remote, yet stunning. We took some really awesome pictures from our windows.
We were greeted by our Tibetan guide, Dolker, as soon as we left the station in Lhasa. She was young (23) and had been a guide for 3 years. She put this white scarf around our necks as it was a traditional Tibetan welcoming ceremony. We later found out that it was also a Buddhist blessing gesture – you put the white scarf on Buddhas in the temples.
Lhasa was quite an interesting city. It was sort of divided into the new Chinese settlement and the old Tibetan area. I found that there was a huge contrast between the 2 areas and there was a clear division among the people. We were told that it was quite difficult for normal Tibetans to get proper jobs in Lhasa as you either need to know someone higher up or marry to a Chinese person. It is a sad reality for Tibetans.
There were police and military everywhere on the streets. All carried heavy weapons and machine guns and grenade launchers. Police were also present at the monastries, although usually they were busy taking photos themselves.
We were not used to the high altitude in Lhasa (3600m). When we first got there, we had trouble even to climb stairs in our hostel. Every step we climbed was a struggle. We were fully puffed when we climbed from the ground floor to the third floor. This was nothing compared to the altitude that we later achieved.
We had free traditional Chinese breakfasts in the hostel in Lhasa. It always amuses me that some tourists just seemed not to be able to eat congee at all. I mean, if you love rice and water, surely you gotta love congee. Or if you can eat porrige, you surely can eat congee. But, not with the people in our group (except Naomi of course!). These American, French and British tourists constantly complained about the watery rice (congee) and how bad it was. Naomi and I ate it alright and we thought it was quite delicious. The weirdest thing is the French couple, Anais and Emmanuel, couldn't even eat boiled eggs. Apparently they don't have it in France...hmm...bizarre.
In Lhasa, we went to quite a few monastries and temples. The most impressive one was the Jokhang monastry just in the centre of Lhasa. It was built around the 7th century. When we got there at around 9:30am, there was hundreds of pilgrims lined up in a queue to get in. Many were either prostrating or spinning their prayer wheels in the queue. Some people spent days there just prostrating themselves. It was really amazing to see how devoted they were to Buddhism. It was an eye-opener for me.
We also visited Sera monastry where we saw monks debating. It was more like a question and answer time where the monks were divided into many groups and one monk would stand and clap his hands as he asked scriptural questions to his group. They were very animated. It was quite comical from our perspective but some monks took it very seriously. We saw this monk in his late twenties nearly cry when he couldn't answer questions asked.
There were a few other holy monastries we visited including Drepung monastery. There were individual in their own ways. But by the time we visited the third monastry, I was just confused which one was which.
Oh, we observed this team motivation exercise by the Tibetan workers. When we were walking around the monastry, we heard this marvellous singing coming from one of the construction buildings. We went to investigate and found these Tibetan workers making a new floor by singing and banging sticks with rocks at the end in unison. They all seemed so joyous. Maybe I can introduce that as the new work culture in the Bank for morning briefings. At least it would make work more interesting and fun!
Potala Palace was a beautiful structure from outside. It was the home of Dalai Lama and was built by the former Dalai Lamas. All visits to the Palace were restricted to one hour. But really it was a bit over-rated inside. Dolker was just going, "this is the seat of Dalai Lama....this was his throne.....this was his living room....etc." as we didn't have much time. It would probably be more interesting to Tibetans who fully adored the Dalai Lama. I didn't get too much out of it to be honest, probably as there were no monks and not many pilgrims around.
On our 3rd day, we went to the famous Nam Tso Lake. It was one of the 3 holiest lakes in Tibet. Apparently when the Dalai Lama passes away, holy monks come here to seek guidance on where to find the next Dalai Lama. No one was allowed to take water from the lake or fish there.
On the way, we crossed a pass over 5190m in altitude. The view from there was stunning as it was such a bright sunny day. The lake itself was quite beautiful. It was turquoise blue. Naomi and I had a nice picnic lunch by the lake side as we brought our own lunch.
After lunch, unfortunately I developed a massive headache and had to lie down on the pebbles next to the lake and rest while others took a stroll around the lake. It didn't go away until we were back in Lhasa.
Oh, on the way there, we stopped for a toilet break. But the toilet was locked, so one of the guys in our group, Alex, decided to go around the back of the toilet and find a tree. 30 seconds later, we saw him screaming and swearing at some old Tibetan and ran towards us. All we could hear was "The toilet was locked man. Why the f**k you punch me for??? I'll f**ken kill you". It turned out that the old man deliberately locked the toilet so that tourists would have to go to the toilet in the field. He would then comes out and fine tourists Y100 (nearly A$17) for urinating in public.
I would be pissed off myself if he tried to fine me. I would probably get the cops involved. I think our tour guide later on just gave him Y10 to keep him happy. Alex apparently still had to go to the toilet after the event as the man was too fast for him to actually go.
Tibetan food was really boring compared to Chinese. Every lunch Dolker took us to Tibetan restaurants. The choices were limited to yak noodles, yak dry noodles and steamed yak dumplings (momo). There's no way that I could eat that every day for lunch and dinner. Dolker even said that they weren't very delicious herself. Luckily we had freedom over dinner. Every night all of us just went out to Chinese to satisfy our taste buds.
Although Dalai Lama has been gone for 50 years, most Tibetans still regard him as their leader. It's weird that his pictures were not allowed to be displayed in public. After we left Tibet, we found that he is still very popular and famous in Nepal and India.
We went to Gyantse and Shigatse before we went to the Everest Base Camp. We visited few more monastries in Gyantse and Shigatse. I was a bit templed out at that stage. They pretty much all looked similar to me after awhile. We visited the Panchen Lama's palace as well where all previous Panchen Lama's been buried etc. It was here that we had the privilege to walk through a hall of chanting monks. It was surreal because it sounded like whole heap of men singing some song in different pitches. I felt like I was intruding on a solemn choir when I walked among the monks all in their formal lama outfits. Obviously not for the Chinese tourists who were talking louder and louder on their mobile phones because they couldn't hear the other end properly because of the singing.
In Gyantse, we also stopped by Kharola glacier. The mountain was over 7000m high and the glacier started at 5020m in altitude. It was a very beautiful day and we could clearly see the top. I was delirious in thinking that I could just put crampons on and climb up there.
Everest Base Camp was one of the highlights of the trip. It was pretty amazing that we could pretty much drive all the way to the base camp and we only had to walk up this small hill for a grand view of the world's highest mountain. It took us 8 hours to drive there. We arrived there at around 6pm and the temperature on my thermometer was -10 degrees. It was freeeeeezing cold to say the least. I could hardly open my eyes. People in our group thought I was so touched by the view that I had tears in my eyes. The truth was that I constantly had tears running at the Base Camp because it was that cold that it was hurting my eyes. The wind chill probably meant that the temperature was around -15 easily at the time.
We struggled heaps climbing up the small hill from the altitude. It took me literally 20 minutes to get up this small hill that was probably only 15 metres high. I felt like I was 85 years old at that altitude. I took few deep breaths for every couple of steps. It was the biggest struggle! I was so puffed after walking up the small hill. I was surprised that the Chinese hadn't built a cable car yet to go from the carpark to the top of the hill. There seemed to be cable cars everywhere in every single mountain in China!
It was only October, but rivers were starting to freeze just near the base camp. Naomi had a ball breaking ice sheets off the river and throwing them like freesbees on top of alrady frozen river and watch them breaking into thousands of pieces. She had a LOT of energy even in minus temperatures breaking ice.
Unfortunately we couldn't see the very top of Everest clearly. It was very windy that day and there was a faint ice plume over the very tip. It was very windy down where we were. The wind speed up the top probably would have exceeded 150km/h.
We had heaps of fun getting lost in the car driving down the mountain in the dark. The drivers decided to take a short cut through some unmarked back roads and got us lost in the dark a few times. Luckily they got us out of it eventually, but the bumpy ride and the high altitude made everyone really sick. Naomi and I were the smart ones by taking diamox tablets in advance :)
Once again, throughout the trip, I was taken by locals to be the tour guide on heaps of occasions. But luckily it came with advantages. I was able to ask discounts on every single meal we ate alone. One waiter even asked me how many years have I been a guide.....seriously....
We had an amazing Tibet trip. Pity that the government put in so many restrictions which meant that we could not move freely or even talk freely to the locals on our own. But Tibet certainly was very different from the rest of China that we know.
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