Back to the Adventures

After months of planning we finally were able to secure a trip to Tibet. Boy is this an extremely tedious process. Due to obvious circumstances, the access given to foreigners in Lhasa and surrounding areas is very limited. The requirements to make this vacation a reality included applying for visitor permits to Tibet, hiring a special travel agent to sponsor us, a tour guide--the only way you are allowed to see Tibet, a detailed itinerary of proposed whereabouts for the duration of our stay, and finally we were unable to have any Chinese nationals in our group.

Once we complied with the aforementioned conditions, we were set. Our trip was to begin on Monday August 17th, just five days after returning from the U.S. to China. Pazi was a little worried about the proclivity foreigners tend to have towards altitude sickness among other illnesses so priority number one for her was putting together a good sized medicine kit. Adan focused on final travel arrangements and getting the digital cameras reading for picture taking. As for what clothes to take on this trip, we were truly clueless. We ended up packing a little bit of everything, some warm weather clothes and some cold weather clothes.

Day One- August 17th

Our first day of the trip had us traveling from Guangzhou International Airport to Lhasa Gongkhar. The flight was approximately five hours with one short layover in Chongching. Arriving in Lhasa both Adan and Pazi expected to have trouble breathing and major fatigue. Much to our surprise, Lhasa's elevation of 3,700 meters was nothing we couldn't handle. The one thing that struck us as being wild was the fact that Lhasa's airport was so small. It appeared as if only four to five gates existed inside the facility. Next, we got inside a van and met our tour guide, Gyatso, who is a native Tibetan that spent nearly half of his young life going to school in Nepal. Our first impression was that he appeared to be a very friendly guy. Our first objective in Tibet was to acclimate to the altitude. This meant we did very little our first day. In fact, we ended up only walking the side streets near the hotel before retiring to bed for about ten to eleven hours of good rest and drinking plenty of water.

Day Two- August 18th

We hit the ground running for the second (but really our first) day of touring. Our major events for the day included visiting the Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, and Barkhor Street. The local tourism agency scheduled us to visit the Potala Palace before eight in the morning and for roughly one hour. The time limit put a strain on what we were allowed to see inside of the palace. It also came as no surprise that we were not allowed to take a single picture inside the palace as well. When our time here concluded we got our first real taste of how regulated the landmarks are in Lhasa. Nevertheless, pictures outside and around Potala Place were allowed and the views were incredible.

From here we took a quick ride over to Jokhang Temple. This temple is an amazing testament to the faith of the Tibetan Buddhists. Pilgrims come in droves to deliver offers and prayers to their gods in hopes of receiving enlightenment and good karma. The masses of people blew us away. Then to see the "koras," clockwise marches done around the temple, proceed on for hours upon hours which was unreal. Chants and prayers became unique rituals of various body movements, the most popular being hand swipes with wooden blocks done in circles on the ground as the Buddhists bowed down.

As we said before, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the actual temple, but it would have been hard to see them anyways. The ancient temple with a history dating back to the seventh century is a place infectious with worship. The experience inside was unlike anything we have every witnessed. The chapels inside are tight, cramped quarters that house several Buddha statues. Pilgrims wait up to hours in line so that they may enter the temple in a clockwise fashion (of course) and give offerings of money, white scarves, and even yak butter.

Right outside of Jokhang Temple is Barkhor Square. This area is where traditionally pilgrims have circled the city on a clockwise route doing koras. Adan found these streets to be of particular interest for the people traveling these streets revealed so much through their indigenous facial features, unique attire, and even their language. He spent almost two hours just taking pictures of people passing him by as Pazi browsed the numerous shops of things from clothing to curios.

Day Three- August 19th

After having a superb second day, little did we know that our third day was to bring us unexpected difficulties. You see, we did research about Tibet but the truth is we did most of it over the city of Lhasa. On this particular day our itinerary had us traveling to Namtso Lake. This lake is no ordinary lake much to our surprise. Namtso Lake is dubbed, "the world’s highest lake." At over 5200 meters (over 17,000 feet!!!) we experienced headaches and pressure pain like never before. After taking some time to rest, we ventured out to see the lake. Pazi took in the awesome views and while Adan snapped away taking pictures. Overall, the trip to the lake left us a little disappointed, especially when you consider that it took us a total of about ten hours to come and go.

For dinner we went to the Dunya Restaurant. This downtown fixture is owned by Dutch-Americans that had a concept to help rural Tibetan women develop jobs skills and earn income at the same time. This sort of outreach program has grown into a booming success as the restaurant is very upscale but with reasonable pricing. The women are sweet and it is obvious that they are learning so many skills to help them in all aspects of life. Oh, and it is worth mentioning that several of the Tibetan employees begin working at Dunya with little to no English skills. In case you are wondering what we had for dinner--Pazi had a mixed salad with french fries, Adan had a Yak Burger (yes real Yak meat) with the fixings, and the two shared a very unique local version of apple pie.

Day Four August 20th

The fourth day of our Tibetan journey was the commencement of the annual Shoton (Yogurt)Festival. This festival which dates back to the 17th century was originally just a religious observance. However, since that time this holiday has become much more. Now, Tibetan Opera, horse racing, and family picnicking have become major additions to this celebration.

This day was jam packed for us and it all started with a trip to Drepung Monastery. This location dates back to 1416 and is one of just a handful of historical sites in Lhasa that has remained damage free since the Cultural Revolution. It is quite the trek to reach Drepung as the local government banned all cars from going up to this monastery neatly nestled between two small mountains during the opening ceremony for the festival. Thousands of other people were also making the climb to see the enormous "thangka," scroll, of Sakyamuni "the present Buddha," that measured 35x30 meters in size. Taking this thangka up the hillside is an opening ritual of the festival done for many years that last about three hours occurring between eight and eleven in the morning.

After seeing the massive crowds swarm to see the thangka and the chants of the opening ceremony, Pazi and Adan explored a few other areas open to the public of the Drepung Monastery. From here Gyatso took us to a discount Tibetan rug dealer. Here we got a great price on a very high quality Tibetan rug with a portion of our purchase going to low income rural Tibetan rug makers. The purchase was a little pricey but we felt that it was for a good cause and a priceless memento of our trip.

Later in the day we visited the Norbulingka. This park is also referred to as the Summer Palace of the Dalai Lama. This location was flooded with even more Tibetans celebrating the opening day of the Shoton Festival. The area where the actual palace is located has a wall dividing it from the rest of the park and because of an entrance fee fewer people were congregating here. Near the palace we took great photos of the Dalai Lama's summer quarters and inside we learned about the way the most recent Tibetan leader lived, studied, and worshipped. Once again, we were not allowed to take photos inside the palace.

Going back outside the walled area we were welcomed by hundreds of families and friends picnicking together in this 40 hectares park. As we passed through the walkways it seemed like a "Woodstock" of sorts. People eating, drinking, playing music, playing games, and just simply enjoying themselves. Here, Adan and Pazi spent another couple of hours just sitting watching the people and taking pictures. It was quite the experience.

The last event of this eventful day was an authentic Tibetan dinner show at the Himalayas Hotel. The buffet meal was outstanding with delicious regional vegetables, beef, yak, and other dishes arrived at our tables with amazing sauces, some almost gravy-like. We even had yogurt made from real yak milk and the funny thing was it tasted pretty good. The second half of the evening was a show filled with Tibetan song, dance, opera, and cultural display of regional Tibet attire. The whole experience was outstanding and definitely worth the $26.50 we spent on each ticket.

Day Five- August 21st

Our last day of the trip was really a travel day. Adan wanted to experience the famous Qinghai-Tibet Railway firsthand. If you know nothing about this railway line then remember that China has rewritten the record books for this project by creating the world's highest railway with almost 1,000 km higher than 4,000 meters above sea level and the highest point exceeds 5,000m. This enormous construction project took approximately five years and one month to complete.

The scenery on this trip was stunning in comparison to eastern China. However, comparing it to the western United States, it had its moments but was nothing overly spectacular. One interesting note was that indeed each passenger cart was equipped with pressurized oxygen cabins as advertised. We really lucked out and experienced our most comforting train trip to date in China as no one during our twenty-five hours of travel bought the other two beds in our cabin! After traveling from Lhasa to Xining, Qinghai, we spent a couple hours roaming the streets of a quaint smaller Chinese capital city before taking a three hour flight home to Guangzhou.