Ardin Secret Hotel Lhasa

... to the last<br>town we will visit in Tibet we've noticed that most of the traffic on<br>the Friendship Highway is not Toyota Land Cruisers &#8211; it's tractors<br>and horses. We pass by more of these than other vehicles. So<br>although modernity has arrived in Tibet from China the majority of<br>the Tibetan people are still living a very traditional way of life.<br><br><br><br>Now<br>we are in Lhasa &#8211; the famous capital city and driving in we were<br>shocked ...

... people, but because they limit the amount of tickets sold each day, it was not overwhelming. I'm glad I had a guide, because if I was allowed to wander alone, I'm not sure they I would have ever found the way out. It seems to just keep going and going. It is like a huge labyrinth. It is full of unbelievably beautiful treasures. Every square inch seemed to be decorated. Even the ceilings are incredible. Everything seemed to ...

As usual the Chinese town planners have been hard at work, building a new and improved Lhasa.<br><br>The drive in was surreal with huge pictures of the developing Lhasa, Tiled buildings, Mysterious Government compounds with huge gates and guards outside lined the street. These were actually completely self contained army barracks, including shops and movie theatres for the rumoured 200,000 man garrison stationed in Lhasa. We did not see a single armed solider in the entire time.<br><br ...

... Gebäude, wurde während der Kulturrevolution 1959 zerstört - und heute zum teil wieder aufgebaut. Beeindruckend die Lage in den Berg gebaut und sich der Landschaft anpassend.<br><br>war wirklich ein toller Aufenthalt. Nahezu keine Touristen - sehr freundliche Mönche - und absolute Ruhe - im vergleich zu Lhasa mal ganz wohltuend.<br ...

... Unser Hotel lag mitten im muslimischen Viertel und so war der Platz vorm Hotel voller chinesischer Moslems, was ehrlich gesagt ziemlich ungewohnt aussieht. Ausserdem gab es in der naehe viele ziemlich rustikale Metzgerlaeden, in denen teilweise ganze Bueffel hingen (neben dem Hotel war auch eine Arztpraxis und der dort ansaessige Arzt sah in seinem verschmierten Kittel auch eher aus wie ein Metzger! Ein Grund nicht krank zu werden.) Das Zentrum der Altstadt ist dann aber der ...

... armed Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of compassion. We then headed for Sera Monastery, also a mere shadow of its former greatness. It is renowned for the philosophical debates between the monks. These are open to the public and involve certain dynamic stances and handclapping to emphasize strong points in the debate. Sadly this practice stopped after the March uprisings and without this debating the Monastery has lost a lot of its appeal. It was interesting though to ...

... high and overlapping with the hay. Farmers who were hand cutting their wheat with a cycle. It was like going back in time to what we learned about the early settlers in Manitoba and what their farming life was like. Yet every once in awhile we would see solar panels and a satelite dish set on the roof of the house alongside the sheafs for drying, or corn cobs, and in the front yard "A" shaped piles of dung paddies(about 4 meters high and 6 meters long) dried and ready ...

... way to Shambhala is 'born from your store of merit', Rinpungpa says. Our oxygen intake was at 68 per cent of normal when we finally reached Darchen, the ugly town at 15,090ft that serves as base camp for the traditional three-day kora, or pilgrimage, around Kailas. (Walking the kora is an essential detour on the road to Shambhala; Ringpungpa and other guides urged me to accumulate merit here.) Leaving our driver and picking up a teenage porter, we hiked the 32-mile route clockwise ...

... foreigners By Richard Spencer in Beijing Last updated: 3:36 PM BST 25/06/2008 China has declared it has overcome "splittist" demonstrations in Tibet and reopened the province to foreigners. Three and a half months after Lhasa and other Tibetan areas were riven by protests and riots, a group from Sweden became the first foreign tourists to arrive. "Tibet's society is stable and harmonious, its markets bustling, and its environment beautiful," the government said in a statement on ...