Brahmaputra Grand Lhasa

Did you know that internet is hard to find in Tibet?

Well it is.

So is oxygen.

This will be quick because I'm knackered after today. I trekked up a mountain (about 600m up over 5 miles in rough countryside). I even had a nomad carrying my bag and jacket (he grabbed them and wouldn't give them back, actually) and it was STILL exhausting. The scenery was amazing though. And I had yak butter tea twice in a day, and it was actually nicest in the ...

... prayer flags.
One the way to the hotel we had Pete and Rob and Gaz reporting the Collingwood game to Michael. By the time we got there it was the last quarter. For the last 13 minutes Michael was able to hear it on the computer streaming 3WM. He was pacing the floor, holding his head in his hands, and in the end extatic at the outcome. Thanks to everyone for their texts and moral support. What a shame Noah fell asleep 10 minutes before the end of the ...

... die sicher zu den freundlichsten zählen die ich so auf meinen Reisen kennenlernen durfte.

So, bevors zu "esoterisch" wird ( .... gö, Gitta ;-) ) , mach ich mich mal über mein Abendessen her. Zum Abschluss gibts tibetische Nudeln mit Gemüse - hervorragend - und vielleicht genehmig ich mir doch noch ein kleines "Lhasa-Bier" ;-)

Alsdern, gut Nacht und

Namaste !!!

... about 12000 ft I think) so it takes a bit of getting used to. Had a giddy feeling on arrival especially when walking around or going up stairs. Could not quite believe I had made it here. The sense of elation at having made it here was only boosted by the thin air high delivered by the elevation. I am here in a 'group' with a copule of dutch travellers, brother and sister, who are very friendly and easy to get along with. As fortune would ...

... to marry and father a child. He died age 51 in 1989 after ongoing resistance following his release after 16 yrs in prison. The Dalai Lama then sanctioned the 11th Pamchen Lama, a Tibetan boy who was imprisoned the next day at age 6 and remains hidden away by the Chinese (if he's still alive), thus making him the youngest Chinese political prisoner. Instead the Chinese appointed a Panchen Lama of their own, a son of Tibetan communist party members. He is largely ...

... year. One of the most intriguing things to see is the 'debates' at the monastery. The older monks/teachers grill a small group of students in the courtyard. There is a lot of clapping, shouting, and spirited dialog that goes on. Something I was not prepared for was how dry and barren everything was. It looked like Palm Springs - barren fields and mountains; everything was dry. I assumed that the Himalyas would be lush and grren.

... you were, just as the third Panchen Lama predicted: 'A person who travels the world looking for Shambhala cannot find it. But that does not mean it cannot be found.' The place itself - Ed Bernbaum's historical prototype, the kingdom that Tibetans thought was Shambhala - sits out in the plain desert, at the very bottom of Asia, beneath sea level, in a heat sink that had melted me 18 years before. But it was cool and overcast when Seamus and I finally soared out of Urumqi, squeezed into ...

... both home and abroad last year, up 60 percent from 2006. Tourism revenue reached 4.8 billion yuan (US$699 million), accounting for more than 14 percent of the region's gross domestic product. In the first two months of this year, the tourism business grew robustly in the region, greeting 110,000 tourists, including 6,000 from overseas, up 60 percent from the same period a year earlier. The March, April and May figures were not ...