Golden Fortune Hotel Lhasa

... us to an agency to buy our train tickets which getting out of Lhasa were more expensive than coming in! Our train is 8.30am tomorrow morning. After this we returned to barkhor with Meema and dropped wayne off at an internet café and I went looking at thagkas to buy with meema intow. After 3 shops I had found a painted thangka of the life of Shakyamuni Buddha and then after buying it took it to a framer where the man makes the colourful silky fabric frame for it. I was to return at ...

... Egg with Tsumpa Flour Bread

Bus sitting accompanied by outstanding scenery

Mid-Travel stop at some temple or other

More Bus time

Arrival at destination

Lash

Food

Lash

Wake up with crushing headache to egg and Tsumpa bread, bleh.


Despite humorous antics involving pathetic attempts to shot gun beer cans or consume the filthiest fire water in the land, the party really got under way in Lhasa. We arrived at our ...

... to be pilgrims and would point to their blackened foreheads as they held out their hands. We asked our guide if these really were pilgrims and she said that it was hard to tell - but we saw many Tibetans giving money to them.



Tibet was also described to us as a 'Military City' and certainly the Chinese army stand on every street corner. Most look so young, like boy soldiers. We were also held up by a military convoy coming ...

... the doorway - the red protectors. The walls are mostly black and have gold sketches of animals and dancing people with a bit of red - the black protectors. It is said that all Tibetan monasteries have a protector. The job of the protector is to get rid of inner and outer obstacles that prevent worshippers from gaining spiritual knowledge and enlightenment.

We headed out and down some stairs and were able to spot a Tsong Kapa painted carving on a rock that was much ...

... Shakyamuni's life and history. The prayer wheel itself has 6 symbols (or syllables) that make up a mantra or prayer. the number 6 is significant for the 6 cycles of existence (they believe in reincarnation) - celestials, humans, denizens, animals, hungry ghost, hells. We went up to the first level and the roof top. We were able to have a great view of Potala Palace. Bill and I tried many times to get a good photo of the 2 of us, but our guide and 2 ...

... trucks running on this road! That why only SUV can handle this kind of journey , for you should be prepared for collapse and mud-rock flow during rainy season. It takes about 15 days to finish this journey from Yunnan to Tibet. Food & Accommodation: Passed Deqin, you will see by the road a lot of Sichuan flavor restaurants , the food is not good but acceptable. The price is even more acceptable, for 3 US$ can buy the four of you a meal. Divided by Deqin , the accommodation ...

... taxes, tourist fees, regulations, nuclear testing and so much more that I won't go into- the Chinese government have a lot to answer for. I couldn't buy it in Tibet, but in Nepal I got the book 'My Land, My People' by the Dalai Lama which gives his views on the recent history. We were lucky too to have a fantastic guide and driver. Losang was so genuine and pure of heart - in fact he reminded me very much of a good friend at home. It would be sad to day good bye to him tomorrow. 

... seemed to be working. On the road to this mythical city, a paradise lost somewhere in the mountains of Asia, you are enjoined to stop and get advice from wise monks. And on the overnight train out of New Delhi, the first night of a two-month journey across Tibet and far beyond, a venerable Buddhist monk was assigned to the bunk below mine. After midnight, when the monk had finished rubbing menthol all over himself, he listened to my plan. I was setting out on the ancient pilgrimage ...

... country unless you are taking a package tour to enter Tibet overland from Nepal. The first rule when applying for a visa as an independent traveler is to expect that you will be refused a visa if you mention plans to visit Tibet. There is a trick that when you apply for the Chinese visa, you can't tell the officer that you have the plan for traveling to Tibet; you can only inform them you want to travel to ...

... it is winter, all the nomads have come into the city to hang out, so it is full of people in their traditional yak skin outfits, with great lumps of coral and amber in their hair. there are pilgrims everywhere too, and very few foreigners, because the cold has scared them off. within 5 minutes of getting into town, we were talking to a tibetan man, who promptly whipped out his phone to show us that he kept a photo of the dalai lama on it. spent ...