Seven Days in Tibet
Trip Start
Jun 09, 2003
1
59
169
Trip End
Jun 02, 2007
Lhasa, China
Sunday, December 28, 2003
DAY 1 Saturday 20th December
Left Kathmandu at 6.00am on a bus with 15 other people. Followed the Bhote Khosi River up through Nepal to the border with Tibet at Kodari. After waiting for about 2 hours to be checked for SARS we were allocated a Landcruiser and driven up a very bumpy road to the Chinese Border at Zhangmu. We got through without too much hassle and after an hours drive we stopped at Nyalam for the night. It was freezing cold. I only found out just before I left that the temperatures at night were up to -20oC. Luckily I managed to get a nice warm sleeping bag!
DAY 2 Sunday 21st December
Today we left Nyalam at 10.00am and drove for about 8 hours to Lhatse. There were 6 of us in the Landcruiser. Me, Penny from Canada, Andreas from Germany, Carlos from Chile, Emilia from Finland and Ali from Italy. Crossed the Lalungla Pass at 5050m. I got a slight headache with the altitude but other than that I was fine and the views were amazing. We also had excellent views of the Himalayas and Mount Everest. Because Tibet is on a plateau, it's just flat for miles and then these huge mountains just rise up - amazing. It's mindblowing and as Penny said, you can see the spirituality in the land. We stopped at Lhatse and spent another freezing cold night in a grotty hotel.
DAY 3 Monday 22nd December
An earlier start this morning at 9.00am. Andreas from Germany who was in our Land Cruiser decided that he wanted to get straight to Lhasa. We weren't due to arrive until 5.00pm on Christmas Eve. He eventually went off by himself to get a bus. I almost went with him. Turns out that Penny, Emilia and Ali were thinking about heading on also, so we comandeered a jeep and off we went to Lhasa. We didn't take our original jeep which was to turn who to be a very very good thing, but more about that later! Five hours later we arrived in Lhasa and checked into the Yak Hotel which was lovely! A nice hot shower and I was feeling human again. We met a Norwegian guy who had entered Tibet on the roof of a bus covered in blankets - mad! You can only enter Tibet on a group visa if you're coming from Nepal.
DAY 4 Tuesday 23rd December
Had a long lie and then walked along to the Potala which was the palace of the Dalai Lama, built as a place of worship and meditation. It's 117m high over thirteen storeys, 400m long and 350 wide. It's made of stone and timber with golden roofs. It took 50 years to build and has over 1000 rooms. We walked around the palace spinning the hundreds of prayer wheels on the way. I then went to find the Bank of China to get some yuan, after 4 banks I was able to get some! Went to a nice restaurant called The Snowlands for dinner where our Tibetan waitress, Tenzin, invited us to her home the following morning. We walked Emilia back to her hotel and on the way we passed a tiny little shop with patio doors on it. Inside were 4 guys carving ornate buddhas out of clay. We knocked on the door and they let us in. Penny was talking to them about her time in Dharamsala where the Dalai Lama is, they were very interested so I got the Lonely Planet out my bag and showed them the hand drawn picture of the Dalai Lama. They'd obviously never a picture of him before because they were very excited (pictures of the Dalai Lama are illegal in Tibet). Next thing we realise there's a Chinese Policeman standing at the door looking in. As quick as lightning Penny pulled out a postcard from the back of the LP and started talking about it. After about 5 minutes the policeman left, but our hearts were still racing. A few years ago 2 tourists were imprisoned for 4 days before being deported from the country just for possessing tapes of the Dalai Lama.
DAY 5 Wednesday 24th December - Christmas Eve
This morning I was in the bathroom when Tenzin came to pick us up, she was early, and by the time I'd got out the bathroom Penny and Tenzin had gone. Ali and I tried to find them, but couldn't. I ended up walking around Jokhang Temple on the pilgrimage circuit which was fun with all the monks. Met up with Penny for lunch who told us that Tenzin was very nervous and that's why they couldn't wait. Apparently if Tibetans are caught with westerners in their homes they will be beaten and put in jail. It's no wonder she was nervous. Went for lunch opposite the hotel and met the artist whose paintings where on the wall of the restaurant. He invited us to his studio to have a look at his work the following day. That evening we had dinner in a lovely Tibetan restaurant where the waitresses didn't speak any english - lots of fun trying to communicate. I had some fun playing with some local kids on the street before we met up with Andreas who was going to a Tibetan Club, so we joined him. It was a highly entertaining evening with a Tibetan Michael Jackson impersonator who was brilliant.
DAY 6 Thursday 25th December - Christmas Day
This morning Penny, Emilia and I went to the Potala. It was amazing. We spent a couple of hours wandering through the many rooms and temples, marvelling at the architecture and views. After this we went to the Lhasa department store where I got chocolate coins - it was just like Christmas back home and I felt sick after eating them all. We then wandered around handing out chocolates and oranges to kids on the streets, lots of fun until I got attacked and a little girl tried to steal my bag of oranges. We then went to visit the artist. His work was brilliant, but he was Chinese and just came to Tibet to sell his pictures so we decided not to purchase anything. That evening we had planned to go up the Lhasa Skytower - can you believe it a skytower in Tibet? Anyway Emilia is scared of lifts so Penny and I went up for a look at the view and then came back down. We went to a lovely little Folk Bar where they had nothing on the menu and what we did order never came. So then we went to Snowlands again and enjoyed a large piece of chocolate cake. We met up with Carlos, Gustavo and Nonuki who had arrived the previous night. They'd come in our original Land Cruiser which half way got a flat tyre, or so they thought until they saw the wheel rolling off down the hill, never to be seen again. Along with Hans, Katie, Peter & Syliva they all had to hitch a lift to Lhasa and ended up on the back of a Chinese lorry and didn't get to Lhasa until 10pm on Xmas Eve, boy were we glad we'd come on to Lhasa early! The guys came with us to find a club, unfortunately all the clubs were full and we couldn't get a seat so we eventually just called it a night. It was an early start the following morning to head back to Nepal.
Friday 27th December
Today we left Lhasa at 6.00am - it was the four of us girlies and Gustavo in our Land Cruiser. Poor Gustavo had to sit on the pull down seat in the boot, incredibly uncomfy on the roads in Tibet, which are the worst I've experienced yet. Due to numerous landslides, the roads are pretty much just rock covered in sand! The heater in our jeep didn't work, so it was absolutely freezing, I couldn't feel my toes. It took us 14 hours to reach Lhatse where we stayed in a grotty room where the door didn't even shut. The temperature inside the room was -4oC!!!
Saturday 28th December
Today we crossed the border back into Nepal. We nearly didn't make it when our jeep broke down just outside Lhatse but thankfully our driver was able to get it going again. I climbed inside my sleeping bag for the duration of the journey which kept me nice and warm. The views of the Himalayas as we came back down were spectactular, although Everest was now shrouded in mist so we couldn't see it. It looked like it was about to snow! It was good to be back in Nepal.
Tibet is an amazing country. I'm planning to return in the summer when it's nice and warm. The scenery is spectacular, the people warm and friendly, despite the consequences they may have to face and a feeling of peace that just can't be explained. It's just unfortunate that Tibet is still under Chinese rule and no other country in the world will recognise the Dalai Lama as leader of an exiled government, despite the fact that he is is against violence and refuses to use force to regain independence for Tibet. When China first invaded Tibet, Britain was one of the countries that just stood by and let them kill thousands of innocent people, because they didn't want to "piss off" the Chinese!
I'm now back in Kathmandu again, waiting for my flight this afternoon.
India here I come......
PS I've just updated some piccies from Everest. Unfortunately my camera is broken so they'll be no piccies of Tibet or India :-(
This is a private blog 
