Lets off road!!
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2005
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127
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Trip End
Jul 21, 2007
Shigatse, China
Saturday, May 19, 2007
The assembled factors were:
A pretty rugged looking cream 1995 Toyota Landcruiser plus experienced driver called Achung who, we were assured had made this ambitious and little undertaken journey before.
An English speaking guide called Lakpa who would grease the bureaucratic cogs and wheels as we maneuvred past the network of Chinese checkpoints, would find us food and lodgings, and accompany us on our 3 day Kora of Mount Kailash, among other duties
buddha
. We had already twisted on the first guide we were offered, who couldn't answer the simple question "have you been on this trip before?" no matter how we phrased it, but young Lakpa seemed like a good chap even though he was a confirmed rookie, having received his guide badge only days before and about to embark on his inaugural voyage.And last but not least a fist full of permits. FIT (foreigner in tibet), TTB (tibet travel permit), Military permit etc etc, which would all apparently grant us safe passage clean across the of Tibetan Autonomous Region'.
Our 'contract', which detailed our itinerary along with what was, and what was not included, was safely stowed away with these papers and we hoped we would have no cause to make reference to it.
We also had a full box of pot noodles and a gas camping stove, 3 sleeping mats and some Oreos and pistachios in case of emergencies. Damn it we were ready for anything!!!!
We pulled out of the guesthouse car park at 9am feeling good. The car sounded fine, the 4.5 litre engine purring away under the expansive hood. We rolled out of Lhasa on the smooth tarmac that was soon to become a dim and distant memory, and began to worry about the music selection. On loading the boot we had clocked the sub screwed to the floor, so knew that the driver was something of an audiophile. Unfortunately, in Tibet this means that he enjoys large helpings of Backstreet Boys and other assorted SHIT. Luckily Nick had the presence of mind to include a tape adapter in his list of items to pack, and so the rest of the trip was a constant wrangle between Achungs tapes and our ipod
dark things in the monastery
. It basically swung on who got into the front seat in the morning. I mean the guy was a great driver, but he didn't seem to care if the tape autoreversed 4 times before changing it! But spirits were high, we all felt excited to be going on this adventure which we had built up and planned for so long, and as we entered the countryside and drove through a valley following the raging Brahmaputra river, with the rocky peaks rising up on either side of us, we were reminded of driving through Nepal. The road then rose out of the valley onto more barren ground, twisted around on itself as it began to climb to the summit of Nanga La at 4794 metres.
Then the car stalled. 2 hours out of Lhasa. Not a good start, but the driver wasn't sweating and seemed to know what to do and had it going in a couple of minutes. Lakpa translated that Achung had mistakenly put oil into the tank instead of petrol that morning. Confidence took a downward turn.
What you must realise is that we were driving into a remote wilderness for 17 days, and the bulk of the planned route was at least 4 and a half kilometres above sea level. No hotels, no hospitals, no English speaking people, not even a tree! Only lack of oxygen, mountains, pot noodles and these 2 guys. One of them, a 21 year old who was on his first outing as a guide and had spent the last 15 years India, the other who mistook the petrol tank for the engine
Dogs at Gyantse monastery
! No matter! We made the top of the pass and while catching our breath, looked down on the spectacular turquoise lake of Yamdrok Tso, which snakes around the base of the peaks with the sun glinting off it's perfectly still waters.
After descending from the pass we left the blessed asphalt and continued along a dirt track deeper into the mountains. And from a riverine setting we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a desert landscape with sandstone peaks, enormous dunes and a huge, deep blue sky overhead, with the odd dazzling white cloud for contrast, and nothing else in sight..
The desertscape eventually gave way to paddy fields, and then the citadel of the ancient town of Gyantse appeared in the distance, perched dramatically on a rocky hill looming over the Tibetan adobe houses.
We spent a little time in the town that had risen up around the monastery of Gyantse. In the assembly hall, monks sat around in 3 groups of 10 or so, painstakingly constructing beautiful sand mandalas on the stone floor. Mandalas are two dimensional representations of three dimensional mental objects used for meditation, and are stunning in their multicoloured detail. These are entirely made of sand and as soon as they are completed the monks will blow them away into the dust, to perfectly and eloquently symbolise the impermanence of all things and the senselessness of our attachment to them.
At the end of more extremely dusty tracks we reached the second largest of Tibets cities, Shigatse where we unloaded and dug into the best butter chicken I have tasted in recent times.
