Xian to Kathmandu
Trip Start
Aug 04, 2006
1
4
Trip End
Sep 03, 2006
Xi'an, China
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Repeating routes is against my travel wozits, as the world is too big to see in one lifetime anyway, but you can't help it sometimes and anyway, seeing places like Xi'ahe and its wonderful monastery twice is no real hardship.
We left Vienna on 2nd August having had the least time on record to prepare for a trip. I didn't even get to read the itinerary proper until I was on the flight
Terracotta Warriors
. In Xi'an we did the obligatory tourist stuff including the Drum Tower, the Bell Tower, the Big Goose Pagoda, the Great Mosque etc. We made the most of our 5 star joining hotel as we knew things were going to deteriorate pretty quickly on the accommodation front! Digging deep into the Rough Guide we made a great find and visited Daxingshoa Si, the only working Buddhist Temple in Xi'an. Our timing was perfect as we arrived just as they had started their offerings ceremony. It is such a privilege to see such things carried out as the norm, rather than be put on for tourists. Pre-departure meeting was kept to a minimum as we wanted to get on and visit the Terracotta Warriors. There would be plenty of time for the mundane paperwork en route. This is the second time I have seen the Warriors, and I am sorry, but they just don't do it for me.
En route to Xi'ahe we stopped at Pingling, basically just for a hotel stop, but as usual, we had an interesting time due to the locals being so curious about us tourists! Some girl students studying at the local university spotted us in a restaurant, came in and tried out their best English on us. They found it very amusing watching us trying to order food, because we knew what we wanted, but as the menu is of course in Chinese, we had to use sign language
Chariot wheel
. Simple you would think, but China is the only country in the world I know of where pointing at something and using sign language gets you absolutely nowhere. We saw a lady on another table eating spinach dumplings. We decided to go with that. I walked over to the lady with the waitress and in my best English/Chinese apologized to the lady for the intrusion and pointed to the dumplings and pointed to Michi and then to me indicating 2 portions of dumplings right? 20 minutes later, we were still having the same 'discussion'. Finally with the help of the English students we placed an order. Did we get dumplings to eat? No of course not, that's half the fun. You spend forever trying to order something, believe that they have finally understood your charade and then get surprise of the day. We got mapo dofu, tofu in a spicy chili sauce, which is actually want we wanted, but had not yet managed to successfully order it, so how happy were we?! Trouble is you just can't tell if they don't understand, or don't want to understand. Still it's never boring ordering food in China, or anything else for that matter. The following day comprised of a long day's drive to Langzhou basically just to crash as we will be returning here after Xi'ahe to do the cable car trip to the monastery on top of the hill - um where else would they put it? How they ever got all the materials to half of these places without the transportation and technology we have today is astounding
Daxingshoa Si working Buddhist temple
. Road works, traffic jams and dirt roads to Xi'ahe meant we arrived too late for a proper en suite room (Drago style not 5 star you understand). They hadn't been picking up the phone when we tried to reserve rooms for the group, so we just had to take pot luck. So we ended up with a bed and nothing else in a basic room and a shower half a kilometer away down some dark steps next to the delightfully smelling drop toilets, all in the same block, two for men, one for women? Whose idea was that? A man's obviously! Have you ever seen a queue in the men's toilet?
However, we did manage to get proper rooms the next day - luxury, own toilet and bathroom. Only trouble was that when we returned from our action packed day we discovered that the water pipe to the hotel had burst earlier in the morning and we had no water in the room aagghhhrrr! They kindly organized buckets of water and bowls for us and said they had been working on the problem all day and hoped the water would resume 'later'. We waited and waited and it didn't. There was a BBQ party due to start in the courtyard of the hotel within the hour, so we started boiling kettles of water and using a bowl, set up a bird bath system. At one point it looked like that was my night sorted, "I'm staying in to wash my hair" like the good old days as my hair was already starting to look like a rats nest. Then just as we stripped off, clunk, gush....water worked its way through the pipes, hot water at that! So we cancelled the bird bath, shame. But fear not I am sure there will be other opportunities later in the trip.
During the day we did the guided tour of Labrang Monastery which covers some 860,000 m2 (yes you read correctly, eight hundred and sixty thousand square metres) of which 400,000 (four hundred thousand) has buildings on it, and saw the wonderful buddha statues
Prostration around Labrang monastery
. This time I even got to circumbobulate (as I call it as I can never remember circumambulate!) the monastery Circumambulating is where the locals walk the parameter of the monastery in a clockwise direction, touching and turning the huge colourful prayer wheels which go about half way around the monastery. They all squeak! As they turn the wheels they repeat prayers. We tried it and I have to say the concentration needed is unbelievable. I felt rather giddy too and couldn't do it for long. Out of respect we of course let the locals go by if we were in their way. The amount of people at all times of the day, but particularly very early in the morning and in the early part of the evening is astounding. They walk purposefully and amazingly fast too! Even the old ladies move at quite a pace! On the way around there are also some stupas and some small buildings with more prayer wheels which the pilgrims visit. Some have their own smaller prayer wheels on a wooden stick which they hold in front of them at about waist level and by a slight wrist movement cause the prayer wheel to move in a clockwise direction and they chant prayers. The even more dedicated pilgrims carry out prostration which involves taking two steps forward, bringing the palms of their hands together at waist level, raising both arms above their head, bowing, kneeling down and then lying face down on their stomach, forehead touching the ground (solid stone and gravel you understand not plush grass)
Circumambulation - age is no barrior
. They then move their extended arms either side of the head, return the arms to the side of the body, return to a kneeling position to stand up again and repeat the whole process. Some wear protective gloves and some even have some knee protection, but that doesn't do much in helping what can only be described as a very strenuous routine, it has to be admired. Some go not only around the monastery, but some people do extreme trips from say Lhasa to Xi'ahe taking 2-3 years. Life here is very basic. The harsh life they lead is written in the lines on the faces of the old people who with varying degrees of difficulty force themselves to complete the circumambulation. They still manage to raise a smile when they overcame their initial fear of seeing us and wondering what the heck we are doing there. They are very curious about us, particularly me because I am the only living thing they have seen with blond hair, let alone curly! They all have jet black, dead straight hair tied back. I feel a bit of a tourist attraction myself.
The funniest moment was during our circumambulation when we kept overtaking or were overtaken by this one particular old lady with a walking stick. As much as we greeted and smiled at her, she just wouldn't break into a smile. When we stopped to take a photo she approached with a look like a mischievous child, gave a gentle slap on the thigh as if to say it's me again, gave me a thumbs up sign and broke out into a huge smile and giggled as she moved on. From then on whenever we overtook each other it was all smiles and waves, truly wonderful.
The monks from the monastery roam the streets of Xi'ahe in their burgundy coloured robes and smile a lot for no apparent reason
Giant Buddha at Bingling caves
. Just seems a bit odd when you see them with mobile phones attached to their ears! They weren't around in 2004. Mobiles get everywhere eventually! After an extended stay in Xi'ahe we were all set to leave for Bingling Caves, but just as we were about to load up the truck Rikki asked us to disappear for an hour as the brakes on the truck had suddenly stopped working (minor detail). However, the hour turned into the morning and it was decided we should carry on without Rikki and the truck as we were losing too much time and had a tight schedule ahead of us. We chartered a local coach, which is about one up from third class public transport, and got some kms behind us.
Bingling Caves are Buddhist grottoes carved into a cliff of a 60 metre high gorge. There are 694 statues and 82 clay sculptures. During our 1 hour boat trip to the caves down the Liujiaxia Reservoir I told everyone how impressive the approach to the caves is because when you turn into the final corner on the boat you are greeted by a 27 metre high statue of Martresh Buddha. So everyone set up their cameras for the perfect shot. Only trouble was, since I was last there in 2004 the water has risen so much that they had to quickly build a damn and move the Buddha to the safety of higher ground around the corner! I resigned as tour leader from that point on!
After many stressy phone calls between Claire and Rikki we received the good news that the truck had been repaired, safe enough to drive while we arrange for necessary spares to be shipped from England to be with us by the time we get to Lhasa. Rikki was on his way and would meet us in Golmud
Praying outside Jokhang Monastery
. In the meantime we continued in our not so luxurious coach, but at least we were moving, and drove by Qinghai Hu Lake, but didn't stop. Originally we were not going to stop off at Golmud as we were told there wasn't much to do in this old mining town, but now we had to meet the truck somewhere where he could find us, and it meant we could stock up and get ready for our upcoming bush camping nights. After our late arrival in Golmud and after hectic shopping session in the market, we showered and made our way out to dinner. It was yet again another great experience. As per the norm, there was no written or spoken English so I decided to try a new tactic on the sign language front. I entered the filled to bursting kitchen, got myself acquainted with the chef, and pointed to individual ingredients which were sitting on the work surface in an organized fashion and pointed to the wok. The chef set to work and we almost got what we asked for. As if that wasn't enough entertainment for one evening they stuck us in a separate party room with a huge lazy Susan in the middle of the table and put the food on it. Then we noticed that one by one, family friends and neighbours popped their heads into the room giggling to look at the latest tourist attraction and try out their English, which of course is ways better than our Chinese. You did get the feeling that the language had been drummed into them as you could ask "what's your name" and before you could finish the question the answer came back with lightening speed. But when you asked anything more than name, relation to the person he was standing next to etc, the automatic recording stopped with an embarrassed look. At one point I counted 14 people staring at us.
As we were sitting in the lobby chatting late, we heard the familiar roar of the truck engine and excitedly ran out to the car park to welcome Rikki home and pressed a cold beer in his relieved little hand
Mum and children intrigued by the truck
! He was covered from head to foot in brake oil and goodness knows what else you gather having spent 3 whole days under a truck. You do get very emotionally attached to your truck. It's your life support system! The next morning you could feel a fresh excited buzz in the air. We were all on such a high having been without our truck for days. The timing of the return of the truck could not have been better as it was time to hit the Tibetan Plateau and I am not sure our coach would have made the journey and in any event, we needed our tents and cooking equipment so the whole thing would have been impractical. I don't even want to think about it.
The next four days were spent sitting on the truck, admiring the changing scenery of the Tibetan Plateau as we climbed over several high passes. Our highest pass was to be 5,300 metres. We were all a little concerned about the effects of altitude sickness as the planned climb is quite severe, but our intrepid leader has assured us that we are carrying oxygen, like that makes me feel a lot better! We found out that a guy on the trip last year failed to tell the leader that he was feeling unwell (bloke thing) and ended up being flown out back home with pulmonary embolism and he nearly died. So all this altitude stuff has to be taken very, very seriously. Thankfully most people on our trip suffered only minor side effects of the altitude, but one guy didn't do so great and decided that he would leave us in Lhasa and fly back to the UK. To quote the Drago leaders - it's an adventure not a holiday!! The holiday is rated extreme, and they weren't referring to luxury!
What became even more of a concern for us was accommodation in Lhasa
Her life in her eyes
. Due to the new train line that has opened up between Beijing and Lhasa, there are some 3,000 tourists per day arriving in Lhasa and our hotel accommodation has not yet been confirmed! Hotels are not very cooperative about confirming bookings, even if you offer full payment in advance. Maybe we will end up with a night on the truck? So what of the controversial new train to Lhasa? Yes we have seen it, several times, and it looks very smart - apparently it is quite luxurious inside. It really depends on your point of view as to whether you feel this is a good or bad thing for the future of Tibet. What you cannot take away from them is the technical and engineering achievement. I personally fear what it will do to Tibet. On the news the other night there were reports of the first signs of cracks and sinking along the line, but the engineers have defended this, saying it is normal. How do they know, they've only just built it! Apparently, the Swiss were invited to be involved in the design and engineering of the railway, but they declined saying it couldn't be done. I would tend to go along with the Swiss if they say it isn't feasible, after all they have enough mountains! Time will tell. Sad thing is there is so much building going on, presumably new hotels and businesses, in anticipation of the increase in tourists that the train will bring. I don't even want to begin to think about the economic consequences and job losses should the train stop in a couple of years due to technical difficulties.
On the night before we got into Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, we camped at the highest salt lake in the world, Lake Namtso. We were told it would probably be our coldest night of camping, so I dressed myself in all my seven layers, including my rufty tufty duvet jacket
Tibetan Plateau
. It actually turned out not to be soooooo bad all things considered. In the morning, we had two hours to walk along and appreciate the beauty of the lake before heading off for Lhasa. En route we noticed a local festival thing going on so stopped to investigate. It turned out to be some Tibetan horsemen, dressed in traditional costume performing stunts from their horses. The only stunt we got to see was where they ride as fast as they could down the sand track, bending to the side of the horse holding a stick and trying to scoop up a bottle of sand which had been placed on the ground, and throw it over the crowd, with varying degrees of success it has to be said. Well what else is there to do on a hot sunny Sunday?
Relieved and very tired, we all arrived in Lhasa. Accommodation worked out in the end. Whilst we are not central on the map, we are only about a 20 minute walk away from the Potala Palace, the 13 storey, 1,000 roomed palace of the Dalai Lama. Lhasa was pretty dead as it was a Sunday so after we managed to find the one and only open one burner restaurant in town we ate dinner and retired, ready for an action packed few days ahead.
On our first free day we decided to wander around the Barkhor market area, circumambulate the Jokhang Monastery and watch the pilgrims prostrate and do their religious rituals
Pass at 5190 metres
. The smell of the burning juniper and incense sticks is very over powering, but somehow very pleasant and relaxing. The streets have a nice atmosphere and the locals are all around going about their daily activities, walking along the street with their prayer wheels and looking at us like we are from Mars. Then we went to see the outside of the Potala Palace and later stumbled up the Rumesh Monastery tucked away in the corner. We decided that today, being a messed up exploratory sort of day, would be the day to go and see the debating monks at the Sera Monastery. This involves a couple of hundred monks who live there getting together daily at around 3:30 in the courtyard. Armed with their beads and their thoughts, one monk will stand over one or more monks and make his point. To emphasize his point he raises his leg, stretches out his arms and bring his hands together in a very loud clap whilst simultaneously replacing his foot on the ground with force as if to say "take that". Hardly debating I agree, but there you go. This goes on for an hour and a half. It was all very entertaining, but after half an hour, you are ready to move on, especially as it is all in Tibetan! We did start to think they were taking the micky a bit as they kept giggling as if to say see that chick over there....and so on. I don't think they were talking about the meaning of life. We then walked around to see the Monastery itself and its HUGE kitchen. I felt like I was in Land of the Giants (remember that series) as everything was just so super big, unreal.
The next day we were given the great news that Drago had managed with great effort to get tickets to go and see the Potola Palace. They have made the tickets very difficult to obtain and very expensive in an attempt to restrict numbers of people going in
Potala Palace
. The tickets themselves are 100 Yuan per person, but the permit (?) that goes with it is 300 Yuan, so you can guess who is behind that and where the money goes. The Potola Palace is where the Dalai Lama lived before he 'left' in 1956. It is just stunning. 999 rooms in all beautifully decorated with endless Buddhas and gold. We had four days in total in Lhasa and just spent hours and hours walking around absorbing the atmosphere that sucks you in. We visited inside the Jokhang Temple, the Norbulingka (Summer Palace of Dalai Lama), Drepung Monastery, some caves and and and. Top of the World, wow!
Then when we had run out of things to do we decided to go and get a haircut for Michi. I tried to indicate again by sign language, that Michi would also like a head massage like the previous customer. She nodded as if she understood. Result. 10 minutes later after Michi had received his haircut, but no massage, I was invited to take his place in the chair. Curious, I obliged. She poured a cup of water over my head, added half a bottle of shampoo and started a hair wash/scratch/massage for no less than 30 minutes - the bubbles! They were so curious about my hair. She then started to give me a neck massage and concerned indicated that she had found a knot or three in my shoulder, and before I knew it I was getting a neck, back and arm massage with a bit of reflexology and goodness knows what else thrown in
Beautifully decorated hairstyles
. Ouch, but oh so good for my old back which is giving up on me these days. Reluctantly we left Lhasa for Gyantse where the Baiju Monastery, Pelkhor Chode, and Gyantse Dzong were on the menu. Although we got in late, we had just enough time to hike to the top of the hill and see the fort. It has to go down as one of the best forts I have ever seen, not that I have seen too many forts you understand. It' just I felt it was a 'real' fort, like the ones you had to draw in school, but never got to see anywhere. A real protective thick wall thing that blokes like and chicks fail to understand. The best part thought was the view from the top of the monastery we were due to visit the next day, so that was a bit of a bonus. So the next day we got up and did the Monastery and then drove to Shigatze to see Tashihunpo Monastery and Zhashenluntu Temple. Adjectives do not justify what we got to see. Stunning.
After all that culture, it was time for some cold mountain air and what a mountain! We drove passed Qinghai Lake en route to Rhongphuk where we stayed in a basic hotel. The men's toilet block was one up from a ruin and you could hardly get to the drop for piles and piles and piles of poo where people had missed the hole somewhat. Grim. As for the ladies, well the building had totally collapsed, and it was difficult to differentiate between rubble and poo. So the toilet really was anywhere you fancied, but there was nowhere to hide, no bushes, nothing. Four of us decided to check into the 10 times more expensive hotel which had recently been built just up the road. It wasn't terribly fancy, but at least they had a clean drop toilet, but no showers. It was very cold and damp in the building, but not half as grim as the dorms in the other place
Debating monk at Sera Monastery
. The staff had to be seen to be believed. They were so unhelpful and friendly and difficult to find! As we met for dinner in the adjoining 'restaurant', the clouds cleared and revealed the peak of Everest.
Some walked the 7 kms to Everest base camp others took advantage of the donkey and cart. Once we got to base camp all we could see was blue skies everywhere, with the exception of a solitary cloud, the biggest cloud you ever did see. And where do you suppose this cloud of all clouds was hovering? Correct, right over Everest, completely over Everest and nothing else. The wind was very strong, so we waited and waited as at some point that cloud would just have to move. Our patience was tested as we were rewarded with slight sighting of the base, which was promptly obscured again. Nothing happened for about an hour later when we were treated to see a little of the left side, then the right side, then the peak, but the cloud covered her up just after each revelation. Just as the cloud covered her completely again and we were resigned to the fact that that was all we were going to get so we might as well head back down, the sun came out, the wind blew a gale and the clouds vanished to reveal her in all her beauty. It was so majestic, so beautiful, it almost didn't look real! We posed for photos, took in the rays and the atmosphere for about an hour, and then the clouds returned. But we were fine about that by then. So more than elated we made our way back down to the truck.
We took the Friendship Highway 318 Lhasa to Kathmandu to a permanent camping spot called the Last Resort.
Baiju Monastery
The huge military tents were very cosy with 2 beds, raffia carpet, bedside tables, a luggage rack and a couple of deck chairs out the front. The tents were spaced well apart giving you lots of privacy. There was a great bar and restaurant area, clean toilets and funky showers overlooking the valley. You just chill or indulge in the bungee jumping they had set up on the bridge that connected the main road we were on to the camp itself. Scary bridge! After three relaxing nights it was time to bring the trip to a close and descend into Kathmandu. At one point we seemed to turn a corner and the landscape changed from Tibetan Plateau to stunning Alpine Forest with a mixture of brilliant sunshine, cloud and rain.
So the trip had officially ended, but we had a day to do Kathmandu. Because time was tight and we only really had one full day, we had organized a full day guided tour by a local man recommended to me by friend. We got to see:
Swayambhu, better known as the Monkey Temple. We climbed up the steep steps to the temples and watched the locals make offerings. Here Buddhist and Hindus mingle in peace together. And yes, there were a few monkeys around the place too
Mount Everest okay behind us not the top of it
. Bouddhanath - a huge stupa, Hanuman-Dhoka Durbar Square, Kumari-Ghar and even got to see Kumari herself. Kumari is a girl who is chosen as she is young and special, and she is then kept in a house and only displayed at a special annual festival. At aged 12-14, having served her purpose, she is 'released', but nobody will marry her as they fear bad luck. Up next was the Kasthamandap a huge temple believed to have been built out of a single tree. We ended the day on a cheerful note and got to see the locals cremating their dead at the Pashupati Nath. There is a tributary of the Ganges that runs in front of the buildings and here the sick and destitute come here to die as then they receive a cremation ritual. Families also bring their dead here, cover them in a white and orange cloth and then remove the clothing underneath the cloths. The eldest son of the family works around the covered corpse three times holding a stick which has been lit and then he places the flame in the mouth of the decease and then the wooden pyre is lit underneath.
Passes between Golmud and Lhasa
Dangjin Shankou Pass 3,519 M
Kunlun Pass 4,849 M
Fire and Wind Pass 4,930 M
Tanggula Pass 5,231 M
Kyogche La Pass 4,900 M
Between Lhasa and Shigatse
Shogula Pass 5,300 M
Between Shigatse and Kathmandu
Tropu La Pass 4,950 M
Gyatsola Pass 5,200 M
Lablungla Pass 5,050 M
