Seven Days in Tibet - girl

(actually, it was more like nine) I'm going to write this blog entry in diary form in response to my mother's request for more detail on this incredible place.

 

Day 1: It almost seems as if Nepalis who deal with tourists can't help but lie. The repeated promise of jeep transport once we reached Tibet was just one more. At breakfast the escort stood up and gave some convoluted spiel about why the jeeps would be non-forthcoming. If only they realised that we wouldn't have cared if they'd told the truth about it being coach travel in the first place.

 

After a painless journey to the border we moved through the mayhem that was Nepali customs and on to the order, control and insecurity of Chinese customs. A bridge crossing an extremely polluted river serves as the border, on this bridge stand a couple of Chinese soldiers (how far from the relaxed nature of Nepali border officials), these guys checked our visas and passports as we all stood in a line on an extremely windy bridge. I was a little concerned someone would lose a visa in the wind but all was well. We then joined another queue to have our passports checked and our bags scanned and quickly scoffed our pizza/fruit/biscuits as it turned out the escort hadn't bothered to tell anyone that we couldn't take food into China/Tibet. After the bags were scanned we waited anew to have the bags manually checked for books on Tibet/Dalai Lama/Taiwan/Falung Gong/whatever else China is feeling insecure about today. I decided I wasn't having some soldier going through my bag so my tactic was to open the top pocket of the bag and show the two books I had in there. Seemed to work for me. Col used the same tactic but the soldier was distracted by his camera. I'd have thought she'd have checked the last photos as we were emphatically warned about not taking pictures at the border. No, she went through the pictures of India and got very excited by the holi photos. Odd. The next queue was to have visas checked and then, finally, we were admitted to The People's Republic of China/The Autonomous Region of Tibet/Tibet!

 

A quick stomp up an extremely steep hill with all our bags brought us to the very nice coach that was to transport us around Tibet. A short journey later and we were in some border town where we were told we had to wait for two hours until the road opened. A quick meal in a restaurant with more flies than dishes, a walk around town and it was time to go. Between 7-9pm we drove through falling snow in the pitch black watching huge lightning bolts illuminate the sky.

 

The first night we all (22 of us) stayed in dorms of four or five. It was ok except for my terrible cold, which refused to budge and C's altitude headache, which arrived in the middle of the night and didn't leave for a day. 

 

First impressions of Tibet? Remote yet accessible - desolate but with incredible roads.

 

Day 2: A long day's drive through some incredibly spectacular scenery and a couple of 5000 metre passes. The snow made everything even more picturesque and seeing Everest only completed the magic. C's head gradually got better and everyone else on the bus got headaches as we drove over the passes.

 

We arrived in Xigatse as dusk settled and were suggested to go to the restaurant next door to the hotel for supper. We opted not to and set out on our own in a city with no lights to find a restaurant from the guide book. We totally failed but ended up in a great little place where people seemed totally thrown to see us but were happy to help feed us. We fell into bed warm, full and happy.

 

Day 3: A morning of independent sight-seeing. First we headed to the Summer Palace of the Panchan Lama - second in command to the Dalai Lama. A stunning building with some incredibly detailed paintwork. This was the first of many places that employed the 'charge for photographs but stick up lots of no photography signs'. We still managed to get a good number before wandering out in to the sleepy town of Xigatse to see what we could see. Many of the buildings were traditional Tibetan in style - in the Chinese centre of town they were newly built and clearly designed to try to win over the locals. In the Tibetan centre they were older, made of mud brick and clearly very lived in. Fascinating to see both and how they're used.

 

We had been instructed not to speak with locals too much since we couldn't know who was a government spy. However, Tibetans seemed really pleased to see us in their town and many greeted us with big smiles and hellos - totally different from the interaction we've had in other places where it's been primarily about cash extraction.

 

In the afternoon we were taken to the monastery - one of the most important in Tibet, probably. This was our first monastery but memories have blurred many of them into a big monastery mush. Something to do with the Panchan Lama again and the world's biggest standing buddha.

 

It was a beautiful place, as were most places we saw in the country but the highlight came at the end when a small number of us opted to remain behind and watch the young monks come to the chapel for prayer time. I have no idea why most of the group went back to the hotel when such an opportunity was presented. It seems a little strange to go to Tibet and then not take every experience offered but that's not my problem, I guess. The monks came in singly or in twos dressed in yellow capes, yellow brush caps and red traditional boots. They didn't appear to be taking the prayer time very seriously as many were play fighting or chatting as they waited to go into to the chapel.

 

We were able to stand at the back of the chapel as the monks sat themselves down on the long, carpeted, benches and began their chanting in the smoky room. Like in shul, the prayers were said pretty much at each individual's own pace, people sort of starting and finishing together, but not quite. The boys were also chatting with their friends and enjoying being together. We saw one young monk hurl a plastic bottle at a companion before the leader came in and everyone settled down.

 

Later we watched news of the Yushu earthquake on the only English language channel available - CCTV9. Even the name sounds ominous. This is China's attempt to rival CNN or Al-Jazeera. Not a hope. Propaganda aplenty and not even very well hidden. It does seem as if China has responded very promptly and adequately to the emergency but since we've seen no other news, I have no way of knowing if that's true. I hope it is.

 

Day 4: After a couple of hours driving through more desolate land we arrived in Gyantse, a small, fairly dull place where the hotel looked great but was actually freezing cold, even colder than the places we stayed in the Himalayas. I slept in my thermals and hat and was still cold under two duvets.

 

Before heading to the next monastery we had some free time for lunch and shopping. We joined two delightful ladies for do-it-yourself soup in a small restaurant. One picked ingredients that were then 'souped' for ten minutes before being served. Wonderful. C and I then headed to the Chinese supermarket to pick up snacks and things to try. The Tibetans may want their freedom but Chinese supermarkets are worth a few restrictions any day! After India and Nepal we were excited by the choice in even the small Gyantse supermarkets. C, of course, had to try as many packets of pickled foods as he could carry. They taste as good as they look.

 

This monastery is famous for its stupa and large number of buddha statues. I have always felt that if I've been in one temple or monastery or seen one buddha statue, I've visited/seen them all. This feeling has not dissipated so I enjoyed the views from the stupa but was under-whelmed by the statues or gods/demons/buddhas.

 

My notes for this day end: cold, cold, cold, which pretty much sums up day 4.

 

Day 5: A long, long drive to Lhasa through more desolate yet stunning landscapes. We crossed peaks, drove round incredibly long lakes and glaciers, crossed rivers and mountains. What a day. It seems incredible that the Chinese have bothered to put in paved roads across even this much of Tibet. I'm sure much of it has to do with either control of Tibet or trade with India but it was also helpful for our trip!

 

It had really struck me, by this point in the trip, how much I've grown up since last time I went travelling. I'm no longer part of the young group and definitely prefer the company of the older members of the group who are interesting and have good conversation to the younger members who just want to be cool.

 

The hotel provided in Lhasa surprised every single member of the group. In an historic Tibetan building that has something to do with the Panchan Lama we were provided with beautiful, large, rooms with powerful showers. Wow.

 

Day 6: First thing we were shepherded to Potala Palace, home of the Dalai Lama until 1959. I particularly enjoyed C and me trying to work out if one member of our group was serious or sarcastic when responding to my question about the palace with 'you mean you haven't read the Dalai Lama's autobiography?' She was so enjoyably earnest about everything in Tibet I can't help but assume there was no sarcasm, ever.

 

The palace is a little like the Vatican - both because it's so important to Tibetans and because it's impossible to get a real feel for the place. Everyone is allotted an entry and exit time and has to walk around as directed. There's no time for explanations or returning to look at a particular room or item. The Chinese restored the place after they bombed it but clearly don't want people to understand it. There is talk of it closing down though as the large numbers of tourists are threatening to destroy the floors. This was really the first time we saw many tourists at all. As C likes to chant as we go around these places, 'buddha, buddha, yaks' butter, money'.

 

On the way out of the palace I rubbed my eye and wondered why it was a trifle sore. By mid-afternoon I had full blown conjunctivitis, which then dictated the rest of the day's activities. While everyone else in the group went to the Jokang, C and I visited a number of pharmacies and surgeries to try and get medication for my eye. Our first stop, thanks to the hotel manager, was a Tibetan nun's surgery. She took one look at my eye, told me to stop eating tomatoes, chillies and garlic and then got out a bunch of pills that would cure me from the inside out. I don't know why we were even still there after the banning of tomatoes but we were. Stupidly we tried to ask what the pills were, for their composition so we could understand what they were and how they would help. We met a brick wall of incomprehension - not of the language since the hotel manager was still with us, but of why we would ask and what good knowing would do us. We left, laughing to ourselves.

 

We then found ourselves in the local A&E unit, which was far more productive and just as interesting. An eye specialist was found. She spoke no English so another doctor was brought into translate for us, thank goodness. When asked what was wrong I was able to show them the characters for conjunctivitis, which was lucky as it probably saved us a lot of going back and forward. After some scrapings and very bright lights it was agreed that's what I had. At this point I had to demand that a reporter (!) was ejected from the room. We have no idea where he came from but neither the doctor nor I wanted him in with us. C very firmly manoeuvred him out. I refused to be propaganda for a Chinese paper, which is, I suspect, what would have happened had we not kicked him out. Anyway, drugs were fabulous, within 24 hours my eye had gone from being so swollen it couldn't stay open and weeping puss to being almost back to normal. Thank goodness. C was amazing, and really looked after me. He more than made up for being rubbish at map reading earlier in the day!

 

Day 7: Thanks to the magic of real medicine my eye was better so I wasn't forced to remain inside as I'd feared and we were able to head to the Barkhor Square and its markets. After walking around for a while wondering why we were the only ones going against the flow of people we realised that we were swimming against a flow of pilgrims circumnavigating the Jokang. Luckily Buddhists aren't supposed to let anything bother them or we might have been considered rude (all religious buildings and items are supposed to be circumnavigated clockwise).

 

The afternoon brought yet another monastery and a quick trip to a Tibetan medicine factory. I remember finding Chinese tours to these types of places amusing and this was no different. And as then, I opted out of most of the tour. It was the same rubbish - you need this medicine eighteen times a day at this cost to cure whatever disease they claim you have. Only the girl mentioned above seemed to fall for any of this, everyone else was delightfully sceptical. It brought joy to my heart to witness such scepticism!

 

Train tickets were delivered in the evening and every single one was wrong - every single one of us had been ripped off as well as booked on trains a day later than we'd been told. This led to hours of wrangling with the company representative in Lhasa. For some reason though, C and I had the least trouble getting our tickets changed and the refund we demanded. I don't quite know why this was, perhaps because we didn't get as angry as everyone else. The guy kept on blaming the Nepali side of the business, saying they always lie and always cause trouble for customers. No one was particularly interested in his excuses or even really believed him but it wouldn't surprise me if it was true that the fault was primarily on the Nepali side. Anyway, we got an extra night in the hotel for free (£55), our tickets changed to the bunks we wanted (around £20 extra) and a refund of the extra money we felt they'd ripped us off (£40). Not bad.

 

C. was again wonderful when we realised the hotel cleaner had thrown out my eye cream. He marched straight downstairs and brought someone up to look for the cream. When it couldn't be found anywhere he sent them out with the box to buy a replacement at 11.15pm. Wonderful! It always impresses me that such a gentle, quiet guy can be so forceful when he needs to be.

 

Day 8: Because we hadn't been able to visit the Jokang with the rest of the group we were bought tickets for today. Wow, what a place. It's yet another monastery but so far out of the league of anything else we saw. We were ushered past the long queues of pilgrims and were able to just wander around, like we haven't been able to do as part of the group anywhere else. All monasteries are dimly lit, smoky and smell of a mix of incense and yak butter but somehow this place was more, just more, of everything. From the wax on the floor to the monks rhythmically beating large drums, everything here felt like we'd stepped into another world, perhaps dozens of centuries ago. Being without the group really helped too as it gave us time to soak up the atmosphere.

 

In the afternoon we headed down to the Tibet museum, which, quite frankly, wasn't nearly fully enough of propaganda. I was quite disappointed by the levels. Only a few times did we read how China had liberated Tibet.

 

We decided that we should really eat momos on our last night in Tibet. These are kind of Tibetan dimsum. I've not liked them much previously but was willing to give them a go. Yup, still bad, still heavy and bland. We left them and headed back to a restaurant we knew was good for delicious food on our last night.

 

Day 9: Lhasa train station is huge and cavernous. I love pragmatic communism: the waiting room for soft-sleeper passengers was huge and empty and furnished with rows and rows of lovely couches. For those without access to cash it was hard benches! Zebras, people, zebras. We read a great analogy of Chinese communism: one village had always believed that donkeys were better than zebras for carrying goods. The next door village believed the opposite. Over time the village using zebras became more wealthy than the village using donkeys thanks to the loads the zebras could carry. Rather than admit they were wrong, the elders in the village began to secretly paint stripes on the donkeys. They told the villagers that they were just painting them. Slowly, over time, all the painted donkeys were replaced with real zebras and the village began to prosper without anyone ever admitting they were wrong. Chinese communism.

 

The train from Lhasa to Chengdu takes 48 hours. The first day passed quite quickly in a blur of views of tundra and ice, chatting and watching Scrubs. The second day feels like it'll never end. However, this is the highest train in the world and we do have an entire four bunks to ourselves thus far. Extra oxygen was piped into the compartment for the first 12 hours as we traversed passes of 5000m. I imagined everyone being given nose pipes but this is just piped in.

 

I feel so incredibly lucky to have been to Tibet, to have seen such incredible scenery and to have visited such sights in such a remote and inaccessible part of the world. There are no independent travellers in the country right now - it is simply impossible to travel around without a group and a tour guide. The tour really comprised monasteries and driving but the driving was so spectacular it was more of a pull for me than the monasteries, which were all interesting in their own right. All in all, a truly magnificent few days in one of the world's more forgotten places.