Tashi Delek!
I've not been able to update due to much excitement and also not being able to access my blog as it's run by Google and Google is bad in China. As is Facebook and Twitter. But don't worry, one is alive!
Our trip started off with a flight from Helsinki to Beijing, and from there we went straight to the Great Wall of China. Which was pretty great. And hot. And I did not realize it was so steep (it was super steep where we were), and wearing back jeans does not make for good climbing on the wall. From the wall we headed for a lunch of tasty chinese dishes and then to our hotel. Our first day was completed by a Peking Duck dinner, and seeing the chef slice the duck himself.And my god it was nom, so nom.
Can't say that I enjoyed Beijing a whole lot. The Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven were special and amazing, but the actual city of Beijing was less than spectacular. The smog and the 5 million cars buzzing around causing a head ache and reason not to breathe just don't make for a pleasant experience. Also, China should look into the use of unleaded petrol. I don't think my lungs are very clean at the moment.
From Beijing we hopped onto a train that would take us all the way up to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The train ride was just shy of 42 hours, but luckily we got Super Sleeper Carriages with only 4 beds per carriage as opposed to 6. I had a wee top bunk, and Mum had a bottom bunk, and then we got two nice cabin mates, Emma and Rakel who filled the other two bunks.
How to pass 42 hours on a train:
lSleep. Lots
lEat lots of noodles.
lDrink water, tea, beer and wine.
lWatch Glee and Miranda
lRead a load of fanfics.
lAdmire the view from the train
lGet to know your cabin friends
lListen to the Book of Mormon soundtrack to keep yourself amused
lSleep some more.
The finally we got to Lhasa in dire need of a shower. My hair was beginning to look really rather delightful, but I decided to save the dry shampoo for when I really need it.
After the healing power of a shower had done it's magic, it was time for our first meal at 3500m above sea level. I indulged in a rather dry yak burger, which was actually good despite it's dryness. I have to say yak is pretty tasty! It's the main meat eaten in Tibet, though most of the yak we see is cross between yak and cow. Tibetan buddhists don't eat fish at all, because they want to avoid killing as much as possible, and for a meal they would need many a fish, where as a two yaks could feed a family for an entire year.
I have to say, I've got monasteries and temples coming out of ears by now. We went to Sera Monastery to see the monks debate, to Potala Palace to see where the Dalai Lamas woud recide during the winters, and to Jokhang, the most sacred place in all of Tibet. And to many others. The colours in all of these places is incredible. Reds, blues, yellows and gold, greens... It's amazing. And the huge statues of Buddhas are pretty mindblowing; they're almost as tall as small buildings,and there are so many of them. And then the statues of old Dalai Lamas and Kings and Princesses..... They're never ending.
After spending four days in the hustle and bustle of Lhasa, we jumped into Land Cruisers and made our way even higher than we already were!
Our first night was spent in Gyatse. To get to this truly delightful (not) little town, we first had to climb to roughly 4500m to get to the top of a pass to admire the view of a gorgeous, turqoise lake. From there we descended again, stopped for a rather mediocre lunch in a local town, and then made our way to Gyatse. Ok hotel, not so nice town.
After a sleep on a hard mattress, we headed to the Pekhor Chode Monastery and it's HUGE stupa with 108 altars. The altars were all dark, so I used my snazzy headlamp to peek into them. And some of them were so scary, especially the protection deitys.
From Gyatse we headed to Shigatse. This was a considerably nicer place than, Gyatse. A nice stroll through the town in schorching sunshine made better by witnessing a market stand filled with innards and other delicacies, including a massive liver with flies swarming around it. Schweet.
The next morning we visited yet another monastery; the Tas Hi Lun Po Monastery. Nothing too different than the other, except it holds the largest bronze statue in the world, one of the Buddha Maitreya (the future buddha). It's pretty high, around 28m tall.
Following our monastery visit, we drove to Sakya, a really unpleasant little town. Thevisit there was only made more pleasant by a visit to a small nunnery on the hillside. The hike up there almost killed me; I guess small hikes at around 4500m are not my friend. But then again you're at a place with around 35% less oxygen than what you're used to, so getting out of breath after two steps is pretty normal. That 15min hike was worse than when I climbed up Wayna Picchu. But the nuns living in the nunnery were the sweetest little ladies I have ever met. They were so friendly and small! One of the teeny madams insisted to be photographed with me, and in one where we're standing together infront of a few Buddhas, you can she barely comes up to my shoulders. That visit to the nunnery has definitely been one of the best experiences in Tibet.
We also visited the Sakya Monastery, which was the monastery that founded the Sakyapa
school of Tibetan buddhism. I don't think any of us were sad to leave Sakya, but once we got to our next destination, Sakya seemed like paradise. Shegar is truly the arm pit of Tibet. It took Johanna (my Tibetan travel friend and companion) and I roughly 10 minutes to walk from one end of the other, and it was dusty and filthy. The hotel there, while grubby and run down from the outside, was surprisingly nice on the inside. We even had a small altar in our shared living room.
Our time in Shegar ended with a cold, early wake up call as we were headed to the base camp of Mount Qomolungma, or Mount Everest as it's more commonly known as. The car ride there was gruelling; 3 hours on the bumpiest road known to man, followed by a bus ride to the base camp, situated at 5200m above sea level. Can't say I was so impressed by it, or if it was worth spending 6 hours in a car jiggling about like a fish on dry land, but now I can say I've been to base camp of Mount Everest. And the view of the top of the mountain was pretty cool. We really lucked out with the weather, about an hour after we left a shroud of clouds covered the top of the mountain.
After a night in Lao Tingri, it was time to bid Tibet goodbye, and head to Nepal for the next stage of my adventure. We descended more than 3000m from barren, dusty plains and passes to lush, green and warm valleys serving a vast contrast between the two.
More on my nepalese adventures next time!
