Long day on the bus

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A day in transit

I had a bit of a sleep in this morning which was great, I think I need to catch up on some sleep after all those late nights drinking in Beijing. So I headed out got some breakfast and packed up and headed towards the long distance bus station for my bus to Xining. To refresh your memory I was heading to Xining to maximise my chances of getting a permit to Tibet (and as I said yesterday, I know that many travellers have made it to Lhasa and back without one, and that it is a money making scam but with my luck I would feel easier knowing that I had the permit).

The bus ride was pretty uneventful, I was sitting next to a guy who knew a little English and through his broken English, my shitty Chinese and with the help of my phrasebook we had a bit of a conversation. The bus ride took about 6 hours and two movies were shown (both in Chinese) which I managed to follow and the sight gags were pretty funny at some points. Unfortunately, I had packed my camera in my backpack and after taking my pack on the bus and being told to put it in the cargo section under the bus I forgot to get it out, so again no photos. I am sorry, I will do better from now on.

So I get to Xining, find a cheap hotel close to the bus and train station and while I am checking in a guy comes up to me spekaing in English asking me if I want to go to Tibet, today. He explains that he can get me to Tibet same day any day without a permit, all he does is buy the ticket for me, walk with me through the police check and then I hop on the train, where apparently no-one checks the permits. He has been doing this for seven years and has helped heaps of foreigners, showing me the evidence by whipping out his address book which is filled with names and email addresses of people who he has apprently helped. His name is even in the 8th edition of the Lonely Planet, being thanked for helping one of the authors. Let me tell you his spiel is impressive and even after I told him that I wanted to get some information from a place that sells permits he still continues to help me, actually he came with me; catching the bus there and back with me. However, given my limited timeframe and experience travelling alone I would like to do a tour in Tibet and I have been informed that to do a tour you need a permit, so I have paid for one.

Coming down out of my hotel room later that night after doing some reading of my LP (Lonely Planet) I bump into him again and he takes me to a great Muslim restaurant where he orders for me, the least i could do was pay the 8 yuan for his and my meal (about $1.20AUD). Let me tell you about my hotel, it looks like shit, it smells like shit, but the room is actually pretty decent: it smells nice and its clean. Looks can be deceiving.

So tomorrow, I am catching a bus bright and early to Xiahe, it leaves at 7.15am and I need to be there about 6.30 am. So off to bed after this. I am planning on being in Xiahe two or three days, then to Lnagmusi for another two or three days and then back to Xining. I plan on heading to Lhasa (Tibet) on the 15th of December. This means that I am running a little behind the pre-trip schedule and means that I have absolutely no idea where I will be for Christmas, but I'll let you know 😉

Thanks to everyone who is reading, I know there isn't much content to these blogs but the typing helps me sort through the day.

Back soon (I think there is internet in Xiahe and Langmusi)

Matt out

END TRANSMISSION

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