Advertisement
Published: October 26th 2006
Jeepinside
Tenzin keeps his eyes on the road and his hands upon the wheel Off we went the four of us with 6 days to reach the Nepalese border at Zhangmu and Mount Everest, no less, to take in along the way.Our driver was the very capable, cigarette totting , but mostly silent Tenzing. He immediately established with his limited english that Agnes had no chinese connection and then indicated that anything chinese should be thrown out of the jeep. Just as well that this was more a gesture than actually acted on as having done a checklist of the contents of my rucksack in Lhasa I realised that I had brought back about 80% of the clothes and electronics to their original place of manufacture - the Peoples Democratic Republic of China!
First stop was a lonely mountain pass, at the highest (on land) we had ever been in our lives - 4990m. Well it should have been lonely but it was full of Tibetans with decorated oxen and even weird nasstiff type dogs with a type of frizzed up lions mane around. The were even charging to piss behind a wall, the only structure there. I said feck that and headed slowly up the mountain to where the sign was covered in
Me4990
After the pee on the pass incident prayer flags. No sooner had a tucked my appendage in out of the artic like breeze swirling around at that altitude than I was set upon by two fearsome women demanding the 10 yuan toilet fee. They were in turn set on by my no less fearsome other half, who may have not been adapted to the altitude, but made up for it by a big red face and a mouthful of pearly white gnashers which she bared threateningly. I paid up, fearing for the Tibetans health and Agnes calmed down after a few photos were taken. Meanwhile the Polish had gotten sucked into the photo opportunities below and were sitting astride oxen. It looked like trouble and it certainly was as we were urged to leave by the driver, Martin was approached by 10 animal owners demanding payment. He gave one 60 yuan and told him to divide it! In the chaos that ensued we a teenager hanging out of the side of the jeep as we tried to drive away .... great start!
I should explain how the money and the monasteries work. The tourist entry fee for the monasteries is taken 100% by the chineses authorities.
Agnes4990
Terror of the mountain pass toilet guardians?? The monks get tourist money by charging then for photos and videos - often at exorbitant rates and a different fee for each shrine. The money scattered everywhere around the temples is actually donations from the poor ordinary Tibetans which the monks live off also.
Next stop was Gyantse where we entered an unusual pagoda style temple, which was devoid of both monks and fellow tourists. Then on towards Shigatse to spend the night.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.052s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0248s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
