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Published: January 22nd 2008
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On top of the world!
Prayer flags at 5200 metres. (Catherine)
Before we left home, we booked a seven-day tour from Kathmandu to Lhasa travelling along the Friendship Highway - apparently one of the most interesting overland journeys in the world. Although parts of Tibet are now open to tourists it's still a bit tricky to get in - you need a visa and two different types of permits and you can't get in from Nepal without being part of a group, although a group can be just one person! Confused? We were! Luckily the travel agency sorted all the bureaucracy out for us and our only job was to buy suitable clothing - the temperature in Tibet averages -2 in January and gets as low as -15 at night! One shopping trip, some hired coats and some thermal long-johns later, we were ready to go!
As it was low season, we were part of a small tour group - just myself, Matt, Moyra from Germany and Berten from Belguim. On the way to the Nepal/Tibet border our Nepalese guide gave us more information about the tour. Apparently, if the details in our passport didn't match what was on the computer at the Chinese customs we would be sent
back to Kathmandu, if we did manage to get into Tibet our Tibetan guide wouldn't give us much information about the places we visited, the accommodation would be basic, the toilets would be dirty, there wouldn't be much to see for the first few days and we would probably get ill from the effects of high altitude (although there was somewhere we could buy medication and oxygen if needed!). We could hardly wait to get going!!!
Luckily, we all cleared customs and were officially welcomed into China (not Tibet, interestingly!). We spent the first night in what seemed on arrival like a ghost town, sharing a dormitory room in the only guesthouse still open. We had to use the public toilets across the street because the ones inside had frozen! Our first meal was in a tiny room which was more like a family's lounge than a restaurant. The food was cooked in the family's own kitchen and a small boy was sitting next to us happily watching TV! English isn't very widely spoken in Tibet but with our newly aquired Tibetan 'hello' and 'thank you', along with lots of sign language, we managed to get by.
The
10 glasses of beer!
Whenever we ordered beer, we were given shot glasses to drink it out of! next day, we began our four-day journey to Lhasa. 'Nothing much to see' turned out to be stunning snow-capped mountains, frozen waterfalls and brightly coloured prayer flags! During our drive along the Friendship Highway, we reached heights of 5200 metres, saw Mount Everest, stayed in some interesting towns, visited monastries, spent some time at a stunning mountain lake, entertained the locals (they were fascinated by our Tibet guidebook and the amount of clothing we put on to go outside!) and ate lots of Tibetan food (which either contained yak meat or was so bland we actually added vinegar to it to give it some taste!).
As we drove into Lhasa on day five we got our first glimpse of the Potala, the Dali Lama's Winter Palace, an iconic image of Tibet and the symbolic focus for Tibetan hopes of self-government. We checked into our plush on-suite hotel room, marvelling at how far we'd come since the first night, and set off in search of some food with flavour!
We spent two days in Lhasa exploring the Jokhang Temple, the Potala and some of the biggest monastries in Tibet. Although it's very cold, January is a really interesting month
to visit as there are few tourists and lots of pilgrims (most of them are nomads or farmers so they come in the winter when it's too cold for any crops to grow). Watching the devotion of these people (many of whom travel for days to reach these holy places) was very moving. Some pilgrims spend all day worshipping in front of the Jokhang Temple, lying down to touch their noses to the floor, then standing again and repeating the ritual.
Although the control that China has over Tibet was very obviously (especially in the Potala which is guarded inside and out by the Chinese Army) we were pleased to find that a lot of traditional Tibetan culture is still very much alive. For me, the lasting memories of Tibet will be the stunning scenery along the Friendship Highway, watching monks recite holy scriptures, eating in colourful Tibetan restaurants, the overwhelming smell of yak butter which is left as an offering in temples and monastries, laughing lots while trying to communicate with friendly locals and feeling the coldest I've felt in my whole entire life!
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