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Published: December 17th 2007
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Trains, planes and automobiles...well, no planes and the only automobiles were buses but hey
Okay so I have moved a lot since I last wrote, and I am now in Tibet! When I left Langmusi, I caught a bus for Hezuo which is kind of like the hub where all the buses from the area come and then you change buses and head somewhere else. So my plan was to get to Hezuo in time to catch a bus to Xining, but no, by the time the bus actually left it was already 7.40, not 7am as it was supposed to. Then as is custom in China, the driver stopped as many times as he could to pick up other passengers from the side of the road until the bus was full. Then we headed out onto the 'expressway' but were only on it for five minutes before he detoured into a town and ended up on a road right in the middle of a market, so the bus was outnumbered by people with bicycles about 1000 to 1. We had no chance. In the end I arrived at Hezuo and missed the bus to Xining and had to catch
a bus to Lanzhou, which was worse than the first one, I especially got pissedoff when the driver pulled over, got out,entered a resturant, sat down and ordered some lunch. So we were stuck for the next 30 minutes while he ate his lunch! I know people have to eat but what about just a few snacks as opposed to a full sit-down lunch. Once I arrived in Lanzhou I had endured the bus ride from hell: a Tibetan woman vomited in the aisle of the bus right next to my seat, an old Chinese guy continually coughed up sputum and then spat it dutifully onto the floor of the bus, a young guy played with his mobile phone ringtones for almost the whole trip - I came so close to snapping but somehow managed to struggle through it. I arrived at Lanzhou and I could've caught the train to Tibet from Lanzhou but that would have meant staying a night in Lanzhou and I am not a big fan of Lanzhou so I endured yet another bus ride from Lanzhou to Xining, which thankfully was uneventful. Finally arriving at Xining I had spent a total of 11.5 hours on
My compartment on the train
My bunk was on the bottom left buses throughout the day, mmmm fun I hear you say!
Anyway, Xining turned out to be a really nice stop as I met some travellers that I spent the day of the 15th with, we wlaked through some markets and then found a tea house and we played mahjong for about three hours! We had dinner together before I had to head back to the hostel and collect my bag and head to the train station for my train to Lhasa, Tibet. The train was quite nice (most of the trains to Tibet are quite spiffy as they are relatviely new) and I was helped on board by a trian attendant that spoke a bit of English so that was nice. I spent the next 25 hours on the train, but it was a pretty good journey as I got some sleep, had some good meals in the dining car, enjoyed some amazing scenery and had some discussions with a couple of train attendants and a Chinese guy who was in my compartment. The train really is amazing, especially going so high 5035m I think is the highest point but unfortunately I missed the photo op and only managed
to get one at 5020m.
So today is my first day in Lhasa and I must say after the last few days I am feeling pretty run-down and didn't feel up to much sightseeing today. However, I did join the pilgrims and walked the kora around the Potala Palace and I also paid the outrageous entry fee for the Palace and went in and had a look. It was good to see, there was no-way that I was coming all this way and then not seeing it just because of a fee - I mean that is a bit petty. Although, after Xiahe and Langmusi I was a little disappointed with the former residence of the leader of the Yellow Hat Sect, His Holiness the DL. I mean it was huge and there were some amazing paintings and statues, then there were the tombs of former DL's which were often made out of solid gold and covered in precious and semi-precious jewels, which meant that some weighed upwards of 3000kg! I don't know whether my expectations were too high or whether my mood influenced me a little (quite possible) but I felt something more at both Xiahe and Langmusi.
Having said that seeing the spiritual home of Tibetan Buddhism was amazing and very humbling.
Not planning onmuch else for today, going to try and take it easy over the next few days, rest up before joing a tour or group headed for outer-Tibet and hopefully (if I hold up with the altitude) Everest Base Camp, which in Tibetan is known as Mt Qomolangma. If indeed that does happen it means that I will again be away from the old Travelblog but will definitely update it when able to next., but for now I'm not going anywhere.
Thanks for the messages and the comments!
Back soon
Matt out.
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