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We got on in this crazy crowded train, Russ was seated away from us in the hard seat carriage, A Tibetan dude was nice enough to give up his seat for him and exchanged so we can be all together, we are the only gringos in the carriage as most are in the sleepers so everyone is staring at us for hours and watched our every move. It was 9pm when the train left Chengdu, on time. We had our noodle soup dinner and struggled to sleep, it was so uncomfortable this was the longest night form me, the carriage is so loud people playing cards, music of all sorts, we tried to sleep in vain, 6 seats in our section us 2 Tibetans and a middle aged Chinese man who insists on always sitting next to the window, he spits on the floor which annoyed us all. We all took sleeping pills but did not help, the next morning we were all in a foul mood, we went to the restaurant carriage and played cards there but the staff wants to throw us out because people wanted to take our tables to eat so we ordered food, then we got
Lhasa:Potola
monks playing frisbeethrown out! Went back to our miserable space and played more card games, gin rummy to pass the time by, all the people watching us, some wanting to play maybe but they can't speak English. In the eve in between naps we went back to the restaurant and had food and then played cards again then got thrown out again! Our toilet is shitty so we used the 1st class cabin which has a western seat toilet to do our business, but that night one of the staff told Russ no! but he insisted and ignored her!
Another hellish night, worse than last night's, some people slept on the floor or wherever they can find space, trash is building up in the in between carriage and they stink along with our toilets! Playing cards is the only thing we can do to pass the time by, we too photos too of the scenery, really surreal place, reminds me of Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan to be honest, yaks, sheeps, rolling hills, snow capped mountains..At one point we were at 5,000 plus meters in this pass, we also saw a number of lakes and we go up and down the mountains, Our
Chengdu-Lhasa train(45 hours!)
Russ getting too comfy with the locals agony eventually ended 45 hours later when we pulled over Lhasa train station. It is huge and lots of space, we found the exit, we could not find our guide and Russ is in a bad mood, we walked further and found her with Russ' name on a piece of paper, we went with her to the van but we got stopped by 2 police officers and asked to show our permit, we gave them the photocopy but they want the original, Russ lost it there, eventually we got through, Sofie and the police were talking for awhile until suddenly we are allowed to go. We stopped by an ATM for Boris to take money out then to our hotel Cool Yak. Nice place but the alleyway to get there smelled of piss and very storng! It was a public toilet. Our room is big with en suite toilets and wifi in the lobby, we chilled then went for a walk, all of us feeling the altitude, Boris and I had a slight headache. We found a small restaurant and had dinner we just pointed and the staff loved us, they even filmed us eating, and we were starved, we
ate fast and furious! then walked around town saw some local markets, Boris bought pair of sunnies then back to the hotel, Boris helped me buy some convertible pants hard bargaining brought me to a $26 purchase of 2 pants, wow a steal, who thought id find it in Tibet, I've looked all over since losing my last convertible pants in the Philippines.They have all sorts of gear here and if you bargain well you can buy cheap. Russ was busy signing up for classes on line in my computer so Boris and i went to bed. early rise tomorrow.
We went for breakfast at a local eatery, we had dumplings, pooridge and some fried bread thing, the staff loved us, gringos in their restaurant is for them a novelty, Sofie met us up in the hotel and we took the bus, 2 buses to Drepung monastery, I like this one, quite nice up above a hill and you can see Lhasa from the there, entrance costs us 50 yuans and every room or temple you have to pay between 10 to 20 yuans to take a photo, ridiculous. But the sight is nice lots of pilgrims and they
Chengdu-Lhasa train(45 hours!)
Boris chilling out at the very comfortable hard seats(NOT!) are doing some maintenance work so we can't really get close to some sights, the pilgrims pour butter yak on the altars to add to the candle vat or bowl and they put money on almost every sight/altar in the temples, like giving alms for goodluck. From there we took a taxi to Norbulingka park a huge summer palace type park for the Dalai Lama way back in the days, it is expensive to got here 60 yuans but it's in my opinion overpriced, it's nice with trees and temples and a pond but nothing else, well there's a zoo if you fancy but nothing else of significance.
We walk for what seems to be for miles to have lunch near the Potola palace and we took a bus after lunch to get to Sera monastery to witness the Debating monks, very interesting they are in a big courtyard sat in the ground and they take turns talking about philosophical topics, if they have a question to ask they slap their hands together and point to the guys they are in a huddle with, quite animated and we enjoyed this for maybe a good hour then we left, on
our way out the locals started throwing water at each other! We almost got wet, and these are the vendors selling souvenir stuff i guess they got bored. Back to the hotel Russ and I got ready to have dinner while Boris decide to stay in as he wasn't feeling well, of the 3 of us he is the most affected by the altitude.We shopped around the bazaar too to buy some tuks for the boys and a pair of gloves for me I ended up buying a bracelet with a sanskrit writing on it, and they told me it was Tibetan!
We all had dreams again last night all about money for some reasons, the altitude is playing tricks on us at the moment but we are adjusting slowly and hopefully be acclimatized in a few days time. Breakfast again in the same place then we met Sofie again to go to Jokhang temple, 85 yuan entrance, my god it was crowded with Chinese tourists and pilgrims, getting from one room to the next is a struggle, great view from the top you can see Bakhor bazaar full of tourists and pilgrims. We shopped around a bit and
took lunch and then headed to Potola palace, while killing time Boris and Russ played frisbee then a group of monks walked by and they invited them to play with them which they obliged!, after them the boys played with the local kids at the park in front of the palace. Sofie and I watched them, Boris got a massive headache after the game as we go up the Palace, it costs us 100 yuan entrance fee, she told us if she come with us to the inside of the palace we can only stay 1 hour but if we do it on our own we get to stay and look around for as long as we want so we ditched her for a couple hours. The Palace facade is the most beautiful I've seen in the world, really, such an amazing architecture. But we can't take photos inside the palace, indoors and out but I managed to steal some fotos, for 100 yuans we ought to get to take fotos outdoors we reasoned,full of Chinese tourists again and some asked to have fotos with us!We have to leave our water at the entrance so they can sell us expensive
Chengdu-Lhasa train(45 hours!)
on our comfy hard seats. Boris and Russ eating breakfast water bottles at the top of the Potola Palace.
After Potola we split with Boris as Sofie came with us to buy tickets for the train to Xian, we took a cheap bus then walked a long time, Sofie does not know where it is and Russ is already annoyed, we asked around for directions and finally found it, it is so hot the sun is very intense here and we are now in a bad move. Long queue and finally when it was our turn, Sofie made a mistake of buying hard seats! Even if we told her we want hard sleeper, and the lady in the counter won't change the tickets we have to go to the main train station to do so! Russ by now is fuming and attracting attention from the locals, a Chinese girl tried to calm us down as by now both of us were livid, she said we can share the taxi to the station, we went with her and queued up but it took ages as the counter handling ticket changes does not know what she is doing, when she finally got to us she noticed the date was wrong! So
we have to fix it and in the end all got sorted but Russ and I were exhausted after all these, we arrived at the hotel Boris was passed out asleep with a massive headache, Russ noticed the bathroom was not cleaned so he lambasted the staff this will be our 3rd time to request it and we got free breakfast out of that!
We all went out in the eve to buy our gloves and tuks then had dinner , walked around and went to a bar for drinks, Russ promised to buy us beers when the Lakers beats the Celtics, I was sad they lost but hey free booze out of it!
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Muno
Sally and Nick Griffith
Have been following your adventures for a while now. fantastic! Must apologies for not nominating you in the recent hall of fame nominations but only realised after they had closed. anyway, looking forward to yournext adventure - have you really been on the road fo 3 years!! how do you manage it?