Blogs from Lhasa, Tibet, China, Asia - page 24

Hi everyone! We have now been in beautiful Tibet for 4 days. The city is almost 12,000 feet above sea level... so we are slow moving at best! But it is amazing! The people are so gorgeous and friendly... and the food is a mixture of Nepalise, Tibetian, Chinese, and Indian, so we are in heaven, literally as we are on the roof of the world. We are off tomorrow on a 12 day land rover adventure... to Everest, and to hang out with some nomads and stuff... so probably you wont hear from us for a couple of weeks. Lots of love! ... read more

After our trek, we decided to spend some down time in Lhasa. We did a lot of eating, sleeping, and showering.....you know, all the creature comforts. These 3 days of relaxing gave me time to walk around and snap photos, to seek out the details that make Tibet what it is. There are so many subtleties here. The low murmur of pilgrims making koras around the Jokhang, the sometimes suffocating smoke of burning juniper (i guess it's not THAT subtle), the smell of yak butter, the dirty hands of pilgrims or children asking for money, the almost inaudible squeak of spinning prayer wheels, the late afternoon light that always seems to grace to Jokhang, the constant mantra of shop keepers---"hello, have a look," and the sound of prostrating pilgrims as they scrape up and down on ... read more

So we have spent the last couple of days bumming around Lhasa, checking out the sights and feasting on 25cent chocolate and yak burgers. First up we saw the Jokhang, the most important and oldest temple in Tibet. It is full of pilgrims offering money, katag (white prayer scarves) and yak butter for the candles, and smells of the juniper smoke that is offered into the air. It is very dark and windy and filled also with chanting monks in burgundy robes - really atmospheric and like a whole different world. We followed the pilgrims round all of the tiny chapels where there were hundreds, even thousands of statues made from wood, gold, silver and precious stones - just jawdropping! We climbed to the roof and had great views over the city and across to the ... read more

hey everybody!!! im in lhasa, tibet in a sketchy internet bar right now. i do not want to spend my night in here, so i am only going to say hey and let everybody know that i am alive and having a great time and now am officially an adult. i will write an entry about my trip to tibet when i get back to beijing on sunday, so you can look forward to that. okay talk to you all soon. ahhh i only have 3 more weeks in the motherland...i need to go wander the streets and soak up the china.... read more

Back at my fave internet hotspot in Lhasa! Most internet places are sooooooooo slow as apparently there are around 33,000 internet police in China so everything goes through a massive filtering process! Been wandering around the Jokhang area this morning and saw the delightful sight of a little child going to the toilet in the main street ( number 2's!). The fashion here is for trousers with splits in them ( no nappies) so children just squat down and go where they need to. Haven't daren't to think too much about the implications for babes in arms and how that works! However, backtracking 2 minutes later there was no sign of the mess so there is obviously an efficient clean up system at work, and I should hasten to add the trend is amongst young children ... read more