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Published: August 5th 2006
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Before you Buy the Ticket
* Please reconsider if you are taller than 5 foot;
* Please forget about it if you are 6 foot;
* If you are 6 foot and above (eg. Tom) please ask yourself, "Am I feeling suicidal today? or is life really not that bad?"
The Truth about the Bus
Most sleeper buses I've travelled on in China have been very comfortable. You get a bunk bed allocated with a blanket and sometimes even a pillow. There is enough leg room for me (I am tiny though) and even room for me to store a day bag and shoes.
The sleeper buses we were on in Tibet though were ancient, it is more cramped and I couldnt even stretch out my legs fully on the bed, and I'm a midgit.
Imagine the horror when my friend Tom (who I think is 5cm short of 2m) got on the bus. Disaster. He could fit half a leg in the bed at most.
Our Terror Ride to Tibet
On this bus ride I was joined by the Americans, Tom & Katie and a Spaniard- Dominique. We had with us enough food
to last a few days, Katie's supply of 90 Valium tablets from Cambodia, and Dom's 6 bottles of very bad Chinese wine. Sounds like we came prepared, what could possibly go wrong?
Advice to people heading this way...Whatever you do, you must NOT take the back bunk beds, top or bottom under any circumstance!!!!
Prior to the bus leaving, we had all picked our beds (in the middle of the bus) but were quickly shuffled right to the top back bunks by the Tibetans, Chinese and Chinese muslims. We were given no bed tickets even though we booked the bus legally with our permits!!!
The back bunks were the worst beds you could ever get. Even though we probably paid enough money to get the whole bus to ourselves we were in for one crazy ride.
When the bus finally left at 8pm I slept like a log even though it was cold and my legs were cramped. We were sleeping with our bags and food supplies all cramped at the back with us. A Tibetan family with small children were sleeping in the bunks beneath us. Now and then they would yell out to us..."Hello!!!"
and pass up small items that had fallen throughout the ride...a sock, a sleeping bag, a jumper. They were wonderful people.
Katie & Dom popped a Valium to ease the pain of a long journey.
The next morning I woke to beautiful mountain terrain. Could I still breath? We had risen to at least an altitude of 4000m, the highest being approx. 5600m. The air was thin but it was all ok.
Then within a few hours of waking, the bus started to go through some bumpy road. They were brand new roads mind you, but from the cold temperatures overnight the road had buckled. They felt like big bumps from the back. For hours everynow and then we would be swerving left to right, and then heads thrown forward. It was terrible, like a roller coaster ride gone bad.
I hit my head or sprained my neck, Katie did a back flip or something and hurt her back against the bus ceiling. Dom started vomiting. Boy that was bad, it made me want to vomit too. Dom blames the valium tablet, Katie blames the Chinese wine...God have mercy on us. Tibetan kids downstairs were crying
Tibet "Power"
tibetan people have been repressed since the occupation of their land in 1950. and wailing. From the window I could see the brand new train line to Lhasa...if only!! I looked up to the bus ceiling above me and saw all the strange dent markings...now I know why they are there(see picture). People get serious brain damage sitting back here...
From then on, the headaches came and the biggest desire to JUMP OFF. I moved up to the front to orientate my head. I sat down on the steps of the bus with a Tibetan mother and 2 babies, and chinese men smoking to their lungs delight.
Making it in One Piece
Never had I been so happy to get to a place. Finally we get to this "Shangri-La" and can stand at the Roof of the World as Lhasa is known.
As I write this it is my first full day here. I have read next to nothing about Tibet and come to this land with out expections.
So far I am amazed by how beautiful the Tibetan people are, especially the elderly. There are so many elderly people here, walking around with prayer wheels and beads, colorful braids and deep deep wrinkles. What tragedy and
repression have these elderly men and women lived through??
Yet somehow they still have a twinkle in their eye whenever they throw a smile my way.
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Tom
non-member comment
Oddly..
I really enjoyed the bus ride. Not getting sick helped a lot, but the scenery was beautiful and navigating the bumps was fun!