M. Overlanding Nepal Tibet and China

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FREE TIBET



(Tommy)

OVERLANDING ROCKS.......... This is by far the best way to see Tibet and China, the only downside is if you like a place you cant stay, you have to move on!

(GUYS JUST SO YOU KNOW WE ARE ALREADY BACK AND WAY BEHIND ON THE BLOGS, SO THE PHOTOS ARE IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, AND SOME OF WHAT WE WOULD HAVE WRITTEN IN HERE HAS TO BE LEFT OUT OR WE'LL NEVER FINISH! SUFFICE IT TO SAY THIS TRIP WAS AWESOME AND APART FROM THE BITTER COLD -20 AT TIMES WE HAD A BALL AND MET SOME OF THE NICEST PEOPLE EVER! WE STILL MISS NICK,DAVE AND ALL THE GANG FROM THAT TRIP. IF YOUR THINKING ABOUT DOING THIS I RECOMMEND IT HIGHLY ITS A ONCE IN A LIFETIME THING AND ME AN CLAIRE WERE REALLY SAD TO LEAVE THE EXODUS GANG! SO PLEASE READ ON AND REMEMBER THIS IS NOT AS IN DEPTH AS WE WOULD HAVE LIKED AND DOESNT MENTION EVERY BEAUTIFUL THING WE SAW OR FOR THAT MATTER EVERY PARTY WE HAD......... ENJOY)


We left Vietnam and to be honest didn't mind in the least! We travelled

to Delhi via Honk Kong. Our flight took off late and arrived at Hong Kong late. We were rushed off the flight by a harried looking member of Cathay Pacific ground staff and towards the Delhi (Cathay) flight. I stopped her to ensure our bags would be transferred she assured me that it was being done. We got off the plane in Delhi (which is a really shitty airport!). We were met by ground staff who informed us our bags had been left in Hong Kong and could we follow them. Needless to say we were totally pissed off! They rushed us through customs and took us to their counter in arrivals. We were then told it would be a few days and they would forward our bags to our hotel. We told them that this was bullshit! We were flying to Kathmandu in Nepal in the morning and had a couple of days before leaving to cross Tibet. They then told us they would forward them to Tibet! Again we told them we were camping or driving in Tibet and all of our warm clothing were in the bags, we were going to Everest and would likely die of Hypothermia!! (We were wearing our Shorts and stuff!). Eventually after a stressful wait they paid us some cash and told us the bags would be on the next flight to Delhi and then flown to Kathmandu airport where we could pick them up. It would be 24-36 hrs with no clothes, towels or wash kit. This was the best we could get and they fobbed us off and lost interest after that! We then had to blag our way back into Arrivals to kip for the night as they won’t let you into departures (another shithole) until 3 hours before your flight!!! We spent an exceptionally uncomfortable night, slumming on a couple of chairs before (gladly) boarding our flight to Nepal!!!

Eventually we checked in and went to wait for our flight! After a shitty night we were both glad to see the back of Delhi, and the flight to Nepal was only an hour or so! We landed at Nepal and stepped out into quite a hot day! The flight in is mad, as you fly in between mountain ranges and catch some heavy turbulence, off the thermals that they create! Needless to say Claire did not enjoy the last part of the flight!!! You walk into quite a small terminal and have to fill out a few forms, and pay for your visa. Then your through to collect your bags (....we didn’t have any!). It’s all quite quiet and civilised................. Until you walk outside that is! Outside is chaos you are mobbed by a million taxi drivers and touts! If you are foolish enough to put your bags down, someone will pick them up and walk off with them to a taxi; forcing you to follow. This happened to a friend of ours! We fobbed everyone off and went direct to Royal Nepal Air who were transporting our bags to us. We left details and said we would be back. Then we braved the taxis and got a lift to our Hotel, AMBASSADOR, just outside Thamel. This was the Hotel that was recommended to us by our Overland company EXODUS. I have to say it’s not really backpacker prices ($25 a night) and you can get substantially cheaper, BUT this Hotel was great. Far enough away from Thamel to be quiet, yet only a 10 minute walk in. It was clean. Our room had a balcony. There was air-con. The staff was VERY friendly and stored a load of gear for us that we had sent to them from Hong Kong (they had to travel for half an hour to the post office to pick it up and even paid the postage charge). The restaurant was good. There was a curry house across the road. BEST of all there was a bath, with hot water!!!!

Needless to say we were glad to arrive and just chilled out. The next day we went and got our bags, thankful for some clean clothes! Then we hit Thamel! Thamel was only a short walk away and is (really) an explosion of colour, sound, smells, everything. You can literally buy anything here, just be aware it is usually counterfeit, but who cares eh!! I should say now, I love Thamel. It’s got everything you need. All the different bars, every type of food on earth for sale and anything else you might need. Nearly everyone speaks English here and most of all its dead cheap!! Claire had tried to re-waterproof her coat, needless to say it didn’t work and she bought a new one (North Face rip off) and got it dead cheap. We also found a cool Rasta bar where we got a few beers and chilled! There are loads of pics which give you a taster, but to really, get it, you have to have been there. The rain turns the street to mud though, so don’t wear Jandals, no matter how warm the day might seem when you go out!

Due to the fact the Communists were enforcing a strike we had to leave a day late! We met up with our group the night before departure. They were all awesome! We had Wilco, from up my way, Ian a surveyor and 'scoundrel', Tim and Vicky (a couple of cider drinking rugby supporters), Lucy (Lady to ladette, by the end of the trip anyway), James the southern fairy, Jeremy a 6 ft bonkers kiwi vet and Sue a "loud when I’m pissed" aussie, we also had Pete who was the Irishman that got lost at Everest base camp, and Marc, the quietly spoken Belgium boy who loved his beer!!! Our two drivers were the infamous fantastically talented, Nick and Dave. After the meeting we all went into Thamel and 'Bonded', this is a posh word for getting pissed, especially as it turned out to be James birthday that very night. These were the first shots of many!!!

But we were made up, the group had a variety of ages and nationalities, the drivers were really chilled out; and everyone was up for a few drinks (..... well more like a skin full as we later found out) and a good laugh!!

This was our itinerary-

NEPAL

Sep-30 Arr Kathmandu h Free Day Pre Departure Meeting
Oct-01 Kathmandu h FreeDay to Explore Kathmandu
2 Kathmandu to Last Resort h Afternoon free for Bungee, Swing, Canyonning or Trek
3 Last Resort to Zhangmu 6 Border crossing then Night drive 1 am

TIBET

4 Zhangmu to Nyalam 3h Acclimatization ,
5 Nyalam to Dingri 5 h Acclimatization . Lalung la
6 Dingri 1 h Acclimatizatiion
7 Dingri to EBC h Everest Base camp
8 EBC to RC 5 rc Hot springs
9 RC to Shigatse 5h Visit Sakya Monastery am
10 Shigatse 4 h Tashilumpo Monastery
11 Shigatse to Gyantse
12 Gyantse to Ganden rc Gyantse Fort and Monastery
13 Ganden to Lhasa 8 h Potala Palace, Johkang, Barkor Sq , Summer Palace
14 Lhasa h Cycle to Sera ,Drepung Monasteries.
15 Lhasa h
16 Lhasa h d
17 Lhasa to RC 6 h Nam Tso Lake
18 RC to RC 10 rc Tibetan Plateau (and Tommy's birthday!)
19 RC to RC 10 rc Tibetan Plateau to Golmud
20 RC to RC 10 rc Qinghai lake
21 RC to Lanzhou 12 h

CHINA

22 Lanzhou h Visa split
23 Lanzhou h Opt Day trip to Bingling si
24 Lanzhou to Pingliang
25 Pingliang rc Kongtong Shan Holy Mountain , Trekking.
26 Pingliang to Xian 9 h
27 Xian h
28 Xian h Terracotta Warriors
29 Xian t Night Train to Beijing
30 Beijing h
31 Beijing h Great Wall of China, 8 km walk
Nov-01 Beijing h till nov 3rd when we are due to fly back to Nepal for trekking!


We set off bright an early the next mornin' an travelled through beautiful Nepal too 'Last Resort' which is an adventure/massage/super posh camping resort just before the Nepalese/Tibetan Border. It is a cool place and if you go anywhere near it’s worth a stop. You stay in large tents with proper beds, tables and chairs in them! The bar area and bar b cue areas are cool and there’s loads to do. You can Bungee jump, go rafting, try a bridge swing, do some hiking, climbing, horse riding or what we did, 'Canyoning'. This seems to differ slightly by country, but in Nepal you basically climb to the top of a raging waterfall, then alternately abseil/slide, down the falls to the bottom. It’s a rush and can be quite hard at times!!! We loved it though! The climb back up was a bastard, as it was about 30 deg that day and there was no real path!

After this we headed for the Border ZHANGMU. We stayed in 'BEAUTIFUL' (yes I am being highly sarcastic here) accommodation! I won’t describe it as it'll give me mother nightmares!! But it was dry and had a bed, so it did the business for us! We all got together and had loadsa Dahl Baht, basically curried veggies, lentils and rice, this is mega cheap and a Nepalese fave! We also had loads of beer, this became a theme for our whole trip, no matter how cold or ill anyone got!! Especially as it was only 12 p for a large bottle of beer, twice the size of your standard bottle!!!

We crossed the border and entered Tibet. The Chinese army and police are everywhere, I didn’t think a free Tibet t shirt would go down very well, and in fact we heard that you would be arrested if caught! The Chinese had a total disregard for the environment and the Nepalese. As we watched two soldiers carried an oil drum full of shit and dumped it over the bridge and into the mountain river that runs into Nepal. Nick and Dave shouted at them, but there’s nothing you can do. Give them too much abuse and they will arrest you, and the Chinese aren't known for their clean jails and sterling human rights record. After going through all this bollocks we got into the country of TIBET, if you overlook the millions of Han Chinese people and ugly concrete buildings that outnumber there Tibetan counterparts; then you get to see the real Tibet. The people are really poor, yet they work very hard and can be very friendly. There contempt for the Chinese was evident from the outset and throughout our stay. The next three days including a hellish night drive, from ZHANGMU - NYALAM, (night drive) and then to TINGRI, were all acclimatization as we rapidly ascended to around 5000mheading for EVEREST!


Along the way we had loads of beers to start with, and then none at all as we acclimatised. This is because basically beer dehydrates you and makes you feel shite as you go up so high! We also had a drama, when Sue left her purse in a shop and the two male owners stole it. We went in and had a go; Dave gave them loads of shit, but to no avail. The Chinese police were not interested, but after much persuasion from Dave and our wonderful Chinese guide Ting Ting (known to us all as TINGUS), we eventually got a letter Sue could use for Insurance purposes. We hung around in the afternoon at the local pool hall, where we were the local attraction, had a few laughs with the young and old men in there through charades and smiling. You could walk the length of the town in about 5 minutes. But we did find a cool little shops where a few of us bought some thermal socks, gloves and bits which we now realised we needed as it was so bloody cold.

(Claire)

We also had the night drive, I have NEVER been that scared on a drive in my life. Thank god they hired 4x4's to take us and not the overland truck! The road was horrendous; it is still under construction by the imported Chinese workforce and is mainly mud! The drops off the side were higher than the Ben Nevis peak!!! The road was closed during the day, for "roadwork’s" which could only be completed during the day. So hopefully in a few years time, these roads will be.... safer. Anything would be an improvement frankly, as the dirt roads were just that dirt, dirt, dirt, rocks, holes and sheer drops to one side. All I can say is thank god I was wearing a good bra, as we came off of our seats on a regular basis!

We couldn't work out if it was a curse or a blessing that it was a night drive, a blessing that we couldn't see too far into the sheer drops down the side of the hymalayas. Or a curse as there were no street lights and only other cars headlights to aid you, in other words....you couldn't see shit!!!! . Then there was going past oncoming vehicles, you had an inch on one side from the vehicle, and two inches on the other side which was a sheer drop! Tommy and I were in a jeep with Jeremy, James and Sue and thank god we all had a sense of humour!

We had the better of the group of jeeps; ours at least didn't keep breaking down!! The hysterical thing was that as we were going uphill and there was little room for other cars to pass, our jeep would ram the others from behind to give it a jump start. Hair raising stuff anyway!! We got through it by laughing, singing and playing the odd game of I spy.



(Tommy)

We were glad to get to Nyalam though! We spent the night in Nyalam and then set off for Dingri. Dingriis a tiny town at the foot of the Himalayan ranges and driving distance from EVEREST.


Dingri - what can I say!!! LoL This place is tiny and dusty, in the day it was red hot, and of an evening and at night it was freezin'. We spent our time, going on walks, playing chess, cards and cricket (did I mention we were all poker fiends!) and acclimatising. The really distressing part was the communal toilets!!! These are known as drop toilets, and this is a good description. There were 3 rectangular holes 10ft off the ground, if you look down all you can see are mounds and mounds of shit! One girl (Vicky) came out of there looking distressed, we initially fathomed that it was the smell (Which would turn a sewage workers stomach. However she went on to tell us that whilst she had been squatting for a pee, she had the shock of her life when she saw that she was peeing onto the back of a cow, the cow had wondered underneath to have some lunch, poo and potato pie anyone?????! This is how they get rid of it; needless to say we didn’t eat any beef!!!


The one thing that this place did have was an amazing view point where you could watch the sun set and rise over Everest and the surrounding Himalayan mountains, we chose the sun set option as we knew the temperature would drop dramatically and didn't fancy having to wake up and endure that!!! Did we mention that we were there at the coldest time of year!!!!! Anyway a few of us made the slow, but steady walk to the view point; everything takes so much longer as you just haven’t got the breath to do it. The only way I can describe it is to imagine how your breathing becomes more laboured as you exercise, imagine your breathing if you were power walking, this was what it was like to just walk slowly, if you ran, you knew about it and normally had a bit of dizziness to go with it!!


(Claire)

We reached the top and I had bought a can of Coke to have at the top, whilst we watched the sunset, I'd only a few sips and then developed the worst case of trapped wind I’ve ever had, I could feel the bubble rising in my stomach and eventually let out a huge burp after about 5 mins!! It was agony, DON'T drink fizzy drinks at such high altitude, the pressure does strange things to it in your stomach!!! Sunset was awesome, the sky went an array of pink, reds and yellows and we took some amazing photo's before admitting defeat with the weather and also realised we'd have to hurry back to make the use of last night as there would be no street lights to help us find our way. Thank goodness we had torches as we did almost get lost on the way back, we didn't recognise our accommodation in the dark, but managed to muddle through and find it together!

When we left to drive to Everest base camp, the road was blocked by an enormous herd of sheep and goats, they scrambled up the mountains and over each other, and we were stuck for a good 15 mins whilst the shepherds herded them all around the sitting queue of cars and trucks. A few of the farmers and people building the roads popped up onto our truck to have a look and say hi. People were amazed by our converted truck, they always wanted to come on board and have a look around. I also spotted a woman who made one of the best pictures I have to date, a little old woman wearing an Everton beanie hat, it was priceless, Tommy's dad would be proud!!!!

We drove through lots of little villages and this is where we saw more of the real Tibet, the traditional style houses, insulated with Yak dung on the walls, they also use dried Yak dung to burn for fuel to heat the house and to cook with. The sanitation is pretty poor, it wasn't an unusual sight to see kids taking a dump in the middle of the road, although there were toilets of varying degrees of standard, but obviously some people didn't have access to these. We drove past lots of family’s working the fields with Yaks pulling the plough round and round and round the fields and then to collecting the hay by hand.

Some of the villages were so remote, in the middle of the wilderness at the foot of an enormous mountain, much bigger than anything we have in the UK, but only the foothills of the Himalayas'!!! It was stunning scenery, the Himalayan Mountain range with thousands of terraces growing cereals and rice, the beautiful traditional housing, streams, lakes, sometimes frozen, it really was breathtaking

(Tommy)
After a couple of days we set off for Everest base camp. It’s amazing how the altitude affects you, your head aches, it’s hard to breathe and you generally feel shitty. The drive is worth it though, some beautiful views. As you drive into base camp you have a majestic view of Mt. Everest. Unforgettable, and should be on all your to do lists.

Base camp is a series of Tibetan style semi permanent tents. We split into small groups and settled in our tents! I was in with the lads, the girls were all together! We all had grand ideas of poker and beer, but to be honest the altitude got to all of us, me head was bangin'. I got tucked up into bed and went to sleep for an hour! After sleeping and drinking half a ton of water I felt a bit better! We all went to the small office and got our passports stamped and headed up to Everest! You can walk it and you can call me lazy, but Claire and I got a horse and cart! This mountain gets more majestic the closer you get, and I think the view in the Tibetan side is spectacular. To be honest am not gonna go on about it cos you had to be there and the pics tell a story. Just avoid the toilets they are rank!! I'll let Claire tell the big talking point, but I proposed to her here! I was shittin' meself but got the lads in on it to video it an take pics. Unfortunately altitude interferes with electrics and the video didn’t turn out! We got the photos on here though! The good news is she said yes!!


(CLAIRE)

Our drive to Everest was again in 4x4 jeeps, we had the same crazy driver as before, he spoke about 3 words of English and we about 2 words of Chinese, still we laughed joked our way along. Had some more rear ramming of the jeeps that periodically stopped working, we were used to it by now and were quite happy to sit n enjoy the view, there are certainly worse places to break down....that is unless you can't get it to work again!!!!
As we turned into a road that led us through the mountains, it was stunning, miles of nothingness, with hundreds of tiny vole like creatures (not what they were called, but nearest thing I can think of!) Jeremy and James asked for a loo stop and went on a "shovel recci".... let’s say the needed loo roll, they came back looking thoroughly relieved and off we set. Around 15 mins later, James suddenly piped up......"Err, sorry guys, think I left my money belt and passport, when I had a dump!!" So they dropped us off (pardon the pun) and went back to the scene of the crime, luckily they found it!! Maybe they followed their noses??!!

Everest Base camp was an amazing sight as we pulled in, Mt. Everest a majestic sight in the background and the tents on either side framing the road that led to Everest. The tents were made heavy material, Tibetan style tents, the inside of the girls tent was great, lots of insulation and heaps of blankets, we had a fire going in the middle too, so nice and cosy!! My favourite name of one of the tents was the hotel California! The yak butter tea came out again....Yuk butter tea would have been nearer to the truth!!!! We had some food and then huffed and puffed our way along 100 metres out to the toilet, we didn't even go inside as the smell was intolerable and I had to breathe through my mouth to stop myself being sick!!

After struggling to get to the toilet without passing out from lack of oxygen, we decided to get the horse and cart up. The horse was a bit sad, our horse was really skinny, in fact they all were, but so were most of the Tibetans, so I’m not sure whether it was solely poor treatment, so much as poverty. We couldn't have walked it to be honest; it was hard enough doing a short walk!! Tim super boy walked up there, but the rest of the group got a horse and cart up!! When we eventually puffed our way past some even more horrendous toilets than before and up a hill to see the highlight of our trip in all its glory. Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain. I had to stop and admire not only the view, but the fact that we had made it here. It really made me realise what an amazing trip this was and how incredibly lucky we were to be here. Travelling over here is definitely physical and mentally challenging, but to see this wonderful sight in front of me made it all suddenly make sense!!
So we took hundreds of photos, Tommy handed the camera and camcorder to one of the guys to take yet another one. I contested that even by my standards; we had enough, when the bugger got down on one knee and pulled out a little box!!!!! I was in total shock and looked round to find all of the people at the view point looking and smiling at us, I thought he must be winding me up and can honestly say I didn't have a clue! He said that we'd been together for 6 years and that we'd done some amazing things together, that he loved me and then asked me to marry him!!!! I of course said YES, I mean....proposing at Mount Everest, who would say NO???? Thank you Tommy for making it the new; best day of my life (Cheesy but true) I love you!! So we got loads of piccies, no video, but hey the photos are amazing and definately one to show the grandkids!

So on our return to camp, we were all on a high after seeing Everest in all its glory and me being an engaged person, I had a little cry on the way back on the horse n cart!! On our return, Peter, the Irishman had gone, he'd initially felt too unwell to come to the viewpoint, so we presumed he'd had a change of heart. We were all milling around enjoying the view, drinking tea, when I noticed Pete going from tent to tent with a policeman. I went up to see if he was ok, I thought maybe he'd lost something! When I tapped him on the shoulder he looked like he was going to cry!!!! "Its ok, I know this woman, shes with my group!!!!!" The e policemen smiled and left. Pete then proceeded to tell me the story of how he'd decided to go and see Everest, despite feeling terrible from the altitude and lack of sleep. He'd started walking and only taken a litre of water with him, after a while he realised that there was no way he was going to make it to the mountain, so turned back. He was basically starting to suffer really badly with the altitude. He started to get confused and somehow managed to walk through the base camp, looking for our camp (there was only one camp at the base of Everest, then a road to the Hotel and monastery. This showed how confused he was as he should have realised that he'd walked through base camp!) He keeps walking up through the camp and up the road to the monastery. He said he thinks he might have been hallucinating a little and was really scared and dehydrated, eventually some Tibetans found him, took him into their dwellings and gave him tonnes of tea to rehydrate him. Thank goodness they did or things might have been a lot worse! I took him back and gave him rehydration sachets and tea, he got some food in him and ha a sleep. It shows really that it’s not just the physical effects of altitude you have to worry about, but the psychological effects that it can have can be even more dangerous, affecting your judgement, coordination and perception. Poor bugger, he bought some diazepam when we got t the next town to help him actually get a few hours sleep each night!!!! Nick our guide also decided to hand out the altitude super-juice at this point, some kind of herbal remedy to help with effects of altitude, which was very nice and seemed to help a little too.


The contempt for the Chinese from Tibetans also reared its head whilst we were there. Our driver was Chinese and the Tibetan lad down the road wouldn't have a Chinese person staying in her tent, so kicked him out, particularly as he'd been drinking. He decided that he needed somewhere to sleep and wanted to come and sleep in the girl’s tent. Well we had a thing or 2 to say about that, especially as and his mate were pissed and probably where gonna be a bit of a nuisance. Eventually our guide Nick came in and told them in no uncertain terms, that they could sleep in with the boys but not the girls, there was an argument and disagreements, but when Nick threatened not to pay, they agreed to it. One of the lads came to sleep in with the girls to protect our honour!!!! We got up to see sunrise the next day and it was spectacular, Everest set to a blue and pink sky, out of this world. It was a surreal and very interesting 2 days and I have to say was the most memorable, romantic and special times of my life, even if I was smelly, dirty, and cold and could barely breathe.


(Tommy)

We came down the next day and recuperated! After this it was back on the road again! So we were off. We camped rough on our way to Tashlimpo monastery! This is an erm... experience! It is freezing cold you need a season 4 sleeping bag, liner and blankets as well as a thermarest!! When you wake up in the morning the inside of the tent glistens! Basically the inside of the tent is frozen solid! Needless to say when you get up you do it seriously fast! On rough camps we all took turns to cook. I can honestly say the meals were awesome! Claire managed a Thai curry and sticky rice for afters! I did a chicken chilli with spring rolls for starters, and hot Chinese mushrooms Szechuan style for those that like a shroom! The Exodus system of overlanding was much better than our earlier trip. Basically you are treated as more of a grown up! You dont have a tour guide, you have two drivers one of whom is more senior (the leader). They both know everything and are there to help! The driving is all split so they are up for it as they aren't so tired. Also and more importantly you are given money to go shopping with, you buy what you want and cook what you want to eat. Therefore the standard of meals went up from our last trip! Even the roadside lunch stop was better we had hot soup, or a variety of DIFFERENT sandwiches, or cold foods, or heated up leftovers from the previous night’s dinner!

Tibet was in the main extremely poor. It is an occupied country and you can see and feel how that has affected this place. The people are withdrawn and there are more Han Chinese here than Tibetans! It is also fuckin' cold! I'll skip most of it and let Claire do highlights for you! Although I will say we had a ball. Our group were awesome and we made friends for life. Our drivers were top blokes and we are still in touch! Our guide Ting Ting (Tingus) was a legend and often went above and beyond for us! We drank a lot and partied even more. Can’t explain how much fun was had, and how much we miss everyone!

Claire

We drove for 5 days across the Tibetan Plateau, The Roof of the world, this was Tibet for me. Miles of barren landscape, frame with the sheer endlessness of the Himalayan Mountain range. It really does go on forever, the sheer scale of what we looked out over all day every day was quite overwhelming at times. It really was one of those times when you realise how insignificant you really are as an individual human being. It was incredible to be so far into the middle of absolute nowhere, liberating to feel so far away from the majority of the world. But daunting at the same time, if something bad happened here, it would be a long time before anyone could get to you!!! I think that travelling overland in Tibet is by far the best way to see this country. The restrictions on "Alien travel" in Tibet i.e. you HAVE to travel in a group, not alone, plus the extremely poor infrastructure in terms of transport mean that you have to opt for something with other people.
We camped for the 5 days across the Plateau and it was bloody hard I have to say, it was incredibly cold, one night when we camped it hit -25 deg, the tent froze and I was all confused as I stared up into the tent and it sparkled back at me!! I can honestly say this is THE coldest that I have ever been, it’s the kind that you just can’t shake off. It chills your bones. We'd all sit round the fire all night wearing everything that we owned, then trying to all sit on the side that the smoke didn’t bellow out of. But we'd all have a drink, listen to some tunes, play games, have wars with our new toys, BB guns with lasers (they bloody hurt actually), swap tales, it really was sooooooooooooo much fun and spirits where high despite the environmental conditions being harsh! We were really lucky to have such bloody brilliant people on our trip and we will definitely be keeping in touch with a good few of them. Guys you’re always welcome to Tommy n my place (when we get one that is!!) just look me up on facebook if we lose contact details!!
Driving through the nothingness we'd drive through the occasional village, true Tibetan style house, with hundreds of tiny little walkways between the houses, they were like maze villages. The kids would always come out to see us and the truck, the kids where always asking for pens, money, sweets etc, but they normally liked it better if we got off and played with them, took pictures and showed them. They were all really fascinated with the truck, adults and kids alike, something like Frieda; our truck doesn't come through very often!!

One night, we'd arrived at the spot that we were going to camp on for the night at about 7 pm, set up our tents, cooked dinner and where just chilling around the fire, chatting and having a beer. When to our surprise a car began to drive towards us, at around 11 pm, bearing in mind we'd driven for around 10 minutes off the road to get to this point. As they approached, we realised that it was in fact the Police, I’ll be honest, and we all shat ourselves!!!! Thank god we had our guide Ting Ting, it turned out that they were in fact PSB (Police Security Bureau, Chinese internal security). They basically told us that we couldn't camp here as it was "Illegal to do so", our reply was there were no signs indicating that we shouldn't camp, their response "that’s because it is a secret!!" They said that we were a threat to their railway line linking China to Tibet ad we were too close and would have to move immediately. We were about 3 km away from the rail line and explained that even if we drove all night, we were going to have this problem as the road runs parallel to the railway! After about 1.5 - 2 hours negotiating with our guides and tour leaders, they agreed that we could stay the night, but they wanted to see all of our passports and visa number etc. They ordered us to report to the local police station at 7 am. They left someone watching us on a nearby bridge with binoculars. I thought that I was in a film of some description, it was truly bizarre and totally paranoid behaviour, bearing in mind that I am a mental health nurse! They were so paranoid due to the risk from the Tibetan rebels, but I mean come on , we were obviously a bunch of dirty, tired tourists, who could barely walk from truck to tent, let alone single handily take down the Chinese rail network!!!!
So we reported the next day at 7am and then were followed for 2 days and "escorted off the Tibetan Plateau", we stopped to see some birds of prey and take pics, they had a dead animal and were feeding, we were totally fascinated. The police pulled up behind us and after about 10 minutes, they asked us to get back in the truck and leave as they were escorting us to where we could camp, next to the army barracks, so they could "keep an eye on us". We drove as far away as poss, so they could just see us, but we didn’t have to worry about them, the ground was crap to put tents up, full of stones, rock hard soil, it was a truly uncomfortable night under the watchful eye of the Chinese army. We were escorted off the next day and onwards we went to Lhasa, the spiritual and economic capital of Tibet.

Tibetan culture is filled with myth a legend, on being how Buddhism came to Tibet through Princess Chizun, from Nepal. She thought the great lake looked like a reksha or female demon lying on her back. According to her, the lake was the heart of the reksha and the water her blood. The only way, she said, was to build a temple on the lake itself to subdue the heart of the demon and stop the flow of her blood. She suggested having the lake filled up, but only with earth carried on the backs of white goats as this was the only way to subdue the demon. Consequently, flocks of white goats were made busy carrying earth in an endless procession to the lake to fill it up. In the Tibetan language, goat is re and the earth sa. Hence at the beginning the temple built was given the name Re'Sa'Si or Goat Carrying Earth Temple and it was only later that it was renamed Da'Zhao'Si or Temple of Great Brightness.

The main temples are sighted over the main bodily organs of this demon, her heart, bowels, head, and shoulders, with the idea that holy places of power and worship would restrain the demon and its grip on Tibet, consequently Buddhism became the main religion In Tibet.

(Tommy)

Lhasa- I would like to briefly mention Lhasa. We got here and I was looking forward to seeing the Potala palace (the dalai llama's home). This is where the occupation is most evident. The Chinese have built horrible concrete boxes and housed businesses in them. The people here seem subdued and there are far more Chinese than Tibetans! The monks you expect to see are surprisingly small in number and the Chinese army are in the streets. We even saw them shut down restaurants and the old square because the national conference was on and they wanted no sign of dissension. Pilgrims who had travelled hundreds of miles on their knees found themselves under guard by armed Chinese soldiers as they crossed the square! The palace itself is stunning (with lots of steps). BUT it has been turned from a centre of government and religion into a cheap tourist attraction guarded by armed Chinese soldiers, and no visible monks! The whole place feels sad and empty, don’t get me wrong it was beautiful, but that’s how it felt, as you walk under the CCTV cameras and the watchful eyes of soldiers! Imagine a combination of St Paul’s cathedral and the houses of parliament; that’s what the Potala was; now it’s a tourist attraction.


(Claire)
I found an article on prostrating and interview with a Tibetan monk, online....

In Tibet, a pilgrimage to a sacred site, or a circumambulation around one, is undertaken by Buddhists because they believe that such acts have great merit and generate good karma, not only for the pilgrim, but for all sentient beings. The journey may take fifteen minutes, if it is a circumambulation around a local shrine such as a stupa. Or it may take years, if it is an overland journey to Lhasa's Jokhang Temple, the most sacred shrine in Tibet. The difficulty of the journey--and thus the amount of merit generated by it--varies according to the means of transportation: air, bus, bicycle, horseback, or foot. The most difficult--and most meritorious--way to travel is by means of prostrations. In each prostration, the traveller stretches at full length upon the road, touching the furthest place they can reach with their fingertips, chanting a mantra as they do so. Then they stand up and walk to that place, and begin another prostration. The result is that the traveller’s body touches every millimetre of the sacred road along the sacred journey.

His home is in Bamei, Dawu County, which is one of Kham's easternmost regions, and thus about as far from Lhasa as any Tibetan place can be. But he didn't start there; he travelled a little ways down the road to Tagong (Lhagang), where the monastery has a Jowo image like that in Lhasa, said to have been left there by princess Wencheng on her journey to the Tibetan capital to marry King Songtsen Gampo in the 7th century. By starting his pilgrimage here, Tenzin Dendrup could travel from one Jowo to the other. He began one year ago.

Tenzin is 28 years old, a monk of Rasha Monastery, which belongs to the Nyingma sect and is the root monastery of Dzogchen, in Derge. Tenzin's family consists of a father and married sister; his mother died when he was one year old. Because they are illiterate, he does not write letters to them; nor do they send any kind of support.

He calculates that he performs 500 prostrations for each kilometre. The total journey is 2000 km, for a total of one million prostrations. Not only that, but even during his month of "rest" in Litang, he is still performing 2500-3000 stationary prostrations every day. Sometimes illness or hunger or exhaustion compels him to pause for a few days at places along his route, or he stops to pay respects to a sacred temple, lake, or mountain.

Tenzin travels alone, depending on people he meets to give him food or cash for his daily needs. At each meal he eats three bowls of tsampa, and when people are generous then he can eat three times a day. Sometimes, however, he must make do with only one or two meals a day. He sleeps "anywhere," sometimes in a cave, often in the open, and carries only a blanket to stay warm.

Why did he undertake this journey? He says, "I'm 28 years old and before this journey I felt I never did anything worthwhile with my life. I feel regret for past actions, such as (accidentally) killing insects, and that I couldn't help my mother when she died. During this pilgrimage, these feelings of guilt and regret are gradually lessening. I feel cleaner now, and have greater peace of mind than at any time before in my life."

"Sometimes I have weak moments, such as when I'm hungry and I (break down and) beg people for food. But compared to before, I have a much cleaner spirit, and I'm much happier."

Tenzin expects to be on the road for about a year more. When he reaches Lhasa, he will go directly to the Jokhang Temple to pay his respects to the great Jowo shrine.

"While I'm prostrating, I feel very grateful that I'm alive to make this pilgrimage. As long as I don't die from robbery or sickness or some other cause during this journey, I'm truly a fortunate person.


I share Tommy’s thoughts on the Patala palace, you felt in awe of being there but it was more like a museum, where as it should still have the Dali lama in residence and shouldn't be open to the public for viewing, it should be a special, sacred and private piece of Tibetan heritage, instead it’s a money making ploy to herd tourist through like cattle, you only get one hour and then you have to be out, so you're literally whizzed round with a guide who tells different stories than those written in the palace, so who's lying the Chinese government, the guides, or both of them??.

I did lots of shopping here ,Ian and I went on a spending spree, on the way as we were walking, I fell down a man hole.......I was in utter shock , the lid had flipped half way and one of my legs disappeared down the hole, it was pretty sore. After Ian saw that I we sock, he proceeded to laugh his head of saying "I can’t believe you fell down a man hole!!!!" Frankly neither could I!!! We went shopping on the Cora, the holy circle around the city, that once on, you must only walk one way round, clockwise, if you miss your turner, you either have to go round again, or come off at another junction and get there an alternate way. Pilgrims prostrate the whole way around here. We had Ian's birthday here where we dressed him up like a strange looking lady and took him out, he had lipstick on and a wig of sorts look at the pics, for a bloody good fun night out at a Tibetan nightclub!!! We were very popular in their being the only non Tibetan/Chinese there. The clubs were cool, you go into a little supermarket attached to the club and buy your bottles of gin, beer whatever, then go to your table get ice and drink, drink, drink and boy do the Chinese like to drink.

(Tommy)

These blogs are getting huge and I am gonna keep it short and let Claire fill in the blanks! I didn’t like China. It felt quite hostile at times. I found some of the people to be very rude and racist! These people hated anyone who wasn’t Chinese. Often taxi's pass you when they see you’re white (or black, or generally not Chinese) they ignore you and drive off! Xi'an was better than Beijing and I’m glad I’m not going to the Olympics! I'll wait for 2012. Xi'an had the Terracotta warriors and they are cool to see, rank upon rank of them. I found it a bit boring after half an hour but I never claimed to be a culture vulture. Claire and the group loved it though! Beijing, well it has Tiananmen square and huge pics of the maniac known as Mao! Great to see, but it’s just a big city! It also has access to the great wall of china. This was my personal fave in China. It is immense, and a testament to human endeavour! We walked about 6km of it. Sounds easy? Well it’s not. It is up and down and in parts the wall has crumbled making the way precarious! But it is well worth it. I walked it with Chris, Dave and Ian and we had a laugh. Doing the slide at the end as well! Also the restaurant does whopping great big chicken fried rice at the end which cost about 60p and was the mutt’s nuts! This is a must see and is better than the warriors. DONT miss this if you go to China! Once back in Beijing we partied (and ate fish and chips at the English restaurant!) and sadly said goodbye to the group 😞

Also as a couple we had both decided not to go back to Nepal. It was too damn cold and we had, had enough of cold in Tibet! So (unsurprisingly) we changed our tickets and flew back to Bangkok, our plan was to go back to Koh Tao but that’s a story for the next blog, so see you all in Thailand.........AGAIN!

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Photos

Thamel, Katmandu by night
Thamel is a bustly tourist area in Katmandu, bright and colourful, shops selling crafts, trekking gear, restaurants and guest houses. Along with men trying to see you "Psst psst hashish??????"

Nepal
a small village we drove through

Tommy a la Rasta bar
This was the Rasta Bar in Thamel, Tommy found his Perfect Rasta hat, we had only found ones with glitter in in up until then, until i made this little discovery in one of the shops by ... The Rasta bar, we went up for a beer and there were a few dodgy cigarettes being smoked!!!!!! Bob Marley spirit was thriving in Nepal !!!!!!!

Local bus filled inside and out
The locals were jammed into this bus and singing at the top of their voices as we passed them

Drving through the mountains
and we literally did drive THROUGH them at times!!!!

Freida, our loyal and reliable truck......NOT a bus
there were more than a few moments when we thought that we were going over the edge of the mountains, but Freida stuck through and did us proud

Ropey room
this was our room in Zhangmu, to sleep in for a few hours before we set off at ridiculous o clock in the morning in the 4x4 jeeps to drine us to Nyalam as Freida had to wait for customs until the next day, so we took enough for a couple of days and left the truck behind for a day

The insdie of the 4x4 jeep, Class!
The insdie of the 4x4 jeep, reminds me of a bad 70's living room!!!! This was what we got driven in on the scary night drive and all the way to the Tingris!!

Tibet this was Nyalam
the first Tibetan town that we visited, we stopped here to acclimatize before steadily heading upwards

The first snow capped mountain's
On our drive to Tingri

stone prayer markers
These piles of stones originally were used to mark the way for travellers. However over time they evolved into marks of prayer in religious/spiritual places

The gang at Dinner
Lhasa