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Published: August 4th 2009
Have you ever heard about *d'roof of d'world*,,, where d'sky is so close that felt like you could touch it... if you felt that way, surely you're in tibet. The sun is so close to you that you can feel it on your skin, and stamped obviously on your cheek like a 'blueberry blush on' painted by your professional 'make up artist'. d'parade of innocent smiles that naturally grow on this land of deserts as flowers to soothe your exhausting soul. many people came to tibet just to feel this magic of meeting tibetan souls personally... d'smiles that can heal your thousand wounds,,, d'oasis in d'deserts on your journey in life.
it was an honour for me to be here... it was an honour for me to be able to walk hand by hand in d'freezing morning with tibetan girls holding my hand trying to keep me warm in d'glory day when d'sacred thanka was put on d'giant wall. it was an honour for me to be able to tease d'monks by playing their horn without being able to make d'sound to wake up d'tibetans 4 sunrise praying...
they teach me some tibetan words as i can still remember
everybody laughed at me when i pronounced it wrong... so there i goes;
ra for head,
amjo for ears,
chupa for mouth,
nogu for nose,
and so on and so on,,, in d'cold morning inspected by chinese militers that got easily suspicious for any activities involved foreigners'n'locals.
we shared a laugh,,, our souls meet each other beyond boundaries and limitation as heaven knows d'reasons why I was there... 4 d'pure love that will never fade under any circumstances,,, 4 d'tibetan that already teach me deeper and deeper about d'biggest LOVE given to us in no condition, that is LIFE...
Okay, so now let's start with my Tibet trip details as I took 7 days overland trip from Kathmandu and flew out back from Lhasa. I booked my trip from Tashidele Travel agency in Thamel Kathmandu that specialises in Tibetan tour, they arranged everything for me so nicely... and the staffs are very helpful. They are basically the wholesaler of tibetan tour, so basically other travel agent that sell tibetan tour will at the end handover you to this agency.
For your information, there's no way for you to be able to travel in Tibet independently. The
visa can only be issued for limited days, maximum 15 days and you have to go with the group. The chinese government want to make sure you go out of the country as soon as you finish your travel itenerary giving you no chances to stay longer in Tibet on your own.
Day 1. Kathmandu - Zhangmu (2300m), approximately 123 Km drive.
My first day started quite early, at around 6am we had to gather on d'street where d'bus waiting for us to drive us to d'border. We stopped after about 2 hour drive to have breakfast, and you can exchange your money with d'staff here if you need it. Driving passing nepal hilly countryside was better than seeing the dusty Kathmandu... it's quite a nice change for me after getting bored with d'touristry area like Kathmandu. After a few hours drive, we arrived in d'border where the bus stop and we had to go to the immigration office before walking thru the famous "friendship bridge" that seperate Nepal and Tibet.
After checking d'visa and our passport, our permit is stamped and we walked thru the gate and the bridge guarded by dozens of chinese armys
where we had to queue while the army checked our paper one by one until we are allowed to pass the bridge.
After the bridge, we can see already another world... a big chinese immigration building where again we had to queue while our paper is checked one by one and we had to pass detector line that can indicate whether you had fever . Unfortunately, almost all of people travel with me has to go inside the clinic for further health test living only me and my Quebec's friend Marz that is allowed to walk without any test. Me, they didn't check me at all, the army even smile to me and said "you are very pretty". While they checked even the bags of other people in my group. I ended up waiting outside for hours as they really checked every single things that made me worried whether our group will be stuck there 4ever. It happened that one of the people in our group can't pass the border due to some problem with his Tibetan Visa, poor Singaporean guy... So after a long wait, we are handed over to Chinese guide by our
Nepali guide to continue the trip to Zhangmu.
I chose to go with a jeep than a bus, since I like jeep better. So we had a small group of 4 people in the jeep, and the rest go with the bus. The road was so bad on the way to Zhangmu, they're still doing lots of work construction, cutting the mountain here and there to make a better road to connect this part of Tibet close to Nepali border. After about 1 hour drive, we had to stop again for checking point by army. It's a never ending check point by the chinese army that made me really feel as if i were a criminal coming to Tibet rather than civilian tourist. The guide was not really helpful, as he barely explained anything and i missed my lunch time on d'first day because as we stopped he didn't even mention that we could have lunch on our own as we stop. I was thinking that we stopped only for the check point again.
Anyway, after this misunderstanding about lunch or not, we finally drove again for another 15 minutes, until a place where again we had to
stop. This time we stop because they said that the chinese army close the road. Oh my Gosh... and I asked for how long,,, they said they don't know. My first day was not so impressive that I was worried the rest of my travel in Tibet would be as bad as this first day or even worse. Trying to cheer up myself, I started making a joke about everything...
After waiting for hours in my frustation, the road was finally opened again. I was so tired of waiting, that when they opened the road again I almost clap my hands out of happiness. At least we move, at least we hit the road again not stuck in the middle of no where. I lost my watch while walking outside, so from now on... I have to survive without knowing the times. It's fine with me... it's even better so I don't have to think about how long i'm gonna be sitting in the jeep until I arrive in the next destination.
Well, we finally arrived in Zhangmu in the middle of the night. It happened that we had to sleep in the dorm, 1 room for 4
people since there's no such a good hotel available in this region. According to this Tibetan standard, it's already the lowest hotel but anyway, I've been to the worst one so this one still look better on my eyes. so I didn't complain at all, instead I thought this was the cleanest bedsheet and d'most comfortable bed I've ever slept on after Everest trek... :-)
Having no appetite eating in d'middle of d'night... again the guide made a surprise by saying that we had to wake up at 4 am tomorrow to continue driving. and it's already midnight now, he only gave us a chance to sleep for a few hours after an extremely long day today. I started thinking that this guide is so mean... How could we enjoy the trip if we didn't have enough sleep? Holly cow!!! I didn't give it a shit anymore as i could always sleep in the jeep... I kept thinking positively, things couldn't get worse... it must be better tomorrow... it must be better as I can smell it already... Tibet won't let me down... I'm coming here for some reasons, and that must be a very good ones!!!
Day 2. Zhangmu - Xegar (4350m), approximately 244 Km drive.
I woke up at 4, brushed my teeth and washed my face then had a quick breakfast. Last night half sleeping I heard some people walking and singing outside, I was thinking whether it's real or just my imagination . My first night in Tibet was about sleeping for a few hours only with my hallucination of hearing people outside singing :-). That's quite a good sign... hahaha...
We hit the road so early in d'morning, that was so freezing outside. I fell asleep as soon as the jeep start moving. My driver was a Tibetan that doesn't speak English at all, and I sit in the front seat with him. All the time he tried to smile to me, and speak in chinese or tibetan to me if he wanted to say or explain something. Of course I didn't understand anything, but it didn't stop him from talking... funny guy! Along the way, he played some chinese and tibetan music in the jeep.
When sunrise came, I woke up because of the sun light right
on my face. When I opened my eyes, I felt as if I was not on the earth since suddenly the scene is wide opened and any where you put your eyes on... it's all the stunning Tibetan plateau. Things that I've seen on the pictures and movie only... but now I'm in it! Suddenly my spirit got boosted up what a beautiful way to start my day by seeing Tibetan plateau all day long! I couldn't help myself taking pictures from the jeep all the time. I felt obligated to take any beautiful shape of the desert combined with some cute rocks or hills... and the sunrise came so perfectly in tune with the color of the desert and the purple violet sky... and the sun made a nice shade over the hills... what a giant painting! and i was in that painting. wow!!! how proud!
Along the desert sometime I saw small tibetan's village, I wonder where they get their water from? As I could only see sometime only a very small river so far away from the village. As the sun goes higher, I started feeling the heat. The weather was so extreme here in Tibet,
it was so cold without the sun early in the morning and evening and as the sun comes out... it's getting so hot on your skin. I asked the jeep to stop for a while when I saw the first ice mountain from a distance. It was really breathtaking seeing ice mountain as a background surrounding the desert.
We stopped for lunch in a small village, in a tibetan restaurant owned by local. The food was not so appealing, so I only had vegetable fried rice. It was so difficult for me to finish it because they cooked the fried rice with too much oil. Also, they barely put any salt nor onion/garlic in it. It was totally plain and didn't taste any close to fried rice that I know. I tried to think positively, may be this place was so isolated so they can't get any food supply except for basic things. Besides, may be they could barely grow anything as the land is all deserted. Started from here, I already lost my appetite and I suspected that there's no such a good food available in Tibet. I just had to deal with it.
My second day
in Tibet, already I missed Dhal Bat that I can get easily in Nepal but not here :-( . I walked a bit around this village, but there was barely anything to see here except the tibetan itself with their colorful dress walking around the village carrying their handy prayerwheel and mala on their hand. And they are quite shy so it's quite difficult for me to get their pictures. Everytime I asked them for a picture, they just refused. I always asked for permission before taking any pictures of local people, because i didn't think it's proper to do it without asking them first.
Finished with lunch we continue driving for a few more hours until we reach Xigatse. The weather was so dry and hot that I felt so dizzy due to the extreme heat when we just arrived. I had to stay for a while in my bed room . Later in the afternoon, I took a walk for a while seeing the city with locals on the street sitting everywhere while drinking butter tea. Started from
Xigatse, I could see how Tibetan love walking everywhere and sitting in the group on the road whereever they want and share a laugh together or just chatting. Some wandered around, wearing a hat . All the kids looked so curious seeing us the tourists coming that they tried to smile and following you all the way. Quite a funny gesture of welcoming you!
The locals came from a far away village sometime on foot, and other means of transportation is a small tractor car that they modify so they have space for people to stand on it at the back. There's no public transportation other than that. And just in front of my hotel, I could see Chinese panser and their armies standing there. We stayed at a chinese hotel, and they have chinese restaurant that I thought gonna be good. But again, it was not good I ended up not eating food I already ordered. Besides, I couldn't eat that much since the toilet was not that clean and so far from my bedroom I was worried that I had to go to the toilet, so I didn't drink too much and not
feel like eating at all. That was fine with me... at least I had my own room for tonight I was quite happy already!
Day 3. Xegar - Xigatse (3900m), approximately 244 Km drive.
So, the next morning... we continued driving, next destination would be Xigatse. I woke up a bit late because I didn't have watch and no one woke me up. Guess what, i'm forgotten! They almost left me :-). Luckily I came just in time and beg the guide to give me time for a quick breakfast. ho ho, he said ok, and since then we were on a good term.
Another long drive to Xigatse, but the view is stunning so I enjoyed it all the way. We stopped at one pass and took some pictures there. And without knowing the time, we reached xigatse before lunch time. We checked in first in the hotel, I was quite impressed that this time the hotel is really good. The room is equipped with hot shower and tv, and just like a hotel in civilisation. The first time in Tibet
we got really a good hotel. I shared the room with Marz (my Quebec friend).
Xigatse is the second big city in Tibet after Lhasa. The city looks more like other city in China rather than Tibetan, with all the comfort ala Chinese. The road is big, the car is modern ones. The building is new.
We had lunch at a really good restaurant this time, and it surprised me that they have dalbhat in the menu so I ordered it because I missed my daily dalbhat already. And the food was so good.
After lunch we went to Tashilumpo Monastery that is not so far from the restaurant. As we walk along the street, we could see many Tibetan already doing pilgrimage. This Monastery is one of the oldest in Tibet, and it's quite big. The architecture is really impressing so I enjoyed it so much walking around checking one building to another as it's quite big. It's undergone renovation as it's too old already. According to our guide, the chinese government donate money for the renovation (i'm not sure whether this is true or not). This monastery is used to be a place where the
previous Panchen Lama (the highest lama) resided. He also explained that the spiritual leader now or the Panchen Lama is now in Beijing and the chinese government provide an office for him there. .
Me and my friends got a feeling that not all what the guide said is true, because the guide in Tibet was controlled by Chinese government. Anyway, it's not my intention to discuss about Politic as I'm not really into it (but it's still bothering me to find about the truth in Tibet).
I liked it so much going to the monastery and walked on my own to find each hidden hall and building. And the way the guide explained things didn't really help since he barely speak English that I could understand. Anyway, I was fine exploring the monastery on my own. It's
too difficult to understand what the guide said anyway due to his limited English.
One time he told us to go by ourselves exploring the monastery, and later on to me and my friend he said, "Where have you been? I asked all of you to wait for me so I can explain about the monastery" --- in fact we're pretty sure that he told everybody to go freely for about 3 hours and come back at 5pm. There were lots of misunderstanding with this guide, so we all made a joke about him all the time.
After finish exploring the monastery, we drove back to the hotel. I was happy as tonight I didn't have to go for dinner with the group so I and Marz decided to go to the local market and bought some vegetables to make salad and lots of fruit. That was really good, vegetable salad for dinner prepared by Marz that consists of paprica, tomatoes, cucumber and carrot freshly made after missing vegetables for a few days. We also bought some peaches, apricot, apple and banana. We're really satisfied today... good view... good lunch... super monastery... and wonderful dinner for two!
It was full moon outside, as we finally fell asleep after a long chatting about life... bout love... bout human being... bout universe... til we had to push ourselves not to talk because it's already very late!
Day 4. Xigatse - Gyantse (3900m), approximately 90 Km drive.
What a good hotel in Xigatse, and a nice buffet we had before heading to Gyantse. A really healthy breakfast this time with juices, fruits, proper bread even dim sum... yummy! It was not really a long drive to Gyantse, right before lunch we reached our next destination ready to explore the next monastery.
We supposed to wake up early morning the next day before 4 am, because they had a big festive once in a year in the monastery. It's the day where the monks put the giant old sacred thanka on d'big wall. It was freezing in d'morning when we left the hotel heading to monastery. By the time we arrived in the monastery there was only us, a few monks and about 6-8 chinese soldiers that would watch over the ceremony til done. Then came a few volunteers who would carry the giant thanka up to
the hill at the big wall. Finally after waiting for about 30min, they started the ceremony by blowing the horn and tibetan instrument walking uphill as I followed them solemnly. It took us about 30min to walk uphill following the volunteers and monks carrying the giant thanka. And it took them another 30min to hang the thanka on the giant wall, exciting moment the first time I saw the sacred thanka already hanged. So beautiful... so magical... Smelling the smoke of tibetan incent while seeing sunrise from the hill... teasing the monks and innocent villagers in the freezing morning when they're all trying to keep me warm by holding my hand. I feel really home here! "Lord, I belong here". I didn't want to leave them, "I want to share my morning each day with this innocent people who love me without even knowing who I am". A lesson of love I've learned from Tibetan that I would never forget. Sadly, I had to leave and couldn't join them to witness their morning puja. Our next stop would be Gyantse.
Day 5. Gyantse - Lhasa (3650m), approximately 259 Km drive.
Leaving Gyantse, I had a wide big smile
on my face. I still remembered the local girls holding my hands so friendly walking down d'hills. They're so sincere, offering me to join them to do d'morning puja after Thanka. One of the girl even gave me a ring and put it on my finger .
It was not really a long drive to Lhasa. Shortly before lunch we arrived safely in Tibetan compound in Lhasa. I checked in the hotel, then decided to cruise the city on foot that used to be a resident of Dalai Lama. It was hot and dry here, my skin already got severe sunburned and my lips was continuesly bleeding. Lhasa is almost like any other cities in China, if I didn't stay in Tibetan compound I wouldn't know that this is Tibet. Only a few famous old monasteries and Potala Palace stayed the same, but just with extra chinese army and lesser monks.
Even the Tibetan here, some of them already dressed up like any other modern chinese folks. Althought their soul remain the same as Tibetan, modernisation is obviously taking place. I had worried, that sooner or
later, it's hard to see the Tibetan as they used to be.
Cruising the city, trying to feed myself. I adventurously ended up in a small chinese restaurants with lots of variety dishes to die for! That was a very satisfying meals for my grumpy stomach. During lunch time with Marz, we happened to meet a special tibetan girl. She came for lunch at the same restaurant. The first time she saw me, her smile is wide open and her eyes were sparkling brightly. And she tried to talk to me with her limited English. I found out that she's a student in and english college run by Tibetan, and she really wants to practice her English. So we chatted with her, the way she spoke was so hillarious. And she invited us to visit her college, saying that all of her friends would be very happy to see us in the college. Me and Marz looked each other giggly, yes indeed we'd love to visit a tibetan school and be with the real tibetan!
We walked to the school together, this girl was so happy! She told us that the tibetan has a very limited choice on
career. Their choices of bright future are only to become a guide , having their own business/shop or work for a shop or work in a hotel, become an english lecture in tibetan school and a farmer. That doesn't sound temptating at all, but that's their only choice to make a living here. It's hard for them to go to university, because obviously not all of them speak chinese. .
Meeting Tibetan in their old classroom where they learned English. What an experience! One of the girl spoke English very good, so I asked where she learned that from. She explained happily that she was so lucky! She got former education in Dharamsala for 4 years, taught by His holiness Dalai Lama himself! But in order to be able to go to Dharamsala, she had to risk her life by crossing the Himalayan for a few months, not to be caught by Chinese army in the border. She said that if she got caught, the chinese army will shoot her without warning! She also mentioned, that she's ready to be
killed just because she really wanted to see His holiness. She wouldn't regret it to risk her life, because that was the best thing that she has done in her life. Getting the knowledge from His Holiness himself.
I was almost crying while listening to her heroic effort as she was still so young! Coming back to Lhasa from Dharamsala was almost as difficult as going out. There are a few unfair rules set up by the chinese government that I've heard in this classroom. One of it is, they want to make Tibet full of Chinese with the population ratio of 1 : 5. It should be at least 5 Chinese for 1 Tibetan. So they keep giving incentives for chinese people to migrate to Tibet. Not only that, Tibetan is only allowed to have 1 kid while chinese could have as many as they want . Furthermore, they claimed that Tibetan as part of China so they're basically Chinese citizen. But none of Tibetan is allowed to travel outside Tibet even to China, so basically they can't travel anywhere outside Tibet while the chinese is allowed to travel freely to Tibet.
Because I
and Marz had limited time to spend with these students, we finally had to say a few words in front of the class. I spoke in tears, saying that *my heart is here with all of you, and I could feel your pain too. may all of us is blessed with so much peace and love so that together we can make a better world*
Right after our short encounter with this fabulous souls, we went to Pharkot monastery nearby the hotel, and had some fun in the afternoon. There was a hole in Pharkot monastery where if you listen carefully, they said you can hear the sound of a river because this monastery is built on top of the river. After trying hard to listen, everyone gave up since we heard nothing means that we're not that lucky! They believed that only the lucky person can hear it .
That was the end of my day in Pharkot, walking around the monastery only to find that I got lost here after several circles attempts like what the tibetan do to pray <several circles outside the monastery, several circles inside monastery, and praying
in front of monastery, don't know which one should go first in order>. Exhausted of the extreme sun, I skipped dinner by buying home made potatoe chips and lots of fruits deciding to rest for more adventure tomorrow.
Day 6-7. Lhasa
A big Day today! We went to Potala Palace, the home of Dalai Lama before 1959. Wow! When they said that it's located on the roof of the world, I totally agree. It looks like this Palace was built to enable you to touch the sky from it's roof! The sky was so clear and blue, although my heart was not that blue! They only allowed us to go inside for 1 hour, under extra guards at each points by chinese militers. It was so obvious that the chinese don't like us to learn anything about what has happened here in 1959. The holyness Dalai Lama is their biggest enemy for his pure Love is so frightening for these chinese. I don't think they understand about love anyway!
There were so many valuable historical stuff in this palace, that 1 hour was not enough to be able to feel the importance of lots of sacred
stupa and worship here. I sometime tried to run away a bit from the group, trying to feel and get connected to each sides of these magical place. But each time, I was pushed away by the mean militer . Well, here I sincerely prayed for Dalai Lama and his followers for justice to prevail itself when the time is right. How could people is thrown out of their own place and root, without having a chance to ever step their feet again on their own land! That was really cruel! And somehow, the so called 'Big Countries' and the united nations just closed their eyes althought the very basic ingredients of human right has been violated for decades. They should be embarassed of themselves for only thinking of their own particular interests in the name of justice! I was crying here, for seeing the reality of the now world order. I don't hate them, but I pity them!
Still shaken after my little sessions with the spirits that reside here, I left Potala sadly with my new understanding of the old mother earth. This place has taught me a lot about love, life, survival, and endless effort
to keep the earth in balance and harmony without having to claim any rewards from others. Sometime love is still! You don't have to speak love!!!
Lunch was followed by my next visit to Shera Monastery, quite far from the city. The only interesting activities I found here, is when I could see the scholar monks were practicing sutra debating. That was awesome, they played alot with their hands, clapping and lots of movings made like a kungfu master. I could sit there for hours just to see how this noises they made was somehow so peaceful to listen!
My last afternoon in Tibet, I walked back alone to Pharkot monastery to pay my tribute for the Tibetan. I made outside circles movement around the monastery, and ended up sitting in the twilight sparkling mode with Tibetan in front of Pharkot just before dusk. Praying together with them, although I truly didn't understand how to do it. They gave me a praying mat and showed me how to do it patiently, I finally succesfully did it with lots of laughs and big smiles from the tibetan around me. I love the facts on how they share their innocent
smiles as if they live burden free, while in fact they're far from that! That's another lesson of the biggest acceptance in life that enable you to have the glowing peace and love!
I didn't want to leave Lhasa and my new tibetan friends. I wanted to stay with them, to live their love and purity!
Day 8. Transfer to Gonggar airport for your onward flight to Katmandu.
Morning transfer to airport, I was so numb. I wish I could get back here soon when I can freely move around Tibet without being guarded by Chinese Militer. There are so much things to learn here. I fell in love with Tibetan, and I felt sad having to go! My life will never be the same again, for I've learned so much from them. It's more important to conquer yourself than to conquer others. Have peace with yourself so that you can have peace with others! Hatred doesn't help but love does!!!
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happymoments
Farhan Ahmad
coolll
good pictures, i like all, u look like a brave lady.