Travelling along the Friendship Highway back to Lhasa

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I must confess that after ticking off the various boxes of palaces, monasteries, mountains, yaks etc, I had thought the drive back to Lhasa might have been a bit of an anticlimax, but how wrong I was. This almost 1,000km stretch of road that links Lhasa with Kathmandu has its own rugged beauty, and there were often many different types of farming activities occurring not far from the road. The highway actually splits into two sections between Lhasa and Shigatse, with the southern section (which we did on the way to EBC) going via the Yamdrok Yumtso Lake and Gyantse (refer that blog), while the northern section (which we did on the way back) is a bit shorter, bypassing Gyantse, and basically following the incredibly turquoise Yarlung Tsangpo River for the whole duration. It was especially noticeable that as we got closer and closer to Lhasa, a variety of vegetation started to appear again and the farming environment looked a lot more favourable. We also took the opportunity to stop at a couple of places where the local community were all chipping in to assist in the building of a new house.

Due to a change in the seating positions in our minibus, I was fortunate to get the opportunity to ride shotgun for the complete trip back to Lhasa, and this gave me a much better appreciation of the traffic flow (and constraints) of driving on Tibetan roads. Now I don't profess to fully understand the rules with regards speed restrictions, but as mentioned in an earlier blog, our passage along the highway was ridiculously slow, given that the state of the roads was actually pretty good. It would appear that all tourist transport is heavily constrained on speed, with regular control points monitoring time taken to get from A to B, an amazing number of apparent radar cameras all the way (I sometimes wondered if many of these boxes were empty!) and frequent 40kph restriction signs on sections of road that would resemble a freeway in our country (refer pic below). To add to this were our frequent photo stops and quite a few involuntary holdups as stock meandered across the road, so it was not really an inconvenience for us to operate within these time constraints. But what amazed me was that as we were travelling along strictly at 40kph, we were being overtaken by many SUVs and sedans doing closer to 140kph! Now whether these have a different set of road rules, or whether they stop just short of each check point and then read a book for an hour, I do not know!

There are three categories of photo that I get a huge amount of enjoyment trying to capture in my various visits to developing countries, and these are photos of old people, young kids and different forms of local transport. So indulge me here folks, as I have attached at the end of the pics section below some of my favourite shots from each of these categories. If you don't share my interest, feel free to switch off before the end of the additional photos section!

So what were my overall impressions of my 12 day visit to Tibet. In one word, I'd say 'spectacular'. From the impressive Potala Palace in Lhasa to the range of monasteries, in most cases swarming with Buddhist pilgrims offering their prayers, contributing cash or postulating as they do their clockwise circumambulations of the koras; from the farming communities to the rugged beauty of the Himalayas; and of course the highlight of spending time around the Everest region, all contributed to a tour that was quite unique, and it is hard not to feel some empathy for the Tibetan people who seem to be having an ongoing challenge to maintain their self-identity.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the great group of people who joined me on this organised tour and the extremely professional organisation that ran the tour. Their travel planning and attention to detail was exemplary, such that there was not a single hitch in the whole tour. As well, the tour leaders, all being Tibetan residents, had an in depth knowledge of the people, their customs and culture, their history, religion etc and a great way of recounting it all. Furthermore, they were fun people, who contributed in their own way to the whole group mixing and working well together. Should any reader be interested in finding out more about this tour group, feel free to respond to this blog and I can send more details.

So that's it for Tibet. While I have a number of personal trips planned over the next 12 months, my next 'adventure' will likely be in just under a year's time to Soviet Central Asia, comprising the five 'Stan' countries. Stay posted!

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Enjoyed your blog
We planned to go to Tibet a couple of years ago but were unable to get a visa at the time. Really enjoyed following along with you. Hopefully we will get there.

[Nomad Old Farts]

Good to touch base!
I'm really pleased you have made contact guys, because similar to you both (I think!), as well as enjoying travelling, I enjoy reading about other people's travels, both to places where I have been (which are many) and to places I haven't yet been (which are few). And you have certainly provided me with plenty of material for exactly that, so I thank you for it. We are regular visitors to Maryland, where our son now lives, and while Florida is not on the immediate radar, one never knows. If we make it down, I'll get in touch. Cheers, Neil