Leaving Kathmandu for Lhasa, Tibet

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Today, I left Nepal and set off for Tibet. As a group, we were collected from the hotel around 9am to go to the embassy and collect our passports and permit to enter Tibet. Our flight was due to leave at 11:30am so it was a little bit tight in terms of time.

Our guide left us waiting in the mini bus while he went inside to collect them, he returned to us around 10:15am and we still had a way to go to get to the airport and if the exit from Nepal was anything like the entrance it was about to be a complete nightmare!

We entered the airport and went to the check in desk and were told that any batteries or aerosols in our check in luggage had to be removed and placed in hand luggage, which is contrary to every other flight I’ve been on. I did as advised and removed my deodorant and checked my bag in.
Next to complete a form for exiting Nepal and going through immigration which was really straight forward then on to security checks. My hand luggage went through the X-ray and I was pulled aside because I had an aerosol in my bag and it was promptly confiscated - not annoying at all! We got through to the departure gate which is tiny and our plane had been delayed so we still had time to wait.

We boarded the plane did a little swapping of seats as our group had been split up throughout the plane and some wanted window seats (not me!) and we eventually took off from Kathmandu for the relatively short flight to Lhasa.

We were served with a random box which contained a bread roll, 2 mini muffins, yak yoghurt, sweet coated peanuts and something which before I opened I thought was some sort of twix, but the reality of this was very different! It was like a small green block with white powder on it which smelled horrific and tasted exactly as it smelt. I can only surmise it was made of burnt sawdust sweepings and made into a paste and set in to blocks.

After I’d eaten the nice bits, I had a little sneaky peak out of the window and took a picture of the snow covered mountains, just so I had one.

We were only about 30 minutes from landing and the pilot advised we would be coming into some turbulence which obviously, I was thrilled about! Things started to get a little bumpy and I started to panic quite a bit. I kept waiting for it to get worse because we’d been advised a couple of times it was going to get quite bumpy - turns out it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I thought, but, then the pilot advised we had to circle for a while because of severe weather in Lhasa, again, I was thrilled! Anyway, all that aside, we landed safely and went through the airport arrivals process quite smoothly and exited to meet our Tibetan tour guide.

We loaded our bags on to the bus and our guide, Kandol, greeted us one by one and welcomed us to Tibet giving each of us a scarf which we will leave later on in our trip on the mountain road to pray for good fortune for ourselves and our families.

We set off in the direction of what will be our hotel for the next 4 nights - The Yak hotel in the old part of Lhasa, we saw some incredible views on the way in, we also saw the new area of town where there has been additional accommodation built to assist with extra tourists coming into the country by train from China - this is relatively new and the new train station is huge and also immaculate.

My initial impression of Lhasa is that it isn’t the Tibet I had imagined. It’s quite built up, looks quite modern with brightly lit buildings etc. You can really see a big Chinese influence, even in the old part of town. I’m sure I’ll see my idea of what I thought Tibet would be when we head out of Lhasa and further into the mountains.

We made it to the hotel, and were allocated our rooms, my room is on the first floor, I took my bag and carried it up the stairs... I completely forgot about being at high altitude and wandered up at normal pace and the short staircase of 12 steps at most absolutely knackered me out! It’s really funny how you suddenly realise you need to slow down and take things steady. I’m glad we have a few days here to get used to the altitude a bit before we progress any higher. The rooms in the hotel are really nice and the ceiling is multicoloured; kind of like a unicorn threw up on it, but, I like it! I particularly like the information sheet in the room, I love the translations :-)

We dined together, along with our guide, in the restaurant attached to the hotel. The food was lovely. Our guide also went through our plans for tomorrow and a few do’s and don’t’s - so, a quick run down...
It is not uncommon for someone to pull their tongue out at you in the street - this is not rude, it’s a mark of respect. Should this happen to you either return the favour or give a smile so as not to offend.
Pushing is also not rude! In fact when we visit one of the temples tomorrow, we have to push to get in or we won’t actually manage to get in there - I’m not sure how good I’ll be at that!
People spit in the street. A lot. It’s very common and don’t get offended by it.
Tibetan beds are hard!! And as I sit here now typing this sitting on the hardest bed imaginable with a numb backside, I can confirm this is completely accurate! It feels like I’m lay on a table, but, Tibetans believe it’s great for your back... I shall let you know!

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Photos

Information sheet in the room.
I love a bit of dodgy translation :-)