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Published: April 10th 2011
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Today was our last full day in Tibet, and was labeled as a ‘rest’ day under our tour, so obviously there wasn’t much expectation, but its days like these that one gets the richest of experiences.
So the day started off having breakfast at midday at one of the Tibetan touristy outback style restaurants. I had a good curry. Prior to this trip, I heard that there was only one place that had good food in Lhasa, but evidently due to the large investment from the Chinese government, more tourist friendly places are popping up. Just a thought…
Following this, we met our guide and discussed where and what we would do on this ‘rest’ day as according to the tour organization you had to obviously do something on rest days. I kept poking at the idea of checking out the back streets and seeing the real ‘Lhasa people’, but our guide at first was not really for it, as she explained that no other tourists do that or asked to do that. And oh how I felt for them, as their impression of Lhasa would be so different if they got to experience what I had, after persistent
"World War 2" Beer
On the other side it had Obama's "Yes We Can" probing on my behalf.
From the main street, very appropriately named ‘Beijing Street’, Lhasa looked just like any other scruffy Chinese town, but the awesomeness of my day started after we slipped into a narrow alleyway that led us into a big melting pot.
The first of these was a visit to a nunnery teahouse, the equivalent of our modern day Starbucks. Walked past the nuns doing their chores, down an alley, and into a open walled roofed room full only local Tibetans; rosy cheeked children, weathered faced old men, mothers and aunties… I felt so alternatively post modern! After a nice cup of tea, and a few attempts at trying to get the curious children to come play, we headed deeper.
Past the nunnery, we past the Muslim sect of the city, the spice market, and this cool square where time seemed to have stopped a hundred years ago where men gathered in the middle and were doing business, face to face, man to man, wheeling and dealing their bits and bobs. And in the midst of all this, the camera ran out of battery…. but a part of me wasn’t all that disappointed, as maybe these secrets weren’t supposed to be told.
I’ll stop about the back street there, but defiantly was super indie/alternative being the only foreigners to be roaming them along with the company of equal curiousness by the warm locals. In an attempt to be poetic and put an image to it, I would say Lhasa was much like a red onion in terms of the mark that has been stamped on it, but peal away a little and your deep in its pure form.
The afternoon was pretty chill back in the hotel room as we rested for the Tibetan ‘crazy yak’ dance performance that our guide convinced us to watch that evening. And yes there was a crazy yak dance, along with a string of other Tibetan folk performances that were pretty KTVish. Despite that, there was a real pride of culture evident in the performers faces, a sort joy that can’t be taken or replicated. And at this, a real respect for this minority group birthed in me.
So a pretty top day, and how not to top it off more with a few of my favorite reggae tunes, and a little over-emotional, and sensitive reflection of my day that my Beijing driver machismo persona would not accept. But I’m on the roof of the world, so I suppose its acceptable to look down on oneself and be reflective. I really should have compared myself to an animal or a tree blossoming in the spring to top the alternative/gap yar/sensitive approach…. but maybe another time.
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