Buddhist Bucket List Trip to Tibet, Nepal and India

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This will be the first time I'll ever be keeping a personal travel blog during a trip, and perhaps I'll abandon the whole idea half way through. I hope that I can share some of our experiences to others, and also chronicle them for myself like I wish I had started doing long ago.

"Why do you want to go to Tibet" or "What's in Nepal" has been the overwhelming reaction by our friends and co-workers. To be honest, there is no one answer, and there is no simple explanation. I see images of Tibetan prayer flags flapping in the wind swept plains that time has forgot. I hear the sound of monks chanting mantras, with the ringing of bells dangling from the neck of a yak. I smell the odor of curry waffing through the alleyways of a local market. I stand and watch the clouds gather at the peak of a mountain that is double the height of any I have ever seen. This is why.

So the process of traveling to Tibet has been a frustrating undertaking, and I haven't even started the trip yet. When I originally concieved the idea for this trip, I assumed that we could fly into Lhasa, walk off the airplane, and be off exploring on my own like every other country in the world except for perhaps Iran, N. Korea and Bhutan...not so.

First off in order to get a Chinese visa to enter the country, you have to buy an airline ticket before you can even apply. So one must make quite an investment, while holding your breath that your visa will be approved.

Well this is where it gets a little tricky. When you fill out the 6 page Chinese Visa application you CANNOT mention travel to Tibet, or else you will be denied. So you must lie about your flights, list your imaginary hotels you won't be staying in, etc. The application is so extensive that you must list all your family members to include dates of birth and occupations. If you are a gov't employee, a journalist, or clergy, you will be denied. Welcome to Communist China! Oh and the visa cannot be done online, or even via mail. You must hand deliver the original application to the Chinese Embassy, which the closest to me is about 1,500 miles. So, you have to hire a courier service that will hand deliver your visa for processing. Ok so no problems thus far...

Once you get approved for your visa, (thankfully, evidentally, no fact checking by Chinese immigration) you must then enlist the services of a tour operator to escort you in your travels while in Tibet. Since Tibetan protests in 2008, China has disallowed any foreigners to wander about by themselves. The Chinese apparently want you to go and see what they want you to see. Since 1951, when Tibet lost it's independence, over 1 million Tibetans have been killed (mostly nuns and monks), and 6,000 monasteries destroyed by the Chinese in a systematic ethinc and cultural cleansing of sorts. Remember all the FREE TIBET stuff in the 90's, with Hollywood actors and musicans jumping on the fad, yea thats why. However, American politicans have realized that we cannnot really express an opinion on the matter, let alone intervene, because we import all our cheap stuff from China, and most of our manufacturers are housed in China capitalizing on the cheap labor.

Once you settle on a tour guide, you must also obtain a Tibetan visitor permit, which can only be obtained by the tour guide within 15 days of your arrival. Problem here is that China whimsically decides like a child with a temper tantrum to not issue permits for sometimes days or months on end to punish the Tibetans. As of right now no visitors were issued permits for the whole month of March and there have been a series of self-immolations by monks.

So now I have a very narrow window in which to obtain my permit, and I need to carry the original paper permit with me before boarding on the plane from Beijing. Already my flight had to be changed once to accomodate the receipt of this permit. The bright side is it gives me a free 24 hour layover in Beijing to see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. Supposedly our permits should be waiting for us at our hotel in Beijing.

Three days before our departure I got an email from my tour guide stating there was yet another halt on permits, "Jessica, I have bad news..." my stomach dropped. But wait...the next morning I get the email "Jessica dunn worri" from him. "Dunn worri" the trip is a go? or "dunn worri" in the zen buddhist sense? Literally I won't know if we will be able to get into Tibet until the day of our arrival. Just in case I have backup plans to my backup plans.

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Comments

[Rene]

Optimism
Love that I will be a part of your incredible experience Jessica & Dennis. Thank you for allowing me to "tag along".

[D MJ Binkley]

I'm enjoying your blogs
I hope you will continue.

[Steven Thomas]

India Tours
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