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Published: October 14th 2006
Monday October 9, 2006 - We arrived into Lhasa at 6:30pm, and now were stuck with "where are we?". The train is so new that there is no train station in our guide book, so we couldn't find it on our maps that way. Instead we used our brains and saw that everyone was getting on the #91 bus, the only bus there was. After a cursory look around, we got on and headed into the city. Took the bus to the end and then walked to our hotel. We didn't have a particular hotel in mind, so we just walked towards the part of town that had the hotels we had heard of. This is where I felt the altitude - my bags felt heavier and I was tired. Reminded me of walking around Cuzco with Mike unexpectedly in January. We stopped at one hotel and it was outrageously priced, so we looked on. Brian is not a huge fan of hostels so we tried another hotel. It is more Tibetan and authentic and we both liked it. It is out of my budget but since he would stay anyway, I just paid the equivalent of a dorm price. Not
a bad deal. We settled in and Brian showered and then we took a walk around to get some dinner. The first thing that really struck me was how many souveneir stalls there were. They line all the main pedestrain streets. Next was the striking similarity to Cuzco yet again - Tibetans have color and features that are very reminiscent of Peruvians, with one exception - here they have red rosy cheeks! And a lot of people wear face masks, but for what reason I'm not sure yet? Sun prevention? Ended up eating soups of the region and this was nice in the cold weather. Came back to the hotel and I showered and read a bit about the area before sleep.
Tuesday - I decided today would be a lazy day of sorts. I didn't want to push myself while acclimating to the altitude. So first we went out and had breakfast - Chinese dumplings and Tibetan momos, a smaller type of dumpling, essentially. Then we headed over to the Snowland hostel where we used the internet for a bit. Brian finished before me and headed out while I stayed on. After that I went to try to
get information on a trip to Nepal. I will be heading there next and the easiest way to get there overland is to hire a car and driver and get a group of people together to split the costs. I got costs and found no group yet going on the dates I needed - it will take about 4 or 5 days and my visa expires next week - so now I am a bit paranoid that I won't get the people together in time. Left a note saying something like "Be my friend and come to Nepal with me" and went back to the hostel to meet Brian.
We sat around for a bit while I went through my laundry and then took off to wander the streets of Lhasa aimlessly. We walked for quite a few hours - we saw sun, rain, and hail, as well as several shops and stalls full of cool and goofy things. I checked other notice boards in other hostels and took some info to get in touch with possibilities to join me for Nepal. Here's to hoping. Had dinner in a place recommended by the guide book and it was actually
good. Had bobi - it is like a stir fry that you put into a pita with a garlic sour cream sauce. Tibetan burritos! Followed that with a brownie - well, it wasn't a real brownie but they tried hard enough. Came back to the hostel and emailed some potential Nepal buddies, then showered and settled in to read while listening to Brian singing along with my ipod. His mp3 player got wipes and he was looking like he could use a little music his way - even if it involved some out of tune singing! Afterwards we chatted a long time and then called it quits - had to get up early for the Potala Palace.
Wednesday - Woke up today just before 7am and started to get ready. I had a terrible nights sleep - may just be the elevation. Brian was sleeping deeply but I had to wake him up. Turns out he didn't sleep well either and even read some of his guide under his covers with a headlamp in the middle of the night! We decided to go get some breakfast before tackling the Potala Palace, and we went back to the restaurant we
ate at last night. They were only just opening - impressive, as everything else in the city was apparently still closed. Had omelets and tea and then got a rickshaw to take us to the palace.
The Potala Palace is a gigantic 13 story Buddhist temple that is on a hill, so that it is 130 meters higher than the rest of the city. Quite an imposing view. And you have to climb up there, which is why we waited until we had acclimated a bit more. We got dropped off at what we thought was the front door and there was a sign saying that all the tickets had been sold for the day already. I was really upset about this, because my time here is limited and I would only have tomorrow left. But we took our disappointment and tried to find the ticket office so we could buy tickets for the following day. We did find it and the man said the tickets were sold out and told us we could get a number and come back at 11:30am to get tickets for a specific time tomorrow, and that we could stay there for two hours.
It all seemed too complicated, and if I had tocome back at 11:30am it would have prevented me from seeing another temple today instead. We talked about it for a while and then decided to walk away. The man called us back over and asked if we wanted to go in today. We said yes, of course, isn't that what we were talking about before when he said no? So he told us ok, and sent us walking up to the top of the palace via the backroad it seemed. We huffed and puffed our way up there and found the ticket office! So what was he selling? Or was he just discouraging more people from going today? I have no idea, but we got in line to buy our tickets. The sign said there was a ticket price and a cheaper ticket price. I wanted the cheaper "student" price but the woman was having none of it. So I finally gave in and bought the expensive ticket. There was another couple who seemed not to be budging until they got their cheaper tickets, and we saw them later inside, but I'm not sure what happened with that.
We
started our rounds by reading the guide book a bit to get some history and then we followed the masses. You need to go in a specific direction - clockwise - but it is easy as you just follow all the pilgrims on their rounds. Everyone was bustling around and going very quickly, praying at the Buddhas and dropping small denomination notes everywhere - the smallest being equivalent to about 1.2 cents. There is money everywhere inside and it is almost all from the poor. Everyone went so quickly that it was hard to take any time to look around before having to move on. There were even tour groups going through! It took us less than two hours to get through the place, going from the 13th floor to the bottom.
Our next activity for the day included walking around bits of Lhasa that we had not seen before, mostly north of the Potala. I saw a lot of interesting things, including several old women squatting down to pee any old place - but their skirts covered everything anyway. For lunch we each had a bag of freshly made fries and a kind of hot dog on a
stick, all for 25 cents. I searched again on the notice boards for people going to Nepal and took some more email addresses, but I also found a note saying they were looking for someone for Friday, which is when I wanted to go, and that they would meet at 7pm. I left a note saying that I was interested and would be there at 7pm. Ended up back at the hotel for some emailing and relaxing before the meeting.
At 7pm I met my soon to be group to Kathmandu - Tomer from Israel, David from England, and Kindie and Guillaume from France. Tomer and Davis would go back to Lhasa afterwards and the others would go to Kathmandu with me. They seemed great, and I was just hoping the agency would allow us to have five people in the 4x4 along with the driver, as I was the fifth and wouldn't be able to go if not. It ended up being Ok, and this made it a bit cheaper for everyone, so they were willing to squish four of us in the back of the truck, not bad. We paid our deposit and agreed to meet back
at 7pm the following night, to meet our driver, write our itinerary, and pay the balance. At 8pm I met up with Brian and we had a nice dinner at a new place. Afterwards we headed back for an early night as we would have another early morning.
Thursday - Brian and I got up at 7am again today to go to the Jokhang Temple, the most holy temple in Tibet, conveniently located about 5 minutes walk from our hotel. It is an interesting place where you see many really devout Buddhists. They come from all over Tibet to pray here. Outside, there is a constant clockwise flow of people walking the entire perimeter of the building. We got into this flow looking for th entrance that was for visitors, but we were unable to find it. We ended up entering via the main pilgrim entrance. Just in front of this, there are dozens of people prostrating themselves all day, every day. They begin in a standing position and proceed to lay flat on the ground with their arms stretched out in front of them. Some of them do this right in front of the building, others while
they are walking in the circle around it. It is always a concern that you will step on someone's hands. A lot of them use some kind of hand protection so that their hands slide better on the ground; sometimes it is juts cardboard.
Once we got into the temple, we were instantly pushed in with everyone else. We weren't sure where to go and didn't find the ticket office so we managed to get out of paying. We passed around the perimeter of the building inside, and passed by a lot of prayer wheels. They are big golden wheels with prayers on them that are all in a line and you spin them clockwise as you walk by. When we got to the point where we had started, we looked and saw a long line of pilgrims, which I thought was strange since they usually just go from chapel to chapel praying quickly and dropping money before moving on. But here they were in line so we joined in. It was a line that went to many chapels - we were pushed and squeezed all around the place. Brian always had some man pushing up behind him, but
seemingly just to get ahead faster. It took hours. I sometimes felt uncomfortable being there, but mostly it was just interesting to watch people pary to each image of Buddha, of which there were hundreds, and touch their heads to places in front of these Buddhas, and leave donations at many of them. There was incense burning as well as yak butter candles - pilgrims would carry a bag full of solid butter and spoon bits of it into the lit candles. We finally made it to the chapel that has the most important Buddha in all of Tibet - it was brought by Princess Wencheng from China years ago. It was really quite something to see people praying here. By the time we finished the first floor I felt almost dizzy with the fumes.
Next we climbed up to the second floor and looked into some of the chapels, but we were ready to be done with chapels by then. Next stop was the roof. The roof was great. We could see all of the main street of Lhasa, including the circling crowd and the prostrators. We could also see the mountains in the background. It was great
and we stayed for over and hour watching and taking pictures.
For lunch we headed back to the Tashi 1 and had another good meal before the shopping commenced. I needed to buy some warm clothes for the upcoming trip, especially for Everest Base Camp. We searched for a couple of hours for the best deal, as I usually do, and I ended up with woolen glove/mittons and a matching hat. Brian got a tee shirt for a friend's baby that was pretty cute as well. We ended up back at the hotel so I could pack, and I discovered my coveted chocolate bar that I had been saving had gone missing! I'm assuming that someone who cleaned our room was to blame, but I couldn't be sure so I couldn't say anything.
At 7pm I met with my new friends for the trip at the agency and we made a definate plan for a schedule, met our driver Gya La, and paid the remaining money owed. I think they will be a good group to travel with. At 8:15pm I met Brian at the internet cafe and then we headed for a last meal. It would have
been good if I had ordered what I had been craving - a Chinese stirfry. Instead I changed my mind and got a chicken hotpot which was mostly bones, fat, and skin. I ended up eating about half of Brian's meal instead. After dinner we went back where I showered and finished packing before chatting myself to sleep.
(Thanks to Brian who let me borrow his pictures for this page!)
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