Blogs from Lhasa, Tibet, China, Asia - page 8

Hallo allemaal, waar waren we gebleven...TIBET...Himalaya gebergte...het spreekt tot de verbeelding, niet? We vertrekken naar de meest recente hoofdstad van Tibet vanuit shangri met het vliegtuig. Van het moment dat we landen in de vlieghaven van Lhasa wordt ons duidelijk hoe georganiseerd onze reis door Tibet zal worden: We mogen geen publiek transport gebruiken en worden dus door een grote auto + driver + engelstalige gids opgewacht aan de vlieghaven en onmiddellijk naar onze guesthouse gebracht. Tijdens de rit vragen we onze gids reeds uit wat betreft de huidige relaties tussen chinezen en tibetanen. Er worden onmiddellijk enkele punten duidelijk gemaakt: niet achter tibetaanse vlaggen vragen, geen foto's nemen van de (overvloedig aanwezige, 15 jarige) 'militairen' en niet buiten de stad dwalen zonder onze gids. Voor de rest mogen we binnen Lhasa rondwandelen naar believen (bui ... read more

So there was no hot water in my room this morning, making showering especially delightful! At least it woke me up, and hopefully I don't get sick... Anyways, met my guide a little late (quarter past 9am) and we grabbed a taxi to Potala Palace. It's only 10-25 kuai to get anywhere around here, so we've been going that route in Lhasa since a private car is 300 kuai/day. I was really nervous about the Palace, as it's only my second full day here, and I still get winded walking fast. Potala has quite a few steps and steep ramps to get to the top, which would be no problem at sea level, but here, it is quite a workout! I don't know how many 60+ year old Tibetans passed me going up the stairs, every ... read more

Fascinating..... But a little bit like Disney... read more

Getting to Lhasa was supposed to take just under two hours on a Sichuan Airlines flight. The airline offer a free early morning pick up service which we availed off. This turned out to be a shared taxi driven by a strange Chinese man who spoke no English and randomly pulled in to wait around. We were in plenty of time for our flight, but were still feeling a bit ropey from the rice wine the previous evening. He eventually got us all to the airport on time, and once there we were delighted to see the departures board flash up in English. We found our check-in counter, dropped the luggage, walked to our gate and boarded our flight. It was all going so well. They even fed us breakfast on the way and we had ... read more

Day 490: Sunday 1 November - Leaving Beijing in the biting cold The cold in Beijing is biting as the three of us wait for a taxi to take us to Beijing West Station, apparently the biggest train station in Asia. In terms of luggage we are three very unmatched travellers. Bruno looks like he’s travelling for a few days not a few months, I have an average sized backpack and Patricia is carrying the kitchen sink, the entire contents of her wardrobe and maybe even her wardrobe and enough food to keep Tibet fed through the long winter months by the looks of it! We almost need a second taxi just for Patricia’s luggage.....what have you got in there girl? Or what haven’t you got in there is the more appropriate question! No wonder she ... read more