Blogs from Tibet, China, Asia - page 63

Hi again, Everest. The top of the world. The famous mountain that has been one of my dream destinations for years. And today I am going to its base camp from the northern side. We reserved for ourselves two nights in the EBC just to make sure that we have a period of good weather and that we will be able to see the peak. We drove to the base camp through a special short cut that our driver knows, between the mountains and the small villages. The non-existing road was bumpy, and the ride was very hard. The weather was quite good, even though as timed passed more and more clouds appeared in the sky, and it wasn't as clear as it was early in the morning when I took the picture of the mountain ... read more

Hi, Mt. Kailash is a holy mountain to more than just one religion. Asia is full of legends about a great mountain, which has four faces (Peacock, Elephant, Lion, and Horse), each composed of a different material (gold, crystal, ruby, and lapis lazuli), and from the mouth of each face flows a great river. Mt. Kailash is believed to be it. It is an amazing mountain, almost pyramid shaped with four faces, and four great rivers of the Indian sub-continent flow from its area: Karnali (which feeds the Ganges), Indus, Sutlej, and Brahmapurta. The mountain is 6714m high, and has never been climbed, because people who got permits to climbed it were under international pressure not to do it because of the special nature of the mountain. For the Hindus - it is the domain of ... read more

Sunday, September 11, 2005 Weather: Beautiful Temperature: Hot Today was one of those exhausting days of hurry up and wait — a day of travel. Our flight from Lhasa was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. and departed on time. Since we had over a one hour bus ride to the airport this meant that we had to be finished breakfast, checked out and on the bus by 7:30 a.m. Keep in mind that we are still at 12,000' above sea level and not moving too swiftly! Our group was routed to Chengdu on Air China with a layover and change of plane to Chongqing in the afternoon. The other group that went to Lhasa was lucky enough to be scheduled on a flight directly from Lhasa to Chongqing getting them to the ship hours earlier. Oh well. ... read more

Friday, September 9, 2005 Weather: Marvelous Temperature: Cool at daybreak rising to 80's. Today is what it is all about! Everyone who comes to Lhasa looks forward to seeing the Potala Palace, home of the Dalai Lamas for centuries and the "Vatican" of Tibetan Buddhism. Sadly, the current Dalai Lama is in exile from his country following the takeover of Tibet by China making it one of their "autonomous regions." The Palace, built in the 7th century and in the 17th century extended to its present size, sits high upon a hill in the center of the city. Our bus delivered us to the entrance gate where we found ourselves among many other groups of tourists and thousands of the faithful, some of whom were making a "once in a lifetime" visit. Our path up to ... read more

Hi again, Sera monastery is one of the six important monasteries of the Gelugpa order of the Tibetan Buddhism (I have already visited two of them - Labrang in Xiahe, and Ganden). It is just in the outskirts of Lhasa, with fine views if the city itself, and, goes without saying, of the Potala. The monastery is known mainly for its courtyard, where everyday the monks are practicing their debating skills. I arrived early, and started with the kora, like a good pilgrim. Around the monastery are many rock paintings, and I even caught a restoration of one of them. The kora was nice, climbing behind the monastery up the hills, for fine views. There is a small hermitage just outside the monastery walls, where I saw a monk sitting under a tree and praying alone. ... read more