Tibet: April 2105

Last picture taken in Kathmandu.

It’s dark. 4:30am. We can hear the front desk guy snoring on the bench. We are supposed to be picked up at 4:30am, and we’re ready. At 5, there’s no one here. We call Rom and wake him. Poor Rom. He says he’ll take care of it and hangs up. 15 minutes later, a man raps on the door waking the sleepy receptionist. Javier cracks open the door. There’s a guy in a helmet standing there in the dark and says, “You go to Tibet?” That’s it. No greeting. Not even a name check. Anyone could have gone to Tibet that morning, or at least to the border.

We start to bring out our things and load them into a jeep. As we climb into the jeep, The Helmet is on the phone. Our driver is standing outside the jeep smoking. Clearly, there is no real timeframe here. After a few minutes, Helmet jumps on his motorcycle and takes off. Our driver hops in and we’re on our way. About 10 minutes later, we stop and pick up a new guy. He doesn’t have any luggage, is dressed somewhat nicely, and has a small pile of papers in his hands. As we start driving again, the new guy is on the phone, we have rid ourselves of The Helmet, and our driver is smoking again. It’s going to be a long drive. As we continue down the road I finally ask new guy who he is. He introduces himself as our Nepal-side guide. I guess none of these guys learned to introduce themselves. He explains how our journey is going to play out. We are going to pick up another traveler, stop for breakfast at some restaurant (breakfast is included) and he will take us all the way to the Nepal-Tibet border where there will be another guide waiting for us. We pick up our new travel companion who is a Nepali guy, around the same age as us, and going to Tibet for business. He speaks a version of tibetan as well as nepali and english, although he initially says he doesn’t because he wants nothing to do with us. That’s okay. Javier and I are too tired to make small talk anyway. This guy however, does not stop talking. We picked him up at 6am and didn’t arrive to our destination in Tibet until 12am. That’s 18 hours with this guy, and he never stopped talking. We stopped for breakfast as planned, Javier and I sat by ourselves and the “guide,” driver, and Nepali guy all sat together and, you guessed it, talked the whole time… 

Welcome to China

After an hour or so, we finally arrived at the border, which is a town. We parked the car and carried our stuff down the dirt street and entered Nepal immigration. While we were filling out our paperwork there was a guy who had greeted our guide and was following us. I didn’t know who he was, but our guide said he was a friend. He had offered to carry our bags, but it appeared that he had a mild form of cerebral palsy or something along those lines, and our bags are heavy, so we told him we were okay, and carried our stuff. We filled out the necessary paperwork and walked to a bridge. There were no signs in english so our guide pointed us to the side where a guard was standing. The guard said nothing to me but gestured for me to approach and give him my paperwork. I did. But apparently I stepped over this yellow line that I wasn’t supposed to. Instead of speaking to me in any language and gesturing for me to step back into Nepal, he whistles at me. I don’t take this well. He keeps whistling at me, and I finally asked, “What!?” He refuses to speak and just keeps whistling. Mind you, I’m not walking off into Tibet. I’m standing in front of him. He checks my papers and waves me through. I walk a little ways and stop to wait for Javier. Again, he whistles at me and flings his hand at me in a gesture for me to keep walking. I don’t know where to go, there is no guide here yet, our Nepal guide is standing on the other side of the yellow line, and to be honest, I’m just not going to wander out of eye sight of Javier. So I just turned my back to him and waited until Javier walked up next to me. Welcome to China. 

Stuck in between the trucks.

Once we were through bag checks, and more paperwork, we were greeted by our Tibetan guide, Ching. Ching is great. His english was tough to understand at times, and he didn’t communicate well in general, but he’s a nice guy, and we liked him. After finally getting through, we walked to our next jeep. Unfortunately, it was blocked in by a couple of semis. We figured we weren’t going anywhere for a while. Javier and I sat down in the car, and Ching, our driver, and Nepal guy disappear for like…an hour. When they finally resurfaced, the trucks started to move, and we were able get out of the mess. This was our first incidence of communication failure. We drove to the first city in Tibet where we stopped for lunch. The signs were written in Chinese and Tibetan. I don’t know why, but I just assumed that Tibet used the same style of writing as China. Not even close. Hindi and Nepali share an alphabet, and I am told are similar languages. Tibetan is closer to these languages than Chinese in both speaking and writing. 

We arrived at a restaurant and were told by our guide that we should change our money with his friend. The exchange was bad, it’s a scam, but what can we do? We need to eat, and we need to pay in Chinese Yuan. We tried to change the money in Kathmandu before we left, but only one exchange was selling Yuan, and at a ridiculous rate. Actually, the Tibetan thug we did business with gave us a better rate. The three guys sat together and Javier and I sat alone. Our first meal in Tibet…not very good. At least this place had menus in english. At one point during lunch, the three guys left the restaurant. We figured they were done and waiting outside. Again, no communication. Javier and I paid for our meal and walked outside. The guys were nowhere to be found. The jeep was still there, which was reassuring, but we were just standing around waiting. At one point, a guy pulls up on a scooter pulling a small cart. He opens the tarp and reveals a side of beef. He pulls out a hand scale with a big hook on the end, and proceeds to weigh (often times requiring two shaking arms as he hooks and tries to hold up a huge slab of meat) and sell his beef. It was weird. We waited for Ching for almost an hour. Granted, we were very entertained, but still, he can’t just disappear for hours at a time. When he finally came back, we asked where he had been, and he said he had to make photocopies of our travel documents. We politely yet firmly told him that he cannot leave us anymore without communicating. He seemed genuinely sorry, promised not to, and made good on his word. 

Our first Monastery

We drove…and drove…and drove. We crossed several avalanches, and I was quite impressed at how well the roads were maintained. We passed by Everest and caught a glimpse of the northern face. The highest point of our drive was going over the Lhakpa La pass at 6,849 meters (22,470ft). When we exited the car, there were women selling prayer flags and scarves. Even with all of the trekking we had just completed, we could definitely feel the altitude when walking just a short distance. We stopped for lunch and then walked to the Tashilumpo Monastary. Our first Tibetan Monastary! Wahoo!! On the way in, we saw many sellers lining the street. Other than those selling prayer flags, we couldn’t figure out what all those yellow packets were. We asked Ching and he said, “Yak butter.”

It all made sense once we were inside. The monasteries are full of candles. The pilgrims and worshippers buy bags of yak butter and sprinkle in on the candles to keep them burning. Some people bring their own thermoses full of melted butter and simply pour. Needless to say, the place smells like butter, and the floor slippery. There were Buddha statues everywhere, and murals covering all of the walls. Ching gave us SO MUCH information in regards to Buddhism. More than I could ever remember.

Yak butter and candle light

Especially in the beginning, while we were still getting used to his accent (Javier never really did get used to it) we had a difficult time grasping all he was saying. It didn’t help that most of the names sound alike. The most interesting (to me) was that Buddhism started in India. Now, I’ve read Siddhartha, so I should have realized this, but it didn’t sink in that Buddhism started in India and traveled to the rest of Asia. Fun side note: while we were driving, I asked where Buddha was born. We had seen signs all over Nepal saying, “Visit Lumbini- The birthplace of Buddha.” This started a solid debate in the car. The Nepali insisted that Buddha was born in Nepal, but both our driver and Ching insisting he was born in India- after all, he was an Indian prince. The three slipped into Tibetan and argued, while Javier and I just looked at each other. As it turned out, Buddha was born in India, but back then, the boarders were different and there was no Nepal. Problem solved.

Our Guide, Ching.

We visited many burial stupas. If the lama was important, he would often have his own stupa, others would have multiple lamas buried in a single stupa. We learned that only sitting Buddhas have achieved full enlightenment. Therefore, those that are standing are not called Buddhas, but Bodhisattvas. These beings choose to devote themselves to assist others in the quest of enlightenment rather than achieve full enlightenment themselves. 

We walked through the stupas and noticed that people not only gave loads of butter but also money. There was money everywhere.

Tashilumpo Monastary.

They place money on the statues, on the floor at the feet of the statues, directly to the monks, in picture frames and cracks in the wall. As we progressed into Tibet, we saw fewer local and nomad people and more Chinese people. At one point, we were standing next to stone pool in the shape of a lotus. It was filled with water and had paper money thrown in. While we stood there, more and more people kept throwing their money into the water. Ching told us, “It’s the Chinese. They’re superstitious. They’ll throw money at anything.” 

Asian snacks

When we were finished touring the monastary, we made a quick stop at a small store to refill our snack bag before heading off. Our driver brought a bag with some snacks both sweet and savory. Javier and I liked them so much, we ate almost the whole thing. Therefore, it was only right that we resupplied the bag with even more than when we started. We continued our drive, only stopping at checkpoints and for dinner. There were a few times where we stopped on the side of the road and waited. After experiencing this a couple of times, we asked Ching what was going on. He said that the guards time-stamp the documents from one checkpoint to the next. If you arrive too early, it means you were speeding, and you will be fined. So, our driver would speed along, and then pull over and wait until enough time had passed to continue. We finally arrived at our destination, Shingatse, around midnight. I thought this was weird. Surely, this was not the normal itinerary. But we were so tired by that point, we just went to bed. 

More pictures of Tibet,

We woke up early the next morning and had a Tibetan-western breakfast buffet complete with butter tea. Yuck! We had another fairly long day ahead of us, but nothing like the day before. I could feel myself getting congested, and asked Ching to go with me to the pharmacy to buy some medicine. I had tried to purchase pseudoephedrine in Nepal, but it only came in conjunction with two other medicines, and I didn’t want anything extra. I thought I’d try my luck in Tibet. We walked next door to the pharmacy, and thank God for Google!!! I was able to use Google translate to explain to the pharmacist what I wanted. Together, with the help of Ching to fill in the gaps, we found it! At first, he tried to give me something else, but when I prodded a little further, he opened up the locked cabinet…now we’re getting somewhere! He pulled out the box, and the instructions were in english. Bingo! Pseudoephedrine! I was a happy girl. 

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Pelkhor Chode Monastery in Gyantse

Our first stop for the day was the Pelkhor Chode Monastery in Gyantse. Our Nepali friend was hip to the game after our temple visit the day before, and exchanged his big bills for a bunch of small ones so he could make it rain inside. And rain it did! Dollar here, dollar there, and when I say dollar, I mean these little Chinese Yuan notes with a “1” on them, which is actually less than a penny. Everyone inside clutches their money and tucks it here and there. Javier and I found it all rather peculiar. Both of us come from religious backgrounds, so we understand the compulsion to give. But it was a little disheartening watching these people, who are clearly dirt poor, giving away their pennies in hopes of appeasing the gods and gaining good fortune, while the monks read their chants from their iPhones. 

The Temple of the Thousand Buddhas.

We ended the tour of this monastery by visiting the temple of a thousand buddhas. Supposedly, there are 1,000 images of Buddha in this stupa, and I think I may have seen them all. There were Buddhas of all shapes and sizes, different colors, and some were so big that you could only see his feet on the ground floor, and had to view different parts of him floor by floor. Javier and I are partial to the conception Buddha and protection Buddhas. So much so, that to this day, when Javier can’t understand me or my logic, he will refer to me as conception Buddha. By the time I was finished, I was on the top floor looking out, where I could see Ching, Javier and the Nepali all waiting for me. 

Buddha image.

We stayed the night in Gyantse. In the morning, we joined Ching and our driver for breakfast, sitting at separate tables, of course. They didn’t like us, yet. The girl came up to take our order and Ching translated. Javier told her that we wanted a traditional Tibetian breakfast, not eggs and toast. She looked very confused, and after much going back and forth, we were finally brought the same breakfast as Ching. We had noodle soup, salted peanuts, some sort of meat, and of course, butter tea. Yuck! 🙂 

Lhasa here we come! Before we arrived, we stopped at Yomdrok Lake, where we walked around and enjoyed the aquamarine waters.

Massive Dog

The lake is so massive, we made a few stops along the way. One place had a couple of Tibetan mastiffs sitting around for both pictures, and the all-around amusement of others. These guys were huge, shaggy and slobbery!! There was also a guy with his yak, who was there for photo ops. The third place we stopped was a bigger tourist spot. There were more Tibetan mastiffs, but these guys were a little cleaner and had a big furry collar around their necks to make them look like lions, and more yaks for pictures, in which we indulged.

Quick photo, Javier is heavy.

We knew we were getting close when we saw the turn off to the Lhasa airport. Or at least we thought we were close. For some reason, they decided to build the Lhasa airport 1.5 hours away from Lhasa. As we approached the city, we could see the Potala Palace looming in the distance. We were all awestruck. The famous fabled Potala Palace. Our driver took a route that allowed us to pass right in front of it. The palace is set on a hill, overlooking the rest of the city. We drove around and finally arrived at our hotel. Now, up until this point, our hotel experience had left much to be desired. This place however, while not the most comfortable, was all about location. We were located right on the main street, a stone’s throw from the Potala. Once we were squared away, Ching left us. We would be on our own for the rest of the day including dinner. Now this was going to be interesting…

We’ve made it to Lhasa!

Javier had spotted an Arcteryx store as we were driving around, so we decided to walk the few short blocks to check it out. We were both impressed by Lhasa. We didn’t really know what to expect, but it was much more modern than we thought and it was very VERY Chinese. 

After Arcteryx, we decided to try and scrounge up some grub. We didn’t feel like eating any more fried rice or noodles, which were really our only options at these tourist traps, so we decided to go to the grocery store to see what we could find. On our way there, I was hungry, so we stopped and bought a couple apples from a lady selling them on the street. We didn’t have a way to wash them, and since most of these countries are BYO toilet paper, we used it and gave the apples the ol’ spit shine.

Shopping in Lhasa.

We had a blast in the grocery store. We saw fresh baked bread and were trying to ask if they were stuffed- like a char siu bun. The man did not understand char siu. After much charades, we finally decided on a couple buns. Next stop, meat section. We wanted cooked meat, and it was all presented right there before us. There was a girl behind the counter, and we asked if she spoke english. For the record, NO ONE in Tibet speaks english. Fair enough. We start with the charades again. Next thing you know, I’m clucking like a chicken flapping my wings, pulling up my nose and snorting like a pig, and moo-ing like a cow, although, I don’t think cows in Tibet “moo.” While this was all good and fun, and Javier and the girl couldn’t stop laughing at me, it was very ineffective. Finally, I had Google save the day, and it did.

Which one?

We bought two different types of beef- one spicy, one sweet. We thanked the girl and headed off to buy some veggies. Again, more fun. We wanted oranges, apples, and a cucumber for dinner. I was translating these words, and trying to match the Chinese characters so we knew which prices coincided with what. We were successful. At one point, I was waiting for Javier, and the meat girl walked by, waved and started giggling. I am confident we were her most fun customers of the day. 

We bought our treasures and took them home. We ate meat, bread, and cucumbers.

At home.

I have to say, our grocery store excursion is yet another example of the journey being much more fun and satisfying than the destination. Neither of us really liked the meat. HA! Either way, we were full, didn’t have to eat fried rice, and were all around happy with our day.

To see more pictures of Tibet, click HERE.