Day 59: Shigatse August 20, 2010

We headed out today from Lhasa.  Had about 4-5 hours driving.  A couple of stops a long the way.  One is holy lakes. 

Also passed a river where the Tibetan have water burials.  Interesting but gory.  The Tibetans have 4 options when they die.  The richer or more important Tibetans can be cremated or buried.  The poor Tibetans may have a sky burial, where the body is chopped up by the undertaker and then carried to the top of a mountain and left for the birds to eat.  The other options is the water burial.  Where they are chopped up by the river and then fed to the fishes.  That is why Tibetans will not eat fish. 

Then the glaciers.  Finally another monastery in Giangze.  It has a fort, then a monastery with a huge stupa and a medieval type wall.

Ended up in the town of Shiatges.  A fairly forgettable town.

Day 57-58: Lhasa – the mysterious city August 19, 2010

I have always wanted to come to Tibet and see the Potala palace (the winter palace of the Dalai Lama). I had seen pictures and I had pictured it in my head. The palace is as I thought, but the city was a city. I imagined dusty streets with worn down houses surrounding the palace. However, it is generally modern. There are 2 parts to the city, the Chinese side and the Tibetan side. It is generally accepted that the Chinese are trying to “colonise out” the Tibetans. There has been a large influx of Chinese to Tibet and they tend to be the bosses of companies. The Tibetian’s the workers. It is sad.

There was some great experiences in Lhasa.
Potala palace: Winter home to the Dalai Lamas, it is the centrepiece of the city. The current exiled dalai lama lived here when he was young. Inside you see the various chapels, study areas and living quarters for the Dalai Lamas. Also a number of the Dalai lamas have there remains in stupas here. Originally the Dalai Lamas had no political power, there was a king and also a dalai lama. It wasn’t until the 5th dalai Lama in the 1600s, that the political and religious powers were given to the Dalai Lamas. The current and 14th Dalai Lama is still loved by the locals however they are unable to express or show this devotion publicly. Also there is a lot of concern over what will happen when the current Dalai Lama dies. Traditionally senior members of the court search Tibet for the reincarnation of the dalai lama. In some cases children were identified and shown different possessions of the dalai lama mixed with other possessions of the other people. The children have picked out “their” possessions because they are the reincarnations of him.

The Chinese have tried to choose a new religious leader for the Tibetans. This is not being accepted by the people. It is unclear whether the current Dalai Lama will decide to reincarnate and if he does, how he will be found. He has said he will not reincarnate in the country which is under control of the Chinese.
As for the palace. It is pretty cool, however you need to book a time to start a quick tour and you have exactly 1 hours to complete it. It is a real rush to see the main parts.

Barkhor square: is one of the holiest kora (clockwise holy walk). People walk around clockwise all day and all night. The very dedicated prostrate themselves around the kora. They stand and pray, then bend and prostrate themselves on the ground, then move one body length forward. The old people wander around with their pray wheels. Through the middle of them all the police and military walk through with some very big guns. They also have positions up high looking down on the square.

Sera monastery: one of the oldest. There are 4 different orders. This is for the yellow hats (gelupha). Most afternoons they have debates between the monks. All the young monks are much more vocal and excitable, while the older monks are much more relaxed and in control. They discuss philosophical issues. You can’t understand a word they say, but is interesting to see.

Day 56: Train: yak yak and more yaks July 10, 2010

Had wanted to catch the train to Tibet because it is the highest train in the world.  It crossed a pass at over 5000 metres.  Like any train there are all sorts of options of travel.  Soft sleeper is where 4 people are in a cabin, 2 sets of bunks and there is a door on the compartment.  Was feeling cheap that day, so went hard sleeper.  We were the only foreigners in these carriages.  Which is 2 sets of 3bunks stacked to the roof and no door to the compartment.  All the foreigners are generally in the soft sleepers and the “richish” Chinese in the hard sleepers.  The more hardy folk go either hard seat or soft seat.  Which means they have normal seats and need to sleep sitting up.

The train was a worthwhile experience but not on my shortlist of things to do again.  The views are spectacular, from sand dunes, to aqua water, barren plains, fields of yak, arid mountains to snow capped mountains.  However you go stir crazy even being able to walk around.  All the Chinese bring their own food, so it is a 24/7 picnic.  I was on the top bunk, and it was like everest getting up everytime.  Was happy that I went with the 24 hour experience.  I guess it would be fun if you had the entire cabin with friends or family or people who spoke the same language.  Otherwise it always feels awkward.

Did try and hide out in the dining car, but the very unfriendly staff kept on chasing us out.

Interesting thing is the train has extra oxygen pumped into the cabins to help overcome altitude sickness.  Then next to each bed was a special outlet for individuals to attached nose pieces and get extra oxygen.  A decent number of people were using these as we got higher.  I felt the pressure in my head for a day did have shortness of breath but in general there was not problem.  

Back to the terrain.  What is incredible about Tibet is that the majority of it is a plateau which is between 3-4000 metres high.  It is very dry with huge plains and then decent size mountains on top.

Day 55 Xining: – Mini- monks

The train from  Chengdu to Tibet is 40 hours, and is fairly boring until it gets to Xining.  So to save endless hours in a small space, we flew to Xining and caught the train from there.  Which made it only 24 hours on the train.  Had a day in Xining to kill so we went to Kumbum Monastery.  Very cool experience.  Is about 30kms from town, jumped a taxi and turned up at this monastery.  Nice buildings, lots of monks… you know the story.  However, we came across some chanting at one end of the grounds on a hill.  Decided to get nosey.  Found a school of young monks chanting.  Watched for a couple of hours. 

The chanting was hypnotic, and I nearly went to sleep.  They would chant for about an hour and the teachers would wander around.  Then they would breakout of the room and do some chanting outside, then back in.  These guys were just kids, normal playing and laughing kids with short haircuts and purple clothes.

In China in some places you are a novelty simply by being a foreigner.  Xining, Liz and I were very much an object of fascination.

Day 51-54 Chengdu: Black and white couch potatoes July 8, 2010

Pandas have to be the laziest animals I have ever seen.  If they’re not sleeping, then they’re thinking about sleeping. 

Planned to be here for 2 days at the most, but because I need to sort the Tibet visa I was here for 4 days.   This is the famous panda city. Just on the edge of town is the Panda research centre, where you can see them in large enclosures.  They seem pretty tame.  The cubs are great value, but have to say they are the laziest creatures I have ever seen.  They sleep most of the day and when they are awake they just eat.  They find that a chore because they’re so drowsy from sleeping.  Saw one being operated on.  Felt sorry for the big fella.  These fellas should actually be carnivorous but 99% of their diet is bamboo.  There are a couple of hundred in captivity around the world (mostly china) and a couple of thousand in the wild in china.  They are loners and only generally come together for mating and then the male takes off again while the female raises the cub.  hmmm – good or bad???.

In some of the old breeding programmes the pandas lose interest in mating when they are captured.  So some programmes resorted to panda porn (films of other bears mating to get them excited) and viagra.  (So many parallels with the human world). 

Also jumped a bus to Leshan.  A small town with a Taoist monastery.  Very picturesque.  They made one really big Buddha here. You walk down these stairways to the base of the Buddha to pray.  Then there is a monastery with 1000 more Buddhas on the hill. 

Coming back from the walk I came across a Chinese family.  They had a beautiful little girl who must have been the only child, she was a proper little princess and drama queen. 

Was doing the planning for the trip to Tibet and met Liz.  A Irish lass who teamed up with me to form our own official tour group.  To get into Tibet you need to go as a “tour group”.  Which can be 1 or more people.  The agency then gets you a Tibetian visa so you can enter the region. All a bit of a scam, but it is law, so I guess it isn’t a scam, just expensive.  You can only get a 8 day visa to Tibet and they tend to close them off during controversial times – Olympics…  It is very hard to stay longer than 8 days and you need to be very specific on your movements in Tibet.  Checkpoints stop people travelling without guides.  Anyway we got it sorted.  Was about US$ 540 plus train for 780 yuan for 8 day tour with driver and guide.  It was a bit of a mission to sort it all.  Our agent was a bit dodgy and in the end we had to sit her down and double check everything.  They were trying to charge exorbitant commission rates hidden in the pricing.

Liz and I had a couple of good nights out with the local in Chengdu.  The day I went to see the pandas I was not very communicative.    

Is an interesting place, but wouldn’t come back.