All blogs posted previously also now have this link to their respective photos too - so you can either go back and view them or politely lie and comment how fabulous they look! Please forgive the quality of some of the photos - I'm a project manager not a photographer. Feel free to ask questions about them too - the more we do this as we go, the less time we have to spend in photo show and tell sessions when we return :)
Monday 30 August 2010
11 Days in Tibet - Photos
We've finally managed to get all our photos online. Below is the link to the Tibet photos.
11 Days in Tibet - Everest
Dear reader, you may have noted that for much of our journey so far, the weather hasn't always been kind to us. And indeed, when we arrived at the Tibet-side Everest Base Camp on a cloudy and drizzly August afternoon with barely an iota of the legendary peak in sight, we feared the worst. However, we all agreed that we would trade weeks of bad weather if it meant that on the following morning we got clear weather and a view of Everest.
The Gods were listening.
There's not a single thing that I or Jen could write here that will even begin to encapsulate how it looked and felt to be standing at 5,250m at base camp with a view of Mount Everest in all its glory, so I'm not going to try. These photos won't come remotely close either, but they are - according to an old theory - roughly one thousand times more effective than my words.
Things Jennie will remember about Everest:
1) The smell of burning sheep poo in the traditional Yak fur tent
2) Frantically sniffing oxygen to get rid of a searing altitude headache
3) Toilets that are nothing more than holes in the ground (far from exclusive to Everest unfortunately)
4) Notching up my 'most famous post offices visited' belt by standing in front of the world's highest (this one is especially noteworthy for my granma)
11 Days in Tibet - The Friendship Highway
The Friendship Highway is the magical stretch of road that links Lhasa with Kathmandu in Nepal, and is justifiably regarded as one of the world's truly great journeys. Jen, myself, our four companions plus our guide (Kelsang) and driver (Passang) began it by boarding a minibus approximately 163 years old, which would be our transport for the ensuing week. Kelsang had accompanied us - as regulations dictated he had to - to various sites in Lhasa as well, but it was on the road to Nepal that he really came into his own.
The scenery throughout the journey was little short of breathtaking, even during the times when the weather wasn't ideal (which was often). But even amongst such a torrent of beauty, there were some particular highlights. First up, there was Yamdrok-tso lake, where I still swear they must dye the water blue each morning. At just under 4,500m, the water in the thin mountain air practically shimmers.
We saw the lake within hours of leaving Lhasa, and we were truly lucky that day because soon after came another show-stopper, Kharola Glacier. The skies were grey, but somehow that just made the wall of ice seem all the more mystical and foreboding.
Temples, showcasing both the stunning architecture of Tibetan culture and the lifestyles and customs of different sects of Tibetan monks, were often the order of the day, both in Lhasa and then later on throughout Tibet. At first we assumed that we'd be surefire victims of temple overload, but so interesting and varied were the individual sites that each one offered something different to discover. And when they looked like this one, the Kumbum at Pelkhor Chode Monastery in a little town called Gyantse, it was hard not to be enthralled.
By both the outside (this is the world's highest stupa):
And the inside:
Another town en route, Shigatse, also had a spectacular monastery -Tashilhulpo - with accompanying temples, and the monastery at Sakya also didn't disappoint. We saw both of them eventually, but only after our venerable minibus broke down and we spent a rather hairy night not knowing if we in fact had onward transport through Tibet or not. Thankfully our boys worked their magic and by the following morning the ancient transport was ready and raring to go once more (JEN'S NOTE TO TESTIES: Please note the use of my gifted torch in this photo!):
A note here. Tashilhulpo Monastery is the traditional headquarters of the Panchen Lama, the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama, and the Dalai and Panchen Lamas have a pivotal say in each others' appointment. The current Dalai Lama appointed Gedhun Choekyi Nyima on May 14, 1995. Three days later, he was taken into "protective custody" by the Chinese government and hasn't been seen in public since. The government then appointed their own, unrecognised, Panchen Lama - primarily, it is believed, so that they have some level of control over the appointment of the next Dalai Lama - and you could imagine how the Tibetan people, already borderline second-class citizens in their own land, will feel about that. So, dear friends, we would offer this piece of advice - get to Tibet before the current Dalai Lama passes on, because we reckon it's all going to kick off big style after that.
And let's face it - if you don't go, you won't get to see the monks getting their groove on...
Having crossed our highest highway pass at 5,248m, we began the descent toward the Nepal border with two nights at end-of-the-world towns called Tingri - Old Tingri and New Tingri. Of the two, Old Tingri was unquestionably the more memorable due to the fact that its official population was apparently 130 - 100 humans and 30 dogs. Having spent the night there listening to the cacophonic symphony of the entire dog population howling with neither rest nor respite, I can confidently claim that there are a lot more than 30 dogs in that town. Either that, or the humans joined in at about 3am.
The final descent to the border provided a welcome change of scenery, the mountainous landscapes of previous days being replaced by lush green forest and cascading waterfalls as we descended 3,000m in barely 24 hours. Though, of course, the road wasn't the safest you've ever seen and as such when the rain set in visibility wasn't all that it could be.
Thankfully, neither of these cars was us - though they could easily have been.
There was one other major attraction of the long and winding journey, which was a side-trip off the main highway to the base camp of a little mountain called Everest. But that is the subject of another entry...
Things Jennie will remember about The Friendship Highway:
1) "It is necessary" - the beloved phrase of our guide Kelsang which he used after telling us the time we needed to eat breakfast, which sites we were to visit, relating to permits, eating, drinking, walking, toilet breaks...
2) The prayer flags everywhere - sometimes you'd wonder how they actually managed to string them between the two mountains
3) The back of the mini-bus being more like riding a horse (every so often you had to rise out of the saddle to stop your bottom getting sore)
4) Tibetan noodles - yum yum yum yum yum
5) Mountain coral, turquoise, sky bead jewellery by the millions
6) Crazy masks and Thangka artwork
7) The border town on the side of a hill (Zhangmu) - with lots of rain and regular mudslides, how are the buildings still standing and how do all those trucks carrying goods between Nepal and Tibet make it through those tiny streets in their thousands every day?
8) The group - they were so lovely and I hope we keep in touch
11 Days in Tibet - Lhasa
It was in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, that we teamed up with our comrades-in-arms for the next week-and-a-half. Independent travel isn't allowed in Tibet due to government regulations (and if there's one country's regulations you don't want to be defying, it's China's) and so any foreigners who want to see the place have to be signed up with an official guide. Initially it was just going to be Jen and I with our guide but at the last minute four other travellers jumped on board: Dutch woman Clara - who was coming to the end of a seven-month journey through Asia, Swiss-Welsh (yeah, I know) Sylvia - who had been teaching in China for the past two years, and Polish couple Wojtek and Joanna - who had coincidentally been living within a couple of miles of us in London for several years and who, also like us, were on a year's travel. We were grateful for the extra personnel for two reasons - firstly, they were great people, and secondly it halved the cost of our trip from "will have to sell our first-born child to the Chinese government" down to merely "insanely f@*cking expensive." Travelling in Tibet is not cheap.
Lhasa quickly became one of our very favourite cities - the fascinating Old Town was a vibrant, colourful living museum of Tibetan culture with ancient temples - particularly the city centrepiece Jokhang Temple - and bustling markets where you could lose yourself for hours and even days at a time. The people were friendly and welcoming without being pushy and many still dressed and lived in the traditional Tibetan way. The food was tasty, the beer cheap, and Chinese soldiers armed with automatic weapons lined rooftops to show - as if there was any doubt - just who was in charge. It ticked all the boxes.
While the Tibetan quarter was where we spent most of our time, the newer Chinese city which has developed around it was also a nice surprise - pleasant and attractive, if a little manicured and manufactured in places, it was a class above similar kinds of "new" Chinese towns you would find in other parts of the country.
The most famous attraction in Lhasa is of course the Potala Palace - the former winter residence of the Dalai Lama (not that you're actually allowed to mention him, or even have photographs of him in Tibet, of course). It's one of those buildings that takes the breath away - built into the hillside overlooking the city, it dominates the landscape like few other structures I've ever seen. I'd seen pictures of it before but not one of them did it justice. Neither will these, but here are some anyway.
Oh, and it even had more Chinglish.
Other key sights included Norbulingka, the Summer Palace...
...and attending the daily monks' debate at Sera Monastery, just outside the city. They would signal the delivery of each new argument with a big step and a most confrontational slap of the hands in the direction of their debating opponent - the monk equivalent, it seemed, of "you got served." To say the boys in red get passionate would be to put it mildly.
Things Jennie will remember about Lhasa:
1) The welcoming female monks at the monastery in Lhasa - this lot allowed you to take their picture, how nice
2) First taste of Barley Beer - yum!
3) Pilgrims completing a prayer circuit around the Barkhor and Jokhang Temple - they looked like human caterpillars
4) The smell of incense from the big burners all over the city
And that was that for Lhasa. It was a shame to leave the city, but deeper, wilder Tibet awaited us.
11 Days in Tibet - Into Tibet
Few things in life that you really look forward to end up being as good (or - rarer still - better) than you expected them to be. Tibet, however, was a simply sublime exception to that rule. There's plenty to show and tell for this entry, so I'll split it into four parts - Into Tibet, Lhasa, The Friendship Highway, and Everest.
As I mentioned we were going to in the previous entry, we entered the TAR (Tibet Autonomous Region - yes, they call it that with a straight face) via the worlds highest railway, which at its highest point nudged 5000m and provided some spectacular views. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this journey from Xining through north-west Tibet and down to Lhasa provided more scenic highlights in 20-odd hours than the Trans-Siberian did in five days.
It was a fantastic introduction to Tibet, though as things turned out this initial journey was very much just the tip of a wondrous iceberg.
Things Jennie will remember about this part of Tibet:
1) Well behaved little Chinese girl on the Sky Train - does ADHD exist in China? So far our train journeys make me think not as this little girl entertained herself for 24 hours with nothing more than a squishy ball (like the other little girls on the Hard Seat journey did with a set of cards)
2) The smell of the additional oxygen being pumped into the train to keep you from going a little bit loopy in the altitude
Friday 20 August 2010
The X-Factor
So I'm sitting in our hostel in Xining, getting ready to leave for Tibet, with Jen and I having just enjoyed some well-deserved R&R in X&X - Xi'an and Xining. First up (after a train journey so special it has been the subject of its own entry) was Xi'an - China's ancient capital and the gateway to the legendary silk road. It's fair to say that the city's real glory days have long passed but the history of the place still shines in places like the fascinating Muslim Quarter, the Drum and Bell Towers (now surrounded by traffic islands and shopping centres, just as they must have been in ancient times...) the Old City walls lit up at night, and the fantastically named Big Goose Pagoda, complete with daily fountain show.
Of course, the big drawcard of Xi'an is the world-famous Army of Terracotta Warriors which lies just outside the city. The importance of this site from an archaeological and historical perspective can't be overstated, while as an achievement for its time it was nothing short of extraordinary. That being said, seeing the warriors themselves reconstructed and arranged in formation from a distance inside several huge metal sheds is - dare I say it - ever-so-slightly underwhelming. Though the practicalities of security and preservation of course make it impossible, you do get the feeling that they would be more impressive if able to be seen in the open air and up close.
After Xi'an, another overnight train - which this time was a Hard Sleeper at least - brought us here to Xining, which is to be our jumping-off point for Tibet. At 2,275m above sea level the city is higher than the highest point in either Australia or Britain, though is still considerably less than half the altitude we will eventually reach in Tibet. Despite having more than two million people, Xining has the feel of a provincial city and so has been a nice, relaxing place to do absolutely nothing for a few days.
The highlight of Xining has undoubtedly been Jen's birthday - we were hoping to have been in Tibet for the occasion but the timings didn't quite work out so instead I took her to Xining's famous "28th floor Rotary Western Restaurant" - which means that it's a restaurant of the revolving kind. And the menu was unquestionably one of the most brilliant things I've ever seen - pure Chinglish at its finest.
So tonight we board the train to take the world's highest railway (yes, officially) to Lhasa in Tibet, and hopefully an adventure to remember. Stay tuned, dear readers, to see if the reality lives up to the expectation...
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