It's A Different World
Lhasa, Tibet, China
May 28, 2009
I was awake until after midnight and Bill was awake until 2:30, so it was very early when the alarm went off at 5:15. Bill was even awake before the alarm and turned the bathroom light on. The light was in my eyes because the bathroom has glass blocks!
Bill showered and we finished packing up. I had the last two peaches and an apple with peanut butter for breakfast.
I quickly glanced at emails on the wait out while Bill checked us out and got our 400 yuan deposit back. They are big on taking deposits in China, it is strange especially since we had already paid for our room through Expedia...
The taxi was 40 yuan plus 10 yuan for the toll. We were dropped at one end of the airport and had to walk to the other end to check in with Air China. At first we did not understand what the ticket agent wanted, but a tour agent assisted us and let us know that he wanted to see our permit for Tibet that we had picked up at the tour office on Monday.
We were going to use the internet, but it was 38 yuan, so we passed.
We boarded on time and were in the air before 8:00 am on the Air Bus 330.
I dozed off for 10 or 15 minutes and then they started the service. We were served breakfast - a bun, gruel (rice porridge) with pickled radish, cold cucumber and beef salad and melon. I had some water and tea, Bill had water. They handed out headphones, but we did not use them. I am sure that there was no English programs. I did finish "All That Remains".
We had a good view of the Himalayas as we were descending. We are landing right in the middle of them. Not like Calgary where the mountains are so far away.
I wanted to use the toilet before we collected our luggage, but there was a mad rush and 5 - 10 ladies jumped ahead of me. I did not feel like waiting there, so I went out to the luggage area with Bill. There was another mad rush when the bags started arriving. Once again, people were running toward the belt. We saw another girl with a Roots sweatshirt, her and her friend are from Montreal.
Our guide, Pasang (sounds like Passa and means Friday - the day he was born) met us. He had a difficult time finding our driver in the parking lot, so we had to wait a few minutes. It is very nice out. It is only supposed to be 12 degrees celsius, but it feels warmer because the sky is clear and it is very sunny. It is so nice to see the sky!!! We have not been rained on very much in the past few days, but it has still been overcast and hazy.
Pasang gave us white scarves to welcome us to Tibet. How nice! Shingsure pulled up in a van and we dumped our bags in and hopped in.
Our drive from the airport is 65 kms. Luckily a new road and tunnel were built 3 years ago, so it takes around an hour instead of two. The new tunnel goes through the mountain and is 2.44 km long. Before the tunnel we went over Yarlong Tsangpo River (something to do with the Burma Buddha?).
The population of Lhasa is around 400,000, so the capitol of Tibet is quite large in comparison to the total province population of 2.84 million people. Lhasa is 3,658 meters above sea level, so altitude sickness can be an issue due to the altitude and the lack of vegetation. There are very few trees and there is more sand on the mountains than snow.
Our road is following along the Lassa River and I saw my first yak! He was standing by the water and was completely black. We saw many others along the way. There are ones that are black with white faces that freak me out, they look like skeleton heads!
We saw a tern flying above the water and a black and white bird with a red head.
We saw some long, low brick buildings that are cellars/storage for fruits and vegetables that belong to Chinese people for the markets.
We were told not to take pictures of the soldiers. We have seen a lot in the city and lots of police too. The soldiers have riot gear on.
We also saw some dairy cows (a few looked holstein), gray cinder block homes, everything is very dry (my hair is almost straight), very few trees, yak patties drying on rocks.
We stopped at a spot where there was an Indian Buddha painted on the rock. There were colourful flags and white scarves hanging everywhere on the rocks. Mr Guo told us that the colours of the Prayer flags mean: blue - sky, white - clouds, yellow - earth, red - fire, and green - river. Pasang told us that the scarves are tied or released here during the Tibetan New Year. There are white ladders painted on some rocks, they are for assisting the spirit or mind to climb to heaven when the body is dead. There were 3 other Buddhas painted there too. The middle one is the Buddha of long life.
I dozed off for another few minutes in the van and was having some dreams when we arrived at Mandala Hotel. It is very bright and traditionally decorated in the lobby and in our room. I saw some computers and internet is 10 yuan per hour! YEAH! I have a feeling I don't want to fall behind here. There is going to be lots to see and do in the next few days.
We laid down for an hour and Pasang is going to come back to meet us. Bill could not figure out how to turn on the TV and could not sleep. He kept flopping around on the rock hard single bed we are sharing. Therefore, I did not sleep either.
We met Pasang in the lobby at 1:00 and he had not had any luck finding an English map. Dang!
We walked through the market - there is some sort of flour that Pasang is trying to describe to me. It is very special for Tibet and is used with sugar, butter, milk... I said "bread" and he said, "no", so I am not sure what it is for. Cake? Religious offering?
There was yak butter in the market - very cool! There was watermelons, eggplants, different mushrooms, tomatoes, peaches,...
Lots of people are in traditional outfits. The women have long braids wrapped around their heads or have head scarves. They have blouses, vests, long skirts and aprons. The men have fedoras or long braids like the women (some even have dyed red hair on the top). They wear pants and suit jackets. They are walking around with their prayer beads and prayer wheels. A lot of people are worshipping in parks or on the sidewalks, not just in temples. Many people kneel and then slide their bodies forward (like an inch worm or the ab roller). They either stay stationary or stand up and move forward. I pointed out to Bill that they are doing this on the sidewalk where people hork. We both gagged a little.
We had lunch at Lhasa Kitchen. Pasang recommended Yak Momo's (dumplings) and yak salad (lettuce on the bottom, marinated cold yak slices, tomatoes and onions). They were both superb. The meat was so tender and seasoned very well. I also had masala tea (more spicy than Lijiang, yum). Bill ordered BBQ yak which turned out to be spiced like Indian food. His stomach is still bothering him, so he could not eat it even though he really enjoyed the taste. We also had some yak butter tea which is less salty than Lijiang and was good. Bill tried it, but stuck with a large bottle of Lhasa beer instead. Lunch was a reasonable 73 yuan and I ate way too much because Bill is not eating. The tourists had mostly emptied out by the time we left the restaurant. It had been very busy. The staff spoke English very well. Yeah! I guess Tibet is more interested in foreigners than the rest of China.
Pasang taught us that for beer you have to pour 3 times and sip 3 times. "Shapta" means cheers, but you are supposed to drink it all. "Goon Come Saw" means greetings.
We walked to a bookstore to try and find a map, but had no luck. Pasang left us to explore on our own. We were near Potala (home of the Dalai Lama), so we took some photos. We were not a big hit with the military when I wanted to take a picture of a neat closed door, not sure why, but I did not argue. We were a big hit with the kids though. They were saying "hello", "good morning" and "thank you" to us (I gave a few kids some stickers on their hands). They are really cute and their mothers were very friendly. I am glad to see that Bill does not scare Tibetan children.
It took us a while to hail a cab. He did not start the meter, but we managed to communicate 10 yuan for the ride. We showed him our brochure for the hotel and the map on the back. Bill was pretty sure that he was going the wrong way and I was completely turned around, so I did not know. He dropped us off 10 minutes later in an alley that Bill and I knew was not our hotel. Bill was so exhausted at this point, but we had no choice, but to walk. Bill was able to figure out where we were right away and we used our very undetailed "sketch" in our Eyewitness travel guide. It took us an hour, but we found our way back to the hotel around 4:00.
We tried napping in separate beds but I can hear Bill flopping around. He has figured out the TV, but there are no English channels; for some reason this does not deter him from channel surfing! Then he was too hot and turned on the a/c which was blowing on me. We switched beds and I was finally able to sleep around 4:30 until 7:00.
We walked back to the tourist area and I looked at a nice pashmina that was 185 yuan and a gray scarf for 35 yuan. I think the prices are higher here than in Lijiang. There is a lot of jewellery with turquoise and cow/yak skulls (like Arizona, interesting). There are incense burners, prayer beads, prayer wheels, clothes, and many more good things to buy.
We went to Anglamedo Restaurant and I ordered yak pie (like a quesadilla with ground yak and spring onions) and water. Bill ordered a yak burger with fries and Lhasa Beer. The pie was very good and the burger was very juicy! Yak is good. It is even better than bison. The restaurant was playing Beetles music and all of the staff spoke English. We played a round of Rummy and I lost. Boo!
We came back to the hotel. I blogged for today and Bill headed up to the room. I hope he can get some sleep!