7 days in Tibet (well first 2 days I guess)

I'm not sure how much I'm going to write today. It's the first time I've been on the internet since I last wrote. I been through most of Tibet now, well from Lhasa. My hotel is only a few hundred meters from the Chinese border, another 8km to Nepal but my time in Tibet is coming to an end.

It was quite an interesting way to spend a week. I think this is day 7 of what was supposed to be a 9 day ride. I think 9 days was a bit too ambitious for us. Let me go back to the beginning now. If only I had my camera on me to jog my memory a bit.

We met our driver, Dawa, at about 8 in front of our hotel. He pulled up and the number 7 was displayed on the back of the Landcruiser. Lucky 7, I thought. We left Lhasa and shortly thereafter we saw a Landcruiser flipped over in the ditch. Nice way to start things (no accident is forthcoming in the narrative, just to let you know). We drove further and eventually came to Yagrem Lake (something with a Y anyway). It was a pretty nice lake but honestly growing up with the Canadian Rockies not far away it's hard to impress me with mountains and lakes. So we were on the top of the pass. It took forever to climb this hill with our slow driver and all these loops. We could see the same village at the base of the mountains for at least an hour or two. We got to the top and got out. I was scammed a little bit up there but not more than $5. I sat on a yak and had my picture taken. I gave her 20 yuan since I didn't have a fiver. She said everyone else in the group would get their picture taken and then no change would be needed. The others all paid seperately so I lost about $2 there. Then I had my picture taken with some dog. Not that special really and the dog and camera were thrust upon me rather quickly. Another $2 gone. I guess I need more pictures of myself on this trip anyway.

We were listening to some CDs in the 4x4. We decided to shell out an extra 500 yuan (umm, $70 per person over the course of 9 days) for a new vehicle, a '98 we were told. It came with a CD player as luck would have it. Shortly after passing the lake our driver stops and gets out of the 4x4 and looks under the hood. He never told us anything he did. Gets back in and we're off. Maybe 20 minutes later we just stop and stay there for 20 minutes or so. Something wrong with the engine or something. Dawa was a poor communicator. Anyways, we keep going and stopping for quite awhile. Eventually we reach some village. He tells us to go eat and everything will be fixed. OK. Actually, we called the agency and told them about the vehicle. At first, they don't know who we are or why we'd called. Finally, after speaking with our driver (Dawa speaks virtually no English btw), they figure it out. They'll fix the vehicle and send us a new one the next day. Whatever.

Somehow, we make it to the next place, Gyantse (no idea where we stopped for lunch to pay for an expensive buffet). We get there and aren't too impressed. So this is the least Chinese influenced city in Tibet? We decide to walk around and then leave in a few hours. We see some fort but it doesn't seem worth paying the entrance fee. We walk in as far as possible before getting caught and leaving. We decide there's not much to see in Gyantse and decide to continue to Shigatse (Tibet's number 2 city after Lhasa). Turns out we missed quite a lot in Gyantse. We didn't explore the Tibetan part of the town (no wonder it didn't seem very Tibetan) and we missed the monastery there. I saw it from the car at least. No going back now, I guess.

Shigatse we did something similar. We missed the big draw there as well in favour of a smaller one. We took a minibus to go see this monastery next to some tiny village. It was really nice actually. I don't know what to say about it really. We saw some little rooms with iconic images which wasn't too impressive actually. I felt a bit like an intruder there. All these buddhist monks and buddhists doing their worship (or whatever you want to call it) and me and my travel companions, mind you I wasn't with them for a lot of the time there. The most impressive part was seeing all these monks doing chants in the main room. I wasn't sure if I should be in there or not. I crept along the out walls (there were other tourists there so I didn't feel too bad) but then some monk who wasn't part of the ceremony smiled at me so I figured it was ok. There were only 3 other tourists there the whole time. A bit disrespectful I must say photographing with the flash on in there. I admit I took a short video with my little camera but there was no flash. Walking around the little halls around the main area with all these chants and drums was quite an experience. Maybe it was more that I felt I was intruding and was like some kind of spirituality spy.

We left the monastery and decided to hike up to the hermitage on the hill. We got to the base of the hill and 2 boys with a cart and donkey decided to offer us a ride. Vanessa was feeling a bit tired so she negotiated a 12c ride to the top. That donkey was slow and she lagged behind quickly. The boys only took her part way before renogociating at which point Vanessa got out and we waited 5-10 minutes for her to catch up. The hermitage wasn't all that impressive. We got to the top and took a break. There was a nice shrine that I would've gone to see had there not been a giant ravine that I had to walk around. I finished my Harry Potter book there at this buddhist hermitage in Tibet. Sam and Scott decided to go while the French Mauritian girls and I took a little nap. They actually got some holy water poured over their heads up there. I regretted that I didn't go a bit but realized I didn't really believe in that so what was the point in going through an empty spiritual ritual. I kind of wish I'd gone but oh well.

We got back to the village. We found some farmer and hopped on his little tractor to get back to the highway. We waited at this other village along the highway for quite awhile. We were passed by by all kinds of vehicles. Hitching was really the only way back. Half empty busses didn't even stop. Eventually some truck stops for us and we ride back to Shigatse atop all these glass bottles, can, and other various assortments of garbage for about 45 minutes. I had this bag of broken glass or something else very sharp under one leg. We made do.

We were going to go to the other big monastery in Tibet (home to the Panchen lama) but were too tired. We decided to just drive by the next day. That was kind of a mistake. Turns out it's this giant complex that is essentially a village inside the town. The Panchen lama is second to the Dalai Lama who is in exile. You can hang pictures of the Panchen lama and he is quite visible around Tibet. He's kind of like Beijing's poster guy for Buddhism. Tells Tibetans what Beijing wants him to. Actually he was a bit more rebelious than Beijing had hoped (he was appointed by the govt) but anyways. We quickly ran up to take a few photos and then left. Another high entrance fee and an impatient driver waiting for us.

Tibetans seem to all know at least 3 words. Hello, sorry, and money. They say hello, then sorry, and then hold out their hands for money. I must say I wasn't that generous. It depends on the place too. The city beggars have their beggary pretty well laid out. I remember one group of Tibetans walking by. The woman has her mouth full with this giant bun she was eating and she holds out her hand as they are walking by and says 'money, money.' Then she kind of shrugs her shoulders and moves on. All without stopping mind you. It was a bit depressing to see at times but you can't help everyone so my solution was to help no one. Cruel, I know.

Anyways, Scott stayed in the car while we went to the gates. Some kid came up to the window 'money, money.' Scott decides to give them a bun or something. One kid runs up the window and just grabs a couple from the bag. Can't reward the thief and punish the innocent so our breakfast disappeared pretty quickly.

I think that's all I'll go into for today. There should be something up here in the next few days. I plan to spend a few days in the next place I go so there'll be plenty of time to update my English teacher turned vagabond traveller blog.