Updating you from Shigatse, about four days cycling out of Lhasa - yep, you read this right, it means we actually did make it to Tibet (though not entirely without excitement!) Contrary to previous forecasts, it is actually Hamish who has been complaining about the altitude (he had a bit of a sicky our first day up) while I'm griping about the food (not that it's bad, just that you are always hungry!) but otherwise we are doing well. We managed two (three if you count base camp, but we aren't really) 5,000+ meter passes already, chased off at least half a dozen dogs (and twice that many children) with well-placed rocks (it is ok to throw rocks at kids if they throw them first ..H ) (ladies, never cycle-tour with a guy who lacks a decent throwing arm! -L), taught our driver and guide to play Pounce (sort of like very heated four-person solitaire, a Zell family tradition) and have generally enjoyed ourselves very much wind/ rain/ snow/ INCREADIBLY bad roads notwithstanding.
Now, for those of you with the time/ interest, the day by day blows are below :-)
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Leaving Nepal, we managed to hitch a ride on the first bus going across the border, which happened to have an Intrepid tour group on it. They were all very friendly, though no doubt wondered why two bikes were usurping what was really meant to be backpack space on the top of the bus (all Aussies and Kiwis, which I imagine is why they were so polite despite this!) As we drove past the road blocks we'd seen previously, we noted a few new additions - more felled trees, more rocks, and a couple of spots where someone did in fact blow something up (usually a retaining wall of some sort.) Also a couple of burned out trucks. So we decided we didn't feel tooo bad about taking the bus. (The tour group could not believe that we had been turned around by the Maoist's and that the road is controlled by the Maoist's... H)
Once at the border, our (extremely cool - this guy should have been an extra in the Brad Pitt Tibet movie!) guide Jabu and driver Dongten met us. We decided that because we were three days behind schedule, we'd go ahead and go straight to Nyalam (3700 meters), originally to have been our day 3. This allowed me to ride in the truck for my first - and I swore my last - time ever. Riding at the "disco" end of the truck, you definitely get the chance to shake, rattle, and roll up a very nasty road. (I sat in the front of the truck for the first part and missed Leah peeing into a basin while we shaked rattled and rolled up the road. A mean fate that as a boy I would not try...H) Anyway, about 3 hours later we arrived - in the middle of a snow/ rainstorm with a VERY cold wind (can you say "what have we done????!!!") We bundled ourselves into a guesthouse, where Hamish proceeded to have a pretty rough night and next morning. Luckily, a slow day, a bit of Diamox, and a lot of water sorted him out and one day later we were ready to ride.
The first two days were pretty short of necessity - in total you go straight from Zhangmu on the border at 2200meters (remember, we skipped the 2200-3700 bit) straight up to a 5,000 meter pass - not easy when not acclimated, and we were trying to manage this carefully.
Day 1
Cycling, we rode 20K's and camped at 4000 meters. En route, saw Milarepas cave and some amazed French people in a land rover. Not bad roads, not much wind, not too many trucks - Hamish and I cooked up a heap of lentils and rice, which I accidentally added a little too much chili to - oops. Poor Jabu and Dongten never knew what hit them, and we had to pass out biscuit chasers to cool down burnt mouths. They haven't tried lentils since, although we've gotten them to have a few of our other campfire specialties.
Day 2.
In theory, we only had 26K's to do with about 500 meters climbing - throw in a head wind, and watch your world crumble. It took us nearly 3 hours to do 26K's, and it was absolutely exhausting. In retrospect, the roads weren't that bad (keep in mind washboard (e.g. corrugations), sand, rocks, etc. are the normal state of the roads) but the 40km/hr wind was soul-destroying. We arrived in camp shattered, with the knowledge that the next day we somehow had to fight up the same direction to cross the pass. It was a quiet night in camp. (I was asleep by 8pm having pulled the 26 km into the headwind. It just about killed me. Give me Genting any day...H)
Day 3.
Up early to try to avoid as much of the wind as possible, and up the (first, 5050m) pass (two in total, double pass). We actually made extremely good time, hitting the top in just under an hour and a half (we almost beat the boys, who were very surprised to see us.) I'm pretty sure we were pushed along by the phenomenal mountain views that greeted us about half-way up (to that point, we were sure we were cycling the wrong way as the mountains were all behind us!) Unfortunately, the second wasn't as simple - super-sandy roads and another nasty headwind made it a complete grovel. Hamish pulled like a champ, and eventually we were over and on our way down. The wind didn't slow down, but it did turn into a cross/ tailwind eventually, strong enough that both of us were nearly off the road and our bikes a couple of times on the descent.
The stop that night was a crazy little town called "Men Pu" - town is probably a bit of overkill, but it had a couple of houses and a tea house/ guesthouse, and we were very happy to stay between mud walls and eat food we hadn't cooked (that didn't involve instant noodles!) Highlights of the stay - exploring a crazy ramshackle old fortress up on a hill that I can't imagine many people get to see (b/c who would stop here??), having the younger son chase all the kiddies away from our door with well-aimed rocks (ah, Hamish and I look at each other as the light dawns, works on kiddies too!), talking to the family (the younger ones spoke enough Mandarin for us to have a pretty decent conversation) and pulling out our own family photos, etc., staging an impromptu portrait session for three generations (grandma, mum, baby and add-ons). So a very fun night. ( We will send the photos to the guest house from Lhasa. Good fun ...H)
Day 4
Onto Tingri - a "Town" - well, sort of. Riding up the valley, we passed ruins of fortresses every five minutes, and I think you could spend a week in the area just exploring these if you were so inclined - a wild but amazing area. Decent fairly flat road with variable winds, so we made pretty good time in - we were very happy to encounter asphalt (after a particularly nasty rocky washboard-y stretch) for the last five K's into town - we absolutely flew up these. Tingri isn't exceptional, but it is the starting point into the Everest region, and out the back window we had a phenomenal view of Everest, Lhotse, and Cho Oyu (we also had a door that couldn't shut and a wind tunnel for a loo that blew in EXACTLY the wrong direction, but some things you have to be prepared to sacrifice :-).) The wind wouldn't quit, and we did a bit of wash and fortunately tied everything to the drying line - only to look up and see poor Jabu chasing his socks across the alkali (salt) fields! Oops! We also bought some cheap Chinese cards here for pounce, and marked the backs of the decks with a marker to keep them separating. The markings were pretty enlightening - Hamish and I put relatively mundane squares and lines on ours, while Dongten drew on "A" and Jabu wrote "Om" on all his - in Tibetan!
Day 5
We decided to take Cas' advice and go "the back way" into the Everest region. Jabu said the road was pretty bad, and as we'd already decided base camp was a side trip for us, we made liberal use of the truck - fortunately, because this "road" made everything we'd seen pale in comparison! From our direction it was a headwind, but at various times we were crossing massive boulder fields, rivers, and just about any obstacle you can imagine - at a height of 4900-5000 meters! Pretty crazy, and we were more than happy not to ride it. Arriving at Rongbuk (the world's highest monastery), we had a walk around and to see who was there - proved to be a couple who were trying to hitch/ walk from Lhasa to Kathmandu, and a tour group from Nepal (all of whom, as expected, were sick. Black humor, but whenever we pull into a town with a guesthouse and are feeling a bit shattered, we say "lets go look at the sick people!" - at least we're acclimatized as we've actually had to ride up the hills to get here!)
Day 6
We rode up to base camp (4800 - 5300 meters) - not really what you'd expect as although the road is (again) really bad, you can basically drive a car all the way to base camp! (8km - one hour of hard cycling... H) Anyway, we had lovely views of Everest and featured in a lot of the photos of a group of Chinese tourists up there at the same time, had a look around all the tents, and headed back down to Rongbuk and then on down to Tashi Dzom.
(Base Camp was not what I had expected. On rolling over the top of the hill you are greeted by a Tibetan tent village, complete with tent hotels and restaurants, and maybe even a movie theater if you looked hard enough. Spread out over the glacial terminal (end of the glacier) you have 300 little climbing tents in clusters. This is the true base camp for the expeditions. Quite a sight and I can only imagine the traffic jam that will be happening in early May on the top of Everest... H)
A note re. the "sick people". Rongbuk is about 4800 meters, which is pretty high - high enough that even our poor driver, Dong Ten, a Tibetan, had a decent bout of altitude sickness there. Luckily he felt better once we dropped down the next day (in fact we only knew it was altitude-induced was we did drop down and he was back to his happy normal self!) We haven't (knock on wood) had any trouble past Nyalam, so are feeling pretty fortunate!)
Down to Tashi Dzom, where we ran into a couple of Italian cyclists (Ralph and Thomas) riding from Lhasa to Kathmandu (for anyone interested, it appears you can do this LEGALLY unsupported! We have met a few folks doing the same, and it's getting to be pretty standard. However, you still can't go the other way w/o the whole truck/ driver/ guide scenario - and definitely you can't go east from Lhasa to China without running the checkpoints!) Really lovely guys, really interested in the truck :-) - they did boy things and compared camera size all night with Hamish while I played Pounce with Dongten and Jabu (Dongten is getting really good at this btw, and I think within a year there won't be a Tibetan truck driver that doesn't know the game!) Anyway, I think we endeared ourselves to the Italians (who actually spoke German - northern Italy - so that was another funny as I started mixing up my German and mandarin to all and sundry) by giving them two Snickers bars - which out here are pretty much gold to hungry cyclists.
Day 7
We headed back out to the main road from the base camp region, and rode from there up to about 4800 meters to get a leg up on our next (50K, 5200 m) pass. Another cold night's camping and dinner in the "Truck Hotel", and the next morning saw us heading up the pass. We both felt a lot better this time round, and were over the pass in around three hours - and then we got to go down the other side. Pity the poor fools who ride up this hill - suffice it to say, it was a 26K downhill, we didn't have to pedal ONCE to get down it - and it still took an hour and a half. BAD roads. Would not want to ride up it. End of story. Ended in Lhatse, a town not on anyone's "Tibet Highlights" tour - not cheap, no facilities, and in future would probably ride past it and just camp. No worries.
Day 8
Meant to be 70K's to a camp, turned into 95 (into another headwind, over a 4900 meter pass, a snow/rainstorm, etc. etc.) We noticed a lot more traffic on the road immediately - where dust had only seemed a nuisance before, suddenly it was a lot more than that. For about 90 minutes we were battling a solid line of trucks and land cruisers - then suddenly, nothing. We estimated that they all must have been coming from Shigatse, and had left within an hour of each other. The day finally ended in a "town" (after I'd blown a gasket at the wind and rain, admittedly), with tired legs all round, especially for Hamish who once again was a total champ into the headwind. We had some "kiddie troubles" on this stretch, and I nearly ran over one little (not really so little actually) girl who grabbed Hamish's back panniers (I was behind him, so had to steer to miss her.) In retrospect, probably would have run over her but was worried it might damage my bike. Most redeeming feature of the town had to be Tibet's cutest little girl ever at the teahouse we stayed in, and the fact that I finally beat the boys at Pounce (also that it was 25K's closer to Shigatse than our intended camping spot!)
Day 9
Into Shigatse (Tibet's "2nd City") - once we'd gotten past the prerequisite 90 minutes of dusting (thick, choking, nasty stuff - can't see can't breathe. Interestingly, the land cruiser/ range rover crowd is the worst. They blow by at 90 million miles an hour, while the chinese truck drivers move over and wave!). Suddenly not just a town but a city! Massive monastery and pilgrimage routes on the hills, stuff to buy (and of course by this we mean food!) everywhere, a HOT SHOWER (our first since we crossed the border on the 13th. Yep, we were stinky.) From here it's an early morning start to Gyantse tomorrow morning, Tibet's "3rd city". We're trying to arrive in time to see what is meant to be a very impressive monastery and fortress before they close. From there it is three cycling days to Lhasa (although these could be a bit messy - road construction on the main road is forcing many vehicles to take the "alternate" route - e.g. OURS!) and then a week of well-earned laziness before we head off to eastern Tibet.
(Comments from Shigatse - a shower all 20 minutes of it to get me clean, and I have short hair and a mean beard. Leah took twice as long (I had to wash out the dreadlocks (4 shampoos!) - and to think some people have to work to cultivate them! -L). Clothes washing was a mission. We hand washed everything, only after 2 water rinses was I brave enough to try and wash the clothes. Even then the water turned silty and a horrible shade of gray, the same color Leah was at the end of the last two days due to the dust. My mean beard is protecting me from the worst of it. Other highlights - Chinese supermarket of junk food, and fresh deep fried potato chips to warm you up later in the day. They also have the added advantage of added putting on some of the 5kgs I have lost so far....H)
(Speaking of Kgs....for the ladies only. If every you should cycle this route, but sure to bring TWO sports bras - one normal, one "mini-me". The first time you see the roads, you will thank me! Sadly, I haven't noticed this trend in the cycle shorts department.... -L)
Day 10
From Shigatse was a simple 94K sealed section to Gyatse (a little over 100 meters total elevation gain with a final height at 3900-ish meters, so flat!). After all the time spent on dirt, tarmac was a welcome relief except that 94K’s on a mountain bike is still a decent effort, and once again we were heading straight into the wind (Cas, where are those tailwinds you promised us? Didn’t see hide nor hair of them from Lhatse on!) Adding spice to the day was the fact that we were really trying to get in as early as possible, so as to see the famous Pelkor Choide monastery and Gyatse Dzong, a fortress towering above town. We arrived after just over four hours of riding, with the last 14K’s straight into a strong headwind and a decent snowstorm (luckily we weren’t higher/ crossing any passes that day!).
A bit tired but determined to change out of cycling gear and head directly to the monastery, we encountered a bump in the road at the hotel. Gyatse only really has about four “foreigners and overseas visitors allowed” hotels. People rarely stay more than a day (if you saw the rest of the town you’d know why - not pretty by a long stretch!), and there’s a room rate oligopoly in full force. Hamish went in to enquire about a room - probably a mistake we won’t be making in the future in a town like this. First, reasonable common rooms were available - oops, then they disappeared. Then, double rooms with shared baths were an option - oops, none of those either. “What is available?” he asks, turning red under his (very full, very Scottish, very ¨grungy cyclist-ish〃) beard. Only double suites with bathroom, at a going rate of 200+Rmb. Not a happy camper, between the two of us we manage to make it clear that there is no way a New Zealander is going to pay 200Rmb for a room (equiv. USD25). Eventually they come down to 150Rmb (still @ USD20) after a few more exchanges, and we go up to our “luxury suite” only to find it apparently doesn’t come equipped with electricity, hot water, or enough water pressure to wet a napkin. Hamish took great pleasure in walking past a Japanese tour group arriving later in the evening in a sarong headed for the common showers and commenting that “if there were enough water pressure for me to get my hair wet, I wouldn’t be down here” (and we all know how much hair Hamish has, beard notwithstanding!). (More like I can piss harder than your shower has water pressure..- H). Embarrassed looks (and consternation on the part of the Japanese!) all round.
Pelkor Chode monastery is worth the trouble though –smoky, old, weathered and used, it is not in nearly as good knick as the one in Shigatse, but a noticeably pagan feel makes it very interesting all the same. Also, the separate “Kumbum” (literal translation 1000 images) has Buddha’s crammed into every nook and cranny in separate cells spread over 6 stories - you can’t help it, by the top you find yourself saying “and there’s yellow Buddha and green Buddha and roller-blade Buddha and capitalist Buddha” so I think 6 floors is probably enough (also we had a little discussion here with a little man (not a monk) about whether we would pay a “fee” or leave the camera with him - apparently not possible to just say we wouldn’t take pictures and then have monks follow us around making sure we didn’t do so! So naturally, after having to pay the fee, we now have Buddha pictures til the cows come home). From the monastery we walked to the fortress, a massive structure that towers over the town and all the surroundings. It isn’t maintained per se, but it wasn’t intentionally destroyed in the 1950’s, which makes it an interesting place to see (also, this is the fortress the British took when they first “invaded/ scouted” Tibet in the early 1900’s, etc. etc. so a bit of history.) Again a snag - there is one of the typical “China the motherland etc. etc.” museums halfway up the fortress, which charges admission, while the walk up to the top of the fortress is theoretically free. 4/5 of the way up we ran into a ticket seller, who said she would sell us a ticket to walk up the fortress AND see the museum - apparently not enough people were visiting under their own volition. Tix not being cheap, we nixed this idea, and instead climbed up a side roof (still in the “allowed region”), childishly pleased and masters of all we surveyed (from about 50 feet below the top.). (Still had a great view and denied the Chinese woman our hard earned cash- H).
Off to dinner, but first one more minor hitch (somehow in Gayatse we encountered more than the normal share of hitches!) Turned out the road to Lhasa was to be closed May 1, the exact day we were to be riding into the city. Our option was to either manage to spend an extra day in the next four planned cycling days “somewhere” (Sure as hell was not going to be Gyantse..- H), OR to cut a day and do four days worth of riding in three. Naturally, we chose the sensible option.
Day 11
We set out with the secret goal of managing a massive day from Gayatse all the way over both the Simi and Karo La passes. Funnily enough, it was our best day of riding in the entire trip, daunting task notwithstanding. All the signs seemed propitious when we passed the “cheap” tour bus from Kathmandu on the side of the road with a mechanical failure (this bus has showered us with dust in passing an hour earlier). We proceeded up the switchbacks to the first pass with panache, knowing we were followed by 20 pairs of envious eyes (although they did eventually pass us again before the day was over!). En route we rode past a gorgeous emerald green (man-made) lake with a fortress plunked right in the middle on an island, and at the top encountered two (French?) cyclists en route to Kathmandu. We had a bit of a chat (they had a phenomenal amount of gear, including backpacks!, all on the back of their bikes! It didn’t look comfortable, but they were planning on bussing passes so likely they’ll be OK), traded info, and continued on. The road was lovely - hard, smooth, with almost no traffic. Even the kids were good - polite, lots of “high 5’s”, and not a rock thrown all day. (From the kids that is not Leah – H)
Lunch was at a small green oasis approximately 60K’s on near the town of Ra Lung (where we’d originally thought we’d stop for the day.) We knew the pass top was at 75K’s, and from there we needed to get down to the camp, but it seemed doable. Continuing up the valley, the road climbed gradually, and at the valley’s end we could see what we thought must be the road snaking its way up the side. Wrong. First, it started to snow. Then, the road took a violent turn right, snaking up a valley between two 7,000+ meter peaks that looked decidedly nasty (I’m pretty sure if Dante had thought up a level that involved snow, it would have looked like this! We both looked at each other with naked terror in our expressions.) 8K from the top the road became rough, stony, and shaley, with a 3K section with the gradient regularly at 19% (not a joke!) To put it in perspective, I was on my granny gear on a mountain bike and barely maintaining forward momentum and this was at 5000m! We did see our first wild deer and sheep running across the road (as lord knows no human would actually live up here! Or so we thought), but apart from these, rocks, and snow, we didn’t see much for a while (or too busy breathing and cursing to notice…).
Then suddenly we were over the section and the road flattened to a more reasonable climb through a valley that opened to the base of one of the peaks. It had a glacier cascading down it almost to the road-side and was in retrospect the most lovely (and it must be said, totally atypical) thing we’d seen over the entire route. We stared (and gasped) for a while, before continuing on (NOT the top, as luck would have it but luckily only another 2K’s, although at 5,000m that still seems a pretty long way!) Finally we hit the real top, the real prayer flags, took a celebratory piccie, and headed down over the other side to find a place to camp. Our camping spot ended up being under another picture-perfect mountain at 4800 meters, and we fell into bed the minute the lentils were finished that night. Stats for the day - 6 hours of cycling for Hamish (6:15 for me), 85K’s, 1300 vertical meters climbed (from 3900 to 5100 plus the extra pass in the middle – so all at altitude…). Big day all round.
Day 12
The next morning Dong Ten (the truck driver/ womaniser/ closet chef – H) whipped up rice porridge for us using the previous evening’s leftover rice, (he was extremely proud of this - Hamish had to eat two bowls before he was happy that we liked it) and we were off! We had another pass to climb today and another long day ahead, but were counting on some of the downhill we’d earned to help us out. In theory, the downhill to Nagartse (a shit hole town), our next town on the shores of lake Yamdrok-Tso, should have been fast - in fact, the road was washboard all the way, making even 16Kph a stretch. We had our first ‘multi-dog attack pack’ at one of the road workers camps en route, but luckily flew off the bikes and started hurling anything we could find in any direction remotely related to where the dogs were, and this worked a charm (in general the dogs aren’t so bad during the day, but you really don’t want to run into them at night!!!)
5K’s out of Nagartse, we encountered our first (but not to be our last on this day) concerted bit of road construction - and it just kept going. For the next 60K’s (at an average of 15km/hr) we were crossing re-routed rivers, jumping off and back onto re-routes that were at various times sand, mud, rock, and water. We were stopped a couple of times while they dynamited something up ahead, and at one stage climbed with bikes along the side of a sheer rock drop to get around a truck being loaded with stones (while clinging to whatever we could hold onto on the truck itself to keep from falling off the cliff!) Suffice it to say, we didn’t quite make the time we expected to - instead, by the time we hit 60K’s we’d already been riding 4 hours, and the pass was up ahead. A further complication - the truck couldn’t come over the pass with us (again, road construction!) but instead could only meet us at a point about 25K’s after the top - meaning our day was looking like a total of 110 K’s, a big one on these roads. Camping this side of the pass wasn’t an option either, with road workers camps every 500 meters in any likely spot. It was looking like a long day as we started up the pass.
(Note: to this point we’d been riding along the edge of Yamdrok-Tso, so-called ¨Scorpion Lake〃 because someone who must have been smoking something once thought it looked like a scorpion - we couldn’t see it, even with altitude-induced hallucinations! – not to worry, the lake is lovely! An incredible shade of blue and ring-fenced by mountains on all sides - there is even green grass on the lakeside, which we couldn’t believe after so much brown and gray! Unfortunately, the construction and 86,000 “hello”’s did distract from it a little.)
So on up the pass – approximately a 400 meter gain, nothing we hadn’t managed before, but the non-stop construction site made it a lot more 'interesting'. I confess I was heartily sick of Chinese road construction crews already, and wasn’t relishing passing another 100 of them en route. We had been told at the bottom that the pass was open, however, so the truck proceeded up ahead of us and wasn’t stopped (all good), and traffic coming down seemed to indicate this was the case. Half-way up, and making good time, we came around the corner to find the truck stopped. Hearts in mouths, we cycled up to it. Turns out, the pass WAS closed, and all traffic rerouted (this couldn’t be communicated at the bottom???!!!!) – which meant descending all the altitude we’d gained on a side-road, a 70K detour round the lake, and then starting another pass from the bottom. Hamish looked about ready to cry – I wasn’t far behind. We discussed – they “might” let the bikes up – or they might turn us around in another 5-6K’s, at which point the truck would be long gone on the detour, and we’d have no way of contacting them. It was already 3:30 in the afternoon – no matter how we did it, it would be a long day. Unhappy, Hamish turned his bike around – he at least wanted to ride the downhill he’d earned. At the bottom, we put bikes in truck (and here I, the optimist, had assumed we’d seen the inside for the last time already!) and started on the detour.
Once we'd finally got round the 40K's to the bottom of the next pass, over and down the other side, we rode the final 20K’s into our destination Chusul, 60K’s out of Lhasa. Arriving at 7pm, we were happy to throw bikes and bodies into the multi-bed dorm room provided. The guesthouse had been upgraded significantly from the previous year – now there were toilets (whereas last year, in addition to “Truck Restaurant” and “Truck Hotel”, there had been a toilet behind the “Green Truck ”!) The food was good, and we were happy to be inside when a dust storm blew through at about 9pm.
Day 13
From Shigatse – 60K’s of tarmac into Lhasa – how excited were we! Excited enough to average nearly 28Kph on a flat tarmac road, on knobbly tires, into ANOTHER headwind, all the way in! We had a stop at Nethang monastery, and another at the Blue Buddha wall for a well-presented picnic lunch (funny how nice instant noodles and Nescafe 3 in 1’s look on green grass under a tree!)
Here we ran into another cyclist – not sure where he was from e.g country, but he’d come unsupported from the Chinese border to the east on a touring bike, which was definitely looking the worse for wear (thin tires don’t do so well on these sandy dusty roads!). We traded stories – his best one was of a German guy he’d met who’d run the checkpoint at Markham at night and had puncture marks all up and down both legs (dogs) for his efforts. Our new buddy’s back panniers had been ripped into by the same mutts, but he’d escaped relatively unscathed (SOOO glad to have the proper permits after hearing this! No checkpoint running for us!) We sent him on his way with new brake pads (his were a sight – and no chance of replacement between Lhasa and Kathmandu, given that there are a couple of hills where they’ll come in very handy!) and the by-now prerequisite Snickers bar, with which we made another friend for life (ah the wonders of the truck!). (Snickers to a cyclists is like gold. Lucky we have a couple of boxes of them, that’s if Leah has not got into them lately – H)
From here we had a straight stretch into Lhasa. We dropped the truck about 10K’s out of town (couldn’t enter the city center before 8pm), threw what we needed clothes-wise into panniers, and followed Jabu (in a cab) straight to the Potala. Hard to explain how it felt to suddenly be “here” – Potala towering above us, we took celebratory piccies (and once again featured in those of about a dozen Chinese tourists), and then following Jabu (now in a cyclo) headed for the Yak hotel. As expected despite multiple communications, we had the standard room mix-up (only the 200Rmb’s available, etc. etc.) but eventually got it sorted out when wonderful Rene, the guy we’d arranged things with in Kathmandu, came down (he made a very good job of pretending not to recognize us at first, but I’m sure he was joking! We’d been on tarmac all day, so were fairly clean for us!). Locked up the bikes, settled into a room, and again about ran the place out of hot water (although it had only been a few days between showers, so really we were comparatively smelling like daisies already!)
Lhasa
Since arriving in Lhasa, we’ve been on the “Hamish Morrin 5Kg’s in 5 days” weight management regime (with some success I might add! – Go the big breakfasts and fresh potato chips I say - H), and have been trying to fit some sights in between five meals a day. Lhasa is an amazing city, and I can only copy what last year’s group said – “a week is not enough!”
We spent the first day drinking coffee, eating cake, and writing post cards to everyone (I won’t be surprised if they beat some of the ones from Kathmandu for some of you – whatever else you say about the Chinese, their postal service is remarkably efficient!)
After that it was off to the sites, and although the fact that this is “Labor Week” and Lhasa is being deluged with Chinese tour groups has made it a little trying at times, we’re still enjoying the city immensely. We’ve said it in the postcards, but will say it again here – if ever you get the chance, COME. We were fortunate to run into “Shaun”, a 50-ish year old New Zealander (lives in Karamea (hickville West Coast, but a beautiful spot) A bit of a hippie?!!) who has been in and out of here for years, and he has steered us to some very interesting places in addition to the usual circuit – example: yesterday we walked behind some carpets, round a corner, and slowly heard a buzzing, like bees in a hive. Around another corner, and suddenly there were literally hundreds of people spread throughout a square and tiny temple area – most were older women, all were holding prayer wheels, and they pushed us in the direction we were supposed to go. We did the little temple circuit, and when it looked like there were too many people seated for us to get around one of the prayer wheels Hamish started to go the wrong way round – and got a smack on his backside and a chuckle from one of the seated old ladies, who then sent us round the correct way. We came back down the steps to courtyard and sat down, and just watched for about an hour. People walked past and Tashi Delek’ed us, the guide book was came out and everyone had a look at the pictures (people here are fascinated with pictures. (If you ever come here you have to bring a few pictures of your home and family – people love them - H), and eventually when it had made the rounds it returned – and in all the time, even though a square removed was swarming with tourists with flash cameras, we were the only non-Tibetans we saw. Very amazing, and hard to explain how friendly and welcoming people are if you just show a tiny bit of respect…which I would never expect when you see the general (both chinese and western are equally bad) tourist example, with folks running round and shoving cameras and camcorders into pilgrim’s faces with abandon. And this has happened repeatedly – we went to the Jokhang, the holiest temple in Tibet, early in the morning before the ticket seller was there (this was actually unintentional, but FYI they arrive at 9) and again didn’t see any tourists, but had Tibetans waiting for us and sending us in the “right” direction whenever we were unsure where to go and generally acting in such a kind and welcoming manner that it was very overwhelming.
The other thing that has been very rewarding is visiting the smaller temples that don’t get many (any? – Thank you Shaun!) tourists. Invariably, the monks are thrilled to see you and talk to you and tell you all about their temple and little treasures (although sometimes the language makes it hard – unexpectedly, my Mandarin can be better than theirs, so we have to take it slow – interestingly many seem to be trying to learn english as well) Also, occasionally you’ll see little things – an unexpected Dalai Lama where it shouldn’t be, “hidden” in plain view, a sculpture where things aren’t as they seem – if you are patient enough and listen carefully, that are extremely heartening. We have both been amazed and overwhelmed by the depth of devotion of the Tibetan people to Buddhism, despite everything. I very much doubt there is another country in the world where you would see this devotion to the same extent.
So, another two days in Lhasa – we’ve a few more things we’d like to see (whatever anyone says, there is AT LEAST enough to keep you well occupied here for a week, and likely two!), and Hamish has a list of outdoor gear to buy (EVERYTHING is available –the real stuff! Down jackets (Northface/ Mountain Hardware/ Columbia etc.), windproof/ waterproofs, ski jackets etc. at laughably low prices (e.g. between USD20 and 100 - we think it’s all real here b/c the Tibetans wear it as well – and in this climate, no one can afford to buy the fakes (and if you sold a fake to a Tibetan he is likely to come back and cut off a piece of your body..- H!) Whereas in Shanghai/ Beijing you really have to shop carefully to make sure you are buying what you think you are!) I think a lot of it will be mailed home, but we’ve picked up two pairs of windproof/ waterproof/ breathable/ VERY lightweight pants for the rest of the trip for ourselves as well. Then it’s back on the road and off east – we’ll see what the roads (and more importantly the weather! We keep hearing horror stories of how wet it is (in Tibet!) and the road being closed for weeks at a time due to mudslides etc.) bring. Happily, it looks as if Jabu and Dong Ten will be able to come across with us (we’re arriving in time to let them get back for their next trip), so we won’t need to break in a new driver/ guide combo (and they won’t need to break us in again either!)
So that's us - we plan to head out again on the 7th - would have been the 6th but we felt a little slow off the mark getting round to all the tourist sites, and we are REALLY enjoying the sunshine as said!
Hamish and Leah