Terrific Tibet

Towards the end of our time in Lhasa, a couple of girls and I tried the notorious yak butter tea.  It is the drink of choice for Tibetans and apparently the nomads drink up to 40 cups per day.  It is made from yak butter mixed with salt, milk, soda, tea leaves and hot water.  It tastes kind of like off butter that has been left in the sun for too long and melted.  We each had a couple of sips and decided that it was as bad as we thought, so happily left the rest in the cup!

We had a fabulous day visiting Ganden Monastery to the east of Lhasa.  Whilst the monastery was pretty and interesting, the scenery was fabulous.  It is over 400m high and perched on a hillside.  The switchbacks on the road up to the monastery were very impressive.

We walked around one of the bluffs with stunning scenery across the mountains and down into the river valley.

Our lunch spot under the prayer flags.

Monks walking along the track.

Views from near Ganden Monastery.

Unfortunately there were also views of the mines along the way.  The Chinese have discovered the phenomenal natural resources of the region and are raping them to their heart's content.  The uranium mines are some of the richest in the world.  I shudder to think of the environmental impacts of these mines.  We did not see the nuclear waste dumps, but apparently Tibet is the dumping ground of choice for China's nuclear waste.

A mine on the side of the Lhasa River.

Upon leaving Lhasa, we had wonderful drives over several high passes (the highest 5050m) and saw the stunning Yamdrok Tso lake with its turquoise waters.

We also drove through valleys with barley being harvested by hand beneath massive snow-capped mountains, it really is a sight to behold.

A glacier towering over the road.

Barley harvesting.

Barley and Canola fields on the riverside.

Fields and mountains surrounding Gyantse.

Farms around Gyantse.

Typical scenery driving up the valley.

Lovely Lhasa

Upon arriving at Lhasa airport, we were shocked at the Chinese presence in everything... signs, food, police and army.  We drove along the river and through a tunnel to get to the next valley, stopping at a religious site to throw our white Tibetan scarves on a rock wall beside a carving of Buddha.  The views over the nearby lake and mountains were gorgeous.

Lhasa is such a contrast from Kathmandu.  The streets are wide and clean, there are footpaths to walk on and there are no groups of people hanging around the streets.  It appears that there is more employment here than in Kathmandu.  However, the honking of car / truck / rickshaw horns is the same!

 Lhasa's altitude is 3700m and is surrounded by amazing mountains. 

We had a few days in Lhasa acclimatising, enjoying the food - a mix of Tibetan and Chinese (I had Yak stew for dinner one night - yum!), and checking out all the pilgrims doing their clockwise tour of the religious sites.

Many of the pilgrims prostrate themselves all day in front of the Jokhang.  This is the most sacred monastery for the Tibetans.  The pilgrims lining up to get in were so devoted, they walk along with their thermos of yak butter to pour into the candles that are all around the monastery.  The place has beautiful paintings and decorations and stunning views of the Potala Palace from the roof.  Our guide said some of the pilgrims do this prostrating action (almost like a burpee) for up to three months! 

We visited the incredible Potala Palace, built by the 5th Dalai Lama (the current one is number 14, but he's not allowed to be mentioned when in Tibet... we weren't even supposed to bring in our Lonely Planet Guidebooks because they mention him!  Also, the poor Tibetans don't know who is listening and may dob them in for mentioning what China has done to Tibet.  The Chinese call it 'liberation', but I think it's more like Genocide - they killed 1.2 million Tibetans and destroyed over 600 monasteries).

Liberation Square (opposite Potala Palace).
It's like a mini Tiananmen Square.

Potala Palace is incredible, towering over the city.  There was so much gold inside and beautifully painted artwork on the walls.  Thankfully the Chinese saw the tourist value of the Palace so didn't destroy it!

 The views from the top of the Potala Palace are pretty special too.

We also visited the Sera Monastery, which has approx 200 monks at it.  We saw monk debating, where they sit around in groups and are yelling questions to each other and getting quite worked up.  It wasquite a sight!  Then at 4pm they all suddenly stopped, sat down and started chanting.  It was mesmerising.

A few of us visited the Braille Without Borders blind school, which was really interesting.  I took along a few old canes from work to give out.  They were very appreciative.  The staff at the school are inspirational and have done a great job.  The lady that spoke to us was one of the first students there and the future for people with vision impairment in Tibet is slowly improving.  There were 51 gorgeous kids at the school aged 6 - 12.  They all have to board there and their facilities are pretty poor to say the least.

They teach kids activities of daily living, braille, Tibetan, Chinese, English, computers and maths.  They have also done a terrific job of dispelling the myths in the community that people who are blind are not capable of anything.  Some of the stories they told were atrocious.  Many of the students were locked in a room before they were 'found' and taken to the school, as it is considered to be bad luck for a family to have a child who is blind and they don't teach them anything or have any expectations of them at all.  It's tragic! The kids at the school were gorgeous and, although poor, were enjoying life like any other children.

I felt so uplifted by the wonderful people working there and how they are changing the lives of these children.  After the age of 12, they go to be integrated in the regular schools and this is turning out to be a positive experience for everyone.

A couple of the girls and I went to have a massage at the 'blind massage centre'.  It was great!

Playground at the Braille Without Borders School.

Kids playing in one of the classrooms.



Flight to Lhasa

We had a wonderful flight from Kathmandu to Lhasa.  Even though it was cloudy most of the way, there was a stunning snow capped peak peering over the top of the clouds, showing off its majestic height!

 

We also flew in along the valley that becomes the Brahmaputra river in India, it is surrounded by stunning mountains.

 

Everest!

We've had a great trip across Tibet.  The scenery continued to amaze me as we spend day after day visiting monasteries and driving through the incredible Tibetan plateau.


The skill of our bus driver was amazing - he is to be congratulated for going over the high passes and around continual hairpin bends with big trucks and crazy Chinese tourists driving Landcruisers on the wrong side of the road!

Another dramatic drive through the roof of the world finally brought Mt Everest into sight.

 

We stayed at the Rhongpu Monastery, close to Everest Base Camp and did the walk up to the base camp the next morning.  It was very cold (about -2 C) but the views of the huge mountain were fabulous.  The sky was  clear and blue, making a perfect contrast with the white snow caps.  Walking at 5200m was ok seeing we only had to walk for 2 1/2 hours and it was relatively flat. The walk up to Base camp was highlighted by huge cliffs that were almost like fingerprints after being buckled by the colliding tectonic plates.  There were also plenty of yaks around, dotting the hillsides and eating the extremely limited ground cover.  How they survive in this environment I do not know!   

At Rhongpu Monastery the afternoon before walking to Everest Base Camp.

The setting sun shining on Mt Everest.

A yak we passed on the walk to Everest Base Camp.

Views of Everest whilst walking to Everest Base Camp.  Half of this pond was frozen!

The sign for Mt Everest (Mt Qomolangma in Tibetan) at the Base Camp.

We enjoyed the views of Everest and then headed back to the monastery and back into our trusty bus.

After a night in an extremely poor Tibetan village on the high plain (4200m) we hit the road again early yesterday morning.  As we began to descend, the terrain changed remarkably.  It went from dry rocky, mountainous scenery to lush green steep hillsides with numerous waterfalls and landslides.  The Friendship Highway followed a river all the way down and we dropped 2000m in  a couple of hours of stunning scenery (somehow avoiding crashing over the edge - this road has to be seen to be believed!).

The incredible road heading towards the Nepal border.

As we appraoched the Nepalese border, the number of landslides increased and the bus could continue no further, so we donned our backpacks and walked down the road, over the broken landscape.  Trucks lined the road - they were waiting to get through the border checkpoints.  It was quite a fun experience!

Walking down the highway with our backpacks, dodging the trucks queued up and making our way over the landslides!

As we came across the border yesterday, our Nepalese guide mentioned the change in the road conditions (as if we hadn't noticed it going from wide paved roads to broken up narrow roads with landslides everywhere)!  However, I asked him would he prefer good roads or his freedom?  Of course he prefers living in a free country to being dominated by the Chinese army anyday!

Landslides blocking the road.

We stayed last night in 'Last Resort' an amazing retreat on the edge of the Nepalese hillside.  To get there we had to cross a suspension bridge across the mighty roaring river below.  It is an adventure resort, but we just enjoyed seeing greenery (there are very few trees in Tibet), lazing by the plunge pool and having a few beers, cocktails and wines!

The view across the river towards 'Last Resort'.

The suspension bridge across to 'Last Resort'.

 The landslide riddled road continued this morning and we finally made it back to Kathmandu.