Tibet Part 3 - Shigatze to Lhasa to Home

Firstly, apologies for not blogging in what seems (and probably is) months. What can I say? I'm a gifted procrastinator. My memory is pretty terrible so I am sorry if I am a bit light on the details - it's because I've forgotten everything. So without further ado, behold my blog:

Day 7 - SATURDAY

Straight after breakkie we headed to the Tashilhunpo Monastery, which boasts the largest sitting Maritreyu Buddha statue in the world (and what a claim to fame that is). The areas open to tourists were primarily tombs, but I wouldn't have known that had we not had our guide - every hall was very similar; a massive Buddha statue in the centre, surrounded by walls painted with thousands of Buddhas, or with thousands of tiny Buddha statues in glass cases on the walls. We didn't see anyone else, it was just us because the weather was terrible, and we were there at what seemed like the crack of dawn.

Some photos inside the monastery walls/outside the tombs











After the monastery, we visited the "Old Markets" in the town centre for a quick look , then began on the drive back to Lhasa. We ate lunch at the same restaurant along the way - this time we tried the most delicious yak and potato curry I think exists - I finished mine and wanted more. I then slept most of the way back to Lhasa, in preparation for the massive shop-up we were planning when we arrived home. Which we did - I bought lots of stuff, mostly presents for people back home (and if you're lucky, you might score one). Due to the excitement I was experiencing from shopping, I didn't pay attention to how much money I had in my wallet, so soon I was down to 5 kuai. Not a problem, I thought, so I tried to find an ATM. I found them alright, but they wouldn't accept my card. I eventually gave up after walking for hours, and had supermarket noodles for dinner, and started fretting about having no food or water for the train trip home. Then we had a call from the travel agent saying there was a problem with our return train tickets - the problem being we didn't have any. I went to bed to leave the girls to fight and complain about it.

Day 8 - SUNDAY

We woke up bright and early to head off to the train station. We weren't overly worried because the travel agent had assured the other girls we had tickets, but when we were sitting in the station at 8am, knowing the train left at 8.30am, we were less than hopeful. A screaming match ensued between the girls and the poor travel agent, who finally got us tickets spread out over the train. Everyone was being such a hassle and demanding we be put in the same cabin, but honestly that thought less than pleased me, so I bit the bullet and said I wouldn't mind being by myself. And low and behold, I was rewarded by karma with a soft sleeper ticket to Beijing (this will make sense in a second)! I went to my cabin, and was asked to swap with a teenage boy into the next cabin, as they were a family of 6 and wanted to be together - no problems - we swapped tickets and I moved next door. I had the nicest Malaysian couple with me, so we chatted in English and Chinese as the train departed - turns out their son lives in Sydney studying at uni. The lovely Malaysians even fed me - they asked me if I would like to join them for dinner, but I lied and said I wasn't hungry, when in reality I had no money. When they returned, they had bought me pringles and fruit! Bless them. I managed to sleep a lot, while soaking up the comforts of soft sleeper - including a door, enough room to sit up, personal reading lamps, nicer bedding, and a TV for every bed!

Day 9 - SUNDAY

I woke up to a surprise. The girls had noticed that their tickets were only until Xi'an, not Beijing. I had no idea where my ticket was to, because I had firstly swapped with the Danish kid next door, and the attendant had collected our tickets at the start of the trip. While I secretly worried about being kicked off the train 12 hours away from home, I slept some more, and was fed an apple for breakfast by the Malaysians (the first time I had ever eaten an entire apple - peel and all). The lovely Malaysians then left me at Xining to continue on their holiday, and I was joined by 3 Chinese men with bad table manners. They spent most of their time outside somewhere - in the corridor or in the food carriage, so I had the cabin to myself, so I slept and read. I was also told how to cure my asthma by a mathematician. I won't go into details, but it involves deep-fried fresh squirrel soup. Ehh, I think I'd rather have asthma, thank you very much. We arrived in Xi'an late at night, and luckily the attendant didn't come by to warn me, so I was in the clear. The girls weren't so lucky though - all their tickets (in hard sleeper and seater) were only through to Xi'an, not to Beijing. They had to pay extra to be allowed the pleasure of seating in the corridor for the rest of the trip.

Day 10 - MONDAY

I woke up just before the train arrived into Beijing West train station - at 7.30am. Having no money to my name, I searched high and low for an ATM in the station, to no avail. So I took a chance and caught a taxi, hoping I'd be able to withdraw money from the ATM at my uni. Luckily I could, so I made it home at about 10am thanks to the peak hour traffic. I then had a most refreshing shower, and ate some well-needed food.

A couple of pictures I took from the train window on the way home:

Tibet Part 3 - Shigatze

Day 6 - FRIDAY

Because we were on a shorter tour than the rest of the group (had I known, I would have been on the longer tour, believe me!), we separated from everyone else and left on our own with a new tour guide to Shigatze (I'm not sure of the correct spelling, but it's the second largest city in Tibet). Just after we'd left Lhasa, we stopped off at a site on the side of the road, where the founder of Tibetan Buddhism carved a massive Buddha into the side of a cliff. Just a quick stop for a picture, then we continued driving towards Shigatze. We did take a detour along the way, to another lake at the top of a mountain, called Yalong river (I think). The lookout point was Gangbala Mountain, and was 4790m. The only road up and down was so terrifying for me - it was quite like the Great Ocean Rd, except that there were no safety barriers for most of the way, and it was a long way down (also a lot of cars/buses taking the blind corners on the wrong side of the road). The view from the top was nice, but I was too worried about the drive back down to fully appreciate it. Aisanxin managed to keep me distracted in conversation for the majority of the descent, but I knew what she was up to.

When we were finally back on relatively flat ground, we had another stop-off... At the spot where less than a week previous, a bus-load of German tourists had left the road and fallen into a river (could still see the skidmarks). Just a tad down the road, we stopped for lunch, which was one of the most delicious meals we ate in Tibet - yak with capsicum, and very spicy (there is a photo below!) Had a little walk around the village too - we saw two kids who could not have been a day over ten, doing the laundry! (Something you don't see in Australia). We finally made it into Shigatze around dinner time, just dumped our bags in the motel (which was a brand spanker) and headed to the most famous restaurant in town, the Wor-Du Kitchen for traditional Tibetan hot-pot (so much nicer than Chinese hot-pot, if I may say so myself). We met a nice Communist guy in the restaurant (his parents owned it) who spoke perfect English but no Chinese, who helped us out with what to order and kept us entertained with anti-Bush stuff off the internet. After dinner, we went for a little walk around downtown Shigatze, but nothing was open, so we went back to the motel and slept (and the bed was soft).


Mini me with the uber-old Buddha - please note in the picture, American school children did not go crazy with toilet paper - they're silk scarves.


Up at Gangbala Mountain, overlooking Yalong River


Gangbala


The descent that I was so worried about - at least this section has barriers


More of the descent - nearly down


The spot where the German tourists died


Lunch


The little village we snooped around while everyone was at work in the fields






Din-dins

Tibet Part 2 - Lhasa

DAY 4 - WEDNESDAY

Woke up at 5.30am, which is a shock to you as it was to me. We had an early breakfast (cup of tea) then a late breakfast (a boiled egg and some gruel), then met at 10.30am for our day in Lhasa. Our first stop was the Jokhang temple in the middle of the city. It was absolutely packed, inside and out. We couldn't take any photos inside, which was a shame because it was so beautiful. The inside of the temple was a maze of little rooms surrounding a massive statue of a Buddha. We were able to climb up some pretty risky stairs to the roof, which had a wonderful view of Lhasa, the Potala Palace and the mountains. Even though it was only one flight of stairs, we were all out of breath like we'd run a marathon.

We then walked around the markets surrounding the temple. We really had to be careful where we walked, otherwise we could unexpectedly step on someone praying. Yup, in the middle of the street. What they do is take three steps, mark their spot with a twig or something small, then lie completely down, get up and do it all over again. They do this all the way from their homes to the Potala Palace. We watched one chap for nearly 20 minutes, and he only traveled a few hundred metres. Dedication.

We ate lunch at our motel, then we were shipped off to a "medical institute" to be checked out. It was all Chinese medicine, and they claimed to be able to do amazing things like cure diabetes, insomnia, asthma; provided you buy months worth of pills and powders. And they diagnosed you by feeling your pulse and looking at the palms of your hands... Right. Needless to say, I'm a sceptic.

Next stop - Potala Palace! For a tourist attraction 3000 metres above sea level, you'd think they'd install an elevator or a chair-lift, but no cigar. It took us nearly an hour to climb the steps up to the palace, and then when we thought it was all over, there were more steps inside! On the way up, I was befriended by a Korean guy who couldn't speak Chinese, and could only say "Korea" and "Australia" in English. We 'cheers'-ed our water bottles a few times for good luck. Inside was incredible of course - so much gold and jewels. Seriously - they could just sell off their statues and become a First World nation. No photos again. The descent down was much nicer (isn't it always?). We then returned to the motel, attempted to eat a bit, then I went to bed. While I was out of it, Aisesin went to the hospital because she was feeling very lousy, and was pumped full of oxygen to fix her migraine.



Outside the Jokhang temple - Bajiaojie markets


The view from the roof of Jokhang temple


People praying outside Jokhang temple


The Potala Palace


Flags outside Potala


The view from Potala


Monks outside (the metal cylinders on the wall represent reincarnation - people walk past and spin them)


DAY 5 - THURSDAY

Up at 5am again with another headache. We Llft the motel bright and early to head to Nam Co, the highest lake in the world. Before we left though, we all stocked up on oxygen canisters because we were heading to over 5000m. The cans look just like large fly spray cans, with a mouthpiece on top. The drive to Nam Co was four hours, and I wanted to sleep, but I couldn't manage to fall asleep (again, very odd for me). We first drove to the look out point, which was called Lakenla in Tibetan, at 5190m altitude. It was so beautifully cold, there was even snow on the ground. I had no problems breathing, but I was in the vast minority. Two Korean girls in the group didn't listen to the tour guide when she said not to use too much oxygen at once, so they got high. Then one passed out, the other threw up. Serves them right. We then descended a tad and drove to Nam Co. Stretched the old legs, just managed to refrain from throwing up in the bathroom (because of the bathroom), hopped back on the bus and went for lunch (not so crash hot).

Our afternoon was pretty much uneventful - we visited Lhasa's power plant (whoo) which was in the middle of nowhere down a dirt road that wasn't well suited for tourist buses - our driver left the road so many times to avoid crater-like pot holes, and made me wish I had brought a pillow to sit on. We returned to our motel around dinner time, and I buggered off back to Bajiaojie to see if I could do a spot of shopping. Turns out I could, and I did. Caught a rickshaw doodad back to the motel, and slept...

There is one thing I have not yet mentioned. Thursday was the day of the toilet. Of all the shockers I have seen whilst in China, todays were by far the worst. And they're in order from almost gag-worthy to knock-out stuff...
4) The motel toilet - no water, and you can see straight down... strange,
3) Restaurant at lunch - just a hole, only one person throwing up outside,
2) Nam Co - no doors, and only knee high divisions, just a channel, and quite a few women throwing up outside,
and the winner is
1) Pit stop on the way up the mountain. The view was lovely, as the back wall was only waist height, and overlooked a river and a mountain, but everything else was horrible. Cloth door, dirt floors with two side-by-side channels dug in, we were sent in two at a time... AND we had to pay for the privilege. Marvelous stuff.



The highest place I've ever been!


I was just so excited to see snow


They smelt worse than they looked


Nam Co


Traditional dwellings


On the descent from Nam Co

Tibet Part 1 - The Train

I AM BACK! Yes, yes, I know you missed me. I have much to tell you, so I will be spacing my Tibet trip out over 4 or 5 blog posts, just to make it a little less like a thesis in length. And it will also allow me to continue with my Friends marathon and gradual inebriation that has resumed upon my arrival in Beijing (heck, now I know what I'm missing out on, I think it is appropriate - the inebriation, that is.) And awaaaaaay we go (that's a quote from Grease for those playing at home):


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DAY 1 - SUNDAY

Our train departed at 9.35pm. We were in a hard-sleeper carriage, and our room consisted of myself, Aisanxin, Delia and Simla (they're all Turkish) as well as a French couple around my age. I was "lucky" enough to get one of the beds on the top level, so it is lucky I don't suffer from either claustrophobia or fear of heights. We just sat around listening to the Beatles on my iPod and singing along, until 10pm when they turned off the lights! We hunted for a light switch for a while, then gave up. I gave up and went to bed. The hard-sleepers weren't really that hard, quite soft actually. There are no doors on the rooms though, which makes changing into PJs mighty hard - thus the reason why I was the only one who did so. I'm sorry, but staying in the same clothes for over 48 hours? *No way*

DAY 2 - MONDAY

I woke up just as we were entering Xi'an. Amazingly it only took 12 hours to reach this far - last time we were in China, our train took 24 hours for the same trip! I didn't accomplish much that day - I slept a lot, and read a lot of my book. The train snaked its way between what seemed like hundreds of tunnels, around mountains and rivers. It was beautiful, apart from the pollution. I slept again, and when I awoke at 9pm, we had already reached 30000m. We ate dinner in the restaurant carriage, but I only ate a bowl of rice because it was expensive. Luckily I did, because apparently the food was appauling. I hardly ate anything on the train - I think it was a combination of the terrible headache that was setting in, and the fact I was lying down not using much energy. We started taking our Chinese medicine too once we reached 3000m - it was absolutely disgusting, but it seemed to help a bit.

DAY 3 - TUESDAY

Slept terribly, because my headache would not go away, no matter how much Panadeine I took. 4.30am I was awake, while we were stopped at Golmud. From there on, oxygen was pumped into the train, which helped my headache a bit. I spent most of the day sleeping again, or reading Stephen King. I think I ate an apple, that was it. Finally arrived in Lhasa at around 7.30pm, where we were met by a representative who took us to our motels. As soon as we got off the train, it was noticeable how thin the air was. It didn't feel like I was struggling for breath, it just felt... different. Aisanxin and I scored a king-size beds, so we dumped our bags and went for a little stroll to the Potala Palace, which was just down the road. Took some snaps that didn't turn out because of the poor lighting (damn dodgy camera). Returned to the motel, and I managed to fall asleep after taking some more Panadeine.


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So... I guess you want some photos? Well, here a just a few from the train days - I managed to take over 400, but it's going to take me a while to upload them all.



Aisanxin, Delia and I



Somewhere between Xi'an and Lanzhou



Getting up higher - no pollution, just rain



Lhasa train station - notice the blue sky!

Celebrate good times.... Come on!

It is all very exciting, because I have finished exams! For those of you who don't know, our four exams were held over four days, each starting at 8am (the Chinese don't waste any time, you see.) They all went quite well, I have no doubt that I passed them all, and I think that the Reading Comprehension (阅读) exam was my best - hopefully another score in the 90s! So, to celebrate, Candy and I went SHOPPING! And my, did we shop. We first went to Zhongguancun (中关村), the electronics centre of Beijing, where I bought a 2GB disk for my camera in preparation for our trip to Tibet and did some research for Dad in regards to a camera lens.

We then headed to Dongwuyuan (动物园), which is a market area near the Zoo (Dongwuyuan translates to Zoo). Six hours later we walked out and caught the two buses back to uni, carrying a bin-liner bag full of clothes. But hey, I only spent AU$100, and some of the clothes are for eBay. After all of this, I was ready to go to bed, because my legs felt like I had run a marathon, but my classmates and I had decided to go for a celebratory dinner at the Kro's Nest, a pizza restaurant at Beijing University with the biggest pizzas imaginable (which we failed to take a photo of, but trust me, they are as big as a car tyre, and can easily feed 4-5 people.) Here are some happy snaps:







The pizza was fabulous, the bourbon and coke was mostly bourbon, and they had Led Zeppelin and Talking Heads in their music playlist. But we were all exhausted, so we all went home, except for Jiwu and Gaoshan, who went to Wudaokou to continue drinking.


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Our trip to Tibet has now been bumped back one day because they couldn't get the visas done in time, so we are now leaving on Sunday the 15th, returning on the 24th. Now that exams are over, I will translate the remainder of the itinerary and post it here.

I also have more photos from Lela and Mega's birthday. Here some of them are:


















On more random news, I finally found and deleted the lovely trojan that had taken up residency in my computer somewhere, and now my computer is running at almost magical speeds.

And congratulations are due to one of our classmates, who will soon be hearing the pitter-patter of little feet! But I am the only one who knows at the moment, so I cannot name any names!

Tibet - 西藏

Yes, yes, I am going to Tibet, in 9 days no less! I have been procrastinating by translating the itinerary we have from Chinese into English - here is half of it. I apologise for the dodgy translation, they use some odd phrases that we never use in English, and I'm not sure it is all correct, but you'll get the idea.

拉萨,大昭寺,羊八井, 日喀则双卧十日游
Lāsà, Dàzhāosì, Yángbājǐng, Rìkāzé shuāng wò shí rìyóu

Day 1
21:30北京西站乘T27次列车,踏上神秘旅途.
From Beijing East Station ride the T27 train, step on mysterious journey.

Day 2
列车奔驰在铁路上,领略高原,河流的无限魅力.
Train runs quickly en route, appreciate the tablelands, waterways of infinite charm.

Day 3
20:58到达拉萨,接火车导游献哈达迎接客人.人住兵官休息.
Arrive at Lasa, connect with tour train receive guests. People at hotel rest.

Day 4
上午参观世界上海拨最高的古代宫堡式建筑-有"高原明珠"之称的"布达拉宫",它始建于公元七世纪,自五世达赖喇嘛以来,直是西藏的政治和宗教中心,珍藏有存放历辈达赖喇嘛真身的金质灵塔和大量珍贵的壁画,唐卡,佛像,是藏民族文化的集中体现 (不含金顶及文物珍宝展小门票,各10元/人). 下午参观建于吐蕃王朝时期的最早的佛堂 - 大昭寺,它供奉有文成公主所带的佛祖释迦牟尼十三岁的等身像,是藏族老百姓心目中最为神圣灵验的一尊佛像,在这里游客不仅能够看到老百姓朝佛的虔诚,还可随老百姓一起围绕寺院转经为众生祈祷,随后可在充满了浓郁藏族特色的工艺品一条街 - 八角街上自由购物.

Morning visit the world's highest lake and highest ancient temple fortress structure - is "Plateau's Bright Pearl" named Potala Palace, it was constructed in the Christian 7th Century, since the fifth generation Dalai Lama, continuously been Tibet's centre of politics and religion, looks after the treasure of ancestral Dalai Lama's real body of God gold spirit tower and large quantity of valuable murals, Tang dynasty blocks, images of Buddha, is Tibet's ethnic culture's centralised realisation (does not contain cultural treasure exhibit ticket, each person 10 kuai). Afternoon visit Tibet's earliest imperial period's Buddhist sanctuary - Dazhaosi, it is a place to worship the statue of a 13 year old princess and the founder of Buddhism (Sakyumuni), is Zangzu's (Tibetan ethnic minority) civilians most sacred image of Buddha, here tourists not only can civilians praying, also can follow civilians together move around the temple, soon afterwards can be brimming with rich ethnic minorities distinguising handicrafts at Bajiao Street for free shopping time.

Will add more when I finish translating!

World Park - 世界公园

Yesterday (Wednesday) was the last day of class - hurrah I hear you say! After lunch, Chris, Mega and I jumped on a train or three, and headed to somewhere on the other side of the city. We then met up with Horatio, and we caught a bus (it had air-conditioning!) to the World Park, another spectacularly tacky theme park. As you probably guess from the name and the pictures, the attraction of the park is its scale replicas of famous monuments and buildings from around the world. Included in the spectacular tackiness was:

The Eiffel Tower



Mega on the Champs-Élysées



Angkor Wat - Cambodia



A Thai palace (I forget the name)



Aaaaaand.... Sydney!





Then the batteries in my camera died. Nothing much else happened; a camel spat on Horatio, a werewolf bit my arm, Chris nearly fell asleep on a rollercoaster, Mega posed for lots more photos - same as usual. We then caught another damn bus to Horatio's house, where his mum cooked us dinner, Mega and I fell asleep, then Horatio's dad drove us back home. It was a very exhausting day... And I even managed to get a bit sunburnt *shhh*.

After spending 4 hours on Chinese public transport in one day, I can happily say I've had enough for a while.