odohertyelaine

Sick with excitement and still sick from the altitude we set off for a second day in Tibet… Walking toward the entrance of the Potala palace reminded me of visiting Egypt years ago.. I felt like I was in a Discovery Channel documentary. I’ve seen it so many times on tv and in photos but it was just magical to actually see it there in front of me. Considered one of the great wonders of world architecture it did not disappoint. The palace is built into the side of the mountain and is white and red.. the red parts house the religious temples/chapels and the white parts the political offices. Many of the >1,000 rooms are now closed to the public so we could only see a limited amount and you are not allowed to take photos inside. There are a lot of steps to get to the top and once you’re “inside” there’s still lots more steps to go.

Back in Kathmandu, when we had got our visas, the guide from Tibetan tours gave us 2 tips : firstly don’t drink alcohol til you figure out how the altitude affects you or not at all (I ended up not being able to drink at all) and secondly don’t mention the Dalai Lama.. don’t talk about him, don’t ask about him and don’t have any kind of picture of him!! I initially thought the later might be a bit of a joke but it really isn’t. All reference to his holiness the 14th (i.e. current) Dalai Lama has been removed – it is quite bizarre!

Our guide seemed to be bursting to talk about the situation but she’s not allowed. She told us at the outset that she can answer questions “about the religious but not the politics”. For those of you not familiar with the situation the current Dalai Lama who is the 14th, fled Tibet in 1959 when the Chinese invaded and he has never returned as the Chinese will not agree to his leadership over the Tibetan region. In their minds this is Chinese Territory. You can see reference to previous Dalai Llamas but not the current one. [Sidenote : the Dalai Lama is a reincarnation of Chenresig who is the compassion Buddha. This makes total sense as he refuses to resort to violence to take back power. He preaches peace and prayers for peace across the world]

It was an amazing experience to see the palace (of which I took so many photos from every angle I viewed it) and to walk around some of the chapels inside (where no photographs are allowed).

Later in the afternoon we came back and walked the periphery as the pilgrims do – they call it kora. There appears to always be someone doing the kora. The palace is surrounded by prayer wheels on every side so we swung those and prayed for our specific intentions or just world peace as the buddhists do.

Later after dinner we made our third trip back to see it at night time as it is beautifully lit up. It was lovely walking around in the evening and seeing this fabulous structure.

The last place we visited on our tour is considered the most religious structure in Tibet. Pilgrims visit the Jokhang temple and not only circle it doing their kora but also prostrate themselves in prayer outside. The temple was built around 650 AD by King Songtsen Gampo and houses some really old statues and buddhas.

After doing a kora three times around the temple we had our shopping complete (I bought a beautiful statue of future Buddha) and headed off to find some local food.

The flight route from Kathmandu to Lhasa takes you past the Himalayas… you just look out your window and there they are – it is quite spectacular. On the flight there was no announcement and the air hostess hadn’t a clue (I asked) so we were a bit confused and not sure if we’d actually seen Everest. Suzanne did attempt to ask the man sitting beside us if he was a frequent flyer on this route and therefore knew if we saw it to which he replied “snow mountain”! On the return journey the pilot actually announced as we past by that Everest was within our view so the good news is I had photographed it on the way out and here we were again looking at it on the way back!

Lhasa is a beautiful airport to arrive into. After the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu there was a calmness on the roads and clean fresh air to breath. The airport is surrounded by hills and is basically in the countryside and it’s about an hour drive to the city. Although it’s referred to as The Autonomous Region of Tibet it became very clear, very quickly that we were in China (but more on that later)

Lhasa sits at over 3,600 metres above sea level and you can feel it (or at least I could) as soon as you walk out into the air… a strange thing and I haven’t found out if there’s anything scientific to explain this, is that I felt the urge to laugh.. in fact giggle almost hysterically.. everything seemed extra funny. Anyhoo…. when we came through the military style security check we were greeted by Jason, a young trainee tour guide who was sent to pick us up as our main guide for the next few days was busy. He put white scarves around our necks and wished us “good luck and happiness”. Later we were to see these scarves all over the temples in Tibet. As we loaded into the car and headed on our journey to the city It became apparent that Jason had very little English. He had a beautiful smile whenever we asked him a question but he only had 2 responses.. “yes yes” and “very beautiful”. As we drove through the countryside we saw local houses and what looked like farming communities and the odd monastery type looking building and we asked Jason “what’s that” to which he responded “very beautiful”… and again later “what’s that” and again with a giant smile “yes yes very beautiful”… whether it was the altitude or just the situation I could not stop laughing and we giggled away to ourselves in the back of the car! As we started to approach Lhasa the landscape changed – still surrounded by the beautiful hills and mountains, a large amount of construction was evident with high rise apartment blocks in rows appearing out of nowhere. It seemed very out of place to the countryside we’d just come through. Clear evidence of the Chinese development plans for the region….

Our hotel, Saikang Hotel was in a great location on the main road that led to the Potala palace one way and the old town the other. There were a number of things we noticed when we walked into the hotel.. the first was that there was a huge model of apartment blocks in the foyer which seemed very out of place but it became clear that this was a plan for the development of what the locals called “new Lhasa” and this hotel was not Tibetan run but Chinese run. The 2nd thing of note was the number of ashtrays around and the smell of smoke … although honestly we didn’t see a whole lot of smoking it’s allowed in hotels, restaurants and bars and I counted 3 ashtrays in our room (quickly removed as those of you who know me well can imagine!!).

The other thing we noticed immediately was the number of staff – there were dozens of young girls and boys (ok I know, I know that’s patronising and yes I’m obviously getting old but they seemed really young) none of whom spoke English so the check in process was challenging to say the least! For the whole time we were there whenever we approached the front desk for anything they just shouted to each other in Chinese and giggled at us.. it was funny at first and all we could do was laugh back and try guess what they were saying about the crazy foreigners back again talking goggly gook but it did get a little frustrating .. anyways it was only a 3 night stay so we coped and it was very amusing!

Left to our own devices on the first evening, we decided to walk to the old town (slowly!) and check out our surroundings. It was only a few minutes before we saw our first Tibetan monks in full robes and Nike runners!! They are everywhere and blend in with the locals around town.

The old town is just that.. old! There were lots of small shops on ground floors with restaurants on top and homes in the back. We found a decent place to eat and on the way home stopped into a supermarket which as it turns out is the main supermarket in Tibet (called Baiyi) it had the largest choice of dried fruit and other strange stuff I’ve ever seen.. we must have spent an hour in there looking around and loading up on snacks!

Day 1 Tibet Tour:

Tourists visiting Tibet need to be part of an organised tour. I had found a tour company online called Great Tibetan Tours and they provided all the necessary visas (at a handsome fee of course) and had a proven track record so all we had to do was book our flights. It’s expensive to fly to Tibet – over $500 from Kathmandu return and it’s only an hour flight. That said, we knew it would be worth it and personally it’s been a dream of mine to visit this place since I learned about the Dalai Lama when I was a teenager. [Side note: the sickness from Nepal returned at around 3am after arrival in Tibet with the addition of vomiting and a headache so although I’m smiling in the photos I’m in a heap on the inside!!]

Our local Tibetan tour guide was amazing!!!! Her breath of knowledge about the history of Tibet and Buddhism in general was outstanding. She gave us so much information, at times hard to keep it all in but I was starting to identify the present Buddha from the future Buddha and I could spot Guru Rinpoche.. I was really getting into it! We were a group of five – myself & Suzanne along with a very nice Chinese lady and her Japanese partner and a US (via Ukraine) guy who we called Milk! We started off at 10am (happy days!) and headed for the Drupung monastery. We were lucky to see all the monks in the assembly hall praying together. Anna told us they pray for world peace. It was really cool to see them all lined up sitting in their robes some half asleep some very eager praying loudly and oddly enough none of them seemed to mind us walking around gawking at them!

In the afternoon we headed to the Sera monastery which is famous for the Monks Debate. We watched them for quite a while as they questioned each other and slapped hands with a little jump. It was fascinating to watch. We also saw some amazing mandalas made by the monks.

Chitwan National Park is approx 150 km from Kathmandu in the direction of the Indian border. The road that connects the two places is the main route for the large quantities of imports from India so it is constantly full of trucks loaded down with all sorts of goods. The road, if you can really call it that, hugs a cliff and twists and turns for a large part of the journey. If you haven’t seen the TV program “The Worlds Most Dangerous Roads” – it’s been featured on here and well worth a watch – two comedians (Greg Davies and Rhod Gilbert) drive it and it is both hilarious and scary! We took off at 7am to avoid some of the traffic out of the city and 7 hours later (yes 7!!!!!) we arrived at Chitwan. It’s difficult to explain how horrendous the “road” is.. bumpy, narrow, windy, dusty, rock slides are some of the words that come to my mind. Not only have you cars, bikes and trucks on the road but regularly there were people walking along the edge of the road, and to top all that the cars, going both ways are constantly passing each other … squeezing through the middle of the road.. going straight toward a car on the other side of the road.. INSANE!

So we eventually arrived safely at Chitwan and it was so beautiful and peaceful. The lodge at Tiger Tops is amazing. Considered the no.1 lodge in the area (thanks Mike D for the recommendation), the rooms are built of local materials and they have their own organic farm which supplies the kitchen. All meals are included and the food was really good (unfortunately I got “the illness” the night before arrival so I didn’t get to sample much of the food.. the toast on my last day was really good though!!). We had a rest after the hazardous journey and got ready for a sunrise “meet and greet” with some elephants the next morning.

Day 2 in Chitwan was all about the elephants. They take the welfare of the animals very seriously here so there were no elephant rides or the likes.. We got up early to see these working elephants carry grass that had been cut by their handlers and take it back to feed their friends!! When they’d gathered enough we headed to the water so they could get some water. It was magical being so close to them!

After lunch it was back to the elephants. This time we made cuchi sandwiches and fed them to 4 beautiful female elephants. They have quite an appetite and it was great fun feeding them. The youngest of them kept waving her trunk like she was dancing so I mimicked her and each time she’d do it again!

We finished the day with a trip to the river to see the sunset and of course to hang out with the elephants again. We did spot some rhino too!

The next day I unfortunately was too sick to go on the jungle walk but Suzanne did and she got to see some wild rhino:

Later that evening after a visit from the medic (who doubled as the barman), a good sleep, shower and a few hours snoozing by the pool I rallied for a short walk and go on the ox cart:

On our last morning we said a final goodbye to the elephants. Thankfully I was feeling a lot better and we were flying back to Kathmandu rather than driving..

There are 3 Durbar squares (royal square) in Kathmandu. For our first adventure on the streets we decided to head for the main one in Kathmandu city centre. We followed a walking tour from the lonely planet guide and weaved our way through small alleys and streets to see some very cool stuff among the chaotic dust and earthquake battered town. The electrics were particularly interesting to see!!!!

There were temples small and large on every corner but the highlights were seeing our first huge prayer wheel, the buzz of the square itself and learning about the Kumari (more on that later!)

You really do need a mask with all the dust and smog!

One of the streets we walked down had a trench running the whole way down the middle…. it looked like they were doing new pipe works and we saw a mother swing her child over it – she thought this was hilarious and the child was screaming and crying!!

Day 2 we headed to our local Durbar square in Patan (also known as Lalitpur). Once we got away from the main road the small streets around Patan en route to the square were quieter and calmer. It was a lovely sunny day and was so enjoyable finding our way around and saying hi to locals who seemed happy enough to have us around.

Patan square:

There were a lot of beautiful things to see but the highlight for the day was the golden temple (above)

Between the two squares we visited there was always one old man in yellow robes usually with long grey hair sitting somewhere smiling and waving us over. I reckoned he was a holy man but we never went over to him even though we were tempted for the photo opp!! Later our guide told us that they are marijuana smokers and are looking for money!! Holy me arse!!

They say arriving in Kathmandu is an assault on the senses and they’re not wrong! After a seven and a half hour flight to Abu Dhabi, the four and a half hours to Kathmandu was easy enough although tiredness was setting in. Looking out at some beautiful mountains on the way helped (even if I didn’t know what I was looking at). I’d read that Kathmandu airport could be a nightmare to get through but with a pre organised visa I sailed through nice and easy and it wasn’t long til I was outside and spotted my guide – Ujewel – with my name on his handmade sign. I had a private transfer to the hotel in a car with air conditioning which honestly I thought was a banger, but would realise later it’s all relative and I might as well have been chauffeured in a Mercedes!!!! The noise, dust, smog, smells, traffic and all round mayhem is a lot to take in when you first get onto the streets of Kathmandu but it was exciting and exhilarating to have finally arrived. Not much else to do but get settled into the hotel himalaya and await my travel companions arrival and a day of exploring after a good nights sleep!

So I decided to capture my adventures in the world for the few of you who may be interested. …. unfortunately with all the planning I didn’t get much time to figure out this blog stuff but I’m trying to catch up. So we’ll start with my current adventures in south east Asia and see how it goes!