It all began at 5:30 in the morning. Yeah. 5:30—I don’t even wake up at that ungodly hour for classes or work, but I guess when one is in a different country and there’s some traveling to do and things to see, one gets a bit more motivated. It still wasn’t fun. Most of us were still recovering from jetlag, so we were a bit tired and grumpy, but nonetheless excited. It was the day we were finally going to arrive in Tibet…
It took us an hour to get back to the Beijing airport, what with the traffic and all. When we got there we took a two hour flight to Chengdu where we chilled for about an hour waiting for our next flight. It was a cute little airport with plenty of coffee and random snacks to keep everyone entertained. Yak Jerky? I’m a vegetarian, so I didn’t succumb to that temptation (if one wants to call it tempting? It didn’t look good) but several people on the trip had to and said that it was pretty good—almost like beef jerky, but not quite. Right.
After that we took another flight from Chengdu into Lhasa, the great capital of Tibet and one of its holiest cities. Another two hours. We were all pretty tired by the time we arrived, but that didn’t make the view from the airport any less grand. There were just mountains EVERYWHERE. I’m talking Tibet has three different mountain ranges going through it, so all it took was the correct positioning of the head and it looked like you were SURROUNDED by them. It was amazing.
When we got off the plane and had all our luggage together, we were greeted by our supreme tour guide Tenmpa. I’m not sure about the spelling, but evidently it means “truth” in Tibetan, and well… I’ve never met a more honest man. What an amazing individual. He took care of us like we were his children from the get-go—just a caring, loving kind of guy. He greeted us with something called a kata—a white scarf of sorts that is a common offering in Buddhist temples. Buddhists will offer them to statues as an offering to the sense of feeling (they also do offerings to taste (food, sometimes alcohol), smell (this explains the incense part of it), sight (usually a yak butter candle that’s lit), and sound (either an instrument or one will play an instrument or chant). The katas, though, are also something people will give out to each other to mean different things—in this case, it was Tenmpa’s way of welcoming us into the country. We were all beaming as we headed to the bus that would take us to the hotel. Between the scarves and the mountains and the excitement—we just couldn’t stop. Plus, all the colors were just so intense! I’ve NEVER seen a sky so blue, a cloud so white, a mountain so colorful in general, as each mountain came in an array of colors depending on what plants were growing on it or what minerals were in the sand that made it. I’ve never seen blue, green, red, or purple sand like this. But I’m telling you. It was all the colors of the rainbow and sometimes all jumbled together on the same mountain!
So then we were off to the hotel. The drive was amazing—only one major highway/road we could discern and we were on it. In all directions—mountains, rivers, just pure beauty. At one point, we headed through a tunnel that went THROUGH A MOUNTAIN. I was a little nervous, and I think most of us were. Tenmpa laughed at our uneasiness (and we giggled nervously at ourselves along with him. I mean honestly. The mountain hasn’t come down yet… so why were we even concerned?) But it was pretty cool. On the way to the hotel we stopped off at this site where there are huge Buddhist rock carvings and paintings that some local monks restore every now and then. It was neat!
Plus, like I said, the views were terrific.
Just marvelous. There were locals hanging out by the road down there selling some cool bracelets and stuff, too. A few members of the group got some gifts for friends at home and we were off again.
And then, miraculously, we were in the heart of Lhasa. It was really odd because one second we were all staring at this vast landscape that just rolled on forever until it hit a mountain, but meanwhile it was full of huge rivers and small trees and bushes and a few stray locals herding yaks or picking plants or just hanging out… and then BAM. We were in city. It was really odd.
Lhasa’s split into the ancient part and the more modern part. Our hotel was in the more ancient/ traditional Tibetan part of Lhasa rather than the more modernized (re: more Chinese culture rather than Tibetan culture) part… but we got to drive through the latter to get to the former. It was neat, even if I have a few political comments to make about old cultures dieing in the wake of modernization… but I’m sure most of those reading this already got that implication from the fact that I am referring to Tibet as its own country. Subtleties. Oh yes.
Anyways. We got our first glance of the Potala. GOSH. CRAZY BEAUTIFUL! Pictures of that grand building and more of an explanation of exactly what it is will be forthcoming, as I feel I will have to do an entire entry devoted to it and I’m not on that day yet. Haha. And then we were at the hotel. When we got there, we pretty much crashed. I don’t know if you’ve ever been at 12,000 feet but WOW. We were taking altitude sickness medication because of the major difference in elevation, but my goodness. It only prevented us from being sick. It did not prevent us from being dizzy, confused, semi-hallucinatory and tired. Walking up a single flight of stairs was like going for a jog up a mountain on a hot and humid day. You couldn’t breathe afterwards. And then, rather than continuing to your hotel room to sleep, you felt that the hallway seemed comfortable enough, if only for a few minutes. Haha. So after downing a BUNCH of water (Jim was very forceful about keeping us hydrated) we all took naps and then woke up for dinner a couple hours later. At that point, I was in a half-trance and I’m not even sure what the food was like because it didn’t matter. I knew I needed energy, but that’s about it. After dinner Jim invited people to walk around the Jokhang temple with him (it’s a little something called circumambulation—what the Buddhist pilgrims, monks, nuns, lay people, whomever do. Buddhists walk around holy places (including the entirety of Lhasa itself, sometimes) in a clockwise manner 3, 7, 21, 28, or even up to 108 times (these are the auspicious numbers that create good karma—I’ve probably missed a couple in there… but manohman, what a lot of walking). I was wayyyy too tired to even want to contemplate walking down the stairs, never mind circling an awfully large building a few times, so I passed out and maybe woke up once the entire 12 hour night. Gosh.
And that was our third day in Tibet (July 6, 2007, for anyone who’s keeping track).
More soon to come! Thanks for your patience everyone (as an FYI I have successfully finished my Art paper for this trip. Go me!)