Note: If you didn't read my first post about Tibet, you might want to start there and then come back to this one.
The first of many beautiful lakes.
The first of many beautiful lakes.
In
one of those tests to see how quickly we’re adjusting to the altitude, we stop at a beautiful green
lake, ringed by mountains. There are
stairs from the parking lot down to the lake and of course, once down, you must
come back up. A false sense of security
is created by going down the stairs to get to the lake and the walkway out to
the island where a monastery is located.
The monastery/temple provides many opportunities for beautiful
pictures. But of course, when you come
back, all those stairs are awaiting you.
Lest anyone think they’ve done a
quick acclimation, these stairs provide proof that we’re at best,
still in the process of acclimating.
Some of us, more than others.
HIGHway
adventures...
We’re back on
the road, heading for a mountain pass at 17k ft. on the way to Lhasa. I find it
a bit disconcerting that driver keeps sticking his head out the side window of
the van. I'm seriously hoping it’s not so he
can stay awake. On the other hand, I
note with a bit of disbelief, that in the midst of all these huge mountains the
cell phone signal is strong. Maybe some
North American cell phone companies could send some people over here to learn a
few things. I mean I can’t get a cell
phone signal in my house on the edge of town!
(AT&T – are you
listening?!) ??
As
we’re climbing
towards the pass, our guide and hosts tell us the recent story about how a semi
pulled out to pass a tour bus up here, didn't time it quite right and pulled
back over too early, forcing the tour bus with seven passengers over edge. The edge, as you might note in the picture
above, is poised over a lot of air.
Everyone in that tour bus died.
They tell us there is a lovely white cross marking the location and we’ll be passing
it, but I'm still mulling over WHY they're telling us this story as we head for
a 17k ft pass??? It isn’t inspiring
trust or calm on my part, especially with the driver hanging his head out the
window!
Working
our way up the mountain, we pass a group of bicyclists on this incredibly
narrow, steep road. Now I'm all for
fitness, but this is, in my mind, taking extreme sports to a level that can't
be healthy. While I’m sure they
trained for the lack of oxygen, I don’t know how they could possibly train to avoid getting run
off the road or simply run over. I’ve watched our
driver, who seems quite capable, nearly run over two groups in the last few
minutes alone. Little did I know at this point in the trip, that the son of one
couple on the bus has just completed this ride with his friends and is in fact,
on the bus with us! More about him, and
his friends, later.
Unfortunately,
accidents DO happen on this road. We
come across a bus that apparently swerved hard to the right to avoid something
(perhaps a semi pulling over too soon?).
The only problem with doing that on these roads is that the drainage
curb, isn’t a curb, but
a ditch, a rock channel that is both quite deep and quite wide enough to
swallow a bus tire. Which has happened
to this bus – both the front
and rear tires on one side.
The
bus is leaning over quite precariously.
However, the good news is that the passengers appear to have disembarked
without injury and all are now standing and staring at their bus. I think they realize, like us, this bus isn't
going anywhere anytime soon. It will
take some trucks, lifts, boards and a little creative engineering to get this
vehicle back on the road. Not so lucky
are those people who were in the Jeep passenger/truck vehicle, which apparently
swerved around the bus and then the driver must have lost control on the
rain-slicked surface. It appears s/he
shot off into the river rapids, which are filled with sizable boulders. The vehicle must have rolled over as the top
is crushed, the windshield smashed and yet it is sitting upright in the river. It is now obviously empty. We're not sure if the occupants survived, but
we’re certainly
hoping they had their seat belts on, otherwise, I fear a subsequent tour is
going to be looking at yet another white cross on this road.
Llhasa has
its own set of rules
We
finally arrive in Llhasa at 8:30 in the evening. Our guide tells us there are several things
we must note and observe in Llhasa.
First there is to be NO discussion of politics here. If asked a political question, he tells us not
to respond. It seems undercover agents
are everywhere, listening. He warns us
to not even talk between friends on the tour, as you might be overheard. Also he warns us to never give money to
beggars as you will quickly have 20 following you and they will follow you all
the way to your hotel. He tells us for
most beggars, this is a second job. He
also warns us against buying things from hawkers who approach us, as most of
what they are selling is not even made in Tibet (hmm, let me guess, it IS made
in China though?!). He warns us to check
with him before making any purchases.
(He’ll later warn
us not to say anything in front of the hawkers themselves. It seems, more than a few guides, who made
any kind of disparaging remarks about a hawker, their products or prices, has
turned up badly beaten or sometimes dead.
He wants us to know, he’d like to
continue living.)
Next,
he warns us that we should not take photos of any uniformed person or of a
native Tibetans. Uniformed officer
photos are flat forbidden. If you want
to take a picture with a Tibetan, ask them first, and if they agree you can
take the picture, but expect to pay them for the privilege. It goes like this:
they hold out their palms and say: “money, money, money”!
Arriving
at our hotel we find we've been booked in the finest hotel in Llhasa; The
Llhasa Hotel. When visiting Chinese
dignitaries come here, they use this facility.
It is a lovely, humongous hotel and is very easy to get lost in,
especially after a long day in a tour van.
We are accorded the highest reception.
A greeting party is standing in front of the hotel and ties white
scarves around our neck and then ask us to dip our fingers in the holy water they’re holding,
three times. In between each time, we’re to flick
the water into the air. Then we're
allowed to enter the hotel.
 |
| Mt. Everest from our plane |
That sighting
of Mt Everest from the plane? That’ll be the only one we’ll get.
Dinner
begins at 9:30 pm. Courses of food are
presented but I'm so tired and it is so late that I have very little
appetite. I nibble and do the obligatory
toasts by taking sips or simply letting the wine touch my lips, but not pass my
lips. It is during dinner we learn that the
Nepalese have not approved our trip to Mt Everest. In order to go there are a total of 3
approvals needed. Without all three, you
can't go. Apparently because we're
foreigners we are not going to be permitted to enter Nepal and to in order get
to where we need to go, we’ve got to
cross over their land. So, that’s
disappointing news and it now appears the view we had of Mt. Everest from the
airplane, while flying into Tibet, may be the only view we'll get. Still, not many people have had that
view. I console myself by thinking that
I have seen Mt Everest with my own eyes.
And it is certainly a massive mountain.
A ripe
situation could develop
One
thing that is truly odd here is their warnings about NOT taking showers. Starting with the flight attendants on the
plane and on through to the travel guides, we’re warned not to take showers. I can't do this. Being diabetic, I remember
that the problem with showers is that if you take a hot one, it opens your
blood vessels at the skin level and thus diverts blood from other places it is
needed (like your brain, heart and vital things like that). So I decide to ignore their advice and take a
shower, but with cool, at best body temp, water. It’s just part of my daily routine and helps me get ready to
face the day. While the night before
everyone was repeating the warning to each other, I find over breakfast, that almost
everyone has ignored the advice. I
suppose if we collapse, we’ll have no
one to blame but ourselves. At least we’ll smell good
(you know it’s kind of
like when your mother told you to make sure you had on clean underwear. You want to smell good when they’re peeling
back your shirt and trying to restart your oxygen deprived heart.)
Next, some of the sacred places in Llhasa including the Potala Palace and JokhangTemple.
If you want to see more pictures from the trip, you'll find them on my FLICKR site.
If you want to see more pictures from the trip, you'll find them on my FLICKR site.
