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August, 2008

China, Beijing

Tibet 07

Day 7-9

Damxung -> Lhasa ->Drak Yerpa -> Lhasa (fly back home)
Namtso Lake, Drak Yerpa mountain

This is the highest point that we have made throughout our trip! Read the red numbers below the rock. 5190m. That will be my record for a while. :)

Though Tibet is modernizing gradually, most of the people are still nomaids like this! These two men take care about 40 to 60 sheeps and a couple of Yaks too. The animals were scattered around the endless field. I felt like they would run away and they did, everytime I approached one of them. But I guess they aren't that stupid. They recognize their owner. So while the lambs enjoy their green day under the blue blue sky, these two men sit down in the middle of the field like this and make thread out of the sheep's fur. I thought you would use machines to do this, but these men were just using their hands and a wooden tool. I tried to copy what they were doing. I squished the fluffy sheep fur into a thin strong thread, just as they did. My endless silent struggle made the guys next to me look at me with a worried eye. I humbly had to give up.

Since we are heading at least 4,000meters above sealevel, the air is not as strong as it is below. Not only strong sunlight, but limited oxygen. Throughout the trip the tour guide strongly recommends not to do any rash behaviour: such as running, jumping, or drinking. Still, even if you don't do any of these rash behavior, the guest could easily feel tired or even sick. And in that case, they provide you oxygen. Yes, this person here is sampling some oxygen. Because there is at least two or three people who get this high alititude sickness, the bus picks up a few of these oxygen tanksalong the way up. The oxygen comes out pretty slowly and in small amoutns, but after about five or ten minutes of this oxygen you could really feel the difference. We couldn't be any happier when we came down back to Lhasa, around 3,000. So much more fresh oxygen!

One of the second biggest lake in Tibet: Namtso Lake. 4,718 meters above sea level, Namtso Lake's surface is about 1,870 square kilometres. What makes this lake unique is that its one of the highest salt lake in the world. Namtso meaning "Heavenly Lake" you could tell that this is another important religious sight for the Tibetans. Unfortunately, I was feeling a bit sick by this day, so I didn't get to take a closer view of the lake. But still, from far away, I could see that the lake's calm lasting mightiness. What is more, in the winter time this lake freezes up so that you can walk across the lake to the other end. Even in Seoul river such stories were true probably only 100 years ago, not today.

Korean snacks in Tibet! Proud Proud. :)
The night view of Potala Palace

Tibet 06

Day 6

Shigatse -> Damxung (4,300 meter)
Tashilunpo Monastery

Ta Shi Lhun Po is one of the four "Yellowhat Sect" monasteries of Tibetan Bud dist. Founded by the first Dalai Lama -Gedun Drupa- in 1447, this place shares a long history with the Tibetan people. Although by this point, we have seen already a few temples. But this was one of the largest one. Not just by number of buildings, but by the size. Apparently, its size is about 70,000 square meter. If you have trouble calculating, just imagine as you enter this place, you walk and walk for about an hour and there is no end. The tour guide explained that its big as if a small town. I think I can believe her words.

Although most of the monks have been forced out since the cultural revolution in 1961 by the Chinese, this was one of the few places that I have seen more monks and people practicing their daily rituals. I kind of wished that we were able to see the busy natural sight of these people. Too bad, 1961 was a bit too long ago for me to have withness the true colour of Tibet.

In Tibet, most of the men become monks. But now they are mostly gone altogether. Dead. What is left are the old and the very young holding hands with their mothers and grandmothers. Women, but not enough men....
:) Here is another reason why Yak is important! Not only can you get meat, fur, and make use of the animal to work, but you can also make cheese! This white stone looking blocks are actually blocks of Yak cheese. They look hard but they actually crumbly quite easily. Its an important part of the Tibetans daily diet.

Part of one of the street stores.

Guess what these red houses are. Hint, they are all one kind of restaurant. Any good answer? No surprise, but these are all Chinese food! In fact, throughout my few days in Tibet, I had more Chinese food then I had in the next 3 weeks in Beijing. Not only were the food good, but the cooker and the waitress were all Chinese. I actually got to practice my Chinese more than I expected here in Tibet!

Why so much Chinese food in Tibet? The big reason is because of the political relation with China. Since the cultural revolution, China has tried every mean to break Tibet's culture and history. In the past 50 years, China has forced more and more of their people in Tibet that now there is an increasing number of Chinese not just working in Tibet but also visiting. So in order to keep their guest happy, they begin to built more and more Chinese restaurants. And that is what you are seeing. Very powerful.

And yum. The food was really good. I've been picking up a bad habit of eating too well throughout this trip. Maybe a bit too well fed :P.

Tibet 05

Day 5

Lhasa -> Xigatse
Yamdrok Lake, Baiju Temple,

On the way to Yamdrok Lake.

Because there are few roads that are in good condition, those few good roads are often crowded. Except, unlike other places where it would be crowded with cars, in Tibet this is what you see. Traffic :P.

After 7 hours of driving up the hills, we reached the mid point where we can see the lake. Beside the foggy clouds we could see the colourful Tibetans cultural flags strapped around. This is something that you can see all over Tibet. Though Lamaism is mostly based on Buddhism, what makes Tibetans Lamaism unique is that it has evolved along with Tibet's mythology and culture. Because of their geographical setting, Tibetans have learned to show respect and appreciate nature in every single way they can. This is one common way. By adding each line of these colourful line, they are showing thankfulness and wishing good luck for their future.

Ha, and now here is Mr. Yak. The symbolic animal of Tibet. I don't know if you could tell by the picture, but they were quite big and strong, and warmly coated... No wonder they can survived the high altitude and cold weather. I was actually under dressed for this temperature. Flip flops and short pants, my tour guide had to give me a worried look as I sprang along the 3,000meter landscape.
We thought we won't see this pretty scene! It was so cloudy when we were taking pictures earlier, but once we got on the Bus and started to head down. Suddenly the clouds moved away and shared us this beautiful scenery of Yamdrok Lake. The third largest lake in Tibet, over 72 km (45 miles) long. It was simply endless. I tried to do my best to capture the bright colour of this place, but as if we were stealing a glance of the beauty of its goddess, clouds covered her rapidly again. We all stood at the tip of the hill thanking for that five second of beauty. It was worthy to come up such a height.

Our bus that took us around Tibet for the past 9 days.

Though they don't have much, these people are one of the nicest people I have meet. Their smiles and curious eyes sparkling as they rush toward the foreign guest. We stopped at one of the villages down the lake. This was considered as a countryside. Its natural that young kids will look with such genuine curiosity. One girl in our group ran up to them with a warm smile. Taking their pictures and sharing them with her digital camera. The young girl couldn't even try hiding her happiness to see such a thing. Herself reflected in that small screen, she couldn't help but smile back with glee at the foreign guest's warmth.


We stopped at the village not to just visit but to sit in one of their house to have our lunch. The kind owner eagerly greeted the unexpected guest and shared her house. By first sight, I thought this was the grandmother. No, she is just a mother who has a twenty year old daughter. The reason why she looked so much older is not just because of the hard life in the countryside, but also because of the sunlight. Remember, this is at least 3,500meters above sea level. But that also means that the sun is closer to you and stronger sunlight burning your skin 365 days. Imagine you have to live in this place. I don't think you would want to go tanning at the beach, you get too much already naturally in Tibet.

Part of the Kitchen of her house. Apparently this is one of the houses that has been newly renovated so its cleaner and more colourful compared to the regular houses near this small town.

The children of this town.

We stayed at only one house, but everyone came out. I'm sure our short visit would have been a story that they would talk about at least for a couple days. Maybe even for weeks. That's how rough their living condition was. Limited technology, limited education, limited cleansing, and limited access to the bigger world. It was the second time that made me seriously think why AIDS in Africa or other 3rd world countries always emphasized the importance of clean water. Its seriously hard to keep that. (The first time was in Egypt. But I didn't knew that I would be thinking about this so soon again...) The reality seemed harder then I thought.

Baiju Temple, also called as the cyangtse pachu monastery, was established in 1418. This pretty white building is indeed colorful too. Though it doesn't look that big from the outside, as we entered inside it was as if entering a Buddhist maze. Every floor had rooms and rooms full of mural or Buddhist sculpture. 32.4 meters high it contains 108 cells and about 100,000 holy emages.

This was at the fourth floor. When you look down from here, you can get a pretty good sight of the streets down you. And at the same time, the blue sky above you.. Its a perfect place they would want to meditate and meditate and...

Tibet 04

Day 4

Jokhang Temple, Barkor Street, Cultural Show Dinner

I mentioned earlier that most foreigners consider the Potala Palace as the center of Tibetans culture and history. But for the Tibetans its different.

While Potala Palace may look magnificant, it is more of a symbolic place where the Dalai Lama used to reside and work. Jokhang Temple, on the other hand, is considered more important to the local people because of its central religious role. This is the place where most people come and pray. This is the place where people could seek for blessing. There are many who walks around and around the Potala Temple too. But Jokhang Temple is the temple that is in the Tibetans heart and soul.

Again, I could not take my eyes away from the bright beautifully coloured temple. And the details drawn inside and out of each wall was quite something. I don't know what you think of the photos colour, but I could tell you that it was much clearer and better in reality. So comparable to my former trip to Egypt.

Now this is the view that you see from Jokhang Temple. Under the cool breeze and the birght sunlight, even the busy street looked calm and happy. As you can see here, not only is Tibet colourful but also very clean. As if a storm swept by, not a single trash could be found on the ground. A hard sight to find in most countries...

Surrounding this temple are small street markets and stores. And the main street around the temple is called the Barkor Street. Thats where we did our hour of cultural shopping!
Not only was the temple white, but these surrounding buildings were white too.

Alas, our first day at Lhasa ended with a special local dinner. This place was the one of the only big resturant that had local food and cultural performance. Five different performances were held after the short buffee dinner. The performance was quite nice, but the food was quite bland than I thought. Because of their geography, they have Yak meat as their main meat. I don't think I enjoyed the taste of that one. I decided to drink in as much with my eyes rather than through my tongue. Some things need to take time to get used to.

Tibet 03

Day 4



Lhasa
Norbulingka (Summer) Palace, Potala (Winter) Palace, Jokhang Temple, Barkor Street

Entering the Summer Palace of Dalai Lama is called Norbulingka. It means "Jewel Park" in Tibetan. Now listed as one of World Cultural Heritage, though the head has been absent for a long while the monks have done their best to take good care of this place. It is one of the few places that has many trees towering above your heads. Because Tibet is located at a high altitude overall, it is very hard to find any tree that is quite tall. I think this was the last time I could breath in fresh oxygen from the trees during my stay in Tibet.

My visit to Tibet was in July. But though it was burning hot in Beijing, as you can see the local people's dressing it is not the same weather in Tibet. Its a bit chilly in the early morning and late at night. But whats funny is that during the daytime, because we are at a higher altitude, and close to the sun, it gets quite hot again. I think I felt all four season in one day.

One of the doors at Norbulingka Palace. One pattern you will notice all over Tibetan culture is the beautiful bright colour! The bright yellow walls followed by white buildings, and now these rainbow colored temples... It made me sad to think that this beautiful temple has been kept empty for a long while, it was a second home to Dalai Lama.

The next stop we made was Dalai Lama's other Winter palace: The Potala Palace. Built in the 7th century at the time of Songtsan Gampo and extended in the 17th century by the 5th Dalai Lama, the Potala Palace is one of the most famous site of Tibet. Most foreigners regard this place as the central part of Tibet. Not only because of its geography location, its history, but also the unique way in which it has been constructed.
Can you believe, this beautiful white palace built four centuries ago. 1,000 rooms divided to Red Temple and the White Temple. In order to reach the top, we took stone stairs like this for about two hours. 250 stone steps.. I am not Bhuddist myself, but even I could feel that this place is indeed something special. You could tell by the stones that it has been stepped by centuries of people. Every step I was taking counted more than I thought.

At one of the midpoints of Potala Palace. The white walls and the clear blue sky just made me gasp in awe. Beautiful.

Ok, so one other interesting point to note while visiting a foreign country is their toilet culture. Tibetans are nomads. They are usually not used to the concept of toilet as the Western people do. Here is an example.

At the midpoint of Potala Palace there was the highest toilet on earth.

Tada! Here it is! Why is this the highest? Because the hole in the middle, that depth is about 3,500meters high. Can you imagine? You can hear your busying yourself echo at the other end after couple seconds later, since you have to think of the time the stuff drops to the floor. Hey, don't laugh. Its still an experience. :P

A view from walking down Potala Palace. Because of its high location, you can get a good view of the overall Lhasa city.

Because Tibet is a strongly religious country, where over 90% of the population is Lamaism you will see such religious culture everywhere. This is an example. Outside the Potal Palace is a long wall of these yellowish circular shaped object. You will see the people holding a small one like this too. Turning it around and around calling "Omanibami." Wishing for the good fortune and good afterlife. Around and around. As a never ending cycle.

Tibet 02

Day 1-3

Qingzhang Railway
China, Beijing -> Tibet, Lhasa

First, there are few limited options to enter Tibet. You can try flying in, but there is no direct flight to Tibet, unless you stop by Chengdu Airport in China. You could try driving in from Nepal border or from one end of China, but considering Tibet being a large land you probably won't want to do that. Or unless you would like to spend several days just entering Tibet, Lhasa. Just about two years ago, in 2006, those seem to be the only options to enter Tibet.

But now that has been changed.



In July, 2006 China succeded in building the first offical railway that direclty enters Lhasa, Tibet from Beijing, China. What is amazing about this railway is not only because of its political significance between the two nation but also because of its technology. The 1956km Qingzang railway is the world's highest railway.

"Some 960 km of its tracks are located 4,000m above sea level and the highest point is 5,072m, at least 200m higher than the Peruvian railway in the Andes, which was formerly the worlds' most elevated track. [It is also] the world's longest plateau railroad, extending 1,956 km from Qinghai's provincial capital to Lhasa in Tibet. The newley completed Golmud-Lhasa section zigzags 1,142 km across the Kunlun and Tanggula mountain ranges."

http://www.tibettravel.org/tibettravel/html/200742517051-1.Html

If you calculate this properly... not only should you add 1,956 + 1,142, but also the distance from Beijing to Tanggula.. According to one of the official tour sites, the distance from Beijing west to Lhasa is about 4064 km. No wonder our travel guide told us that the trip will take about 48 hours. We were about to cross a great length with great altitude...


Beijing, West Train station

I had a train ride in Switzerland when I was young. My most recent train ride was in Egypt from Cairo to Aswan which was about 16 hours. Still, this one was going to be different. Not only is it about two full days (over 48 hours), but a sleeping car that has no shower. Hum, that did not sound that easy.

Most foreigners or those Chinese who can afford choose the sleeping carriage. In one carriage there are four people. Although this is 'made in China,' the overall quality was not that bad. Because it has been only about a year or so since it has been running regularly, the staff had kept its pace to keep the train environment clean and friendly. The large clean windows also makes us easy to watch outside as our train gradually enters the green land.

For instance, here is an example. Just looking at the clear blue sky along the green grass just made us smile and smile again.

The black dots you see are... yes. The trademark of Tibetan animal: the Yak. Ok. So though it looks green and warm outside. The fact that you see these Yak means that we are at least 3,000 meters above sea level. Because Yak only exist on upland hills, mountains, and plateaus between 3,200 m (10,500 ft) and roughly 5,400 m (18,000) ft. That means the air outside is quite colder than you think.

Another fun part you can't miss is the food. Because you take this train about two days, it is important to keep yourself well feed. There is a small cafeteria at the end of the carriage that provides Chinese food. Large amounts, good price, and quite tasty.

So I mentioned, how we were going up the hills and mountains. Well here is clear evidence! Because we are climing up 1,000 meters every moment, the plastic packaged crackers expanded rapidly. Really, we were afraid it was about to burst. Thank god, our lungs did not burst as fast as these plastic packages. And that was only on the way to Lhasa.

Tibet 01

July, 2008
Tibet




Just about a year ago, few people knew much about this small country. Located above India, Nepal and Bhutan, and below China, Tibet is surrounded by big Asian countries. That's probably why, despite its land size, Tibet's name and power is not that well known. It was only after when the monks started to actively protest that the international community started to open its eye to this big but small country.

Frankly, I was also one of those many who did not know much about Tibet. Even before my trip, the only knowlege I had about Tibet was the news on TV- which I knew only the headlines, not the body. I bought a book. But still, Thomas Laird's book The Story of Tibet was about all I knew. So my overall impression and understanding of Tibet has been simply on my own. Not as the country part of China, not as the troublesome land with burning monks, but simply as a new country. Unprejudice. That is how I would like my readers to follow along my journey too.

(I would like to excuse myself from the current political situation in regards to Tibet. I am quite aware that China has declared Tibet as China and, in fact, most Chinese people do believe that its part of their history. But since my visit here was simply focused on Tibet, I would like to claim Tibet as "the country" here, instead of part of China. I hope my readers understand my perspective.)

Coming

Tibet Traveling 9 days

China Beijing 3 weeks

Egypt 06

Day 7-9

Luxor, Cairo
Balloon Ride, Queens Temple, Donkey's Ride, The Valley of the Kings, Alabaster Factory,
Carrige Train Ride (Luxor-Cairo), Egyptian Museum, Hanging Church, Citadel Mosque, Market.

Balloon ride was another thing that I have tried at Egypt for the first time. As we took our breakfast boxes from the hotel and awaited for the balloon the heat up, I did not know what I might be able to see in a second. Ten or twenty people were gathered around heating up the balloon to be ready. We murmured worries that it might not fly because of strong wind, but after a second it was a rush. People were shouting at each other rushing toward the guest to jump into the basket. The only air-ride I ever had were airplanes, and those rides are something you can usually feel the height rising. This balloon ride however, was much smoother then I thought. It was as if you were watching a big screen surrounding you. And everything around you becoming gradually smaller and smaller every second. And as a matter of fact. wow..


As we passed across this Nile River, I understood for the first time how pretty the Nile River truly could mean. As we watched the morning sun rise, we could see far across how the green area only reaches near the riverside. Its all colorless again if you go several miles more out from the river. I could not feel more calm and happy as we gradually rose up and felt the morning breeze up at the sky.

This was one unique thing that I noticed in Egypt all over. Most of the buildings were incomplete like this. As we flew above you can see how none of these hoses have tops. The tour guide explained to us that its because of the Egyptian custom. They leave the top one empty so that they can build another house in the future for their children, and for their grandchildren. A closer look and you'll notice how they have all the materials to construct it. They just haven't touched it. In fact, because the weather is so hot, many kids were lying out on top of the roof. Air condition is probably not a first option that they have in mind.

The poor Egyptian Children...Here she was coming out from the gang with her little goat to draw attention from the rest. You can see the flies around her. But she did not care. A little pocket money was all she was hoping. And we all knew that would not keep her smiling that long as she hope...Entering the real Egyptian Tombs. Most will think that all the Kings and Queens were buried in the Pyramid. Well that was only an imitation. For all the real riches and the mummies are buried in the outskirt of Luxor called the Valleys of the King. Although the area looks like a massive place with just sands piled up. As we entered into one of the deep tombs, there were wonders to see. It was one of the best part, because I simply did not expected to see such colorful detail hidden inside. Sadly no photos were allowed downstairs, so I cherished them all in my heart.

The mosque in Cairo. Religion power.

The Hanging Church. One of the unique Christian Churches in Egypt. The name is hanging because the church is literally hanging on a tip of stone. Shaped as if to model the Noah's Arch, it is known to be one of the most unique churches in the world.