miscellaneous rambling

This is the first time in a long time that I have ever gone on a trip with a large group. As you all know, travelling can stress even the best of relationships sometimes. I only knew one of the 26 people on our tour and that person I only met 3 times before.

So far, we all get along, and it's been interesting to see the different personalities here. I"m meeting some interesting people. One of which is Mr. Ren. He is from Taipei, and owns a restaurant, a dog grooming company, and is a designer. he is quite interesting, and is also into Thangka painting, so we have done alot of shopping together.

There is a person on the group who doesn't talk much, and reminds me of a Chinese Harvey Keitel.

My bus partner is a retired teacher named Mr. Jiang. He asks me questions like, " Do you still dig holes in the snow to refrigerate food in Canada?"

and, "Do you use Chinese brushes to write in Canada?"

he also lectures me on Chinese poetry. It's been making the 18 hour bus rides even longer... He looks like the grandpa from the Simpsons, but without the glasses.

My roomate is "Benny" from Taichung. He is about 43 years old. Very nice guy. We have discussions about Taiwanese TV vs. Mainland Chinese TV.

There is a cafe in Lhasa that has a long history. Once long ago, a mysterious person visited the cafe, and met a beautiful girl there. This girl was never to be seen there again, but the man went again and again hoping to see her. She visited him in his dreams, and he could never stop thinking about her. This man, was the 6th Dalai Lama.

This cafe still exists and is a place I like to hang out in while in Lhasa. The food and atmosphere is great, and you can get great views of people from the roof.

The other night some of us were there and we saw a beautiful woman. It turns out she is the owner's wife. She came to talk to us, and she wore some of the most stunning Tibetan silver jewellery I had ever seen.

She had some older ones she no longer wears, and said that she would go home to get them to show us. We waited 15 minutes over some more tea, and when she came back, she showed us a large bracelet, a ring, and a pendant. All silver, with Turqouise, and coral.

Mr. Ren and I liked the items, but they were made for women. She offered a price for them, which if we wanted the items, would have gladly paid. Ms. Su, who was with us, started to bargain hard with the lady. She bought the pendant, and then we left.

Mr. Ren wanted the bracelet, and we waited out in the Barkor late at night, in the wind and rain, while Ms. Su ran back to bargain for the bracelet.

I have to tell you, this person has taste and class, and she is the owner of the cafe. Not a street vendor. Neither he nor I, had the guts to even bargain her down one dollar. It's a good thing she doesn't sell paintings or anything, because we'd both be handing money over.

So, 10 minutes later, Ms. Su runs back with shining bracelet in hand. She is now the queen of shopping in our little group.

I"m in Eastern Tibet for a few days on the end of my trip here. We are below 3000m. The weather in this region is good. Nice and cool, not hot like Lhasa is. The climate here is like in the Rockies. Alpine forest. It's beautiful alright, and makes me think of home, definetely not like the Tibet I had in mind though. The houses are different here. Made of stone, and also the language is different here. ( that's what my guide book says anyways, not like I would really know)

I"m in the mountain town of Bayi. Which is probably the cleanest town I"ve seen in awhile. Today we went to some scenic areas, and when to Lamaling monastery. The original was destroyed by earthquake in 1930, and this one was made in 1989. They did a very good job of it though. This temple belongs to the Nyimapa sect of Tibetan Buddhism.

I have seen pretty much every major temple in 3 out of the 4 provinces of Tibet in the last two weeks.

Basically, while you are here, it's either Temple, Mountain, Lake. And then your sites rotate around that. Plus a bit of shopping here and there..

Our group, which is about 30 people, are divided into 3 teams. Each time has to take turns to order food at the restaurants, get water, and take care of little problems. I"m on team 3, and my responsibility is ordering the food. The good thing is that that is something I have LOTS of experience in, so we are eating better now. :)

Tomorrow we have a long ride back to Lhasa. Everyday we travel far. We spend about 6 to 18 hours a day on the road sometime, covering lots of territory. It gets tiring.

Tomorrow will be our last night in Lhasa. I plan to go to my favorite cafe, have a glass of Tibetan barley wine, and just relax. We probably will arrive too late to do any sort of shopping. Which is too bad. I bought a painting from an art gallery here, and I would like to go back and talk to the owner, who is a very nice lady. She is an artist herself.
The painting I bought is of several monks, and it's painted on a recycled prayer flag, which the artist got from a mountain. It's very cool. I will take a shot of it, and put it online when I get back.

Tashi Delek

I have always like Tibet Thangka painting, which are religous Tibetan paintings on cloth. What I have found here is that sometimes they come on skin. Yak skin, and even human skin. I saw a Thangka that was being sold for 100, 000 EUROS which is painted on the skin ( the back ) of a deceased, high level Lama. It was a bit much for me. I don't think I could buy one on human skin.. I"ll stick to cloth.
plus 100,000 EUROS is out of my price range.

Anyways, over 2.5 days I have spent hours upon hours with a friend searching every Thangka in Lhasa. The result, I bought one about 30-50 years old painted in the Guke style from Western Tibet. I bargained hard for it.

The prices for the Thangka vary greatly, and its insane.

Here's an example. I go into a store and ask about two thangkas. Thangka "A" is 12,000RMB ( $1700 CAD) and Thangka "B" is 9000RMB ( $1300 CAD)
The next day, I go back to the same store, to compare again the quality versus others that I have been looking at.
I meet a different sales person who tells me that Thangka "A" is 28,000 RMB, and that Thangka "B" is a "cheap" one, and only 1500 RMB. So one has more than doubled in price in 24 hours, and the other has dropped 80% in price....

buyer beware.

The one that I bought ( from a different shop) I paid 20% of the original quoted price.

I"ve been in Tibet for 9 days now. Actually, not quite 9 days. We landed in Xinning, China on the 2nd of July and went overland into Tibet. The trip was 2000km over the Kunlun Mountains. It was high and dry, in the alpine desert. the views were beautiful, but it was a long, hard ride.
I'm travelling with a group of Taiwanese and Americans. We are led by a Professor Zheng, who is Taiwan's foremost expert in Tibetan culture. He has organized the trip's itinerary.

On our epic ride, we saw Qinghai lake, which is the largest saltwater lake in China. Unfortunately I don't have the dimensions. Well, actually, I just thought it was just a lake..

We started out at 2200m above sea level, and the first two days, climbed slowly upwards. But then on the day we were to take the Tangalu pass, we travelled for 18 hours, and gained an elevation of 2200m. Putting us, at the time up to 5210m above sea level. At around 4650m, when we stopped for lunch, my head was starting to hurt from the altitude. It was hard to just walk 100 meters. Despite medicine, several of us were feeling effects. After the pass, my mind was starting to reel, and I was about to pass out. The gave me and some others oxygen, which helped, and the bus sped down the mountain. As we descended each 100 meters, I could feel the pain and pressure being relieved.


On Wednesday, July 6th ( which just happened to be the Dalai Lama's 70th birthday) we finally arrived in Lhasa.

For the last few days, we have seen the sights. The incredible Potala palace, the Norbulinka(Summer Palace), and the Johkang temple. I have met a couple of locals, and began practicing a bit of Tibetan which I have been using off the guide book. The one phrase that seems to be the most useful is: "Ha Ka Ma Song" , which means " I don't understand" :)

Two days ago, we left Lhasa for Gyantse. This town has the largest Chorten in Tibet, and contains some of the most incredible Buddhist murals I have ever seen. It was incredible.

We are now in Shigatse, Tibet's second largest city. Today we left at 7am to Sakya to see the Sakya monastery. It is only about 180km away, but given the altitude, and road conditions, it was to take us about 5 hours to get there.

We never made it. About an hour out of Shigatse, our bus broke down. Granted, it was on the road, with snow capped mountains in front, and a wide river and valley next to us, so the view was nice. But we were in the mountains, and pretty much screwed.

About an hour later, with no luck fixing the bus, a taxi drove by and took the driver back into town. Of course that meant it would be at LEAST 2 hours before help arrived. In the end, we were stranded on the road for 6 hours. Two vehicles drove by at different points to take some people back to Shigatse first. The Americans ditched first.

The old men left second.

The third vehicle was a bus, which took the rest of us. Our bus is still out there as far as I know.

Given the terrain here, most vehicles you see are land cruisers, and similar SUVs. they drive fast down the roads. We had two people posted at front and rear of the bus to watch out for vehicles. We signalled them to pass slowly, but they usually honked at us for about 100 meters, and sped by, which shook the rest of the people in the bus. It's therefore quite dangerous.

So far, I haven't seen many foreigners in Tibet. Only one group of young backpackers, but for the most part, older people in their late 30's and up. They all travel with guides and in land cruisers, which cost about $300 CAD/day for rental. Therefore, the travel here is not so cheap either.

Professor Zheng had managed to get us all travelling at very low prices because he knows the area and is connected in a way. Plus, with his knowledge of Tibetan culture, he has been very helpful at the historical and religous sites with his explanations. He says that he will use my photographs for his next book, which I"m excited about too!

Despite today's setback, it was alright. The view was nice, and we had packed lunches and water, and well, if need be, it was only 40km back into town. I"m sure we could have all hitched hiked at least part of the way, if that bus didn't come.