Steve's Diary Entries 5 -8

Day 5, December 4th.

Lhasa Bound

Best breakfast so far, sends us off on a long drive to Lhasa. Nine hour drive.  Another cloudless day so with the crisp temperature it makes for some spectacular scenery. The bus travels through 5000m elevation. Plants can't grow at this elevation so the barren landscape looks like the surface of the moon. The lovely blue sky offsets the mountains and glaciers. Luckily the bus is stopping regularly for us to get out and take a good look. We stop for lunch and accidentally order something for Taiga that costs 10 times that of the next dearest item on the menu. Some quick negotiation gets the price back to acceptable.  Despite it being a long drive today, it is an easy drive as we have plenty of stops (including Yak photo stops) at the top of various passes.  We descend for over half an hour, after going through a 5000m pass, on a very tight switchback road.  Near the end of the journey, we cross the Brahmaputra river which originates from Mount Kailash in Tibet.  We are amazed that to hear that this goes on to India and gets renamed as a little river called The Ganges.

Just before sunset we arrive in Lhasa.  It certainly is a big city, and contains many significant monasteries and temples.  We are impressed with our hotel.  It was the residence of the main teacher of the Dalai lama.  That doesn't impress the boys that much, but the electric blankets on the beds certainly do!

Day 6, December 5^th

The most important temple in Tibet - Jokhang

We have three nights in Lhasa so we can spread out in our hotel room.  It is very authentic Tibetan decoration and architecture which just adds to the experience.

In the morning, we went to a monastery and palace up on a hill (Drepung monastery).  We had lunch there which was an experience!  Lisa described it as a monastery mosh-pit as she lined up to get our momos for lunch.  She had elbows flying and people trying to push in but she held her own.  After lunch we went to Jokhang temple which is a pilgrimage site so there were thousands of people.  We went inside and it was quite an experience visiting the temple which has so much religious history and significance, particularly the activities of the various Dalai lama.  We observed the chanting ceremony which was quite haunting.

In late afternoon we used our free time to get in some retail therapy.  I found the "Internet Computer Market" and the boys had fun looking at all the product (Apple was the most sought after).  We had a long walk to our hotel so ate in the local restaurant then crashed into our nice warm beds with electric blankets on high.

Day 7, December 6^th

The Palace day

Another hearty breakfast and then we head off to the Potala palace, the residence (if he was here) of the Dalai Lama.  It is 170m tall, atop Marpo Ri Hill which is 130m tall so it certainly gets a good look over Lhasa.  It is known as the most significant monumental structure in all of Tibet.

As usual at these monastery and temple visits, we walk up hundreds of stairs.  In the palace there are 999 rooms and 200,000 statues.  There is a high Chinese security presence inside the palace and they keep everyone moving through the various chapels.  We take the bus back to our hotel  for a lunch break and then go to the last monastery of our Tibet trip, Sera monastery (the second largest monastery in Tibet with 600 monks – we went to the largest the other day).  The highlight of the Sera monastery visit was watching the monks conducting a philosophical debate.  This was a very animated and noisy experience.  We were also shown their printing process which was completely manual.

This is the last day of everyone on the tour together so the hotel restaurant is busy in the evening.  The Corbett's are spending it trying to resolve our travel agent issues.  We have paid for a private jeep to get us back to Kathmandu in time for our flight to Bangkok, however between various travel agents the funds have gone missing so we don't know what tomorrow will bring.  Oh well, it keeps it exciting.

Day 8&9, December 7^th & 8^th.

Seven Years in Tibet?

We get a phone call from reception asking if we are checking out today.  We have to advise that we really don't know.  A flurry of phone calls doesn't resolve it, so we go and have breakfast and have a great chat with Koen from Holland.  His travel plans are up in the air too.  There are eight people from our tour left at the hotel, and no on knows when and how they are getting back to Kathmandu.  In our case, we have paid for a "private jeep" to which one of the agencies has added an extra two passengers.  So much for private!  There is also an issue with our travel permits (China has this place locked down and you can't travel within Tibet without a travel permit).   Luckily our agent in Kathmandu sorts everything out and we are lucky enough to head off just the four of us, with a driver and a separate guide, in our Toyota Landcruiser (they are everywhere).  We find out later that the other four people have huge problems getting back to Kathmandu.  We drive for 15 hours, stop at a hotel just short of the border, get up the next morning and eventually get through customs (after surviving another bureaucratic issue).  We purchase new visas once we are on the Nepal side and then hire another private jeep to take us for 5 further hours through to Kathmandu.  Overall it was a difficult journey to return to our Kathmandu hotel which is starting to feel like "home".  We were stopped a total of 24 times from Lhasa to Kathmandu to have our visas, passports and travel permits checked.  A tough job to get back, but absolutely a worthwhile trip to see what Tibet really is like, first hand.

Steve.

Friends in High Places

In Tibetan Buddhism, you are asked to remind yourself daily that you could die. The idea is that you then choose a more sensible option to your choices and in turn help yourself to keep safe.

Leaving Tibet proved quite a difficult experience. We as a family were travelling on one set of papers, however beside our four names was the number six. An unlucky number as it turns out for the Corbetts. This made our paperwork invalid and therefore impossible for us to travel back through Tibet to Nepal.

I had also paid for a private jeep to ensure our quick return to Nepal. However, it appears some Tibetan had decided to pocket that cash for himself, leaving us with no transport either. The only other option was a bus that left too late for us to catch our flight from Kathmandu.

We contacted our friend Kul, in Nepal, he in-turn brought in "the problem solver" called Dobla, aka Winston Wolf (Harvey Keitel from Pulp Fiction) in Tibet, or "The Wolf" as he is now known.

He arrived with a jeep, a driver and was working on our paperwork. 6 hours behind schedule, we left Llasa with everything we needed.

The driver didn't speak much English, all he knew was we needed to get to the boarder by morning. He took a lot of 'vitamins' and drove like a mad man. I couldn't help wondering if he'd prayed and reminded himself that he could die?

He finally slowed down and by about 9pm he even turned on the car headlights so we could see the road in front of us.

After passing through 15 checkpoints and having showed our passports and papers at each one, we finally went through passport control at the Tibet/ China border, however just as we were about 8 steps from no-mans land about to cross onto Nepalese soil, we were stopped and told our papers were missing one stamp. We couldn't travel any further. The stamp we needed had to come from Llasa. Seriously! We were stuck. We couldn't even use the toilet as that was back on Tibet/ China soil.

We thought up various ways to end this story, however, most would have ended in jail or death. Fortunately, "The Wolf" managed to organise a phone call from a high ranking official, and had us making those 8 steps to freedom within the hour.

x Lisa

Sky Burial

Most Tibetans are Buddhists. Buddhists believe in rebirth. They don't need to keep the body when it dies, as it is no longer important. When you die they chop up the body into pieces. Then feed the pieces to the vultures. So the idea of the sky burial is simply to dispose of the body. Most of Tibet is too hard and rocky to dig a grave, and fuel and timber are very hard to find, so a sky burial is more practical than cremation.

From Taiga

Assembly

Today we went to the Potala Palace and watched all the monks chanting. It was very interesting. Mum said it was just like a TSS assembly because some monks were chanting, some monks were talking and some monks were day dreaming.

From Cody

Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover

The Potala Palace is breathtaking in beauty and spirituality, so when we were offered the opportunity to eat there, we jumped at the chance of sharing food with all the Buddhist pilgrims. There is no breaking of the bread here, it is steamed momos. Bite size pieces of yak wrapped in dough.

One son and I quickly scanned the kitchen to work out just how to purchase our momos for lunch. I followed a Tibetan pilgrim in front of me. I got my small recently washed plastic bucket, emptied the water out of it. And helped make an orderly line where the momos were being steamed. It seemed civilised enough. I was second in line.

More and more peace loving pilgrims lined up behind us. A few cheeky ones had jumped in front, but that was o.k, we were after all in the presence of holy people. However as the huge lid was lifted off the bamboo steamer indicating a couple of hundred momos were cooked, there was a sudden surge of hungry Tibetan pilgrims and we were caught up in a mass of pushing, shoving, yelling and arguing. Now at this stage I was shoved with fully open palms back down the line. I was totally bewildered. But not for long!

I handed the money for our momos to my accompanying son, and yelled to him to cover me from behind. Elbows out, I began waving them back and forth and in and around the bodies that had so unceremoniously shoved me back. Plastic bucket in my right hand held over the cue jumpers in front of me and counting out twenty with my left hand, the Momo Master filled my bucket.

Obtaining the accompanying chilli sauce was just as traumatic an experience.

When I arrived at the table where we were seated, bits of momo dough hanging from my recently pulled hair and chilli sauce spilled down my disheveled clothing and splashed over my shoes, my husband's first comment was "awh, you forgot the chop sticks and tea!"

With as much sweetness as I could muster I replied "Oh I'm sorry, could you be a love and go and get them please." A wife's small revenge is sometimes rather sweet.

x Lisa

We Are In Tibet

We arrived in Lhasa yesterday and I finally got to eat some chicken last night. It was great. The trip has been good because we have got to see lots of mountains and rocks and fossils. The Tibetans we have met along the way look like cowboys from the Wild West.

We played with a very cute goat. It is the size of a small dog. We really want one as a pet.

From Taiga

Gyantse

We went to the Phalkhor Monastry in Gyantse. It was built in 1416. That's nearly 600 years old. Gyantse was good because the people were very friendly. They all wanted to shake our hands and touch us.

From Cody

Steve's Diary Entries 1 - 4

Day 1, November 30th

A Long, Long Day

We were up at 4:45am to finish off packing, store bags and be met downstairs. A short walk to the bus where our bags were loaded on top (lets hope they do a good job of tying them on!). For some reason there was a delay (first of the day). We have a good mixture of people from all over the world, so it should be a fun trip. We drove for just over an hour then had breakfast at a restaurant with a lovely view of the mountains. Luckily the bus has four wheel drive as the road gets progressively worse (this is the route to the border between Nepal and Tibet!). There are trucks and people everywhere, it is chaos. After about four hours of driving to cover maybe 60 km, we reach the border. There is no special arrangement for foot traffic, here at Kodari and we have to battle it out with trucks, goats, you name it. The Chinese immigration is very bureaucratic and takes quite a while. We had been told that we weren't allowed any printed material expressing views about Tibet (even the Lonely Planet is banned). Because of the volume of trucks trying to get across the border there is a huge traffic jam on the Tibet side. We have a 15 minute uphill walk to the bus. We then have to physically move an unattended car to extricate our bus! The rest of the day proceeds along the same lines; blockages, delays, ridiculously slow progress. We fall into bed, tired but wrapped up warm as the temperature is below zero, at 10pm at Nyalum, 60 km on the Tibet side of the border.

Day 2, December 1st

Another long drive

We got away early today and as the roads are better we make good progress. Thanks to sending the boys ahead yesterday, we have good seats on the bus which helps for those with dodgy tummys. We get our first glimpse of Everest from the Tibet side, quite impressive. Tibet looks like the wild west. Barren landscape, people driving vehicles like the Clampetts, animals roaming the streets, and it is very cold. With windchill it was minus 20c when we stopped the bus at 11am today!

We really are on the rooftop of the world, today passing through 5220m elevation (basically as high as Everest base camp where we were last week).

We have some characters in our group. The Spanish couple are taking around 1000 photos a day. Both cameras going non-stop. We have the obligatory loud American who I nicknamed Ed (after Sir Edmund, a beekeeper), because of his dorky hat that makes him look like a beekeeper. He does pushups in front of the bus every time we stop and compares everything to Nevada, California or anything American. He is entertaining though. We have plenty of 20 something lads from Holland, Canada, Russia and Sweden. We chat lots with the couple from Melbourne doing six months overseas and also with the Swedish couple that have also done volunteer work.

We covered 400km today and are ahead of schedule. We now have two nights at quite a nice hotel with hot showers and nice toilets. We have two rooms booked but we just use one so we can be together. The hot showers get a thrashing, but the trick is to get dressed quickly otherwise you get cold again. We are in Xigatse.

Day 3, December 2nd.

Yay, no bus today!

After a particularly uninspiring breakfast, it is good not to be getting on the bus again. For morning tea we head further afield and find some tasty pork dumplings. Back to the hotel to continue to freshen up. One son has a lingering cold so we are trying to get him right for the guided tour this afternoon.

No such luck, better to keep him in bed so both boys stay in the hotel room with Mum whilst Dad does the tourist thing.

Pre 1959 Xigatse was the second largest city in Tibet so it has a lot of history. The huge monastery was one of the few that survived the "cultural revolution" albeit with significant rebuilding. It is very cold here so the Corbetts had another quiet night in. More bus travels tomorrow.

Day 4, December 3rd.

The Fortress

It is still dark at 8:30am as we head down for breakfast, resplendant in jackets, hats, gloves, the works. Bus departure is at 9:30 for an easy two hours. Enroute we stop at a wheat factory (everything very manual) and then on to Gyantse by lunchtime. Best hotel we have had so far and the day is glorious. We walk for a couple of hours to check out the streetside markets and buy local things for lunch. At 2:30 we head off for the guided tour of the local monastery, which has an extremely impressive fortress bordering it. Not a cloud in the sky so the afternoon is downright pleasant. This city is quite wealthy with street lights, many beauticians, perfume stores and a good sized market. It is geographically at a point where the British invasion was repelled and it is known as a hero city.

Steve.

All Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

I have waited now for countless years. Tibet is one of those holy grails to travellers in Asia, the roof top of the world, land of snow, Shangri La and all that.

We have come over land, having now discovered we all have a love of mountains and topography. We have not been disappointed, the landscape is awesome. I can only describe the beauty of this barren land, like an old friend. It is full of warmth amidst its freezing conditions, both embracing at times and yet distant in others. The changes in rock formations and mountains are like the curves on a perfectly toned body.

Then amongst its serenity and perfectness, we discover that our dear friend is not well. She is ill, sick with a cancer. This cancer is China. Sadly China has infiltrated even the most remote places of this majestic land and its people.

Please don't mistake my comment for a dislike of Chinese people. I have spent time in China before, studying and working and even on part of my honeymoon. The Chinese people are lovely and I have always enjoyed my stay in China. When I refer to cancer in this context, I am referring to the government and its atrocities it has imposed on the Tibetan people.

We as foreigners were banned from bringing reading material into Tibet, any images or anything to do with the Dalai Lama. We are not even allowed to speak of the Dalai Lama. For two boys aged 9 and 10, this has proven an impossible task as they have had many questions about the Dalai Lama. I have tried to answer them as truthfully and as unbiasedly as possible. Although I think my feeling on the matter are pretty transparent.

However, that all said, we are enjoying our stay here very much. The boys have created quite a stir where ever they have gone. I don't think they get a lot of foreign kids here.

x Lisa