Cheryl and I arrived in Lhasa on Saturday, being fortunate enough to secure the very last two seats on the last flight from Kathmandu for the year. Winter is approaching now, so the tourist season is coming to a close. And what a fabulous flight it was! We had the most magnificent views imaginable of the Himalaya stretching on forever. We stuggled to recognise particular mountains from such a high vantage point, but could pick out Everest, or Chomolungma, as she is known by the Tibetans. Lhasa is a most extraordinary place. The juxtaposition of old and new is constantly bewildering. On the one hand we've visited numerous monasteries, many of which were built in the 7th century - a Golden Age of Tibetan Buddhism - and don't appear to have changed much at all in that time. Getting swept along the pilgrim circuits with old men and women murmuring their prayers and spinning their prayer wheels feels like we've been transported back to Medieval times. But on the other hand, Lhasa is an extremely modern city. The Chinese influence is ever-present, and massive amounts of money have been sunk into government buildings and infrastructure. Huge department stores sell all the latest Chinese and Western fashions and pop music blares on the street from Hi-Fi stores.
One of the highlights for me so far has been seeing an old woman with an ancient weathered face and all her teeth missing, dancing in the middle of the street to a Nepali pop song, a big smile on her face, oblivious to all the passing stares and enjoying herself immensely. There is an extreme sense of peacefulnes about the Tibetan people, and none of the hustle-bustle we got used to in Kathmandu. It amuses me no end to see monks in their simple red and orange robes walking barefoot down the street and chatting on their mobile phones!
We hired a guide and driver and tried to get to Lake Nam-Tso, which is the second largest lake in Tibet. It was an incredibly scenic drive, but our efforts were ultimately thwarted by heavy snow on a high pass, some 40km before the lake. Despite the wintery conditions we still managed to drive to the top of Largen La at 5200m (pretty amazing!) where we were greeted with views of the lake in the distance. It was too dangerous to negotiate the steep descent on the other side, so we returned to a nearby village where our guide, Tashi, insisted we join him in playing cards and drinking beer!
We're on a private 2-person tour, but even so the agenda is very much determined by our guide and driver, and it can be quite frustrating to always play by someone else's rules. Cheryl and I are thoroughly enjoying a couple of days to ourselves before we begin the overland trip back to Kathmandu along the Friendship Highway.
We caught one of the pilgrim buses to Ganden Monastery today and had a great time walking the two koras (pilgrim circuits) with spectacular views over the Lhasa River valley. There are mountains everywhere! I was naively expecting a flat plateau stretching as far as the eye could see, but here the landscape is dramatically mountainous. It is stark and majestic. Unlike Nepal, it is intersected by broad open valleys with scattered stone settlements. There are very few trees, and not much greenery at all. The mountainsides look bare and rocky, but there is enough dry grass in the valleys to support huge populations of yak.The low point of my trip occurred yesterday morning when I got locked inside our hotel's outdoor loo for half an hour before finally being rescued. The Tibetan toilet experience is not a pleasant one, and it was a particularly foul-smelling place to find oneself trapped, an experience which brought me close to tears as I banged and yelled, trying to get someone's attention!
Later in the afternoon, while attempting to follow the Lingkor kora - an 8km pilgrim circuit which encircles the old part of Lhasa and the Potala Palace - we got a little bit lost and ended up climbing a hill above an army compound. The army officer far below was obviously upset and started yelling and pointing back the way we'd come. Having seen the big gun slung over his shoulder, we followed his orders without further ado.
Neither of us have had any altitude problems at all, but find ourselves noticeably breathless after walking up a flight of stairs. Lhasa sits at around 3600m and our walk today from the monastery took us to over 4600m. I'm assuming that our pre-acclimatisation while trekking has helped us to deal with the high elevations here.
With only one week left of my travels, my thoughts are already turning towards home. I feel somewhat restless, not sure if I want to return home or not, and slightly anxious about facing up to 'real' life. I feel frustrated and saddened by the complexities and incomprehensibilities of this world, but at the same time inspired to live simply and be true to myself. I think the thin, dry air of the Tibetan plateau must have a purifying effect on one's soul!
