Kathmandu: Hello Cheap Price for You!

Jan 26. Or wants to go to India but has no visa. (I already got Indian and Bangaladeshi visas in Beijing in December). He really does not want to sightsee in Nepal. He is just coming here because it is cheaper than flying to India. So he hopes to get in and out of Nepal as soon as possible. However, it takes 7-10 days to get an Indian visa! So this morning (Jan 26) Or went to the Indian embassy. I went out to see the city. I walked a lot - all over the city. I visited the Royal Palace (outside only), Asan Tole, Durbar Square, the river, and lots of other places. As I was leaving the hotel, the guy at the desk told me there are no taxis or buses today - but walking is free. As I got out on the street, I saw what he meant. 90% of the businesses at 10am were closed. There were no taxis or buses. Lots of people walking. But more impressively - there were soldiers everywhere! Everywhere - on sidewalks, on top of buldings, in businesses, in trucks - everywhere. It looked like a war zone. I found out later that Nepal will have elections soon. The king chose which parties can participate and which cannot participate - but he only chose parties which support him - none that have different ideas than him. Many people were upset about their lack of political freedom and the king's unwillingness to allow others to have different political opinions. So they decided to protest - by striking. That is why there were very few businesses open and no buses and taxis. The police/army soldiers were all over the city to prevent violent protest and riots. As far as I know, there were no incidents to speak of.

Another thing about Nepal - it seems more than half of the people speak English (unlike China where only a small percentage knows English). While this is helpful for buying things and getting directions, it enables vendors to say more than "Hello cheap price for you" (which is normally what foreigners hear in China). Actually, it is very annoying. These vendors walk up to you carrying lots of merchandise and they don't say "buy". They say, "Hi, what is your name?" And you feel rude and mean to not reply. So you tell them. And then they say, "My name is ____. What country are you from? Oh, that is a very good country." And they follow you around for the next 20 minutes talking to you and then try to get you to buy things. It is annoying. After 20 minutes maybe you can convince one to leave you alone. Then another appears and follows you. It is tiring. The worst is near the historical sites when "guides" come up and start telling you things about where you are. These guides are not official people. After talking and walking with you for 5 minutes, they ask for money. When you refuse, they say I did work for you - I was your guide. You should pay me money. Very annoying. Kathmandu is more wetern in ways (Thamel is westernized (although the streets there are sometimes gravel/dirt/unpaved and people speak English), but in other ways it is similar to other Asian countries with persistent people bothering foreigners trying to sell them things. It is difficult to say no - some of them look really poor and desperate. At the same time, I hate to buy something - it only encourages them to use the same tactics on the next person. Actually, Nepali people are very friendly. I met several people who just wanted to talk to me -- and not sell me anything. They just wanted to learn more about foreigners - what do we think of Nepal, how long will I stay here, what do you like/not like about Nepal, etc. After a long day of walking around the city, I went back to the hotel and met Or. He said that the Indian embassy was closed so he would try again the next day.

Jan 27 I left early and rented a bike. Or planned to go back to the Indian embassy. I rode out into the countryside and up and down mountains outside of Kathmandu. Very interesting and beautiful scenes. Had lunch in a small village - had buff chow mein (buffalo fried noodles). It seems since Nepal is so close to India there are a lot of Hindus here. And so beef is rare here. Instead most restaurants serve buff (which Or and I believe to be buffalo instead of cow). However, at the restaurant they served me a glass of cold water. Maybe I should not have drank it (almost all restaurants in Asia serve hot water so you know the water has been boiled to kill the bacteria). I was thirsty and sweaty after riding the bike so far. I hope I won't get sick. Anyway, I came back to return the bike tonight at 6pm and told the guy I wanted it again tomorrow so he let me keep the bike. So I plan to leave early tomorrow to bike to Patan and Bhaktapur (two close cities with interesting sites).

Lhasa to Kathmandu: Frozen Every Night

Greetings from Kathmandu! Happy Chinese New Year! Chun Jie Kuai Le! Today (January 25) I travelled from Tibet to Kathmandu, capital of Nepal.

Jan 21. A little about our group - Chris likes to use the F word for every third word he says. He is very extraverted guy who likes to be the center of attention. He is nice and spoke to Yuya a lot in japanese. Chris spoke Chinese very well too - he's studied it for 2 years (including currently intensive training in Beijing). Yuya had been in China 1 month - his english is poor but understandable. He has a large expensive camera and gets paid US $30-50 for every set of photos he takes. Very friendly guy, but he does like to smoke a lot - in the car, in the hotel room, etc. Finally, Or is a 27 year old Isreali. He joined the Isreali army at age 18 and served for 9 years. During that time he visited many countries. He says he's been to more than 100 countries! For part of that time, he was stationed in the US because the Isreali army did joint exercises with the US army. He's lived in Delaware and Idaho among other places in the US. He left the army about a year ago. Since September he's been travelling the world - Cancun, Wales, China, etc. He entered China at the beginning of November and will stay 3 months - until he leaves Tibet for Nepal. He has a flight in May from Bangkok back to Israel. He will begin his undergraduate degree as a 28 year old freshman in September. He is a very caring, thoughtful, intelligent person. He does describe himself as a left-wing socialist though.

We left at 8am and headed out for Yamdrok Lake. It was a beautiful lake with a big snow capped mountain behind it. Next we went to a small town to eat lunch. Everything on the menu was expensive. I picked out a dish for 6 kuai but believed it to be rice because the last character was mi (rice). I also knew the character before it sheng (born/life) but did not know what it had to do with food. Or decided to get the same thing as me. Chris and Yuya had dumplings (jiaozi) and their food looked good. Then we received our dish -- peanuts. That's all it was - a plate full of peanuts. We had a good laugh and then ordered a bowl of rice to go with our 6 kuai peanuts. We mixed the peanuts, rice, la jiao (spicy pepper sauce) together and had an interesting dish. Not bad. However, we could not finish - we were both sick of peanuts after eating 1/2 to 3/4 of them. Or then had some reaction - his nose started bleeding badly. He was ok, but a lot of blood came out of his nose. I was ok - no problem. Back in the landcruiser... We arrived in Gyantse in early afternoon and chose a hotel - the Wutze Hotel. We got dorm beds for 20Y each. However there was no running water or heat. It did have electricity at least - something I would later learn that not all Tibet hotels have!

After checking into our hotel, we went out to the Dzong (or city fortress). As we walked down the city streets, we saw no other foreigners. Our hotel had no other guests. It seems we were the only 4 outsiders in this city today. When we reached the Dzong, it was locked up but a group of women and a man ran across the street with a key to let us enter. They unlocked the Dzong, charged us 10 kuai a person, and showed us around a little bit. There were a lot of stairs -- the fortress is on top of a hill in the middle of the city. Then they left and let us roam the fortress by ourselves. It was really windy! We climbed to the top and the wind was very strong there - almost impossible to climb down the stairs. Then we started our descent to leave the dzong. As we were exiting, one of the women that had been with us earlier came out of the ticket office building and waved us in. We went inside. The 4 women and the man were all inside sitting on couches and eating food. They shared some tradititional Tibet food with us - almost identical to the food I ate in Mongolia. Tibet really does have much in common with Mongolia. The drink - Suk de cai (in Mongolian) and Yak butter milk tea (Tibet) tasted the same. The food - dried yak milk treats were the same as what they served guests in Mongolia. Two things were different -- one of the women had a big bottle of Pepsi and shared it with everyone. (Pepsi seems to have a huge market share advantage on Coke in Tibet - I rarely saw Coke available -- almost always Pepsi.) The second thing is that one of the women had a plastic bag with a bone sticing out. She pulled out the bone and it was a raw/uncooked leg of lamb - still with fur on it. She then took a knife and cut off several small pieces and gave it to everyone to eat. The Tibetans all ate it. Chris and Yuya ate it. Or and I looked at each other and then realized there was a lot of room in our pockets! But we reailzed they were staring at us and that they were watching us and kept telling us to eat. I ate a litte - but only part that seemed dried nd tough - not the wet juicy fatty parts. After eating a small bit, the rest found its way to my pocket. Of the 4 Tibetan women, the youngest was 21. She kept joking that she would marry me. An old 40 year old woman then joked she would marry Chris (who is 21). We think they were joking but then we were never quite sure. Who knows, maybe they were serious! :-) We stayed and ate Tibetan snacks and drank yak butter milk tea with them for 1.5 hours. Then we left and went back to the hotel and had dinner in a Muslim (Qingzhen) restaurant. Good food but a little pricey. It seems every place in Tibet outside Lhasa where there is a lot of competition has high prices. Then we went back to the hotel and tried to sleepin our cold beds. There was no toilet in the rooms - it was outside across a courtyard. And it was cold at night. But I was still able to sleep.

Jan 22. We left Gyantse in the morning and went to Shigatse (known as Rikaze in Mandarin Chinese based on sound). We did not want to pay to go into the monastary (it was free for Tibetans), so we walked around the pilgrim path around the outside of the monastary and then walked over to the Dzong (fortress). The Dzong was initially destroyed in the 18th century, but was completely destroyed during the 1950s. There is really little to see. Actually, it was under construction - lots of scaffolding in place - so maybe there are plans to rebuild it. The other guys left, but I walked around the construction zone to get a better view of it. After getting up to the top of the Dzong, a construction worker saw me and told me I had to leave (or at least that is my guess). I walked back and met the other guys. Chris was on the toilet with stomach problems. He guesses it was from the raw lamb meat from Gyantse. I ended up going into the monastary to take some photos and look around, the other guys didn't want to pay.

We left Shigatse on our way to a small town called Sakya - home of a monastary. We stopped for lunch in a small city between the two, and this time we ordered jiaozi (dumplings) and chow mian (fried noodles) - no hua sheng mi (peanuts). Chris was not feeling well - we all wondered who would be next! We found that most of the friendship highway (the road from Lhasa to the Nepal border) is not paved -- mostly dirt and gravel. Not much of a "highway" but we were able to go 50-80 km/hour (30-50 mi/hr) on it - so not bad. When we reached Sakya, our driver (a 50 year old Tibetan named Kika who spoke Tibetan, Chinese, and only a few words of English) took us to the Sakya hotel. It was the only building that resembled a hotel. We went inside and the man told us 35 kuai per person. However, again there is no heat and no running water! We argued for 20 and he would not budge. So we went outside and Yuya and I found another "hotel" -- it was a run down poor looking place. They offered 25 kuai per person. The room was a little dirty but not too bad. I told the man - no, we want 30 kuai for all 4 people. He went and asked his boss and his boss said ok. So that gives you some idea - they were willing to rent a room with 5 beds to 4 people for 30 kuai ($3.75). However, Or had been able to negotiate the other hotel down to 25 kuai a person by the time I got back. Chris was sick and wanted a nicer looking hotel than the cheap dirty one. I came into the hotel and was able to get them down to 20 Y each - the same as I paid in Lhasa and the same as we paid in Gyantse.

Chris decided to lay down and get rest because he felt sick. The 3 of us (Yuya, Or, and I) went out to look at the city. There are actually 2 monastaries in Sakya - one north of the river that was destroyed and lays in ruins and one south of the river (in the village) where you must pay 45 kuai to enter. We walked around and took lots of photos. The village kids came up to us and posed for photos and then asked for money. We gave them 17 fen ($0.02) in coins and they were happy. One thing to note about Tibet - nobody accepts Chinese coins here as money. So all of our 1 kuai, wu mao, 1 jiao, etc coins were not usable. After coming down off the mountain we went checked on Chris and then the 3 of us asked the hotel manager where to eat. He took us to the Dezin Family Restaurant - a small room with a stove in the middle. Around wooden pieces of furniture (used as tables) were couches. All the local Tibetan people stared at us. Yuya did not say much during the meal, but Or and I talked about US and Isreali politics. Or described Isreali left-wingers (peace at all cost) versus right-wing (fight the Palestinian terrorists and punish them for what they have done). Also described the religious makeup of Isreal, saying about 65% of the population is not religious - only Jewish by religious culture (people observe customs but are not religious) or simply by heritage. Also about race in Israel - 45% are white, 45% brown/MiddleEastern (but these two groups intermarry and act as one), and then about 5% are black (mostly Jews from ethiopia). He also said of the 6 million people in Israel - 5 million of Isreali citizens are Jews and 1 million of Isreali citizens are Muslim. The biggest conflict Israel has is with the Palestinian Muslims who live in the West Bank. Anyway, after supper we went back to the hotel. The hotel decided to have a karaoke party in the room near us so there was loud music playing late at night. And it was cold. And the bathrooms smelled because the hotel has no running water in the winter. (And this is by far the nicest hotel in
Sakya).

Jan 23 The next morning we decided to leave at 11:30 in order to let Chris rest and also so we could see the monastary. The monastary was not very big but did have some interesting things - but mostly just Buddhas. Our nickname for Tibet - A land without heat and water but full of mountains and Buddhas. Another way to describe Tibet - Africa meets the North Pole. Actually, during the day time the temperature was warm enough to walk outside in a jacket and feel comfortable. The problem was at night when lows were usually close to -10C (14F) and there was no heat in the hotels. We left at 1130 and ate lunch in Lhatse. All four of us felt fine now. After lunch, we saw where a truck had driven off a cliff and smashed on the ground below. It was near a bend on the mountain road so maybe it met a car and veered to far over and went over the side. There were probably more than 100 Tibetans on the mountain side picking up all the things that had fallen off the truck.

Around 4 pm we arrived in Shekar (Shigar) also known as New Tingri. The first hotel we went inside we met the 2 british guys (still wearing blue) and the Australian guy named Kieren. They had not seen as much as we had seen along the way and had gone to Everest that day. (We would go the next day). However that hotel was cold and expensive so we walked down the street and found another one. That one was cheaper 20Y but had no water, heat or electricity. Actually none of the hotels in that town had electricity! The one we chose had a generator which ran from 7-1130pm so we had electricity for 4.5 hours at night. Also, our hotel did have electric blankets - but they were not very powerful and did not work after 1130pm. We went back to the first hotel - which had a warm restaurant and met another group of people who had come from Lhasa headed to Everest the next day. It was 2 guys and 2 girls. One of the guys was 35 and kept talking about how he is in the Her Royal Majesty's Navy in Australia and that he is a navigator. Sort of annoying. The other guy seemed friendly but we aren't really sure. He was from somewhere in the UK and is teaching english in China but we could only understand 1 out of every 5 words he said. Strong accent and used strange/different words than we were familiar with. Went to bed and enjoyed the electric blanket until 11:30.

Jan 24 We left at 8am to go to Everest. An SUV behind us carried "the Navigator" and his friends. Chris was really annoyed by him and kept makeing jokes about "the navigator." After 3 hours of winding up and around and down mountains, we made it to Everest (Quomolonga in Tibetan) base camp - the start of expeditions to climb Everest and the point up to which you can go by car. After base camp, you hike up to camp 1 then camp 2, etc. The summit of Everest is 8844m (about 29,000 ft). Base camp is at 5,200m (or about 17,000 ft). In comparison, the top of Pikes Peak is 14,000ft. So it climbers must hike an additional 3644 meters up the mountain. It was very cold and windy but almost no clouds in the perfectly blue sky. Very exciting to be looking at the tallest point on earth. The Canadian biker had told me about a new sign which is a good place to take a photo - and so we walked over there (about 5-10 min walk). It was cold and windy! However, I took off my coat and hat to take the photo (see attached photo). We walked back to the Landcruiser and our driver. When we got back, "the Navigator's" landcruiser pulled up. We told them about the sign, but they just took a photo from there and left in less than 2 minutes at Everest. We probably stayed close to 30 minutes. Well, there were a lot of navigator jokes in our car after that. We stopped in a small town between Everest and the Friendship highway and then guess who joined us - the navigator and his 3 friends. Actually, I don't think the guy is so bad. But Chris almost spit his food out when the Navigator started saying "one time i was navigating..."

After lunch, we drove to Tingri to spend the night. Tingri had electricity all the time, but no outlets to charge batteries/cell phones, etc. That probably didn't matter a lot about cellphones - because most of the time in Tibet there were no cell phone towers. The next day, Or and I would go to the border of China and Nepal but Yuya and Chris would take the bus back to Lhasa. Chris inquired about the bus and the hotel told us there was no bus! So it looked like they would have to hitchhike (common in Tibet because there is little public transportation). But then another guy in the hotel said there was a bus but it does not come regularly. Or and I decided to leave the hotel at 7am so we could get to the Nepal border early enough to catch a bus to Kathmandu.

Jan 25. This morning we awoke around 630am and it was cold! Probably the coldest we had encountered in Tibet. It was difficult to get out of bed. We had a room with 5 beds in it for 20y each (which is what I paid for all 8 nights I stayed in Tibet). None of the hotels I stayed at (including Lhasa) had heat. Only the Lhasa hotel had running water and hot showers. The Tingri hotel had a shower - but it was only cold water (and outside) and you had to pay to take one. So we passed up on that. The driver tried to start the landcruiser, but it would not start. After working on it (using a burning torch to try to unfreeze the gas lines) for 45 minutes, he got it started. We said goodbye to Chris and Yuya who were planning to take the bus later that day. Poor Chris - this was his plan - Jan 25 take bus from Tingri (near Everest) to Lhasa. Jan 26 take bus from Lhasa to Golmud. Jan 27-29 take train from Golmud (Ge-er-mu) to Jinan where his friend lives. Three problems - 1 the money in his Bank of China account in Beijing was unaccessible so he had little money left - 2 he had to travel directly from one end of China to the other - and 3 he was travelling during Chinese New Year which makes it difficult to travel. I have not heard from him, but I did get an email from Yuya saying they reached Lhasa on January 25th.

Or and I left the hotel around 745am and got to the border around 1230pm China time (1015 am Nepal time). That's right - Nepal is 2:15 behind China. Why the :15? Because India is 2:30 behind China and Nepal wants to show they are different from India! Between Tingri and the border we passed some great views of snow covered mountains (the Himalayas). At the Nepal border we got Nepal visas on the spot by filling out a form and paying US $30 (240 Y). Interestingly, my cell phone had connection from a tower in China when I was just over the border but lost power as soon as we left. Instead of taking a 9 hour bus for 150 rupees (1 nepal rupee = 9 chinese yuan = 70 USD), Or prefered to take a taxi that would take only 3 hours and cost 750 rupees or about US$10. So that is what we did. Along the way we passed the world's tallest bungy jump - from a bridge above a canyon/river. We did not do that. We arrived in Kathmandu around 4pm. Our top choice - Kathmandu Guest House in Kathmandu's Thamel (do not pronounce the h) district had no cheap rooms available. So we went next door and rented a room at the Hotel Star for 200 rupees per night (100 rupees each which is 11 kuai or $1.4 per person). Warm room with 2 beds and private shower/bath with warm water. Not the nicest room but it is cheap. Nepal is poor like other Asian countries but much more developed than Tibet. Much do to the elevation. Lhasa is at 3700m, Base Camp 5200m, Shigar 4500m. From Tingri to the border and on to Kathmandu it was mostly downhill. Kathmandu's elevation is 1300m. The lower elevation makes it warmer and easier to breathe (more oxygen in the air). Thamel district in Kathmandu has a target market of Western tourists. Lots of businesses offering pizza, hamburgers, ice cream, internet cafe, etc. Seems like Gatlinburg or Branson meets Chinatown or Las Vegas meets Europe. Lots of touristy businesses crammed together with flashing lights in little tiny alleys. In Tibet I probably saw a total of 15 foreigners in 8 days. Right now I see about 10 foreigners in the Thamel net bar where I am typing this!

Lhasa: Lost Photos & a Monk's Pen

JAN 18. I visited many places in Lhasa. I saw the Potola Palace (BuDaLaGong), the most famous landmark of Tibet. In short, there are a lot of Buddas there and a few tombs of former Dali Lamas. I took a lot of photos. Then I went and booked a tour to the Nepal border. I visited the Jokhang Temple, the most famous Tibet temple. Again lots and lots of photos. Most of my photos were outdoor ones from the rooftops of the palace and the temple. On my way back to the hotel, a guy (named Dorgee) started talking to me. He is probably 192 cm or 6 foot 4 inches. He looked Tibetan to me but he also looked like a tourist. So I asked where are you from and he said Kanding. Is that near Lhasa I asked? No, it is in Sichuan province, near the Tibet border. He is ethnic Tibetan and cannot speak Mandarin Chinese - only Tibetan, some English, and very little Chinese. He followed me around to some other places and we exchanged cell phone numbers. He was very eager to practice English. He visited Nepal last year for 2 months and is living in Lhasa now with his uncle to study English in Lhasa.

NIGHT OF MISERY. In the evening, I felt bad again. Just felt cold and shivering but it really wasnt so cold. I had some Niu Rou Mian (bu yao la jiao) - Non spicy beef noodles. Usually I like spicy food but I thought my stomach might not like it yet. Then I went to the net bar. I planned to download the photos from the first 5 days of my travels and email the best 3 or 4 to people. So I downloaded my photos. When I was 90% done (about 2000 MB), the computer crashed. Knowing this is a net bar where computers often delete other people's files when the computers reboot, I did not restart immediately. I went and explained the situation to the net bar staff. They assured me all my pictures would still be there when I rebooted the computer. I asked a second time. Again they assured me. So I rebooted. Upon reboot, there was nothing there. All files were gone. The net bar guy said, yeah of course all the files are gone. But you can redownload them from your camera. WHAT! I said? I had moved them to clear up the space on my camera. The net bar guy did not know much about computers. They had no restore software. And they offered no help. This was a loss of almost all of my photos from the time I had left Tianjin. I was really sad. :( The guy kept saying they are gone forever - forget it. But I persevered. I bought and downloaded some restore software to try to recover them. After many frustrating hours with the software, I was finally able to recover 25% of them. So I still lost a lot of photos. I finished at the net bar at 3am. I asked the net bar if they could give me 1 or 2 hours for free because their computer had crashed, their software had deleted the files, and they had no recovery software - I had to do everything myself. They refused and made me pay the whole amount. So I paid and left. No, actually I didn't leave. It seems the boss of the net bar had locked the door at midnight and had gone home. So we were all locked inside the net bar. This was ok to the other customers -- boys who were playing computer games all night. The guy said no problem. You can just sit here until the boss shows up at 9am. WHAT? I told the guy to call the boss and let me out of the net bar. Around 4am a key appeared and I was able to leave. I had planned to take a bus to visit a monastary the next morning at 630am. I knew that if I went to my bed I would sleep until noon. So I went to the hotel lobby and tried to do some work (trip planning, etc) and fell asleep in a chair. It was ok though. I woke up at 625. I checked my bag at the desk, ran down the street and...

JAN 19. ...made the bus. My night of misery was over. I slept on the bus for the 1.5 hour trip (45 km) to Gandan Monastary - seat of the Dali Lamas. It is beautifully located at the top of a mountain. In total, the bus ride (round trip) and admission to the monastary cost me $2.50 (20Y). Cheap is good. And the monastary and the views from the top of the mountain were amazing. I had a good time. An old monk in one of the temples there asked me to give him a pen. I thought he meant to use and then he would give it back to me. I gave him one that said "JH Churchill Funeral Home - Murray KY". When he got it he said "Thanks" and put it in his pocket! So an 80 year old monk at Gandan Monastary in Tibet is now using a JH Churchill Funeral Home pen! On the way back, I made several videos of people on the bus with my camera. They all loved it. Small children, old men, young women, etc. all posed in the videos. It was fun. Yes, everyone on the bus was Han Chinese or Tibetan except me. And nobody spoke English. One girl I met (she was probably 10) spoke excellent Chinese. Of course, I am not a good judge of Chinese, but I could understand so much of what she said. She said her family is from Ge-er-mu (Golmud) in Qinghai. After I got back yesterday afternoon, I met Dorgee again. He showed me around some places in Lhasa. Last night, I found that two new guys wanted to travel into western Tibet with us. One was an American and was one was Canadian. Both are studying Chinese at Capital Normal University in Beijing. The Canadian was realy sick and so we decided to postpone the trip one day to give him time to recover. So now I will have one additional day in Lhasa. Aghh! I'm ready to leave Lhasa already. I usually like to spend one day in a city. Jan 20 will be my fourth day... Ok, one more day in Lhasa...

Jan 20. I left around 9am and hurried over to Jokhang Temple. I had been there before, but I had lost some of the photos I had taken there. Plus, one of the guys staying in the dormitory with me at the Yak Hotel told me that if you go before 10am, you can get in for free by following the pilgrims into the temple. Sure enough, at 9am (the sun rises at 8:40), I was able to get in for free. I was able to take many good photos so I was happy. Then I stopped by my favorite Lhasa icecream vendor (whom i visited many times while there) and got some icecream for 0.5Y ($0.06). Next I decided to visit three monastaries near Lhasa - Dreprung, Nechung, and Sera. I took a minibus out of town to Dreprung and they told me to get out on the highway. From there, it was a 40 minute walk up the mountain to the monastary. Nice walk - but tiring at altitude. Right outside the monastary i ate lunch - a bowl of noodles for 1 kuai ($0.12). The monastary was interesting - and big! It was once the biggest monastary in the world. After seeing most of it, I walked downhill to Nechung monastary. Along the way I passed a man and woman carrying large bags on their back. The man looked at me in a strange way and in a girl's voice said "Hello money." This is a common things that beggar children in Lhasa say to foreigners to beg for money. However, he seemed really strange. I don't like to give money to people just because the beg. However, one thing i did start doing - and it seems to be beneficial to all - is to not eat all of my food at meals. Usually we just eat because the food is there - not because our body really needs every bite of food. I then ask the restaurant to give it to me in a to go box (dao bao). The first beggar to ask me nicely (some are really aggressive and annoying) gets to finish my food. I've tried this 4 times and each time the beggar began devouring the food before I walked away. I lose weight (or at least don't gain it - and the beggar is not so hungry). It seems to be a win-win situation. Anyway, I avoided this strange guy on the mountain - even running to get away from him. He was scary even though there was a woman (wife?) with him. Next I visited Nechung monastary and it was interesting. Tons of beggars there - mostly children. Images of dead/bleeding people inside. Really wierd for a Buddhist monstary. Afterwards, I took a bus into town and then another bus out to Sera. Sera is only 4 km north of central Lhasa. Sera was interesting because at 3:30 pm everyday (when i was there) the monks debate each other in the courtyard. The monks sit in groups and sort of yell at each other and slap each others hands. This is done in a friendly way - none of them are mad at each other. It even almost seemed like a show for tourists - they allow photos and video. After watching for a while, I climbed halfway up the moutnain behind Sera and got photos of the monastary and the Potola Palace in the distance. Upon arriving back at the hotel that evening, I found out that the Canadian student who was to go with us across Tibet was extremely sick and was about to fly back to Beijing to go to the hospital.

Speaking of Canadians...(Two days previously I met a 50-year old Canadian who talked to me about travelling to Everest. He used to teach on a small island in Lake Huron. About 4.5 years ago, he left Canada on his bike and biked from Canada - US - Mexico - Latin America --- all the way to Argentina. Then he and his bike flew (the only time he's flow on a plane in the last 4.5 years) to Cape Town, South Africa. From there he biked north through Africa and into Europe. From Europe he biked to Moscow, across the Stans (Khazakstan, Kyrgizstan, Pakistan, etc. to India. From there he hoped to bike into Nepal and then into China (via Tibet) and then to Kunming, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, and on to Australia. However there was a problem - when he got to the India/Nepal border, Nepal would not let him enter on his bike. So he biked back across India/Pakistan/Kyrgizstan and entered China at Kashgar on October 26, 2005. He then biked south from Xinjiang into Tibet.)

Anyway, I found that the Canadian was out but that the 27 year old Isreali guy (Or Russo) and the 21 year old American student (Chris Fitch) had each found another person to go with us. Or had found a 19 year old Australian (Kieren) and Chris had found a 26 year old Japanese guy (Yuya M.). Chris previously lived in Japan for 1.5 years and is fluent in Japanese. The problem is that our SUV (Toyota Landcrusier) was supposed to leave the next day and it could only hold 4 people and the driver. We found another group leaving the next day and then one of the 5 in our group had to decide to go with the other car (2 british guys). Our car was going to the Nepal border (one way from Lhasa) whereas the other car was going from Lhasa to base camp and then back to Lhasa. Since Or and I both planed to leave China and go to Nepal, we had to stay with our vehicle. So the choice was among the other 3. All 3 wanted to go with us and not the others. Finally the Australian conceded and went with the other 2. So our group was set - me, Or, Chris, and Yuya. Or and I went with Kieren to the other hotel to inform the two Britisth guys that he would be riding with them. The two British guys were wearing matching colors (blue) and previously Chris had commented that they were gay. When we got to their room, they were still wearing the matching clothes. Kieren told them - I'm going with you guys tomorrow. But you are normal people right? Of course the two British guys said yes we are normal. Who is going to say no we are really wierd? By the time we decided what was going on it was about 11pm. We are leaving Lhasa tomorrow morning at 8. Might not have Internet access again for several days.

Tonight, three Chinese students moved into the dormitory of the Yak hotel where I was staying. They were from Shanghai. I noticed the guy had some cuts on his lip but didn't think anything about it. Later I asked them if they had taken the bus from Golmud or flew in. The boy said they had taken the bus - one day after I had (2pm on Jan 17). Around 3am, the driver of the bus had fallen asleep and hit a truck which was parked on the side of the road. The truck was damaged but the driver was ok. However, the Chinese boy said the 3 of them were the only ones on the bus not severely injured. His lip was cut and the girl's leg had a bandage on it. He said the 4 people sitting across from them (an aisle in between) all died. So it seems the bus is not always so safe. He told the story very calmly, as if it wasn't a big deal! Glad I didn't take the bus!

In case you are wondering, today I have had no stomach pains and no apparent altitude sickness. I was running around on the mountain today where the monastary was and had no problems. Felt like I was almost back down at sea level like in Tianjin or Murray. So no health issues. I feel great. Upset about losing a lot of photos, but I realize photos are not the most important thing in the world.

Xining to Lhasa: Altitude Sickness

Sun Jan 15 XINING.
Xining is the capital of Qinghai province. I slept late due to not having an alarm. Woke up at 11am. When I went out, I saw what was hidden by the darkness the night before -- magnificent gigantic mountains right behind the train station. Very beautiful. Xining was a little colder than Lanzhou but again I was dressed warmly so not bad. Then I went out to find the minibus stand for Tai'er'si (temple). Got to Ximen and then walked down the street until I found the minibus stop. The route was short to the temple (25 km) but the bus was so slow (1 hour). I was the only non-Chinese on the bus or the temple and was stared at the entire time. These two 50-year old men wearing Muslim hats kept staring and smiling at me and looking at the photos in my China travel book. The temple was very interesting - like a whole city. It is a Tibetan temple - but really like a maze/city of buildings. Met a 12 year old boy who did not speak English and we went sightseeing together. So we only communicated in Chinese. He spoke it well (no accent). He was from Xining. Afterwards I got back and waited for a bus to fill up. It went really slow - stopping to pick people up every 5 feet. I got to the train station at 5:43 but made the train just fine. Now a 14 hour train ride across Qinghai. Once on the train, my stomach started to hurt a little again. So I decided to eat something - maybe it was hunger. I ate some spicy noodles I had bought the day before for the Lanzhou train. Bad idea. After three bites, my stomach hurt worse. I tried to sleep but had trouble. Woke up many times. In the middle of the night, I looked out the window and believe I saw Qinhai Hu (lake). I decided not to visit the lake because transportation is difficult and because the best months to visit are in the summer - not in winter.

Mon Jan 16. GOLMUD (GO-ER-MU).
Arrived in Golmud around 7am. Golmud is the Tibetan name, Go-er-mu is the Chinese name based on sounds. It is a city of 130,000 in western Qinghai province. Actually, it is the second biggest city in Qinghai after Xining.

Instead of taking the CITS bus which costs 250 kuai for Chinese and 1860 kuai for foreigners, I went in a jeep with 6 other men. They knew the foreigner price is very expensive so they had a lot of negotiating power with me. I was able to negotiate down to 700 kuai. We left at noon on our 18 hour journey. The bus usually leaves at 2pm and takes 24 or more hours. Anyway, the road is good considering there are almost no cities for between the two and considering the high elevation. Buses usually make the trip in 24 hours, jeeps in 18. Golmud has an elevation of 3000m (9750ft), Lhasa 3700m(12025ft), but the road in between reaches 5700m(18525ft) according to the man sitting next to me. (In comparison, Mt. Everest is about 8900m (29000ft) and Pikes Peak is about 4300m (14,000ft). So this is like a road trip across mountains and God-forsaken territory that was about the elevation of the top of Pikes Peak the whole way. The problem is that at high elevation, there is not as much oxygen and so it cause altitude sickness. (Usually it takes 5-15 days to acclimate to the high elevation. The body does this by producing more red blood cells to carry more oxygen. Or so I read in my book.) He liked to drink Bai Jiu every 10 minutes and kept pouring it into a little cup to drink from. The road was bumpy in parts and on one occassion he spilled it all over the seat, his pants, and a little on me. Oh well. He was friendly anyway. He kept sharing his cigarette smoke with my face. No, actually he was very nice - he looked my China book and we spoke some in Chinese but he spoke with an accent. He also told me "Tibet girl very good. Only 100." I didn't comment on that one. After two days of stomach pains (actually on both Sat and Sun the pain was in the afternoon/evening - not in the morning), I was afraid that another one might come. After 2 hours into our journey, I felt a little bad thinking - oh no not again. But actually it was just the bumpy road and me bouncing up and down. I thought to myself - I've only come 2 hours - how can I make it. I want to go back! But I persevered. After another hour I was fine. The problem came later - about 9 or 10pm when we reached high elevation. My head hurt - a lot. At least it wasn't my stomach! You never know how much to appreciate not having pain until you endure it. We travelled all night.

Tue Jan 17. LHASA.
On Tuesday (today) at 6am we reached Lhasa (Lasa). I got a dorm bed at the Yak Hotel (on Beijing Lu (street)) for 20Y per night. Nice hotel. Laid down for a while because my head still hurt. Saw the Potola Palace and went to Norbulingka Park where the past Dalai Lamas had homes. I saw the ones of the 8th DL (1700s) and the 13th and 14th DLs (1900s). The last one (built for the 14th one) was built in 1956. He left Lhasa in 1959. Nice park. There were a few times today where I thought I had a headache of felt lightheaded but it was pretty rare. Lhasa was warm (relative to Tianjin, Lanzhou, etc). with a blue sky and sun/sunshine. Only a few clouds until late afternoon when it became more overcast. Discovered an interesting street behind the Potala Palace with lots of vendors. The city is nice and appears like everything on the main streets are new and appealing. It is in the back alleys where you see more interesting things though - markets, praying, etc. Lhasa only has 200,000 people but I must have seen at least 6 car dealerships. I wonder how many there are in total. But there are many beggars too. I've never seen so many. So it appears that some have profited off tourism and can afford nice cars and jeeps and others are really poor. Also saw the Jokhang Temple. It was very active with many worshippers. Very different from anything I've seen at any other temples. Overall, Qinghai and Xizang(Tibet) remind me much more of Mongolia than of Eastern China. There are fewer Han Chinese and more darker skinned Tibetan/etc people. Clothing, food, religion, etc. reminds me a lot of Mongolia. I remember that Ghengis Khan (Chen ge Si Han?) conquered Lhasa in the 1200s and as a result most of Mongolia today has the religion of Tibetan Buddhism. So I think there are some strong cultural similarities. Now I am in a net bar across the street from the hotel. I need to go back there now and sleep. :-)

Tianjin to Xining: The Start of a Long Journey

Yesterday (Saturday January 14) I flew from Beijing to Lanzhou. Usually I like to go by land, but the hard bed to Lanzhou on the train was more than 400 Y and took 30 hours. The flight cost 630 Y and took only 2. Plus it is very difficult to get train tickets near the end of the semester. So I decided to fly to save time and remove the hassle of getting a train ticket. I took the 5am bus from Tianjin to the Beijing Airport. The bus usually takes 2 hours, which was ok because my flight left at 8:20. However, the bus was late. It arrived at 7:45. So I hurried. The Hainan Airlines line to check in was long. By the time I reached the counter it was 8:01. The friendly man told me that you cannot check in less than 20 minutes before the flight. But when I told him I was not checking in any bags, he sent me to another line - where they quickly gave me a boarding pass. I ran to gate 39 (all the way at the end of the airport) to get on the plane by 8:08. However, I saw that the previously flight leaving from that Gate -- to Zhengzhou which was supposed to leave at 7:45 was delayed due to fog. Soon they announced my flight was delayed too. However at 8:50 we boarded the plane. Great - only 30 minutes late, right. No. We sat on the plane for more than 3 hours. Finally at 12:37 the plane took off. I arrived in Lanzhou at 2:40pm - more than 4 hours late. (Later that night I heard on CCTV9 that no planes left Beijing airport before 11am and that more than 300 flights were delayed.) Anyway in Lanzhou (capital of Gansu province) I felt a little sick in my stomach. Maybe the cold? It was a little colder than Tianjin but not bad. I bought the last train ticket that night headed to Xining - 19Y leaving at 5:49pm. That didn't leave me much time. Despite a time shortage and a painful stomach, I managed to see Baiyun Si, a Journey to the West statue, the Yellow River, a big Mosque, etc. By the time I got on the train (4 hours to Xining), I knew I was in pain. I tried to lean over and rest but not much good. After the first stop, many people got off - so some people realized I was in pain and moved so I could lay down. After I got to Xining, I bought a train ticket for the following night to Go-er-mu (Golmud). I told the lady I wanted to go tommorrow night and she said mei you (none). Then after asking again she said there was a hardbed on the train leaving in the afternoon. What time I asked? 5:49pm (yes exactly the same time the train left Lanzhou) in the afternoon she said. (Isn't that also considered evening?) When I tried to pay her the 122Y, she said no - shang po. I knew shang meant up but didn't know what po meant. She pointed up and turned me away and started talking to the next guy in line. Then I asked someone else and discovered she was just saying that the only bed available was a top bed. That was fine with me because those are cheaper anyway. After that ordeal, I got a hotel room at the Che Zhan Bing Guan (Train Station Hotel) for 50Y. It had 2 beds, private bathroom, and CCTV9 (English). Had trouble sleeping because of my stomach. Fell asleep late.