LHASA

What a beautiful and sad place Lhasa is ...... beautiful for it's stunning setting in the mountains at the 'Top Of The World' and sad for the policy of cultural genocide that the Chinese government has undertaken for the last 3 decades. The heart of Lhasa still clings to it's roots and history and many streets appear to be unchanged for centuries but outside of this small section of Lhasa the Chinese have embarked upon a search and destroy mission of anything remotely Tibetan. How the pilgrims who have walked from all across Tibet to worship at the Potala and The Jokhang can keep their faith amazes me. Many who circumambulate these places stop every second step, clap, chant and prostrate themselves ........... it has to be seen to be believed and is deeply, deeply, humbling.

Although the Chinese now outnumber the Tibetan population of Lhasa it still feels a place apart from the rest of China and whilst the Chinese people appear to believe the ridiculous and outrageous propoganda of it's government it would seem that many Tibetans do not. A worrying statistic here, however, is that (it is rumoured) there are more Tibetan members of the secret police here than there are Chinese members ...... the power of money I guess.

Something else that is slightly surreal is that we have experienced 'monks' listening to MP3 players, wearing (hopefully) fake Rolex watches whilst asking for 200RMB (about 14 pounds sterling) to be blessed by them. By this point we had had enough as it felt like we had been handing out money on a daily basis so we politely refused .....

Had an intersesting visit to the Sera monastery where I entered a chapel (no women allowed in this one) wherupon I was reeted by a monk of at least 65 - 5 years old listening to Linkin Park .... how bizarre!!!! Something else that has struck us is the wealth of the monasteries .... in the Johang (arguably the most important of the monasteries) we were quite literally walking on money that pilgrims were placing on the images and that had fallen off. Having read The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche many years ago (which I found very inspiring) I was dissappointed to see "Living Buddhism" ....... perhaps the monks should be made to read it ...

However ... we have seen Chinas top pop trio in the flesh signing autographs outside the smallest record shop we have ever seen in Lhasa ...... excellent !!!!!!

Hooked up with a great Australian / Finnish couple called Carl and Tuuli for our trip down to the border with Nepal (having turned down a trip with 2 ladies who were just plain wierd)!!!

SAMYE

We left Lhasa having arranged our PSB (Public Security Bureau) tourist permits through the Govt. tourist agency. As mentioned, we had linked up with Carl and Tulli who we agreed to share the costs of a 7 day jeep journey to the border of Nepal (via the most interesting sights of Tibet).

The first day of the trip made it quite clear that we had been right in our decision to 'dump' the two wierd ladies that we had originally met as Carl and Tuuli were great fun (even if Tuuli's rating system of places that we had visited was a little strange .... ratings go from 4 to 10 and not the usual 1 to 10). Having said that Emma and I now adopt the 4 to 10 rating system so I guess it works!

Samye was a a fascinating place ... nothing there but the monastery and a few 'restaurants' but plenty of atmosphere. We stayed in the monastery which had pretty much the most revolting toilets that we have yet seen. All mod cons though as there was at least a tap where you could fill a filthy bowl with water to sluice down the sides of the hole (although it looked as if most people didn't actually bother with this).

The monastery itself was incredibly atmospheric and we were priveleged to be there during the changing of Lamas which involved a week long ceremony. We were in the temple when the monks were chanting, cymbols crashing and the horns (some of which were 12 foot long) were being blown. What we later found out was that the blowing of horns continued throughout the night ... so ... no sleep but a wonderful few hours sitting on the rooftop listening.

GYANTSE

Gyantse was great ... typical Tibetan / Chinese (damn them) town with a great Dzong (fort) and a the largest Stupa in the world (complete with 77 temples within). Apparently the British, during their invasion of Tibet in 1904 did not move into the fort despite the fact that it was left empty by the retreating Tibetans. It seems that the Tibetans had been told that the blessing given by their Lamas would make them invisible to the British bullets ... ther Maxim guns disagreed and the Tibetans were a little confused when the British at first tried to kill them and then tried to save the dying!

The streets of Gyantse were great and every other house seemed to have a cow / yak / goat tied up outside. No running water save for a standpipe at the end of each street and probably no toilet. Despite the obvious poverty people were friendly and cheerful.

SHIGATSE

Not a lot to say about Shigatse really other than it is Tibets second largest city. Very noisy and very dirty but interesting all the same. Carl, Tulli, Emma and I settled into lunch at one of the locals wherupon the restaurant soon filled up to watch the entertainment. Eating whilst being stared at by a dozen people was a little strange but at least we made them laugh!

We were lucky here to see a demonstration of sword play by the monks and the view from walking the Kora was fantastic ... it was here that we saw the pilgrim with a pet sheep who stuck to her like glue but if separated would run afetr her at amazing speed.

Teh 'mini potala' of the Panshen Lama was also great and gave a great overview of the city.

SAKYA

Blimey ... what a dump of a town ... one road with a stall selling fotting Yak meat and a Chinese garrison (of course). Nothing here at all but the oldest survivng monastery in Tibet.

Emma and I decided tio head to the hills to explore and found the remains of a a huge Dzong (fort) with all it's outer walls pretty much intact .. spent a great couple of hours exploring and wondering what archeologists would find if they dug here.

Continued around a VERY narrow pathway to a monks hermitage and then onto the final stupa. We descended to the river ana came across a cement block factory .... well, I use the term loosely as the blocks were made by about 6 people who completed 2 blocks at a time and used sand simply dug from the river bank ... no wonder all the modern buildings are collapsing whilst some of the adobe buildings are centuries old!

EVEREST BASE CAMP

What can I say? Had always wanted to see Everest but didn't actually think that we would get around to seeing it. We took the easy option of seeing it from the Tibetan side. I use the term 'easy' but it wasn't as quite straight forward! There is a road under construction but it was closed when we visited so we took the 'track' ........ 4 hours of the bumpiest, rockiest drive ever we arrived at the 'hotel' which was a nomads Yak hair tent. Looked like crap but actually was surprisingly comfortable.

OLD TINGRI

We were meant to stay here but having seen it's delights (basically one road, lots of dogs and one pig) we opted to drive straight through to the border at Zhangmu. Having siad that, the 'restaurant' had the best potato bread we have ever tasted. Have to say that by that stage we had had our fill of Tibetan food which comprised of Yak noodles, Yak steak, Yak fried rice, Yak pudding and (although we never saw it I am convinced it exists) Yak ice cream.

ZHANGMU

Got to the border town with Nepal quite late ... around 10pm ....... really tired afetr a long days drive. We hadn't a clue how the driver managed to stay awake as 95% of the roads surfaces were unsealed and a lot of it was down mountains that had a). no barriers and b). were hundreds if not 1000's of feet above the valley. To put it in perspective, we decended from 4,950 metres to around 2,000 meters during the days drive. The driver sure was a hero and somehow not once did he lose his sense of humour.

Mixed feelings about Zhangmu ... on one hand we liked the 'frontier feel' but on the other hand it was full of Gore tex clad hikers on Gap Adventure or Intrepid Tours ... somehow this spoilt it for us.

We had thought that we might linger but the above made us decide to head on into Nepal as soon as possible..................