Arriving in Tibet - Part I

In Dun Huang I left with another traveller and headed to Golmud.where we start our trip into Tibet !

Tibet was somewhere I never really saw myself going. I always had such a romantic notion of it and knew that the Chinese would have destroyed it and turned it into a tourist attraction (or Lhasa at least). I also had reservations about what it would be like trying to give your tourist dollars to Tibetans, as opposed to the Chinese who have settled there. And the last thing I wanted to do was support the Chinese occupation of Tibet (and yes, this is me trying to keep politics out!).

Getting In

We had such a laugh getting to Lhasa . You're supposed to only to travel by tour group and you need a wad of permits as well, especially as we were going on a kind of 'illegal' road for foreigners. We organised a car and driver. There was a funny incident when our driver, who'd been driving for about 9 hours at this point, without a break, was exhausted. He asked matt, who I was travelling with at the time, if he'd drive (through sign language, as he spoke no English beyond 'let's go Lhasa '!). Matt jumped at the chance. After about an hour of driving on the most incredibly scenic roads, we turned a corner to discover a police jeep overtaking a truck on a blind bend. We just missed crashing. I don't think the fact that the police were in the wrong, with the Highway Code in mind, would've mattered at all.as it's totally illegal for a foreigner to drive anywhere in china (and they're really strict about it). Plus the fact that we weren't supposed to be on the road at all, especially without a tour group and we didn't have any of the permits either! Could've been a tricky one, especially as the police wouldn't have spoken any English. Still it was an amazing trip, driving by yaks and snowy mountains...but after 19 hours I was happy to arrive in Lhasa ! and we were lucky too, foreigners get turned back all the time at the police check points and one of them is 15 hours into the journey.the police were having dinner when we snuck past the check post!).

Lhasa 's an incredible place. It's exceeded all my expectations. It's so colourful and the people are very friendly too. I've been reading a lot about Tibet since being there and it's really tragic what's happening here, but still I'm glad to have been and found out about it for myself.

Visiting Monasteries and Holy Sites

The monasteries & temples are different to other ones in Asia . Most of the ones in Tibet have a really spiritual feel about them. It's a very special place with an amazing atmosphere (most of you would guffaw if I said 'energy', but that's what it is.a powerful energy).

One day we hired bikes and cycled to a monastery about 10km out of town (Drepong). It was roasting and we both got quite burnt. I was shocked as I never burn, but at 3,300m high, I guess the sun's pretty strong. Cycling at that altitude is knackering! The monastery was beautiful too. It was the biggest monastery in the world at one point with over 10,000 monks...before the Chinese 'peacefully liberated' Tibet , as it says in all their propaganda! From memory, I think there are less than 700 monks there now.

Part of visiting holy sites in Tibet is doing what is called a 'Kora' around the site (which basically means you walk round it, pilgrims will prostrate right the way round, but I'm not that hardcore). So we were on a path surrounding this gigantic monastery when I go over on my ankle. I'd been carrying my camera in my hands (as I was taking so many pics) & WHACKED it off the ground. I've dropped it a few times now so I didn't think anything of it. Then when I checked, it's totally broken. The lens rattles like a baby's toy and I wasn't really in camera fixing territory. ) : so no photos of Tibet . Absolutely gutting. I don't even think that I have even one photo of a Tibetan taken with my slr. On the bright side...I hated that camera, and I've got a feeling that it knew that too. I was forced to buy a canon at the airport (when my bag was stolen) because they didn't have any Nikons (which is the kind I love). So maybe now I'll just have to go get me a new Nikon. fortunately matt was kind enough to let me take photos with his digital camera, so I have a cd of them.I just have to find a cd drive so I can put some of them on my photos page. I'll let you know when they're uploaded.