8 days in Tibet

Bus Tour from Kathmandu to Lhasa
22nd-29th May - Kerry & Sally

Our Tibetan adventure began at sparrows in Kathmandu, meeting with our busmates for the next 8 days at 5am. Unfortunately we are Hung-over... actually, we are still very much drunk from a rendezvous the night before with our trekking friends. To add insult to injury, Sally “Hare-Hare-Krishna” makes an interesting wardrobe selection. Let’s just say we didn’t exactly make a good first impression on our new friends.

Our first day entailed a long hot bus trip, cram reading our Dalai Lama autobiography and our Tibet Lonely Planet before discarding them at the Nepal border . The Chinese will not let you into Tibet with Guidebooks ( as they contain pictures of monks and maps that don’t recognise Tibet as part of China) nor will they let you in with any Dalai Lama or ‘Free Tibet’ literature of any sort. The Border officials even paged very carefully through my “Twilight” novel...luckily it seems their stance on vampires is somewhat more tolerant! It’s quite an eerie experience crossing border on foot under the watchful eye of heavy Chinese military having bags searched, visa’s checked and (as we found out rather severely) strictly no photographs to be taken!

One thing we did get to read in the Guide book before we chucked it out was that you don’t go to Tibet for the Culinary experience. Our first meal inside the border had us worried... A gorgeous vegetable-noodle-dirty-dishwater Soup. Yummy! Luckily though, this was to be an isolated incident, except of course for the traditional Tibetan tea containing yak butter which was also not quite to our fancy. Another fun fact we managed to get out of the lonely planet before the border is that the nomad Tibetan drinks on average 40 cups of Yak butter tea a day. Initially this seemed astonishing until we realised that every single Tibetan has a 3L flask on their person at all times. Yak butter and Yak by-product is used in EVERYTHING in Tibet, including the candles in the monasteries. The smell is very distinct Dingleberrie and definitely takes longer than 8 days to get used to..

Our first four days included a lot of driving, but the 850km road from the Nepal border to Lhasa has some of the most exquisite scenery we have ever seen. Tibet is largely a plateau so initially we had to do quite a bit of climbing (by bus obviously) going through various passes, each over the 5000m above sea-level mark. Luckily we were already acclimatised from our trek and according to the doctors we met on the trek you stay acclimatised for up to 2 weeks.

The passes are ordained with millions of Buddhist prayer flags and it’s just a kaleidoscope of colour as you approach. People also leave offerings which include clothes, shoes, blankets, pens and even an electric razor.

The landscape is extremely harsh and mountainous with snow-capped mountains surrounding us and you pass through quaint little villages and exquisite lakes with turquoise water.

We also got to see Mt. Everest from a distance. There might have been a lingering cloud just about covering the peak but it was Everest nonetheless.

Each day we stopped to see various Monasteries complete with chanting Monks, containing intricate wall paintings, incredible sand Mandala’s and beautiful statues of Buddha, manifestations of Buddha and other gods.

As you get closer to Lhasa the villages turn into towns and modern (but not tasteful) Chinese buildings start to encroach and take over the Tibetan style.

Lhasa itself is massive, Much bigger than we expected and the Potala Palace really is a majestic sight to behold. This was once the religious and political capital of Tibet but since the Dalai Lama has been in exile in India, the Chinese government have converted it into a museum.

According to the Tibetan calendar the 27th & 28th May were both actually the 15th April, which happens to be Buddha’s Birthday. We were lucky enough to be in Lhasa on the big day(s). Because of this there were masses of people “Prostrating” (People literally lying down on the street, horizontal with arms extended in front of them, forehead to the pavement, then getting up and taking three steps before repeating the action. ) in a “Khora” (clockwise direction) around a monastery.

“Prostrating” is extremely tiring not to mention a dirty affair but people of all ages come out to do it at all hours of the day and night. They do this to show their undying faith and it is humbling to watch. Some people will prostrate from their home to Lhasa which could be hundreds of kilometres away and could take days.

Lhasa is also home to the Sera Monastery where we got to see some Debating Monks in action. Here Sal and I also got Blessed by a monk which we hope will provide us with some good Karma for the rest f our travels, and if we are very good maybe it will hold off the monsoon rains we are about to face in SE Asia...