Off To See The World

Ok, if you couldn’t tell already, I am LOVING Tibet. There isn’t anything I could complain about right now other than my own retarded self…. for some reason, I thought it would be freezing cold here and what not… I totally forgot that we would be 3500-5000m in altitude. Sooo, since we’ve been here, it’s been SUPER sunny… not a cloud in the sky… hence, I am now sun burnt. Damnit.

Anyway, today we woke up to another amazing sunny day and Mat, Cheryl, John, a new guy, and I headed out on a one day tour to Yamdrok Lake and Nyeitan Drolmalhakang (a small monastery). Being in a very mountainous area, I was a little worried about getting car sick but the roads were quite nice and our driver was pretty good about not whipping around the corners. Speaking of our driver, this one wasn’t like Prakash but he totally reminded me of him. He was playing all sorts of music; everything from Tibetan music to Bob Marley – Legend, to… yup, you guessed it – Indian Music! He actually had a lot of the same songs that Prakash had!! AND he kind of tried to sing along to them but it was more entertaining than annoying. He didn’t blare the horn uneccessarily but he did do the fist pump… I guess it was funnier this time around because we don’t hate this place 🙂 .

Anyway, as we wound around the mountains, going higher and higher, the view became absolutely STUNNING. The mountains here are amazing… a little interesting too… the sides of many of the mountains are just covered in sand… like giant sand dunes or something. I’m not sure why that is but I’m sure there’s some cool explanation. Each corner we turned, the view got even more amazing…. all the bodies of water and all the rivers were the most incredible shade of blue (not to mention the bright blue sky about us). We actually drove up to Kambala Pass at 4794m, where we got a breath-taking view of Yamdrok Lake… I can’t even put into words how incredible/amazing/magnificent/etc…. the view was. I wish I could upload some photos!! I’m such a retard for not bringing my SD reader. I’ll do my best to describe it though…

Looking straight up, all I could see was bright blue sky and the sun was so bright that even my sunglasses didn’t help… as I scan down and around, I am surrounded by beautiful mountains… some have some snow on them but most of them are just rocky or have small grasses on them. In the distance, there is a snow covered mountain that stands 7000m high. It’s reflection can slightly be seen on the bright turquois lake but the lake is not like glass because there are still sections where there are large floating chunks of ice. Towards the shore, there are huge pieces of ice that are broken and scattered along the shore.. the ice is crystal clear and certain pieces reflect the bright light of the sun right back in your face. And then there’s me, standing on the rocky shore… mouth wide open in awe… taking a million pictures. I guess the best way to describe it is “WOW”.

We spent quite a bit of time there before heading back (along the same road we came on). This time, however, we stopped at Kambala Pass with only one mission on our minds…. We were here to ride a Yak!! Needless to say, the mission was completed successfully!! John and I got some pictures of us riding a Yak with the beautiful lake and mountains in the background… hehe. Man, we’ve petted/ridden a lot of animals on this trip… I love it. That pretty much made our day… we were all smiling ear to ear all the way to Nyeitan Drolmalhakang (Tara Chapel?) where we did a quick stop to look around before coming back to Lhasa.

I think the rest of today will be pretty laid back… our train is bright and early tomorrow… so I guess the next time you’ll hear from me is the 27th (at the earliest)… and if I don’t get internet access before we board our Yangtze River cruise, then I’ll see you April 1st!

I went on an almost enchanting ride last night to the train station to get John and my train tickets to Chongqing. As I left the hostel, the sun was just starting to tuck itself in behind the awesome mountains…. the sky was a blue-purple-pinky color… sooo clear and so beautiful. The road winded around the mountains… it wasn’t long before the light of the sun totally disappeared and the moon shone brightly over the mountains. As I got closer to the train station, I could see the Potala Palace with lights shining on it… it was breath-taking. It was just so huge… and wicked with the silouettes (sp?) of all the mountains behind it… man… it made the long drive out to the train station so worth it. When I returned to the hostel, our 2 friends were still down for the count… John was feeling a little better. He had gone out to get some food.

In the morning, everyone was feeling much better… we could see the sunrise from the window of our hostel room as it peaked over the mountains and lit up the Potala Palace. I can’t believe we are staying here for 20 Yuan a night. After a quick breakfast, we went to the Potala Palace. Now, to see it in pictures is one thing… but I never dreamed of how great it would be to see it in person. It is a HUGE palace. The stairs up were not as bad as they looked from the outside but still quite a trek and the entrance fee was very very steep (100 Yuan!) and you can’t even take photos after paying that… BUT it was SOOO worth it. Walking through the Potala Palace actually brought a tear to my eye…. I don’t know whether it was because I was just in awe at how beautiful it is and how devoted the people who come here to pray are… or whether it was because I just realized that I am in Tibet, one of the top places I have ever wanted to see… and I am now actually here… it almost brings a tear to my eye just to write that. I can’t even explain it… if you ever get a chance to come to Tibet, DO IT! I can already see that China’s influence is coming in full force and I don’t know how long Tibet will be the way it is. There are so many beautiful and interesting people with sooo much history and culture.. and the colors! The colors of the monks’ robes, of the prayer flags, of everything is just so vibrant! I could literally just sit in the main square and watch people. I especially like the no bum/crotch pants that babies wear so that they can just pee and poop on the street… I wanted to take a picture but I thought it’d be a little intrusive…hehe.

Anywho… after the Potala Palace, we went for lunch… the food here is pretty awesome too… John had a Yak steak with mushroom sauce (it looked sooooo good)… and I had cheese momos… man, how come it always sounds like John is eating the most delicious food ever and I’m eating something that you sweep out from under your bed?? haha. The momos were quite good though… so there. We hit the market after and got everything we wanted to buy. We will be too busy tomorrow to come to the market and we leave on the train on the 25th… sigh… it will be sad to leave but the trip must go on! And incase you are wondering, the train from Lhasa to Chongqing takes 49hours! But, I hear the scenery is amazing.

Anyway, tomorrow we are going out to Yamdrok Lake… Namtso Lake is the more famous one but there was just a big snow up there and the road there is closed. Too bad. I guess we will have to settle for Yamdrok. Oh well. I’m sure it will be beautiful. Hopefully I will get a chance to tell you about it before boarding our 2 day train.

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