Hi All,
Tibet has the ability to captivate and break your heart at the same time....
What a great surprise. We were met at the train by Pazu Kong, our trip arranger, wearing traditional tibetan clothing and he placed a tibetan white silk scarf over each of our shoulders as a symbol of good will. He was really friendly and we were driven to our hostel. Kong seemed to know just about everyone at the hostel and he had arranged a room, with a heater, for us with a fantastic view of the Potala palace. It was a nice afternoon but as soon as the sun dropped low the temperature rapidly dropped as did the room temperature even with the heater switched on. For some odd reason there was a tube high up in the outside wall of the room which was venting cold air into the room so we plugged it with a plastic bag which allowed the room to warm up.
The hostel was located on the edge of the old tibetan area and we walked over to the Spinn cafe which was run by Kong, Oat and their female tibetan friends. Kong, chinese, educated, Buddhist convert, originally from Hong Kong, and extrovert and Oat from Thailand, seemingly introverted, and ex monk seemed to be the odd couple but they got on well. They rode around south east asia together before settling in Tibet. We settled into their cosy backstreet cafe after avoiding the local kids letting off fireworks and enjoyed our special warm spin honey lemon drinks. Kong was a born entertainer and was showing us his card tricks within minutes and later showed us the complete michael jackson moves from the thriller music clip. The cafe had wifi which was great so we checked our emails. Ote sat at a table playing with his computer and continued to do so each visit we made to the cafe. Apparently his specialty is thai cooking and only does that in summer. Actually we couldn't work out how the cafe made any money but apparently it was the quiet time before summer.
Later we headed out for a late dinner with Kong and Ote at 'the' hotpot restuarant in Tibet. The idea was that there were skewers of various meats and vegetable in trays and then they are taken back and cooked in a water container than has a fuel burner underneath. We certainly had reservations about hot pot after our first attempt at Beijing but Kong showed us how to cook our meal properly. There was a seperate section for Ote as being Thai he wanted lots of Chilli. We ate and ate and ate. The price of the meal is easily calculated by tallying the number of skewers as each is a set price. Afterwards we went over to the well worn healing rock nearby but despite the attempt Vanessa did not gain any healing benfit. Perhaps you have to be a true believer for it to work.
It was surprising how many Chinese soldiers were around Llasa considering the tibetans were supposed to be a peace loving people. There was a curfew and after dark the soldiers became apparent.
.......................... to be continued.
David
