We flew to Tibet's capital, Lhasa from Kathmandu on Air China. I was unlucky not to get a window seat on the left hand side to get a view of Everest. I was on the right and saw the third highest mountain instead.
Lhasa is colourful and historic. The holy city is situated in a small valley 3650 m above sea level. For many years it was a mysterious place, virtually unknown to the outside world except for the more hard core travellers. I felt altitude sickness and oxygen deprivation as soon as I arrived in Lhasa. We had 5 nights to allow for acclimatisation and I definitely needed it.
In Lhasa we stayed at a basic hotel, centrally located and decorated in the traditional Tibetan style. When I say basic, I mean less than basic obviously. Rats were included in our hotel price. There were signs in my room to notify me of what would happen if I prostituted myself in their establishment. You’ll be glad to hear I obeyed the rules.
We started with a tour of the incredible Potala Palace, which is the former home of the Dalai Lama. We're not free to explore the Palace on our own and must stick to a strict schedule of viewing the exhibit s and buildings with our guide. It can get a little crowded as the Palace is very popular with the Chinese. Also the local Tibetans come from far away to pay their respects by doing many circuits around the palace, in the palace around each temple and paying each time for the privilege. There is so much money in the Palace, literally all over the floor, on the walls, in big buckets and crates…money everywhere. We got to shuffle along with the throngs of pilgrims around the Barkhor pilgrim circuit. It was a sight to experience.
I explored Lhasa's quaint backstreet shops, bakeries, tea shops and tiny alley ways as I wandered the Old Town. We got to visit Jokhang Temple, which is often regarded as the spiritual heart of Tibet and one of the region's most active religious sites. My favourite was the Sera Monastery where the monks hold dramatic daily debating sessions which almost but not quite come to blows.
You can watch the pilgrims for hours as they do their circuits. Some of the more had core people do the three step prayer ritual where they bow, then kneel, then lie on their fronts stretching out and then get up and put their hands in prayer. They do this the entire circuit and for several times not just once around the circuits. When I mean circuit I mean the route around the temples and sometimes a long way outside it. Some of them have hard dark callouses on their foreheads where their heads touch the ground during their prayer routes. It’s worse on the men. The circuits around Potala and nearby monasteries in Lhasa are paved so it’s not too bad. Other circuits out in the rural areas are quite mountainous and rocky and the pilgrims do it in bare feet also. It looks so tough to do and most of the people doing this are very old. Just walking around the temple was hard for me. I couldn’t imagine doing it the way they did and in bare feet. As I did my walk I decided to follow a family to see where they were heading as they came off the path. My guide had mentioned that there was a sky burial site nearby and I was hoping that they would lead me to it. The path got narrow and hilly and as I approached the top of the hill I saw a clearing. I saw some of the family sitting to the right side and there were 2 men standing at a square raised ground. My heart almost stopped beating when I saw a body on that ground and noticed machetes in the men’s hands. I couldn’t believe that I had walked into a sky burial happening right in front of me. Suddenly I noticed the body move and it dawned on me that they were just doing a re-enactment of a sky burial. Phew…I started to relax and watch what was going on. The local family didn’t seem to mind me being there if anything they wanted me to join in. I said no reluctantly a few times but eventually said yes. The guys did have big machetes after all and I didn’t want to offend anyone. As I lay down on the slab I was seriously thinking how wrong this was. One of the guys took my camera off me to take photos. So they proceeded to show where they would cut me on my body. Then they showed me how they would crush my bones with a sledgehammer. They laughed a lot while I had my eyes shut the whole time. They even clapped when I got up. That was probably the strangest thing I have done.
After Lhasa we continued on to Gyantse at 3980m, even higher, a small town southwest of Lhasa that retains a feel of old Tibet. The drive was long but with spectacular views and we also stopped at Karo La which is at 4960 m so I quickly popped more Ibuprofen pills before the headaches came.
Gyantse is a small agricultural town famed for its wool carpets. It has a very traditional feel to it and everyday Tibetan rural life continues here much as it has done for centuries. There are a number of interesting buildings in the town, like the Pelkhor Chode Temple complex which is a unique structure built in 1414, with five stories representing the five steps to enlightenment. I visited it all hoping to be enlightened.
As well as many religious sites, Gyantse was a great place to see contemporary Tibetan life in the backstreets where pilgrims, pop music, cows, "cowboys" on motorbikes, kids and monks all mingle in a lively mix of cultures. Great for people watching.
After Gyantse, we drove to Shigatse which is at 3840 m, Tibet's second-largest city. I visited the Tashilhunpo Monastery, one of the few in Tibet to have come out virtually unscathed from the Cultural Revolution. With its expansive territory inside thick stone walls it's almost like a town in itself. It was a little overwhelming with the myriad of monastic buildings each with their own intricate decorations, legends and religious imagery. The
courtyard outside of the Kelsang Chapel is one of the best places to observe the pilgrims and monks prepare for ceremonies. In the evening I joined the pilgrims on their prayer circuit, spinning prayer wheels as we walked around the perimeter of the monastery and taking in the great views and atmosphere. I did it the normal way of course. Those prayer wheels comes in all sizes, some of them so big I have no idea how these little old ladies and men carry it.
On the morning of day 10 we depart for Sakya approx. 4 hours, elevation 4280m, the base of the once
powerful Sakya sect of Buddhism. Sakya's monastery and town buildings are quite unique. The monastery is
built in medieval Mongolian style and rather than whitewashed, the secular building s are painted in red and white stripes. With its high imposing walls, the monastery is sometime s nickname d the "Great Wall of Tibet".
At first the halls may seem similar to other monasteries we've visited, but after spending some time soaking up the atmosphere I realised that Sakya has a subtle ancient beauty that is unlike any other place I have seen on this trip.
Then we headed towards Everest Base Camp which is what I have been looking forward to the most. The views along the way are utterly spectacular! Rongphu Monastery is the highest in the world and we got to stay the night. It is very basic and 4 people to a room and there was no heating. We all slept in our clothes. It wasn’t very clear because of the clouds but Everest was right before us.
A relatively modern monastery by Tibetan standards, Rongphu was built in the early 1900s and originally housed more than 50 0 monks. Today only 50 monks and nuns remain. Unusually, they share the same prayer hall although they have separate residences. We are received very warmly by the monks and nuns and we were even able to join them for their evening prayers.
After settling into our basic lodgings we started out walk gentle two hour return hike up to Everest Base Camp. Only 4 of us took up the challenge of walking all the way there. The others took the bus. We followed the
prayer flags up the slope and hoped for clear sunny skies. Unfortunately Everest remained hidden from us throughout the walk. It was amazing to reach base camp. The camp was not as crowded yet, as it was still a few weeks before it was open for the trekkers to go up Everest. But you could still see some tents and pods. We couldn’t get closer than 200 metres and if you went past the zone you would be fined $200. Amazingly there is phone reception at base camp. No need to use satellite phones, your own cell phones would work.
We headed back to our basic accommodation at the monastery and enjoyed a hot but quick meal as it was so cold. We met a couple who were really sick from the altitude but they were at fault. For some strange reason they decided to come to Everest straight from Kathmandu within 2 days. What do you expect? Did they not do the research? At 2am they were so sick, the guide and river had to take them back to a lower altitude fast as they were getting pretty bad. Apparently many tourists think they can go to Everest as they think they are so close from Kathmandu and they don’t realise the time needed to acclimatise. Unregistered guides take their money and don’t tell them the dangers.
I was woken up by my roommates at 6am telling me that we could see Everest. The clouds had disappeared and Everest was seen in all its glory. I jumped out of my sleeping bag into my shoes and grabbed my camera and went outside. It was so cold and so windy; my hands were freezing as I took photos. I was amazed and its beauty and couldn’t believe I was that close to it. I took so many photos from every angle and too many selfies. The next best thing was to climb it but who has $50000 to pay for the permit, I certainly don’t. if I did have it I know I couldn’t climb it.
After the amazing views of Everest we drove to the Tibetan settlement of Nyalam. The drive from Rombuk to Nyalam took 8 hours. The journey was long but truly memorable as we traversed high mountain passes, featuring spectacular view s of the Himalayas. It was at one of these stops that we heard about the terrible avalanche that killed 12 Sherpa’s on the Nepali side of Everest. It actually happened while we were there but we only got Wi-Fi the day after and people started getting the news on their phones. The mountain is so big we didn’t hear a thing.
We stayed one more night on the Tibetan side in Nyalam. Then we drove to Zhangmu where the Tibetan Plateau abruptly ends. The colours change, there are a lot more tree s and the humidity levels skyrocketed as the harsh mountain landscape transforms into green jungle valleys. Also known as Khasa, the border town of Zhangmu clings precariously to the cliff face, 10 km in land from the Friend ship Bridge that soars across the Bhote Kosi River. No chance of taking pictures of the bridge as it was teeming with military and it was not allowed. This small town has become a major trading post between Tibet and Nepal and the subtropical oceanic climate endows it with warm, humid weather as well as beautiful scenery throughout the year.
Crossing the border at Zhangmu, we drove our way further down the valley into Nepal and into our surprisingly lovely western resort above the raging white waters of the Bhote Kosi River. Accommodation levels we never dreamed of having on this trip. Certainly no rats running across our heads at this place…thank god.
