ten days in Tibet

our Tibet trip was an incredible experience! it's an amazing place filled with culture and history. it's definitely one of the best trips i've ever been on! there were ten of us (me, Larry, Jackie, Al, Candace, Suzanna, Oliver, Crystal, Kelvin, and Vivian), and we had our own private tour guide and drivers, and all of our meals and hotel arrangements included.

Day 1: flew into Chengdu, China (成都)
we went to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. basically, it's a panda zoo. two little baby pandas were born only a few weeks ago, and we got to see how much they resembled little pink rats in an incubator.

Day 2: flew into Lhasa, Tibet (拉薩)
we were warned about AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) and how most people will experience some degree of high altitude sickness. Lhasa was more than 3000 meters above sea level, so we'd began popping AMS pills before our arrival, but we were all feeling fatigue, headache, and had trouble breathing that afternoon, so we napped all afternoon. we also had our first encounter with being served yak meat. we all thought it was just some hairy pieces of beef, and only days later did we discover that we'd been served yak meat all along. blah...

Day 3 & 4: sightseeing around Lhasa, Tibet
complete with our own Mandarin-speaking tour guide, Xiao Li, and three of our own personal drivers and their three Land Cruisers, we embarked on our exciting journey through Tibet. these first few days, we visited a number of beautiful temples and monasteries.

-Drepung Monastery（哲蚌寺）- established in 1416, it was once the world's largest monastery with more than 10,000 monks, and now still Tibet's largest monastery. it's served as residence to the second, third, fourth, and the fifth Dalai Lamas (Buddhism's highest ranking priest). as a collection of white monastic buildings on a steep hillside with a view of the valley below, it was very charming and picturesque. photos were permitted inside the temples for a nominal fee.

-Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's summer palace, was established by the 7th Dalai Lama in 1755. more than just a beautiful summer retreat surrounded by gardens and ponds, this was the headquarters from which the Dalai Lamas ruled Tibet during the summer months. it was also from here that the Dalai Lama diguised himself as a soldier and escaped to India, just three days before the huge massacre of Tibetans during the 1959 revolt against the Chinese invasion. certain rooms inside the palace contained intricate wall murals depicting tales of Tibetan history.

-Potala Palace （布達拉） - it was the official residence of the Dalai Lama, and houses the tombs of several past Dalai Lamas. since it was rebuilt by the Fifth Dalai Lama in 1645, Potala Palace became the seat of Dalai Lamas and also the political center of Tibet. there's the White Palace (administerial building) and the Red Palace (religious building). this enormous, architecturally-impressive palace perched atop of Red Hill makes it one of the most stunning sights in Tibet. hiking up to the main entrance took 20-minutes alone, and left some of us gasping for air. later that evening, we went back to Potala Palace at sunset to take pictures and caught a cool water show set against Tibetan and Chinese music (one of the highlights of the trip). on the bicycle cart ride back to the hotel, a guy threw open his taxi door in front of oncoming traffic-- us! we rammed into the curb, causing Kelvin and Vivian's cart directly behind us to rear-end us, and Kelvin was thrown from his seat. luckily he wasn't hurt, merely startled. the rest of the ride home, me, Suzanna, and Vivian clung onto each other and the bike for dear life!

-Jokhang Temple（大昭寺）- the most sacred temple in Tibet, it was one of the sites of a huge massacre during the 1959 uprising against the Chinese invasion. it remains as the spiritual center of Tibet today, the destination of millions of Tibetan pilgrims who walk long distances to get there. the temple was bustling with worshippers spinning prayer wheels, kindling butter lamps with yak butter, murmuring prayers, and engaging in full-body praying. we definitely felt the energy at this temple, which was also located next to a busy street market.

Day 5: drove to Gyangtse (江孜) (3990M)
Kubum stupa & Pelkor Chode Monastery（白居寺）-consists of a beautiful cylindrical pagoda housing many impressive buddha statues and mural paintings.

Day 6: drove to Shigatse (日喀則) (3860 M above sea level)
we stopped at Shalu Monastery（夏魯寺）, a smaller, colorful and picturesque monastery, where we encountered some friendly monks who allowed us to take pictures of and with them. we lit prayer candles and made three wishes. we passed a shrine of hairclips, bracelets, pens, and other random items. apparently, people could leave behind a personal item in exchange for a wish. i hung up one of my ponytail holders and made a wish.

we then visited Tashilhunpo Monastery（紮寺）, the seat of Panchen Lama who is the 2nd in the Buddhist religious hierachy. it holds the giant Future Buddha statue, the biggest Buddha statue in Tibet, standing 86 ft high and decorated with gold, pearl, amber, diamond, and other precious stones. this monastery also houses the elaborate tombs of several Panchen Lamas. it was an eerie but incredible feeling to be standing within inches of the mausoleums of such important figures in Tibetan society.

along the way, one of our cars got into an accident while trying to pass a truck. luckily it was a little fender-bender and no one was hurt, but will cost quite a bit of money for the Tibetan drivers to get it fixed. for dinner, we had delicious dumplings at a local restaurant next to our hotel in Shigatse. one of my favorite meals of the whole trip!

Day 7: drove to Dingri (定日) (4350 M)
we visited Sakya Monastery while they were preparing for an important visit of the CEO of a company that made a significant donation to the monastery. a hundred monks in burgundy red robes where lined up along the courtyard to greet the honored guest. at the monastery, we encountered a group of elderly Tibetan ladies who, after seeing photos of themselves on our digital cameras, started to primp themselves for further photos. it was cute, i'm sure they don't get to see photos of themselves everyday.

that night, we stayed at a guesthouse in Dingri. talk about "roughing it"! the rooms were tiny boxes with dirty beds against cracked-walls, but the bathroom situation was the worse part. it was an outdoor, communal bathroom unit, one each for men and women. simply put, it was a sh*t-hole. basically, there was a rectangular hole in the ground that had a nasty pile of crap in it. imagine the stench! we girls refused to use the bathroom that evening , and had to resort to other creative methods. (ie: Vivian's portable potty, looking for bushes outside,...) that night, we all said "screw it!" to showers, slept in our daytime clothes on top of the bed covers, brushed our teeth on the curb, and woke up a zillion times over the course of the night... a few experienced some pretty bad AMS symptoms as well, but luckily they were okay by morning.

Day 8: upward to Mount Everest Base Camp (珠峰大本營) (over 5000M)

bright and early, we began a 4-hour drive up to Mount Everest Base Camp (the Tibetan name for Mount Everest is Mount Qomolangma). it was breathtaking to see the rolling mountains that stretched on for miles while driving through the Himalayas. 6 miles before reaching Base Camp, we took a 1-hour long horse-drawn cart ride up the rest of the way, where we felt the cool, brisk air against our faces, gazed up at snow-capped peaks along the way, and heard Tibetan songs being softly sung by our horse-cart driver. at Base Camp, we made the final, oxygen-lacking trek up a tiny hill at the end of the Base Camp which looks out towards the Mount Everest peak in the distance. unfortunately, there were a lot of clouds that day so we couldn't get a clear view of the peak. oh well, at least it wasn't raining. the sky was a beautifully vivid blue, and we were all thrilled to have made it all the way to the Mt. Everest Base Camp!

Day 9: drove back to Shigatse
after spending the night in Dingri, we drove back to Shigatse. along the way, we passed out candy and snacks to hungry children along the roadside, and took pictures of yaks and sheep.

Day 10: drove back to Lhasa
our last full day in Tibet. we made a 6-hour drive back to Lhasa, with a brief stop at Yamdrok (羊湖), the Turquoise Lake. where we stopped, we overlooked the lake and saw the brilliant turquoise blue color of the water. so beautiful and peaceful... except for the people bugging you to buy souveniers.

we took our tour guide and drivers out for an evening of drinking at a bar. there, we had loads of fun watching some of them play goofy Tibetan drinking games (rolling-on-the-floor-laughing funny!) and drinking Lhasa beer.

the next morning, we all flew back to Hong Kong. most of us had such a great time and enjoyed each other's company, as well as the company of the tour guide and drivers, that i think we were a tad bit sad to leave. it's definitely a trip of a lifetime, and i'm glad we all got to share the experience together. i think this trip, as rough and tough as it was, was super cool because we all survived it together, and we all bonded as a result of the hardships that we encountered. :)

*a few other notes:
-Tibet is so colorful! the clothes, jewelry, prayer flags, temples, the sky, doors, buildings... they're all beautifully vivid colors. we couldn't stop taking pictures!

-the Tibetan culture of death and burial is very interesting, but creepy. Tibet commonly uses the ritual of sky burial, which involves cutting the human corpse into pieces, grinding the bones up, and having vultures consume it all. while this sounds pretty gruesome to me (and most people, i imagine), Tibetans simply consider this a method of disposing the body. most Tibetans believe in Buddhism, which teaches rebirth after death. since the soul leaves the body at death and becomes an "empty vessel", there's no need to preserve the body. vultures eating the body is merely an alternative to letting nature decompose it. other reasons why the body isn't buried is supposedly because the rugged Tibetan terrain makes the ground hard to dig, and with fuel and timber scarce, the sky burial is simply more practical. interesting... but not something i'd ever want to witness.

-our tour guide (Xiao Li) was hilarious. he was our age and had a goofy sense of humor. he also loved to sing (luckily, he sang pretty well), so he was always entertaining us by singing Mandarin and Tibetan songs during the long car rides. he'd even try to fulfill our requests of Jacky Chung, Andy Lau, and other HK songs. we also liked our drivers a lot and we shared our snacks with them. there was one driver who was super friendly and jolly and liked to joke and laugh along with our jokes. the other two were quiet and shy, but nice.

-Larry brought along walkie-talkies, which were useful in keeping all three cars in contact during the long drives and in providing entertainment by broadcasting people's singing and jokes. we were all assigned funny call-names. mine was Poison Ivy. Larry's was Larr-Bear. Al's was Phat Al. Crystal's was CrystalBall at first, then later changed to CrystalMeth. Oliver was OliveOil. I liked Jackie's original call-name, "I am Jackie Chan, bitch!", but we later changed it to"CrackerJack". we even had a call name for our tour guide, "Hong Kong Rockstar", because he had a HK hairstyle and he liked to sing!

-toilets are super dodgy in Tibet. public toilets are guaranteed to be squat toilets. sometimes they're straight-up nasty (Crystal and Candace saw worms once). after a certain point, peeing in nature is the best way to go. for guys, it's easier, but girls have to look for a good place to hide. luckily we had 6 girls, and we'd help each other form a human wall (complete with umbrella shields). works great, and makes an excellent girl-bonding experience!

-chocolate works wonders! chocolate snacks proved to be a great treat after a long drive or bland meal or feeling sick, and it's also good to pass out to the starving children that we encounter along the road.

overall, Tibet was amazing, it's definitely an incredible experience! if you ever have the chance, you should go see for yourselves!