More Tibet

It is hard to believe that a day spent sitting in a car could be spectacular, but it was.  Our destination was Yamdrok Lake, a beautiful high altitude lake about a three hour drive from Lhasa.  To reach the lake, we went over the Khamba La pass at an elevation of over 16,000 feet.  And while the pass was the high point of the day, literally, the drive itself was stunning as we passed through the Tibetan Plateau alongside the Lhasa River.

I misunderstood my guide at first and thought that the snow covered mountains in the distance were the Himalayas, but those are a little too far away to see.  Who knew that there are seven different mountain ranges in Tibet?  Today we were in the Nyenchen Tanglha or Gangtise range.  It doesn't have the same ring; I would have liked to see the Himalayas once in my life.

Neither words nor pictures do justice to how beautiful this landscape is.  I am standing next to the deep blue colored Yamdrok Lake which is only the third or fourth largest high altitude lake in Tibet.  Tibet is a small country that is only sparsely populated, so not many people get to see this stunningly beautiful place.

While driving the road over the pass, we passed two pairs of cyclists climbing the road.  Wow!  I was impressed.  Since I do most of my riding in the flat Sacramento Valley, I am not a good climber in general, but I cannot imagine climbing these steep mountains.  And then throw in the altitude.  One pair of cyclists had all their clothes and gear in panniers.  They don't even get to sleep in a bed at night.  Maybe they are training for the Trans Himalayan Extreme Cycling Race.

Something else weird that we saw along the road:  people have animals that you can take your picture with.  My guide warned me to ask the price before I took a picture because the price would go up after I took it.  But I sneaked these two, so they are not great pictures.  The first has tiny baby goats and the second has massive Tibetan mastiffs with fake manes around their necks so they look like lions.

When we returned to Lhasa I had one last free evening so I went back to watch the kora (parade) around the Jokhang Temple.  I just sat there watching as people walked the circuit: monks, children, the elderly, and everyone in between.  One old woman struggled around with a cane, another on crutches, and parents pushed strollers.  Some had prayer wheels; most were chanting quietly to themselves.  Of course, some people were prostrating themselves in front of the temple.  It continues to amaze me that this kora goes on all day, every day.  As I travel the world, I see a lot of "traditional" spectacles that are put on for the benefit of the tourists, but it is rare to be able to see real tradition.  I felt privileged and awed.

I think the Tibetans are very friendly but it is a little hard to tell because no one speaks English here.  I have never been to a place before where I really felt like the lone outsider.  I can't read a single sign or package.  Even when I look at the contents, I often have no idea what is in the package or on display in a store.  On my first night walking around I got lost and my phone died so I had no Google maps.  I went into two different tourist hotels that had signs outside in English (that's how I knew they were tourist hotels) and the clerks at the desk did not speak English.  Really?  At tourist hotels?   I had mastered "thank you" in Chinese, but it was clear that the Tibetans had no interest in speaking Chinese, so I stuck to "thank you" even if they could not understand me.  It is a very interesting experience.  There are very few Western tourists here, so I look different from everyone else and I can't speak a word of the language.  It really made me think about immigrants to America.  The things that are so normal to me that I don't even see them or think about them are completely foreign and confusing to them.  That was how I felt walking around Lhasa.

But as I was sitting in the plaza watching the kora, the only two young men in Lhasa that speak English, albeit quite limited, came over to talk with me.  This happens quite often in foreign countries as people want to practice speaking English, and I always say yes as I am thrilled to be able to talk to anyone local.  This conversation could not go far as their English was so limited, but I give them credit for trying because my Tibetan is nonexistent.  I found out that they were 20 and 25 and were students.  After that it got murky.  They do not study in the university but said they study Buddhism.  But they were dressed in jeans and clearly were not monks.  The younger one almost looked like he was hitting on me which amused me no end.  Finally he said, you are very beautiful, and they left.  I guess his eyesight is not much better than his English.

Leaving the Jokhang Temple I strolled one last time past the Potala Palace.  I forgot to mention that in the Potala Palace, as well as the Lama (Tibetan) Temple in Beijing, there are stones inscribed in four languages:  Tibetan, Chinese, Mongolian, and Manchu.  Interesting.

My hotel, the Shangri La, has an oxygen room in it.  I did not try it as I wanted to acclimate to the altitude, but apparently that room simulates sea level for people who are feeling altitude sickness.

Pictures of scenery never look as good as the real thing, but here are a few more as I leave Tibet.  The first shows the road that we drove on over the pass.