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‹ Previous (21/06/2009) MONTH Next (2009-08-20)› ‹ Previous (2009-07-03 - Vietnam) COUNTRY Next (2009-08-13 - Tibet)› China Kunming (see on map) 21/07/2009:
Formerly there was a train from Hanoi (Vietnam) to Kunming (China) built by the Frenchmen at the beginning of the 20th century, but the line broke down some years ago and the Chinese authorities have not fixed it again. So, after crossing the Chinese border (we needed half an hour to cross it because it was hot and the officers said that we had fever and that we could have the flu) we had to buy a bus thicket with beds. The day after, in the morning we arrived to Kunming where we met with George and where we had to meet also another boy from Couchsufing that had to lodge us, but this boy did not send us the address of his home and tired to carry the bags, we decided to take a room in a hotel. When finally the boy sent us his address after three hours we answered him that it was not necessary any longer and the boy wrote to us again a message full of insults. Perhaps we had luck of not being hosted by him... However, we had a lot of luck of meeting with George, a Chinese of almost 50 years of age but of very young spirit that offered to show us the city. Although it was rainy, George took us to walk through a park, where there were some groups of men and women protected under different roofs that sang and danced happily in front of the sight of the fascinated passers-by. At the end of the park there was a pretty tea house where we stopped. The simple tea was not too economic, although there were other teas (of a year, two, three...) still more expensive. As for these more expensive teas, George told us that there are people who notice the difference in the taste of the tea, and others that only notice the difference in the price. In any case, our tea was very good, with a very long-lasting taste, because every time that a little water emptied a girl was in charge of filling the cup again, so we ended up going twice to the toilet. And this was another memorable experience, because these were totally open, being able to observe even the bottom of the men who were shitting. When I returned and commented this to George, he found it normal, explaining that since small, as there was no communal hot water, all the people were bathing together and naked (separated by gender). During the conversation with George, he explained to us that Kunming is the capital of the province of Yunnan, a province with many minorities, and the one that has the greatest diversity of plants of China, being called the kingdom of the diversity or of the plants. In the same way, Kunming also has a nickname assigned by its mild climate favoured by the 1900metres on the sea level of the city, the "city of the eternal spring". At personal level, George explained to us that he had converted to the Christianity when he emigrated to the States, where he had remained 20 years. He explained to us that in China there are churches of controlled by the government, and familiar churches, in theory forbidden although the government does not ban them any longer. He explained to us that in China many people convert to Christianity, a very new religion, because China is a continental country that has always remained isolated in a cultural way. On the other hand, he also told us that at present in China there is more freedom and that the government is less oppressive; also the media are more open, with less difference between the news that arrives from out of China and the ones produced in the country. Talking on the economics, George explained that the Chinese are very hard working, always wanting to gain more money; this characteristic together with a strong political system, has allowed the economics of China to grow so much. In fact, economically, China is more capitalist than the United States and that provides new problems, for the increase of wealth provokes an increase of the price of the manpower, with many Chinese factories that move to Vietnam where it is more economic to produce. Meanwhile, in China, the people have to get used to looking for work if one does not want to extend the lists of unemployment (the state provided work before for all the people). On the other hand, the secondary school, the university and the health, have stopped being free for everybody, I find it very curious that Europe has better welfare than the communist countries. Chengdu (see on map) 22/07/2009:
We have reached Chengdu at 5 in the morning, me i could sleep but Alexandra without any sleeping. At 5:45 we have taken the first bus towards the centre and we have sent an sms to You, a young Chinese girl that had offered to host us. You has shown us our room and while Alexandra stayed to sleep, I have gone up to the terrace of the block of flats (thirty levels) without too many expectations to be able to observe the total eclipse of sun. The sky was completely covered of clouds that had left to escape some drops exactly some moments ago. Probably, someone too innocent had to think that he could see a total solar eclipse from Chengdu, for even in googlemaps the city is permanently covered of clouds. In spite of everything, some minutes before total eclipse I have had some magical minutes, for the light of the sun has been able to go across the clouds, almost all of it showing the silhouette concealed by the moon. It has been interesting to be able to observe the evolution of this eclipsed with the unprotected eyes, because little more late, the clouds have been put aside more and the light has been so intense that it was impossible to look directly at the sun. Unfortunately, the sun has been concealed again behind the clouds, darkening all the city. The people who were accompanying me on the roof and in many other roofs of the city have started to howl and to scream while I made photos of the city of Chengdu with the lights turned on, as if we were in the night. Afterwards, the light has appeared again slowly behind the clouds, being able to observe during other magical moments the silhouette of the sun, equally in the form of nail, but this time orientated the other way round, proving that really something was passing in front of the sun. Finally it has started to rain. While I took refuge in the entry of the building, I have thought that in spite of the clouds, having reached Chengdu with haste to witness the event has been worthed, because besides that, Chengdu is a city in theory more interesting than Kunming and to prove it to me I have gone to visit the Buddhist monastery of Wenshu once it has finished the rain. The monastery of Wenshu was built during the dynasty Tang (619 -907 AC), consisting of different temples full of people offering incense to the statues of budha, touching with expectation the symbol of the happiness or caressing a dragon of metal. Inevitably I remembered a comment of George in Kunming, who explained us that the majority of Buddhists do not know who is budha nor what he preached, that some rituals only continue to be benefited by the destination (and perhaps happens the same with the majority of Christians or of any religion). Casually, in the temple I met an original boy of some village in the south of Chengdu that explained to me that the people offered peanuts (symbol of the child) to the statues to have male children. Afterwards he explained that buddhism came from india, but that China is, where the traditions and religions are more difficult to change than in the countries that have sea, reason for which they have not entered other religions to China up to the present. Finally, he explained that he had just studied engineering, but that now it would be difficult for him to find work, because China is the country most populated by the world and the working offers are limited. 26/07/2009:
You, a Chinese girl of 18 years that dreams to go to study to France, and her parents have lodged us magnificently in their home. Even, the mother of You made an excellent dinner for us in the first days when also were lodged in the house a French couple and a swiss girl from Couchsurfing. Pity that her parents do not talk any English, although You makes up in excess for this lack with good conversation and information on her culture and the world in general. For example, a day You explained us that the majority of Chinese families are composed of only one son, due to the policy of the only son that punishes with strong fines the families that have more than one son (can get to cost 10.000 euro) being seen obliged, besides, to paying the education of the second son. According to the Chinese government, this policy has subtracted between 300 and 400 million people to the growth of the population and facilitated the economic success of the country, although it has also provoked social problems with sterilisation and obligatory abortions, infanticides and 120% of boys in proportion to born girls. You commented that due to the policy of the only son in China, the cousins are called brothers and the relation that they have is usually so near that it is as if really they were. On the other hand, she also explained that the policy of the only son is not applied to the minorities, that are seen favoured by an increase of the population in all of China (a plus point of the Chinese government, normally accused of ill-treating the minorities). You helped us do the Panda card to enter freely in many monuments, an initiative of the government to help the tourism after the earthquake of Sichuan in 2008, that provoked 70.000 deaths and almost 20.000 missing, leaving about 5 million people without home. In spite of this event, Chengdu is known as the city of the abundance, being also the capital of the province of Sichuan, known with the nickname of the kingdom of the paradise. These nicknames are adapted to the modernity of Chengdu, which could be a European city if it were not for the incomprehensible Chinese characters that fill posters and advertisements and its pedestrians with the long eyes. Another similarity is the great quantity of bicycle lanes that the city has, even though in the Chinese case they are taken up by tens of electrical motorcycles (the only ones that can circulate through the town centre). Thanks to this limitation, the cities (it was also like this in Kunming) are very quiet, although that can be dangerous, because I was more than once to point of being run over by a motorcycle, when crossing a street without looking, still programmed with the habit of India of listening to the vehicles instead of seeing them. Chengdu could also be compared with a European city through its parks (maybe less abundant than in Vietnam), although the atmosphere in these was completely different to any park visited beforehand. In multiple points of the park there were artists who sang deliciously or danced, superposing the music and moves with the loudspeakers. The artists, only with desires of sharing the joy of living with the others, exposed their arts in exchange for nothing. Really it surprised me this extroversion in the parks, especially because i imagined the shy Chinese by nature, but You explained to us that it was normal, for the Chinese like to do things in group and to meet to talk on the life or philosophy, or to play. The latter was another characteristic that surprised me, in different points of the city I observed groups of Chinese playing different table games, which are completely different to those that are found in the west. Thanks to the Panda card that we made, we could enter without paying in the Centre of Research and Baby Animal of Panda, which have different protected areas in the province of Sichuan. We arrived when most of the pandas were asleep, but after giving them food, we observed how the small red pandas played or how two young pandas fought in slow motion to occupy an uncomfortable branch in a tree. It was also curious to observe in an incubator a baby animal of 10 days that it only measured about five centimetres. Helped by the Panda card also we visited other monuments of Chengdu, although this has not avoided us of paying today the visit of Leshan, although we have managed to confuse them and to pay half, as students, presenting our identity cards. In Leshan it is found the biggest sitting buddha bigger of the world ( 71 meters), excavated in the pending of a mountain and facing a large river. Even if it has been raining all the day and that we had to hold a queue of an hour, we enjoyed the visit, which included different excavated caves and other big statues in other pending of the mountain. The difference of religious art between west and east is curious, for while in Europe churches of stone were built, in multiple points of the east big sculptures and temples in the stone walls were excavated. 30/07/2009:
After having said goodbye about four times to our inseparable friends of journey, we have found them again: David, Maria and the parents of David, José and Mariam who travelled with them for a season again. David and Maria had followed their journey through the north of India, Karakorum and west of China, while we came from the south visiting Indochina. They had offered to wait for us in Xian, but in the end decided to wait them and to visit together Emei mountain the following days of their arrival. The first day of reencounter we dedicate it to walk in Chengdu, while we explained all the anecdotes of the journey that we have kept accumulating in the last months. It was a good day, climatically also, because for the first time since we have reached Chengdu the clouds opened and we could observe the blue sky. Unfortunately, the day after blurred again. Even so, we buyed a bus thicket towards Emei and arrived next to one of the entries of the mountain. They had explained to us that from there we could catch a cablecar without paying the entry to the mountain (13euros), but we discovered late the way of making it happen and had to pay the entry. Anyway, all except the parents of David payed half, as students, although I did not have any document to show and ended up showing the DNI of David, making me pass with it as student. This small adventure passed, we got up to the cabler up to the monastery of Wannian (1020 m) from where we started to walk a small asphaltic footpath paved with hundreds or thousands of stairs that threaded the mountain, among some deafening noise of cicadas, a thick and green forest bug and a mist that did not let us see beyond 100 or 200 meters. In spite of everything, after the exhausting effort to rise 900 meters up to the monastery of Huayan (1914 m) we had the prize of being able to observe the peak of the Golden Colour among the clouds. But this prize lasted little, for that on the following day in the morning, after sleeping in a humid room of the monastery we found ourselves that it drizzled, and like this followed as we kept rising through the path of stairs. And that which perhaps confused us, for instead of diverting us to the left to go down on another path of the mountain with a more interesting landscape, we kept going up, until it was too late to turn back. So we decided to keep rising until we arrived at the foot of the second cablecar (2540 m) up to the summit (3077 m), but the time was so bad that after having a tea we went down in bus towards Emei, in the face of the impossibility to see anything among the fog. In Emei we found a decent average hotel where we relaxed until the following day in the morning that we turned back towards Chendu, while our friends visited the big buddha in Leshan. During these many hours shared in the mountain commenting on the impressions that were provoking us the Chinese, in general very nice and occasionally nice, but very noisy and little friendly, preferring to be related or to socialize among them. Anyway, the impression was much better to the one received by different other travellers, that had not talked us too well about China or of the Chinese. Anyway, the travellers that worse had talked us were those that had been working in China, explaining to us that the Chinese were odious for their desires of obtaining of the workers up to the last drop of sweat. On the other hand, we also comment on our surprise of finding a very expensive country, including the products made in China but especially in the transports, hotels and entries to touristic attractions, prices that the Chinese also pay without complaining. Finally, we also laughed a lot commenting on the gestures in China, which are completely different to west. For example, the gesture of smoking (with two fingers in the mouth) in China means eating; or the gesture of taking the tea in China resembles the gesture of... (hand closed in a fist and moving it up and down from the mouth). This difference of gestures can be frustrating, when for example they do not understand you when asking for the bill in a restaurant, making the gesture of writing in the air. But the difference of gestures is still more frustrating to indicate numbers, which are equal up to the number 4, but that they are different for greater quantities (for example, on 10 is done crossing two fingers, one of every hand; or on 7 is done putting the hand in the form of pistol) so that when asking for a price it is almost impossible to understand with gestures, even if they use a calculator. When at noon we have arrived to the house of You, her mother has opened us the door almost without looking at us. The impossibility of communicating in English has worried us, but later, when You has arrived she has explained the problem to us. In the morning, her mother had received a call from the police asking why they were hosting so many foreigners, asking who they were, because they were not registered in a hotel, asking for all the data of their daughter... In short, the mother of You was well scared and she has already decided not to host anybody else. It is a pity, that some governments and the police are against the friendship among cultures, for that happened with Ullas, the boy of Queta in Pakistan, which since was visited by the secret police stopped hosting people from Couchsufing. Xian (see on map) 03/08/2009:
After saying goodbye with sorrow for the hundredth time to our friends ( whom we will probably not see again until America), we caught a train towards Xian. The night train of economic category surprised us for its tidiness and modernity, nothing to do with all the trains with which we had travelled previously. Besides, the train was so fine that until the following day I did not realise in the morning that the train was going with a different direction than the one I had imagined. So, we arrived on Friday in the morning well relaxed to Xian, where we found another surprise. Xian is the most expensive city visited up to the moment in China, where it is impossible to find two beds in a room shared by less than 8 euros. Finally we chose a small room with 8 beds, where we met Iñigo, a Basque who also complained about the prices of the hotels of Xian and about the costs of travelling through China in general. In this sense, Iñigo told us that on some occasion he had tried to sleep in economic hotels (where the middle class Chinese goes), but the police made him go to a hotel with licence to lodge tourists. Iñigo was travelling for two years, the last months in the company of a Philippine girl. Despite having the spirit and very young aspect, Iñigo had just reached his 40 years anniversary (three more that me), declaring that the best way of preserving youth was by travelling, for the happiness that contributes and the little stress. Even so, Iñigo was also discovering that to travel also can be stressful, in his case due to some incorrect payments on his credit card that he could not return for being found far away from home. In spite of everything, he was already considering the possibility to travel for the rest of his life but the lack of funds was a things that preoccupied him and in the same way limited him. It was this passion for travelling and for photography that allowed us to connect very well, although we did not do too many activities in common for the difference of timetables that we had (I can lose the head if I ask Alexandra to wake up before 8) and the way of travelling (they preferred walking 2 km before catching a local bus of 0,1 €). So, I visited the main touristic attractions of Xian, some alone and the other ones in company of Alexandra. Anyway, before I bought myself a new wide-angle lens for my camera, because in spite of the high prices of China, the electronic products can be 20 or 50% more economic that in Europe; and also the clothes, that's why I have also bought myself two jeans, because its been already almost three years that I travel with the same trousers and they already start to break. The biggest attraction of Xian are the warriors of terracotta that we have visited today, 6000 warriors that Qin had to protect the first emperor in the life after the death, buried for more than 2000 years until they were discovered casually by some peasants that dug a well to obtain water in 1974. The warriors of terracotta are the third big attraction of China, after the big Wall and the Prohibited City, but they have failed to impress me a little, or the city has rather defrauded me of splendour in general, because formerly Xian rivalled Rome and Constantinople for the bond of the biggest and most influential city, but at present it does not remain too much of this oldness, apart from the extraordinary walls of the fourteenth century of 12 km that surround a modern city. Of the same century, the tower of the bell that marked the entry per day and the tower of the drum that marked the entry to the darkness also rise up among the modern buildings. In a Muslim neighbourhood of little older homes I visited a mosque of completely Chinese style, except for the room of prayer, which is totally surrounded with big wooden altarpieces with all the Koran engraving in Arabic. And out of the walls, we also had the occasion of visiting an interesting Taoist temple, with the faithful ones adoring in a similar way as the Buddhists the statues of gods with beards and fine and long moustaches. Lanzhou (see on map) 06/08/2009: Lanzhou is found about 7 more hours by train to the west of Xian, in a valley with a very different landscape, for its aridity, that is favoured by the altitude (1600 m) and its nearness to the plateau of Tibet. It was thanks to this difference of climate that we could observe the blue sky for the first time in China for two days continuously, although it rained. In spite of everything we do not make too much use of the good time, for apart from wasting a couple of hours looking for a hotel that had a vacant room and walking through the city looking for some decent restaurant, we did not visit anything. The main reason was the approach of the date of extinction of the visa of China and the complications that come to arrive to Nepal by crossing the Autonomous region of Tibet (like this it is called in China, although I do not think that it is too much autonomous). It is impossible to enter in Tibet if it is not with a travel agency, and the prices can be astronomical (we had offers of 1000 or 1500 euro), although these can be quite a lot of more economic if they apply to a group of 3 or 4 people. I was quite a lot of hours connected to Internet analysing offers of agencies and looking for other people to share the journey with. In the end I found a couple that were going towards Tibet in a few days with a quite economic tour, but to be able to join them, we needed before to extend the visa of China, a formality which we thought to do in Xining. Xining (see on map) 11/08/2009:
In Xining we have had a lot of luck of being hosted by Amy, a nice girl from Alaska who is working as an English teacher in the city. Amy explained to us that she was delighted with the city, for its relaxed atmosphere and for its mixture of cultures: chinese, Tibetan and Muslim. But not only that, in Xining Amy has found that it is very easy to make friends, and like this we had the occasion of checking as Amy and a friend of hers were invited to dine by some friends of a friend (but unknown) and as rebound, we were added. The boys were a Tibetan and a rich Muslim that led us to a luxurious hotel where they had reserved a dining room just for us. There they started to open beers and to serve to us some, while they asked for different "specialties" to eat: tendons of yak, skin of the face of the cow, back of antelope, fried moss... Anyway, the main problem was not the ingredients, but the quantity of chili that was in them. After the dinner, the boys took us to a discotheque, with music and very interesting occidental atmosphere, although to be inside you had to rent a table. In any case, that was not a problem, because our hosts were in charge of reserving one and of buying us all the beers that we wanted. That night was very amusing, but sincerely, although the other ones have been much calmer, have not been less interesting, conversing with Amy, with her friends and with other guests of couchsurfing. In one of these conversations, after being declared Christian, Amy appeared to become upset with the Tibetan Buddhism, for many monks live with luxury and wealth thanks to the donations of the faithful ones. In any case, Amy also admitted that all the religions are nurtured and grow thanks to the donations of the faithful ones, including any branch or Christianism. On the other hand, Amy also found some hours to walk with us through the city, among the many sport fields, parks and through the interesting markets. Parallel to the meeting with Amy, in Xining we continued with quite a lot of stress looking for the way to arrive to Nepal by crossing Tibet, so as soon as we arrived to Xining, we went to the police to extend our visas and the police denied this possibility to us because Alexandra did not have blank pages in her passport (despite having a new passport). Anyway, we had a lot of luck of meeting casually a Japanese who travelled alone and who also had haste to arrive to Nepal, for the visa of China also expired for her. The three of us went to a travel agency that offered us a good price (340€/persona, including train, guide and transport) for a tour of 9 days, which we could initiate on Wednesday once all the licences were fixed. Tibet Lhasa (see on map) 13/08/2009:
In order to reduce the price of the journey towards Tibet with about 40 € per person, the three of us decided of catching a train thicket of hard seat instead of bed. We remembered the experience of the North of Vietnam, where a hard seat of train meant a wooden seat and we feared that the journey of 24 hours to Tibet would be terrible. Even so we had a lot of luck, because more of half of the seats (quite comfortable) were empty, and Alexandra could occupy three seats in line to lay on and I two. In any case, not only we dedicated the time to finding seats, we were also admiring the landscape from the window, which was impressive. During these 24 hours, the train towards Tibet covered about 2000 km of almost completely uninhabited territory, without forests and at the beginning very arid , with different dunes of sand, that seemed to threaten of covering the line of the train. On the following day in the morning, some loudspeakers in the train were in charge of explaining to us that the last 1150 km of way of train were inaugurated in July 2006 (later than the beginning of our journey). On the other hand, due to the altitude of the line (during almost 1000 km, the line passes at a height superior to 4000 m), this has different records, as the highest crossing (5072 m) and the highest train tunnel (4905 m). Anyway, the loudspeakers were explaining that while working no one died of altitude sickness, because priority was given to health. And they also insisted that the train took happiness and wealth to the people of Tibet, an assertion difficult to contrast, although for sure the train has brought crowds of tourists, a little unlikely if Tibet had been maintained independent, which probably would have kept being a hermetic country similar to Bhutan. In any case, very possibly the region of Tibet will be enriched in the future (maybe at the expense of to lose of this the millennial culture), for the Chinese government has intention of extending the line of train up to Nepal and also up to India (to Sikim) converting Tibet into an important link of trade and communication. Once the loudspeakers informed with all this, I planted the face in the window again, observing the waves of the Tibetan set, every piece of cutlery of very low grass, for where the Yaks with the long hair grazed. Reaching Lhasa we started to see some mountains snowstorms and in front of these small groups of Tibetan homes, with the roof flat, colourful prayers waving, and big windows (strange in a country where there is so much cold). On the other hand, it was also interesting to unhook occasionally the face of the window and to observe the passengers of the train, mostly Chinese and Tibetans, which could be differentiated by their clothes and physiognomy, although it was much easier to identify the Tibetans for their faces of happiness when arriving in Lhasa, indicating us in the distance, the Potala palacethreaded on a hill. 14/08/2009:
Tibet is the first place in our entire journey that we have been obliged to hire a travel agency and to go with a guide. In any case, the first hours were excellent, the guide (called Tom) received us with white scarves that he put around our collars, and after taking us to a relatively economic hotel he guided us in taxi up to the monastery of Sera, in the North of Lhasa. As the great majority of monasteries in Tibet, the monastery of Sera has lived a great reduction of the monastic population since "the release of Tibet" with the help China, specifically, from 5000 monks that there were, they only remain some hundreds. Anyway, these still maintain a great activity, with animated debates that are done daily and which we had opportunity to witness. As we could observe, the monks are arranged in small groups of three or four in a courtyard, with one of them asking different questions that the other sitting monks have to answer gesticulating with a lot of emphasis. After the visit to the Sera monastery, we had some free hours that we dedicate to visit the alleys full of shops around the hotel. Lhasa is at a height of 3600 meters and, although in Tibet we will pass through different mountain passes of above 5000 meters, immediately we started to feel tired, snorting when we had to raise the two levels of the hotel. Anyway, calmly we could walk through the neighbourhood that was very guarded and supervised: in every corner there were cameras of surveillance, in many corners there were police installed during all the day, and parading through the alleys there were other groups of four police men: one with a weapon, another with a fire extinguisher, another with a silvery suitcase and a last one without function. On the other hand, it was not only the police that decreased the magic of being in Lhasa, but the city itself did not seem too Tibetan, with homes of different flats, many Chinese trades and even a mosque, where we could observe tens of Muslims going out with the head covered. Evidently, the Chinese policy of offering support to any Chinese who wanted to immigrate to Tibet was giving result, converting the Tibetans into a minority in their own territory. Today in the morning, we have visited the temple of Jokhang, the most sacred religious structure of Tibet, which is found in the centre of Lhasa. When arriving to the temple well early in the morning, there were already hundreds of pilgrims doing queue to enter, in any case, we have had to pay the entry of 7 € that at least it gives us the right to go straining inside. The temple was composed by a big central room where the monks seemed to meet, and crowds of chapels where the pilgrims kept circulating, in the same directions as the needles of the clock, pouring liquid grease of Yak(they maintain it hot in thermos) in the torches and offering valuable notes equivalent to 1 cent of euro to the multiple statues of Gods, Buddha’s and images of Lamas. So many Gods and different Buddha’s there were represented and so much devotion showed by the faithful ones, that inevitably I have not been able to avoid to relate the Tibetan Buddhism with the Hinduism. In fact, visiting this temple has surprised me that the Tibetan Buddhism is so followed, in spite of being forbidden during many years and even though the current religion has a spiritual leader that has its name and image forbidden in Tibet. It has given me the sensation that the people need to think and that will keep thinking independently of the political situation of their countries. On the other hand, at the top of some stairs that slid because of the grease of Yak, I have also been able to observe hundreds of books wrapped and kept in shelves and also some monks that read them with a lot of care, for the leaves of the books are not bound together, therefore, when finishing reading one they have to pile up with the ones already read, watching a lot that they do not get messed up. During the visit of the temple of Jokhang, I had to get rid of the guide Tom, because apart from talking very deficient English, he seemed more interested in showing the local girls that he was guide than to show us the marvels of Tibet. In fact, Tom seems to detest his job and continuously wants to show us the attractions to the speed of a cheetah. Even so, Alexandra has followed him a little and, observing that in the monastery there were different images of the 5o and 7o Dalai Lama, Alexandra has asked him: "there is any Dalai Lama alive at present?" he has answered with the learned Chinese lesson of all guides: "Not, there is none alive." In any case, the one who has suffered more from the deficiencies of the leader has been the Japanese Yuri (our colleague of tour), for she has decided to pay the entry of 10 € to visit the Potala inside, while we admired the former and majestic residence of the Dalai Lama outside. In less than 40 minutes, Yuri and the leader were already waiting for us in the other tip of the Potala, having visited the palace much more fleetingly than the 50 minutes that the Chinese government has assigned for each visit. In any case, the main problem we had was not with the guide, but with the agency of Lhasa, then they wanted us to do to pay about 40 € more because we had the intention of going out of Lhasa tomorrow, a day before planned. In any case, we had to go out a day before to reach Shigatse in time; the place where we could extend our visa for four days more, to be able to enjoy all the tour. In any case, it was not completely sure of us being able to extend the visa, because Alexandra did not have more blank pages in the passport. So, in the end we decided to pay the 40 € in exchange for the agency committing itself in writing a letter that says they commit to return us 180 € if we could not extend the visa and we saw ourselves obliged to reducing the tour with three days. Shigatse (see on map) 17/08/2009:
On Saturday we got out well early from Lhasa, with a 4x4 that should take us up to the border of Nepal in six days. Anyway, the first stop we did was very soon, in the monastery of Deprung, on the outskirts of Lhasa, another monastery similar to Sera, but that got to have the greatest quantity of monks of the Tibetan Buddhism: 10.000 before the invasion China in 1951, remaining at present only 800. The greatness of the monastery and the great quantity of small chapels and labyrinthine temples, required a calm visit, that's why I already started to become annoyed when the guide showed signs of displeasure when I stayed behind while he was advancing with Alexandra. After half an hour of thrilling visit, Tom called on my mobile telephone to ask me where i was and to press me of being faster. I screamed at him that I don’t want him to call me and that he lets me visit the monastery calmly. But after another hour he made Alexandra call so that he told me that there was a limitation of time in the visit. This lie annoyed me enormously and when I finished the visit (some parts of temple i had to leave behind) I was determined to ask for a change of attitude from the guide(or of trying to change the guide). Yuri,was annoyed with him for the visit of the Potala was also ready to change him, and Alexandra not so much, for she was annoyed with me because I had screamed to her on the phone when i should have screamed to him. So, well turned on by having a guide that did not let me to enjoy Tibet enough, i directed myself to him (he was eating in a restaurant with the driver) and I started to say that i was very annoyed with him, but before i could say more, he got up and told to me that he also was very annoyed with me, and that he did not want to be our guide if we did not abide by his demands. In that moment I turned and without saying anything else, i sat under the shadow of a tree, completely annoyed and I called the agency of Xining explaining that it was impossible to continue with the same guide and that if we kept being with him six more days, some very severe problem could happen to them. The Agency of Xining told me that they would talk with the agency of Lhasa and that they would call me again; their efficiency surprised me, because after 20 minutes I received a call from Xining telling us that we could turn back to Lhasa where was waiting for us a new guide. Tom did not say anything, when the manager introduced the new introverted guide, they commented: "This is the new leader, examine him". But after proving that he talked better English than Tom I commented, "it is not necessary to examine him, by the face it is already seen that the person is good and that we will not have problems with him". The new leader was called Toto (in fact he had another Tibetan name, but this was easier to remember), and later, during the journey in the mountains to the outskirts of Lhasa, he told us that he was 30 years old and that since the age of 8 till 24 he had been living in a Tibetan monastery, having no relatives nor family. Without explaining why he gave up the life of monk, he explained to us that at present he is a professor of Tibetan, because there are many people in Tibet who do not know how to read or to write their language, and because many schools of Tibet do not teach this language either. On the other hand, even if Toto is not married, he seems that this is one of his goals, because during all the journey he did not stop flirting with all the girls of the restaurants and hotels. One of the first signs that convinced us of the good success when changing guide, was when we arrive to the collar of Kamba-(4794 m), from where the lake of Yamdrok-tso could be observed, he commented: "If we stop here they will charge you 4 € for person, it is better to stop further on". We cheered up for this proposal, for in the morning, the previous guide, Tom, had insisted that we should pay 4 € to observe the lake of Yamdrok. In any case, the guide asked the driver to stop after half a kilometre, where we could go out to make photos and to admire the incredible turquoise of the waters of the lake. The lake of Yamdrok is one of the four sacred lakes of Tibet, where vindictive deities live, although these do not seem to still have taken revenge on the Chinese, which have had the boldness of perforating the mountain to steal water to generate electricity (the biggest headquarters of Tibet). After stopping different times to take photos of different perspectives of the photogenic lake, the road started to go up to the collar of Karo- (5045 m), where we got out to take photos of a huge glacier from where there were born crowds of cascades that were reviving the valley. And finally, after crossing a big plain of more than 4000 m in altitude and an artificial lake, we arrived to the city of Gyantse, dominated by a former fortress or dzong located on a rocky hill. In any case, the main attraction of Gyantse, which we visited the following day, is the monastery of Pelkor Chode, with a big room of assemblies, around which there were numerous chapels richly adorned with paints, statues and libraries. And much more incredible it was still the building on the side named Kumbum, of circular structure and of six levels that were becoming smaller with the height, which had in its interior up to 70 chapels, each adorned with different statues representing a minimum part of the infinity of gods and Buddha’s of the Tibetan religion. When finishing the visit, our guide Toto suggested us to start to do path towards Shigatse, where we could extend our visa, in spite of all, we managed to pull half an hour of spare time that we dedicated to the old Tibetan neighbourhood next to the monastery, with a main street with the cows staked in the doorways, and some houses with plane roofs where they waved prayers of colours and where piled up slabs of shit of cow that they must act as fuel in the winter. Later, Toto explained to me that the flat roofs of the Tibetan homes are isolated from the water of the rain thanks to the use of ash in their construction. Before reaching Shigatse, Toto made the driver stop in a water mill that had an unknown grain, and we later stopped in a muddy village, where there was the monastery of Shalu, famous for the mythical flying monks. But instead of that we are with a monastery in works that we could not visit, although instead of that, we were invited to take tea, a tea with milk much greasier than the previous ones taken (in Tibet it is typical to put grease of Yak in the tea), by some very nice monks. The midday passed we reached Shigatse, the second biggest city of Tibet, that contains the big monastery of Tashihulpo, with many buildings of Chinese style, which lodged the Pachen Lama, the second Lama in importance (after the Dalai Lama) and traditionally well related to the Chinese government. Being Sunday and impossible to extend our visas, we had the free afternoon, that I dedicated to walk the Kora that gave all the turn to the monastery through the mountain, a path full of grinders of prayers, fanions and skulls of Yak recorded with prayers. In spite of the rain that threatened at all times, the road was circulated clockwise by different Tibetan pilgrims that recited their prayers and turned the small round prayers. While i walked the Kora, I thought that it is curious that during the Chinese cultural revolution crowd of temples and monasteries in Tibet were destroyed and, the Chinese government is however since some years ago reconstructing many of the destructions, leaving them as if they had never suffered any damage, to promote the tourism. For example, in Shigatse, the Chinese have just reconstructed a palace or dzong that had remained popular in ruins during the revolt of 1959, the same year of the escape to India of the 14th Dalai Lama, nine years after "the release" of Tibet in the hands of the Chinese army. Our guide appeared a little sceptical or burlesque with the new building, qualifying it as Chinese and not mentioning its past as dzong. Anyway, the reconstruction of temples and monasteries was not initiated to favour the tourism, after the death of Mao and of the Chinese cultural revolution (which deplored any religious demonstration), the Chinese government realised, for to have the people happy it had to provide the "opium", that they could not keep suppressing the religion. So, since the eighties, many monasteries re-opened, many religious artefacts were returned from China and many others were built again to make up for the destroyed ones. And in a certain way, it has been this fast reconstruction, the one that allows us visiting Tibet as if nothing bad had happened, although the scars must still be present behind the re-painted walls. Today in the morning, Alexandra was well nervous, for she feared that they could not extend the visa for lack of pages, anyway, our guide Toto was very insistent and persuasive with the police, and towards noon he commented us smiling that they would extend the visa to both of us, in the case of Alexandra using her new passport. Anyway, we have to wait till the afternoon to collect the passport and inevitably to spend another night in Shigatse. On the other hand, until today, our Japanese colleague of journey had not spoken almost anything on her life, and has not been until she has shown her passport to the police that we have realised that she was an authentic traveller who had visited many countries, opening opportunities for new conversations. While we expected them to extend the visa for us, I have decided to go up to the summit of a mountain behind the temple of Tashihulpo where they waved many colourful flags of prayers. Good, in fact, once I have finished the costly ascent, I have surprised myself of the tons of fanions that there were waving and that were piled up to the ground forming comfortable mattresses. In fact, I have had a great luck that there were fanions everywhere, because half the way down a very urgent necessity has com and as i finished I have been able to clean my bottom with a couple of prayers. I have probably committed the most heretic heresy, in any case the Tibetan Buddhists could also be happy that their fanions have a practical application, apart from the spiritual undemonstrable one. Nepal Border (see on map) 20/08/2009:
Having extended our visa and happy to be able to enjoy three more days in Tibet, on Tuesday in the morning we left Shigatse, going through a big valley towards the pass of Tropu-(4950 m) and stopping later in the small people of Sakya, which preserved the purest Tibetan soul of all the visited villages. Sectioned from the main road and settled in a fertile valley, Sakya had an extraordinary monastery surrounded by some very high and long walls of square structure. In any case, we left of side the monastery of Sakya to visit the old Tibetan neighbourhood on the other side of the river that, with the houses painted in black and with occasional red strips and white verticals, a small monastery of red colour was raises, some stupas in white and the ruins of another big monastery were rising on a dusty pending. Walking through the wild mountain to a medium-sized monastery that was observed to the right, we passed different Tibetans, the majority with the face very red, like us, due to the little protection of the atmosphere against the solar light. On the other hand, the Tibetan women in general wear a big thread of wool or silk rolled up around the head, dressing with dark colours and an apron or mantle of colourful strips in front. Right before arriving to the medium monastery of the mountain, we ran into a family that nicely offered us to sit with them despite not speaking a word in a common language. Afterwards, they followed the pilgrimage towards the monastery, while the man suggested to me to follow him. The man made me to turn round the monastery in the direction of the needles of the clock, while i imitated his rituals, rubbing different parts of the body in different stones. When finishing the tour, I found Alexandra at the entry of the monastery, and she warned me that the monastery was of women and that it refrained from making photos. I followed the man in the monastery, who kept pouring grease of Yak in the torches and leaving some notes of 0,1Y in some statues, while he did cute comments to the nuns, who laughed timidly. Afterwards, a nun made me sit by her side, while the man exclaimed alarmed that I got up immediately. But the nuns, young girls with the shaved head and covered with red tunics, told him that there was not any problem. Then, while I remained alone with them, they tried to give me conversation, although the language did not help much. Finally they suggested to me making them photos, while they sang and touched different instruments, and I said goodbye to them and they wrote the telephone of the monastery to me on a paper. In Sakya we pass the night in a room of hotel for pilgrims, with very dirty sheets, that besides it did not have shower (incredibly, no hotel of the following three days had showers) and had some terrible toilets (similar to all China, but worse). The day after, despite having slept 8 hours I woke up more exhausted than the previous days, even so we got on the road towards Tingri. On the way we stopped in the collar of Gyatso- (5220 m) where it did so much cold, that immediately we convinced ourselves of the good decision of not going to Mount Everest Base Camp (of the same altitude). In fact, it did days that we had taken the decision of not going, saving ourselves to pay 40 € for person, a price that did not offer accountability of being able to observe the Everest (July and August are the rainiest months in Tibet) to a distance of 30 km (inexplicably, the base camp is not found in the base of the Everest, but at about 25 km of its base). During the stop in the collar of Gyatso- I could not avoid the cold penetrating me till the bones and during the path up to Tingri i noticed how my body shook while the fever kept rising. Right before entering in the village of Tingri we could observe the spectacular range of the Himalaya deep down, with the Everest raising to the left. So pretty was the scene that I proposed of curing myself the same day, and after passing three hours sweating in the bed of the hotel and taking a paracetamol, I woke up with sufficient energies to go with Alex up to the hill behind the village of Tingri to observe again the succession of snow topped mountains , the highest in the world. And in front of these mountains it did not stop surprising the immense plain that was extended for hundreds of kilometres in all directions at an altitude of 4500 meters. The day after, observing again in the morning the fantastic sight of the Himalaya, we have started to do path towards the border with Nepal, always flanked by cables of electricity or telephone parallel to the road, which normally spoiled the best photos. On the other hand, as we approached Nepal and we crossed the collars of La Lung- (5124 m) and Tong- (5120 m) we started to observe many ruins, of some old Nepalese invasions of the 1788 and 1891, that were repelled by a Chinese army assisted by Tibetan troops. In any case, lowering through the valley of the river Sun Kosi was difficult to imagine how the Nepalese army could raise the deep and abrupt valley, for this was too narrow. The green valley concealed by fog and clouds offered a landscape completely different to the rest of Tibet, but not less spectacular. On the other hand, I also found it strange that the border was situated in the middle of the valley, without any geographical signs of importance, apart from a small cascade offering a dividing line. On the border there were some villages without any type of appeal, where we had to spend the night, since we arrived late due to some works in the road. It was our last night in Tibet filled by the pretty memories of this country, even though our look had the sight put on Nepal, on our car and in the turn towards Europe. ‹ Previous (21/06/2009) MONTH Next (2009-08-20)› ‹ Previous (2009-07-03 - Vietnam) COUNTRY Next (2009-08-13 - Tibet)› |
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