China - The Friendship Highway - Part I

Wow, this has been another incredibly beautiful journey. We left Lhasa early in the morning on the first day.

Looking back toward the Lhasa valley from the first pass:

We first visited a really cool lake Yamdrok Tso (4488 m).
Here are a couple of the locals hanging around for some pictures:

Michelle was keen on seeing and Shivani spotted the rare and endangered Black Neck Cranes:

Way Cool:

Near the end of the day, we were waylaid by some road paving. We were forced off the road and required to wait a couple hours while the black-top cooled. Here are a few shots of the hard laboring road guys:

We eventually gave up waiting and started off-roading it through the river basin along with a caravan of other SUV’s. One poor group of people got majorly stuck, but they were too far away for us to help. We ended up crossing the main channel 4 times. Yes that is the river right out the window.

Eventually we were able to sneak back onto the road and it was smooth sailing on fresh black-top. We passed several large peaks with large glaciers coming down to near the road. Then came to another large lake, although this one was not natural.

There was a really cool “island” with an old fortress looking structure on it:

We eventually came to the town of Gyantse. Here there is a pretty cool monastery and also an even cooler abandoned fort way up on a hill:

We spent the night here and visited the monastery the next morning.

The crew eating dinner:

The monastery was quite scenic, the coolest thing was that it contained the largest Stupa in Tibet, which is 5 stories high plus the dome on top and has 108 rooms all containing some Buddha dude or another.




Michelle and Shivani winding their way up the oversized Stupa.


Looking up a prayer flag pole:


Another view of Gyantse:


We then moved on to the next town of Shigatse - a short drive away. Being all monasteried-out, we decided to visit a local carpet factory and take in some other sights.

The carpet factory was pretty interesting, here's a lady spinning wool into thread:


A few shots of some locals:






Finally we did some more shopping.
We decided this would be a good place to buy some stuff:


But we all agreed to avoid doing business with these guys:

China - Lhasa II

The weather has cleared up and we're taking in the sights. Lhasa has a significant number of monasteries and other historical places of interest. With only a few days here, we chose to see just four; the Potala, the Jokhang Temple, the Barkhor, and the Sera Monastery.

Here are a couple pictures of the Potala (we're taking the inside tour later today).




Prayer flags for sale in the Barkhor:


Each day starting well before sunrise pilgrims and the local community start the day doing koras around the Barkhor, which circles the Jokhang Temple. There are hundreds of people in the front of the temple with hand protectors and pads which they use to pray. Others prostrate one body length at a time all the way around the circuit; kora means to circum-ambulate an object of devotion. A few guys were throwing there bodies at least 4 body lengths using wooden blocks on their hands for speed. This goes on most hours of the day and night; with people of all ages.

A Tibetan boy prostrating in front of the Johkrang:


We went to the Sera Monastery to watch the Monks debate. This goes on each afternoon. This is part of the teaching of the Tibetan scriptures. The monks discuss the scriptures and debate the correct interpretation of the piece. It is a very lively (and loud) scene with hand jestures, clapping and a lot of jumping to get the point across.











At the Sera Monastery, Michelle tries out her teaching skills:


Finally we had some really nice...


and shopped for some...


We're leaving in the morning to take the Friendship Highway down to Kathmandu. We've hired a private landcruiser and will make the trip in 6 days. Along the way we'll visit some lakes, monasteries, and Everest base camp. We've hooked up with two other people for the adventure, Jay (from Toronto) and Shivae (from New Zealand, living in Vancouver, B.C.)

China - Lhasa

We survived the train trip and actually it was quite pleasant. It was only 45-hours too and not 48. We were ultra luckily and had the entire 6-person sleeping compartment to ourselves, so it was quite comfortable and relaxing. The train traveled through some of the most raw and beautiful terrain I've seen. The first day was largely just going through rural industrial China - endless cement and brick plants, hydro-electric projects, railroad and road construction, and massive strip mining. The next day, however, the train rose up onto the Tibetan Plateau and the scenery was excellent. The train traversed the flat plateau above 16,000 feet (reaching a high-point of just over 17,000 feet) for 8 or more hours before its slow descent into Lhasa (just below 12,000 feet). Below are some of the images looking out the window from the trip. Enjoy!

Sunrise at 5,000 meters on the Tibetan Plateau:


Us:


Egg Mountain:




Frozen rivers:






Big lakes:


Monyu and lu:






We finally reached the beautiful city of Lhasa:


We awoke to raging wet snow storm so we've been hiding out in The Summit Cafe. The sun is threatening to emerge, so perhaps we will go do some exploring.

China - Chengdu III

We've had a fun few days in Chengdu relaxing, eating a ton, and seeing a few sights. Michelle and I just found out today that our Tibetan travel permits came through today (which is a whole lot of bullshit that I won't get into here). Anyways, we're taking a 48-hour train trip from Chengdu to Lhasa leaving tomorrow night. Sounds like fun! Jay is taking off tomorrow to fly back home.

So to summarize:

Mao says hello:


and Jay says goodbye:

China - Chengdu II

We decided against going to Rilong - the 20-hour bus ride didn't sound too appealing. Instead our driver Mario "I've never seen a Dong Feng I couldn't pass, or Cheese Dick I couldn't run off the road" Wangdretti set a new overland speed record from Kang Ding to Chengdu in the incredible time of 05:02:37 by the official third party verification timer. We are now at the quintessential hostel matrix, Sim's Guest House, complete with fish ponds and bunny rabbits. Jay has already polished off a large hamburger, French fries, mushroom-alfredo pasta, triple fudge chocolate chip brownie, a bottle of Campo Largo Cabernet Saugvignon, and 2 Guiness beers for starters.

Meanwhile at the local Soilent Green store we ran across the The Stinking Rotting Geriatric Baby of Death

Jay immediately filed for adoption.


Cheers Y'all!