Across the Tibetan plain

We leave Lhasa in three white Toyota 4-Runners, all-wheel drive vehicles that you might see the average yuppie family driving around on city streets. They can handle a bit more than city streets, by the way. Our group has now been joined by Zef, management in the travel company, fairly soft-spoken and perpetually concerned about altitude sickness. Our local guide, Anu, a shifty, cigarette-smoking Tibetan who dyes his hair jet black and adds an "s" to the end of most of his English words, will be continuing with us. And we have three crazy drivers, ours is named Pupu. The highway out of Lhasa is well-maintained smooth asphalt, and we comfortably head out through farmland, between hills and beneath overcast skies. We are heading east, not west, for our first stop is Yumbulagong, the oldest stone building in Tibet. It is a stunningly situated monastery at the top of a ridge. I hike up, some ride donkeys.

In the afternoon, Nigel and I explore the old town area of Tsetang, white stone buildings with elaborately colored doorways. Dozens of cows roam the dirt side streets. We come across a beautiful monastery, unrestricted by the usual entry fees, and go inside, passing several monks playing basketball in the courtyard.

The next day we are heading west again. The scenery is remarkable. Snow-capped mountains, blue lakes and high mountain passes. The most spectacular view comes at the top of Gampa La pass overlooking Yamdrok Yutso, also known as Scorpian Lake because of it's shape. We are so high up, everything seems to be below us, the aquamarine lake, the white mountains, the clouds. Only the sun continues to shine from above, keeping us warm.

We spend the night in Gyantse, and it is here that I spend my first night without heat. The high season is over, winter is approaching and the hotels, empty of guests, don't use heat. There is no heater in my room. The floor is too cold to put even sock-covered feet on. I spend the night in my mummy sleeping bag, under layers of wool blankets with only my nose and mouth exposed. In the morning, Nigel has us sing songs with the world "sun" in them. But it is another cloudless day and we are quickly warmed as we head to Pelkor Chode monastery. The monastery is dominated visually by the Kumbum stupa, containing over 70 chapels, each with a different image of Buddha incarnations. The stupa is tiered, like a wedding cake. In the afternoon, we head to Shigatse.

It is a short drive to Shigatse. The roads are still decent, the weather is perfect. The yaks are frisky. As the sun is setting, Lynette and I walk the Kora, the line of prayer wheels surrounding Tashilunpo monastery. We are now at 3900 meters, 12,800 feet, and the air keeps getting thinner. The next morning it is another monastery tour. We know we signed up for a trip called "Mountains and Monasteries," but now we're all feeling a bit oversaturated. I'm unable to retain any of Anu's "pachen lamas, dalai lamas, most important stupas, 7th king, 32nd king, 7th centuries, 8 centuries" blah blah etc., in any cohesive mental order. When's lunch?

Another dawn and another drive, this time to Sakya. The towns are getting smaller and the roads are getting worse. We go to visit the monastery, but it is closed. I think we all breath a sigh of relief. Instead we take a walk through the small town, up onto a ridge overlooking the valley. Later, we come back and play cards until the sun dips and the temperature drops instantly from 55 to 30. We find a restaurant called Sakya Farmers Taste with a room arranged around a stove. It's warm, a great place to play cards, and why go someplace else for dinner - noodle soup and momos. The hotel, of course, has no heat. I've purchased a completely unsafe space heater for $10 which I sneak in to my room. The room lights dim when I turn it on as 5 sides of the cube light up orange. It doesn't make a dent in the bitter cold. Tomorrow, we head for Everest.

Onto the Roof of the World: Lhasa

The flight into Lhasa crosses massive mountain peaks and dark, barren terrain. The airport lies on a dust-shrouded plain between brown mountains and our plane must fly between a couple of peaks before lining up for landing.


This is Tibet.




Lhasa is far cleaner than any Chinese city we have visited. It lies in a valley surround by mountains. Military presense is excessive. There are guards on every corner, 4 at each intersection, and roving patrols of 12 down every street. They carry automatic rifles, riot shields and billy clubs. The locals do not notice. They crowd the streets with carts and tables, selling everything imaginable: clothing, fresh fruit, cuts of meat, deep fried food, cd's, pvc piping. Behind the carts and tables are more permanent shops selling everything from replica North Face jackets to yak skulls. For some reason the three-story unbroken building fronts with brightly decorated upper-floors and paneled windows that line all the streets reminds me of a Carribean town of the 18th Century.

For our first day in Lhasa, we visit Drepung monastery, once the home to 10,000 monks. It is white, red and gold on the outside, filled with chapels and buddha statues inside. It is beautiful. At night we eat dinner at a restaurant overlooking a street in the Barkour area, narrow streets filled with shops, carts and pilgrims circling the Jokheng temple clockwise. The restaurant plays funky Tibetan music followed by Bob Marley, who seems to be very popular with the locals. During the day it is warm in the sun, almost 60. At night it drops into the 30s. I am lucky enough to have a working heater in the room.

The next day we visit the Potala Palace, the epitomal landmark of Lhasa, if not Tibet. It is stunningly situated on a large upthrust of rock in the center of Lhasa. The lower portion is white with a series of external staircases. At the top lie the red and the white portions - the white housing the political areas of the palace and the red the religious.

Another day, and we visit the Jokheng. At night we go to what I would describe as dinner theater. We are treated to a buffet and a collection of local music and dances. The dances are probably not genuine, but the highlight closing the show is a musical piece and demonstration on how to tame a yak. The yak gets the better of the tamer and runs wild into the audience. The following day it rains and snows. We have a lesson in how to speak Tibetan. For lunch we have a momo-making class - momos are dumplings.

For my free and final day in Lhasa, I take a hike up in the hills behind the Sera Monastery. The day is warm and after awhile the sun comes out. I walk with pilgrims clockwise around the monastery passing insense ovens and prayer flag shrines. I keep looking for a way up into the hills to Sera Utse, but no one seems to know how to get up to the nunnery lying 300 meters above. I settle for a path that wanders the hills about 150 meters up. Lunch is a mandarin, bread and a roasted chicken leg that I bought in the street.