7 days to Tibet

We've just made it to Lhasa, Tibet (China) after our 7 day overland trip from Zhongdian (Southwestern China, Yunnan province). There are few words that I can think of to describe how amazing this trip was. It was definetly a trip of a lifetime. We went over 5000+ m passes, visited 600 yr old monestaries, marvelled at 7700m mountains and clear blue/green rivers. Of course we also spent time meeting the people of Tibet, we drank Yak Butter Tea with Buddhist Nuns, showed our pictures of Tibetan farmers to their delighted family, even helped carry mud onto the roof of a house being built in a small village. Everything was amazing!! After all that, we made it into Lhasa and got our first view of Potala Palace (the Palace shown in the movie "7 years in Tibet" with Brad Pitt). Who knew you could do all that in one week.



The trip from Yunnan to Tibet is actually closed to independent travellers by the Chinese government. Because of this one needs to arrange travel by booking through an agency and undergoing a rigorous permitting process as well as finding at least four people to rent the vehicle and pay the driver and guide for the trip. This is daunting especially when permitting situations seem to change by day, by city, and by person. Finally, the price is a bit more than an arm and a leg. This is obviously in place to discourage all but the most determined people from going overland to Lhasa, needless to say we were determined. In the end we met six other people as determined as us.

In fact all the hoops one has to jump through ensures that the area is virtually untouched by tourism. This meant that we would be visiting places and meeting people that rarely see foreigners. We didn't know what to expect when we left Yunnan, but we all knew it would be amazing. We did have our ups and downs though, in fact, in the first half hour of the drive we were stopped in a traffic jam for 1.5 hours. The cause of the jam was an accident where, tragically, a 5 yr old boy from a local village was killed while trying to cross the road by a large truck...we all took a while getting over it. The incident did prompt discussions about the lack of road safety in China as well as several questions to our guides regarding Tibetan beliefs around death. On that note how about an interesting cultural lesson.

After someone dies Tibetan people have 4 types of burials, the most common and most shocking to westerners is the "Sky Burial". This is reserved for people that die from natural causes. The body is brought to a small temple on a hilltop/mountaintop. It is then prepared by a special monk by chopping the flesh into small pieces and crushing the bones into paste, vultures then come (sometimes called by the monks using a Conch horn) and devour the remains. This is in line with the Buddhist belief that everybody is reincarnated for a future life. The body is just a vassal for the soul. Human remains are given to the animals, in this case vultures, who carry the remains into the sky; a very idealistic and happy thought for most Tibetans. In fact Tibetans are largely encouraged to witness the sky burial although foreigners are not. On one morning of our trip we were at a monestary below a sky burial site that was conducting one of these rituals, we watched as a monk blew on a Conch horn and several vultures appeared flying towards the site, a very sober moment.


Sky Burial Site

The other types of burials are the "Tomb Stuppa Burial" reserved for high Monks and Lamas, the "Fire Burial" reserved for people that die of disease, poison, or unknown causes and finally the "Water Burial" reserved for those that die of accidental or premature death such as the tragic death of the 5 yr old we encountered.

On a more lighter note, we travelled with a great group of people. Everybody was really easy going and we had loads of fun switching between the two cars, playing jokes on each other, experiencing the cuisine and using each other as a backup to try things that we probably wouldn't have tried on our own. We had found so many people in Dali to go on the trip with that we had two trucks and two guides along with us. Our two guides and drivers were really amazing and gave us the tour that we all wanted and hoped for. They also talked honestly about China-Tibet issues, taught us as much as they could about Tibetan Buddhism, and allowed us to take as much or as little time we wanted along the way, we definetly owe the success of this trip to them. Actually I'm having a hard time trying to sum up this trip as there are so many great stories and highlights from each day. I guess I'll try and let the pictures tell some of the story.


Our Overland Group in Lhasa after 7 days on the road.
Top Row: Shifu (driver), Dazom (guide), Laba (driver), Warren, Eric, Lisa
Bottom Row: ME!!!, Dolkak (guide), Jody, KENDRA!!!, Petra, Karl


Kendra and I at 5030m, a little windy :)


Yakaty Yak! Who you looking at?


Speaks for itself.


One of the several Tibetan Monestary's along the way.


Drinking Yak Butter Tea offered to us from some Buddhist Nuns


Kendra doing her part in Village chores.


Thats me on top of one of our highest passes. Warren and I hiked up 200m to this spot at approx 5200m, needless to say it was worth it.


A couple village boys with big smiles and snotty noses.


Prayer flags over one of the passes.

After all that we are now in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and the center of its Religion and Culture. Over the years since the Chinese have been here the city has lost some of its Tibetaness. However, the Palace, Old City and most of the major monastery's and temples are still intact and the Tibetans are still holding on as hard as they can to their culture and beliefs. We are trying to plan trips around Lhasa, in particular a 5-6 day trip to the Chinese Everest Base Camp...we'll see, I'm sure it will be amazing.

If only we could travel for ever.
Mike and Kendra

PS. The bathrooms are absolutely repulsive ;)

A Tiger Jumped Where?

Well we've only been in China for 12 days, but its already been remarkable. That is, aside from the constant spitting (which actually is hauking a loogie first then spitting it out), smoking allowed everywhere and the shocking public toilets - lets just say that public is definately the key word... has anyone else ever seen another adult person poo before???

We've been on a cultural kick again in China. In Kumning we spend a day on bicycles touring the sights of the city. We saw a beautiful 1000 year old temple, walked in a scenic park (Green Lake Park) and visited two pagoda's from the Tang Dynasty. The weather was not the best however, and for the first time in 2 months, I had to pull out my hoodie.

Yuantong Temple, Kumning

Next stop was Dali, not to be confused with Dali City (or Xiaguan) half an hour away. We were excited to see the old city of Dali with it's cobblestone streets and shops, but were disheartened when we discovered that we had arrived at this tourist hub for the Chinese at the start of their week long national holiday and prices for rooms had quadrupled!!! Not wanting to miss the sights, we stayed for 4 nights, but someone was a bit grumpy about the prices (not naming any names though). With mountains as a backdrop and a large lake in front, Dali was quite picturesque. We spent a day at the historic three pagodas sight - absolutely amazing, a day hiking in the mountains (we est. 22 km long!!!), and a day resting (after the 22 km hike!) .

Mike & I in front of the 3 pagodas.

View from our hike on the Cang Shan (Jade Green Mountains). In the background is Dali.

In Dali, we realized it was time to figure out our Tibet trip. After looking around, we found 3 other couples that were interested in the overland trip so after much discussion and number crunching, we booked two jeeps with drivers and guides (don't worry Moms). We should be leaving Saturday, May 13 and arriving in Lhasa 7 days later.

With our Tibet plans finalized, we continued north to Lijiang where we trekked the Tiger Leaping Gorge for the next 3 days. This was an exhilerating and breath taking (sometimes literally for me) hike. For those who don't know, Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of the deepest gorges in the world. The mighty Yangtse River rushes between 2 mountains that peak at 5800high, although we climbed to 2660m. We stayed at rustic guesthouses along the way, with beautiful views. Mike spent one whole afternoon sitting on a ledge staring out into the vast mountain range. We had no cares in the world on this special hike. We may be one of the last few people to see the gorge in all of it's prime as the Chinese gov't plans to dam the gorge in the near future.

We've just climbed a part of the Tiger Leaping Gorge called the 24 bends for two hours, to reach this site.

Waterfalls, new friends and goats... who can ask for anything more?

Another view of the Gorge.

This is where we stopped to wait for the bus to take us back to Lijang after the trek was over... okay not exactly true, but we thought the sign was funny (we still had to go down to the river, cross a ferry, and climb back up the hill top to catch our bus).

We arrived back in Lijiang today and have been pleasantly surprised by the "old city" and are looking forward to exploring it more and seeing the Black Dragon Pool Park. Then we hope to head further north to Zhongdian where we will spend a few days climitizing to the high altitude for our trip to Tibet.

Overall, China has been wonderful! The food has been surprisingly good (we had heard of travelers surviving only on M&M's and McDonalds), the people are friendly and hardworking - we've witnessed men and women plowing fields by hand and carrying remarkably heavy loads on their backs, the scenery is astonishing and the culture is mesmerizing. Mike bought a Mandarin phrase book to help with the language barrier and we are starting to communicate better. But damn, those public toilets are just too hard to get over!!!


Some people pictures that we are starting to take


All the best,
Kendra & Mike