Tibet Dispatch

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this, I have been busy with life and stuff. Without further ado.....

I must first tell you about two of the most important purchases the I made when we first arrived in Lhasa. I was very excited about them!
1.) A calculator. This little gem cost me about $1.50 but it came in extremely handy on many occasions for bargaining or finding out the total of our food bill. Seriously! I cannot stress the importance of a calculator when dealing with a language barrier.

2.) Lip balm. Being from a dry climate I am somewhat addicted to lip balm. I brought some but then lost it within the first day or two in China. Apparently they don't need or use lip balm in China so I could not find any anywhere, and I was sad. Luckily the Tibetans live in a dry climate too and they had what appeared to be lip balm. Although I was a bit scared by the information on the packaging, I was ready to enrich my lip oil and release the soft:
Our first full day in Lhasa was spent touring Jokhang Temple and Potala Palace. Jokhang Temple was the first Buddhist temple built in Tibet and it was built around 600 AD. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jokhang_Temple
It is still an active place of worship so as we entered, we passed by many Tibetans waiting in line to go inside to worship.

It is strictly forbidden to take pictures inside of the temple, but Michael and Jay both took some pictures on the sly. It is hard to tell in these photographs, but every surface and every nook and cranny within the temple was decorated. There were hundreds of different Buddha statues,intricately carved wood, amazingly detailed paintings on the walls, yak-butter candles burning everywhere. It was such a mystical, magical place. We were kind of rushed going through the inside of the temple and it was very crowded with worshipers, so it was a little difficult to take it all in. I could have spent months there and I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed every little detail. It was spectacular!
After we toured inside we were allowed to walk around the outside and on the roof of the temple. It was just a beautiful outside as it was inside.
Seriously... Look at the detail in the wood carving on this roof and doorway:
From the roof of the temple you could see Potala Palace in all of it's grandeur: As well as Barkhor Square which is the main area for shopping for the most amazing souvenirs. This is where we bought most of our keepsakes and gifts from the trip.
We then headed over to Potala Palace which is where the Dalai Lama lived before he was forced to leave and live in exile.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potala_Palace


We had to walk up like a million steps to get to the top entrance, and with the elevation it was quite tiring. We celebrating in victory at every landing because DUDE! It was hard.

We were only allowed to see a small portion of the palace and again we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. It was just as amazing as the temple, but is was on a much more grand scale. It was enormous and again, not a single nook was left undecorated. So cool! Of course, Michael and Jay took some more illegal photos.

Here is a cool view of the city from the palace:
After the palace we just walked around the city and shopped and shopped and shopped some more.

This woman tried so hard to get Jay to buy something he really didn't want to begin with. She held onto his arm and wouldn't let him go:
While the rest of us were exhausted and retired to the hotel for the evening, Jay walked around and got some great shots of the Tibetan people.

Look... Monks:
And military guys:
And children playing:
And the beautiful Tibetan women with their traditional garb:
Next up... We head out to the Tibetan countryside to spend the day with our guide and his family and to see the farming village where he grew up.

China Dispatch - A brief introduction to Lhasa, Tibet

Oh Tibet how I love thee... Let me count the ways...

1. The Landscape.

The flight in was very cool. We are pretty sure we weren't far enough north to fly over Mt. Everest, but look at what we did see.

Glaciers:

And beautiful mountains: This one was covered in prayer flags:

They also had one of the coolest things I have ever seen on a plane. They had a camera mounted on the front of the plane and showed a live feed on the t.v. We were able see essentially what the pilot saw and watched him land the plane.

2.) The hospitality.

The hospitality is ingrained in the culture in Tibet and it reminded me a lot of the wonderful hospitality we encountered in Turkey. This is a very wonderful thing! We had to have a guided prearranged tour to even get a permit to get into Tibet. We were met at the airport by our guide for the next three days, Lhak.

Oh look... He has my name on a sign!

Lhak greeted us with traditional scarves:

3. The climate.

Lhasa is at 11975 ft. above sea level, Denver is at 5280 ft. so that gives you an idea of how high up we were. It was gorgeous the minute we stepped off the plane with bright blue skies and the sun shining bright. In most of the places that we had been in China, the air was so polluted that you rarely saw the sun peak out through the haze. Please take note that in most of our pictures in Tibet we are wearing jeans and there is not a drop of sweat to be seen. Oh the love of dryness.

Look we're driving in a car with the windows open:

No air conditioning needed. AWESOME!!!

4. The architecture.

The Tibetan people really like bright colors and intricate designs to decorate both the outside and the inside of their buildings.

A typical building:

Our hotel lobby: The decoration on the ceiling of our hotel room:

5. The people.

The Tibetan people were the nicest people I think any of us have ever met. People walking down the street would smile, wave, say hello to you as you passed by. Men, women, children... everyone was always ready to greet you with a smile.

6. The food.

We ate some amazing food while in Lhasa and we ate a lot of yak meat. The food has a lot of Indian influence. Our 1st day we were instructed to lay low in order to get acclimated to the climate so we didn't venture too far away from our hotel. Just a couple of blocks away there was a night market where we ate dinner.

I have no idea what it was other than meat and potatoes, but it was tasty.

Tibet was by far my favorite place that we visited during this trip and one of my favorites of all the places that I have been. I'm sure you will see why in my next few entries.Finally here is a really cool night shot of the street outside our hotel:Next up... Jokhang Temple and Potala Palace where the Dalai Lama used to live.