Rooftop of the World

Nihou from China! We spent a great month here.  First we went to Tibet with a group of people.  It was a very interesting and different place.  Also, it's very high!  The road has been blasted through some of the world's highest mountains and the whole trip we were above 10,000 feet.  Some passes were above 16,000 feet which is actually higher than Annapurna Base Camp and the towns we stayed in were only slightly lower than ABC.  A lot of people felt the effects of the altitude.  Obviously, because of the altitude it is also very cold.  Our first night felt like we were trekking again--sleeping in our coats, hats, mittens, and several layers of clothes. None of the hotels had heat.  We barely ever took off our fleece jackets. During the day we were more comfortable because it was always sunny.

Our first 5 days involved a lot of driving through the mountains on the winding road.  The landscape was gorgeous with large dry, barren hills and small Tibetan villages every once in awhile in the valleys.  On one day we got to see Mount Everest.  Another day we drove around a stunning turquoise-green lake.  The towns where we ate had markets with hanging skinned goats, people rode around in small horse-drawn carriages, and the surrounding land was empty and desolate.    Even now there is almost no grass for the herds of sheep, goats, and yaks.  Also, it is already bitterly cold.  It's hard to imagine how they survive such harsh living conditions.

The Tibetans themselves look and dress just as we had pictured: women weave colorful thread into their long braids and wear a striped apron over many layers of clothes.  Their faces are rough and dark from the sunand cold. There is a lot of poverty so we also saw a lot of begging.  Uneaten food in the restaurants gets carried outside to feed others.  Tibetans use a lot of yak (a large buffalo-like animal) products in their cooking.  Yak butter tea is a local specialty: tea with a big glob of yak butter plopped on top.

Besides driving and enjoying the scenery we did some sight-seeing which mostly involved visiting Buddhist monasteries.  Our visits focused mostly on seeing the chapels and temples of which each monastery has at least a few. The larger ones have dozens.  The chapels are all decorated with large paintings on the walls, hanging silk ties, and at least one central statue, often the Buddha, that is large and covered in gold and jewels.  We saw A LOT of Buddhas.  Some rooms have up to a thousand sculptures (usually gold-plated) of a particular boddhisatva or god.  There is a constant stream of local people who come to make offerings in the form of prayer, yak butter (for the candles), food, and money. 

We spent our last 3 days in Lhasa.  Much of the town is quite modern and it is obvious that it's build up recently.  However, the old town was much more charming and we spent most of our time in this area.  Our hotel was in the old town and at night food stalls would set up right outside our door.  We enjoyed two delicious and cheap dinners here.  All the food is placed on the table on kebab sticks.  You choose whichever kebabs you want for 1 yuan each (about 15 cents). Then the lady pops them into a boiling wok of oil and they get quickly fried.  Afterwards she dumps on a bunch of spices and sauces.  We ate them right at the stall on small plastic stools in the cold and it was some of the best food we've had.

Besides eating at the stalls, the other major highlight was visiting Potala Palace, the home of the 5th-14th Dalai Lama (the leader of the Buddhists in Tibet).  It sits up on a hill and it's absolutely massive and solid looking.
It's a beautiful building.  We visited the central red section which is where all the chapels and holy areas are.  It was definitely awe-inspiring and beautiful and people are still allowed to pray here.

Overall we loved having a chance to see the scenery, remoteness, spirituality, and people of Tibet. At the end of our time we flew from Lhasa to Lijiang in Yunnan province in southwest China,