Tibet, China 中國西藏 (20 Jun - 4 Jul 2004)

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Supergirls

With the supply truck having problems, our guide decided that it was no longer a good idea to camp as planning originally.

So the next day, we were instructed to walk as far as we like, and our guide would get the 4WD jeeps to pick us up on the road as soon as the jeeps catch up with us. Those of us (such as me) who did not want to walk can just wait for the jeeps on the road side. Afterward the jeeps will go straight to the small outpost about 8 km north of the Mt Everest Base Camp.

Amazingly most of the girls declined the ride and walked as far as they can.

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Evening at Mt Everest

After few hours walking and few more hours in a jeep, we arrived at the outpost near Rongphuk Monastery, and checked into the newest guest house there.

From what I can see, they planned the guest house ambitiously, perhaps hoping one day it will be a 2 or 3 star hotel. The room has a control panel that resemble most 3 star hotels in China, with knobs to control the various lights, TV, radio, telephone, etc...

However at the time when we checked in, the room has none of these, except one lamp in the middle of the ceiling. In fact the whole 4-story guest house has only one toilet (2 slots for men, 1 for women) and no shower facilities. My guess is that there is no sewage nor water supply in the area.

The staff in the guest house also lacking concept for privacy. At one point, a staff opened our room door, without knocking first. When the door was opened, one man wanted to come in. Naturally I blocked his way, and asked why. Turned out he is a tour guide for another group, and he would like to see how good is the room so he may bring guest in in the future. We told him and the hotel staff to get lost. They probably just open other people's room after we shut them out.

Not that we can complained much (except for the gigantic fly found in our food once.) We knew that we were in the middle of nowhere, geographically and mindset-wise.

What compensated for the lack of material comfort was the beautiful view of The Mountain. It was majestic in the evening light.

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Paying Homage

We hopped onto the horse carriage at 7am and hoping to catch the morning lights at the Mt Everest. Too bad the sky wasn't good that morning.

The 8 km ride to the base camp was interesting trip though.

On the way back, we stopped at what appears to be a ruin on a small hill. After climb up the hill, our horse man went into a small house asking me to come with him. Then two doors later, we went into a dark room lighted by about 10 butter lamps. He then disappeared into a small hole on the floor (2nd picture here).

The hole is about 2 feet square, pitch dark inside.

I hesitated for 10 min before gathering enough courage (and the company of two other guys who just came up the hill) to climb down the hole.

Inside the hole was a small chamber. There were few butter lamps with very weak lights (which didn't do much to lit up the place). The small chamber is decorated like a shrine. There were some language problem so I did not really figure out what it was, except that it was a meditation chamber formerly used by certain holy person or god long time ago, those enlightened would see a foot-print on the wall, and the chamber is a very holy place for the Tibetans.

Our horse man came out of the hole a happy man, and I came out bemused by the experience.

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Village Kids

Pictures of kids in one of the village we passed at the end of the trekking. The baby on the girl's back is only 6 months old, we were told.

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Old Man

On the way back to Shigatse, we stopped at a village school to distribute clothes to the kids. We brought with us about 200 T-shirts as donations.

About 10 minutes after we stop at the school, the news spread and seemingly the whole village came to the school.

The old man looked on coolly as we distributed the clothes.

Without the sign on the entrance, I may not guessed that this is a school. The school yard was used to dry mud bricks. And I am not sure all the rooms were used as classrooms.

(The Schoolyard photo by Bonnie.)

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Vegetable Fields

At the outskirt of Shigatse.

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Quartz Seller

In Karo La Pass where we can see a hanging glacier. Through our guide, I found out that she is 50 years old. We purchased some quartz from her all for few Yuan.

The stones are not polished, thus still have all the characteristic pattern of quartz. Good deal.

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Tashilhunpo Monastery

Due to the change from the original trekking plan, we visited Tashilhunpo few days later than planned. And lucky us, the day that we visited is also the beginning of an annual festival (that will last three days.)

There were lots of people gathering outside Tashilhunpo. Lots of vendors from selling clothes to operating dice gambling stalls.

The monk pictured here has been engaging in conversation with our group before we enter the monastery. And he followed us for a long way. He tried too hard to force a going conversation, you can smell that he is up to something.

At the end of the visit, I heard from people from our group that he separately asked members of our group for money, after telling his own hard luck story.

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Look!

Something is happening up in the hill where there is a castle like building. The lamas on the hill were playing traditional Tibetan sacred music with drums and horns.

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Monks Cleaning Before Ceremony