Beijing to Kathmandu Odyssey

Hello again!!

Since I last wrote I was at the border town between China and Nepal and approaching the conclusion of a very long and satisfying trip!

Well, we crossed the border on 24/05/07 which took around 4 hours as we had to wait in a line with around 200 other crossing hopefuls. We eventually crossed, got our visas etc and immediately noticed the difference between China and Nepal. The people are very different in looks, dress and character and it was a refreshing change to be able to drive on the "right" (correct) side of the road again!! We had around a 4 hour drive to our stop for the next two days, the High View Resort in Dhulikel.

Dhulikel is a lovely little town set in the foot hills and has rice paddies, farms and amazing scenery galore. Our resort was extremely comfortable and I finally had my own room which turned out to be more of a suite with a sitting room, large bathroom and my own personal balcony overlooking the beautiful gardens and surrounding valley.

The ambiance was perfect except that we were getting our first taste of Nepali weather - hot and only going to get hotter!!

The next day we went on a 6 hour walk through the surrounding area which included walking through farms, rice paddies, small towns and villages and seeing local Hindu shrines as well taking the local bus from place to place. It was wonderful except for the fact that I was forced to adopt a burka like outfit in order to protect myself from the extremely hot sun!!

The next day we set off early for Kathmandu in order to fit in as much shopping time as possible - don't worry we apologised to the boys!! The drive was around an hour and we arrived in Kathmandu around 9am where we heading straight to Themal. Themal is one of the main tourist areas and houses majority of the shops. Once there I proceeded to shop my little heart out!! I hit most stores and tried to bargain hard but I have a feeling the shop keepers have done this before because they were very cunning!! They may have ripped me off but hey, I had fun in the process!!

That afternoon we regrouped and took a cab to the Tibetan area to visit the main Stupa there which is visited by hundreds of pilgrims everyday. It was perhaps the biggest Stupa I've ever seen but just watching the people was fascinating enough!!

Word of warning, if you are ever to visit Kathmandu check with your doctor for any heart conditions first!! The traffic there is terrible!! Just imagine every person, bike, motorbike, rickshaw, car, truck and cow all struggling to get a position on the road and doing it damn quickly because there is no time to waste!! Pretty scary but fun at the same time if you're in it!!

That night we had our final dinner as a group. It's hard to believe that it has been a month since the tour started!! I'm grateful that everyone in the group was nice and I got along with everyone and even became quite good friends with some! It was definitely worth my while going a group tour instead of solo as I got to enjoy everything with others. Definitely made the trip!!

The next morning after our farewell I left early for my 3 day trip to the Royal Chitwan National Park which is 5 hours south of Kathmandu near the Indian border. I had organised to take a rafting trip as a means of getting there and arrived at Charaudi (the starting point) at around 11am.

I'm very glad I did the rafting! The heat is so intense in Nepal (especially southern areas) that any chance you get to be near water the better!! It was so much fun to be able to raft down an ever changing river. One minute the water is clear and calm and you're able to swim next to the boat and the next you're in rapid water trying desperately to hold on!! Oh, I can claim that I didn't once fall out of the boat during the rapids - only in!! The rafting was amazing albeit quite hard work and the scenery perfect!!

When I arrived in Chitwan and checked into the Jungle Safari Lodge (located in a small town on the edge of the park) I was taken directly down to the riverside to witness the sunset. The location was perfect and very relaxing. There is a bar right on the waterside and Elephants are taking their bath in the water all while the sun turns the sky a brilliant red!! Wow, it was certainly an apt introduction to the next few days.

After dinner I was taken down to the local hall where there was a cultural show of the local Tharu dances. The hall was hot and sticky and the show a bit average but the final dance the audience was asked to get up and dance with them. How can you say no where you're being literally dragged onto the stage????

The next morning we left early (6.30am) for our canoe ride along the Rapti river where I saw a crocodile and heaps of birds. After around 45 minutes we got out of the boat and walked through the jungle back to the lodge seeing a one horned rhino on the way but not much else. The jungle was great as it was made up of traditional jungle with a canopy as well as open grass lands and allowed me to see a great variety of plants and insects and sadly only 1 rhino!!

Later that morning I was taken down to the river for my elephant bathing session. Basically what you do is get on top of the elephant while it is being washed!! You get sprayed and thrown into the water and generally have a bit of fun with the elephant. It was the best part of Chitwan by far!!

In the afternoon we were taken on a Elephant safari. This comprised of 4 people being jammed onto the top of a wooden frame on top of an elephant. It's not exactly roomy or comfortable but we did see two more rhinos and other parts of the jungle.

That basically brings you up to the present. I returned back to Kathmandu for the night the next day and flew into Bangkok yesterday (30/05/07). I have done nothing but shop, shop and shop for the last two days!!

I'm glad to be going home but I also want to keep travelling!! Oh well, time to start planning the next trip!!

I'll leave you with some classic comments made during the trip. See you later...

What's Prince William's surname, is it Wales?
Crazy fools! Get a jeep!! (of anyone cycling in Tibet)
What's that over there? A Marmite?
Can you get sunburnt through glass?

Hello again!! I'm now in Zhangmu which is the border town next to Nepal and it has certainly been an interesting few days!!

Starting off, the last night in Shigatse I was unfortunately extremely ill and was up all night throwing up. This lead to me being completely useless for the next couple of days and being watched like a hawk by our tour leader. The morning we were to drive to Sakya, I saw our tour leader and promptly burst into tears partly from being sick, partly from having no sleep and partly from just needing a good old blub!! She set to work straight away by making me drink 3 litres of dehydration salts (yuk!!).

When we got to Sakya (4280m) 4 hours later (with our driver also watching me like a hawk) I was banished to bed with no option of seeing anything until the next day. This was both a blessing and a hindrence in so many ways!! Firstly, I was exhausted and needed the sleep and recovery time, secondly I think I'm getting a bit over monasteries!! The hindrence was that our room was directly opposite a public DVD showing hall which played its selections at full volume at all times of the day making it extemely hard to sleep!! Also, the group went on a lovely walk to the nunnery after seeing the monastery and went to vist a local farmer whom our leader had promised a pair of boots last time she visited. Apparently he was extatic and invited the group in for yak butter tea amongst other things once he had finished piercing his yak's ears. Sounded very funny!!

The next day with me still feeling a little frail but 100% better than the previous day we embarked on a 9 hour journey to Rongphu Monastery which overlooks Mt Everest. The drive was absolutely spectacular!! We went over two 5250m passes which surpass description. We were all lost for words overlooking these HUGE mountains and the passes completely covered with prayer flags. Wow!! I should also mention that the "Friendship Hwy" that we are travelling on is no highway. The roads are all dirt and rough and it's no fun with a dodgy tummy!!

We arrived at Rongphu Monastery (5000m) at around 5.30pm to be greeted by a huge dust storm and Everest covered by cloud!! We decided to brave the outdoors and go for a walk around the monastery and inside. I managed to make it around the monastery before succumbing to some mild altitude sickness. I went to bed and once again was covered with sympathy and advice from not only our tour leader but by the entire group. I made it to dinner where I was once again made to drink 2 lites of water before being sent to bed.

The next morning we sent off for Everest Base Camp (5200m). About half the group had decided to get up at 4am and walk the 8km (2 hours) to Base Camp for Sunrise. The rest were to leave around 8am to do the same and 4 of us (the old, frail and plain lazy) left at 9am to be taken by 4WD and then horse and carts! I was feeling a lot better but I didn't want to risk getting worse by pushing myself harder than was necessary.

The horse and cart left from "Tent City" which was about 4km from Base Camp and is where all the shops, restaurants and basic accomodation is located. Because all of China is on the same time zone as Beijing (+8 GMT) the sun rises and sets a lot later than the rest of China. This meant that we were still in shadow when we set out on our ride. We were offered a blanket but declined when we were told we would have to pay. Stupid, stupid us!! I of course left my gloves back at the cars and was absolutely, mind boggingly FREEZING!!! We decided that the only course of action was to sing our way to base camp. We went through lots of the Sound of Music, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, with the best being "All I want is a room somewhere" from My Fair Lady! Of course we changed the words to: "All I want is a room somewhere, far away from the Everest air!" It was very funny at the time but I'm sure our driver didn't think so! Perhaps we were both suffering from some form of altitude delerium???

Well we finally made it to base camp where we were greeted by lovely sunshine and the mother itself, Everest. It was exhilarating to finally be there and was almost surreal. We climbed up to the top of a smallish hill and sat there watching Everest and the sun climbing up it. Surrounding us were numerous tents and camps for different expeditions currently or planning climbs. The climbing season is apparently only 3 weeks long if you are to attempt the summit and it finished on 12 May so some were still waiting for their climbers to come back.

It was strange, Everest seemed so small when finally there. I guess that's because we were already at 5200m and were on the plateau. I'm sure it would seem a lot bigger from the Nepali side as you view it from a vastly lower altitude!

I can now say that I have been to Everest!! Very exciting even though I wasn't at my best and was freezing to boot! Yay for me anyway!!

After lunch we embarked on 4 hour drive to Tingri over the worst roads so far! The problem is not necessarily the roads but the fact that we can't open the windows so as not to let the dust in and there is no airconditioning! He boil during these drives! The scenery does make up for it though.

When we arrived at Tingri so found that we were greeted by yet another dust storm and lovely rooms that weren't finished and again had no running water (a trend in this trip!). The stay there was fairly uneventful and simply served as a break in the driving.

Today we left fairly late at 11am for our supposedly 6 hour drive to Zhangmu. We finally arrived at 7pm after seeing some of the best scenery so far on the trip. We went on mostly dirt roads again but slowly up to the last pass of the trip at 5200m). This was the best pass of the lot as we could see all of the surrounding mountains and not just a couple. You certainly know you're alive when you're at that altitude and witnessing that kind of beauty.

After the pass we slowly desended and had lunch at a small town of Nyalum (3500m). We then only had 1 hour to our final destination of Zhangmu. This comprised of traversing switchback roads down off the plateau into sub-tropical rainforest. What a difference!! Before today I hadn't seen a tree in a week!! It's vastly different landscape and we were all busy snapping away.

A spanner was put into the works about half way down when we were stopped by the roadworks which seem to be a constant everywhere in China. They were doing blasting and we had to wait 2 hours whilst they blasted and cleared away the rubble. It's a long time to wait when you need to do to the toilet and you're on a cliff face!!

Well, that brings you up to date. I'm going to go now and have a shower which I have been waiting 3 days to have!!

There is no internet until Kathmandu, but in the meantime I will be crossing into Nepal tomorrow morning and then staying 2 nights at a resort (which hopefully will be nice and I will finally have my own room!!) before making my way to Kathmandu on Saturday morning for some shopping!!

Have fun until then and take care!!

Nat.

Hi again from Tibet!! This may have to be quick as the whole city is out of power and the internet cafe is running on a generator and keeps cutting out!! Very frustrating!!

Well the last few days have been extremely hectic and tiring as we have been travelling by 4WD basically for 2 days straight.

We left Lhasa early on Wednesday morning in a convoy of 4 4WD's heading out to Samye Monastery which was around a 5 hour drive. At that stage we were joined by a Tibetan guide who is completely useless!! He barely speaks English and is always wanting to take the group to places and restaurants where he gets a commission. It has become a game to try and lose him! Oh well, we have had fantastic local guides up until this point so we can't be too picky!

On the way to Samye Monastery we unfortunately had to swerve to avoid hitting a herd of cattle. Our driver did everything he could but we hit a calf. The farmer was very strange. He didn't seem to care that the calf was hurt and dying rather he wanted full payment for the loss of an animal! After a long argument with the drivers and guides they finally paid for the calf and arranged delivery for it at their home! Very strange. What was also strange was that they refused to put the poor calf out of it's misery.

We arrived at the monastery at around 3pm and checked into our accomodation at the monastery itself. It was very basic with 4 people to a room and no running water and lovely smelling concrete holes in the ground for toilets. Fabulous!!

We were given time to freshen up before going around the monastery. Samye is Tibet's first monastery built around 775. It was destroyed partially during the cultural revolution but has been restored to its former glory in the last few years. In this monastery we were actually allowed to take photos inside (for a small fee) unlike all the others we have visited. It was great to finally be able to take pictures of all the fabulous statues and monk activities!

The next morning - after an awful sleep - we left early to embark on our 11 hour drive to Gyantse. This was the drive we all had been both dreading and looking forward to. Dreading as it was incredibly long but the scenery along the way was beyond description!

We had to drive almost back to Lhasa (4 hours) but by-past it and made our way up to Yamdrok Tso Lake (4300m). This added around 3 hours to the trip as the road was closed but it was definitely worth the visit. Yamdrok Tso Lake is also named the turquoise lake as it has a brilliant blue colour. It is surrounded by the snow capped mountains so generally makes for a pretty good view! The only downside to the view and location was the dozens of hawkers pestering you to buy their goods. You are greeted with cries of "lookie lookie! very cheap!!" They dont really take no for an answer either and grab you and even follow you and throw their goods at you! Very distracting from the view! Oh well! That's China and Tibet for you!!

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful except for 3 things, the altitude started to get to me as we were traversing some extremely high passes, the views kept on getting better and better as we were going through mountains and canyons that could rival the Grand Canyon and we sort of got lost as we were taking a road that no one had gone down before because of the road closures!! Very funny and frustrating at the same time!

We finally made it to Gyantse (3950m) at around 6pm where I ate, showered and went straight to bed! The next morning we visited the Pelkhor Chode Monastery and old fort. The monastery was once again beautiful and from the top had great views. The rest of the group went on a 2 hour hike up to the old fort but unfortunately I was still feeling unwell and was unable to go with them. Their photos are amazing though - I wish I could have gone!

That afternoon after lunch we left for our 2 hour drive to Shigaste (3900m) which is the second largest city in Tibet. We had an orientation walk where we were shown the main sites as well as the shopping districts (very important!). We are due this afternoon to visit the Tashilunpo Monastery, the home of the Panchen Lamas. Should be great!! This morning though we went to visit the antique markets where I proceeded to spend more than I have on presents in the entire trip! Only AUD$55 though so not too bad!! I have to curtail the urge to shop until Kathmandu.... I know I can do it!!

I have been told that there is no reliable internet for basically the rest of the trip so I guess this is the last for the moment. In the next few days we visit Sakya (4820m), Everest Base Camp and Rhongphu Monastery (5000 and 5200m) and then proceed slowly to the Nepal border and on to Kathmandu.

I can't believe we have only 8 days left of the tour! I'd like to stay longer but unfortunately both time and money have got the better of me!

Until next time - take care!!

Nat.

Greetings from Lhasa!

Well it has been a mixture of relaxation as well as site seeing over the last few days. Because of the altitude, we needed to rest to acclimatise but there is so much to see in Lhasa that it's hard not to get out and see it all!

Last time I wrote we were about to go and see Jokhang Monastery. Jokhang is in the heart of the Barkhor area at the end of the square and is the holiest temple in the Tibetan Buddhist world. It was built in the 7th century by King Songsten Gampo to house the dowries brought to him by his 2 wives from Nepal and China! After seeing all the temples inside we ventured onto the roof where the second best view in Lhasa (after the Potala Palace) is located. We could see over the Barkhor Square all the way to the Potala Palace. Wonderful!

That night we all went out for dinner at a local western restaurant. Afterwards a few of us went up to the bar for some drinks which turned into a psudeo kareoke and dancing night. Very fun!!

The next day we were off to the Potala Palace which is a half hour walk from our hotel and then a climb up around 300 very steep steps! I'll tell you, at altitude doing anything is tiring let alone climbing hundreds of steps! The view from the top was definitely worth it. You can see all over the city from the top and the site was breathtaking.

The Potala Palace stands 13 storeys high and has 1000 rooms and towers over the western (modern) end of Lhasa. The Palace was built during the reign of the 5th Dalai Lama and took 50 years to complete with a workforce of over 7000 workmen and 1500 artists. It was basically the religious, political, administrative centres and home for the 5th - 14th Dalai Lamas. It contains many of the tombs of the previous Dalai Lamas including the 5th which is made of 3,700kg of gold!

The temples were very beautiful and it was incredible to walk through the Palace where so many Dalai Lama's have lived. The views weren't half bad either!

Yesterday we had a pretty full day by going to visit Braille Without Borders and the Sere Monastery.

Braille Without Borders is a school set up by a blind German lady and her sighted partner to help Tibetan children live their lives with purpose. Many Tibetan children are either born blind or become blind through the combination of high UV and dust. If they become blind the parents are scared they will hurt themselves and basically keep them locked up in a room for most of their lives. The school provides valuable Chinese, Tibetan and English language skills as well as learning to read braille and vocational skills such as massage or teaching other blind children. We were invited to speak with the children as well as look around the school and shop with produce either made by the children or with all proceeds going to the school.

Leaving Braille Without Borders we took a local bus (minivan) to Sera Monastery to see the Monks afternoon debating session. I have never seen so many monks at one time yelling at one another! Basically you have at least one monk standing asking another a question to do with religion. They ask their question and then point their hands and clap at the other monk basically challenging them to answer correctly. It's very funny to see (and very noisy!!).

After the monks debating session we walked through the monastery and temples. Very interesting!!

This morning was probably the highlight of my visit to Lhasa so far. We went to the Ganden Monastery located around 45km from Lhasa and located at 4500m above sea level (the highest I've ever been!!). The attraction of the monastery isn't so much the monastery itself but the high kora (circumnabluation) surrounding the monastery. We walked around past many prayer flags and perilous rocks on a very narrow path. The views were rivalling the ones in Langmusi!! We were in very high pilgrimage country and could see the sites of many old sky burials (Tibetan funeral custom). It was a fantastic thing to do even though we were all a little puffed from the high altitude at times. I would definitely recommend a visit to the Ganden Monastery just for the views!

Apart from all of that I have been mainly resting and eating - a perfect way to prepare for the strenuous next 2 weeks!!

We leave tomorrow for the Samye Monastery - the first Buddhist monastery established in Tibet by Landcruisers. We continue with the Landcruisers until we get to Kathmandu. I'm not sure that there will be internet access on the Friendship Hwy (road to Nepal) but I'll try to keep in touch anyway!

Goodbye until next time!!

Nat.

Well! It's been a busy few days with us travelling thousands of kilonmetres via bus and plane.

Before I go on I should explain that from Xiahe until Lhasa, the places we have been visiting are in the old Eastern Tibet which is now Central China. There are still large Tibetan communities mixed in with Han Chinese and Muslim Chinese. The language has been mixed and the monks and Tibetan people have more freedom than in Tibet proper eg. they are allowed to show pictures of the Dalai Lama. The towns were visited were all on a plateau at high altitude so we needed to take it easy when we stopped to look at the towns/cities. The weather is also extremely different up on the plateau compared to the extremely hot weather of Beijing and Xi-an with an average temperature during the day of around 10 degrees during the day and around 0 degrees at night. The hot water is a bit of a problem in Eastern Tibet as well as they only turn it on at night and it can be very tempremental!! After all, who needs hot water? Tibetans only shower every 6 months!!

Last time I wrote we were about to leave for a homestay in Thangkor (a mainly Tibetan town). The drive was around 8 hours and we were all stuffed by the time we got there! Unfortunately we were unable to visit the local school in Thangkor as planned as we were not allowed into the school until 4.30pm and we were there at 3pm. We all elected to go on straight to the homestay as we are visiting a school for blind children in Lhasa.

The homestay was around 1/2 hour out of Thangkor and with us we took a famous Tibetan musician who was to entertain us for several hours. The homestay was at around 3500m above sea level and was surrounded by magnificant mountains. It was a typical farm with dogs, horses, sheep and yaks. The house we were staying in consisted of 2 rooms with a sleeping room and general room for eating, cooking and watching TV. It seems funny to me that Chinese and Tibeten people love TV and will sacrifice extra clothes and food in order to watch it and get satalite dishes attached to their homes!!

We all sat down after visiting the outdoor "toilets" (holes) and our musician started playing his mandolin and guitar and sung some traditional Tibetan songs as well as his own modern compositions. What an experience!! Sitting in a nomad's house in the middle of the mountains listening to a famous musician. After he had sung he invited everyone to have a sing. Of course I was dobbed in and after I did my but everyone started singing either traditional songs from their countries or songs that everyone could join in with.

Whilst all of this was going on, our host was busy making our dinner which consisted of yak meat, vegies and noodles in a soup. Yum!! After dinner there was not much to do so we all bunked down for the night in the 2 rooms on bed rolls and blankets or sleeping bags. Pretty cosy with the stove on!!

The next morning we headed out early as we had an 8 hour drive through a massive construction zone to our night stop at Gou er Gou. The scenery was amazing as we were rapidly desending off the plateau and travelling through some pretty spectacular mountains and into more lush landscape. Unfortunately, the Chinese are doing a massive construction project by damning the entire river that runs through the mountains (and by the road) for around 500km. This meant that we had to pass through some pretty bad roads and watch as the Chinese distroyed beautiful countryside.

Our stop at Gou er Gou was only for the night but as our hotel was located right next to one part of the river that hadn't been tampered with we had some pretty good views to soak up before bed.

We left the next morning at 7am in order to get to Chengdu (capital of Sichwan - 500m above sea level) in time to see the Pandas. Again it was an extremely long drive through beautiful mountains and construction work and we arrived in Chengdu at around 3.30pm.

We left immediately for the Panda Research Centre which was 40 minutes drive from our hotel (we really wanted to get back in the bus of course!!). Once there it was very relaxing. We realised at once that the weather had changed dramatically and was once again hot and humid and we all started peeling off the clothes once inside the park.

Our guide started us off at the oldest pandas and explained the whole process of the panda breeding. The funniest part was when she was describing the breeding of the pandas she said that the pandas "got married" and sometimes the female pandas wanted to "stay single" and that's why it was hard to get little baby pandas. Very cute!!

We stayed at the research centre for around 2 hours and during that time we visited the giant pandas at different ages - the baby ones were very cute and if you had the money you could hold one for a mere US$150!. We also visited the red pandas and watched a video describing the breeding process and showing the actual insemination process as well as the birthing process. Those babies look like aliens when they're born!!

That night we were warned that it might be a while before we were able to get any western food and went out for pizza and beer. Yum!!

We left for the airport for Lhasa (3600m) at 4.30am the next day - way too early for everyone!! Once the flight was over we were met at the airport by a local guide and were given white scraves as a sign of respect and welcome. Very nice!! The drive from the airport to Lhasa was an hour and we past some amazing mountains on the way to the city. Once at our hotel we we made to lie down for 3 hours because of the altitude which was extremely welcome after the very early start.

We met that afternoon for an orientation walk around Barkor Square. We went through the markets as well as visited the place where all the old people who no longer work meet to pray together, spin their prayer wheels and chant. I've never seen so many people together at once praying!! Pretty awesome site.

The markets here are pretty temping but I have to restrain myself as I'll have to carry it all for the rest of the trip!! I have a few ideas of what to buy though...

A curry dinner last night was unfortunately a bad idea - even though it tasted so good! I think the altitude finally affected me and I spent most of last night tossing and turning and getting no sleep. Yuck!! So today I was not able to concentrate very much on the Tibetan langauge class that was given this morning. They gave us a sheet with all the useful phrases on it though so I have been able to communicate with the locals a little bit this afternoon.

We'll be leaving shortly for the Jokhang monastery to have a look inside and tomorrow we are visiting the Potala Palace (former residence of the Dalai Lama) as well as having a Momo (dumpling) making class. I'm looking forward to it all!! Hopefully I'll get over the altitude sickness feeling in time to appreciate the many bars, cafes and restaurants that Lhasa has to offer.

Speak again soon!!