Tibet Post #2: Norbulingka and Sunsets

Our second day in Lhasa was my least favorite. That's because I was struggling a bit from the altitude, I think, my adrenaline high at having survived two days on a train and one in Lhasa was wearing off, and my stomach hurt, and I just felt pretty shitty overall. (Hey, I never said it was a vacation!) Top that off with a morning spent walking around Norbulingka, which isn't the world's most exciting scenic area, although there is a lot of history in there, like the first radio in Tibet, and the first western toilets and chairs. Man, that Dalai Lama knows how to party!! And, um, arrange flowers.

Full set here.

After that we went to the Tibet Museum, which was pretty dang neat but, had I been more awake, might have been elevated to the status of fascinating. 

After the museum, we at lunch, where I ate yak eyeball.  (Yes, really). Then we walked around the Sera Monastery for a little while. That was fun and very nice, but again, I was dragging ass by that point (having eaten too much for lunch and fallen into a small food coma. Maybe yak eyeballs are used as sleep aids in Tibet.). I have a lot of pics from Sera, but I haven't uploaded them yet; you'll have to wait for later :-)

Now rewind one day to the first day we got to Lhasa. After we'd finished sightseeing for the day, I brought my tripod out to Potala Square (across the street from the palace) at the center of town. I was struck by the layout of the square because it is exactly the same as Tiananmen Square, except with the Potala Palace at the north end instead of the Forbidden City, crossing Beijing Lu instead of Chang'an Dong Dajie, with some other monument at the south end instead of the Monument to the People's heroes. Interesting. Anyway, Dan and I stayed there for quite awhile, and I took some amazing sunset pics:

You can see that the sun was setting behind a hill with a communications tower on it ... Dan and I made endless fun of this fact, as if the silhouette of a communications tower has some mystical beauty in it ... when really it's probably a crass symbol of modernity. But its proximity did enable me to call Tim and Laurel, our friends in town for a grueling bike ride from Lhasa to Kathmandu, and set up dinner. Hm, paradoxes.

Tibet Post #1: Yamdrok-Tso Lake

The pics will come in installments as I find the time to sort, tag, title, describe, and upload them. Here's a couple from the first batch, taken at Yamdrok-Tso lake, a couple hours' drive out of Lhasa on Gangbala Mountain. 

This was our first scenic stop out of Lhasa and it was breathtaking, both figureatively and literally. To get to the lake, you climb from 3700m (Lhasa's altitude) to 4700m (15,419 feet). This means driving up the side of Gangbala Mountain, which takes about half an hour to 45 minutes and involves tons of curvy roads and hairpin turns that throw you from one side of the car to the other. As the altimeter in our Land Cruiser climbed higher, I began getting a headache from the thinning of the air. Also, my abs began to hurt as I inadvertently kept clenching them to avoid falling too far to either side (and smushing Kitty and Charles into their door).

We kept seeing the snowline getting closer and closer, and the anticipation was building because we knew that we'd be seeing something amazing. And we were right. As you clear the summit of the mountain, the view of the top is replaced by the lake:

In what quickly became a recurring theme for the trip, the weather was freezing cold and the altitude was giving me a headache, but the view was so stunning that I ran around in circles taking pictures anyway. Which means I quickly ran out of breath and was gasping a bit as I got back into the car :-)







After a little while at the top, we drove down to the shore to take a closer look:







The one above is probably my favorite.

The full set is here and includes a picture of me on a yak :-)

Back in Shangers

Oh man, Tibet was amazing. Everything was fantastic, but the highlight was seeing Mount Everest bright and clear in the crisp morning sun. Just beautiful.

Of course I'll do a full blog post(s) on the trip later, and there are ~1200 pics to sort through and post.

Reporting for Duty, Sir

Guess who got a frigging JURY SUMMONS the day before he leaves for Tibet? And, um, three months before he'll even set foot in the US?

I'll give you a hint - I see him every time I look in the mirror. Hah.

This should be fun.

No English ... ?

I was talking with my ayi (maid) on Tuesday morning, as I was heading out the door for work, and she invited me to visit her hometown with her. Because she doesn't speak any English and is from a small town in Anhui, I was excited!! ... until she said it would be next Spring Festival, in February. I told her then I couldn't, because I'm returning to the US in January.

Today on the shuttle ride I was thinking about it some more. Even though I've been living outside the US for nearly 9 months now, I've spoken (or listened to) English every single day. English is a must at work. And even on the weekends when I might be out in the city, I'm always with or among lao wai or a Chinese friend who speaks good English. And if I'm by myself, I'm listening to my iPod with English-language music. I come home and read English-language books or web sites. So I don't know what it's like to go completely without English.

Anyway it occurred to me that if I'd been able to go with my ayi, I would have gone like a week without speaking or listening to English once (besides the "OK!" and "Bye bye!" that everyone seems to know, and assuming I don't take my iPod). She doesn't speak or understand English, so it follows that her family in small-town Anhui wouldn't either, unless there maybe are younger children there, who stand a better chance of having been educated with English. Then I got excited at the thought of relying on my Chinese for so many days and getting to experience what we call the "real" China, i.e., China - (English + Western culture). Then I remembered I couldn't go. Dang.

Got the Train Tickets to Lhasa

Just got word today that we got the tickets for the two-day train ride (!!!!!!) from Shanghai to Lhasa. I'm just hoping they'll let us out at Xining to stretch our legs a bit.

I've been told that I will not fit on the sleeper beds in the train. I've also been told to bring a roll or two of toilet paper.

I bought an extra memory card for my camera. I also bought some warmer layers to put on top of the sweaters and fleece that I already have.

We leave Sunday night at 8 PM. Arrive Lhasa at 9 PM Tuesday. We'll be back in Shanghai on the 8th.  

Plenty of pictures to come, I promise :-)

What I Really Miss About Being in the US ...

... is the ability to sing in the car.

Ya just can't do that in the backseat of a cab or on the subway or walking down the street.

Maybe that's why karaoke is so popular in Shanghai?

Pictures from Zhuji/Wuxie and Shaoxing are up. Some heavy nature photography in the Wuxie set!!