10 Days in the wilderness

Just got back from our 10 day trip through south and central Mongolia. I'm trying to decide whether or not it was the biggest adventure to date. So much happened in so little time...gonna give a day by day account...might take several postings ;)

DAY 1

We left UB at about 10 in the morning, me, Pauline, and this Malaysian girl named Kym. She wanted to do a trip but had no one to do it with, so she came with us...made the price cheaper too if there were more people. We met our driver, Inhe, and our guide and cook, Uyanga...and all was good, they were amazingly nice. Our first destination was the Gobi desert, we couldn't make it there in one day but it was a great drive. We discovered, outside of the "cities" Mongolia's roads are more like two tire ruts in the dirt which drivers can choose to follow or not. There are no road signs or markers, therefore their ability to navigate is pretty impressive. Our drive to the Gobi was over some incredibly flat land...no trees, no real grass, just stones and dirt, maybe a few shrubs. Lots of camel herds though...the two-humped kind. Big mofos who like to lie down in the middle of the "road". It was pretty hot, so kept seeing mirages in the distance, lakes that didn't exist...etc. We fucked one of our tires a few hours into the trip...so that needed a change. We camped for the night in the middle of this flat plain, you could basically stand up and look for miles into the distance. Needless to say, the sunset was incredible! Also realized toilets would be non-existent on this trip. If we were lucky, there would be a tiny wood shed, with a hole and two planks to stand on...otherwise...it was behind whatever shrub or rock you could find. It got to a point, where we really didn't bother with privacy.

DAY 2

We woke up, ate breakfast on a bed roll in the middle of a briskly cold Mongolian plain and jumped into the SUV headed for the Gobi.

...too lazy to keep typing...will write more later...

Oh Yeah....Tibet leftovers

Forgot to mention...we saw the Potala Palace while in Tibet...it is THE biggest rip-off in China. They close and lock all the rooms which are of any interest, such as the Dalai Lama's study, or the room with the personal artifacts he has to identify in order to prove himself the ONE.

Such a huge and expensive disappointment...put me in a shit mood for the whole morning.

And the fucking Chinese tourists...busloads of them all over the Potala....

It's just so sad what they've done to the place...for instance, the room that devotees would make lay offerings in to the Dalai Lama has been converted into a coffee shop...can you fucking believe that!

And that's my forgotten commentary on the Potala...

From Tibet to Mongolia

BWWAAAAHHHHH!!! Left Tibet!

So this is a little how our last day in Tibet went. We rolled out of bed, I was totally sad that it was our last day. We hung out at the restaurant (as usual)....waved to the cute cook, the cute dude who works reception, the cute maitre D'... and picked up some laundry and then Karma (the hotel owner) showed us his pad which is part of the hotel, it's pretty cool....and the renovations he's making to the bar.

Karma is awesome, he totally adopted us like his own kids, gave us free run of his hotel and free food, we were so pampered during our time there. He also evaluated all the crap we bought at the markets and told us if we'd gotten the real deal or not...which we almost never had. He also lectured us several times on being careful when we're in Mongolia and to be more skeptical and untrusting of strangers...which we are, except in Tibet where we were pretty carefree and loved everyone.

When it came time to leave, we both basically starting bawling...full on crying...I don't think I cried so hard even when I left Canada. The staff felt like family and Karma like a total father to us...it was like leaving home. I felt pretty ridiculous crying so hard because I was leaving behind a hotel and it's staff...but couldn't help it. Plus leaving Tibet was hard...I really loved it there. Am most definitely going back.

Interesting how I spent a year in Japan and didn't shed a tear when I left...but two weeks in Tibet and am bawling like a baby.

We would have probably bawled the whole cab ride, except the cabbie tried to pick up his friend and take him to the airport too, basically giving him a free ride on our money....as the Chinese try to do....which pissed us right off and we stopped sniffling to yell at the guy to get the hell out of our cab...and then of course took another 20 minutes to bitch about the nerve of the cabbie...then started sniffling again.

Take it from me, Tibet is the ONLY reason to bother getting a Chinese visa.

Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia on the other hand is a really ugly city. A lot of squat buildings and factories...absolutely no feel of local culture at all. EX: there are pizza joints everywhere. Our pickup at the airport never came...so that was a nice introduction to Mongolia for us. We decided to get the hell out of this shit city and into the desert for 10 days. We leave tomorrow for the Gobi and adventures with dunes, horses, camels and Mongolian nomadic tribes. Ten showerless, electricity-less days. I should smell real ripe.

What a Day! (Last Day in Tibet)

So today, the hotel owner of the Tibet Gorkha Hotel, where we're staying, lent us his driver to run our last minute errands with...which was pretty funny in itself. Two girls cruising around Lhasa in a new Land Cruiser complete with driver. (The owner is loaded by the way....)

 

Then after we dropped everything we'd bought off at the post office...the owner took us out to this monastery in the hills overlooking Lhasa where Pauline...the agile cat that she is, tried to jump a wall, caught her foot and collapsed in a heap on the other side...damn that was funny....was laughing to hard to capture it on photo.

 

Then we came back, and realized the entire hotel staff, including the dudes in question were aware that I thought the reception guy was cute and Pauline thought the guy working the restaurant was cute. Actually we've been laughing about it all day.

 

Anyways, then the owner and his best buddy insisted Pauline and I come watch their tennis match...where their driver acted as ballboy...the most bourgeois comment ever came when the driver ran to get a ball outside the court and the best bud said "Hmm, no driver, guess I have to use my pockets.."

 

Pauline got in for a couple of games, which was the funniest shit ever...tennis at high altitude. But damn if she didn't power that ball across the court....and over the fence, and whizzing by my head...over the net with the racket close behind...etc.

 

Anyways, it's really too bad we're leaving tomorrow, this crazy day has me really attached to our time in Tibet and the peeps at this hotel. Have had the time of my life here. Gonna really miss Tibet a lot. Not sure how Mongolia is gonna top it...we'll see.

 

They wanna take us to see a Tibetan Cultural Show tonight...but it starts really late and we're kind of tired from laughing like jackasses all day at everything going on and the sheer ridiculity of being pampered like princesses....so we're trying to bail...in the nicest possible way of course.

 

Flying tomorrow at 1535...overnighting at Beijing airport for a flight to Mongolia at 930 a.m....

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Leaving Tibet :{

Today is our last day in Tibet and I feel like crying at the thought of leaving. I particularly love the hotel we're staying at. The Nepali owner has totally taken us under his wing...gives us free food when we're sick...which I really was a couple of days ago...couldn't keep anything down. The staff, also mostly Nepali, knows us, knows our habits and are so friendly. Tonight, the one of the owner's best friend's is taking us to see a Tibetan cultural show.

 

Today we've basically just been scrambling around to finish all our last-minute shopping, which we've been doing for the last 3 days....

 

Mark left this morning...which was sad, because after almost 3 weeks, it went from 4 of us running around Tibet together, to just me and P again. And we'd been travelling with Mark since Chengdu.

 

Anyway, am off to frequent the hotel restaurant, and keep a lookout for the sexy Nepali dude who works reception....

 

 

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Mt. Everest, crazy women, and human skull drums

Wow, been a long time since I posted anything to here. I think some of my posts are going up twice...but whatever, will take care of that bull when I get to Mongolia and escape this Chinese censor stuff.

 

Anyways, I think I left off at Sakya...(I'm back in Lhasa now)

 

So we went to Sakya which is supposed to have this amazing monastery. Well, we went and the town was an absolute dump and didn't have a good vibe at all. The monastery was like a massive walled-fortress and most of the chapels were closed because there was a festival on. We did see the sand mandala though after annoying the monks into opening the chapel for us which had it. We really wanted to get into this other section, the Protector Chapel which contains all these monster statues and dead animals, but they refused to open it for us. So we contented ourselves with the carcasses of wolves, birds and rats hanging from the doorway. Yummy huh?

 

After Sakya, we drove out to Mount Everest where we lucked out and had amazing weather and the entire mountain was clear as day, and unobscured by clouds...it was an amazing sight. We hiked for 2 and a half hours to Everest Base Camp, then hiked some more out to the edge of Rongphu Glacier, at which point, continuing involved stripping off our boots, socks and pants, and wading across an ice-cold river, at an altitude of 5,500 metres. You should see the photos from that. Than we hiked some more hills to get a somewhat better view of the base of the mountain and these massive glacier peaks in the distance.

 

We left Tom at Everest Base Camp, he was continuing on to Nepal...it was a pretty sad parting actually, we'd all grown quite fond of each other in two weeks...(Alex excluded of course)

 

So then we drove back to Lhasa over 2 days....we busted all the tires on our land cruiser, helped out tourists who were in a land cruiser accident, the driver and one girl were pretty busted up because their axle broke and their cruiser rolled 3 times. They were super lucky about the spot the accident happened because most of the roads are on mountains and are flanked by huge ravines...they rolled on the one flat spot with land on both sides.

 

God...so much happened, I can't remember it all, the drive back was crazy, dangerous and amazing...we stalled on mountain passes and had to reverse-push-start the truck...rolling backwards down curving mountain dirt road is not a fun experience.

 

We got back to Lhasa, checked back into our fav hotel, where the staff is Nepali and they're great and know us pretty well now, the hotel owner just came into the computer room and insisted I drink orange juice because he's noticed I have a cold.

 

Today, we hit the markets...I bought a hand-woven Tibetan carpet. Got attacked by a couple of stallkeepers. In Tibet, they tend to physically grab you and haul you back to the stall if you walk away. I've been tackled by 3 girls manning a stall in Shigatse, two on my arms, one holding my backpack...Mark had to rescue me.

 

Today, this one bitch of a stallkeeper, grabbed me by the arm to drag me back to her stall after we'd argued over a bracelet I didn't even want but she wanted to sell me. In Lhasa, usually they don't grab you, but she did...did I mention I don't like to be manhandled?

 

So I start yelling at her to get the fuck off me, but she digs her nails in and won't let go and is pulling me...so I lose it and start screaming at her to let me go and am prying at her fingers and she won't...so I punched her in the arm and she finally let me go and went after Pauline. She grabs Pauline, we're both yelling at her, and I run over, pry her off Pauline, screaming "crazy fucking bitch!!!"....basically all the Tibetans and Chinese in the market, which is busy, stopped to stare at the spectacle of two foreigners being attacked by a crazy Tibetan shopkeeper, and are yelling and hitting her to get her off them. It was a nutty 10 minutes.

 

What else...there are so many insane things that have been happening, can't remember them all...we're like a magnet for the extraordinary...but we're having the time of our lives and have seen some of the most amazing things here and met amazing people. I have peed and pooed all over Tibet because generally, there are no toilets...so literally, the world is your toilet. Many complete strangers have been treated to the sight of my bare ass behind some rock (so hard being a girl). The Tibetans are incredibly nonchalant about doing their business, so they'll come and pee or poo beside you and watch you while you pee and while they pee...just a big happy peeing social circle.

 

We're off to Mongolia in 4 days...am gonna really miss Tibet. Tomorrow I'm hitting the markets to buy a drum made out of Monk skulls. Yes, monks as in human Tibetan monks. Apparently when they die, their skulls get made into drums or bowls for the other monks to use. It's pretty fucked up seeing human skull bones and drums out of skulls at the markets...but am gonna buy one anyway....I wonder if they'll let me into Canada with that....

 

Oh yeah, also at Everest Base Camp, I think the Chinese government doesn't allow excavation in Tibet, so these Tibetans run around dregging fossils up from the rivers in rural areas ( mostly the swirly shell-like fossils) and selling them to tourists. I bought two fossils retrieved from the base of Mount Everest. So damn cool huh?

 

I LOVE TIBET!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

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Still Love Tibet

I've been pretty lazy about this BLOG business of late. Am in Gyantse right now...home to one of the world's two massive 6-tiered stupas, both found only in Tibet. We came here from Shigatse, the second largest city in Tibet.

 

This country is absolutely amazing. It's breathtakingly beautiful and totally lives up to the label of Shangri-la. It seems I'm constantly just slack-jawed in awe at either a massive monastery or the amazing scenery.

 

We left Lhasa three days ago. Tom, Mark, Pauline and I are still travelling together. We're needed a 5th person for the Land Cruiser, so we brought along this guy Mark met, named Alex. He's a Canadian (from Ottawa...go figure) and Pauline and I can't stand him. He's a condescending, arrogant prick frankly. But he's also weird and a cheapskate so thankfully he almost never comes sightseeing with us. So we really only have to deal with him at supper...although that's still too much exposure for me because he picked up the Chinese habit of spitting everywhere. He's a fucking revolting pig.

 

But whatever...

 

From Tibet, we went to Nam-tso lake, one of the four holy lakes in Tibet, and an absolutely breathtakingly beautiful turquoise. Totally pristine place...we stayed in tents, and crapped behind boulders because there are no toilets at the lake. Alex didn't want to pay money for food during the trip, so he passed out at the lake from the altitude gain with no food...crumpled like a ragdoll. So Mark and Tom helped him to his tent and our driver, Tenzin, a happy Tibetan dude, was like...of course he passed out, the fool hasn't eaten.

 

From Nam-tso lake, we drove for 11 hours to Shigatse, through snowy mountain passes, sunshine-filled valleys, flooded roads, the entire route was fantastic! Roads in Tibet are mostly dirt paths riddled with potholes, so we get well and trully shaken. Add to the fact that Tenzin loves to blast crazy Indian music and the mountain scenery and it feels like an exploring expedition.

 

We've been touring monasteries, which are like time capsules, and hiking mountains to visit ruined fortresses, also hanging with local Tibetans we meet along mountain paths who love playing with our watches and digital cameras.

 

Tibet is also riddled with dogs, who move in packs and the bastards tend to block entranceways and snarl at you. They are generally cowards though and the motion of stone-throwing will usually scare them off. At the lake, they howled all night and fought, so no one really got much sleep. Between the dogs and the rats, I wouldn't be surprised if one of us got rabies.

 

Tibetan toilets are worse than Chinese toilets, if that's possible. They almost never have doors, and are just holes in the floor and all the business drops into the room below...so if you're unlucky enough to enter the wrong room in a building, you will literally find yourself in deep shit.

 

Am having the time of my life in Tibet, I can't think of a strong enough adjective to describe how fabulous this country is and how awesome it's people are.

 

Tomorrow, we're headed for Sakya, 6 hours away...it's apparently the monastery where the Sakya branch of Buddhism began. It's also got those sand mandalas, like in "Seven Years in Tibet". After that, we're hitting Shegar, a pit-stop to Everest, then Rongpuk Monastery, the highest monastery in the world, and then hiking to Mt. Everest Base Camp...a lovely 5200 metres...can feel the headache already.

 

Toodles!

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I LOVE TIBET!!!

August 15, 2004 --- Lhasa

Hmmm, where to begin besides raving about how much I love Tibet and how horrible it is that China is slowly eroding the Tibetan culture. But no politics today...just have to say that Tibet is SOOOO much better than mainland China. The Tibetans are beautiful people...so friendly, so happy despite all they've had to endure...just seriously gorgeous people inside and out. I know that sounds cheesy but everyone should come here and you'll totally understand what I mean.

We're travelling with a Brit named Tom, who we met getting off the bus in Lhasa, and Mark, our Scotsman/Australian who we befriended back in Chengdu. They're heaps fun to travel with and the Tibetan children...who are the most beautiful children I've ever seen, love running up and touching the hair on Tom and Mark's arms. Everytime we walk the streets, kids call out hello to us with big smiles and they love surrounding us to dance with us or have us take pics of them...they love seeing their faces on the digital cameras!

Today we attended a Tibetan Festival at Drepung Monastery, so amazing. High in the mountains, did the pilgrim circuit in a crush of people, think the crush of people than circumbulate Mecca and multiply it. You were pushed forward by the crowd, if you fell, you'd have been trampled. But it wasn't annoying at all or unnerving...it was an amazing experience.

Despite China, a lot of traditional Tibet remains, the Tibetans wear their traditional clothing and there are pilgrims and monks everywhere...the lakes and mountains are intact.

Suffered from an altitude headache yesterday because we ran around booking a Land Cruiser for us all to take a 9-day tour, hitting all the big sites in Central Tibet and then to Everest Base Camp. We did so much we were all hallucinating by the end of it from lack of oxygen.

God, so much to talk about...taken such amazing photos...but too tired to write anymore. I love this place, will definitely come back at least once more in my life.