Last Stop Hong Kong

This will be my last post to the blog so I hope you have enjoyed reading it. Hong Kong was hot, steamy and extremely crowded. The subway is good but as it is built on different islands it was a struggle finding our way around. We did take the tram to the Peak, which is the equivalent of visiting the Empire State Building, and as you can see the view was magnificent.

Our 16 hour flight to JFK was as good as a 16 hour flight can be, and I am relaxing before my flight to Tampa. It has been a lot of traveling, but we have had some great experiences

Nepali Cremation

Being cremated in Nepal is a very public ceremony. The body in a shroud is placed on a pyre and burns until everything is gone. Many fires burn at the same time while the family sits on the bench behind and waits until the ceremony is over.

There is one special slab which is used for royal cremations which are witnessed by everyone who wishes. Even the cows are witness to the event, as being sacred nobody can remove them.

Kathmandu is a crazy city and both Deb and I preferred Tibet to Nepal. However, that may be due to the fact that we did not see so much of the Nepali countryside, apart from our one night at the lodge which was lovely.

Calling all hippies!

For all of you from the Hippie era, Kathmandu was Nirvana. When the King of Nepal tired of all the pot smoking hippies downtown, they simply moved to Swayambhunath Temple which became known as the Monkey Temple and made that their base.

Most of the pot purchasing was made appropriately on Freak Street which still exists today.

Shortages in Kathmandu

Kathmandu, city of 2.5 million people and unable to satisfy their energy needs. Lines at the gas stations, no electricity for ten hours each day, and a water table which has dropped to extremely low levels.

For the people who do not have running water in their home, the choice is lining up at wells to fill their plastic containers. Some deep wells involve lowering a bucket and hearing it scraping the bottom - I can only imagine the quality of the water. Of course one can purchase bottled water everywhere but poor people cannot afford it.

Farm to city

In Tibet the main crop is barley, but here in Nepal it is wheat. I do not know if they get two crops per year, but they were already harvesting and it is only May. Strangely they bring the wheat into the city and separate the grain from the chaff on the small squares.

It is a sub-tropical climate here so crops grow easily and there seems to be a wide variety of vegetables in the stores. With the exception of a couple of meals with chicken, I have been pretty much vegetarian on this trip. Kathmandu is the place to eat Momos which are small dumplings, so I will definitely try those.

Street scenes

Just a couple of Kathmandu street scenes.

Mountain to valley

After a lovely stay at the Dhulikel Lodge we have now arrived in Kathmandu. The valley suffers from air pollution, but so far it has not seemed bad and our biggest problem is the heat. No matter how much we drink we are always thirsty!

Our first day was a walking tour with our guide, and the ancient city seemed easy to navigate. In Tibet they have no maps, and as all the wording is in Chinese we could never find places.

Women here still do a lot of manual labor but our guide said that girls have much more opportunity than before. His own mother was illiterate, but after he completed his college education, he taught his mother to read and write. You see school children and schools everywhere, and all the kids wear uniforms.

From barren to lush

Crossing into Nepal meant saying goodbye to our trusty driver Yambil, and our sweet young guide, Samden. We also crossed from the barren brown colors and endless mountains of Tibet, to the green gorges of Nepal.

The border crossing was thankfully without problems. Their main questions concerned reading material, especially guide books or literature about Tibet neither of which we had. They did not mind me having a small Hong Kong guide book however.

After entering Nepal, we spent an hour or so just people watching in the narrow street waiting for our ride. Nearby Mount Kailash is an attraction for serious climbers, and the women function as porters carrying all their heavy supplies to be loaded on buses. It is the only work they can get, and it pays $6 each trip. Once they leave their load they climb back up the hill to find another one, carrying infants and toddlers along with the heavy load on their backs.

After at least 5 hours driving on the edge of gorges where I could not even see the bottom, we arrived at a beautiful lodge on a hillside overlooking a valley, and in the evening we enjoyed a Nepali curry on the terrace. Considering we spent two evenings where dinner was a protein bar, this was luxury.

I made it

Yes, that is me at Mount Everest, we had the same beautiful weather our whole trip. Deb refused to do the whole climb, so we took the buss up with our guide. Once the buss lets you off, you still have a short steep climb for a clear view of the mountain - it really is spectacular. Later Deb took the buss down, while Samdun and I hiked back to the camp which is about 4 miles.

In the second photo you can clearly see the row of orange pup tents which is the base camp for those actually climbing Everest.

Our Everest Hotel

We made the choice to sleep in the tented camp, which is the base camp for tourists. It is like a small village of large rectangular tents made of woven black Yak hair. However, what a difference inside, carpet, weavings, beds around the perimeter, and a stove in the center. The young man who runs it does everything, makes hot tea, cooks food, makes pancakes for breakfast and tucks you in with big puffy quilts. That night six of us slept in the tent, Deb and I, our driver Yambil, our guide Samden and 2 Chinese girls, so as you can imagine it was a sleep in your clothes night. I won't describe the toilet but you had to go outside. It was really toasty inside, until nightfall came when the temperature plummeted, but we were very snug under our pile of bedding. Quite an experience!

Moving to high altitude

We are beginning to climb to very high altitude, so hopefully my luck will hold and I will continue to feel OK. We are going to cross 2 high passes at 16,000ft an follow the banks of Yamdrok Tso Lake for more than 40 miles. The scenery is spectacular, and I am seeing more mountains than I have ever seen in my life, but we are still a long way from Everest.

The piles of stones on the beach are made by people adding a stone for a prayer.

Monk training

Please forgive me if I already wrote about this, but at our last hotel before we dropped off the grid 3 days ago the service was sketchy, and I am not sure it went through.

On a visit to the Drepung Monastery one of the richest and most powerful of the Yellow Sect monasteries, we happened to witness some of the 200 monks training for their final oral exams. They are split into two groups and one monk from each group is chosen to wear the yellow hat, before being blistered with questions. If the answer is correct the lead questioner slaps his left arm with his right hand, palm down, if wrong the hand will be palm up. It looked very intimidating.

The huge pile of wood is used for the fires which burn under the enormous cauldrons which cook food for 200 monks. It is the largest monastery kitchen in Tibet.

Cute kids

On our long drive we stopped by the roadside in a small village. Apparently our driver's mother in law lived there and she had brought some of her grand-children to wait by the roadside so that Yambil (our driver) could drop off some food supplies. I do not know how long she had waited, but after handing out some cookies that we had, and taking a picture, we were on our way. That is my friend Deb in the picture.

The other little two some were on some steps in Lhasa - I am sure he was flirting with her.

Traditional crafts

A staple of Tibetan food is barley flour which is made into a form of porridge, rather like our oatmeal. You can see the wheel spinning as the grain from the bag falls into the hole and is ground into flour before exiting the between the stones. The wheel is turned by fast rushing water underneath the building, which is channeled to paddles making it spin.

We have seen a lot of sheep providing wool, and mutton for food. The art of spinning it into yarn by stretching the wool a little at a time, and then twisting it with the other hand can clearly also be done by men.

Decorative buildings

This is the beautiful Stupa at the Pelkor Chode Monastery. It is typical of the decorations that Tibetans use to adorn both the inside and outside of homes and public buildings, both old and new.

A day of traveling

We were sad to leave our Kyichu hotel in Lhasa but we have to move on. Our day will mostly be a 6hr drive to Gyantse and it involves crossing two high passes, one at 15,700ft bad the second at 16,500ft, both of which are way higher than I have ever been outside of a plane. So far the altitude has not been a problem, maybe a little more tiring climbing stairs, so I am hoping it stays that way.

The road also follows the beautiful Yamdrok Tso Lake for 40 miles, with views of the snow topped mountains. According to our guide the lake changes color from the blue to white, but she did not explain how this happened.At certain places along the shore, people had stacked stones added one at a time, and said prayers for themselves as it is considered a sacred place.

The Oral Exam

The Drepung Monastery is the largest of the Yellow Sect monasterie with over two hundred monks. Buddhist monks fall into two categories, yellow, and red. The Yellow Sect is the highest as they are the only ones who even have a chance at being the Dalai Lama, but the Red are the only ones who can marry.

The day we were at Drepung they were holding the preparation tests for their oral finals. All the monks gather outside and Two by Two they are questioned by a group of five monks. The two wearing the yellow headdress are the ones being submitted to the questioning. At every correct answer the five slap there left arm palm down, if incorrect the palm will be up. They go through this numerous times to prepare.

The large woodpile is for the kitchen where enormous cauldrons cook meals for the monks, mostly, barley porridge, rice, and vegetables.

Will be traveling

Thought I would send this last picture of downtown Lhasa with the beautiful Potala Palace in the background, as we will be traveling for the next couple of days and I may not get to my blog. Just a reminder that as I can't see my blog, there is no point in sending comments or greetings as I will not be able to answer. I will catch up with everyone when I get back.

The Potala Palace

The highlight of Lhasa and probably the whole of Tibet is the huge Potala Palace monastery. Very few monks live in the monastery which was the winter palace for the Dalai Lama, and different groups lived in the white and yellow areas, with the red area reserved solely for the Dalai Lama. There are hundreds of steps to climb both outside and inside, and they start at street level and go to the rooms at the very top. It is not for the faint of heart, especially when you are at an altitude of over 12,000ft. It contains room after room of Buddhas, Stupas containing ashes, relics and scriptures, all surrounded with a strong scent of incense burning. About half way through it is a little overwhelming and you long to be out in the light and the fresh air.

It stands majestically, close to the center of town, and makes an imposing sight looming about 400ft above the street level. Always wanted to see it, and now I have.

Women, young and old

The younger women are street vendors selling mostly prayer beads and other jewelry. Like most people in Lhasa they wear a hat and a face mask to protect them from the sun. The long skirts are typical, and the striped apron indicates the woman is married.

The old women are from eastern Tibet and came into town for a religious festival. Although, a couple of them have grey hair, I have yet to see anyone as white haired as myself, and I get lots of stares. As the guide said, I am a celebrity!

Different types of prayer

All Tibetans are Buddhists and a large portion of their life is given to prayer.

The woman with the mat is prostrating herself using small hand mats which allow her to slide her body to the ground, and then slide herself back again before she stands up and prepares for the next slide. Her legs are bound together and her feet never leave the ground. She does this repeatedly for hours and she was back again the next day when we passed by. Both men and women do this facing the doors of a monastery,

The second photo shows a stream of people in the foreground walking around the circumference of the Potala Palace. They do it at all times of day, sometimes 3 times a day or maybe once per week, and it takes place around other monasteries too. As they walk they pray and spin hand- helled prayer wheels in a clockwise motion, and both sexes of all ages participate.

Traditional clothing

This is the traditional clothing for men and women in Tibet.

A first stroll in Lhasa

After meeting our female guide Choredna who was educated in India when Tibetans could still get a passport, and our driver whose name I have forgotten, we drove about 1 hour from the airport to the city. Infrastructure construction is going on everywhere with new highways and railroads (built by the Chinese) but it is contrasted by the farmers manually planting and tending their crops of barley (a staple of their diet), potatoes, some vegetables, and water melons. People's diet consists of all kinds of meat, but Tibetans do not eat fish as they are considered to be gods.

We are left to our own devices regarding dinner every evening, so we took our first stroll in the town.The buildings are typical of most streets in the center of Lhasa - white with beautiful decoration around windows and doors, and nearly always 4 floors high. The ground level is rows of small shops with large doors which when closed cover the storefront at night, and most of the have a sign with large Chinese letters and very small English words. That together with the fact that they do not have street maps makes finding places difficult.

Finally, we stumbled on an upstairs vegetarian restaurant where we ordered what we thought were two main dishes and two sides. It was 4 large dishes of great food but it would have fed 6 people. It only cost $12!!! Amazingly, they had boxes to go so we packaged up food as we had seen a few people begging on the street, and it did not go to waste.

Then it was home to our comfy beds for what we hoped would be a good nights sleep.

We made it!

I know you have all been anxiously waiting and I apologize for the delay, even though it was by no means my fault. The extreme weather over Hong Kong meddled with our travel plans and created a journey where we were in Transit 48 hours, arriving at our overnight in Chengdu, China at 2am Monday morning after leaving JFK on Saturday. Add to that an error in our passport numbers which had been entered into the system - thankfully resolved by a supervisor at the airport - it made for a rough trip but one with spectacular views of the Himalayas peeking up through the clouds.
However, we are here, safely settled in our charming hotel in Lhasa, Tibet.