Going to Meet the Buddha

I've landed in Shigatse, China (really, it's Tibet).

It has been a whirlwind these past two weeks, with little access to internet or so many sights to see that I've just been on traveller's sightseeing overload. Ugggh. If I see one more monastery...sadly, will be seeing another tomorrow morning. It's like art museums or churches when you're travelling. After awhile, they all start to look the same.

Just got here after spending 4 nights in Lhasa, Tibet. I was actually pretty shocked at how westernized it was considering it wasn't even open to the world 100 years ago. This was the one place where I was truly saddened by the suffocation of the Tibetan culture by the Chinese. Even the great monuments like the Potala Palace (where the Dalai Lama would live if he was in Tibet), modern buildings were built right on top of it. And to have monks actually say to you that in a perfect world they would prefer not to have tourists enter their sanctuary, but they have to because of the Chinese government, it really disheartening.

I'm getting a little road weary, but am hanging in. I'm currently in the 2nd largest city in Tibet, and we're staying here overnight before heading on to the Nepal border. We'll be up at Mt. Everest in a few days, and will be staying over night at basecamp which should be amazing - over 4,000M above sea level!!! (i think that's around 14,000 ft - as high as mt. rainier). Then it's off to Nepal for the last week, where we'll end in Kathmandu.

In between the last blog and now, I've spent a week travelling over 1500KM across the Tibetan Plateau (not being able to take a shower for 6 days was so much fun), saw the brightest stars and the Milky Way while stargazing the first night camping on the plateau, survived a massive thunderstorm in my tent while everyone else (unbeknownst to me) was huddled in the truck, went to the highest lake in the world at over 15,000FT above sea level (Lake Namtso) where we woke up to snow, spent 4 days in Lhasa, Tibet and got to see a city in massive transformation and made quick stopovers in Tibet's other two biggest cities, Giantse and Shigatse, before heading towards Mt. Everest.

Unfortunately I don't have my notes with me, or I could give you a bit more info. But this will have to do for now, as it's 11PM where I am and I'm getting tired. More soon...

xo Steph