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

Wow, just realized I haven't written since Lanzhou... We've gone to a few cities since then, and I've seen quite alot of monasteries...I'm pretty much monaster-ied out.

After Lanzhou, we traveled to Luijaxia as a stopover point on our way to Xiahe. Luijaxia is a small small small industrial town where I met the friendliest people. While there, we went to Bingling Si, which are referred to as Buddhist caves, but not in fact caves at all. Buddha's carved on the mountainside, hundreds of them, along with one of the largest intact Buddhas, if not the largest, in the world. It was 27 meters tall and awe inspiring. The best part about getting to Bingling Si, however, was the fact that we had to take a 50 minute speedboat ride down the Luijaxia Reservior to get to it. It's not accessible via roads, so the fact that we could only get there by boat, in my opinion, was pretty damn cool. The only weird, well, pretty much gross thing about the speedboats was that we saw a dead body floating in the water as we sped by. The driver actually had to swerve so we wouldn't hit it. Ummm... yeah. WTF?!?!

Next up was Xiahe, the last city we're stopping at before heading to the Tibetan plateau. Xiahe is supposedly the closest thing to a Tibetan town in China.

In Xiahe I spent alot of time at the Labrang Monastery, a large monastery of the Yellow Hat Sect. It used to be the largest monastery outside of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. However, the beastly Chinese ransacked the place and killed most of the leaders etc in the early 1960s. The monk population is slowly regenerating (currently about 1200) and I've seen many a Monk cruising around in their red robes while talking on mobile phones, playing video games in the internet cafes, etc. Pretty hilarious.

Today about 20 of us did a daytrip outside of of Xiahe to visit the Black Hat Sect monastery about 17 miles away. I think for me, the journey there was more exciting than the actual monastery itself. We caravaned in 5 taxi buses out to the countryside, going back and forth between paved roads and dirt roads. We even did a pseudo rally car race as we hit a patch of dirt road that was a muddy mess (a car had gotten stuck in it and was sitting there for about 4 hours till we came along to get it out). So our psycho taxi driver just gunned the bus and we flew over the mud, swerving and swaying with tires spinning and mud flying. It was awesome!!! Some Germans filmed it while we went through the mud and is going to post it on Youtube. I can't wait.

Well, next up is the Tibetan plateau. I'm ready to undertake some serious camping because honestly, some of the places we've stayed have not been so great. We'll be camping for the next 4 nights starting tomorrow as we make our way to Golmud. I'm actually really excited to get out in the more barren land and away from the large cities.

Thanks for reading!!! More soon...

Ok, so Lanzhao didn't have much to see for me. Pretty much a large, industrial city in the middle of China, with some of the worst pollution anywhere. I spent the day running errands, getting some snacks and hit a few shops. We went to an AMAZING Korean BBQ joint in town, the food was probably the best meal I've had here so far, and that's saying alot.

After dinner, the entire group went to do KTV. What is that you may ask? I did as well... It's karaoke. And it's the national passion of the Chinese. They f-ing love it. Now I've done karaoke before, but this place was hands down the shit. Tons of individual rooms, plush sofas and large tvs. Having someone continually bring you drinks isn't that bad either. The staff loved us - you know, the westerner thing again - and a few even came in and sang a traditional Tibetian song for us and danced. It was awesome. Of course, debauchery ensued... this, I've found, is what happens when you add twenty travellers, two bottles of vodka, and about 30 gigantic econo-size beers. Ummm...yeah...I sang FAME. "I'm gonna live forever...". We were all pretty much trashed when we left, and found our way back to the hotel around 2:30AM. Not so much fun when you have to get up at 6:30am to pack and get on the truck. Uggh.

Sidenote: The Chinese are wonderful cooks, and honestly I haven't had one bad meal yet. (Knock on wood, I don't need any *stomach* issues). I've tried to stick to little mom and pop type establishments, they seem to be the best bet and are super cheap. Today at lunch a few of us walked around the little city we're currently stopping in called Liujiaxia. Went for it with an all Chinese menu (no pictures) and just a few words of Chinese to say chicken, beef, noodles, etc. The waitress, who I must admit was probably the most patient person on the planet not speaking any English herself, brought us four amazing dishes from our Chinglish attempts at communication. So tasty, and, cost us $5 to feed all of us.

So I'm writing from Lanzhao, where we've stopped on our way to Xiahe for a few days. It's a pretty large city, and supposedly one of the most polluted cities in the world. I can attest to that, as my sinuses have gotten worse since we pulled into town a few hours ago. The pollution I have to say is the only thing I've really struggled with here. I guess after living in Seattle, it's going to be a bit different going to a place where you can't see the mountains because of the pollution, and your eyes are dry and you have a chronic sore throat. Hmm. I wonder...

But regardless...I am having an extraordinary time here. Yesterday we were in Pingliang (sp?) for two days and went to see the Taoist Monestary - Kongtong Temple - which is supposedly one of the most revered temples in all of China. I have to admit it was pretty spectacular, especially after climbing 1233 steps pretty much straight up to get there. Granted I could have taken the bus up, but I wanted the full experience. While I was tired and sweaty when I got to the monestary, taking the long way up was completely worth it, and I got to see some temples that I otherwise wouldn't have seen.

Taoists believe in many gods, and it just so happened to be one of their's birthday. The Thunder God. Of course we stood out among all the Chinese visitors, and the monks took a definite liking to us. The monks did an all day ceremony that culminated at 2pm with some spectacular drumming, fireworks, and chanting. And then, not more than thirty seconds after they finished their ceremony, it started to rain. I shit you not. So we were all soaked as we made it down, and then, it thundered. A few times. Again, not making this up. Pretty weird, but pretty amazing as well.

That's when the Kamakazi bus driver came in. I was not climbing down those 1233 steps again, my ass was beat down tired. So I got a bus ticket and headed for the tiny white van that was the so-called bus. Of course it waited till it was full - all 8 of us, and then we headed down, but he decided to drive down the mountain like we were on a rollercoaster. I seriously was shocked at his taking the turns at around 40mph, ignoring the speed bumps, and just all out going for it to get us down the hill in what must have been record time. I was laughing the entire way down as it seriously felt like I was on a ride. It was totally worth my 15Yuan.

Wow. It's only been here a few short days since I arrived, but feel like I've already learned alot about China - some good, some bad. I've received a crash course in China 101 by some of my fellow travellers, some of which did a previous trip from Hong Kong to Xian prior to joining mine.

1. There is a suttle euphemism known as "the gag factor," which relates directly to the amount of times one gags by entering a Chinese toilet (again, some good, some bad). They pretty much said, get ready, because you're being very spoiled right now by the hotel.

2. Bartering is mandatory for pretty much everything here. If there's a calculator visible, price is definitely negotiable...from getting bottled water on the street to memory cards in fancy department stores. And if you don't barter, you may be laughed at as you leave, as the clerk thinks that they just pulled one over on you. (No, it wasn't me, but someone else on the trip...).

3. The Chinese cannot drive to save their lives. Seriously. I have witnessed some poor driving in the US, but it is completely ridiculous here. Not only do they not care about pedestrians, they have no problem hitting them if they are "in the way." And my taxi driver from the airport to the hotel I swear was on a death wish. He decided that he would make his own side of the road when it suited him, as others were either driving too slow or were just in the way. I felt like I was in Atari's Pole Position.

4. Good luck seeing a clear view of the mountains, or of the sun. The pollution here is horrible. It's like the worst haze on a Seattle day x 100. So bad that when we were walking down one of the major streets in Xian, that at a point, you couldn't see the end, it just faded to gray. Ummm... yeah, my eyes, throat, and pretty much entire body is burning.

5. Our hotel is "supposedly" a five star hotel... not a snowball's chance in hell. But it's decent, has a toilet that you can sit on (and not stand over), and offers a plethora of personal services for its guests. I'm thrilled that I can order a massage, colon hydrotherapy services, and a hooker from the hotel front desk. I shit you not.

6. Our mode of transportation will be a source of conversation, if not a spectacle, among the Chinese people. Especially in rural areas. Our truck is straight out of a Mad Max movie, and really is a hummer bus on steroids. Needless to say, it gets quite a few stares, and I think may have even inadvertently caused an accident or two by gawkers. Especially when they see a bunch of Westerners inside...

7. I will be a source of conversation, if not a spectacle, among the Chinese people. Especially in rural areas. One of my tripmates who was on the Hong Kong leg of the trip has had her picture taken, on an almost daily basis, by locals who have never seen a Westerner before. Granted, that's not the case in more of the major cities, but definitely the case in the backcountry. Their group even made the local news (TV) and the newspaper (twice). WOW. I can't wait to sign autographs!

So... that's pretty much it for the first installment. We're heading out of Xian tomorrow AM and towards Lanzhou. It's apparently one of the most polluted cities in China, if not the world. Oh joy.