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kingwilly

A couple of years ago, (so my memories are sketchy, please be kind) I traveled around Tibet during summer for about 2 weeks. Although there is an overland train, nasty foreigners are not allowed to use it, foreigners must apply for a permit to visit, any chinese travel agency can do this.... = $$. And we have to fly directly into the capital Lhasa.

I flew from Chengdu. Since Lhasa is about 4,500 metres, altitude sickness is a problem for many visitors, little KW was with me, and he did get sick almost immediately. - so I would not recommend this for families.

The airport is about 90kms away so there is a mad scramble for buses or rip off taxis.

Plenty of accomodation in Lhasa, here's a couple of pics of the central (old) town. The new parts of town are spawling chinese modern day shops and buildings.

Did I mention it was cold?

kingwilly

mainstreet in old town.



market place



just people...

kingwilly

The Potala Palace is located in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. It was named after Mount Potala, the abode of Chenresig or Avalokitesvara. The Potala Palace was the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala, India after an invasion and failed uprising in 1959.

kingwilly

A couple of days was more than enough of Lhasa, and then we took off for a road trip. Again, nasty foreigners have to use a registered travel agency. I think 4wheel drive car, guide, driver, petrol and accomodation was something like $100 per day...

Unfortunately, I cannot remember the names of which towns, areas and glaciers we visited, I just have the pictures, google earth is not much help either, since it is has been (deliberately, I assume) blurred.

kingwilly

Its called the rooftop of the world for a reason, it was also greener than I expected. (at least this valley was)

kingwilly

i think the above may have been the Tsurphu valley, which is west of Lhasa.

kingwilly

the landscape then changes colour and becomes much more moonscape-like as i imagined it would be ...

I never much liked the movie, but years previously I'd read Seven Years in Tibet and so had always dreamed about this place.

kingwilly

There were various walled towns and monasteries throughout the area.

kingwilly

We climbed inside this temple (?) - each level one could look out...







travelling with children allows you to do anything you want, just about, the locals were very interested in a little white boy...



passed a local on the road...



some town...

kingwilly

kingwilly

some locals camp, a yak and a glacier, I recall we had to pay him something, maybe $5 to stop and take photos at 'his' glacier.

Nawty

How do you deal with Alt sickness.....I wanna take my kids there one day, also want to go to that other little kingdom, the one where national dress is mandatory....whats it called....also want to go on that really high train ride and apparently you get alt sickness on it, but it is pressurised I think, or oxygen available, something like that.

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kingwilly

Alt sickness.
prevent by going up slowly (bit hard when the plane lands there)

rest. (we had to wait an hour for another plane to land before the bus or taxi's would leave the airport)

go to a lower altitude. (bit hard landing in Lhasa, that's as low as it goes)

oxygen bottle. (didnt seem to make much difference)

he was sick for the first day or so, initially i was quite scared. almost called off the trip, but between resting for a day or two and the oxygen bottles, he seemed to come good.

well worth the visit. make sure the little ones, dont run around (seriously) to start with.

kingwilly

I think you mean Bhutan.

Whiteshiva

Nice pictures from from Shigatze and Gyantze. I did the overland trip from Lhasa to Kathmandu in '86 - the glacier was bigger at that time, but at least the temples appear unchanged.

Did you make it to Sakya as well?

kingwilly

cool,

I couldnt remember the names of those places.

thanks. I'll edit those pics later...

Cannot remember Sakya or not.... what's there?

DaffyDuck

Ditto happened to me when I visited Quito (altitude: 2,850 meter), and I made the mistake of insisting to carry my Mom's luggage into the hotel lobby, running back and forth between the bus and the hotel - I think all I recall is waking up somewhere on the floor, with the local medic telling me to take it easy for a day or so - which is all it took.

I was 13 or 14, as I recall, so I'm cutting myself some slack :-)

If you don't know the name of your destination, maybe you shouldn't travel -- that said, Bhutan is another of the destinations on my list of places to visit.

I would like to see it, along with Tibet, but my main concern is in not wanting to further support an extortionist regime with my tourism $$$ -- I don't agree with China's policies, and the way they restrict 'nasty foreigners' (love that :-), so I don't want to give them a dime of my money. Dilemma.

kingwilly

true.

but the places we stayed at, and the guides and drivers used were local people.

Loy Toy

Nice pictures KW and thanks for sharing!

One of the places that has never really interested me and I do need my oxygen.

I got sick up in the Andes Mountains and that was enough for me.

Mr R Sole

Wow KW, you lucky man...I would really like to Visit Tibet...but not until it is free of Chinese occupationist forces..and their oppression...

I also can't go..I applied once for a visa...I was denied as The chinese embassy has pic's of me protesting Jiang Zemin in 1999 at Greenwich, London on behalf of the Tibetan people...we kept the bastard on the ferry at Greenwich pier..(all 6 of us) with a huge Tibetan flag and lots of noise especially from me....

Great fun....

So I went to Mcleod ganj in India and met His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama instead....the best experience of my life..along with the birth of my daughter..
Padme Dorje...
Tibetan for 'Lotus, Thunderbolt of enlightenment.. (mouthful the English translation ain't it)

My Avatar is from all the prayer wheels that arein your pic's...

Om Mani Padme Hum ...a Prayer for Avalokiteshvara..The Dalai Lama

Thanks so much for the lovely pic's

Whiteshiva

Another old temple - and a bit different in terms of architecture and layout - also some picturesque ruins on the outskirts of the village. Found some interesting artifacts (clay figures, etc.) in the dirt out there. About half an hours drive from the main road between Shigatze and the border.

Was planning of doing a thread about it one day, but need to digitalize my slides first....

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Any error in tact, fact or spelling is purely due to transmissional errors...

kingwilly

dont hold your breath....

I noticed.

kingwilly

yeah, these were taken on an old analogue SLR also.

The Gentleman Scamp

Nice pics KW, hey you should spend seven years in Tibet like Brad Pitt did, live like the monks and be at one with yourself and emancipate yourself from stuff in the modern world like cars and the internet and television advertising and the internet.

Lily

Hey Willy, did you ever read the book 'Running a Hotel on the Roof of the World'?

About an English hotel management type who thought he was taking a step up by accepting a job in a hotel in Lhasa?

A really good and quite funny read.