Away Awhile Journal Entry 13

Journal Entry 13

December 17th, 2002

"My Personal Shangri-La"

So, I've been gone almost seven months now. Things that should seem strange no longer seem so. In Kashgar, a guy leading a donkey-pulled cart on the sidewalk past the open door of an internet cafe. In Ali, a woman roasting a pig's head with a blowtorch while sitting on the sidewalk. In Darchen, a yak slaughtered and butchered by a half-dozen guys, on a dirt street. Everywhere, people pissing on streets and buildings.

Well, things haven't been a whole lot easier since my last post. A couple days after that entry, I began the journey from Ali to Lhasa, a 68-hr bus ride on a sleeper berth shorter than my body and narrower than my shoulders. My only saving grace was some pills I bought in Ali--walked into a pharmacy, did the universal "sleep" gesture (tilt head to side, close eyes, put hands together under head)....the clerk nodded his head and reached behind the counter, grabbing an old cracked brown bottle with a corked top. Took out ten pills and folded them into a scrap of paper. Total cost: about a dime. Don't know what they were, but they did help me pass close to two-thirds of the trip in relative dormancy. It still sucked....

I had brought my own food on the bus, as my money was running low--there are no banks that change money out in the sticks. I mentioned previously that I hoped to arrive in Lhasa with 20 yuan left. I didn't. I got to Lhasa with 1 yuan left, about twelve cents. I was tired and dirty and hungry (my food supply ran out the day before and I didn't have money to buy anything more). And I was a couple miles from where I wanted to be. A long walk with all my stuff.

In the end, however, I was very happy with my experiences out in the west, difficult as they were. The Lhasa area and my later trip to Nepal showed an uglier side of Tibet--people more infected by tourism. Police and government with a heavier hand and more-obvious interference with the natural order of things. The west showed me rural Tibetan life, people unspoilt by tourism, and tsampa and butter tea. In all, a more authentic Tibetan experience than is common.

Back to Lhasa...Once I got cash, I went nuts. It was a wonderland of food and convenience and people. My goal had been to get to Lhasa before Thanksgiving. I succeeded. Thanksgiving day, my first full day in Lhasa, I visited the Potala Palace, the world's most amazing building, in my opinion. In the evening, I didn't find a turkey dinner, so I did the best I could: yak steak with potatoes and veggies. Apple pie and chocolate cake for dessert. On top of this, it was the eve of a Tibetan festival. The area around the Jokhang, Lhasa's main temple, was filled with pilgrims carrying lanterns and throwing juniper branches into flaming kilns. Windows everywhere were lines with rows of lit butter-candles. An almost Halloween-like atmosphere...interesting Thanksgiving for me.

I spent a week in and around Lhasa, visiting monasteries (Ganden, Sera, Drepung, Drigung Til), a nunnery (Tidrum), a natural hot springs (sitting naked with Tibetans in the open air when it's below freezing), walking pilgrimage routes, watched monks debate in a grassy courtyard. Shopping, eating. Recovering.

Organized a trip to the Nepalese border and recruited a Colombian couple and a Dutch couple to join me. The eight-day trip was fantastic! Mostly anyway. The first two days I was quite ill with a fever, among other things. Our guide took me to a doctor, who prescribed me an IV and a shot in the ass. I refused the IV, but got the shot, using a new needle from one of my travel companions. Don't know what the shot was, and don't think it helped, but then again, the consultation and the shot added up to about fifty cents, and it didn't hurt much, so I can't complain too much.

Those first two days were monastery days--Samye Monastery, a large monastery in a small village. To get there, you have to cross a river a few feet deep, a mile across, and filled with sandbars--a 1.5 hr journey in a flat-bottomed boat powered by a small water-cooled motor that needs replenishing every few minutes. On our return ferry, there were 50 Tibetans and a tractor on the small ferry with us. Also saw Yambulagang Palace, the first building in Tibet,
ancient palace of the old Tibetan kings before the Dalai Lamas, perched atop a skinny hill. With my poor health, these two days were not so enjoyable.

Then we began our westward voyage, passing high above the turquoise waters of Yamdruk lake, and stopping to spend nights and to visit monasteries in and around the towns of Gyantse, Shigatse, and Lhatse. These towns won't mean much to you, so I'll just say that the monasteries were nice and the nights were cold and sometimes on the drives we got nice views of rivers and mountains.

Our last full day in Tibet, we went to Rongphu Monastery and to Everest Base Camp. At the base camp, we ignored a sign warning of a $200 fine, and hiked to the glacier at the foot of Everest. It was wonderful, getting so close to the mountain that it doesn't even make a good picture anymore. At the base of the world's tallest mountain! And the beautiful blue color of the bottom of the glacier...very rewarding.

The next 24 hours, my last hours in Tibet, were filled with mountain passes, up and down, and amazing views of the Himalayan mountains. We spent our last night in Tingri, a town at 4400m, 14400ft. Tingri was the culmination of what makes Tibet difficult in winter: Freezing. When we woke up it was -15degC, 5degF. That's cold. Of course the rooms weren't heated--I never once had a heated room in Tibet. Pit toilets outside under the stars. No showers.
Electricity, if lucky, for a few hours in the evening. The mad, frenzied rush to undress/dress to get into/out of bed when it's freezing or below. Early that last morning, we all longed for Nepal almost desperately...it had became a true Shangri-La--an imaginary wonderland in my mind--after six weeks in Tibet.

The day of my departure from China was amazing. After that final cold morning, we climbed upwards to a 5200m/17000ft pass that provided the best views yet of the Himalaya. From there, we went down, down, down. All day. 100km to the border. At 12:30pm, I recorded seeing the color green for the first time in almost two months--some evergreens. Soon after, we continued our descent into a beautiful steep-sided valley. We reached the border. Chinese customs. Nepal customs. Banana trees! Cheap food! Nepal!

We made it to Kathmandu that evening via two local buses. The first, we had to join a dozen Nepalis on top the bus because the inside was full. It was great--warmth, sunshine, the air rushing past, rice fields...Shangri-La! Hard to believe that just that morning we were freezing our asses off back in Tibet. I guess that 3900m/12800ft of altitude changes the climate dramatically!

But I don't mean to complain so much. The trip from Lhasa had been nice. We stayed at places like the 'Lhatse Tibetan Farmers Adventure Hotel'. Poorly-translated English menus offered such delicacies as 'Underdone Meat Soup' and 'Chicken Shreds with Strange Flavor'. A sign over a low doorway kindly stated, 'Carefully Bump the Head'. The monasteries were nice. Views were great.

I must say that I was quite tired of China by the end. Since I left Mongolia, I spent nearly ten weeks there, but really I spent only a week in China, followed by a three weeks in Chinese Turkestan (Uighur people, Xinjiang province) and six weeks in Tibet. What China's doing here (and in the rest of the country) in the name of modernization is making a beautiful country ugly, but it makes me glad that I have seen it before they've got a chance to botch everything.

While the landscape of Tibet itself is more of what I described in western China--gravel and hills and the color brown (except at higher altitude)--what made it special to me was the people, the world's most beautiful. Rosy cheeks, yak-fur-lined coats, prayer wheels, crooked teeth. Friendly smiles. And a radiance, devotion, and inner peace unlike anything I've seen in another group of people.

Nepal, or rather Kathmandu, has been wonderful. I've done so little since my arrival that it startles me. I sleep in, I eat on sunny rooftop terraces, I walk around. No pictures, no tourist sights, nothing. I needed some down time. But soon I will move again--I think I'm going to spin down to India this weekend. Kevin, my youngest brother, is flying out to visit me for 3.5 weeks. His plane lands in Dehli on December 25.

'"Yes, that's the bore of comfort," said Lord Warburton. "We only know when we're uncomfortable."' (-Henry James, 'Portrait of a Lady')

Away Awhile is hosted by Josh Trutwin.