So I just got back to Hong Kong from Lhasa. It's amazing how when you go from one environment to the next you suddenly realize just how much you smell. After the stuffed nose and constant smoke smell of Lhasa, it was weird to arrive back in the fairly fresh-ish air of Hong Kong and realize that I smelled an unappealing combination of cigarette smoke and yak butter. In case you didn't know, yak butter smells a little like candle mixed with cream mixed with a tinge of rot... It's pungent none to say the least.
Lhasa was a blast! The week went by ridiculously fast. Here are details for those who are non-Chinese citizens (and those who don't have a Home Return Pass (a pass that you can apply for if you have a Hong Kong permanent residency)):
To be able to stay in Lhasa, you need a Chinese visa and then a separate Tibet permit which is a little more than 800 yuan. As a foreigner, you are also required to hire a tour guide every single day that you are there, even if you're not traveling outside of Lhasa. If you stay in the city then you're not required to see your guide every day but you still have to pay for him. A guide is 250 yuan a day while the hotel was 120 yuan. I went through Traffic Inn in Chengdu.You can actually do this entire process online! Just email Traffic Inn and they'll arrange everything.
I first stopped in Chengdu for a day. I've been there before, I went last summer for about three weeks. First thing was we got ripped off by the cab. Just as an fyi, the cab should NOT be 180 yuan, it should be around 50-60 yuan. It was freezing when we got there. Even though it wasn't below zero degree Celsius, there's a sort of insidious cold that feels like it chills right down to the marrow. It cuts through everything, no matter how bundled you are. Traffic Inn is where I stayed last year and going back, it was just about the same. The rooms all have a faint smell of smoke but the water is hot and the water pressure is great!
The day was overcast and it was amazing the huge difference between Hong Kong and Chengdu.
Barring the focus on appearance in both places, there was something a bit more bleak, which is really saying something since Hong Kong can get pretty dreary on rainy and cloudy days. I also almost took a picture of a group of men playing poker but one of them was an officer and I got simultaneously shooed and hissed away. So instead, I ended up taking a photo of this:
I then ended up going on an adventure to get pirated movies since you can't really get them in Hong Kong. After walking for about half an hour, finally found it at the top of a all-in-one electronics store. They tried to sell Lost in Space in a Tron box, luckily I'm used to the Philippines so I actually got them to check and caught them in the act!
I also got some awesome hotpot!
Those are chunks of chilly butter... it was so good! The one off-putting part was that the meat was frozen so we had to chip it off the plate.
Ended up meeting with a friend that night and I tried some sort of Tibetan cheese, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was yak butter cheese? It was interesting none to say the least.
Finally, I was on my way to Lhasa! The boy and I had a couple of heart-attacks when we were getting our tickets because it turns out our travel agent booked this leg of our journey using our Hong Kong ID cards. When we got to the counter, the flight agent took a look at our passports and said, "Sorry, your passport number doesn't match the one we have on file." It was awful. I kept thinking that we'd be trapped in Chengdu and that there was some sort of government conspiracy to keep us out! Luckily, when the flight agent read out the number, I recognized it as my ID and we made it on the flight.
Touching down, I was a little worried about altitude problems but before our flight, we took some aspirin and I didn't end up having any issues with breathing or with my heart beating furiously with even the slightest bit of exertion. Having heard a lot about what has been going on in the region over the last few year, I was also worried about being stopped and brusquely questioned, since there was a huge retinue of army men outside of the entrance, but they didn't even glance our way. Our tour company had arranged for a pickup and they met us as arranged with khatas (white scarves that represent goodwill and respect).
We stayed at Mandala Hotel right at the Barkhor, which is a huge market place around Jokhang Temple. It was frustrating since even though we specifically told the tour company that we wanted a large double bed (we told them at least three times), we ended up getting a room with two twin beds. They said they couldn't change rooms til the next day since all of the double rooms were filled up except for one on the third floor but apparently everything works upside down in Lhasa and cold rises, not heat because they said that rooms there were colder than on the second floor where we were. I can't say I was too disappointed since my heart was aching a little because of the stair climb. We ended up pushing the beds together anyways! After we settled in, we went to eat at the new Mandala Restaurant. Here are some pictures of the walk over and the view:
After a meal of momos (dumplings filled with yak meat) and some sweet butter tea, we went for a walk around the Barkhor. There were tons of pilgrims around..Our tour guide told us that summer is the time for work and winter is the time for prayer. The pilgrims circumambulate through the Barkhor around the Jokhang Temple. It's a circular path that's pretty easy to follow and you'll most likely be swept along by the crowd. This accrues merit and by the end of this trip, I ended up accruing a ton. There are also groups of pilgrims who stay in front of the Jokhang and pray:
They are pretty hardcore since it's so cold! Notice that they have mats on the floor and then smaller mats for their hands when they slide forward. The most dedicated pilgrims actually circumambulate the Barkhour whilst doing this act of obeisance facing forward. The extremely dedicated pilgrims do this while facing the Jokhang Temple in the center. You can still see them late at night, only then arriving back where they started. Also, whatever you do, DO NOT step over their mats while they are praying. My boyfriend accidentally did and got a clout on the shoulder. The pilgrims find this extremely disrespectful partly because feet are the lowest part of the body and are therefore considered tainted. When being swept along by the crowd, try to stay on the outer limits, just to be on the safe side.
That's about it for the first leg of the journey! Stay tuned for the rest with lots more photos!
