Journey to the Motherland Part 6.3 - Tibet, Lhasa

Lhasa School Children

The thing i like about travel is the unexpected encounters.. meeting the locals.... seeing the world thru their eyes and experiencing the place like a local would. Thats why i hate tour groups so much, you pay so much just to be a camera flashing photo album maker. Its the spontaneity of the situation, letting whatever comes lead your way, thats what make memories unforgetable.

So thats exactly what led to one experiences that we had. So in the previous post, you remember the side alley picture off Bangkor Square?



After the street stopped trying to sell us stuff, we saw this cute little boy sitting down on the curb playing with a pepsi bottle.





Amused by the boy, we wandered into the alley.



A group of playing school children saw us and were very intriguted by two tourists walking into their domain. Particularly, they were intriguted by my camera. So they approached us and we started taking pictures.





They were so cute b'cos after every picture taken, they would rush towards me to see the taken picture on my camera's LCD screen. And they did this for every single picture taken. There are so many more pictures, but i think it would just overload the server if i posted all of them. haha thinking about them makes me smile. :)









They suddenly decided to start dancing.. so this is what resulted..


Tanwee dance moves


Me scaring the kids


The only picture with all of us inside, unfortunately the guy that took the picture had issues with focusing

Tibetian kids are very helpful we found out. Tanwee is a very hardworking person.. he sometimes gets stressed and as a result some white strands may pop up every now and then. So you see the kids so nice, help him out.


haha this makes me smile too.. heh heh

I was surprised to know that these children were all speaking Mandarin in addition to their native Tibetian. What was more surprising was that i was speaking English and they understood me!! We actually spent some time sitting down and practise how to pronounce 1..2..3...4... all the way to 20. Amazing i thought to myself, for all the complaints about the chinese cultural invasion. Left on their own, i seriously doubt Tibet's ability to provide such good education to children. These children were just street kids, not any particularly rich people. So there are always both sides to a coin.

Journey to the Motherland Part 6.2 - Tibet, Lhasa

So.. after our eventful first day in Tibet, we got a good rest and set out to explore the City. Lhasa is much bigger than the areas depicted in the pictures we took. In fact, the areas that you see with the Tibetian styled buildings are the minority rather than the majority. Lhasa has experienced massive chinese immigration over the past couple of years. As such, most of Lhasa looks like any other chinese town. If it wasn't for the Tibetian words, you would not be able to tell if you are in Xi'an or Lhasa.

Bangkor square is the best preserved part of the city, vendors line the pavements while the old tibetian styled houses act as a white backdrop for the lively street scene.


Bangkor Square

Oh yeah, i forgot to mention that my camera suddenly decided not to work once we arrived in Tibet. Every now and then we manage to coax it to work, but had to take pictures quickly before it stops functioning again, so i apologise for the bad picture quality.


Video of Bangkor Square when our camera finally decided to work


In front of Jokhang temple at Bangkor Square

Jokhang temple is one of the most sacred temples of the tibetian people. People all over tibet make pilgrimages to this temple, prostrating every step of the way. This is where i saw some really ugly tourists. As you can see i was also a tourist that took pictures of people prostrating (in the picture below). But at the very least i gave some respect to the person praying by taking the picture from a distance and not being in his way. But i tell you, we saw this one guy that actually went in front of the person praying, pointed his huge SLR camera right in front of the prostrator and started snapping away. I mean give me a break, can you even more rude? The ugly side of over zealous cultural tourism.


Jokhang Temple

Inside Jokhang temple, it was so overcrowded and over populated with tourists, that i almost was disgusted by it. Not the peaceful, tranqilt atmosphere that i imagine would befitting of a tibetian temple. The image of the monks more interested in counting money instead of chanting did not help make my impression better. ( Although, i have to say some of the monk were counting the money so that devotees can use them as offerings) But the thing that pisses me off the most is that the worshippers were being sidelined and pushed against the wall so that paying tourist can go in and trample all over their sanctuary. Ok.. i was disgusted by tourism... haha i am disgusted by myself.

But the best things are always free. Aside from the temple, we took a walk around the streets of Bangkor and were rewarded with views of how Lhasa used to be.


Tanwee blending into the streets around Bangkor


The streets buzzing with activity


The peaceful alley contrasted by the busy commercial facade

After Bangkor, one of the earth's most majestic manmade sights awaited us.



Video of the Potala Palace

The very first time i saw a picture of the Potala online i had set my sights on coming to Tibet. But seeing it upclose is really a very uplifting experience. For the rest of the day, we basically found a spot on a manmade hill and sat there glazing at the Palace.


Potala Palace in the day


Brothers fulfilling a dream


Potala Palace at night

It is sad that Tibetians are being marginalised in their own capital and chinese influence is diluting the culture. When i asked the locals what food they preferred, most of them said they eat chinese food instead of Tibetian food. When i asked them about their culture, they tell me about the need of the progress of China. So if you still want to see Tibet and the last remnants of its culture, you better go soon. If not it might be too late, actually it may already have been too late.

My Kind of Humor

Celebrating every small good thing, comedy from my part of the world. (I have a quarter thai blood after all)

Journey to the Motherland Part 6.1 - Tibet, Lhasa

Tibet, the world's rooftop with an elevation of over 4000 metres (or 16,500 feet). Air is thin here and it is indeed one of earth's most inhabitable locations. With many preconceived notions about this place, Tanwee and I boarded the plane that was to take us to this remote highland.

While the flight was not delayed, very quickly we got a taste of how forbiding this place can be. The scheduled flight time was 2 hrs... and scheduled arrival time in Lhasa was before noon. But as we approached the airport at Lhasa, weather did not allow the airplane to land. The winds blowing down from the surrounding mountains were too strong, making landing a very unsafe proposition. So the plane had to turn back to Chengdu international airport and wait for further instructions.

But luckily as soon as we arrived in Chengdu, weather reports stated that conditions were favourable again. ( at this point i was like... you make us turn around then as soon as we reach you say pls try again!!) So after about 30 minutes, we tried a second time to enter Tibet. This time though, we successfully landed. (although it took 6 hrs instead of the 2 hrs originally planned) But who cares! We are IN TIBET!!!

woohoo... the feeling we had was amazing. After months of planning and cross continental planning, Tanwee and i finally got to Tibet. In my excitement to get out of the plane to set foot on the scared highland, i left my Mp3 player on the plane.... (dammit!! always have to lose something on trips.) But anyway, as a result of the delayed arrival, our prearranged local guide was not at the scheduled place to pick us up and bring us to the hotel.


Tanwee and i with our backpacking roaming the streets of Lhasa looking for accomodation

This put us in a tough situation as

1) This is the peak tourist season and rooms are hard to come by
2) We were not yet acclimatized to the reduced oxygen levels
3) We had our heavy backpacks ( which further contributes to the lack of oxygen and altitude mountain sickness)

Walking on the streets on Lhasa, we saw many tourists in a similiar situation. Overbooked rooms... crazy room rates.. lead to many tourist lugging their backpacks around competing with us to get a room. With some persistence and resourcefulness, we managed to find a room for SGD$10 (USD7) per person for the night.


Video of us in the room we found

So by the time we found the place, all the plans for the day was already messed up. Then we did the only thing two tired singaporeans can do in such a situation. Find a rooftop restaurant with an amazing view and have dinner.


Video of us sitting outside the rooftop restaurant




View of the surrounding mountains from the restaurant


Of course i had to do a pose


A very nice shot by Tanwee, the flag things you see are actually prayer flags.. just that this one is a little worn out. It gives the picture a very desolate and remote feeling... which really isn't the picture as we found out in the next couple of days


The sun setting over the Lhasa Sky

So as the sun sets over the city and two tired travellers conversed over cups of warm tea... we soaked in the realization that we were actually in Tibet and living out the months of planning that had preceded this... As we sat there, thoughts of what was to come gave us a overwhelming feeling of excitement and anticipation.



But thats for tomorrow, where we will officially embark on our Tibetian discovery.

Comedy Cures Everything

I usually do not like posting someone else' work... thats just plain unoriginal. But! i recently started watching this show (its the daily show and yes i am slow) and its f*%king hilarious. So i had to spread the love and blog their videos every now and then.

Dark Realization

I really am very dark



PS: we were just posing for the pic.

Glad to be alive..

Lets just say its not always a good idea to learn through practice.

6 sessions worth of lifetime driving experience coupled with 4 hours of sleep did not sufficiently prepare me for what is to come..

Driving on the highway to Phoenix in the day at 130 km/hr and driving back at night at 120 km/hr. In the process covering a total distance of 350km. This done with my extensive prior experience.




Not a good idea.



Become a more experienced driver i did... but the cost of severely stiffened nerves is almost too much to bear....


survived to live another day....


Clifton,
The Only Easy Day was Yesterday

Thanks Tracy

A picture of me in action. Thanks Tracy!!!

Golfing in Arizona

I might not have told some of you but i have been talking Golf Classes as part of my education here in Tucson and i just had my last class on Wednesday. So i have to remind myself that i did actually take golf classes even though you can barely tell from the way i play.

Initially, i thought golf was a very snobbish sport, well in fact it is to a certain extend. But its a sport that the younger crowd can learn to enjoy too. Being in the hot Tucson desert and looking at the brown and sandy surroundings, it gets to you at times. Being in the golf course, having green as a background is indeed very relaxing.



Besides hitting the ball around trying to get it into a hole the size of a fishcake, you have the company of friends who laugh at you and comfort you for all the bad shots you made. (which i had experienced a lot)

Tracy posing for me


Sonya caught in action


Walking towards our first game of 4 hole scramble


Mr Ian Durnan, my good buddy taking a shot.. damn i wish i am half as good as he is.


Ok so the main point of this blog is this video. I want to share with you an amazing shot that my friend, Kris, did. I doubt tiger woods would be able to replicate this shot exactly the way Kris did.



The yellow ball is his shot.. pretty good right ???


Speaking of crazy shots check this one out. Be warned it is a little graphic.




The three of us with differing sizes of ... er... golf clubs.


And of course the farewell family portrait of the golfers.


I learnt to play golf!! thats another check off the lifetime to do list.

Journey to the Motherland part 5.1- HuangLong

July 21 - HuangLong

ok, i found some pictures on Ben's blog(Ben Ben under my links) , so i thought i'll just blog a lil bit about it.

Well, its was supposed to be pools of naturally formed shapes with exceptional beauty. Well take a look at them, the water does look blue and is sort of nice.... but after watching the beauty that jiuzhaigou possesses these pools really pale in comparison.








Its still nice nevertheless, set on top a mountain at over 5000 metres above sea level. It did command very majestic views over the valley. But being so high up and me still having a torrid time with my stomach. I really laboured over the hike up to the top to see the pools. Thank goodness my military training really built determination and resolve in me to complete the journey, despite having to go to the bathroom 4,5 times during the ascent. As you can see in the picture below, all of us were so tired and shacked out from the climb up under reduced oxygen conditions.




But i am glad i did it with my band of brothers!



Exhausted but not defeated. :)