May you live in interesting times

It's a small world after all

Last Plane to Lhasa : 1 March 2004

We've made it to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. And it's not as cold as you might think. We ended up taking an airplane here instead of the 36+ hour bus ride we had originally planned. This was for the best, as you can imagine. Actually, though, the weather here has been rather pleasant, hovering in the low teens (celcius) during the day. Walking in the sun it gets downright warm, and a T-Shirt provides plenty of warmth. Of course, you cross the street into the shade, and need to break out the down parka. And we won't go into nightime temperatures, which drop below freezing. We are working on arranging our trip to Mt. Everest. It's looking like we'll be joining up with 2 other people on a 5 day trip to Base Camp and a few other Tibetan highlights, starting on Wednesday. Details have yet to be worked out, though, so most of you will have to wait until we get back for the highlights. Lhasa is a very pleasant city, at least after Xi'an. It's much less crowded, and much less gross. It's still kind of dirty, but it's mostly dust being blown around, and not litter. They actually have trash cans here, though not everyone has figured out how to use them. They also have really cheap outdoor clothing. The locals can often be found either in traditional Tibetan garb, with lots of colors and cool hats, or swanky looking North Face jackets that go for about 10% of the cost at home. Of course, the legitimacy of this clothing is dubious at best, and the nicer stores cost about 5 times as much as the cheap ones. The people here seem very nice. Most of the people that say "Hello!" aren't beggars, though there are still a few of the tenacious beggars that plague most poor areas. It's really sad when you see the little kids, all grubby and dirty, that don't let go of your coat. But for the most part, the people are very friendly, and the ones that speak English really love to chat with you and even help show you around. We've also had fun with the food. Actually, it's been remarkably tasty all around, and we haven't gotten sick. Yet. The "Hot Pot" from the little restaurant across the street from our hotel was the most entertaining. It's a Yak soup, with Yak meatballs, Yak heart, Yak tongue, and Tibettan Pork, along with lots of veggies in a Yak bone broth. They put the whole thing into a big pot on your table, and then let it boil right there. Then they give you little bowls of onions, cilantro, garlic, chili oil, salt and MSG, and you mix it up in your little bowl, and pull out the meat and veggies. They also constantly come by and refill the bowl of broth. All in all it was an excellent meal, very tasty, even for some weird sounding stuff. Well, we hope everyone is well. Our next update will probably be from Beijing in about a week or so. But you never know. So take care!

Replies: 1 Comment

I decided not to comment on China cuz I felt slighted. I can't wait to receive a cool Tibetan present. But nothing too Yakky. I have some cool pics from our Joshua Tree trip by the way. Oh, Rob...you missed Pali Idol. I know you're heart broken. xoxoxo Posted by The REAL Mr. Lee @ 03/03/2004 10:54 PM PST