Last Plane to Lhasa

We are in hiding.....

It's a small world after all : 4 March 2004

We watched the Oscars the other night. Did anyone else think the show sucked? Actually, I never liked Billy Crystal as the host. Give me Steve Martin any day! Watching the show here in Tibet was interesting. It was about the only thing in English we've seen on television here. And the ads were all in Chinese. Very strange. We just spent last night at a place called Lake Namtso, this huge saltwater lake that's frozen half the year. Obviously, this half of the year. It was a serious trip to get there. We drove about 2.5 hours out of town, then turned down this dirt road. Although the dirt road was only 60 km long, it took over 3 hours to make it, including going through a mountain pass over 5,000 meters high. The lake itself is at something like 4,800 meters. The hotel consisted of a bunch of tin sheds. We splurged for $3.50 each on the room that had the heater. "Heater," however, gives too much credit. It had a metal stove, and the only fuel for fires in most of Tibet is dried Yak dung. None of us being proficient at Yak dung stove operation, we often filled the little room with an interesting smelling smoke. And, of course, when we went to sleep the fire went out quickly enough. It was below freezing for most of the night. Fun! We got these super sleeping bags though, so it was tolerable. Walking on the frozen lake was fun. Though, interestingly, our driver decided to stay nice and warm in the car. There was this bitter wind blowing across the lake when we were on it and most of the evening. Thankfully, it finally died down by the time we went to sleep, because it was rattling and banging the whole tin hotel. Instead we were left with the dogs barking in the night, and the sheep bleeting in the morning. Oh, and how could I forget that we were (as often happens in China) surrounded by garbage. Everest is going to be fun.... By the way everyone, we do have lots of pictures we'll be posting. But it's going to have to wait until I get the screen fixed on my laptop, which should happen in about 2 weeks when we get to Beijing. Sorry!

Replies: 4 comments

stop the whining...lol... Posted by chris @ 03/05/2004 11:36 PM PST

I liked Billy Crystal. Maybe the Chinese ads threw it off for you. Keep on yakking. Posted by Stephanie @ 03/09/2004 03:47 PM PST

Hey Andrea How are you guys? Did you get my e-mail ? Posted by JMM @ 03/13/2004 12:12 PM PST

Hey JMM, sorry for the delay in our reply, we have not have access to a computer for a while...but now we do! By the way, you only have to enter your comments once...ha ha. We are doing great..we are hiding in a hotel in Beijing. The less we have contact with the outside chaos of China, the better...for now. We do plan on seeing the Great Wall, Tianemen Square, Forbidden City..etc...all in good time. This is our decompression phase of the trip. We have overloaded on Third world countries and the sad thing is , is that we have only been to one so far....our next stop is Singapore then off to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia..and then the topper...India. I hope things are well for you. It's almost your Birthday......3 more days!!!! It is great to hear from you..I will call you soon. Love Ya! Posted by Andrea @ 03/13/2004 09:04 PM PST