Barley

One of Tibet's main crops. Amidst the brown of the mountains, rivers, and rocky valleys, we'd suddenly come across these startlingly lush, green fields:
A distant town and its fields:
A view from atop a monastery, looking down on the town and its surrounding crops:

Please....

excuse the interruption! But I really must pause my Tibetan posting for a moment here to...complain. (At least I'm being honest).

But, hello, this humidity is nothing short of completely ridiculous! Imagine this, dear fellow Canadians. You wake up...soggy. You have a shower and discover you are unable to dry off. You sit in front of your computer feeling not-so-bad (the fan being about 2 millimetres away from your face), until the hard work of...standing up...has the beads of sweat rolling down your belly yet again. Imagine hiking (at night of course...heaven help those who attempt such folly in the daytime), and little rivers of sweat begin coursing down your body, gathering strength and water-falling off your chin and fingertips for the duration. The temperature here in S. Korea is not that bad really, but the humidity! The sticky, oppressive, stifling humidity!!!!

I even got a drive-by picture of it for you. Here is my beloved Gyeyang Mountain:

Well, its ghost anyway. Can you see it? It's not the 2 little hills at the bottom. Oh no! It's the one that's towering above those two...hiding in a steam bath.

I've it from good sources that it will start to be more bearable starting next week. A-saaa! ("Awesome" in Korean) ;) Can't wait for autumn.

Good-bye Girlie!

Have fun back in NB, and good luck with all your studies in Ireland! I hope I can come visit you someday!!! XOXO

Sand Dunes!

After bumpity-bumping along a dirt road for some time, we came across these huge sand dunes in a valley. If you look closely, you can see my friend sitting atop one there in the middle:
Oh, it was glorious! It was so silent! The sky was so blue, and the space so empty-feeling. It was hot, but not too hot. We ran around in the sand like little kids, and when we stopped running, all we could hear was our own breath. Really cool. Guess I didn't realize how noisy Korea is until I left it.
Our guides, having done this shtick before, opted to chill for a bit. Incidentally, the Tibetan squat looks a lot like the Korean squat: ;)

Yamdrok Lake

On the first day of our jeep tour, we took a very zig-zaggy, very long road up to see this lovely lake:
Here's me and our guide:
Unfortunately those are the only 2 pictures I took of the lake. I didn't realize we were taking that long drive up the mountain only to see the lake, and that we would then spend another 40 minutes driving back down the same path! I was so overwhelmed by all the tourists up there that we were quite quick to leave, pretty much as soon as we arrived. I can't stand tourist crowds.

Here's a picture of part of the road up the mountains:
It was fun nonetheless, and we got those pictures of the yaks that I posted earlier. I should have taken a picture of my friend hauling herself up the cliff side to get a closer picture; it was pretty funny. I just used the zoom for my pictures. :)

Yakity-Yak

The yak is very important to life on the Tibetan plateau. Most yaks we see are domesticated and a kind of mix between a bull and a wild yak. The farmers use yaks for their yak-power (for farming the fields), meat, skin, hair, bones, and milk (for butter, yogurt, and cheese). Yaks are amazing creatures...surviving the haaa-arsh Tibetan climates year-round, munching grass, and living out in the open. Despite their massive, bulky shape, we saw them tip-toeing daintily (Fred Flintstone-esque) along the most narrow of cliffs! Usually, we'd see yaks with no shepherd, but I managed to snap a picture of this yak-herder through our window as we whizzed by:

I should mention that he looks like a "typical" Tibetan in many ways...in features and in clothing as well. The men often have pretty turquoise earrings and long braids that are wrapped around their heads, interwoven with bright-coloured cloth and large beads. Really beautiful, in my opinion.

And here's me, about to eat a yak burger:
Not bad. Very similar to beef. I also had the privilege of trying Yak Butter Tea, the drink of choice for every Tibetan. Think about this for a second. Yak. Butter. Tea. Yes, it tasted exactly like it sounds. A nice cup of...hot butter. Mmmm-mmmmm!

Mt. Everest

...otherwise known as the "Non-Event."

It's true, we didn't actually get to Everest. Humbug. The road was washed out. Oh well, landslides happen! Sorry to disappoint any hopeful readers!!

This is as close as I got to Base Camp:
I think this is a picture of the great mountain though, off in the distance:
I say I think, because I'm not sure. We did get to see it once, on our way, and so we took pictures, but now all the mountains kind of blend together and I can't be sure which is which. Anyway, we weren't really that disappointed, because (besides just generally being happy go-lucky kind of ladies ;), we had such a phenomenal time driving through the countryside and seeing the little villages and the farmers and peasants along the way. In fact, on the day we were supposed to go to Base Camp, we did something better (in my opinion), which I will tell you about later. Anyway, I'll see Everest next time I go. Perhaps I'll keep on motoring on through to Nepal next time as well.

So, let's back up a second. After arriving in Lhasa, we went to a wonderful tour company owned and operated by Tibetans, and hired a Land Cruiser for a 5-day tour to Everest. Here's our trusty little vehicle, spacious, comfy, and seatbelt-less:

And here's our driver (to the left...a wonderful little dad-like guy who was always laughing and singing and couldn't really speak any English at all), and our guide (to the right...a quiet, friendly brother-like guy with good English):

And here are my lovely friends, enjoying a snooze (one of many) along the way (we usually drove for 5-7 hours a day):I, on the other hand, could never sleep in the jeep, so when I wasn't making faces at the driver to keep him awake (when his 5th Red Bull was starting to wear off), this is what I did the whole time, happy as a clam, I might add:

A note to my uncle who posted a comment about Everest on my previous post: you totally should "drag" yourself to Everest!! All my friends' pictures are phenomenal, and it's really not often that the road is impassable. And the Tibetan side is really easy to climb (to Base Camp anyway), unlike the Nepali side. If you wanted a true challenge, I'd say go for the Nepali side. Then, of course, I'd recommend driving through the Tibetan countryside!!

Hostels

Well, after coming up with no better place to begin than the beginning, I guess that's where we'll start.

But I'll put this picture first, because it's the best one, and I want it at the top of the page. heehee

While in Lhasa, we stayed at this great hostel run by great people (except the front desk people, who, I must say, were not the brightest crayons in the box). On the roof was a sweet little restaurant and deck area, and this was my view every morning as I sipped green tea or orange juice, wrote in my journal, and watched the sun come up over the mountains (ok it was already up but you get the picture!):



Here is the inside:

At the top there was a big skylight (you could walk around it on the roof), and inside you can look all the way down to the ground floor. Great idea!! So many interesting people too, all traveling through or in Tibet for one reason or another.

So, to go back a little, we flew:

...(Air China) since Tibet is under Chinese rule and is regarded as a province of China.

We stayed at this great hostel in Chengdu (China) for 2 nights on the way there, and one on the way back:
And here's my friend along the canal in Chengdu on our first night:
The only thing not great about this Chinese hostel was a bit of disorganization, and this picture, which I hadn't noticed the first time we stayed, but which I certainly did notice on the way back:

Maybe you can't see clearly who that is above the door, but I'll give you a guess: he used to be the leader of China. Email me or comment if you really don't know, although I don't want to put his name here. I'll give you a hint: I really wanted to put a mustache on him, but didn't because (I'm telling the truth), I would've been deported if caught.

I've returned

Dear friends,

I'm back in Korea, and I am safe, sound, and sad. I have never felt so at home in a place as I did in Tibet; it was quite difficult for me to leave Lhasa (capital city where we spent most of our time) on Sunday morning. We climbed on a bus and as we passed the Potala Palace (former residence of the Dalai Lama) one last time, I could not help but cry. Then we passed the Norbulingka (Dalai Lama's summer home), and off into the gorgeous countryside we drove, one last time. I could only comfort myself by telling myself that I'd be back as soon as I was able. The Chinese guy beside me kept asking me in Chinese what was wrong. It was kind of funny. I swear, between living in Korea and traveling in Asia, I am going to be a charades star when I get home!

So, I have over 500 pictures. Who's ready for a year of Tibet posts? *wink wink* Just kidding. Sort of. I feel the Tibetan people need their stories shared, and guess what, you get to be the recipients. I just got back yesterday though, and my mind is still a mess from trying to absorb everything I've experienced and trying to figure out just how I am going to convey my messages and pictures to you. Not only that, but recently there were protests about freeing Tibet in China by some Canadians, and one girl actually got arrested in Beijing just for having a blog about freeing Tibet! Free speech is a novel concept in some places, something that I didn't really understand fully before traveling. I am so full of anger at the injustices I've seen, and I want to tell you all about them, but at the same time, I want to be able to travel in China and Tibet again, and truly I would be inconsolable if I was not able to return to Tibet, so I may just have to leave out some of the most important details, and maybe when I get home I'll give you all a presentation or something.

Well that's all for now. I still have to think about how I'm going to do this, but I will try to put up a post every few days for the next little bit. I hope you will understand by the end of it why I've completely fallen in love with the Tibetan people and their country.