Tibet, Lhasa

I am happy to say that we were wrong. We had thought that the process of getting into Tibet would involve more red tape than a job in the securities industry. Instead the process of getting into Tibet was almost easy. It seems that the only thing that is really necessary is a willingness to pay the fees.

We flew from Bangkok to Cheng-du. Once in Cheng-du we were able to buy our tickets and obligatory tour to Lhasa. This took only one day to organize and the following day we were in Lhasa.

The city of Lhasa is in many ways not what I expected to see. The small city on the roof of the world does not have dirt roads and yaks in the streets. Lhasa is a mostly Chinese city now. The street signs and most of the businesses are also Chinese. In many ways Mandarin is a more useful language than Tibetan. However, once you are in the Tibetan section of the city things change. Monks and pilgrims walk in a steady circle around the Jakhang. The Potala still dominates the city.

In many of the temples around the city construction is taking place to rebuild what had previously been destroyed in the Cultural Revolution.

The initial ease with which we had arrived in Tibet did lead us into a false impression. Several days after we entered Lhasa we decided to go to the Sanye monastery, about a four hour bus ride. We had however neglected the fact that outsiders need a permit to travel to this area. We had a relaxing walk through he monastery and enjoyed the relative quiet. However, our dinner did not go as well. In the middle of our dinner the local police came to ask for our permits (the ones we did not have). Fortunately one of our traveling companions speaks Chinese and was able to talk us out of the $100 fine and get us off with only a warning. We have resolved to be more careful in the future.

Tomorrow we will leave on a three day trip to the lake of Nam-tso. (We have checks and we do not need a permit).

It is great to hear from people when we are on the road so any news from home would be welcome.