Monday, October 15, 2007
Paving a Path to Tibet
All we wanted is to get to Tibet.
Well, guess what? It's not so easy as you might think - Permit requires 3 days preparation, talking to the Chinese embassy in Katmandu is useless... they are simply the undisputed kings of the by-the-book beucracy. More hurdles? - only groups are allowed to enter and commute in Tibet, crossing the border took ~30 hours! and you allowed in only after they check your fever, pesticide spray your bags...
We were so happy to have finally enter Tibet, to find out that the first 50km are open solely during nighttime...
Seems like the Chinese are not particularly interested in people visiting Tibet. and for a good reason (more to come on that).
After surviving this 'via dolorosa', our multi-national group (Romanian, Korean, Japan, Swiss, German, Slovakian, Australian) with our nice Tibetan driver called 'Yampi', steered our Jeeps along a muddy dirt road (some flashbacks from other famous 'death-roads' in India and Bolivia), driving through mountain passes up to 5200M and crossing the (literally) breathtaking Himalayan mighty peaks with the famous Mt. Everest at 8810M.
No, we weren't lucky enough to see the actual Everest peak as it was up the skies covered with clouds, but is was impressive as is. We all felt the elevation - low oxygen results with headaches, heavy breath, noxious, few vomited and nearly fainted... Nights are freezing, strong sun at daytime, accommodation is basic and toilets are the worst ('bul-pgiaa').
The nearly 1000Km road (called the 'Freedom Highway') goes between sporadic nomadic villages with authentic mountain people, and spectacular moon-like sceneries of high desert, low on vegetation, rich on water - endless waterfalls and the turquoise 'Yamdrok Tso' lake, colorful Buddhist monasteries and the Himalayan snowy peaks as a perfect background setting.
Among our group was Stelian, a professional National Geographic photographer, with his top-notch equipment - we got friends and managed to see him in action.
Yom Kipur fast went fine (not much of an appetite at this heights anyway) and we finally arrived to the chanting heart of Tibet, Lahsa.
Well, guess what? It's not so easy as you might think - Permit requires 3 days preparation, talking to the Chinese embassy in Katmandu is useless... they are simply the undisputed kings of the by-the-book beucracy. More hurdles? - only groups are allowed to enter and commute in Tibet, crossing the border took ~30 hours! and you allowed in only after they check your fever, pesticide spray your bags...
We were so happy to have finally enter Tibet, to find out that the first 50km are open solely during nighttime...
Seems like the Chinese are not particularly interested in people visiting Tibet. and for a good reason (more to come on that).
After surviving this 'via dolorosa', our multi-national group (Romanian, Korean, Japan, Swiss, German, Slovakian, Australian) with our nice Tibetan driver called 'Yampi', steered our Jeeps along a muddy dirt road (some flashbacks from other famous 'death-roads' in India and Bolivia), driving through mountain passes up to 5200M and crossing the (literally) breathtaking Himalayan mighty peaks with the famous Mt. Everest at 8810M.
No, we weren't lucky enough to see the actual Everest peak as it was up the skies covered with clouds, but is was impressive as is. We all felt the elevation - low oxygen results with headaches, heavy breath, noxious, few vomited and nearly fainted... Nights are freezing, strong sun at daytime, accommodation is basic and toilets are the worst ('bul-pgiaa').
The nearly 1000Km road (called the 'Freedom Highway') goes between sporadic nomadic villages with authentic mountain people, and spectacular moon-like sceneries of high desert, low on vegetation, rich on water - endless waterfalls and the turquoise 'Yamdrok Tso' lake, colorful Buddhist monasteries and the Himalayan snowy peaks as a perfect background setting.
Among our group was Stelian, a professional National Geographic photographer, with his top-notch equipment - we got friends and managed to see him in action.
Yom Kipur fast went fine (not much of an appetite at this heights anyway) and we finally arrived to the chanting heart of Tibet, Lahsa.
# posted by Hanan @ 2:36 AM 
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
