| Steffany's journal: In Lhasa |
[квітень. 22-е, 2006|04:27 pm] |
Ok, this is my first post on this journal and I am overwhelmed by how much has happened in the last week and a half (since I joined up with this wonderful, crazy crew)... Leonka keeps trying to get me to write on here and to write in my journal (the paper one he bought me) but I have been so absorbed in the present that I can't seem to sit down to write about the past... but here i am at the internet cafe, so where do I start? Oh, I'm Steffany by the way... the girl from the Evil Empire who's lived in China for the last 4 years, recently depressed and feeling lost and hopeless, praying for something to reawaken my love for life, my whimsical, self-confident side (I think my prayers were answered!!!!)... now trying her best to translate and bargain our way from Xining, Qinghai province (where I met up with the taburet [taburet="stool" in Ukranian] crew) to Lhasa and on to Nepal.
So, backwards...
We just arrived in Lhasa last night, er this morning (1:30am). I caught a glimpse of the Potala Palace (seems most people don't know what that is... so i'll tell you... its where the Dali Lama(s) lived, and his government was based, prior to his flight to India, now its a museum) when Vika and I went hunting for a shower early this morning (we really needed it after 10 days!). I am amazed at how Chinese Lhasa is, the Tibetan people here speak better Chinese than the Tibetans in the neighboring supposedly more "Chinese" province of Qinghai, and although all street signs and government signs should be bilingual here, the Chinese writing dominates all signs while the Tibetan is in tiny, barely legible writing across the very top of the sign (what would Quebecers think of that, eh?)... I have heard that the population of Lhasa is now 50% Chinese and I definitely feel that we are in a Chinese city, it is really quite heart breaking. But we met many older (40-60's) Tibetans (speaking excellent Chinese)out early this morning with their prayer beads and hand-held prayer wheels to take a morning walk around the Potala.
So far in Lhasa I have seen one side of the Potala from several blocks away, the entrance to the Norbulinka (the Dali Lama's summer palace, which strangely is only a few blocks from the Potala, I always imagined it would be in the hills outside the city) and the barred gate of the Nepali embassy, which of course is closed on Saturdays! arrr!!!! Poor Vika's China visa expires tomorrow and we can't get a Nepali visa for her until Monday.... oh yeah, and we are in Tibet... uh... without visas... hee hee hee... we snuck in the back door, straight south from Xining, not through Geermu where you have to buy a 2000 yuan (1 yuan=8.3USD) visa for the Tibetan "Autonomous" Region (which is only half of "Tibet", the rest is in Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces).
For any of you who care to look at a map or are familiar with the region, we basically went Xining-Yushu-Nangxian-Louwuqi (near Changdu, its the first town inside the T.A.R.)-Dingqing-Naqu-Lhasa, travel time= 10 days, if we went through Geermu I think it would have been about 3, but we wouldnt have (in no particular order) seen all the beautiful mountains, plains, gorges, fashionable yaks (in Kham and Weizang--that is in the T.A.R. area they like to dress their yaks in uh... little "jackets"??), stayed in a monastery (Karnong Monastery, 100 or so km north of Yushu) for 2 days, had our altitude sickness nursed by a monk doctor, sat in on the monk's debate practice, built a snow fort and had a snowball fight at 4,880 meters, lost the taburet for a few hours (when Leonka and Volva forgot it in a jeep on the way to the monastery after I neglected my "taburet duty" (we each take turns to carry and look after the taburet for one day) and left it with the boys to run ahead and throw my backpack on a tractor...long story... poor Leonka spent the afternoon freezing on the back of a motorcycle as a kind monk drove him all over the area searching for a "stool" that the poor confused monks couldnt comprehend what was so important about it... only to return disspondently and empty-handed to find that the jeep driver had already returned the stool to the monastery hours ago... ooo was he happy to see it, big big hugs--- for us and for the taburet), met wonderful people who have helped us so much all along the route so far, gone skinny dipping in whatever river is just outside of Nangxian, seen the "shai jing shi" on the banks of the Tongtianhe (Tongtian river)---into which Tangsen and Jubajie fell from heaven and then were attacked by the giant demon turtle king (from the ancient Chinese classic "Journey to the West," also known as "the monkey king story"),seen the stars touch the ground on the plains at night outside of Lhasa, slept on the floor of an empty bus, felt the most silly-smiled contentment that I have possibly ever felt, all while bumping along on a road like the Green Bay road (in Sandpoint, Idaho, USA... really nasty, almost impassible dirt road) for 3 days.....
So, our plan now is to contact one of our monk friends (who we met in Xining) who has just returned to Sera monastery (just outside Lhasa--one of the most important, if not THE most important monasteries in Tibetan Buddhism) and head over to see him, as well as one of my old classmates from my time at the minority ethnicity university in Beijing, Yuanding Zhuoma, and hopefully meet up with some of Leonka's friends from Kiev who are bringing a care package of Ukranian Vodka and other goodies (some kind of super sweet milk stuff that's supposed to be heavenly), see the other sights around Lhasa, take care of banking and money changing issues, get Nepali visas for the few of us who don't have them yet, try to get Vika out of the country as quick as possible, try not to get caught staying in a hotel not approved for foreigners (we have to sneak in and out through a restaurant), and then head off to the border on our way to Khatmandu...
I will try to post again once I get to another internet cafe... either en route to Khatmandu or in Khat.
'Til then!
Peas,
Steffany |
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| Comments: |
From: (Anonymous)
2006-04-22 11:08 am (UTC)
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Hi Steff, He talked you to into it :) You started writing this diary! Leonka is the one, who can talk people into many things! Hope he & the gang :) will light up your soul and you will never feel depressed and feeling lost and hopeless, praying for something to reawaken your love for life, your whimsical, self-confident side etc...... Keep on writing, we do worry about all of you there. Take care, good luck! My best regards to Leonka, Mirek and all of you. Sergej Dementjev
From: (Anonymous)
2006-04-26 05:32 am (UTC)
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Dear Steffany, your journal is a very good practice in English for us ( pleasure & use ). Please, go on :) | |
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