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Posted On Tuesday, September 25, 2012 at
at
6:30 PM
by Alvin
It had been an amazing 3 weeks that we spent in these extraordinary lands - gasping for air and slowly getting used to the high altitude, mesmerised by the pilgrims and worshippers, rewarded with stunning vistas and beautiful temples with every turn we made and last but not least, the special atmosphere that was so distinctive and memorable. I would just say it with a few pictures. Enjoy !
Posted On at
at
2:11 AM
by Alvin
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Lhasa - the city was easy going, well-planned, colorful and atmospheric; we bid our fond farewell and boarded our overnight train to the Province of Qinghai (青海). But hey, this was no ordinary railway, it's the Tibet-Qinghai Railway (青藏鐵路), almost 2,000KM all the way to Xining (西寧) ! This mega-railway took almost 100 years from the initial planning stage to the present day mass-transit, run-of-the-mill passengers/cargoes daily routine runs from all over China. The modern Lhasa we saw was to a large extent the results of the closer connections between Tibet and the rest of China.
China's engineers took years to overcome the many problems in building such marvellous railways - problems such as permafrost (凍土), Tibetan wildlife preservation, health problems for construction engineers at high altitude, earthquakes and passengers safety. We took up our "hard seats" in a compartment full of migrant workers, very few tourists and a couple of odd balls - a 30 years-old man from Chengdu sitting opposite to me actually WALKED from Chengdu to Lhasa in 80 days, sometimes walking overnight, yeh, he got a sun tan alright. He collected a mini-ruck-sack full of fist-size rare stones which I presumed he planned to sell the stones when he got back to Chengdu ... This same guy had some intellect (a Finance Graduate) as we discussed the China GDP, Japanese harassment of Diaoyu Island as well as exchanging investment tips - hey you never know who you would meet on an overnight train, eh ?
Our train journey took 24 hours from Lhasa to Xining and we passed through stations with poetic and melodic-sounding names such as 古露, 沱沱河, 那曲- but a close hard look at some of them, we would discover they were a one-street town with one bar, one hostel, one public bath house and one grocery shop. The mountain and high plain scenery was desolate one moment while the sky darkened and glorious another moment when the sun shone. The skies looked big, the lakes took on a different hue at this high altitude and the animals (we saw Tibetan antelopes 藏羚羊, Tibetan foxes 藏狐 as well as yeb Tibetan hares 藏兔 and countless yaks 牦牛) unfazed by our 80-KM-speed train zipping quietly pass. One interesting moment during the train journey was that when we went by the highest mountain pass (唐古拉山口 at 5,072M), the small talks on the train went distinctly quiet, as every passenger felt the lack of oxygen !
Arriving at Xining at around 9A.M. was a mixture of relief as we finally had time to stretch our legs and straighten our necks, and sadness as we had to part ways with the interesting characters we shared the past 24 hours in the "cosy" compartment - a polite and cheeky boy who ate junk foods non-stop (his motto : foods are just yummy toys) and his dotting mother, the famous 80-days hiker I mentioned earlier, city girls showing-off their proud Tibetan shoppings as well as the many hard-working but tired-looking migrant workers. For lunch, we rewarded ourselves with bowls of the famous Xining mutton-soap noodles (羊雜碎/羊腸麵) and spent the next few days relaxing and visiting the sites in Qinghai such as 青海湖二郎劍, 西寧土樓觀, 青海博物館, 東關清真大寺 and 西寧南山公園.
Posted On Monday, September 17, 2012 at
at
7:56 PM
by Alvin
The journey from Linzhi (林芝) to Lhasa (拉薩), although lasting 8 hours, was an enjoyable ride as we passed vastly different landscapes, colorful Tibetan villages and a few mountain passes at over 5,000M ! We arrived on the eastern fringe of Lhasa at about 6P.M. and slowly acclimatised to our new height of 3,700M ! Feeling alright the next morning and we ventured (again very slowly) across town for a bit of "hotel shopping" and we found this Bin Guan with a magnificent side view of The Potala Palace (布達拉宮) ! The Potola Palace would definitely rank as one of the most dramatic and imposing man-made structures we had experienced - the colors, location and day-long worshipping crowds (going clock-wise of course) performing their daily rituals of 轉經輪 and 轉山 combined to give the palace a very special atmosphere. We queued a day before for the tickets to visit the palace and although lasting only an hour, the palace's internal alleys, giant sacred stupas, statues from another age and the smell of yak oil would linger in our memories long after.
The following 8 days we visited the many temples and monasteries around this holy city - Jokhang (大昭寺), Sera (色拉寺), Drepung (哲蚌寺), Samye (桑耶寺) etc. and we thoroughly enjoyed the lake and mountain scenery. We saved some relaxing time-out for a pleasant stroll along the river valleys of Lhasa (拉薩河) and Yarlung Zangbo (雅鲁藏布江) and of course, a spot of shopping and haggling around Barkhor Square(八廓街) - Mandy bought a characteristic yak-head silver necklace. Also, we had countless delicious dinners of yak and mutton at the neighbouring Tibetan restaurants. All this last minute relaxation was to prepare ourselves for the 24 hours "hard seat" train journey of a lifetime on the impressive and scenic Tibet-Qinghai Railway (青藏鐵路) to Xining (西寧) in the Province of Qinghai (青海) !
Posted On Thursday, September 6, 2012 at
at
7:07 PM
by Alvin
It took some planning (years !) and we finally realised one of our dream journeys - Tibet (西藏) ! We came in on the Chengdu flight to the relative lowlands of Eastern Tibet (林芝), an easy 2,900M to acclimatise the altitude and the bright sunlight. The flight was scenic as we passed through numerous snow-capped mountains and the tiny (one baggage carousel) Linzhi Airport (林芝 米林) was welcoming, with a mild 20 degrees Celsius. We based in the new town of (八一鎮) and the fresh air and blue sky was invigorating. Linzhi was located relatively low at 2,900M, we did not feel much side-effects (headaches etc.), but to be safe, we went about town real slow, man (eat slow, talk little and each step taken in suspended motion) ! We felt a good vibe in this town and we stayed for 4 days to explore the valleys and temples.
We strolled along the cheerful milky green river of 尼洋河 on the first morning for 2 hours and arrived at the temple of 林芝尼洋閣. A funny side-note was that we actually scrambled up the back gate of the temple and the nice ticket collector man let us off and we left the temple grounds via the front entrance ! We spent the next two days venturing further to the town of 鲁朗鎮 and the temple of 喇嘛岭寺 and along these bus journeys, the mountains shone and the rivers sparkled in the clear pristine air. We expected more of the same as we would travel to Lhasa (拉薩) tomorrow - an 8 hours' bus ride.
It had been an amazing 3 weeks that we spent in these extraordinary lands - gasping for air and slowly getting used to the high altitude, mesmerised by the pilgrims and worshippers, rewarded with stunning vistas and beautiful temples with every turn we made and last but not least, the special atmosphere that was so distinctive and memorable. I would just say it with a few pictures. Enjoy !
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Lhasa - the city was easy going, well-planned, colorful and atmospheric; we bid our fond farewell and boarded our overnight train to the Province of Qinghai (青海). But hey, this was no ordinary railway, it's the Tibet-Qinghai Railway (青藏鐵路), almost 2,000KM all the way to Xining (西寧) ! This mega-railway took almost 100 years from the initial planning stage to the present day mass-transit, run-of-the-mill passengers/cargoes daily routine runs from all over China. The modern Lhasa we saw was to a large extent the results of the closer connections between Tibet and the rest of China.
China's engineers took years to overcome the many problems in building such marvellous railways - problems such as permafrost (凍土), Tibetan wildlife preservation, health problems for construction engineers at high altitude, earthquakes and passengers safety. We took up our "hard seats" in a compartment full of migrant workers, very few tourists and a couple of odd balls - a 30 years-old man from Chengdu sitting opposite to me actually WALKED from Chengdu to Lhasa in 80 days, sometimes walking overnight, yeh, he got a sun tan alright. He collected a mini-ruck-sack full of fist-size rare stones which I presumed he planned to sell the stones when he got back to Chengdu ... This same guy had some intellect (a Finance Graduate) as we discussed the China GDP, Japanese harassment of Diaoyu Island as well as exchanging investment tips - hey you never know who you would meet on an overnight train, eh ?
Our train journey took 24 hours from Lhasa to Xining and we passed through stations with poetic and melodic-sounding names such as 古露, 沱沱河, 那曲- but a close hard look at some of them, we would discover they were a one-street town with one bar, one hostel, one public bath house and one grocery shop. The mountain and high plain scenery was desolate one moment while the sky darkened and glorious another moment when the sun shone. The skies looked big, the lakes took on a different hue at this high altitude and the animals (we saw Tibetan antelopes 藏羚羊, Tibetan foxes 藏狐 as well as yeb Tibetan hares 藏兔 and countless yaks 牦牛) unfazed by our 80-KM-speed train zipping quietly pass. One interesting moment during the train journey was that when we went by the highest mountain pass (唐古拉山口 at 5,072M), the small talks on the train went distinctly quiet, as every passenger felt the lack of oxygen ! 
Arriving at Xining at around 9A.M. was a mixture of relief as we finally had time to stretch our legs and straighten our necks, and sadness as we had to part ways with the interesting characters we shared the past 24 hours in the "cosy" compartment - a polite and cheeky boy who ate junk foods non-stop (his motto : foods are just yummy toys) and his dotting mother, the famous 80-days hiker I mentioned earlier, city girls showing-off their proud Tibetan shoppings as well as the many hard-working but tired-looking migrant workers. For lunch, we rewarded ourselves with bowls of the famous Xining mutton-soap noodles (羊雜碎/羊腸麵) and spent the next few days relaxing and visiting the sites in Qinghai such as 青海湖二郎劍, 西寧土樓觀, 青海博物館, 東關清真大寺 and 西寧南山公園.
The journey from Linzhi (林芝) to Lhasa (拉薩), although lasting 8 hours, was an enjoyable ride as we passed vastly different landscapes, colorful Tibetan villages and a few mountain passes at over 5,000M ! We arrived on the eastern fringe of Lhasa at about 6P.M. and slowly acclimatised to our new height of 3,700M ! Feeling alright the next morning and we ventured (again very slowly) across town for a bit of "hotel shopping" and we found this Bin Guan with a magnificent side view of The Potala Palace (布達拉宮) ! The Potola Palace would definitely rank as one of the most dramatic and imposing man-made structures we had experienced - the colors, location and day-long worshipping crowds (going clock-wise of course) performing their daily rituals of 轉經輪 and 轉山 combined to give the palace a very special atmosphere. We queued a day before for the tickets to visit the palace and although lasting only an hour, the palace's internal alleys, giant sacred stupas, statues from another age and the smell of yak oil would linger in our memories long after.
The following 8 days we visited the many temples and monasteries around this holy city - Jokhang (大昭寺), Sera (色拉寺), Drepung (哲蚌寺), Samye (桑耶寺) etc. and we thoroughly enjoyed the lake and mountain scenery. We saved some relaxing time-out for a pleasant stroll along the river valleys of Lhasa (拉薩河) and Yarlung Zangbo (雅鲁藏布江) and of course, a spot of shopping and haggling around Barkhor Square(八廓街) - Mandy bought a characteristic yak-head silver necklace. Also, we had countless delicious dinners of yak and mutton at the neighbouring Tibetan restaurants. All this last minute relaxation was to prepare ourselves for the 24 hours "hard seat" train journey of a lifetime on the impressive and scenic Tibet-Qinghai Railway (青藏鐵路) to Xining (西寧) in the Province of Qinghai (青海) ! 
It took some planning (years !) and we finally realised one of our dream journeys - Tibet (西藏) ! We came in on the Chengdu flight to the relative lowlands of Eastern Tibet (林芝), an easy 2,900M to acclimatise the altitude and the bright sunlight. The flight was scenic as we passed through numerous snow-capped mountains and the tiny (one baggage carousel) Linzhi Airport (林芝 米林) was welcoming, with a mild 20 degrees Celsius. We based in the new town of (八一鎮) and the fresh air and blue sky was invigorating. Linzhi was located relatively low at 2,900M, we did not feel much side-effects (headaches etc.), but to be safe, we went about town real slow, man (eat slow, talk little and each step taken in suspended motion) ! We felt a good vibe in this town and we stayed for 4 days to explore the valleys and temples.
We strolled along the cheerful milky green river of 尼洋河 on the first morning for 2 hours and arrived at the temple of 林芝尼洋閣. A funny side-note was that we actually scrambled up the back gate of the temple and the nice ticket collector man let us off and we left the temple grounds via the front entrance ! We spent the next two days venturing further to the town of 鲁朗鎮 and the temple of 喇嘛岭寺 and along these bus journeys, the mountains shone and the rivers sparkled in the clear pristine air. We expected more of the same as we would travel to Lhasa (拉薩) tomorrow - an 8 hours' bus ride.
