30 HOUR TRAIN TRIP

We left Lhasa by train - 30 hours which flew by as we shared our cabin with J&M from Germay, a great couple. We shared our carriage with a 'inch high private eye' who pretended to take pictures from just outside our cabin whilst eavesdropping, when he continued to take pictures as we entered a tunnel, we smelt a rat! Needless to say we all punctuated our conversation with 'oh travel in China is fantastic, oh yes the people are so overwhelmingly friendly, those steamed buns were sensationally good'.

CULTURAL GENOCIDE?

The riots in Urumji took place whilst we were in Tibet. The army presence swelled noticeably on the streets of Lhasa, rather amusingly the khaki clad brat pack swept the streets to keep themselves busy, but locals knew why they were there. They also knew that Uighurs would be rounded up indiscriminately after the rioting - this had happened in Lhasa last year. Both cities have seen massive resettlement of Han Chinese by the authorities in Beijing into these areas. Lhasa is now primarily a modern Han Chinese City, this has meant better roads, hospitals and daily flights from the mainland and a train stacked with oxygen trawling 30 hours across the tibetan plateau. This not only moves tourists around in large numbers, it also supports many cargo trains allegedly dispatching minerals back to the mainland.

The Tibetan people are not 'free'. They can attend their monasteries, and make pilgrimages across the land, but they cant acknowledge their leader - its like Roman Catholics not being able to display images of the Pope.

We are able to write and post this from HK, didn't feel comfortable writing this in China, and the trojan horses attached to many chinese computers scared us off from cybercafes.

12 DAYS IN TIBET

Shigatse monastery

Thangka at Tashilhumpo monastery

Yamdrokso lake

The Jorkhang in Lhasa

and again

and again

Everest north face, struck gold with the weather

The general at EBC

Well considering China 'peacefully liberated' Tibet in 1959, there's an awful lot of army and police in Lhasa. Phew, good job it wasn't a violent takeover.

So, just to recap, for travel in Tibet, you need special permits in place before you can buy rail or flight tickets. When you get there, you have to have a guide, who is needed to get you into every palace, temple and monastery. You are 'free' to stroll around the capital, but any trips outside will also require a driver, again with special permissions. Your movement will be monitored by aforementioned army and a selection of 'inch high private eyes', who try way too hard to merge into the background.

Before arriving, we thought the Potala - the old winter palace and seat of government of the Dalai Lama - was the focal point of the city - but this is not the case. The Potala is now a museum, filled daily with large tour groups from the mainland, cramming into the narrow corridors, ironically flashing peace signs as they have their pictures taken . There are no monks, and of course there is no pictorial reference of the Dalai Lama, everything has been removed - Tibetans deal with this by believing that statues of the Buddha of Compassion are the 14th Dalai Lama, who now resides in Dharamsala, Northern India. I was intrigued to see 'Armitage Shanks' toilets used within the palace, and felt a little homesick, after Westerns turmoils in SW China, I was tempted to take out my old copy of Obsever Sports Monthly, and close the door.....

The Jorkhang Temple & the Barkhor is the engine of the Tibetan sector of the city. Its a truly fabulous place - one of those travel experiences where you really feel you have arrived on a completely different planet. Tibetan pilgrims walk or prostrate themselves around the temple in a clockwise direction - from dawn to dusk - this is known as the Kora - most spinning prayer wheels and prayer beads. We could have sat and observed for days, no kidding. The Chinese army are at their petty best, by walking anti-clockwise around the same temple, it gave Western & Kiss the opportunity to hum the opening bars to Laurel & Hardy everytime they came past. The pilgrims come from all over Tibet, and their dress reflects this, the faces uniformally weathered, hair braided or platted, the Khampa being the most striking, the men with red hair bands, and the women with headdresses of turquiose and amber.

Outside of Lhasa, on our 6 night excursion, we got to visit a couple of outrageously blue lakes (sacred to the Tibetans, but fishing locations to the Chinese), spend a wonderful couple of days in Shigatse where the annual unveiling of a huge embroidered Thangka drew thousands of devotees, and a trip to Everest base Camp. 12 years previously, Western, Kiss and Sherpa Moore walked for 12 days to get to the Southern Base Camp - hard work and very cold.....on this side you can take a jeep all the way there. The views are unhindered this side, however, the effort from the Nepalese side ensures you value the experience more - this (altitude aside) albeit glorious, was just too easy. I have no doubt there will be a road to the top in a few years!

TIBET HERE WE COME

On thursday, we travel to Tibet, 12 days which health permitting will see us visiting remote turquoise lakes, monasteries, palaces and museums, and Everest Base Camp North Face - almost completely accessible by jeep barring I think a 2 hour walk along the glacial moraine. We have obtained our permits and have a guide who will accompany us everywhere except for when strolling around the capital Lhasa. We aslo have a driver (again compulsory) that will fingers crossed eat up the considerable mileage safely. So, so excited about this chapter......

Special thanks to Dave 'The Melting Man' from our London office for these posts, the site is blocked in China.

2 WEEKS INTO CHINA

So, 2 weeks into China, and the highlights so far have been Mr Ma's tour of the wonderful rice terraces at Yuangyang, a region rich in ethnic groups - here we have primarily the Hani (who have carved out these incredible terraces) and the Lisu. He spoke no english, and we no mandarin, but by a selection of interesting sound effects and gestures, we were able to understand this excellent driver. The hill tribes on the whole have been quite shy and are wary of white man with camera, but a few occassionally ask for payment when I request a picture, we never pay.....'no money, no Hani' !

The other notable highlight of the first 14 days has been Zhongdian in the North West of Yunnan province, and its daily communal evening dance, quite beautiful and unstaged unlike the now booming domestic tourist towns of Dali and Lijiang, where once interesting destinations have become highly contrived and manufactured stage sets - there are more old houses now in Lijiang than there were when I was here in 1997. That being said, it was interesting for a day or two to watch the local tourists - normally sporting same colour baseball caps, being shepherded around behind a placard by a loud tour guide.

The Chinese tourist board have renamed Zhongdian 'Shangri La' in a bid to lure more domestic tourists to the area - a dastardly cynical act, but one that appears to be working. I for one will be sticking to the old name! Shangri La had always been Rodney Parade for Western, and for Kiss it had been the Oxo Tower.

BENNY HILL BIG IN CHINA

Sat in a wonderful little cafe in old town Lijiang, 'La petite lijiang', great coffee, home made bread and a fascinating DVD 'arthouse' collection, featuring box sets of Kurusawa, Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, The Coen Brothers and most intriguingly 'Benny Hill - the Naughty Early Years'. Guess which one western & Kiss will be watching if the rain continues to fall! Talking of box sets, I forgot to mention that in Hanoi it was possible to buy the complete lifeworks of Al Pacino for $3.

WESTERNS ROOM 101

Two in the first week in China, short people with umbrellas, "not the eyes, not the eyes", and public toilets in this part of China. I wont go into detail - some of you have heard me rabbit on about the design of these before, lets just say they are far more communal than I would like, and despite the fact that you pay to use them, they are often filthy - nuff said. I am fantasising about Armitage Shanks, a locked door and Observer Sports Monthly.

BORDER CROSSING INTO CHINA 18/06/09

After a smooth departure through Vietnamese immigration, we strolled across the 'Friendship Bridge' - sharing our journey with various local traders popping back & forth. The book was in place (see previous entry), held in position by a travellers elasticated washing line, with hooks on either end tucked into the undies, I was keeping my fingers crossed that a body search was not on the cards. We were met at Chinese immigration and given various forms to fill in, we had our foreheads zapped by a health gun which determined that Ells body temperature was a little too high, we were put into a waiting room, where we were asked whether we had had flu or fever or any contact with Americans - apparently all of these can result in higher temperature! The book was holding its position well, and after 10 mins Ells body temperature was back to normal, we proceeded to baggage scan. Ell straight through no problem, but I was taken to one side - the book twitched. The main backpack was fine, but they wanted me to unpack to daypack. Out came the camera, the laptop, a pack of cards..."Do you have a Chinese Guide Book?", Ell offered the small Berlitz guide book from her bag, not nearly as contencious as the beast strapped around my groin. We were through. There was some mild irritation to the groin (from the book, not the customs officials) - a small price to pay for keeping the guidebook. We grabbed a cracking noodle soup before the 6 hour journey to the extraordinary terraced rice paddies of Yuangyang - a good start.