I got into Beijing earlier than expected because of getting on an earlier flight. When I walked out of arrivals there here hundreds of people waiting, many of them with sheets of paper with names of them. I didn’t see my name so I went to the phones and tried to call the hotel on my cell phone. I got through but no English. I will make a very frustrating couple hours short by saying that after several attempts to the hotel and the travel company I finally got someone that was a bit helpful. They had a person contact me then meet me in the airport and get me to my hotel. They told me the regular guide had a problem and could not make it. I was not a happy camper but I was finally on my way to the hotel. When we got there it was a big, 3 star hotel. Not much English spoken and the room, while clean, was getting a bit run down. While I was in the room my guide called me. We talked a bit and I told him I didn’t want to so the Beijing tour since I has seen the same sights before. He said he would meet me in the lobby at 5:50 PM to take me to the train station. After taking a shower and relaxing for a bit I headed out in search of dinner. I walked around a bit on the crowded streets. The hotel was right next to the Central Beijing Railway Station and there were lots of people around. I saw a few places to eat but I didn’t want KFC or fast food noodles so I walked back toward the Marriott figuring I could get a good safe meal there. I walked around it looking for the entrance before I noticed there were no lights on anywhere. It was still being built though the sighs on the roof and sides were lit up as if it were open. I gave up and walked back to the hotel and ate in the restaurant that was attached. The food was quite good but I only ate about half of it before retiring to the room. I wasn’t really tired so I headed to a bar the Perri recommended for a drink. It was a happening place with tons of expats. I net some Australians and shared a few drinks with them while watching a number of beautiful women on the dance floor. I was still a bit tired so I left there after an hour or two and went back to my room to read and go to sleep.

I got up the next day and went in search of gloves and a hat for Lhasa. The night before the zipper on my new jacket had broken so I needed to get it fixed or replaced. I asked the front desk and they had the bellhop take me across the street and down the road to this guy who was sitting on a corner. He showed him the zipper and the gut took the jacket and started working on it. He got the zipper undone and straightened the teeth, then put a new pull on it and made sure it worked. He put the zipper stop back on and it was working great, the price for this service was 5 RMB (about 60 cents US). I went back to the hotel with the bellhop and give him a nice tip then told him I needed to get the gloved and hat. I was afraid it was going to be really cold and I wanted to be prepared. He got me a taxi and sent me to the Pearl Market. This is a 5 story building full of booths with people trying to get you to buy their wares. After negotiating around I ended up with a pair of gloves for 120 RMB and a hat for 20 RMB. I was happy so I left there and went back to the room where I packed and charged up all my devices while I read my book. I met the guide at 5:50 and he took me to the train station. Unfortunately it was not the one near the hotel, this one was a 45 minute cab ride away and is huge. It is the biggest railway station in Asia and let me tell you it was bit.

After waiting in the lounge for almost 2 hours I boarded the train. My ticket is for the top of the line sleeper car, but there are 4 bunks in the car and I didn’t know what to expect. When I to my berth here was al old man sitting on my bunk and three other people including a kid in the compartment. I was afraid I was in with a family of 4 that didn’t speak English. As it turned out three of the people were just wishing one guy goodbye. As the train pulled out I only had one cabin mate, a young guy named Richard from Beijing who is living in Lhasa while doing volunteer work, including teaching English. As the train took off at about 9:30 we chatted for a while then decided to turn in. The beds were narrow but comfortable enough and I slept OK, waking up at around 7:00 in the morning. We had made a stop at some point in the early morning but we were lucky and no one joined out compartment. After getting up I found that there were no showers on the train. So I washed up the best I could and went to the dining car for a cup of coffee. I am not sure what I got, it wasn’t coffee in the regular sense, it was more like a milk coffee, and it came with milk and sugar already in it. While it wasn’t bad, I would have preferred a normal cup of coffee. A couple hours later we pulled into the Xi’an station and waited there for about 20 minutes, again no one joined our compartment. Richard and I went to lunch and ended up with a beef dish that was pretty fatty and not very tasty and a vegetable dish that was mainly tomatoes and some onion. I didn’t end up eating very much but it didn’t bother me. As we were leaving the dining car I ran into a couple from North Carolina. At the next station the guy from N.C. (Frank) and I jumped off the train, he was looking for cards I wanted to find some food and get some toilet paper. I had noticed that the toilet paper in the bathroom was getting low and I was afraid that if it ran out they might not replace it. I mentioned this to Frank and he decided to buy some as well. It turns out it was a good decision as they did run out later that night. So after a few pictures and buying a little food, some toilet paper and a deck of cards we jumped back on the train.

The scenery through this area was quite interesting. It was a very hilly area but all the hills had been terraced to provide arable land. Everywhere you looked there were people working the land. There were also a lot of caves in the sides of the hills. It looked like people were living in the caves because a number of them had doors attached to the entrances. During the afternoon the train kept going through tunnel after tunnel making it next to impossible to read a book, so I took my laptop to the dining car and worked on my blog entries, even thought I probably would not be able to post them for a while. As I was typing people would come up and look at the screen and even sit down next to me trying to read what I was typing but since they couldn’t read English they didn’t have much luck. After a while I finished up and went back to my compartment to read for a while before dinner. Dinner was interesting in that I got to complete one of my private goals. After looking at the English menu and laughing at how wrong it was Richard said something to the woman who ran the food car and she asked us to help her fix it, so we retranslated a Chinese menu into English, making it much better and more accurate in the process. No wonder it was bad, her 12 year old son had done the translation originally. After an interesting by in no way inspiring meal we adjourned to the cabin. I read for a while and then went to watch a DVD that I bought only to realize that my computers DVD player was having problems and wouldn’t play any of them. Instead I listened to some music and went to sleep. We left the blinds open on our window and the stars outside were really bright, you could even see the Milky Way.

The next morning we stopped at a station at 6:30 AM. I thought about getting up to go outside but it looked cold and I was nice and warm so I decided not to do it. We had started climbing and a short while after leaving the station they brought oxygen masks to our compartments. Next to each bed is a port to plug in the mask so you can get additional oxygen. I never used mine but Richard, who was getting a cold, used his and kept it plugged in to add more oxygen to the air of our compartment. At about 9:30 I met Frank and his wife in the dining car for a cup of coffee. Frank wasn’t feeing well but decided it was lack of caffeine and not altitude sickness. It was probably a good thing because altitude sickness sounds pretty bad. Through out the day the PA system on the train would issue a warning about altitude sickness and the symptoms. The system would also regularly tell us about the area we were passing through and how much the Tibetan people had benefited from China’s help and how happy they were about the train coming to Lhasa. It was such blatant propaganda it was actually pretty funny, at leas to the Americans. Richard seems to take it all at face value but then he was working for the Chinese government so I expected as much. Frank and I would joke about it but not when Richard was around.

Through out the day we kept climbing higher and higher. The terrain was open plains that looked really dry and harsh. We say herds of mules and eventually herds of Yaks all over the place. We crossed our highest point on the trip at 5072 meters above sea level. We also passed by the highest rail station in the world at some where around 4600 meters above sea level. The announcements on the train pointed out several times that this was the highest railroad in the world surpassing the railroad in Peru. I will say that the Chinese are very proud of their railroad accomplishments. At one point we went by the highest fresh water lake in the world and it was frozen over as far as the eye can see. Around the banks are hundreds of Yaks and nomadic herders tending to their herds. The train would regularly cross the highway that leads to Lhasa or run parallel to it. During these times we could see people walking along the highway toward Lhasa. After a short walk of maybe 10 feet they would prostrate themselves on the ground, clasp their hands on their heads and then get back up to talk a few more feet and do it all over again. These were Buddhist pilgrims. The rest of the journey into Lhasa was beautiful with large plains surrounded by tall mountains with snow at their tops. We pulled into Lhasa at about 8:30PM.

I was met at the station by my guide Gamphel, and the driver. They welcomed me with a traditional silk scarf and drove me to the hotel. I would be spending 4 nights at the Yak hotel. A questionably 3 star hotel located in the old town. The room was OK, though a bit dated. Beds were as hard as all Chinese beds seem to me but all I cared about was getting a shower. After turning on the hot water and waiting about 15 minutes it finally got warm enough to use. I never really got hot water the entire time I was there but I heard that is because I did not have a room in the better part of the hotel. I believe those code an additional 50 RMB (about $5) a night. Had I know that I would have upgraded but I did not find out until much later. After getting cleaned up I decided to go for a walk and headed down the road for several blocks. I didn’t know it at the time but I just about walked down to Potala Palace, more on that in a bit. Not seeing anything really interesting I walked back and got a bite at a restaurant across the street. I good Yak steak and onion soup. The steak was very good, tender with a lot of flavor.

The next morning I got up and went for breakfast on the 5th floor of the hotel. They didn’t have an elevator so I walked up the steps. At 12,000 feet elevation 4 flights of stairs is a lot. I had to stop on the 4th floor to catch my breath and even then I was a little light headed. I had a basic western breakfast then went down to meet my guide. I wasn’t sure what to expect but instead of having a car we were going to walk to the Jhokang Monastery, which is in the center of the old town. In front of the monastery are hundreds of stalls selling all sorts of items like Yak butter, prayer flags, silk scarves, prayer wheels, prayer beads, horse tack, etc. Directly in front of the monastery are dozens of people praying and prostrating them selves over and over again. Inside the building there is a strong smell, not unpleasant, from the yak butter candles that are burning all over. There are hundreds of people inside praying and walking around to all the shrines to give money and barley and to say a prayer. Some of these people look about 200 years old. We tour the monastery and look at the hundreds of Buddha statues and religious artifacts. Eventually we got to the top floor with the Dali Lama has a residence for special festivals. It was a very colorful place with a great view of the city from the top floor. I couldn’t take pictures inside the monastery but it was OK to take them from the roof.

After the tour I was told that I had the rest of the day to myself. I was a bit disappointed as I was hoping to get more of a tour of Lhasa but I got some lunch and then wandered around the area. There is a large circular path around the monastery that the pilgrims walk. Most pilgrims go in a clockwise direction but a few, from a different sect, walk it counter clockwise. I think they just like being different. Along the entire path are stalls selling everything religious and a lot of tourist junk. I ventured off to the area where they sell Yak butter and other things to the locals. It was really interesting. Unfortunately when going down one section I felt a tug and turn to see a guy heading away from me. On checking he had grabbed my video camera from my bag, but by the time I realized it he was gone and there was no way I could catch him. My biggest regret was that there were some videos from Africa that I had not transferred to my computer yet.

I was pretty upset so I headed back to the hotel to relax and read. I went out to dinner a while later and walked around a bit before calling it an early night.
The next morning I skipped breakfast and met up with Gamphel and the driver, who spoke no English but smiled a lot. We drove to Potala Palace, just a short way from the hotel. This was originally built by the Tibetan kings but was taken over and expanded by the 5th Dali Lama and his predecessors. It now is over 9 stories high and has more than 1000 rooms. It is also the official residence of the Dali Lama, if the Dali Lama were not in exile in India that is. The place is huge and consists of 3 separate sections, the white palace, which I understand is the original part build by the kinks, the red palace which was added by the monks and the yellow palace which was also added by the monks. This tour was going to be a challenge as it was build on a hill and was nine stories high. Since we were already starting out at 12,000 feet it was going to be quite a hike. Luckily we took it slowly, as I saw many westerners doing. Inside the palace was beautiful, there were rooms filled with huge Buddha statues and thousands and thousands of bound "Commandments and Commentaries" the religious documents of Buddhism. There were some amazing works of art like miniature models of some of the other monasteries. We toured the rooms that the 14th Dali Lama, the current one, used to entertain honored guests and other rooms where he would meditate in private. The Chinese have been working to restore the palace and have even returned some of the items they looted after invading Tibet in the 50’s. One of the highlights of the tour is the tombs for the ashes of the 5th through the 13 Dali Lamas. These are huge structures that are more than 25 feet high. They contain more than 3000 kilograms of gold each. It looked like the carvings on some of them had been damaged at some point in time but they were still very impressive. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take any pictures inside the palace but I got some great pictures when we got outside. The views from the tip of the palace are amazing. It commands a view of the entire city of Lhasa and the surrounding mountains.

After the Potala Palace tour I was again on my own for lunch. I got a bite at a place across from the hotel. After sitting down another American walked in and we started to chat. He was working for the Chinese government as a writer and photographer for their internal magazine. He was in Lhasa on holiday to check out the sites and was meeting a friend of his who took the train and would be in later that night. We chatted a bit and then I headed off for my next tour of Sera Monastery. This is another Buddhist monastery on the other side of town. It was pretty similar to the other monasteries that I had seen but the highlight of this one was a show by the monks when they perform some of their chants. Unfortunately it seemed that they monks were taking the day off and so there was no show. I was a bit disappointed but nothing I could do. We walked down to the monastery library where a monk was making copies of the scriptures. To do this they take a plate, of which there are thousands in shelves along all the walls, used a brush to put ink on it, place a sheet of paper on the long narrow printing plate then run a roller over the paper. This guy could do it really fast, knocking out about 20 a minute before turning over the plate and stack of scriptures he had done and imprinting the other side. It was really interesting to watch, you could tell he had probably done it at least a million times. I ended up buying some fabric Mandelas that looked really interesting and we headed out. Back at the hotel my guide told me that I was on my own the next day, but I asked him to meet up with me to help me find some items I wanted to buy.

We met up the next day and went in search of postcards and a few other things. We checked out many places and didn’t find any good cards of Lhasa. We ended up walking the pilgrims’ path and I ended up purchasing a number of things. I won’t go into detail as some of the people reading this may be getting them for Christmas, Birthday or other events. After doing a bit of shopping we headed by bicycle taxi (tuk tuk) to the China Post. I wanted to get stamps for the cards and a few for my travel journal. It turns out the post office had a very large selection of postcards and they cost less than the tourist places wanted so I bought a bunch and headed back to the hotel to write and send them. I met up with the other American for dinner and a few drinks while he waited for his friend to arrive. I was pretty tired and I was feeling a bit under the weather so I took off and went back to the hotel. I was getting a really nasty cold and it was already causing me congestion in the head and chest. I was a bit worried about being at such a high altitude and having a chest cold, I kept waking up during the night with a little difficulty breathing but made it through the night OK. I took it easy the next day, had a little lunch then met the guide and driver for the long ride to the airport.

The airport is 60 kilometers away from the city. It takes about an hour to get there, which is actually shorter than it used to be since China built a tunnel a year ago that cuts off another 20 kilometers of road. Its small airport and check in was fast. We boarded the plane than sat there for an hour at the gate because of weather issues. When we finally got off the ground we hit some nasty turbulence for about 20 minutes. It really shook the plane and had some people a little freaked out. But we got past that and landed in Chengdu where we changed planes and finally made it to Beijing at about 10:30 PM. A person met me at the airport and got me to my hotel where I got my checked suitcases back and headed up for about 5 hours of sleep before getting on a plane for Hong Kong and then Bangkok.

This was a pretty long entry, I hope I didn’t put you to sleep. I don’t know if it came through in the entry, but I think it probably did, I wasn’t that impressed with Intrepid Travel, the company we used to do the Tibet trip. They were responsible for the guides, the accommodations and the transportation. I wasn’t really happy that over 3 days I got about 6 hours at most of guided tours and those were not really that good, or at least I believe they could have been that much better. I would not recommend using Intrepid to tour Tibet, it would be much easier to make the arrangements on your own and I think you would see and do much more that way.