Chinese Version / 中文版本
After the busy traveling yesterday, I had not planned anything for today again. Fortunately, the guesthouse was almost full and the owner Z decided to take a tour today, to let us discover another side of Lhasa! Sadly, S, M and B were leaving for Yunnan today and could not join us. It was indeed very happy to hang out with them in these few days, it made me sad and missed them so much already. But life went on, I followed the group to take the bus to the city center after the farewell.
Z is a very nice travel guide, he only collected 5 RMB/person from us (including public transports fee and food) and he did not earn anything. I was told that he operated this private tour every few days, depended on how many people join the tour. I guessed he was really having fun by taking us out!
We first had a very Chinese breakfast at a restaurant near Bakhor Street. For Hong Kong people, we usually have ABC breakfast combos at local Hong Kong style restaurant. In China, people eat salted/sweetened soy milk, congee without rice, steam buns and oil strips for breakfast, simple but filling.
After breakfast, Z brought us to try the Tibetan Barley Wine (Yup, this happened at 10 in the morning). Even if I will come back to Tibet again, I can never remember the direction to this Tibetan family. As we just wove in the alleys near Barhor Street and they all looked the same to me. Let alone I was inspected by the police around the corner again, it's just so annoying!
The following journey was temples visit. Z brought us to weave in the alleys again, when we hit the main road, we encountered this very small temple. We followed Z to enter inside, I saw 2 groups of lamas sitting in the middle. We were assigned to sit on the side while listening to their sutra recitation. Their voices were very low-pitched with synchronized cadence. This was my first time ever to listen to sutra recitation of lamas, what an authentic and unique travel experience!
Afterwards, we took the bus to leave Lhasa city center and kept on heading to Papongka, which is a temple located in the northern outskirts. We needed to change a truck, which looked so much like a Tuk Tuk, to go up to the hill. Our first stop was to visit the temple. Because of Z, we could sit in the middle and chat with the lama. The lama even helped consecrate our accessories, and I also bought 2 Buddhist prayer beads as the wood smelt really good!
Then we crawled inside the Buddhist practice cave next to the temple. The temperature was pretty cool inside and it dimmed with butter lamps. The most amazing thing was that the big rock inside was miraculously cold, and we even lined up to touch it!
The last stop of the journey was Sky Burial Site. If I did not come with Z, I would never have the opportunity to visit a real Sky Burial Site. Sky burial is a traditional burial custom in Tibetan regions, in which the corpse is exposed on the site and the vultures will come and eat the flesh. We have seen some feathers left by the vultures, it was alleged that the feather would bring good luck to people if they took it!
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| Some ruins in Lhasa city center |
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| Tuk Tuk truck |
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| Overlooking Papongka |
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| The people who joined this private tour |
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| Colorful sutra flags |
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| Sky burial site |
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| Bumped into this little cow |
In the afternoon, we took the bus back to Jokhang Temple Sqaure. Surprisingly, Z took us to Lhasa Namaste Restaurant to have lunch. The curry tasted so delicious that it even lingered in my mouth for hours!
In fact, I was not feeling really well while hiking up and down in Papongka, but somehow I agreed to go to the Tibet Museum with a girl after lunch. We took the bus again, but we got off a stop earlier. As the girl just arrived at Lhasa by plane yesterday, she claimed she did not have any high altitude sickness. But in order not to let myself faint on the street, I did not follow her rocket-speed pace (eventually that girl did not feel well and regretted so much that she walked too fast in the afternoon). There were many exhibits such as Tibetan containers, clothes and decorations in the museum, which I was not very interested in, luckily it was free of charge.
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| Everyone loved this yogurt cake |
Later we did not wander around the city but took a cab straight back to the guesthouse. At first, I was afraid there would be police inspection in the guesthouse and dared not go back earlier. However, J told me the inspection time had passed, I felt a sudden relief at once.
Today, the 3-bed dorm is full and I was arranged to stay at the 5-bed dorm, which costs 40 RMB per night. They even provided dinner and cost 5 RMB per person, it was really a good deal. But one of the dishes was scrambled eggs with cucumbers, which I hated the most in my life!!! Oh god, why couldn't you just treat me better, I hate cucumber!!!
At night, there was another highlight in this trip, that I went out to sing Karaoke with the group. I had never imagined myself singing Karaoke at 3800 meters above sea level, and it proved that people could not hold their breath longer while singing on the highland! That makes so much sense now!
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| Tibetan mask |
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| Looked like an evil version of gingerbread man |
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