Sunday, November 17, 2002
More Photos Available Now
We've been busy building paper scrapbooks for the trip, and I've neglected to add to our web presentation of photos. Tien-Lee took the time to post quite a few to her yahoo photo album.
Michael 9:14 PM
Sunday, October 20, 2002
Scrapbook.
We spent all today organizing the photos and ephemera into a story and gluing it all together in a set of large, luxurious scrapbooks. Not done yet, but made a 60% dent in it. After that I'll have some time to go through the photo scans and start throwing together some more web pages.
Michael 8:43 AM
Monday, October 14, 2002
Monday night, 14 October 2002
After logged off this morning, before I left the internet cum grocery store, our tibetan friends (who own the store) gave each of us a white sash - their symbolic tibetan blessings. We were really touched. Then we went back to the hotel, checked out earlier than we planned and went to the bus station. When we got there at 12pm, the bus was already a third full. It was supposed to leave at 1pm but by 12.30, it was filled and we left. But someone who had left a bag to reserve his seat thought that the bus would only leave at 1, missed it but managed to catch us with us by cab before we got too far. We were lucky that we came when we did. Who knows what time is the next bus?
The journey to the airport was very scenic. About 25 minutes after we had left Lhasa, we smelt cigarette smoke. Somking wasn't permitted in this bus because it was an air-con bus with no windows. The american lady sitting in front of us also smelt it. She and us kept turning trying to see who was the inconsiderate idiot. Finally we spotted the guy and I told her where he was. She started yelling at him in mandarin to quit. The guy just gave a whatever wave and she kept telling him to stop it. By now, the first half of the bus had also turned around to look at what was going on. Finally, he stopped smoking - but during this entire time, he didn't even look up from his newspaper! The rest of the journey to the airport was pretty uneventful.
Anyway this bus that we were on today was one of those new ones. Each of us had to pay Y35. (A lot better than the Y220 taxi or Y600 land cruiser) This is a lot for their standard. So to make our ride more comfortable, after we started moving, the driver played tibetan music over the speaker. It was quite good. Once we got out of Lhasa, he played a VCD. Initially I thought that it was going to be a movie but it turned out to be indian music video. After that, a chinese documentary on the Potala Palace which we found interesting. When I woke up (after a short nap), hokkien karaoke vcd was on!!! The girl in the "music video" was this ugly chinese girl dressed in different bikinis for different hokkien songs. The same went for all her "backup singers and dancers". It was really cheesy. It was weird too because there aren't many Chinese who could speak hokkien here. That was our entertainment for the whole trip.
We managed to check in fine but was given seats way to the back and the plane food sucked and I was really hungry. We didn't have lunch.....just oreo cookies. Halfway through, 2 friends who were not seated together decided to have a conversation with each other from where they were sitting. So for like 15 minutes, we had 2 guys shouting to each other across the plane. They were like 50 seats away from each other. Another thing we noticed was they seemed to carry everything on board. The people here didn't like to check in their lugguges and no one stopped them either. Before the plane took off, people and air stewardesses seemed to be preoccupied with trying to fit everyone's bags and even boxes into the over head compartments. But overall, I was quite impressed with their service. Oh! The view out of the plane window was fantastic too. We could see mountain ranges for most parts of the flight.
When we landed, we got our bags and came out of the airport all pretty quick and relatively easy. The trouble starts when we decided to take a cab. I got to the taxi line and asked the guy how much he wanted to charge me to Traffic Hotel in Chengdu. He said he charged according to the meter. So we boarded the cab. After leaving the airport, he asked me how much did I pay before and where did I come from. I answered his questions and became suspicious when he told me that the minimum was at least 65Y (according to meter). That was rubbish because when we sent Mike to the airport, the meter only showed Y40. I told him that that wasn't right because I took a cab from the same place before only that time it was to the airport. Then he tried to sell me some stupid story that it was cheaper because that taxi was going back to the airport. By now, my internal alarms were going off loud and clear. I signalled to Lee and "told" her that we weren't going to pay more than Y60. I looked at the meter and saw that instead of flipping the starter to the front so that I could see how much it was, he flipped it towards me so that I couldn't see at all. I bent low and peeped and managed to see how much it was. When we got the the city, instead of taking the most direct route, he decided to do a loop and I told him that there wasn't the best way, He insisted that it didn't matter, his way was the same. When we got to our hotel, he stopped us along the road. I quickly bent my head and peeped at the meter. It showed 43Y. But while he was flipping the starter over, I saw him press a button to clear the amount listed on the meter, instead it show 650 and he told me that it was 65Y. I got so pissed and told him not to take me for a fool. I told him that I saw that it was 43.00Y and what he did and 65Y wasn't 650. It should be 65.00Y on the meter. I told him that I wasn't going to pay him what he wanted. I threathened to report him to the police. All this time, he was quiet. I guessed he was stunned too. He didn't expect me to do or say anything. He obediently opened the booth, we took out our bags and paid him 60Y. BBefore he left, I scolded him some more. I said that he shouldn't have cheated us or anybody. It is people like him that gave China Chinese a bad reputation. I also said that I felt embarassed for him. There aren't many people who could be fooled by him. He better stopped all this bullshit or he would get into trouble sooner or later. After giving him a piece of my mind, I left and came into the hotel. The more I thought about it, the more pissed I got. I did consider reporting him to the police since I got all his details down the minute I got suspicious in the cab. But it would probably involve the entire day tomorrow if I do, so I am just going to forget about it but warn other fellow travellers about this kinda of stuns some cab drivers try to pull. I will put a notice up on the board for all to read. =)
All that anger and disgust plus me skipping lunch made me very hungry. After we got our room, we went downstairs and had a relatively good dinner. Nothing much plan for tomorrow. We will just chill out.
Tien-Ling 8:49 PM
Sunday, October 13, 2002
Sunday evening, 13 October 2002 in Lhasa, Tibet
This morning we woke up and it was raining. The sky was still dark at 8am. We got up, brushed our teeth and changed out of our pyjamas. WE didn't get a shower because we were going to check out of Pentoc Guesthouse (they were no more rooms) and check into the hotel (Shang Bala Hotel) just next door. This hotel is a proper 3 star hotel and it is relatively new too. We had already reserved a standard room for Y580 per day. By far, this would be our most expensive hotel for the entire trip. Luckily we were going to stay for a night. So, with the cold rainiy morning and the advantage of not having to run out of our room to the common bathroom, we decided to shower when we checked in.
We were told that we could check in anytime today on the day we reserved the room. But when we went to the hotel at 9am, the reception told us that the room is available but the housekeeping people hadn't come to work yet, so the room wasn't made. Thank goodness we hadn't checked out of Pentoc Guesthouse. We decided to go to Pentoc Cafe for breakfast. We had the breakfast sets which turned out to be quite good deals. Towards the end, we were asked by the cute tibetan cafe manager cum waiter to try 2 different types of butter. One of them was imported from Switzerland and the other was the local yak butter. I like both equally. Lee prefered the Swiss butter. The Swiss butter was like the usual butter we have but the yak butter had a more pungent and distinctive flavour. He told us that a lot of foreigners like the yak butter which is a lot cheaper. I guess the owner (a swiss) is trying to see if she should still continue to import more Swiss but expensive butter or stick with the local cheap one.
Anyway after breakfast, we went to the Barkhor area again to do some last minute shopping and photo taking since it was still early and we couldn't check into the new hotel yet. By then, the rain had already stopped and there was some sunlight. While I was busy taking photos in front of the Jokhang Temple, 3 ladies approached us. She wanted us to return something (Mike's secret present) that we had bought from them about 2 days ago. From their bad mandarin and my horrible tibetan (???hahahahah), the story I got from them was they wanted the thing back because their boss didn't believe that they sold it to me for 100Y. The boss thought that they had pocketed some part of the earnings. I refused coz I bargained it hard for it from 230Y to 100Y. So the story I gave them was I had already given it as a present to a friend who had already left Lhasa to go back to America yesterday. The thing wasn't with us anymore, the "friend" had alrready left and we are leaving tomorrow. There wasn't anything we could do. If they wanted, I could explain the "situation" to their boss. So we followed them back to the stall. They tried to call their boss but he was at the Potala palace and the reception was horrible there. So I left my name and told them that we would come back at 2pm to talk to him since we were planning to stay around that area anyway. We went back at 2pm but he wasn't there, so we told them that we would be back at 3.30pm. He wasn't there again when we went back. So we decided to fix a time for them to meet us at the lobby of our hotel at 8.15pm. Then we went back to the room to take a break after more shopping and photo taking. Shortly after, the reception called us and said that someone was waiting for us at the lobby. Somehow the phone wasn't working properly - we could hear them but they couldn't hear us. So I decided to go downstairs to check it out. I met the guy and it turned out that he wasn't the boss but a relative who could speak English and he explained the whole situation to us. Apparantly the lady's boss bought this item for 500Y, while she was absent, someone helped her to sell it to us for 100Y. The boss was unhappy because he was making a loss. He wanted the lady to buy the thing back from us, but by then, we got to stick to our story and so o told him our "situation" too. I told him if I had known in the first place that it was going to cost so much, I wouldn't have bought it at all. He told me understood and he suggested that maybe we could help by paying a bit more for it and they would figure out how to top up the rest if not the lady would lose her month's salary. He said he wouldn't tell us how much we should top up or we had to or not because it wasn't our fault too. But he hoped that we could give a bit to help her. After he left, Lee and me felt so bad. I decided that I would top up some money but I wasn't sure how much would be a reasonable sum, so I went back to the marketplace to check out the value of this item. From the quotations I got, I didn't pay her too little. But she was really desperate to get the item back so much so that in the morning (thinking that it was still with me) she actually wanted to pay me more than I paid for it. So we concluded that maybe it was already sold to another person. He had already paid for it and wanted his purchase and wouldn't take another one. But who knows? Being the soft-hearted people we were, and she seemed to really be in trouble, I decided to pay her another 50Y. I told her that the maximum I could do and no more. We felt a bit better after that.
After we met them and left them the first time they couldn't get the guy, we went to check out of Pentoc and proceeded to Shang Bala Hotel. The room was great especially the bathroom - so far the best one for this trip. We were so happy that we had a proper bathroom (tons better than Shudu Mansion in Chengdu) that didn't require us to dispose used toilet paper in the dustbin next to the toilet. It also had proper water temperate control - we could adjust it like how a proper one should work. Both of us had such a nice shower and we felt so clean - the cleanest for the entire duration in Lhasa. Then we went for lunch.
Mike's secret present brought us a lot of trouble but it was all worth it. Are you (Mike) looking forward to your secret present? He will update you guys on it when he gets it.
Till then...........Cheers!!!!
Tien-Ling 6:58 PM
Monday, October 14, 2002
Is it suprising I got sick there?
A friend forwarded me this gem today: "According to the Beijing Morning Post, the government in Chengdu, China, shut down a food-processing plant in August after discovering that workers routinely pulled the bones out of chicken feet with their teeth. Workers first boiled the feet in water, then made three slits in the foot with a knife, pried open the skin with their fingers, and removed the bones with their teeth. The fastest workers could go through a foot every five seconds. [Straits Times (Singapore), 8-4-02]"
Michael 1:43 AM
Monday morning, 14 October 2002 in Lhasa, Tibet
Today is our last day in Tibet. Our flight is at 4 this afternoon but we will have to leave Lhasa by 1pm. We are taking the bus and it takes about 2 hours to get to the Gongkar Airport. There is only one bus that leaves from the CAAC office which is like the official air ticketing office and air transport station. We are going to be more "kiasu" (Singaporeans' trademark) so we are going to check out of our luxiourous hotel at 11.45am adb get to the CAAC office by 12pm......so that we will definitely have seats. I hope that the bus won't be late for our flight.
Tibet is a beautiful country with a very interesting and colourful culture. The people here are one of its kind. From my week stay here, they (most) strike me as very religious, simple and easy-going people. They take things easy and find amusement in simple things or events. They are a curious lot of people too. They seem to like to chew gum and sweep the floor a lot. However, there is also a sad side of Tibet. There are a lot of child beggars who don't seem to have anyone to care for them. Some of them smoke and they don't look any older than 9 years old. They play and live on the streets, and feed on food remains left by people. Some of them become quite aggressive (especially at night when it is dark) towards you if you don't give them any money. Lee got a kick in her leg yesterday night after dinner when we refused to give them any money.
This trip is en eye opener for me. It makes me learn to appreciate what I have. The people here have very little but they get by and are happy. Other than the wonderful people I met and friends I made here, there is also the beautiful scenery. The clear blue sky and the partially snow covered mountains that surround the whole place. I will definitely be back here again.....the next time, I will want to come up here by land from Kathmandu, Nepal.
Tien-Ling 10:16 AM
Saturday, October 12, 2002
Street Photography!
Alright! I got my photo scans back from Photo Friend in Singapore. I've posted some of my favorite Street Photography shots after a bit of cropping, scaling, and levelling in Photoshop. Many more are on their way, plus a deluge when Ling gets back from Tibet next week!
Michael 6:12 PM
Saturday evening, 12 October 2002 in Lhasa, Tibet
Yesterday night we had dinner at about 9pm at the Pentoc Cafe again just coz we had already showered (will elaborate on that later) and it was already late. I figured that without a guy with us, we better not wandered outside on our own. And of course, we were also cold and plain lazy. Lee had soup again. This time tomato soup. They took a rather long time to cook her soup. By the time her soup arrived, I had already finished my grilled cheese and ham sandwiches. I went to order another salad with the fantastic dressing and Lee was stunned by my appetite. Actually I also wanted a banana split but Lee said that we were already over our budget for food (100Y) a day. So in the end for desert, I had a peanut butter bar to go. (Still over budget, Lee said over my shoulders) Apparantly not long after dinner, I fell asleep pretty quick and Lee claimed that I was also snoring.
Talking about the shower. So I went and showered first while Lee packed the room. The shower here isn't as bad as I thought it could be. The hot water came on pretty quick but it just became hotter and hotter. When I came out of the shower, the whole bathroom was steamy. Then it was Lee's turn. She tried a different cubicle and the water was just as hot. She claimed that even after she toweled off, there was still steam rising from her skin!!! But both of us felt warm and clean and very happy after that.
We slept very well.....much better than the 180Y per night room at the Snowland Hotel. (we are paying only 80Y per night / 10US$ at this new place) For breakfast, Lee decided that she wanted to be adventurous and we went to Tashi 1 for breakfast. She had their Tsampa porridge and I decided to be safe and had omelete with tomato and onions. When our food came, we were quite surprised. Her porridge wasn't like any porridge we had before and my omelete was quite interesting too. Her porridge looked like cooked minced meat and my "filling" for my omelete wren't in the omelete, it was fresh and put on top on it. Mine was good. Lee claimed hers was too. I tasted it and it tasted a bit like oatmeal. However, the look of it was just too depressing.
After breakfast, we went to the Barkhor Square to do some shopping. We wanted to be their first customers so that we could have more bargaining power. We bought a lot of things today. But we also did one of the hardest bargainings today. I guess because it is Saturday and more people are out so they can fetch a better price for thei wares? But most of the time we managed to meet somewhere.
Interesting things that happened today. We took pictures of 2 monks with a child. When we told them that we would send them the pictures if they would give us the address. That's when all the problems started. First of all, the monk could really understand what I say....he couldn't speak Chinese because he wasn't from the Lhasa city. Secondly, when he finally understood what I wanted with the help of a tibetan translator who understood both languages (a passerby who heard what was going on), he wrote his address in tibetan writing! How am I am supposed to end that here from Singapore? Anyway while we were going to and fro about this whole address thingy, tibetans started to crowd round us. They seemed to be very inquisitive people. They were always curious to see us write.
Another incident happened after purchasing a braclet, Lee tried to put it on for me on the street. An old lady with her gigantic prayer wheel doing her pilgrimage path stopped and looked. She came rather close so that she could see what we were trying to do. When we were done, she looked at us and smiled and continued her journey.
I bought a things from this old tibetan lady in all her glory (her head gear, costume) and she was so happy that she kept hugging me. She was also very happy that she allowed Lee to take a picture of me and her. She was smiling from ear to ear. We were her first customers.
After some hard bargaing and shopping (when Mike was just waking up in Singapore), we went to grab lunch at the Barkhor Cafe so that we caould see the going ons in the square. Took some more pictures.
After lunch, we went to the market place near the Yak Hotel. There were fewer tourists here and they sold mostly their own things. It was still interesting. We noticed that all the butchers wear blue huge aprons. We also saw some of them used a saw to cut the meat. Walking further into the alley, we saw a yak's head in front of the butcher's store. A lot of the stall owners in this alley were tibetans. Towards the end of the alley, we saw some really cool looking stoves that were about knee height and they didn't seem to use gas....from the looks of it, either wood or something similar (yak dung?) .
Interesting things we bought today include a tibetan CD (sounds really good, we heard before we bought), a tibetan game set called sok (that is supposed to be similar to backgammon, i bought with instructions in English) and a small prayer wheel. There were other stuff we bought but these were the more special ones.
Well, we are going off for dinner now. Cheers!!!!
Tien-Ling 6:47 PM
RSS Option Now Available
I've added an RSS option to this blog. This doesn't matter to any of who who don't know what I'm talking about, and can be safely ignored.
Michael 7:00 PM
Sunday, October 13, 2002
Another batch of photos are ready!
I put up another batch of photos, this time dealing with kids and bicycles, two of China's favorite things.
Michael 12:03 AM
Friday, October 11, 2002
Friday evening, 11 October 2002 in Lhasa, Tibet
We got up around 8.15am today. I didn't even know what time I managed to fall asleep last night. I couldn't sleep and kept waking up though Lee slept like a baby. She was really tired. She zonked out at about 10.30pm. We washed our hair and showered.( Lee thinks that she won't won't be doing that for the next 2 days coz we don't have an attached bath.) We packed up and went back to the Barkhor area to take advantage of the morning sun to take some more pictures and , of course, to do some shopping too. I bought a 3/4 sleeves blouse suitable for the tropical weather for 20Y. Went to the Pentoc Guesthouse to check in around 10.45am after basking in the sun on the pavement in front of the temple. It was quite nice - we got warm and did some people watching too. A bee landed on Lee's coat probably because it was yelllow and thought that it was a flower. Hahahahaaahh..................
Anyway, after getting our room key at the Pentoc's, we came back to Snowland to check out. Then took our bags and out them in our new room. The room was probably half the size of the first one (excluding bathroom) but it was definitely cozier. They don't provide us with towels though so luckily we brought our own. But they provide slippers so that you can go take shower in those. Most of the people that stay here are young - a huge majority angmos. Tonight they are showing the movie "Shaw Shank". Maybe we will go watch it and hopefully don't meet anyone who talks too much. We had lunch at the Pentoc Cafe again. We had salad and rosti with 2 fried eggs (Lee said that she missed eggs!!) = 0
After lunch, we walked to the CAAC office to check on the bus schedule so that there is no problem on Monday. I reconfirmed with them that for a 4 o'clock flight, they will leave at 1pm and it won't be late. The people who left today were lucky, they got a proper coach unlike the rockety old bumpy thing that we were picked up with when we arrived. Hopefully we are as lucky on Monday.
From there, we cut across the Airport Hotel and came to the end of the long line of prayer wheels at the base of the Potala Palace. We decided to go against the flow of the pilgrims so that we could take pictures of their front instead of their back. There were also street hawkers but they sold mostly daily necessities. As we were walking, Lee noticed that there were murals and the 6 letters Tibetan blessing painted on the surfaces of rocks behind the prayer wheels near the base of the hill. They were everywhere where the people can get to I guess. When we came to the end (which is actually the beginning) of the long line of prayer wheels, street peddlers with braclets and necklaces approached us. We looked at a few and before we knew it, we were surrounded by at least 10 of them. They all sold the same things - one trying to outdo another by offering a lower price than the one before. It was quite distressing because no other tourists were around and they had no other distractions. Out of sympathy, I bought 2 necklances that I liked (after slashing their asking price by slightly more than half) and Lee bought a necklace she didn't like but still figuring out who to give to. They were eager to do our business because we were their first customer. If the business deal didn't get done, it meant that they would have bad business the entire day. After that, we tried to "escape" from those we didn't buy from by hailing a rickshaw to take us to Lhasa Hotel. Even when we were on the rickshaw moving off, some of them were still pushing their wares to us. Anyway, the rickshaw rider was trying to rip us off too. He wanted to charge us 10Y which I refused and he lowered it to 6Y which is the market rate here.
Lhasa Hotel was okay. But I think a lot of elderly angmos stay there. We saw a bus full of them as we walked into the hotel. The whole idea of visiting this hotel was to go to the souvenir shop so that we can get a rough idea of the prices of certain things so that we wouldn't be ripped off when we bargained. After that, we walked back towards the direction of the Potala because Lee was still stuff. Actually we wanted to take a minibus but there wasn't any bus stop in sight and moreover we didn't know what number we could take. So in the end, we decided to take a trishaw. We stopped one and guess how much he tried to charge us ---- 20Y!!!! That was daylight robbery. Even the taxi was cheaper. They had a flat rate of 10Y anywhere in the city. I told him that he had to be kidding and taking a cab would be cheaper. Immediately, he lowered his price to 10Y. By then I was pissed that he tried to rip us off and I told him that I wouldn't him anything more than 6Y. He got pissed and left. So we continued our journey on foot again. After a while, we decided to try hail another trishaw. This time the guy was more reasonable. He wanted to charge us 8Y. We agreed and hoped on. It was quite a long ride and he explained that the most direct route was out of bounds. We felt bad that he was so skinny and we were so heavy so when we reached our hotel, we decided to reward him and gave him 10Y instead. He was very plesantly surprised and kept thanking us.
One interesting thing that we noticed (Lee first to do so) was people always say hello or hi to me in English, child beggars came to me for money (in fact, one grabbed my thigh today in front of the temple and wouldn't let go) because they asumed that I am angmo due to my hair colour. We also overheard a group of students cycling behind us asking or telling each other that there was a foreigner (me) on the trishaw. They were always surprised when they walked past, turned, looked and realised that I am a Chinese.
After the trishaw rider dropped us off at the hotel, we went to the area around the Jokhang Temple again. This time we saw about 13 people in rows of 5 or 6 , each holding a stick in their hands, on top of one part of the roof singing and stomping as they went. The entire procedure was very uniform. Someone (some long hair Hongkonger) later told us that what they had in their hands was actually a flat stone attached to the wooden stick. They pounded the flat roof with these as part of the roof repair process. They sang as they went along because it made their job easier. I think Tibetans like to sing and music plays an important part in their life.
This time we went against the usual flow of traffic. Reason being to take better pictures and because of the light too. We also managed to do some shopping. We bought some Tibetan aprons and a Tibetan door covering for Wei. Then we proceeded to chill out at the Barkhor Cafe which is on the second floor overlooking the Barkhor Square. We ate again because I was hungry. We had tibetan fried rice, potato chips and hot lemon honey tea. The food was good and I was happy. = )
We haven't thought about what to eat yet because we are still full.....I suggested ice-cream and Lee freaked out. We will see. Will continue to update. Keep checking .......Cheers!!!!!
Tien-Ling 6:26 PM
Thursday, October 10, 2002
Thursday night, 10 October 2002 in Lhasa, Tibet
This morning was the much anticipated trip to the famous Potala Palace. The weather is a lot better than yesterday - the sun is out, bright and sunny. Once we got there, we were just awed by the magnificent sight in the bright morning sun. It looked majestic from all angles, perched high up on the hill. So we got down from our minibus and started the long and winding journey up the uneven stony path up to the palace. Trying to walk up there was no easy feat though the view of the city below and the mountains beyond were great. Halfway through, I thought my heart was going to give way. I was so breathless and I was just walking! It also didn't help that I was carrying 3 cameras in my Gortex jacket and a backpack. Halfway up the winding, steep and stony path, everyone began to take off their coats. Finally (after I was about to give up hope that it wasn't going to end soon) we reached our destination - the entrance to the palace. Lee went to purchase the tickets while I sat on the floor trying to catch my breath and rest my sore soles. Lee came back and told me that the entrance fees per person has increased from Y40 (reference from Lonely Planet) to Y70!!!. This was, so far, the most outrageous increase. Well, after torturing ourselves climbing up the whole way, even if it is a hundred per person I am going to pay.
When everyone was ready, we went into the first wing of the palace known as the red palace. I thought the climbing was over. We climbed many more flights of stairs before we get to the palace proper. The monks either had very small feet or the stairs were made poorly. They were really narrow and steep. I also concluded that they were also very fit climbing stairs and the steep paths to get from place to place. The palace was huge but I didn't take any photos in the palace because you have to pay a huge amount to do that. I figured that I could probably get a book that had all those pictures. (In fact we did get a pretty good one in the shop next to our hotel. Tried to bargain for less but she won't do it, so we bought it for Y66)
There are many interesting thing about the palace. We learnt that the Potala Palace is also known as the Winter Palace of the Dalai Lama. There are 2 wings known as the Red palace and the White palace. There are many chapels in the palace - some contains sandalwood statues of the different types of Buddhas, some contain stupas. Stupas are kinda like shrines (replica of them -statues) of the 13 dalai lamas who had passed on. Each dalai lama had their own stupa. Every dalai lama also had their own TOMB stupas which are different from the stupas mentioned earlier on. Their tomb stupas as the name implies contain their ashes (put inside the stupa). These tomb stupas are more like huge sculptures with huge rectangular bases and cone shaped tops.They are made of solid gold and silver (considered by the Tibetans as sacred metal) with embedded gems. The most magnificent tomb statue is 12.6m high and had 10 000 gems embedded in it. It was beautiful.
Another interesting fact we learnt - all the dalai lamas were all reincarnated from the first one. Apparantly after the first dalai lama passed on, the high lamas had a period of 2-3 years to look for the reincarnated dalai lama. Before they could look fro him, they would go to a holy lake somewhere in Tibet ( I had forgotten). By throwing precious gems in the lake, the holy lake would reveal the location of the next dalai lama to the high lamas. From there, they would go in search of the next dalai lama in the revealed location. A few kids with unique gifts would be selected and the final one would be chosen by the tools he picked from a range of tools laid in front of him. For example, if the deceased dalai lama's favourite object was the paintbrush (? - just an example), the reincarnated dalai lama would also choose the same object. I would have to look up more on that topic.
From the palace, we paid another Y10 to go up to the roof of the red palace. The roofs are all gold with many elaborate cravings and statues of the snow tigers which were considered by the Tibetans as protectors. The roof top also offers a great view of the city below which we were told that the whole area in front of the Potala palace was actually a lake years ago.
These are only a few of the many interesting things we learnt and saw. There are so many others, too much to be written all at once.
After finishing the tour round the palace - though a lot of rooms are out of bounds, the decend was tons easier. We came down from a different place. This place marks the beginning of the long line of huge prayer wheels that surrounds the base of the Potala palace. We didn't get to go round that. But we are planning to do that on our own tomorrow. From there, we came back to the hotel and went back to Tashi 1 resaturant for lunch. We basically had a vegetarian meal - considering how they sell meat here. We had cooked vege bobi, steamed vege momo, tibetan french fries, mushroom soup and ,of course, the delicious sweet milk tea. The meal was as satisfying as the dinner the day before. Yum! Yum!
We met again in the afternoon at 2.30pm to go to the Summer palace of the 13th and 14th Dalai Lama (the present one). It is located in the Norbulingka - a huge garden or park.
The 13th Dalai Lama had a modest enclosed area for his summer palace. We saw the assembly hall. The hall is relatively small compared to some we had seen but the the interesting thing is there are 65 thangkas all painted by hand within a day by the same artist when the palace was built. From here, we walked along the outside of the enclosed area and came to a 2 storey building (which we didn't get to enter and was in the enclosed area) that overlooked a big courtyard. We were told that this was where the locals performed during the yoghurt festival and the dalai lama would watch from the second level of the building. One interesting thing we saw - not related to anything - was the way they boil a kettle of water here. The kettle was put like a meter above a shiny silver satelite dish shaped thing and I was told by the monk there that the water would boil in 20 minutes. That was amazing. Took a picture of that. = )
Next we proceeded to the 14th Dalai Lama palace. The 14th Dalai Lama built this summer palace in 1954 and it was completed in 1956. But I don't think he stayed there for very long because the Cultural Revolution started in 1959. Anyway, it was a simple but still grand looking place. There is a water fountain in front of the main door. Here, we saw his meeting room, study room, meditaion room, bedroom and even bathroom! The interesting thing about his bathroom is it is a western bathroom with a wash basin, bathtub with shower head and a sitting toilet! We were told that these items were all donations from the westerners. His bed is made of sandalwood - only high lamas had beds made from that. There is also a radio and a piano - all from Russia. Another thing worth mentioning is the wall to wall murals of the events that took place from the very beginning of Buddhism. These were all handpainted.
From here we wandered around the garden and came to a entertainment cum souvenirs center where we watched 3 tibetans danced, sang and played a guitar like instrument. It was rather entertaining. We decided to donate Y5 for their effort.
Came back to the hotel with a headche - probably from climbing too much today. Lee had a backache. Nevertheless, we still went out and did some more shopping. There were a lot more people out today because of the excellent weather. I bought 2 cool tibetan's hats. They both have fur but are very different other than that. And of course since Mike and me have such huge heads, I got the biggest they had. The little tibetan girl in the shop with her mum was very amused by the both of us especially when we (Lee and I) spoke English. She couldn't stop laughing and hold Lee's hands. Out of the shop, we continued the circuit and was teased by a tibetan guy who bought a lot of bells on strings for horses I think. Generally, the people here are quite friendly though we were also targets for child beggars, old beggers and walking peddlers. We decided to grab dinner near that area and ended up in another lonely planet's recommendation. This restaurant serves western, tibetan and nepalnese food. I played safe and had the regular pasta with tomato sauce, Lee had some tibetan noodle soup (vege style coz the meat version contains yak). The waitresses here were all very friendly. I took picture of the restaurant and a couple of pictures of the waitresses which I am to send to them when I get back to Singapore. They got my email address and promised to keep me updated about their restaurant. They also told us that the last 2 days became a lot cooler. So you can imagine how cold me and Lee are. Thank goodness we have enough warm gears with us.
Today we also got new lodging for the next 2 days at the Pentoc Guesthouse. They are cheap and seems clean though none of the rooms have attached baths. Since they have no vacancy for Sunday, also our last night here, we had to look elsewhere and found a "high-class" hotel next to Pentoc for Y580 that included a good breakfast (an old angmo couple told us). So the lodging for the rest of the stay here has been settled.
Check again tomorrow for more updates. Cheers!
Tien-Ling 9:59 PM
Wednesday, October 09, 2002
Wednesday night, 9 October 2002 in Lhasa, Tibet
So we ended up back at the Pentoc Cafe as mentioned earlier. I had grilled cheese and ham sandwich with their fantastic salad, Lee had their vegetable soup with bread. We had our meal with hot tibetan tea since the weather is so cold today. It has been raining off and on the whole day.
In the afternoon, we met our guide again and proceeded to the Sera Monastery. It was a relatively big monastery in front of some huge mountains. In fact, we saw some huts or houses high up on the mountains with no way to get to except maybe to climb? Maybe we are wrong. Anyway, we met a huge number of worshippers who came from Taiwan. They were all chanting and holding a small elephant shaped incense container in their hands. Everyone also had a picture of the Confession Buddha in front of their chest hung round their necks. They were all dressed in black robes. They were also in a long line.
Anyway, we proceeded to the main hall where there are 5 chapels/shrines as they called them behind it. There are different kinds of Buddha in each of them. There is one interesting one that contains the remains of the dalai lamas that had passed on. After rubbing shoulders with the wordhippers and hearing many of them burped as they went along their way (we were wondering if it was some religious significance since so many of them burp or they were just plain rude), we went to the debating courtyard. Even before we entered, we heard a lot of voices and slapping sounds - like many people quarreling and fighting. But when we entered, all we saw was a courtyard full of monks having debates. And in order to emphasise what they are saying, they clapped their hands. It was quite a scene. Some of them were sitting, some were standing and they were all in groups of 2 or more. We learned from the guide that they do this everyday in the afternoon as a practice for an actual debate which will be a test at the Jokhang Temple. If they win the debate during the actual event, they will be promoted to a "Master" status. Apparantly all the monks at all the surrounding monasteries are all student monks, the high lamas are found at the Jokhang Temple. After that, we went to another building where the main assembly hall is. Here we saw some of the Taiwanese worshippers doing their meditation. The monks went round to put white scarves around their necks as a form of blessings. It was there when my stomach began to feel awful. I asked to be shown the way to the toilet only to be told by the guide that the entire monastery (a huge one) has no toilets for the public. Luckily, we were heading back to the hotel. Bearing the pain for like ages, though the actual journey is probably like 15 minutes, we got to the hotel. Once off the mini-bus, we ran as fast as we could to our room. Lee, head of me, to open the door so that i could just dash to the toilet. It felt real good to be relieved of all the contains in me. Ah.......
Stayed in the hotel for a while more to ensure that my stomach was settled before we went out to check out the stalls. We did buy some things today after some bargaining. They seemed more willing to do so because of the bad weather I guess. Lee was sure that we were the first customer the stallowner had because after paying her a bangle for 10 yuan, she touched the note all over the rest of her merchandise. We bargained it from 25 yuan to 10 yuan. Hehehehheheheh......But I still think that we were ripped off. We were given the foreigner price in the first place.
After doing some snooping around for things we may want to buy later when we are sure we have enough, we went to get dinner at Tashi 1 recommended by the lonely planet. It serves Tibetan food and it was good, good good!!!! We had the chicken and vegetable bobi (kinda like fajitas), fried apple momos (kinda like apple puffs) and cheesecake. Everything was excellent and we also had 4 cups of sweet milk tea. The cheesecake doesn't taste weird at all.Michael, you are wrong and we even took pictures to show you.
While walking back to the hotel, we went past a shop that sold Tibetan's handicrafts. I bought a piece of door hanging art piece. It had their traditional buddhism blessing in tibetian language. Her asking price was 50 yuan but she won't go below 40 yuan. We were trying to get 35 for it. But in the end, she won and so we paid up. By the way, we learnt to say "thank you" in tibetian and it sounds like "tok jie jie". The girl who sold us the door hanging thing tried to teach us to say "no" and "good bye", but we had forgotten and when we repeated in front of her, she burst into laughter and couldn't stop. Guess that didn't end up very well.
Well. nothing really much for the night. Maybe some tibetian beer (Chang) at the traveller's pub across the street before going to bed. Will update again tomorrow night. =)
p/s: just kidding about the beer thing. Going back to hotel already.
Tien-Ling 8:11 PM
Burping Monks
Shaun wrote to let us know the answer to the heavy-burping:
I have come across burping monk syndrome myself. A Buddhist hippy at college once explained that the burping is meditation-related. Apparently, buddhists probe deep inside their stomach for spiritual comforts.
Michael 10:25 PM
Tuesday, October 08, 2002
Tuesday in Singapore
So I'm back in Singapore ok. Taking about five flavours of medicine to get rid of my ChengduBelly.
Got an SMS (handphone text message) from Ling around 10 or 11 that they had arrived in Lhasa and were in good shape. Checked into their hotel, upgaded to a private room, no sign of AMS illness, and took a nap. All good signs. It's amazing that the handphone and messaging services from Singapore to Tibet are better than those intra-San Francisco Bay. At any rate, there is pervasive internet in Lhasa as well, so she could be able to update from one internet kiosk or another.
Michael 3:15 PM
Wednesday, October 09, 2002
Wednesday, 9 October 2002 in Lhasa, Tibet
We arrived yesterday morning at about 9.30am. The flight from Chengdu to Tibet was about 2 hours. The guide was there to meet us. He was supposed to pick up 6 of us but apparently 1 guy was lost. We have no idea what happened to him. While waiting for our other tour mates, we saw about 20 monks all lined up from the exit of the airport to the carpark. They were there to welcome a high lama who was on the same flight as us. I managed to get a photo of the procession. From there, we board a public bus that will take us from the airport to Lhasa. The ride was a long and bumpy one. The whole trip took nearly 2 hours.
One of the first sight that greeted us when we arrived was the Potala Palace. It is as majestic as we are all told. From there, we entered into town and were surprised to find that the town was as developed as Chengdu minus the big, tall shopping malls. They have taxis, trishaws, buses, well-maintained roads and shophouses.
The bus dropped us off at the junction of the main street and the road where our hotel is. We got off and walked the rest of the way. I decided to upgrade us to a private room with attached bath and toilet because I wasn't sure how we were going to adjust to the high altitude here. We sent to guide to help us get plane tickets back to Chengdu and we took a nap in the elaborately painted room. By the time we left the room, it was about 4pm. We decided to stay close to the hotel and not do too much. The moment we got out of the hotel, we were swarmed by kids tugging on our jackets begging for money. We just walked on though we were quite surprised by the boldness of the kids. We wandered around the outside of the Jokhang Temple taking in the colourful sights. There are many street stalls selling clothes, trinkets, fabrics, prayer wheels, etc. We didn't get anything yet as we didn't know the market value of these things yet and didn't want to be ripped off. After a short walk, we came back to the hotel and waited for the guide to come back with our tickets. After getting our tickets, we left to go across the Pentoc guesthouse to check things out as well as to have dinner at the Pentoc cafe. I had rosti with onions with side salad ( the dressing was great) and Lee had Potato Egg patty (which is basically rosti baked with egg, cheese and ham). Both of us had Tibetan tea - Precious Tea for 8yuan a pot. The food was good but a wee bit too much. Lee felt bad about not finishing her 20yuan (equivalent to S$4.50 and US$2) patty. After dinner, we decided to go take a look at their communal shower after finding out that they don't have any rooms with attached bath/toilet. It wasn't too bad. The only problem we have now is we can't take a shower and walk to the room with our track shoes or bare feet, so we are trying to get a pair of slippers to share between the two of us. Lee just found a pair for 6yuan in the internet shop that also sells snacks,etc as i am updating the log.
After dinner, we took a short walk up the street and came back to retire in the hotel. Basically we were so tired that we decided not to go out. Shortly after that, we both fell asleep.
We got up feeling fine this morning. We wanted to email but the guy was still sleeping in the shop. So we hung out at the reception area and I wrote my journal. The guide came at 9.30am and we were told that we weren't going to the Potala today because it was raining. So we went to the Jokhang Temple instead. It was full of pilgrims and we saw a lot of the tribal tibetan in their costumes. Took some pictures of them, hopefully there is enough light to capture everything. We are to meet the guide again at 2.30pm. So Lee and I are probably going back to the Pentoc Cafe to get sandwiches for lunch as our stomach still feels a bit strange. But overall, I think our bodies are adjusting well to the altitude here.
Will update again soon. Lee asked to let you guys know that the weather is cold here, partly due to the unforseen rain. = )
Tien-Ling 11:27 AM
Monday, October 07, 2002
Monday Evening in Chengdu
So we went to the airport via cab. When we got there, we realised that we were dropped off at the new domestic terminal. The international
terminal is at the old wing which is about a kilometer away. We couldn't go beyond the security check so almost the minute we got to the right terminal, Mike went pass the security check to check in on his own. Then he was off after taking 100yuan from us just in case he has to pay for the airport upgrading tax.
Me and Lee then proceeded to board the 303 bus at the carpark in front of the terminal to go back to town. The bus ride was hot but very cheap, 5yuan. We got off near the Tianfu Square where Mao's statue stood. We walked towards the direction of our former hotel to do some window shopping. There were still tons of people around. It is so much like Orchard Road - always so many people walking around.
We decided to skip dinner outside and proceeded to the supermarket to grab some instant cup of noodles. We got quite sick of eating handmade noodles and sichunese food - too much for the last few days. While shopping, I got a message on my handphone from Mike that his flight had been delayed for an hour. After getting all we need, we came back to the hotel and chilled.
Just before this, we went to get our planes tickets to Lhasa from the travel agency downstairs. We were told to get ready even earlier. The flight is at 7.05am so we need to get ready to go by 5.10am. Will update our first day at Lhasa when we get there tomorrow.
Tien-Ling 8:03 PM
Monday Afternoon in Chengdu
So my stomach turned into a case of stomach flu, and most all of yesterday was spent lying in bed feeling sort of awful. I feel reasonably better today, which was good because it enabled us to move Ling and Lee's stuff to the Traffic Hotel, from where they'll be off to Tibet tomorrow morning at 5am. It also gave us the chance to goto the Bank of China where I got a cash advance of 4000yuan (800SGD) on my Visa card, thus ensuring Ling has more then enough cash for whatever she encounters in the next week. Situating them for their trip to Tibet was the whole point of me being here, so things worked out pretty nicely.
I'm off to the airport in a half an hour, and from then onward, it'll be up to Ling to keep us updated.
Michael 2:19 PM
Sunday, October 06, 2002
Sunday Morning in Chengdu
Back at the Traffic Hotel now, running errands to setup Ling/Lee's trip to Tibet, leaving Tuesday. All the strong and dodgy food has caught up me with me and now I am in no great hurry to find myself breakfast.
The Szechuan Opera was interesting enough -- a lot of puppetry stuff mixed with a bit of magic (face-changing masks), some classical Chinese music which was pleasant, and then a """comedy""" routine that ran a bit long for my tastes. The audience was largely Chinese (in fact, this whole city is largely Chinese. It's shocking how few whites I see here, and given the looks and stares I receive, whites are rare in general here) and everyone sat in clusters of bamboo chairs and small tables that held plates of peanuts and tea cups. Women walked around the theatre (some 300 people ?) serving tea from tea pots with three-feet long spouts expertly. The spouts enable them to mill through the crowd less clumsily.
We spent the better part of Saturday touring a Buddhist Temple that was quite nice, and then the balance of the afternoon wandering around. We've been travelling exclusively by foot, rickshaw, and public bus. Rickshaw is a legitimate transport around here, unlike Singapore, so you don't feel like a total geek riding in them. In fact, it's quite fun given the huge flow of human and bicycle traffic you move along with. Roads here are total bedlam. The public buses are good to ride in as well, taking us through the less-known areas of Chengdu. The buses are nearly free, costing one or two yuan (15-30cents usd). We wound up at one quite dodgy looking bus terminal. Ling was quite dubious on the place so we jumped into our transfer immediately, rather than mill around and watch.
This place is so barren of foreigners (lo way) that it makes me no less conspicuous to have my camera hidden then not, so consequiently I feel free to photograph all day long. Between my big Canon, my 35mm yashica point-and-shoot w/ the spy viewfinder, and my loomographic 4-lense camera, we have taken a lot of photos. In fact, this mornign I counted out my film rations and had to set aside enough negative film for Ling in Tibet.
It serves no point to go on about the food here. I have taken photos of all the dishes we've eaten, and written detailed notes in my paper log. Once I return I will write up a lengthy, illustrated, researched document on the food we've taken here. To write about it now would be to waste good notes. I will remark, however, at my current pace, there will be fewer reviews of food today, as my stomach is something awful. It probably is the result of eating about a dozen cups of chilli oil and a pound of ground black pepper in the last two days. Going without a coffee for my fourth day is also not an aid.
So tomorrow I'm off, back to Singapore, and Ling and Lee settle in at the Traffic Hotel, their rendezvous point for the trip off to Lhasa, which they leave for Tuesday at 5am. They'll be there for about 10 days, then back to Chengdu for a night, and then to Singapore. So in the very near future Ling will be updating this log, rather than me.
Regards
Michael 11:04 AM
Thursday, October 03, 2002
Evening in Chengdu
Easy enough... Quick four-hour flight on China Southwest Air from Singapore direct to Chengdu China (Southwest China/Sichuan). We were picked up at the airport by the agent who arranged our hotel and were out of the airport in lessin far less time than it takes to get clear of San Francisco International.
We had a twenty minute ride from the airport to Chengdu City. Along the way there was a road block (a minor traffic accident) so we tried to loop around through a set of alleys. A lot of other people had the same idea. As our convoy made it's way up the alley that would spit us back onto the main road, we all suddenly stopped and angry drivers jumped from their cars and angry people ran from their homes. Some ass had kept his motorcycle parked across the alleyway, and sat there insolantly squatting just to be dickhead. Lots of screaming and crowding, but after a few minutes it was obvious that there would be no fist-fight, so we backed up, and backtracked. We managed to squeeze between the accident which itself seemed quite minor. The more alarming thing was that one of the cars seemed to not have a windsheild. Not that it was knocked out during the accident, just that this van drove around without a windshield.
Once we reached the hotel and met the liason who arranged the tour I instantly flew into a blind fury when she told us she could only take cash, and not credit card as the stupid ticket agent in Singapore had assured us. (This woman, Durrr-een of Globe Travel, Singapore, will be the subject of a html page devoted to excoriating her for perpetuity on the inernet.) The issue was that this would eat into the emergency reserves of cash we had budgeted for. Our accounting still shows that Ling and Lee will be able to go onto Tibet afterwards, but this whole matter should have never occured. I whipped into one of my cannot-speak-i-am-so-mad fits and finally chilled out thirty minutes later. But then I suffered a throbbing headache during the next hour for my trouble.
After everything was copacetic again, Ling filled up her smuggler's belt with passports, cash, and tickets, and we headed out onto the street. Very busy, interesting place. We were in the shopping equivalent of Orchard Blvd, I suppose. First order of business was lunch because we were all reasonably hungry. Stopped at a noodle restaurant (noodles are the dominant cuisine here in Szechuan, not rice, apparently) and had a terrific cold noodle dish that was made of a brown sauce with an enormous amount of black pepper, and some bean sprouts. Fantastic, although we have been warned that most food here is chocked with MSG. (Our dying-man thirsts confirmed that hours later). The other two dishes, beef noodles, and a bland broth noodle, also were quite good. But far-and-away I preferred the cold dish.
Afterwards, we decided to find our way to the Traffic Hotel (where I am writing this now) to find out their Tibet Tour arrangments (a sham tour that is basically a plane ticket, one night's lodging, and the required permit. Otherwise it's nary impossible to come to Tibet independently except under colour of a 'tour' (however minor)). It was a good exercise and good exercise. The streets are horribly labelled, not intuitive, and the Lonely Planet map atrocious. Once we reache dthe hotel (an hour later) we bought a proper english map and should be much better set for further exploration.
Once we got those details arranged, we booked tickets to a Szechuan Opera (which I'll be leaving for in fifteen minutes) and went off for dinner--Szechuan Hotpot, the locally specialty. We went to a packed restaurant about three blocks away and the arrangement is something like this:
a room full of square laquered tables the dimensions of a card table, with a hole int eh center where a large pot sits, heated by a proprane tank/burner combo. The table ios sort of annoying, because it has a ledge at such a height that you cannot fit your legs under, but that seems to be common here. In the pot is a huge pool of oil, some other liquids, and then pounds of choped red peppers and scoopfulls of black pepper kernels. Frighteningly hot--sends your throat into a spasm the first time you taste it. Then what you do is goto the back of the restaurant and select things you'll cook in the pots. They have baskets and baskets of different foods skewered on sticks. More expensive things, like meat, have more skewers in them. Tofu, vegetables, meats, potatoes, kelp, etc. You bring it back, boil it for a while, and then dunk the piece into a smaller bowl of a fragrant oil and garlic combination. Somehow the oil magically converts the insanely hot chilli into a delightful taste. It is a very pleasant way to spend dinner. We ate for an hour, and were full at the end. Total bill came to 22 Yuan. 4.65 Yuan to the Sing Dollar is something like 5 dollars SGD which is something like 3$USD. We were shocked. We knew it would be cheap, but not that cheap!
At any rate, no time to review my writing here -- it's just a dump of what we've done today. LEaving for this opera soon,a nd we'll write up some more later. Think the plan tomorrow is early start at WEnshu Temple which has some enormous tea house and vegetarian cafe. Could use some more caffeine. The hotpot place had a really smooth, mild red tea, but that's been all I've had so far.
Michael 7:23 PM
Wednesday, October 02, 2002
First Post
First Post.
Tien-Ling 11:01 PM
Test Post Demonstration
This is the text of my post.
Tien-Ling 11:13 PM
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