First day in Lhasa. 8th September.
Saturday 8th September.Our hotel was luxurious and comfortable. After breakfast we were picked up for the first day's activities. Driving in Lhasa is a memorable experience, to put it mildly. No one speeds, but rules seem to be optional. Officially, traffic drives on the right hand side of the road but at times it can be difficult to tell. The modus operandi is a fascinating game of chicken in slow motion.
But it all seems to work as we haven't seen a single collision so far!
Our first port of call was a nunnery, located in a back alley and not normally on the tourist track. This place was built about 1400 years ago and has operated continuously since then. We were given a short history of the place and a background on some of the Buddhist traditions before moving to another section to watch nuns making prayer rolls.
Within the courtyard and outside on the narrow lane way, small children played music and sang to entice a tip from visitors. They were quite assertive and their mother wasn't far away to collect the booty.
Vendors of fruit and vegetables plied their wares from carts mounted on 3-wheel cycles, but were moved on by police, who fined some of them on the spot. The police used an autocratic, bullying manner towards these people who seem to have become third-class citizens in their own country. A country that was stolen from them almost 60 years ago with the brutal invasion that cost Tibet over 1 million lives.
We had lunch at an ornately decorated restaurant flanked by a courtyard with tables where visitors could enjoy a beer while checking their emails via a wireless hot spot. We ate inside and enjoyed a sumptuous Indian buffet.
Our next destination was the Potala Palace, the former headquarters of the Dali Lama. This was both the political and religious centre of power during Tibet's long history, stretching back over 1400 years. The Potala is an imposing sight, perched high on a hill, dominating the surrounding town of Lhasa. It is now the hottest tourist destination in Tibet, with thousands of visitors and pilgrims vying for the opportunity to join a guided tour of some of the 1,000 rooms in the palace.
There are 380 steps to negotiate on the way up to the entrance and some of us resembled gasping goldfish by the time we reached the top, as we were still acclimatising to the thin Tibetan air. The view from the top was worth the effort. Once inside, we were told that photos were not allowed.
The red section was built in the 8th century. 1,000 years later the Palace was expanded with the addition of the white section. Due to the high demand for tour tickets, the government has put a 1 hour time limit on all tours. If the guide does not exit with his group within the hour, his tour company will be denied access on the following day.
As we walked through the ancient rooms, constructed from wood and painted with intricate patterns and decorations, I tried to imagine the place back when it's corridors and rooms were bustling with monks going about their daily life, praying, chanting, working and carrying on the affairs of state. We saw the Dali Lama's throne and the room where he meditated.
We then moved on to look upon the tombs of some of the previous Dali Lamas. Many of these tombs were made of solid gold, the largest being that of the 5th Dali Lama which weighed in at 3,721 kg of pure gold. To think that this is guarded by a video system and a few snoozing guards! I couldn't help making a comparison to the security of Fort Knox.
We departed the Potala at about 5 pm.
But it all seems to work as we haven't seen a single collision so far!
Our first port of call was a nunnery, located in a back alley and not normally on the tourist track. This place was built about 1400 years ago and has operated continuously since then. We were given a short history of the place and a background on some of the Buddhist traditions before moving to another section to watch nuns making prayer rolls.
Within the courtyard and outside on the narrow lane way, small children played music and sang to entice a tip from visitors. They were quite assertive and their mother wasn't far away to collect the booty.
Vendors of fruit and vegetables plied their wares from carts mounted on 3-wheel cycles, but were moved on by police, who fined some of them on the spot. The police used an autocratic, bullying manner towards these people who seem to have become third-class citizens in their own country. A country that was stolen from them almost 60 years ago with the brutal invasion that cost Tibet over 1 million lives.
We had lunch at an ornately decorated restaurant flanked by a courtyard with tables where visitors could enjoy a beer while checking their emails via a wireless hot spot. We ate inside and enjoyed a sumptuous Indian buffet.
Our next destination was the Potala Palace, the former headquarters of the Dali Lama. This was both the political and religious centre of power during Tibet's long history, stretching back over 1400 years. The Potala is an imposing sight, perched high on a hill, dominating the surrounding town of Lhasa. It is now the hottest tourist destination in Tibet, with thousands of visitors and pilgrims vying for the opportunity to join a guided tour of some of the 1,000 rooms in the palace.
There are 380 steps to negotiate on the way up to the entrance and some of us resembled gasping goldfish by the time we reached the top, as we were still acclimatising to the thin Tibetan air. The view from the top was worth the effort. Once inside, we were told that photos were not allowed.
The red section was built in the 8th century. 1,000 years later the Palace was expanded with the addition of the white section. Due to the high demand for tour tickets, the government has put a 1 hour time limit on all tours. If the guide does not exit with his group within the hour, his tour company will be denied access on the following day.
As we walked through the ancient rooms, constructed from wood and painted with intricate patterns and decorations, I tried to imagine the place back when it's corridors and rooms were bustling with monks going about their daily life, praying, chanting, working and carrying on the affairs of state. We saw the Dali Lama's throne and the room where he meditated.
We then moved on to look upon the tombs of some of the previous Dali Lamas. Many of these tombs were made of solid gold, the largest being that of the 5th Dali Lama which weighed in at 3,721 kg of pure gold. To think that this is guarded by a video system and a few snoozing guards! I couldn't help making a comparison to the security of Fort Knox.
We departed the Potala at about 5 pm.
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