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By Hannu Berghall
Location: Tibet
Date: September 12, 2000
So, I'm back in civilisation after a month of HARD
travelling in western parts of this occupied land twice the size
of France. Only 2,2 million people live here, and most of them in
central and eastern Tibet, so the western parts are very isolated
and barren. But I'll start in Kashgar, Xinjang province, from where
I was to be smuggled into here...
Smuggled, I say, and that is because the Chinese
try to do everything to rip you, the tourist, off - as much as possible.
To get here the official way costs you about 200$ extra if you go
by bus from Golmud (the state north of Tibet). If you are flying
in, that to will cost you extra - just because you are a "foreign
friend". Well, thanx a lot my Chinese pal's... Other roads and routes
are more or less efficiently closed for foreigners, and the fines
for one self and the driver are quite severe...
The lorrydriver I'd first spoken to in Kashgar turned
out to ask for a ridiculous price for the service, so I waited 'til
the next morning to take the bus to the last city open for foreigners
- Yecheng, about 4 hours away. There I, and German guy Jens that
I had hooked up with, was met by the taxidrivers outside the busstation
shouting "Abba", "Abba". No, they didn't think I was a Bjorn or
Benny lookalike, nor were they interested in 70's discomusic. Abba
is the truckstop from where the trucks and cars towards Tibet leave...
Me and Jens spent 2 days and one night there at the
truckdrivers hotel, trying to convince someone to take us. One was
too afraid of being busted, others just said plain no although they
could make 2 times 50$ extra income that way, but finally a lorry
and landcruiser in convoy dared to take us. It was actually a tourist-tour
crew, returning back to Lhasa after having dropped of some tourists
in Yecheng, that finally took us along. Good for us, as one of the
guys spoke English - otherwise not common at all in China.
So of we set on the Xinjang highway, which is a grand
name for a mud track. First day wasn't too bad, but the following
three... The road quite quickly goes up to 4500-5500 meters altitude,
which makes it one of the worlds highest roads. (I've read in so
many guidebooks now about various roads in Himalaya being "the worlds
highest" - the Manali to Leh one in India, the one leading still
further north from Leh, the Karakorum highway between Pakistan and
China - so that I don't believe any words about "highest" any more).
Anyway, high it was and it caused me severe headache for 24 hours.
Lack of oxygen gives you AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness), but for
me it never developed further then headache, so I was safe. What
could I have done if it would have gone worse? The only cure is
firstly rest, and then to get down to lower altitude, but how do
you do that on such a road once you're on it?
We bumped along on the back of the lorry, sometimes
flying high when we rallyed over a pothole, sometimes falling over
each other. Our bodies ached, it was dusty one day and muddy next
day. Several other lorries were stuck in the mud, some had fallen
into the rivers that the road sometimes followed. At one lorrystop
(a wooden shack with boiled meat and noodles for dinner, and Tibetan
yak-buter tea to get it down with, we saw when a lorry fell over
on its back when trying to drive past another one. Another day we
got stuck in the mud ourself (despite the fact that we were not
very heavily loaded), and had to dig ourselves loose. On our third
day, our lorry helped 3 Tibetans out that had been stuck in the
mud without food for 3 days. Imagine that on such an altitude; the
nights are COLD! Luckily, our lorry's and Landcruiser's team felt
rich enough to sleep indoors at truckdriverstop shacks, costing
a bit over a dollar, so we never had to sleep on the back of the
lorry in our sleepingbags, as we had first expected. Good for me,
having such a crappy sleepingbag (0 degrees or maybe even 3+). Often
I wondered to myself "what on earth am I doing here?" and "Why do
I undertake such a journey?". I had no good answers, just myself
to blame for being there...
Noodles to eat for 4 days, very dirty and dusty, shaken
to pieces, all my intestines in disorder, tired from a little bit
too little sleep and the thin air, we finally arrived to the Chinese
town of Ali in western Tibet, on the afternoon 4 days after having
left Yecheng. Ali has about 5000 inhabitants, two roads, one junction,
restaurants and shops with meals and goods we hadn't seen since
Kashgar. A metropole for being Tibet. There are also hotels, both
of them with no toilets and no showers - not even running water.
How can you run such a hotel? There is one (1) public toilet on
the main street, and this is the horror of Ali. The Tibetans are
not well known as the cleanest and most hygienic persons in the
world, and the many many brown lines from "clean"-smeared fingers
on the walls gave me shivers... One day me and Jens bought freshly
baked bread from a baker on the street, and 30 minutes later Jens
saw the same baker, in the public toilet, with no roll of paper
to accompany him... We did find hot showers though, at the electricity
companies compound for 8 Eon (1$). Lovely after the lorryride. We
also met quite a few other westerners that had been smuggled into
Tibet via Yecheng, and from them we realised how lucky we had been
to get there in ONLY 4 days - they had taken 7,8,11 and 18 days
respectively, getting stuck in the mud for days, having to sleep
outdoors at 5500 meters, not having gotten anything to eat for sometimes
a full day... And we, me and Jens, had also paid the lowest price
for our trip, about 50$ each... Well, sometimes you just don't know
how lucky you are...
Ali is basically a military outpost, with a nice
commie star decorating one of the surrounding hills. The military
also attracts a lot of other business into town. Never had I seen
so many hairdressers in a row, and true, the Chinese soldier is
usually clean-cut. Nah, pretty soon I realised that the knitting
(!) bored women sitting outside hardly knew how to use a pair of
scissors on a scalp. Rather, they waited to fill one of the booths
behind the hairdresser chairs, one of the booths with flimsy plywood
walls and a curtain or in better places a plywood door, the only
furniture inside being a bed. What a disguise, and there must be
an overproduction of knitted sweaters in Tibet...
In Ali we also had to go to the police to report ourself,
or if not they would sooner or later come for us to our hotel, the
hotels in China having to report foreigners staying at them to the
police. Ali PSB (Public Security Bureau, i.e. the police) is famous
amongst independent travellers for actually fining you for the illegal
entry with a smile, while at the same time issuing you with an "Aliens
travel permit" for western Tibet, or at least for Ali district.
Same day we had arrived, we had gone to Mrs Dekki and Mr Li (actually
mentioned by name in some guidebooks, but not Lonely Planet) at
the policestation. Dusty and dirty we stood in front of their desk
while they filled in the travel permits for us, we travellers laughing
about being there and having made it into Tibet, saying we would
have to go for a beer afterwards. Mrs Dekki, if it was her behind
the counter, didn't even look up from the papers in front of her,
but said "I like beer. I come with you?" We just laughed and paid
the 300 Yuan, 38$ fine, and the 50Y, 6$, for the travel permit.
There is no public transport in western Tibet, and hitchhiking is
illegal, but Mrs Dekki told us to get down to the bridge very early
in the morning and try to stop a lorry. What a helpful police officer
she is...
A few days later, after having stocked up on (again)
instant noodles, dried beef jerky (Chinese style), cookies and goodies,
we stood at the above mentioned bridge at the start of the road
leading to the southern route through Tibet. It was 5 in the morning,
pitch black and cold, and my Chinese army long johns didn't help
much. No luck at all that day... An enormous amount of taxis had
passed us while we waited, circling around in the small town that
takes only 10 minutes to cross from one end to the other, but we
had seen far fewer lorries. At 10.30 we gave up, the lorries that
were leaving town had refused to even stop, or then not understood
where we had wanted to go. Back to the hotel for some more sleep,
and up again the next day at the same time...
Next day we were luckier. A jeep took us two, and
2 Belgian guys that had turned up in Ali after eight days on the
Xinjang highway (We had actually seen them leave Kashgar 3 days
before us, but me and Jens had obviously passed them when they were
stuck in the mud somewhere) - all the way from Ali to Darchen, a
small town at the foot of Mt Kailash. Mt Kailash is the holiest
mountain in Asia, sacred both to Tibetan Buddhists and Indian Hindu's
alike. From Darchen we too wanted to do a 53 km pilgrimage circuit
of the mountain, lasting 3-4 days and passing Drolma-la pass at
5636 meters. The jeep actually dropped me and Jens about 3-4 km
outside Darchen, by some camping Tibetan pilgrims, and there we
spent the night in Jens' 1-man tent. It was actually good that the
jeep didn't take us all the way into Darchen, as we wanted to avoid
paying the 50 Yuan fee for not being Tibetan and wanting to do the
walk (thank you dear Chinese friends, again). This way, the next
morning, the Tibetan pilgrims took us on their overloaded truck
rented for their pilgrimage, and then dropped us of just 1 km before
town, so that we could cross a field and avoid the whole town...
The walk around the mountain is spectacular, and although
I hadn't been able to leave any of my stuff in Darchen, and so was
carrying close to 25 kilo, I truly enjoyed it. Tibetan Buddhists
believe that encircling the mountain once takes away the sins of
a lifetime, but circling it 3 or 13 times is even better - holy
numbers in Tibetan Buddhism. The ultimate is to go around it 108
times, which guarantees you a ticket to nirvana. Once would have
to do for us though.
We passed Tibetans prostrating themselves the whole
way, circling the mountain by putting their palms together, putting
their hands above them, at their forehead and at their heart, and
then stretching out on the ground. Afterwards they got up and walked
to where their hands had been while lying down. Circling the mountain
like this counts for doing it 8 times, but it takes you about 3
weeks says the guidebook... If you're a true Buddhist you better
do it...
The first night we slept in a Tibetan monks room at
a monastery, spending the evening teaching him English words for
things he found and pointed at in his room. In the end we used his
taperecorder to record me pronouncing the words - that way he can
listen to the tape later! At bedtime, he was clearly surprised at
us just getting into his sleeping bag, and made us hold our palms
together while reciting after him: "Om mani padme hum", it sounded
like - at least that's what I heard and repeated - but isn't that
the Hindu prayer? Ah, it can't matter too much, if there is a god
I think he got the message...
We also met some Indian pilgrims on the circuit. The
Indians have to pay 500$ (!) to the Chinese state to be allowed
into China, and with the tourprice's they pay on top of that from
wherever they live in India to Tibet, the total price ends up to
roughly 1400$ - a hell of a lot of money for any Indian. So naturally,
most of the Indians doing this (apart from some real sadhu:s and
holy men) are older, less fit, and fatter people. At one guest house
that we arrived to in a hailstorm at 5 p.m. (luckily the only really
bad weather during our trek), a man from Gujarat, sitting having
breathing problems because of the high altitude, met us at his dormitory
door. He was protesting to have to share the room with anyone, saying
"No no" to us getting in, and later, when we forced us into the
room, he said "God is great". He truly is, you bastard, I thought...
Half an hour later he was our best friend, letting his friends take
photos of him holding his arms around us, giving us his businesscard
and inviting us to visit him in Gujarat. Sure I will, sure I will...
The assault for the 5636 meter high Drolma-la pass
was truly tough - with our 25 kilos each to carry. At 5330 meters
people are supposed to symbolically leave their old life behind
by various means, most popularly by leaving some piece of cloth
there. Me and Jens did the even better considered thing of cutting
of some hair there (cutting yourself and leaving some blood is considered
the ultimate, but we were not that devoted), and while I saw it
spread for the wind I thought for a few seconds about how this trip
has changed me already. Hmm, well, now the old me was left behind
even symbolically...
At 5636 meter there was an enormous amount of Tibetan
prayer flags on a pole and along the stones, and we took a rest.
It had been hard, but I had done it! Soon some miserable Indian
pilgrims came up there too, many of them being too weak to walk
and riding yak's to the top. Some were even lying down on them trying
to hold on while puking on the hairy beasts... Poor guys...
The rest of the trek was easy-piecy (How the hell
do you spell the second part of that expression?), and the next
day we were in Darchen. Some other travellers had just arrived there,
and after a lunch of Tibetan momo's (dumplings filled with, in this
case, meat) we talked briefly with them while trying to organise
transport to lake Manasaraovar about 35 km away. That lake too is
holy to Hindus and Buddhists alike, and another pilgrimage is supposed
to be made around that. What the heck, I thought, while I was on
it, why not continue being tough and hardy? I'm not much of a trekker,
as you might know, but... Hey, the Tibetan nature is spectacular,
and if I didn't do it this time, when would I be back? So: finally
a truck agreed to take us there, and 1 1/2 hour later we were at
the lakes shore at Chiu gompa (gompa is Tibetan for monastery).
From there one can actually see the whole trek: all 88 km from start
to finish! Is that possible anywhere else in the world?
And there was hot springs! Although a bath was outrageously
expensive at 2$ (well, expensive for Tibet), it was worth sinking
down in a tiled bathtub and let the sulphur-rich water heat your
body up...
Jens was waiting for perfect weather, to be able to
see some of the snowcapped mountains surrounding the lake, but I
was impatient, and so after 2 nights at the monastery I set off.
It's not much up and down, one basically follows the lake shore,
but the first day I had to cross a semi-swamp with endless rivers
flowing into the lake for the last 3-4 hours. Finally I gave up
the constant take-of-shoes-sometimes-trousers-cross-river-water-to-the-thighs-get-dressed-5-minutes-later-do-it-again,
and so I walked on in t-shirt and underwear. Ah, there was nobody
around... Day 2 and 3 of the trek was less watery, I met some Tibetan
pilgrims, some Chinese roadworkers (yes, in the future you'll be
able to do a relaxed pilgrimage around the lake in a car!), I passed
monasteries, stayed at one of them for the night, lived on snacks
during the day and oodles of noodles for dinner, and basically had
another wonderful naturewalk. Back at Chiu gompa (where I had left
15 kilo of my stuff; this time not carrying all of it on the trek)
in the evening, I had another bath in the hot spring's bathhouse,
and the next day it was time to start getting out of western Tibet
and back into civilisation...
It took me a day to advance 45 km or so to the small
settlement of Hor Qu, which was also where I had spent my first
night on my walk around the lake. I was unlucky with getting lifts
(only one PSB-jeep had passed me for 3 hours), but finally some
Indian pilgrims took me in their minibus. They were all amazed about
the altitude and nature in Tibet, and all fairly ill prepared for
the cold in too thin jackets and no real hiking boots. They also
seemed fairly unaware of how high altitude affects you and how to
get used to the thin air. One of them, a doctor, recommended his
friend to "run 20 meters, get tired and rest, run 25 meters, get
tired and rest, etc. etc.". Another man, from Calcutta, asked me
if standing in the sun was better then sitting indoors - he felt
better in the sun, his headache being less painful - does the sun
affect the oxygen level? I told him it was probably just the fact
that he was not used to the cold...
Yeah, I got to Hor Qu, where I met the same bunch
of people I'd met in Darchen before leaving from there. Some of
these other travellers had already been in Hor Qu for 3 days trying
to get a lift out - unsuccessfully. Oh shit, I thought, will I be
stuck here for that long? Clearly, we'd have to go 2 by 2 onto the
trucks that sooner or later would be willing to give us lifts, but
they were few and far in between...
But already next day we were lucky: an elderly German
couple, on their return way towards Nepal, was willing to take us
with them, and so were their crew in a lorry and Landcruiser - they
could even take all six of us! Hor Qu was the last town that our
permits bought in Ali was good for - from now on and 1000 km eastwards
all the way to Lhatse we would have to hide from the PSB at their
checkpoints, of which we knew there was roughly 3-6 on the way.
We got in at the back of the lorry and got ready for some more hardcore
travel...
Talking about rip-offs, by the way: the friendly Germans
had paid 3500$ EACH for their 4-week holiday in Tibet. Really a
Chinese friendship price...
Hardcore travel, yes: Bumps. Mud. Rivers to cross.
Bridges that had been swept away. More trucks lying with their wheels
in the air. Rain. Punctures. Well, you know by now what the roads
and travel are like in western Tibet, actually one of Asia's most
distant and difficult areas to get to. The Germans tour-crew was
cool, though. Some checkpoints we didn't even have to hide at: the
tourleader, Tashi, told the PSB that we were from another tour,
but that our Landcruiser(-s) had broken down en route, so now we
were taken back. At other checkpoints we kept our heads down and
silent, while the driver did the paperwork at a roadside table from
where the PSB officials were too lazy to get up from to have a look
into the truck's back. Good for us...
The nights we spent in small towns en route, and me
and Mark from Texas, the two oldest guys on the truck, raised hell
in almost every city. We bought firecrackers and roman candles and
had duels on the main street, pointing the roman candles at each
other as guns, or shooting at the towns citizens. I even shot at
a passing soldier - might be the only time a tourist gets away with
shooting at a soldier. Dogs in the towns were not safe either, nor
were children. We really had a fun time. Roman candles cost only
3 Yuan (40 cent) in one town, and they last for about 90 seconds
- value for money! We also used these to shoot with against cars
we passed, and later on we turned to throwing firecrackers at them.
Once a truck even stopped because they thought they got a puncture...
Anything for a laugh...
The trip took us 4 days to Lhatse, which is the first
town on the Friendship highway between Tibet's capital Lhasa and
Kathmandu in Nepal. That last checkpoint is said to be the hardest,
so our driver let us of 1 km before the actual checkpoint and we
had to walk through it. If the driver was to be caught he risked
a fine of up to 2000 Yuan; 250$. But again we were lucky: there
was no one by the checkpoint, and we walked right through. Maybe
the guard had gone for a piss? Who cares; soon we were in Lhatse,
with it's paved road and Chinese architecture. Bathroom tiles and
blue windows on 2-storey houses along the road - looks really good
next to Tibetan-style houses... Not. But there was shops and restaurants
with decent food again, and from now on we didn't have to hide on
any truck! We were in areas open for tourists!
The next day was plain sailing on a minibus to Shigatse,
Tibet's second city, and that's where I am now. The rest of the
travel-mates from the truck left for Lhasa yesterday, while I stayed
here taking a hot shower, checking my email (I had 83 mails in my
inbox when I came here yesterday - after one month away from the
digital world!), and writing down this has also taken time. My other
mission here is to try to find out whether I can or can't go to
Mt Everest base camp without a permit - that would be my last illegal
thing here, before I'm ready to stay on the right side of the Chinese
law and leave Tibet. We'll see where I go in the next few days:
South to the worlds highest point, or north to one of the worlds
highest capitals...
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A little something I read in the Lonely Planet guidebook for Tibet:
There's this boxed story with the title "Tibet chic"; about how
Hollywood has taken up the Tibetan issue. There's a story about
how Harrison Ford read the script for "Kundun" to Dalai Lama, about
Richard Gere's speech at the Oscars gala in ...1996, was it? But
the most ridiculous thing of them all is that one of the Tibetan
Buddhist sects has found out that one of the Hollywood action actors
are in fact a reincarnated lama (Tibetan monk): No less than ponytailed
Steven Segal!!! Oh, really?
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Anyway; that's all for now folks! All the best to
all of you!
Hannu
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