Day 37 Saturday 1st October Chengdu

Still uncertainty about whether we will get our Tibetan permits in time for tomorrow’s flight at 8am. Our Rally director says the permits have been sent. I contacted the travel agent in Lhasa who organised the permits & she said they were still in Lhasa!

The Rally travel agent then rang & said the permits were delayed because we gave the hotel address in English & it should have been Chinese!

Next he said he was going to the Lhasa airport to get the permits on a plane which would arrive tonight & that he would organise someone from our hotel to meet the unknown courier & bring them back to the hotel.

I confirmed this with hotel reception & we would pay for the hotel staff member to go to the airport which is not that far away.

Whilst I was down at reception, there was a huge crowd gathering & realised a wedding was in course. Disco lights blazing, amplifiers at full notch, & decorative banners through which the bride & groom strolled.

The bride & groom were accompanied by about 6 attendants in white who ushered them up a steep flight of steps to a platform overlooking the seated guests. It looked like angels going up to heaven!

There was lots of very loud music & talking whilst pictures of the couple were shown on a screen. Next the cake was cut, champagne was drunk & it was all over. While all this was going on the guests were eating. The married couple were not given anything to eat. Quite a performance really. I was told that there were many weddings today, the Chinese national holiday.

After having the hotel staff ring the originating travel agent in Lhasa several times, we finally pinned down the flight number and time.  The groups agent was supposed to have rung back with these details but true to form failed to do so.

The flight was to have landed at 4.40 pm and when 6.30pm had gone, we were getting worried, finally just before 7.00 pm the hotel man arrived at our room with the long awaited Tibet permit.  Off to Lhasa tomorrow.

Next problem will be how to get out of Lhasa as due to the national holiday, flights are all booked.  We will deal with that tomorrow when we arrive.

Three wheeled taxi, much like the Tuk Tuks in Thailand

Timber bus complete with timber seating & not a passenger in sight.

Large grapefruit & a couple of yaks!

(posted from the Victorian head office of the Blog - ngm)