Day 38 Chengdu to Lhasa

Day 38                        Sunday 2 October 2011          Chengdu to Lhasa

Up early to get a taxi at 5am to travel the short distance to the airport. The airport was packed with Chinese holidaymakers when we arrived so there were long queues everywhere. Our Tibetan permit was checked at 3 different checkpoints.

Finally got on the plane and there was a 45 minute departure delay. At least we got a window seat so had a fantastic view of the snow topped mountains. Breakfast was a porridge like dish with pickled gherkins. Coffee too which is quite rare & expensive in these parts ($10 a cup at airport).

Landing at Lhasa

Lhasa airport is about 55 kms from the city & we had to have an expensive “guide” to get us there. A taxi was 150-200 yuan, the guide was 800 yuan.

Our next issue was how to get to the Nepal border. Negotiations with the guide proved useless so we went to our hotel, St Regis. This was probably the best hotel we have ever stayed at and it was only opened in November 2010 so everything was still in working order.

Over lunch with Chris & Liz we discovered that a guide had not been arranged to get them to the border tomorrow (the allotted guide was with the rest of the group going to Everest base camp). Numerous negotiations with the guide resulted in us sharing the cost $1,300 and we would travel in convoy, they in the Porsche & we, the guide & driver in an 18 seater bus.

As we needed a day to get a ticket to go inside the Potala we had to give that a miss but were able to view it from the outside. We were disappointed that buildings are now encroaching on the site & ugly billboards in inappropriate places.

Ghee in market

Potala Palace from Jokjiang temple

We also walked around the old town which retains a Tibetan flavour. Lots of market stalls selling all sorts of goods, from warm clothing, ghee & prayer flags for the temples & all sorts of household goods & jewellery. Around this area there is a strong military presence, with soldiers standing in glass boxes every 100 metres or so. Police are also spread throughout the market places & the temples.

Next stop was the ancient Jokjiang Temple complex. This is a very revered religious structure.  Tibetans were prostrating themselves in devotion at the entrance. This temple was desecrated during the Cultural Revolution & restored since 1980. A few parts date to the 7^th century and from the rooftop a good view of the Potala could be seen.

Close up of Potala

When we tried to get a taxi or rickshaw back to the hotel we realised that in our rush to get downtown we didn’t have the hotel address in Chinese. Big mistake as no-one spoke English. Eventually after trying a dozen shops we found a chemist shop & one of the staff was able to write the address in Chinese. This took at least 30 minutes.

We later discovered that many of the taxi & rickshaw drivers cannot read so unless we could say the address in Chinese they couldn’t take us.

We had dinner at the hotel which was the best meal we’d had in China. The maitre’d was a charming lady who spoke some English. Back at our room we found some chocolates had been left so they’ll be good for the journey to Shigatse (what’s left of them!) tomorrow.

Flying in to this altitude, 3,600 mts tends to leave us a little short of breath when we do any activity.  Fortunately we had been taking our Diamox medication since last Tuesday and it had alleviated the worst of the altitude affects.  It’s a pity that the new Lhasa wasn’t built some distance from the old part,……………….however.