So I’ve just finished up a week of vacation in Tibet with the rest of my study away group. It was a one of the best experiences of my life. I was so excited for trip. We did a lot of readings and had many lectures on Tibet for the trip so I knew a decent amount of information about the trip before going. Now, I’m struggling to catch up on my studies, along with my journal and my blog. The pictures on this blog are in no particular order. Also, any of these pictures can be clicked on to be seen at full size. Note, the situation in this area calls that I am careful with my political language and information. More stories are waiting for you when I get home.
Our trip started on Saturday, September 27 and ended on the following Saturday, October 4. We arrived in Lhasa on Saturday and drove to our nice hotel right next to the old market. It took about an hour to get to the city from the airport. We had a lot of free time to explore and shop. They there are so many little stalls selling all types of little things. Anything from prayer flags to hats can be found. I had a great time practicing my Chinese and working the vendors’ prices down. I was by far the best bargainer in the group. I’m really learning the art. 
I don’t remember our exact agenda, but we spent a few days in Lhasa. In that time, we had a lot of free time to explore yet we still toured famous places as a group. Each day in the morning, we would take a tour bus to certain location and spend a couple of hours there. Usually, we were out until dinner. Then the rest of the night was ours. 
In Lhasa, we toured the Potala Palace, the Drepung Monastery, Jokhang Temple and the Drak Yerpa. I know that these names might mean nothing to you, but I’ll briefly try to explain each one to you. The Potala Palace is most famous place in Lhasa. It sits atop a hill and can be viewed from almost anywhere. It used to act as both the political building and dwelling house of the historical Tibetan politician/religious leaders. In the old Tibet, the two went hand-in-hand. 
The Drepung Monastery used to house 10,000 and was the biggest in Tibet. Now it houses 600. It is pretty much just a Buddhist-type university. The Jokhang Temple is a very famous temple located in the heart of the old market. We wanted to see the chanting practices that took place later in the night but we weren’t allowed to enter because we were foreigners. 
The Drak Yerpa is a hermitage located about 50 miles outside of the city of Lhasa up in the mountains. We traveled up there to see some of the most simple-living Tibetans practicing their highly religious lifestyles. It was fun to be able to hike a little bit, although the altitude was really killing me. I don’t understand how they got all those statues and buildings up on those mountains. It was truly an extraordinary place. 
I had a couple of highlights while in Lhasa. The first one was the shopping. I bought a lot of cheap clothing. The best pick-up was a read fleece I bought for merely 40 RMB or about $5-6 US. It is really nice and high quality. The second highlight of Lhasa was meeting up with my friend Lawrence. I met him via facebook through my friend Dave in Chengdu who I met via other friends who I met via friends in ORTV. It seems complicated but it’s really not. It’s just making friends. Anyway, he’s a doctor 28 years of age working in Lhasa for a non-profit called Touching Hearts. Lawrence is Malaysian but he studied in the USA. 
I met with Lawrence with my friend Phil. Lawrence took us to a part of town that we wouldn’t have known about without him. It was really a Tibetan part of town and as modern as the rest. The place he took us to was a sketchy night market. According to Lawrence, we could get stolen TVs, cell phones, and just about anything else we wanted. We made our way to the back where the food was. He found his favorite spot. The small restaurant had all the food on display for you to choose before being cooked. We worked our way but to more daring dishes.
We ended with the entire skull of sheep: tongue, brain, meat, and even eyeball. It was hard for me to stomach, but I persisted. I have a video of me eating the eyeball but for some reason I couldn’t get it onto the blog. It was really just a good time and good experience. Before leaving Tibet, Phil and I would have the chance to meet up with Lawrence on our last night for coffee. It would turn into a trip to his apartment for conversation and we wouldn’t get back to the hotel the last night until almost 1 AM. 
We hit the road out of Lhasa on Wednesday for a smaller town called Gyangtse. We only stayed a night. There trip there was a fun time. We got to see so much scenery and we stopped at many locations to bust out our cameras. We stopped at a very spiritual lake for Tibetans, a rural family’s farm house, and a giant glacier. It was all amazing scenery. The pictures all turned out wonderful but they really don’t do the landscape any real service. In Gyantse, we had the afternoon and night to ourselves. With a couple of friends,
I went up and explored a large abandoned castle up on the hill. We had a 360 degree view of the whole town. At night, we played pool at a small local place. The equipment and table were horrible but we still had fun. The whole town was closed up and most of the street lights were off as we walked through what appeared to be a ghost town at 10 PM.
The next day, we traveled to the very famous monastery there before hitting the road again for another town, Shigatse. This one was actually bigger, the second biggest city in Tibet next to Lhasa. We traveled to another famous monastery called the Ta Shi Lhun Po Monastery. I can describe these places more in-depth when I get home. It is very big deal for Buddhism. It also had a big market by it that we checked out. Later at night, I took it easy and studied my Chinese. I really needed to.
We returned to Lhasa for our last couple of days there. Overall, it was really just an amazing trip. Each day could be recorded into a book of its own. I really loved the scenery and wished that I could have more time to hit up the trails. Some things to note about Tibet that I neglected to mentioned, most Tibetans are Buddhist. Often times I would see people circling a temple or the Potala Palace with interesting prayer devices. They would swing the small ball around the stick as they walked and prayed.
Also, almost everyone meal I had consisted of yak. It is one of the staple foods of Tibetans. It tastes similar to beef but more like buffalo. My favorite food in Tibet was a yak hamburger. Delicious! They also drink a lot of yak butter tea. I don’t like it at all. It tastes like pure melted butter. There is another tea that is famous for Tibetans called sweet tea. It tastes a lot like the Indian Masala tea. I just love it. 
I would love to make my way back up to Tibet someday. I don’t know when. I hope that my next trip would consist less of large tourist bus travel and more of hiking. I really can’t complain though. I was in Tibet!
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