All other travelers we met said they were jealous we were going to Tibet and 'how did you manage to get a permit?' The more we looked into it we realised how difficult it was to get in and how many good things there was to see. Therefore we had high expectations and were very excited.
In 2008 there were violent protests in Tibet between Tibetans and Chinese who effectively walked into Tibet and said, we're having that. Tibet is a very policed region with police and army checkpoints every hundred or so kilometres. Jimmy had warned us about our calor gas bottle on the roof rack. He said we were not allowed to travel through Tibet with a gas bottle due to security reasons. The first checkpoint we arrived at, the policeman was pointing at the gas bottle and shouting at Terry. Not knowing any Tibetan we guessed Terry's response by his body language. He replied with, 'It's a f@#king campervan, what do you expect!'. The young policeman didn't know how to respond, we continued with the gas bottle on the roof. Later Jimmy confirmed our suspicions and said 'I can't believe it, Terry just told the policeman to f@#k off!'. Brilliant, it seemed we wouldn't have any trouble at checkpoints in Tibet.
We were heading towards Lhasa, the capital of Tibet and the most holy Buddhist city on Earth. The road climbed into the mountains, mountain pass after mountain pass. The temperature began to drop the higher we got. We arrived at a pass, 5200m, frozen lakes and snow covered mountains. It was getting serious now! Big Sal was doing well, struggling a bit on the climbs due to the thin air, down into 1st gear on the steep bits, but still holding her own against other traffic. We hit a traffic jam, me and Stew rode on the roof for a bit much to the locals surprise! We could really notice the effects of altitude, getting out of breath from just walking a few metres. At this altitude water boils at 70 degrees. Considering the rapid gain in altitude we were fairing pretty well, slight headaches but generally OK. Jimmy was suffering, head in hands and complaining about sickness, the big girl!
We parked up in a village at 4500m. The 5 of us slept in the van, fully clothed trying to stay warm. We woke at 7am with ice on the inside of the glass, it was a bloody cold night! We had a flat tyre, the first of the tour so far. It was OK, we had two spares, one of which turned out to be as flat as the one that was coming off, bollox! The second spare wasn't much better. We drove the 100k to the next town and got both spares pumped up. This confirmed our decision to get two new rear tyres in Lhasa. They rears were pretty knackered. It was dark, about 100k from Lhasa, when BOOM, we had a blowout. The other rear disintergrated. Luckily we got the second spare pumped up! Only two punctures on the try so far and both on the same day! We drove the last 100k to Lhasa with no spare. We arrived at 11.30PM safe and sound and parked smack bang in old town.
We woke to the sound of someone bouncing on the rear step of the van. I jumped out in my boxers thinking it may of been round two of someone trying to pinch the bikes from the roof. It turned out to just be a curios road sweeper. Probably never seen a vehicle like ours parked in Lhasa old town before.
We walked arround old town and immediately loved the place. Narrow cobbled streets, old stone buildings and windows colourfully decorated with paint and flags. We met Terry at a tea room next to where the van was parked. It was brilliant, full of locals sitting around drinking Tibetan butter tea. We spent the rest of the day finding tyres for the van and cycling around the town. At the tyre place Dunny asked if they had a toilet, 'yes offcourse sir, over in that room' see photo! We went to the University for Stew to enquire about teaching English in Lhasa. After arguing with security we managed to meet the person responsible for setting up foreign teaching placements. Stew had an interview and exchanged contact details, it looked promising.
We arranged to meet Terry at our hostel for some drinks at his local. He sent a friend to meet us. We followed him over the road, down a side road, through an alley, up some steps into a old Tibetan block of flats. It was cool, it had internal balconies over looking a central courtyard. Past the communal long drops we entered a three room flat. The owner sold beer in her front room. It was brilliant, we met Terry's friends and sang song for song. Everyone was friendly and pleased to meet us. We headed out into town. We went to a Tibetan dance hall. Not dance music as we would normally expect but more like ball room dancing. We obviously showed them all how to do the tango with brilliant style and finesse. (Not). Terry had a bit of a disagreement with another Tibetan man. It turned into pushing and shoving. We broke it up and moved onto another bar.
The following day we woke up with thick heads. It was the day to visit the Potala Palace. The most sacred Buddhist temple in the world. Set on a hill with over 11 floors and more than 1000 rooms it dominates the skyline of Lhasa. It wasn't like any other temple and well worth the visit. Terry knew the security so we were allowed more than the permitted 1 hour to walk around. We spent the rest of the day and evening exploring old town. There was something about it that made it our favourite town on the trip so far. The people were cool, carrying prayer beads, colourful braids in their hair and old school dress. We were sad to leave and would of liked to spend much longer in Lhasa. But things weren't all bad, we were on our way to Everest Base Camp!
Rob
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