Stupas & Sword Fights

riding in the truck into Lhasa
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The downside to our tickets was that they were hard seats for a 22 hour journey, which was nice. We swapped trains in Xining where we boarded the pressurized Lhasa train, it seemed to be a free for all in 3rd class so we grabbed 5 seats between 3 of us for the overnighter.

We were fairly worried about getting checked on the train for permits, especially when a police guy came and sat down and asked us where we were from, a few beers calmed the nerves and we settled for the night. I (gav) managed to get about one hours sleep sat up straight, after a few failed sleeping positions on the seats.

early morning at Jokhang temple
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The next morning the train lived up to its name of being the highest train journey in the world, as we reached the heights of 5072 meters on Tanggula pass. The trainline has been built on bridges elevated above the unstable permafrost, elsewhere, cooling pipes have been sunk into the ground to ensure it remains frozen to stabilize the tracks. The carriages have windows with ultra-violet filters to keep out the sun's glare, as well as carefully regulated oxygen levels with spare supplies to combat the thin air.

doing the circuit around Jokhang temple
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We met a nice guy called Erich from Germany on the train and spent the rest of the journey chatting and looking at the stunning scenery outside, Lakes mountains, deer, foxes and nomads.

We arrived in Lhasa mid afternoon Erich went first through the station exit, No guards, we were in. We argued the rip off taxi prices and ended up getting a truck with a Tibetan family, so gav rode in the back getting lots of smiles and waves from locals.

We had 5 days in Lhasa and even though the Chinese had built the new part of Lhasa, the old town around Bakhor square and Jokhang Temple remains very Tibetan, but now with the addition of many souvenir shops.

chimney at Jokhang
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We visited two temples, Jokhang where we went early one morning to see the huge lines of local people prostrating and of course the Potala palace, which was very impressive especially from the outside, and its golden stupas inside.

We went to a traditional tibetan evening with emma and erich, which was more like a cabaret night where local acts take turns to perform on stage. Everything was going well until two waltzing couples collided with each other on stage, what followed was a bit of a shoving match, a brawl then a full blown sword fight. One guy got his sword out and started hacking at another guy, so he got a bigger sword out, before we knew it was like a scene from gladiator. We got the hell out of there but not before gav told the others to grab their beers (being tight and from Yorkshire). We looked at Tibetans differently after that, apparently its the way they deal with things around here,it's a bit like the wild west but without guns.

view of bakhor square from Jokhang temple
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We had decided a few months earlier to do an overland trip between Lhasa and Kathmandu in Nepal, calling at Everest base camp on the way. So us, Emma, and Erich organised a 6 day jeep tour through our hotel.