|
|
|
“I said "What the hell is that?" Emma said "That's the Potala Palace you dork!"” |
We arrived in Lhasa thinking it would be freezing, but the sun was out and as there's no smog and not a whole lot of air to filter the UV, it was hot! I had been looking forward to seeing the Potala Palace so much but when we came out of the bus station there was this massive ugy building across the road and I said "What the hell is that?" Emma said "That's the Potala Palace you dork!" We wandered around Bakhor (the old town of Lhasa) until we found a hostel, and then headed out for a look around. On the way to dinner, Emma and I stopped in a clothes shop to have a look. This dark, mustached guy was holding up a skirt and following me around the shop. I said "Look at this guy following me Emma, he must want my wallet!" Unfortunately, when I went to pay for dinner an hour later I found he had got my wallet! James and I went down to the police station and got someone from a shop to translate for us, but they just laughed when we told them. So we decided to head to an internet cafe to stop my cards but got hopelessly lost for 30 minutes in Bakhor! Once all the cards were stopped (now our only access to money is Emma and Edde) we headed to the stinky Book Bar and then out again, it was way too stinky - like cat pee. We went to Dongba bar instead and sat on the balcony to drink Lhasa beers and eat overpriced Chocolate Mousse Cake (which they spelt as mouse cake), then headed to the travel agent to book our 6 day overland trip to the border of Nepal, yay!
On Wednesday morning we got up at 6am and hopped on a bus to take us to a monastery where there was a huge festival on. The bus dropped us an hour's walk away from the monastery, we walked along road and then dirt tracks, climbed over a stone wall and we were there! Unfortunately we were expecting the same warm weather as Tues, we ended up in the mountains in the rain wearing shorts and t-shirts. Lots of people laughed at us. Then the monks told us that foreigners have to pay 50RMB to get in. That's money we had in my stolen wallet and no where else, so james and I handed over our camera to Emma and Edde and stayed outside. They went in and then a Tibetan felt sorry for us shivering in the rain and let us sit in the ticket office to wait. We got tired of waiting and did the long walk back to the bus and back to the hostel to wait for the others.
After lunch we headed along to the Potala Palace which was a 25 min walk down the main road, Beijing Lu. When we got there they had a sign up saying all tickets sold out, as only a few people a day can go through the palace. So we just touched the wall of it and Edde pretended to pee on it, but as we were dejectedly standing there, a tour guide came up and said he had 4 spare tickets for 100RMB each and we could have them. We went through and then he asked for another 600RMB but we said no and walked off. It was hard climbing all the stairs at 3800m above sea level, we were easily puffed. The palace was resplendant with brightly coloured walls and rooves and gold statues of Buddha everywhere. We saw the Dalai Lama's bedroom, study and lounge where he entertained visiting dignitaries. We tailed a tour group for a while so we could hear the guide's information for free, and then we realised he was just reading off the information boards himself so we left them behind. We had dinner that night at Snowlands restaurant and realised the food fashion in Lhasa is just to serve really tiny meals.
Next morning we met our landcruiser driver and set off for a 6 day overland journey to Kathmandu.
previous travel blog entry
Would you like to comment or ask a question?
Sign up for a free account, or sign in (if you're already a member).