Fifty-first Post From Türkiye: Lhasa, Tibet!!

Lhasa!

When Seven Years in Tibet came out in 1997 I made my then-girlfriend drive from Pocatello to Idaho Falls to go see it (must've been too exotic to be shown in Poky). I still enjoy watching it, in spite of Brad Pitt's Austrian accent, and it began my fascination with Tibetan Buddhism, history, and culture. The status of Tibet being a sensitive topic as far as China is concerned, means getting in requires extra red tape and extra hassle. When going to Tibet you also have to be concerned with acute mountain sickness (i.e. altitude sickness). At close to 12,000 feet, Lhasa is pretty high up there, but, somehow, I didn't expect to feel the altitude the way I did. But, the moment we walked off the plane, Merry and I felt like we had been beaten over the head with a sack of atmospheric pressure.

On the way we made a stop in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, swelteringly-humid panda country down near Burma.

We saw the fluffiest cotton ball clouds ever on the 'Roof of the World.'

Now, who rules Tibet?

Our local guide was a diminutive Tibetan lady, Pema. She met us at the airport and gave us traditional hadaks (silk scarves).

Our hotel was run by a Nepali family, and decorated in the Nepali style.

From the roof of our hotel we had a great view of the Barkhor area and the Potala Palace.

I turned 40 in Lhasa. Pretty cool.

The Potala Palace at Night

                                                        The Barkhor and Jokhang Temple

The Barkhor is in the old neighborhood of twisting streets and shops around Lhasa's main temple, the Jokhang. The Barkhor is actually a kora, a circuit along which pilgrims circumambulate (ALWAYS clockwise) around the temple. The Jokhang is the holiest temple in Tibet and houses an image of the Buddha brought to the country by the Nepalese wife of King Songtsen Gampo, the 6th-7th-century ruler who introduced Buddhism into Tibet. Our visit to the Jokhang happened to fall on a holy day, and the square in front of the temple was crowded with scads of pilgrims performing prostrations while we and Chinese tourists looked on.

The incense smoke boiling out of the burners on the square choked us, and was only pleasant compared to the overpowering scent of the candles in the temple filled with yak butter. 

The beautiful golden roof of the temple. I've never seen bluer skies in my life.

The beautiful, multicolored portico in the courtyard.

In the narrow, dark corridors of the temple I lost sight of Pema in the crush of supplicants, and near the Buddha image, I thought I was going to have to shield Trum from being trampled.  

Yak Butter Candles

Grumpy monk: two seconds after Merry took this she was warned not to take pics!

the Wheel of Dharma, and the deer recalling the Buddha's first sermon at the deer park in Sarnath, India.

                                                             Ani Tsankhung Nunnery

This is a famous Gelug (the Dalai Lama's sect) nunnery near the Barkhor. We got to see nuns chanting sutras, and printing them.  

Sera Monastery

The Sera is one of the "Three Seats," the most important Gelug monasteries/places of religious learning in Tibet. It hosts the famous monk debates, were monks publicly quiz one another on various matters of Buddhist learning.

One of the monks insisted that Trum needed the good luck/protection from evil, which this mark grants.

Who woulda thought it'd be my fate, smack dab in the middle of a monk debate?

Back in town, we walked the circuit of the Barkhor...very slowly. Anything but the slowest exertions on level ground taxed us beyond belief. We also had to take some mid-day naps, and drink lots and lots of water.

Potala Palace

The Potala Palace (begun in 1645) is the most prominent spot in the landscape of Lhasa. It was the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas until the current/14th fled to India in 1959. By the by, one of our Chinese guides told us, in no uncertain terms, that the current Dalai Lama was a terrorist.

Merry decide to wait in the gardens at the foot of the palace rather than climb the steep stairs. She made a wise decision. Though the interior and its treasures were worth the work, the steps and ladders had my heart thumping thunderously. The clouds of incense inside also exacerbated Trum's asthma, and had him gasping for fresh air. During the tour, our guide pointed out places where Heinrich Harrer had tutored the 14th Dalai Lama, and was happy that I had read his book and seen the movie...even with Brad Pitt's accent.

Norbulingka

The Norbulingka was the summer residence of the Dalai Lamas from the 1780s. Mercifully, unlike the Potala, it is built on flat ground.

The 14th Dalai Lama lived in this building. We saw his wireless and other gifts that were brought over the mountains to him from India.

One of the stupas marking the old entrance to Lhasa.

Other than being ground into the dirt by the altitude, we had a good time in Lhasa. We were able to do a little shopping, and obtain some Tibetan curiosities. We also ate Indian, Nepali, and Tibetan food, including plenty o' yak. I had yak curry and a yak steak, and Truman had a yak burger. I've had yak in the states before, but it was way too gamy. This was excellent! Make the trip just for the yak!  

Fiftieth Post From Türkiye: Beijing!!

Beijing

This is Jack again. It took all Merry's energy to edit the pics, so I've got to be the wordsmith. For some time, just below Russia on my list of travel dreams was a trip to China. I've been planning a trip there for several years, but was never sure when I would get the opportunity. Luckily, we were able to use our home leave this year to go to China instead of the U.S. We were also able to schedule the trip to coincide with my 40th b-day in August. My original itinerary included Beijing, Xi'an, Lhasa, and several places in western China/Xinjiang Province. But, when I actually started considering the logistics involved, it became obvious that that much ground could only be covered in, at least, two trips. So we cut it down to three cities. The first was Beijing.

Wangfujing Snack Street

Wangfujing is one of Beijing's most popular shopping areas. It's also famous for it's snack street/night market. Along with dumplings and more usual fare, you can also eat deep-fried starfish, scorpions, and other treats.  

Trum decided a Mickie-D's Quarterpounder was better than a fried starfish.

Snack Street Packed to the Gills

A few little scorpions...tasted like fried chicken skin.

Uh, baby birds?

This was fresh fruit with a clear candy coating. Merry bit in, and sprayed us all with juice.

Before we went to China, my friend Ben, who had been in Beijing before, warned us about being ripped off by cabbies. I've kicked around enough places that I figured nobody would be able to pull a fast one on me. Well, they did...twice. I was unprepared for such a level of dishonesty. Ask for details sometime if you want to fire me up.

My friendly motor rickshaw driver...who ripped me off.

The Great Wall

The Great Wall is actually a series of different walls, built at different periods over centuries, but the images you usually see on postcards and such, are of the Ming Dynasty-era (1368-1644) reconstruction/expansion. We visited the section at Mutianyu, and it was incredibly hot and humid that day. After hiking up and down several steep sets of stairs, Truman, for probably the first time in his life, looked back at me and said something like, "Ok. I can't do this anymore."

You need to take a cable car up to the wall.

It's even more impressive in person.

Michelle Obama rode an alpine slide to the foot of the mountain. If it's good enough for the First Lady, it's good enough for us.

So, food. Chinese food is my favorite. I eat it as often as I can. And, we always have Chinese on my b-day. This year, we got to eat 10-days of Chinese for my b-day. The verdict? the best Chinese food I've ever had. I told our guides that pork was hard to come by in Turkey, and they hooked us up.

Pineapple pork and stir-fried green beans.

Ming Tombs

Outside of Beijing, there is a complex of tombs where several of the Ming emperors were buried. We visited the tomb of the Chang Ling Emperor.

Back in town we decided to attend a Kung Fu show at the Red Theater. We got to see Shaolin monks twist, turn, jump, kick, flip, jump over one another, and just be generally entertaining. 

I believe 'Grasshopper' is ready.

Tiananmen Square

Everybody knows Tiananmen Square, home to Chariman Mao's pickled corpse, the Gate of Heavenly Peace, and famous for the protests of 1989...we didn't bring those up with our guide.

The Great Hall of the People

Some stone comrades guarding Mao's mausoleum.

Note From Merry: Notice the girl staring at us? Basically happens non-stop all day.

Me and Mao at the Gate of Heavenly Peace

The Forbidden City

"The Forbidden City," so called because only the emperor and his crowd could enter it, served as the imperial palace to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, from 1420 to 1912 (remember Puyi, the last emperor?). I've been in a lot of imperial/royal palaces in my day: Buckingham Palace, the Residenz of the Wittelsbachs in Munich, the Hapsburg's Schonnbrun and Hofburg in Vienna, the Doge's Palace in Venice, the Winter Palace and Peterhof in St, Petersburg, and Topkapi in Istanbul, but they all look like tool sheds compared to the Forbidden City. The only thing that probably comes close is the Moscow Kremlin, and it's a distant second. The Forbidden City is enormous, colorful, and succeeds in it's number one task: it let's you know who was in charge of China back in the day.

A Guardian Lion

Apparently soldiers and bureaucrats used to line up on these stones when the boss showed up.

Guess what the emperor's symbol was?

The View from Jingshan Hill

After the palace, we went on a tour of a hutong, a traditional neighborhood with narrow alleys and courtyard houses.

I had to ride in a rickshaw by my lonesome.

The most exotic thing in Beijing? Truman and Merry. All the Chinese who had never seen a European in the flesh before wanted to get pictures with them.

Merry and an admirer at the Qianmen Gate

Candy Art?

Temple of Heaven

On our third day we visited the Temple of Heaven complex, where Ming and Qing emperors used to pray for bountiful harvests. On the way there we walked through a park full old folk out practicing Tai Chi, juggling, playing badminton, hacky-sack, dancing, etc. A couple of them wanted us to join in the games. I was made to catch rings around my neck by an old dude who was chucking them from across the park.

Trum failing his first-ever hack-sack challenge!

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

The Summer Palace

This Summer Palace is actually quite new, built by the Empress Dowager Cixi in 1884-1895 to replace the one burned down by the joint British-French force during the Second Opium War. This version, too, was damaged and looted by foreign forces after the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

Cixi's Theater

The Artificial Lake

The paintings along this covered walkway make it the longest "gallery" in the world.

Trum and the Dragonboat

Back in Beijing we just had to try Peking Duck. We went to the famous Quanjude restaurant. The verdict? A little bit better than duck I've had in Idaho, but still tasted pretty ducky.

Our duck being Kung Fu-ed

Note From Merry: I wanted to include the picture of the Duck Face they served us but Jack thought that would be weird. Just know that the picture exists and that no one ate the Duck Face.

I wished we could've seen Mao, but he was not receiving visitors the day we were near the mausoleum (Mao-soleum?), and we were told by our guide that, unless we wanted to wait in line for several hours, we wouldn't be able so see the "Great Helmsman." We had plans to see the Beijing Military Museum as well, but we showed up and it was under renovation.
Guess we have reasons to go back, eh?