I slept in a room with a guy from the corn field of Ohio by Toledo who left this morning for Kathmandu, Nepal via Everest. Last night he handed me his trekking book for Tibet to pass on but when I woke up this morning it was gone, I guess he changed his mind and realized he was not ready to part with it yet. He did leave his two trekking poles. I now have the whole room to myself. Unfortunately the instant noodles he left were not vegetarian. I had thoughts about trading it for something I can eat with someone else.
I had oatmeal with raisins, bannana, walnut, no dairy powder for breakfast this morning. It was soooooo satisfying. I think I may add hot coco to my list if I come across good hot coco. But they are mostly generic kinds nothing really coco-y. Yup, I have been spoiled in Berkeley with all sorts of fair-trade, organic, etc... dark chocolate coco. This isn't a nutrient necessity item but more on the fun list.
I have learned to slow down and stroll to adjust to faster heart rate in this elevation. It's nice as long as I don’t run or talk too fast. Yes the thermos I picked up were really worth it. It's very cold when I am not standing in the sun but under the sun, I only needed to wear a t-shirt because it is hot, such a wide range of temperature.
I didn't get into Potola Palace today. It was sold out. I had to learn about the process in getting a ticket into the Palace. First I have to go to a window before 10am to get a reservation number. This number places me in a line in an order fashion. Then I have to return in 11:30am to get into a line formation according to my number. When it is my turn, I will get a reserved ticket with entry time after I show them my ID. This ticket then allows me to buy a ticket at the Palace at my designated time. So I don’t have a ticket in my hand. I only have a reservation number and time. My time for the Palace is 3pm. It's quite late. I had an earlier number to get in line to get a wait number but I didn't line up right and ended up in back of line. It's okay even if it is so late. This means I can sleep in a bit later. I hear only a 1/4 part of the palace is opened to the public.
As I walked to the Potola Place this morning I thought about the changes in Tibet. What's right and what's wrong. What's good and what's bad. The inner Chinese tell me how well the government is taking care of Tibetans, giving them this and that. As I walked in the touristy town of Lhasa, I see a modern city. Is it for the betterment of the people to live in apartments with running water, electricity, toilets? They are told to leave the mountains and live in Lhasa. What consist of a culture? Is it in the clothing? The language? The hairstyle? What is being lost in Lhasa? What is being lost in Modernization? What is Tibetan culture that needs to be preserved? What can be modernized? What would make all of this a happy marriage of cultures and raising the future child called Tibet?
Foreigners tell me how cool it is to travel alone and meet different people. Because I am not in a group people approach me and I get to meet a lot of people. I tell them, there is also lack of sharing of cost with others in cars and hotel rooms when dorm beds are unavailable. I also mentioned because I am alone, I am more vulnerable to different situations. Call it adventure, call it risky? It depends on your perspective. The inner Chinese cannot believe I am on my own and some worry for me and take care of me. Last night and today I had noodles with vegetables in soy sauce broth. I also helped myself to the service kitchen and made my own dipping sauce. I got dipping noodles, vegetables and soup all in one. People have been nice about letting me help myself to sauces and as a customer being near to the kitchens. It's been good. Some people I've come across, trys so hard to make my dish perfect that they end up screwing it up anyways.
I met a man named Brian from Texas who worked in Santa Clara for 6 years. He's going to quite his job where he feels undervalued and appreciated as a human being. So he is out to start his own software company. He has only parted from his Taiwanese girlfriend for 4 days and he's puppy sick. I told him that was wimpy, months I can understand but 4 days? He said he went to Shaolin Monastery and did 3 days of training there. He said he was sore and there were a few females training and all were too young for him. I thought to myself, "wait a minute, don't you already have a girlfriend of two years?" He is having trouble acclimating in Lhasa, he flew in and is underdressed and refuses to buy a jacket. He tends to interpret people’s interaction with him as others mistreating him. That's too bad that his world is lived this way.
I am learning from other foreign travelers that it’s quite a fad to do a retreat in Shaolin for 3 days or 7 days. People really like to have that in their China trip experience to talk about. Its like cool or something.
I also came across the Colorado couple who I met on the train and we talked about the possibility of doing treks together. I proposed heading all the way to Mt. Kilash. I think the ride would be exhausting but we would cover very beautiful parts of southern Tibet from east to west. It would be a three week journey divided by four people about resulting in about $500. per person to hire a car and permits stuff not including 150y per day for a guide. It is quite a long journey and everyone is keeping possibilities open.
Nate seems to be for it but Stef keeps going back and forth. She also kept asking him for input and then cutting him off whenever he spoke. She mentioned how cool it would be to travel alone like me unlike her with her boyfriend just to upset him. And so to get back at her mentioned how he'd like to ditch his girlfriend. They're a trip and quite a pair. Mt Everest, I hear has been cloudy, so it has been difficult to see the ridges. To get to the base camp there are different cost involved and also to go hiking to different Ks it cost $100. per person plus all the gear and hauling. We decided to x off any possibility of doing the Ks due to cost and out of season consideration. If it doesn't work out and I don’t end up going to Kilash, I won't cry. It's like the Kalaulau trail of Kaui, it's worth waiting and doing it right. I don't care to do other trails as a compromise just to back pack. In case this group thing may not workout with this group, I may have to join another group or create another group or just drop the whole idea.
We had lunch together and everyone really likes the fact that I spoke fluent Mandarin and wanted to take me everywhere as their translator. In fact there were talks of post Tibet travels together. I was not ready for that far into the future. I am only able to do one day at a time and having to think of the next week, that is the most amount of planning I’ve done so far into the future. I have to because it involves hiring a car and a driver, money etc…
We then walked some more to locate a 3.5yuan per hour internet cafe. Last night at my hotel it was 8y per hour. At this internet place, snacks vendors walk by to sell you food and drinks. I feel like I am in a casino but instead of cards and wheels it’s computers.
Stef wanted to have Indian food for our dinner meeting to discuss our possible trip together. Since Indian food is so available in Berkeley I was not enthusiastic about it. But for my Colorado female friend, it's a big deal. I just hung out just because I could even though I was not all that interested in socializing. And it was 23yuan for a full course Indian meal which is expensive for Chinese standards but it only comes out to 3 or 4 dollars for dinner. But the food was terrible and it was not what I would call Indian food. I think I am just spoiled by the abundant Indian food selections to choose from.
Although I have been with a lot of people and met a lot of people and surrounded by people everywhere and been socializing, somehow hanging out with dinner friends was exhausting to me. I think some people just create that, they demand so much of your attention and talking a lot about nothing, in a very ungrounded manner. After dinner Brian was nice about walking me back to my dorm in the dark and in the rain. I was glad that he did that. I didn’t want to walk by myself at night. I was very happy to be back in my room. I had the whole room to myself.
