The Adventures of a Wild Woman in Nepal and Tibet

I haven't written much since my mother died last November.  I just haven't felt the urge.  Grief shows up in funny ways. However, since my mother died fairly young at the age of sixty-nine, and had never been on an airplane until my sister carried her ashes from Connecticut to Wisconsin, my sister and brother and I used the money she left us to take our dream vacations this year.  We had learned we should never put off anything.  So off I went to Nepal and Tibet, the Himalayas, the Top of the World,  the place I had dreamed of visiting since I was twelve years old.  Here is the diary of my trip.  It was wonderful to have something incredible to write about.

Days One and Two – Bangkok

My good friend, Kate, and I arrived in Bangkok on Monday, September 3.  I seemed to be doing okay with the time difference and decided to go ahead and book a massage for the next day.  Thais are famous for their spa treatments and the hotel boasted a luxury spa.  I was up for it after a 16 hour plane trip from JFK.  But first, room service, a soak in the super large tub and a good night of sleep.

The next day we walked the area around the hotel.  The Siam at Siam is located in the business district and the air was very congested.  There were a couple of malls within walking distance and we checked out some of the touristy spots.  I was impressed by a number of small altars where the local Buddhists stopped to light incense and make offerings.  There was a larger temple/altar outside of the mall and next to the commuter rail.  It seemed very out of place amidst the commercialism of a very busy city.

The massage that afternoon was wonderful. In retrospect, I would love to have had the same experience at the end of the trip.  Or even in the middle.  But who was to know what was down the road on this adventure.

Day Three –  Kathmandu

We flew to Kathmandu on Wednesday, September 5.  I was immediately overwhelmed at the airport by porters that insisted on helping me with my luggage.  They are persistent and overly helpful to the point of being a nuisance. I just wanted to get my luggage and find our guide and driver and get to the hotel.  Fortunately, everything went smoothly through immigration and baggage claim and our guide and driver were waiting for us as soon as we walked out of the airport.  I had the same experience with the porters when we were leaving and have resolved to bring a taser on my next trip.  J

My first impressions of Kathmandu were of wonder and awe.  The mountains that surround the Kathmandu Valley are impressive in shining emerald green.  The monsoon season was beginning to wane and the result of all that rain was a haze settling over the terraced rice fields on the mountain sides. 

Kathmandu is a very large city and is full of pedestrians, cows, sheep, dogs and even a monkey or two here or there.  As we drove through the city I wondered how anyone kept from being hit as the traffic did not seem to follow any sort of rules other than to blow the horn to let people know that you were coming up behind them. The city is very colorful.  Women stroll in saris and the buildings are all painted vibrant colors or in terra cotta brick.  There are Buddhist stupas (temples with the eyes of Buddha) and Hindu altars throughout the city.  It is not unusual to see a Buddhist with beads in his/her hands walking near a Hindu with a spot of red paint on their forehead.

We stayed at the Mashygandi Hotel in the Thamel section of Kathmandu.  Thamel is a touristy, business area and is full of rickshaw drivers, hawkers and beggars vying for the attention of any westerner that comes walking down the cobblestone street.  I got quite good at running the gauntlet and letting folks know when I was interested or not in whatever it was that they were trying to sell.

Our guide ran us through some points of dealing with the beggars and told us that it would not be a good idea to give anything to anyone.  Any donation would open up a gate that would be difficult to close.  It was difficult, however, to have to say no to so many people as we walked through the streets.  There was one woman with her child that barred the door to the shop that we were in and kept crying “money, money, money” for the full twenty minutes we were in the store.  The shopkeeper had to chase her away in order for us to be able to leave the store. 

My favorite place in Thamel is the Pilgrim Feed and Read.  It is a bookstore with an outdoor café in the back that serves wonderful Indian and Nepalese food.  I spent a lot of time in there, journaling and browsing the book racks.  The waiters came to know us and it felt like home.  By the end of the two weeks we were able to greet and say thank you in Nepalese – Namaste is the standard greeting and Dahnni Baht means thank you. 

Evenings in Thamel are quite noisy.  There was a classic rock cover band playing in a club just a few doors down from Pilgrims on Thursday and Friday night.  They managed to torture just about every classic rock song known to man from Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine” to the Police’s “Every Breath You Take.”  The clerk at Pilgrim’s said that it was the worst part of his job and that this continued on for at least twelve days at a time every few weeks.  It was almost surreal at times to be walking down a street past goats, beggars and street vendors while the band played “Proud Mary.”

Day Four – Kathmandu

We were picked up at the hotel at 9:00 to start our tour of the sites of Kathmandu.  We drove to the Swayambhunath Temple, otherwise known as the Monkey Temple.  This is quite a large complex with a number of stupas and a Buddhist monastery.  It also is full of monkeys.  The monkeys are treated very well since it is said that they provided comfort to Shakyamuni Buddha at one time in his life.  There are also dogs everywhere and I witnessed a couple of rumbles between these temple residents. 

The views from the temple are magnificent, even on a hazy day.  You can see the mountains surrounding the valley and the expanse of the city below.  There are a number of hawkers within the temple walls but our guide told us to save our money for an area approved by the government. 

We were allowed to enter a Buddhist temple during prayers and I had a good time trying to take a picture of a couple of young  monks - probably around 10 or 12 years old.  The batteries on my camera were running low and I was trying to keep them smiling while I got the camera to work.  I hope they weren’t reprimanded for the giggles I managed to get out of them with the faces I was making. 

Our next stop was a Tibetan refugee complex.  Over 300 Tibetan families live in this compound and they support themselves by making and selling rugs.  We toured the workshop where about twenty Tibetan women were sitting at large rug looms (sometimes two or three to a loom) weaving the most magnificent pieces of art.  I watched closely to determine their technique and was inspired by how quickly they were able to work.  We went to the showroom and it took quite a while for me to decide on a rug.  When we left, we walked back through the workshop and the women all smiled and waved and thanked us for making the purchases.

It was just beginning to rain but we decided to head up to a local medieval village.  We drove through streets that were flooding and water was rushing from down the hills.  People, dogs and goats were walking through knee high water.  We were given the option to skip the walk through the village, but we decided to go ahead.  I quickly discovered that my raincoat had lost its water protection and I was soaked within a few hundred feet.  I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it though.  The buildings were all three stories high and built almost 1200 years ago.  The lower level houses their livestock – goats, ducks, chickens – and they live in the upper stories with the kitchen on top.  There were ducks everywhere and some of them had ribbons tied to their wings to identify them as belonging to certain households.  The weather was perfect for the ducks and I enjoyed watching them play in the rushing water.

We came to the village square and on the side of the street was a group of children in an enclosed area shucking corn.  They laughed at us and greeted us with “Namaste” as we walked by and I am certain they thought we were crazy for being out in the rain.  I eventually found brief shelter at a small Hindu temple with a family of goats huddling out of the rain.

Shopping was the next item on our itinerary.  The Nepalese Handicraft center provides excellent items at good prices.  I was able to pick up some jewelry and a singing bowl.

Darbur Square in Patan was our next stop.  It is a complex of Hindu and Buddhist Temples dating back hundreds of years.  Inside one of the temples I came across a little old man with a hat and a toothless grin.  I snapped his picture and he managed to talk me out of 500 Rupees.  He said he was 89 years old and needed new teeth.  He was probably 50 years old but he was so cute I couldn’t resist.  He was surrounded by an entourage of young men who said I could take their picture for 500 Rupees also.  I told them that when they turn 89 I will come back and take their picture. We had a good laugh.

We had lunch near the square and our guide, Nararyan, told us about his home in the mountains of Nepal and how he is studying both anthropology and tourism.  He is doing research on a tribe of people in southern Nepal and has spent time living with a family of forty five people.  His family lives quite far away from Kathmandu and there is no transportation or telecommunications.  His family arranged his marriage to a local girl and they are now living in Kathmandu with their 15 month old daughter.  In addition to working as a guide and studying, he also volunteers with an orphanage outside of Kathmandu.  Nararyan was a wonderful guide and he went above and beyond in a number of ways.

Day Five – Kathmandu – doing laundry, shopping and resting.

Day Six – THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

On Saturday, September 8, we rose at about 4:30 to meet the bus that would take us to the border of Nepal and Tibet.  The previous evening had been a little nerve wracking since our tour company had trouble getting our visas and permits to travel into Tibet.  We later found out that a British journalist had written an article blasting the Chinese and how difficult they make it for foreigners attempting to enter Tibet.  The Chinese had decided that they would not grant any more visas until the British journalist “took it back” and a number of tour companies had been making calls to the British in an attempt to get someone to make nice so that business as usual could go on. 

As we were loading the bus we were told by the rep from our travel company that if there was a landslide along the way we would not have to pay porters to carry our bags.  He said this was already taken care of and the guide who was taking us to the border was aware of it. 

The drive was incredibly beautiful.  We drove through the countryside surrounding Kathmandu and into the mountains.  Terraced rice fields dotted the mountainside and we saw a number of stupas on the side of the roads.  We stopped at a mountainside café but there was no view due to the dense fog.  We also stopped at a gorge that offered bungee jumping.  There were a number of children there who were begging for candy and pencils. 

We eventually came to a landslide.  Of course, the business about the porters being pre-paid had been forgotten and we had to argue with the guide.  Then we were told that once we walked to the other side of the landslide we would have to pay an additional 500 rupees a piece for transport to the border or we would have to walk.  This news was not taken well by our tour group and we revolted.  It was extortion.  The guide had our visas and was pretty much holding us hostage.  We ended up negotiating down to 300 rupees a piece (150 at the start of the trip and 150 when we arrived at the border). 

Between the landslide and the border we came to a river that was cascading over the road and down the hill on the other side.  I got out of the bus and thought “I wonder if this is the day I am going to die.”  Little did I know that I would be thinking that a lot over the next few days.   The driver decided to drive on through the water and I held my breath until I had to grab my backpack off the floor as the water came rushing down the aisle of the bus.  We made it through, of course.  There was a foot bridge we could have taken, but we would have been charged about 50 rupees.

We arrived at the border in the afternoon and the experience with the Chinese government began.  After processing out of Nepal we had to stand in line on the Friendship Bridge entering Zhengmu, China (Tibet).  Our bags were sprayed and our temperatures were taken.  We eventually walked through the rain to the immigration office to have our passports and visas checked.  The process was painfully slow.  We were eventually told that the Chinese do not care for foreigners entering Tibet.  They feel that there are enough Chinese people to support tourism in Tibet and Western tourists are not necessary and are unwanted.  They made that clear in many ways throughout the trip.

At this point we were linked up with our Tibetan guide, Tenpa.  He assisted us through the customs process and directed us to meet at a restaurant up the street from the checkpoint – the Base Camp café.  It was at this point that I made the acquaintance of Chinese pit toilets.  I will wax poetic about pit toilets later on.  For now, let it suffice that I was not impressed.

We ended up spending Saturday evening at the Base Camp arguing about how to proceed.  Tenpa was dealing with trying to get permits for our Tibetan drivers to leave Zhengmu and take the mountain road to Nyalam and on to Lhasa.  There seem to be a lot of restrictions on when Tibetans are allowed to drive certain roads.  I think there was a lot of politics happening behind the scenes.  More was revealed later.

A large portion of our group of thirty people wanted to travel that night.  It was raining and there were stories of landslides.  I asked that we trust our guide, who knew the road conditions, to make the right decision for us.  He got us rooms in the guest house for that night and told us he would wake us at 4 a.m.

Day Seven – Day Two in Zhengmu

We rose a little before 4 a.m. and were on the road by 5:00 a.m.  The roads were wet and muddy and waterfalls fell off of the mountain and over the Land Cruiser.  Our driver was Pappu and is was reassuring that he chanted “om mane padme hum” as he drove through the switchbacks and through mountain streams.  There were times when I could look out the window and look straight down, hundreds of feet to the valley below.

We stopped near a checkpoint.  Our guide had wanted us to be first in line to be able to go over the roads when they opened. We got out of the Land Cruisers for a while to chat and take pictures and then Kate and I and our traveling companions, Marie and Michael, fell asleep while we waited.

A few hours later we awoke to the sound of rock and mud rushing down the side of the mountain.  We got out of the vehicles and saw that a huge landslide covered the road just a few hundred feet away.  It was evident that we were going to have to go back to Zhengmu and wait for the road crew to clear the way.

We spent the day in Zhengmu getting to know our traveling companions.  Michael and Marie are a couple who met last year while doing volunteer work in Calcutta.  Marie is a photographer from France and Michael is Chinese, born in India and raised in Sydney, Australia, who considers India his home.  He has spent a lot of time traveling since the 70s and even volunteered with Mother Theresa.  He states she was his Bible study teacher for almost a full year.  He sees himself as a citizen of the world and does not follow any one religion.

Besides Marie and Michael, our group also consisted of a lively and delightful couple from Holland, two young girls from Israel, a bright young woman from Leeds, UK who accepted a job teaching English in Uganda while on the trip, two sweet German couples, four young Americans who were working as missionaries in Nepal, a young student from Belgium, three young folks from France (two females and an obnoxious male), a couple from Spain who always looked like they were in pain (they had booked a luxury trip with separate accommodations which just didn’t happen), two Russians (one of whom was a photographer who constantly complained and looked as if she was smelling something very bad), and a travel coordinator from Quebec who was doing research for future tours with her company.

We spent some time exploring Zhengmu and at the end of the day we were told we would be staying another night as the road was still not open.  There was no cell phone service and the internet service in the town was down so we were completely cut off from the outside world.  We were given a new room in a dormitory guest house with a pit toilet down the steep concrete stairs next to the street.  The walls were covered with mildew but we had a balcony on which to sit and watch all the activity in town.  I slept fairly well due to being exhausted.

Day Eight – Day Three in Zhengmu

The next morning we met at the Base Camp and were eventually told we might be leaving that evening.  We spent the day shopping, exploring the town and playing cards in the Base Camp.

As we walked around town we found a garden area on the side of the hill adjoining what appeared to be a cemetery.  Kate and I sat and visited with two Indian gentlemen who were also stranded in Zhengmu.  When Kate told them she was from Massachusetts one of them responded with “Ah, Massachusetts, the home of the Kennedys.  America’s royalty.”  He was delightful and we had a good time discussing our experiences.  They told us we needed to visit India someday and we agreed. 

While we sat there a young boy of about ten started to pester us with leaves and sticks.  He was being playful and enjoyed having his picture taken with us.  He couldn’t speak English but his smile was genuine.  We eventually moved on.  There is also a Buddhist temple in town and we stopped to visit and turn prayer wheels.  The view of the valley from the temple was incredible.

That evening we were told it would still be another day before we could leave Zhengmu.

Zhengmu was really starting to wear on me. It is a dirty hillside town that has one redeeming feature – magnificent views of the surrounding Himalayas and valleys.  The garbage is dumped in the streets and then waterfalls are directed to wash it all down the hill.  The pit toilets are flushed by the same water – a fact I didn’t realize until after I had slipped and fallen into the water while unloading my backpack from the land cruiser.  There is no way that I can relate the odor that came out of my shorts and sandals after that.  The shorts were salvageable but my favorite Merrell sandals were left in Kathmandu at the end of the journey.  I am sure that they would have been considered hazardous material by the airlines if I had tried to bring them home.

Day Nine – Day Four in Zhengmu

On Tuesday, September 11, we were loaded back up into the land cruisers and headed up the mountain to the checkpoint in order to be first in line when the road re-opened.  We were told that it may be about a six hour wait so we opted to walk back down into Zhengmu and have lunch and return to the checkpoint by foot by 4 p.m.  I was grateful that I seemed to be handling the hike and the altitude pretty well and the walk into town was enjoyable.  It took about 90 minutes and Michael directed us a to a great Szechuan restaurant where we were served a Chinese family style meal complete with chopsticks.  It was a wonderful meal that cost about $2.50 each for six of us and we enjoyed each other’s company. 

Afterwards we found a store with ice cream and then headed back up the mountain to the vehicles.  The walk went fairly well except for a lot of trucks moving back and forth from the bottom of the hill to the top.  I inhaled a lot of diesel fumes and started to get a sore throat.  When we got back to the cruisers we found out that the Chinese were making life very difficult for the Tibetan drivers. 

Tenpa, our guide, asked some of us Westerners if we would be willing to speak to the checkpoint guards and let them know that we needed to get through in order to make it to Lhasa in time for our flights back to Kathmandu.  He said that the Chinese had no regard for the Tibetans.  I saw this was true when I walked up to the checkpoint and witnessed the three Chinese guards telling the Tibetans that they could not drive on the roads and then laughing as they saw the Tibetans become angry.  The guards all looked as if they were about 12 years old and were obviously enjoying making the Tibetans suffer. 

Michael (working as my translator) and I made our way to the guards to plea the case of the Westerners.  We were told that there were still landslides on the road and there was no way our group could pass.  Shortly after that, however, about six SUVs carrying Chinese officials and other people passed through the checkpoint.  The tempers of the Tibetans flared and things started to become volatile.  I stood back and surveyed the situation.  I did not see any guns so I did not feel as if there was a lot of danger.  The young Chinese guards started to look a little nervous as a large crowd of Tibetans started to yell and surge forward at the gate.  I stood to the side and chanted in hopes of being able to calm my anger and that of others.

Things became very heated when a young Tibetan woman accused one of the guards of taking money from her in the past in order to be able to get through the checkpoint.  This was cause for one of the senior officers to make an appearance and accusations started to fly.  During all of this another group of SUVs carrying Chinese were allowed through the checkpoint.  Things were getting ugly.

Michael and I moved forward and started to give our tale of woe to the senior official.  I was a grandmother who had not had contact with her family for four days and needed to get to Lhasa in order to get my flight back to Kathmandu.  Michael lied and said he was in China to search for his family and wanted to be able to bring back good memories about his homeland.  The official appeared to respond to our peaceful pleas and made a couple of phone calls. I sensed he was trying to find a way to save face amidst all the drama that had occurred over the past hour.  He told us we should be able to travel in about three hours once some trucks from the other side of the landslide made their way down to Zhengmu.  Michael and I went back to the Tibetans and the vehicles and let them know what we were told.  For some reason, we were allowed to travel within the hour.

The next four hours rival any Indiana Jones movie I ever saw.  We traveled on rutted, mud roads on mountain switchbacks on the side of precipitous cliffs.  We drove through stream beds and water falls.  All of this in the dark.  This may have been a blessing as I was unable to actually see how far down we would fall if we happened to slip off the road.  We met large trucks on these narrow roads and at least three or four times our driver had to back up to find a spot to park so the trucks could pass.  I was soothed by the sound of our driver chanting and singing as he drove on the foggy, rainy mountain roads.

At about 10:30 we arrived in Nyalam.  I ate a bowl of Yak Thukpa (yak noodle soup – delicious!!) and went to bed in a lovely little room of Tibetan style furniture and décor.

It was a long walk to the pit toilet, but at least it was fairly clean.

Day Ten – The Road to Shigatse

The next morning we awoke to a completely different landscape from the one we left behind in Zhengmu.  Gone were the rainforests and waterfalls.  Now we were closer to the Tibetan Plateau and the landscape turned brown and rocky.  We were on the road by 9:00 and by 10:30 I was sitting at Lalung Leh Pass at 17000 feet gazing across the horizon at the snow capped peak of Mt. Everest. 

I had wanted to see Mt. Everest since I was 12 years old and there it was.  Beautiful.  I wanted to sit and just look at it for hours.  Fortunately, it was on the horizon for the next few hours of travel and I was able to get my fill.  We were driving through a wide plateau of brown sand and sage, surrounded by the snow capped peaks of the Himalayas. 

We stopped at a great roadside inn in Tingri and I had more Thukpa and Yak Momos (dumplings stuffed with Yak meat). 

Later that afternoon, our driver, Pappu, who had a crush on my friend, Kate, took a side road where we ended up at his mother’s home.  We spent some time visiting with his family and seeing how a Tibetan family lives.  To us it would seem like poverty with dirt floors, chickens and goats running in and out of the house, but it was actually quite beautiful and looked very comfortable.  We stayed for about a half hour before heading back to get to Shigatse.

That night we stayed in the first hotel of the Tibet portion of the trip with a private bath and a shower.  I had been in the same clothes for four days and never enjoyed a shower more. And it had a sit down toilet.

Day Eleven – Shigatse and the drive to Lhasa

The next day we toured the Tashilhunpo Monastery, the home of the Penchen Lama.  The Penchen Lama is almost of equal status of the Dalai Lama.  However, the position is currently under question.  Tenpa told us that he couldn’t talk politics but he found ways to fit it into our tours anyway.  It seems that the Dalai Lama had chosen the current Penchen Lama in the late 80s using the time honored method of searching for the reincarnation of the previous lama.  The Chinese, however, chose the young son of a communist part member to put into the position of the Penchen Lama and placed the child that the Dalai Lama had chosen under house arrest.  This child was considered to be the youngest political prisoner in the world by Amnesty International.  During the tour of the chapels and statues at the monastery, Tenpa told me that it was being reported that the true Penchen Lama had disappeared from China in the last month and was rumored to be somewhere in the United States.  This appears to be a hopeful sign to the Tibetan people.

Tenpa explained that Tibetans are free to practice their religion as long as they do not work for the Chinese government.  If the government discovers that someone is practicing Buddhism while working for them, they will be fired and told that Buddha can provide for the family.  Many people risk it and some people wear masks as they circumnavigate the temples, turning the prayer wheels that adorn the walls in hopes that they can practice their faith and not be discovered.   It is also very difficult for Tibetans to find jobs in “liberated Tibet”.  Tenpa has the equivalent of a PhD. from a university in India but since he has decided to live in his homeland he has to work as a guide for a tourist company.  His job is at risk, though, as the government is seeking to have more Chinese give tours so that the Chinese version of history can be told in lieu of the truth of the “liberation.”

We had a good day of shopping and touring in Shigatse.  We bartered with street vendors.  Kate got into a laughable tussle with a couple of Tibetan women who were arguing prices and quality of goods.  She ended up drawing a crowd and I stood to the side trying to avoid being sold any more bracelets.

That afternoon we headed out to drive to Lhasa. 

As we left Shigatse we stopped at a checkpoint where the drivers were given permits for the drive to Lhasa.  This is another interesting piece on how life is made difficult for the Tibetans.  First of all, only Tibetan drivers need this permit to drive the road from Shigatse to Lhasa.  The permit tells them they have four hours to make the trip.  I didn’t realize this until after questioning why we were stopping here and there for a few minutes at a time as we neared Lhasa.  It seems that the Chinese hold the drivers very strictly to the four hours.  If you arrive at the Lhasa checkpoint too soon, it is assumed you were speeding and you will be fined.  If you arrive too late, it is assumed you stopped too often or drove too slow and you will be fined or not allowed to continue.  Again, this is only for the Tibetans.

The scenery along the drive was incredible.  We drove along a river valley and the colors changed from turquoise to maroon along with the yellow from the rape seed growing alongside the river.  We saw horses, donkeys, yaks, cows, goats, and sheep.  I was envious when I would look up and see a solitary human figure sitting high on a mountain cliff.  I wanted to be a sheepherder.  I wanted to be able to sit and look out across the plains to the mountains beyond.  I wanted time to be able to just soak in the views.  Unfortunately, our four days in Zhengmu had meant the rest of the trip needed to be rushed.

We arrived in Lhasa exactly four hours after leaving Shigatse and I was disappointed. 

Lhasa has been commercialized and industrialized into a large bustling city by the Chinese.  We arrived late and I did not get to see the Potala rise up out of the distance to greet me as I had imagined it would.  Pappu dropped us off at a seedy, Chinese run hotel off an alley in the Tibetan section of town.  We went across the courtyard for dinner and both ordered chicken – ended up with yak.  Oh, well.  Welcome to Lhasa.

Day Twelve – Lhasa

The next morning we were picked up and taken to Drepung Monastery.  I loved the monasteries even though the Chinese presence was very strong.  All of the monasteries used to have thousands of monks but now only hold a few hundred.  The Chinese massacred thousands of monks and destroyed hundreds of monasteries during the Cultural Revolution.  The Chinese have been rewriting history ever since in order to justify their actions but my Buddhist heart is finding it hard to forgive them. 

Kate and I decided to forego the tour of the Potala, the former home of the Dalai Lama.  I enjoyed seeing it and taking pictures from the outside but knew that the Chinese had stripped it of its splendor and significance and had now turned it into a showcase of the Chinese liberation.  Instead, we took a bicycle rickshaw ride through the bustling city streets to Barkhor Square – the Tibetan market area of Lhasa.

By this time Kate and I had gotten used to greeting Tibetans on the street with “Tashi Delai!!”  This is the Tibetan form of “good day” or “have a nice day” and we were finding it to be a lot of fun to be greeted in return with smiles and laughter.  A couple of elderly Tibetan women stopped us on the street and shared their bananas with us. We were able to respond with “Tu Jai Shai” – thank you.   In Shigatse a few school children had stopped us and tried out their English. 

I love the Tibetan people.  Given the oppression under which they live their spirits still ring true and beautiful.  Their eyes and smiles glow and they welcome the sight of Westerners.  I can only hope that they know that I mean well and that I do not buy into the Chinese version of history.  I want to return someday and bring my granddaughters.  I hope the situation improves for the Tibetan people by then.

After another rickshaw ride back to the Potala we re-joined our group and toured the Sera monastery.  That tour ended with watching the monks debate philosophical questions in the gardens. The monks are quite animated in their debates with a lot of yelling and hand slapping as points are made between the student and the teacher.  Compassion and wisdom are said to be the two main elements of the debate.  I saw a lot of smiling faces among the monks as they seemed to be enjoying the exchange.

It was with sadness that we all loaded back up into the bus.  We knew that when we were dropped off at our hotel that it would mean goodbye to our fellow travelers.  Poor Tenpa was being aggravated by some members of the group who felt he should be reimbursing for parts of the tour that were missed by our extended stay in Zhengmu.  It was not Tenpa’s fault nor his responsibility.  Kate and I will take it up with our travel insurance company and the tour company through which we had booked.  We do feel, though, that we had the trip we were meant to have and through the adversity and delays we experienced in Zhengmu we found we were able to withstand a lot more than we had originally thought. 

I know that my tolerance for discomfort shifted.  I was able to pee in places I would never have dreamed of.  I also realized that modesty is overrated and if you have to go in the middle of a wide open plateau, then so be it.  I never thought I would pee while looking at Mt. Everest, but I just didn’t want to take my eyes off of that mountain.

So, while some of our group members continued to argue with Tenpa, we said our goodbyes.  Marie reminded me that I had actually grown younger on this trip through learning that I had more inner strength than I thought I had.  Michael blew me kisses and we smiled as we remembered our negotiations during the Tibetan/Chinese incident in Zhengmu.  Sadly, we drove away and back to our hotel for our last night in Lhasa. 

The toilet in our hotel room was clogged and we were both sick.  Aww, the joys of travel.

Day Thirteen – Return to Kathmandu

On Saturday morning we left the hotel around 7:15 for the hour drive to Ganggar and the airport.  Our flight left Tibet at 10:40 China time and arrived in Kathmandu at 9:40 Nepal time.  We actually arrived in Nepal before we left Tibet.  My clock is still messed up.

Nararyan was a welcome site when we arrived in Kathmandu and by 11:00 we were having breakfast at the Pilgrim’s Feed and Read.  Kate decided to spend the afternoon hunting down an orphanage with Nararyan and doing some more shopping at the Nepalese Handicraft Center.  I opted for a quiet afternoon journaling at Pilgrims, stocking up on books, and shopping for those goofy looking Nepalese knitted hats for the family. 

We also sent our laundry to housekeeping and spent some time in the Internet Café.  Kate’s journey to the orphanage was successful and I am glad.  We had gotten the run around from the director earlier in the trip and had been concerned that the orphanage was fictional.  But Nararyan found it and was able to get the scoop from the locals and all appears to be on the up and up.  I am glad for Kate.  This adoption means the world to her and she needed to be reassured that all was well. 

Days Fourteen and Fifteen – the long flight home.

All I can say is that it was a long two days.

This trip of a lifetime was not what I thought it would be but it was more than I could have hoped for.  I met some wonderful people both from the countries I visited and as fellow travelers.  I found out I have a lot of strength and fear does not need to be a deterrent in my life.  I can put up with a lot and be graceful about it.  I was very pleased when our fellow traveler from England told Kate and I that we had changed her opinion about Americans to a positive one and that she hoped to meet us again sometime.

On a final note – whatever your dream is – follow it.  I did and I do not regret one moment of it.