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On the road from Kathmandu to Lhasa, Martin discovers that the modern Tibet is a fascinating land of contrasts where nightclubs outnumber monasteries and nomads carry cell phones.
Seven Days in Tibet
Martin2003-11-11 21:51:23
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The Friendship Highway is definitely not a highway. It's hardly even a road by most definitions, but a rough dirt track that begins in Kathmandu, traverses the steep terraced valleys of Nepal, climbs over the highest mountain range in the world, the Himalayas, weaves through the desolate high-altitude desert of the Tibetan plateau, and ends in Lhasa, the mythical capital of Tibet. It takes a week to make the thousand-kilometer journey, sometimes driving as much as twelve hours a day.
Our Tibetan guide (let's just call him Tashi to keep him out of trouble with his wife) met us at the border with Tibet. Striding around confidently with an air of authority, he seemed to know all the officers at the border, as well as every official in every town between Lhasa and Kathmandu. Surprisingly for a guide, Tashi showed little enthusiasm for explaining the sights that we passed. But he showed plenty of enthusiasm for talking about himself (especially with some of the women in our group).
During the long days on the road, I had plenty of time to get to know the other travelers in our group. Andy was a young, successful currency trader from London who got ripped off by an equally successful Chinese moneychanger at the border, exchanging British Pounds for Chinese Yuan at half the official rate. He also had an insatiable curiosity, firing a never-ending series of questions at our guide, to which he usually received a less than satisfactory response. "Tashi, how high is that mountain?" ("I don't know.") or "Tashi, why is the color of that lake turquoise?" ("Minerals.")
When he wasn't questioning Tashi, Andy spent most of his time talking to Javier, a technology consultant from Madrid with a particular aversion to Tibetan food. "Fried rice with vegetables or friend noodles with vegetables?" It was the same choice every night. "Paella! I want paella," he protested fruitlessly.
Nathalie had a passion
...
See photographs from:
Tibet Gallery
,
Nepal Gallery
,
China Gallery
