The Friendship Highway

Friendship Highway is the name used for the road linking Lhasa and Kathmandu covering 736 km.. It’s not really what exactly means “highway” for most of the westerners, but if we extract the words out- believe me it’s really high way! It’s an epic journey of unbelievable beautifully landscape all along high altitude passes (Gyatso-La and Lalung La) over 5000m, striking azure lakes with snow peaks on the background, the whole range of Himalaya seen in front of you as you drive towards.We shopped around, and we chartered a Land Cruiser to cruise us all the way to the Nepali border.Tenzin, our guy, arranged fast all the permits and in few minutes we met our driver-guide under the same pre-destined name: Tenzin. All the guide books said to be sure we hire a Tibetan guide, as they know more about
Tibet than the Chinese counter parts. We did that-Tenzin was as Tibetan as it gets- but he didn’t speak English at all. We laughed at that.   We started on a chilly early morning, with an average of 3 hours of mantras murmured by Tenzin acting as a soundtrack for the journey,

stopping first at the great. Drepung Monastery (some say the biggest of its kind in the world). At one time this place had housed around 6000 Tibetan monks under its roof. Around 600 are still living here, and in the neighboring smaller monastery just 2 km down. It was interesting to roam in the yak butter smelling kitchen and speak in some sort of body language with the friendly care takers of the chapels.

Yamdruk-Tso lake, south of
Lhasa is accessible by the stupendous highway (real one) built by the Chinese . It’s one of the finest I saw. On top few kids popped out from nowhere. Other few guys with some assorted dressed yaks were staying near a small set up buffet.

This is almost 5000m high. The descending towards Gyantse is bliss, the Land Cruiser speeding up along with barley fields on our right and the beautiful lake on the left. After 35 km we leave the lake and take a turn onto a dusty road leading to Gyantse, some 90 km away. It’s a pleasant ride, amazing landscape passing by, you sitting comfortable nestled in our royal chairs: it’s a great contrast between the harsh brown of the soil and the crystal blue of the lake. They become dramatic as fluffy clouds pattern non-chalant the never ending skies. 

Gyantse is one of the last authentic Tibetan villages, home to a large fort set upon a high hill. The views are splendid. The town itself is very calm, with many Tibetan house and house holds. I spent the entire afternoon climbing the hills and speaking with the many kids I encountered around. I had also to deal with some ferocious local dogs protecting their territory, so I had to jump some fences, bark back or walk away. Palkhor monastery is at the base of the fort at the end of one road. It’s nice, the Supa has 9 tiers with 108 chapels. Even that visiting many monasteries and Stupas, they all start to look the same.

Shigatse was next. It’s not a big city but it is the second in Tibet after the capital Lhasa. Here is to be found Tashilunpo Monastery, the seat of the Panchen Lamas. This monastery was founded in 1447 by Gedun Drup, who was later recognized as the first Dalai Lama. The main statue of this monastery is Maitreya Buddha, the future Buddha. The statue is made of 275 kilograms of gold and measures 26 meters in height. This is one of the few monasteries virtually untouched by the Cultural Revolution.

Shegar followed. The onestreet small town is nothing special, but is the entering point to he Qomolungma natural Preserve, and it’s the place where you pay the entrance fee fo the preserve.Next morning we sped up the road, and we were on our way to the Base Camp. That’s the Everest Base Camp on the Tibetan part. There are many things in this world to visit and to please many people and their tastes, but there is only one “highest peak”. The Qomolungma (Mt Everest)

Everest Base Camp

 

Qomolangma (pronounced Chomolangma) roughly means “Goddess Mother of the Snows”; the Nepalese call the mountain Sagarmatha (taken from Sanskrit and translated roughly as “Forehead of the Sky”). It become Mount Everest in 1865 when Andrew Waugh, the British surveyor-general of India, named it after his predecessor Colonel Sir George Everest.

The weather was great. Shiny all the way, dramatic skies, not so much air though…but you do not go everyday to see the Everest. Even walking is like running. We walked for a while passing some dozens of tents set up here, all belonging to the several expeditions going on at the time to climb the Everest. 7 Summits Club was written on some of them. That’s Russian club I was about to find out lately. Some remaining of a Korean expedition was there also. At the top a small hill…there it is: Mt Everest and all the “ladies” around it. Speechless. This place together with the EBC in the Nepal side, which is much harder to get involving a lot of trekking. Are the best places to spot the Everest without climbing it. Or climbing other surrounding peaks. We’re at 5200m here. Further more you are allowed to climb till 6000m. From there you need a permit which sets you at around 65 thousands bucks. American ones. Ontop of that you have to add the costs for the entire expedition: Gear, stuff, hired porters, etc. All , around quarter a million. I do not know much on the subject, so I stop here.

Tibet

A mythical isolated land of lonely giant peaks over 8000 meters; this combined with an ancient highly developed culture- has attracted travelers and adventurers over the centuries. Also, a violently reality shows us that since 1959, China has occupied Tibet violating international public law and human rights. Anyhow, the strong belief of the people in the Buddhist teachings gave them a cultural identity overcoming the political routine of everyday life. This is their uniqueness and the source of strength behind their survival.

Tibet’s territory in its original magnitude amounts 2.47 million-sq. km at an average altitude of over 4000-m. Despite the size-it has a small population of around 2.7 million. Another 4 million Tibetans live abroad in south China, India, Nepal.
For centuries Tibet has instilled a special fascination in the West, as well as in peoples in other parts of the world. Tibet was even a symbol of mystical knowledge about the meaning and goal of our existence. In the temples of Angkor and Borobudur for example, and everywhere in Asia the heavily symbolic model of Mt. Kailash the stylized replica of the holy mountain Meru, can be found. The inaccessible forbidden land which, unlike many other countries on Asia, was not a European colony. For a long time it was only possible to reach Tibet after enormous difficulties and trials. Only a few adventurers or great explorers succeeded in reaching Lhasa in the last centuries. So, legends were created concerning the mysterious country. At one point a novel by James Hilton, The Lost Horizon, on the mystical valley of Shangri-La. which was supposed to be located in Tibet, fascinated a great deal of readers. In the west there was a desire for unattainable country, for a Garden of Eden of which one could dream. According to the Tibetan tradition there is a mystical country even beyond Tibet with the name of Shambala which, however, is far from any reality.

The mystification of the Tibet could partly be based on respect for the strength of faith and the dimension of spirituality on the roof of the world

past & present Lhasa…and future

 

Lhasa is the capital, a holy place for all the Tibetans. It’s the place where the magic Potala Palace, wich used to be the residential palace of the Dalai Lamas overlooks the life at its bottom. The 13-story-high Potala’s size and detail remain impressive. The exterior walls, constructed from mud and wood, are painted such a deep, rich crimson that from a distance they appear covered with plush carpet. A walking tour climbs through endless, labyrinthine throne rooms, side chapels and catacombs, emerging onto roofs topped with golden pagodas. In one chapel alone, cabinets hold more than 1,000 images of the Buddhist god of longevity; in the room housing the tomb of the eighth Dalai Lama, who died in 1804, his coffin glimmers with what is said to be 5,574 ounces of gold leaf, inlaid diamonds and pearls.

Eastwards from the Potala Palace, is Barkhor- the older Tibetan section of town. Lhasa still resembles a medieval city, under the smell of yak butter, juniper and incense. In the Barkhor’s narrow, winding alleyways, flanked by mud-brick homes topped with prayer flags and churning with crowds, monks bless Tibetan children by blowing on their heads and crowds of pilgrims walk in circles around holy sites, murmuring to themselves as their eyes roll back into their heads. You can see many Tibetans wearing traditional clothes. Many of them I recognize they are nomads from all parts of Tibet. The one with a red hair pin, tall and with huge prayer wheels in their hands. Their women wear nice huge jewelry made of gold with turquoise and red coral.  Some have traveled on foot for months from hundreds of miles away, bowing toward Lhasa after every few steps. They are here to do the Kora, walking and murmuring mantras while they circumambulate the palace or the Jokhang Temple.
We based ourselves around this area in a nice Tibetan guest house run bravely by a group of (only) women.There is a good-positive vibe around. The only thig is, because we flew ro Lhasa we have to take things easily to deal with the high altitude-as Lhasa stands at 3700m above sea level.

Westwards from the Potala there is the rest of the city which is MadeinChina entirely. It looks exactly like any other city in China. Malls, shops, vendors, KTV,  plasticisfantastic life everywhere! This part  has become the center of the development and tourism drive. In the sprawling newer section of Lhasa, cranes loom and hammers clatter, erecting boxy glass-and-steel shopping centers and fast food outlets I mentioned already. In central Lhasa, Chinese tour groups pose with red-robed Tibetan monks, who look distinctly uneasy appearing in the photographs. Foreigner tourists  do the same thing In the same square and along the pilgrimage road around the temple, Han Chinese looking mainly, sell all kind of Tibet paraphernalia massively produced in…Nepal.

Tourism is developing very fast, especially with the new amazing train line running from main China; The new train itself exudes luxury: In the plush four-bed sleeper berths, each bunk includes a personal television. The train soon will become even more luxurious. Next year, a company called RailPartners plans to introduce $1,000-per-night cars that will include private suites, butler service and haute cuisine. And many tour operators will invade Lhasa on special tours for many visitors next year during the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Lhasa is keeping up with the international standards also and this summer, Laurence Brahm, an American entrepreneur, opened House of Shambhala in Lhasa. The city’s first high-end boutique hotel, with elegant suites, a yoga center and a Tibetan crafts shop, it seeks to revive Tibetan arts and train Tibetans in tourism management. Other high-end operators have followed suit. One foreign nongovernmental organization helped found Dropenling Handicraft Development Center, a Lhasa initiative producing Tibetan crafts, like handbags, geared toward Western design sensibilities.

Victorious in all directions

” Lack of freedom is like the early morning dew, which vanishes when the first rays of the rising sun touch it”

XIV Dalai Lama

An Explanation of the Symbolism of the National Flag of Tibet

In the centre stands a magnificent thickly snow clad mountain, which represents the great nation of Tibet, widely known as the Land Surrounded by Snow Mountains.

Across the dark blue sky six red bands spread representing the original ancestors of the Tibetan people: the six tribes called Se, Mu, Dong, Tong, Dru and Ra which in turn gave the [twelve] descendants. The combination of six red bands (for the tribes) and six dark blue bands for the sky represents the incessant enactment of the virtuous deeds of protection of the spiritual teachings and secular life by the black and red guardian protector deities with which Tibet has had connection for a very long time.

At the tip of the snow mountain, the sun with its rays brilliantly shining in all directions represents the equal enjoyment of freedom, spiritual and material happiness and prosperity by all beings in the land of Tibet.

On the slopes of the mountain there proudly stand a pair of snow lions blazing with the manes of fearlessness, which represent the country’s victorious accomplishment of a unified spiritual and secular life.

The beautiful and radiant three coloured jewel held aloft represents the ever-present reverence respectfully held by the Tibetan people towards the Three Supreme Jewels (the Buddhist objects of refuge: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha).

The two coloured swirling jewel held between the two lions represents the peoples’ guarding and cherishing the self discipline of correct ethical behaviour, principally represented by the practices of the ten exalted virtues and the 16 humane modes of conduct.

Lastly, the surrounding border of yellow adorning the perimeter represents the spread and flourishing in all directions and times of the purified gold like teachings of the Buddha.

On(I mean above)…the roof of the world

 

 

After a lengthy bus odyssey of around 24 hours we were facing the border town of Sunauli, the ever dusty, hard trafficked cross into Nepal. Faces around us start slowly to change: there’s a pleasant mixture here of dark Indian looking mixed with the eye smiling kind faces of the Nepalis. The mongoloid faces of the Himalayans and the abrupt, nomadic-wind blazed, stony faces of many Tibetan refugees complete the picture
Nepal can be to a traveler one of the biggest surprises. It’s a small place blessed and in the same time a prisoner to its really incredible environment. I said small, but if you wanna talk about height, is the supreme of all lands, the falcon of the sky. Himalayas cover over 60% of Nepal and in a small land you have a challenging ecological diversity. Conditions change dramatically in an area of ~150km. In the south, the Terai is less than 100 m above sea level-all finishing in the north with the Himalayan range, including Mt. Everest (~8848 or 8850 m)-the worlds highest point. Conditions change from tropical to alpine and arctic in such a short distance.Unique! Himalaya is a Sanskrit word meaning abode (Alaya), of the snows (Himal). The northern Nepal frontier encompasses about 1/3 of the total Himalaya, including 10 of the tallest 14 mountains of the world. They form a group of massifs, or himal, crossed by high passes. Trans-Himalaya is a desert region north of the Himalaya which continues with the Tibetan plateau.

 

After the border we jumped in a hired jeep towards Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. The roads wind over nigh passes and parallel with deep gorges. Friendly people on the sides of the roads, many small colored dressed people carrying big loads of stuff on their backs, crossing hanging, narrow bridges over the valley. Tiny fractions of very blue rivers were trisecting under them. It’s a good ride, and the change of the air, calmness of the people came as a breeze after India..

 

We moved fast, and in 4 days we had our Tibetan permits, ticket flights in our hands. With some help. We wanted to move fast and that’s why we chose to fly to Lhasa in Tibet. It’s an old statement between me and Vali, we will fly over the highest mountains, over Shangri-La. Being Transilvanians, of course we have a deep affection for the mountains, we like trekking, but we’re not much of alpine type, cojones fellows that will do anything to climb and take a photo on a peak; any peak for some. But, I’m sure it’s nice. Anyway, few days after we were waiting for our Air China flight towards Chengdu, via Lhasa (our destination). Around us in the little Kathmandu airport were some travelers-mainly russians-for our flight and in the next lounge some freshly shaved American accented middle class people. Looking around, I saw that this mortgagevictimstwoSUVandonelabrador were waiting for the (only) Druk Air flight to Thimpu, Buthan.

 

The short flight over the Himalayan range is almost a religious experience. If you can focus on it, ignore all the souls fighting for a glimpse over the always to small windows, and you take out the good lunch and the Beaujolais wine served along. All the range is bellow you. They fly closer than I thought. I couldn’t take my eyes off the vista. The whole holy range.The elegant pyramid of Makalu,  Chomolungma (Mt. Everest)-dominating like a fatman surrounded by good looking “groupies”, (the steep)Lothse, Cho Oyu and the beautiful Shisha Pangma(my fav), Kanchenjunga to the east, somewhere far was the triangle of K2 and Pakistan… all there: beautiful and majestic as always have been. The calling is somehow persistent. It’s beautiful! Nature is so pure, viewed from here. I thouht about the comfort up here and to the people  who risk their lifes to go on top of them. I remembered Eric Shipton. Graduatelly we lost the snowy-heavenly peaks and the Tibetan Plateau revealed, harsh and empty of a beautiful maroon chromatic similar to the stony deserts. The plane on the descending went through turbulences, but we felt we do not care. We flew so smoothly over the roof of the world. Of course, if you approach the peaks by land they impose respect, but believe me also a simple fly over it’s a damn benign experience. I felt the energy IT gave me. 

 

Back on track

There were clouds of dust everywhere: I had it all over including my palate. I was literally fighting for a place on the train. I was late and couldn’t find a ticket for the sleeper class , I was bound to fight for my spot in 2^nd sitting class, the train to destination Agra. I was keen on leaving behind Jaipur, a big disappointment. Pink city, dust they meant it. I knew I go to Agra, wich many people consider one of the worst places in India. It’s about the dirt, the mess and the dodgy cheap touts surroundings the Taj Mahal, the main attraction, the milestone and the symbol of India. Incredible how this beautiful edifice, this perfect shaped mausoleum stands above everyone and everything around like a mighty prophet surrounded by a sea of beggars.

The real reason I was emotionally charged, un-patient to get there, was that I was about to meet Vali flying over from England for few weeks, for our promised incursion to northern Himalayas: Nepal and Tibet.

Vali is my best friend, my soul mate, my very best traveling partner. Together, we traveled in more than 40 countries!-majority of the places by hitchhiking. Thousands of hours spent in all imaginable weather conditions, so many places and so many people, customs and situations we faced and managed elbow by elbow; we know each other perfectly in travel conditions, a short exchange of looks, simple eye contact, and we know both our needs and intentions. It’s always great to meet up together, break bread again, spending hours staring at our maps…and be back on track. And of course his bag came full with delicious items I was sort of craving for: transilvanian smoked ham, real feta cheese procured from some Iraqis he knows back in UK, Prahova Valley Cabernet, canned cider (Bulmers, of course) and a fair amount of my old friend-cousin Johnie from Scotland-dressed in a red label this time. And I was about to meet his new girlfriend, Lavi, finally convinced to travel here.

Holi Hai

 

As the brief spring warms the landscape, northern India cuts loose for a day of hijinx and general hilarity.
The festival of H O L I celebrated on the day after the full moon in early March every year. Originally a festival to celebrate good harvests and fertility of the land, Holi is now a symbolic commemmoration of a legend from Hindu Mythology. Today Holi is an excuse for Indians to shed inhibitions and caste differences for a day of spring fever and Big Fun. Teenagers spend the day flirting and misbehaving in the streets, adults extend the hand of peace, and everyone chases everyone else around, throwing brightly colored powder (gulal) and water over each other.

Associated with Lord Shiva, bhang has now become synonymous with holi. To the extent that bhang drinks have now become an official Holi drink (culled from the leaves and buds of cannabis – the very intoxicating bhang helps to escalate the spirit of holi)

Le le le ga lize it…..and I’ll advertise it………….

Land of the Kings

Or RAJASTHAN, the extreme contrast between the barren stark land of the Thar Dessert and the brilliant fabrics flickr alike that the people wear, is striking . Funky flocks of pink turbaned hardy man with fancy crow-black long moustaches raid the roads or sit in prostate position under a banyan tree playing cards or smoking bidis and pointing with their middle finger the dusty horizon, revealing a huge old silver ring with (of course) a red gem the size of a kofta( meatball).

It’s the India you know from the promotional posters on the media adds entitled “Incredible India”-with a chromatic abundance of the clothes and the magical towns in the background: the indigo blue city of Jodhpur, Jaipur-the pink city, the golden sand castle of Jaisalmer , the bone white Udaipur and the mystical Pushkar.

The history of Rajasthan is like a legend. The small kingdoms of the Rajputs dominated along the course of time. Feudal way of life and warrior clans policies were their way, bloody codes of war and death before dishonor was compulsory automatically behaviour. Their legacy is amazing: magnificent forts and palaces and the unreal rich lifestyle of the Maharajas. This also led to a big difference between the ruling classes and the predominantly rural population. Rajasthan poverty and undevelopment are obvious. Still is the most visited part of India, and any visit here is memorable.

 

 

Back to the Desert

For me was also the opportunity to get back to dessert, my favorite landscsape; Thar dessert is different that the ones I’ve traveled before, but that’s the adventurous part of it. I’m always excited, since I stated to myself that I want to travel to all the desserts of the world and dip into all the seas worldwide. Deep in the cold night , the stellar curtain above me, staring at the fire, smelling my cardamom coffee and hitting the tabla – I think in a previous life I’ve been a caravanserai holder and a skilled turban wrapper. I might have met Ibn Tulun, ar Akhbar the Great, or even the handsome Dariush…I wake up when one of the camels starts to farts: I really love this magnificent gentle creatures!

THE Camel’s hump is an ugly lump
Which well you may see at the Zoo;
But uglier yet is the hump we get
From having too little to do.

(“How the camel got it’s hump” by Rudyard Kiplin)

 

United colors of Rajasthan