Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Day 04 - Lhasa Outlying Districts / Shigatse / 10:09 pm
Day 04 - Lhasa / Shigatse
28 April 2007 (Sat)
Temp: 2 - 14c
Finally, the symptoms of AMS have vanished...I feel much stronger and young at heart. No more breathlessness & chest pain, no more headache, etc. But apparently my parents havent recover fully yet. Breakfast was not consumed at the buffet restaurant but the assorted breads we bought at the bakery yesterday.
The weather was slightly warmer and brighter today, the sun is rather intense, but there is no stinging effect. The UVB rays are strong apparently.
Our destination today was Drepung Monastery, which is about 8 km west of Central Lhasa (Admission RMB 55), via Qingchuanzang Highway. It was one time the world's largest monastery. The word Drepung literally translates as 'rice heap', a reference to the huge numbers of white monastic buildings that once piled up on a hillside. The path is rather smooth as the roads were newly paved to the slopes of Gephel Ri (5240m high mountain).
28 April 2007 (Sat)
Temp: 2 - 14c
Finally, the symptoms of AMS have vanished...I feel much stronger and young at heart. No more breathlessness & chest pain, no more headache, etc. But apparently my parents havent recover fully yet. Breakfast was not consumed at the buffet restaurant but the assorted breads we bought at the bakery yesterday.
The weather was slightly warmer and brighter today, the sun is rather intense, but there is no stinging effect. The UVB rays are strong apparently.
Our destination today was Drepung Monastery, which is about 8 km west of Central Lhasa (Admission RMB 55), via Qingchuanzang Highway. It was one time the world's largest monastery. The word Drepung literally translates as 'rice heap', a reference to the huge numbers of white monastic buildings that once piled up on a hillside. The path is rather smooth as the roads were newly paved to the slopes of Gephel Ri (5240m high mountain).
Entrance to Drepung
Overview of Drepung from the hillside
Main assembly hall (tsogchen), is the main prinicpal structure in the Drepung complex. The huge interior is very atmospheric, draped with thangkas and supported by over 180 coulmns, some of which are adorned with ancient armour used for festival dances. Again, the walls and pillars are lined with statues of bodhisattvas and sculptures of dieties & Dalai Lamas covered with treasures.
Thangka Wall
Wild sheep roaming around Tsor Kangtsang
Jurche Mitze
Roof of Drepung - where you can see Lhasa Railway station
There is this Drepung Kora where they used to hang a giant thangka (images of Buddha) during the famous Shotun festival. According to the guide, the festival is warmly received and there will be thousands of locals & tourists flooding the entire hill to watch the unfolding of the thangka as early as 4am...We descended Gephel Ri and had lunch at the same location as always. However, this time the dishes were lesser.
Next destination: The Norbulingka. It is the summer palace of the Dalai Lama (remember, the Potala is the winter palace). Somehow, the gardens are poorly tended and the palaces are somewhat anticlimax as many rooms are not open to the public.
Viewing Pavillion
Norbulingka Garden
Retreat of the 13th Dalai Lama (Chensek Podrang)
Headed towards Barkhor Square for sightseeing again. Firstly we went to Xinhua Bookstore, which had an impressive collection of books & cds. Even took a trishaw and ride along the street.
More view of Barkhor Square selling the Tibetan Scrafs & prayer flags in various colours
We had early dinner at Dicos, it is a Chinese KFC-like fast food restaurant. Whoa, it is a godsend foodplace there. Their "zinger" like meal is only RMB 22, their roasted chicken rice arnd (RMB 22) & their prawn sandwich is around RMB 15. The only downside is that it is rather oily, but it is a haven for backpackers...They even have modern Chinese pop songs playing in the background. Cool...
Prostration towards Barkhor Monastery
Barkhor Circuit Market
"Strange Armament House" in Barkhor Circuit
Preserved rabbit & pigletsSecurity is generally quite strict with the presence of security officers roaming around. Due to the large presence of tourists in such zones, the stallholders know some basic English to communicate. In fact there are budget hotels along the circuit, but it is targeted to the backpackers travelling around Tibet. Interestingly, there is even a classy bookstore that stock up a huge variety of books about Tibet sightseeing. We made our way to the local supermarket again. This time, I observed that there are indeed 2 expensive durians lying in one corner. Lol. It is like S$15 per fruit.
Travelled to Shigatse, about 250km SW of Lhasa. It's Tibet's 2nd larget town.
Elevation: 3900m
Yamdrok-Tso (elevation: 4488m) On the old road that travels from Gyantse to Lhasa, dazzling Yamdrok-tso is normally first seen from the summit of the Kamba-la mountain (4794m). The lake lies several hundred metres below the road..yes...that deep! And in clear weather such as this, the lake is in a fabulous shade of deep turquoise. Yamdrok-tso is a coiling, many armed body of water shaped like a scorpion. It doubles back on itself on the Western side, effectively creating a large island within its reaches. For the Tibetans, it is one of the 4 holy lakes, home to the wrathful deities and devout Tibetan pilgrims can circumambulate the lake, which take around 7 days!!!!!!!
Mt Kangbala (4990m) near Lake Yamdrok-tso
Tashilhunpo MonasteryThe impressive monastery is one of the six great Gelugpa institutions, along with Drepung, Sera and Ganden in Lhasa and Kumbum and Labrang in Amdo. It was founded in 1447 by a disciple of Tsongkhapa, Genden Drup. From the entrance to the monastery, visitors will get a grand view...above the white monastic quarters is a crowd of ochre buildings topped with gold - thet tombs of Panchen Lamas and the entire complex is surrounded by a high wall and a kira.
It was getting late...our driver drove us back to Lhasa city before dropping us at the shopping district to shop. After which, we flagged a cab back to the resort which cost a 'flat fare of RMB 10". There is no meter in the cab as all fares within Lhasa city costs RMB10 and travel to Lhasa Railway Station costs RMB40. It was rather a new taxi as the plastic covering of the seats has not been removed yet. Apparently the taxi driver is from Sichuan Chengdu and it stated that we arrived too early as this season is still cold and isnt the peak period. Im glad the cab driver put a good word about our accomodation...he was right...our hotel was situated on Xianzu island which is very much peaceful as compared to hotels on the shopping district where its noisy and dangerous at night.
Power was back to normal with zero disruptions. Most importantly, my 50+cable TV channels and warm water is back and I had my long-awaited bath....
We know life's hard, truth is hard, lies are hard, they are all hard to accept when they have been
found out, and i'm rushing history homework on the Abyissian Crisis about Italy and Abyssia going into war and that the League Of Nations cannot stop this from happening, and beacuse they are formed by means to stop war and
peace-keep the countries together, they have thus failed to achieve that. I think i tend to hold a class for history instead of telling you about me, i'm basically a what subject-realted lover (humanities) and thus
I am more analytical and critical about things, and likes to study about dead people, haha. lol. it's history what can you expect and also geography, it amazes me. I really like it alot, so what have you? Again to find this answer
you need to enter into your own reality and reflect
it's amazing. amzing how people change the way of things, like how I used to hate outdoors in Band
felt it was a complete waste of time, i've acquired to like it more, i guess people change, their thereotical means and applications in life just goes on into a new direction, and see things in another perspective, i guess- it's
all in the mind. It really amazes me how these comes into action, from someone so pessimistic has changed his own view of things, and thus my friend is scoring much better, being more optimisitc and not think of his old way of suicidal
thoughts, which are pretty daunting. and thus we need to see things, in another light, another perspective and another new way, to enable us to open up our minds, and make more new things, the new way it is.