**********Treking in Tibet**********

We took a bus to a Monastery called Ganden, (east of Lhasa for those of you with a map) and from there pplanned to trek to a monastery called Samye. The Ganden monastery was really beautiful. As with nearly all the Buddists institutions here in Tibet it was obviously lacking in the Monk contingent it would have been occupied with in the past. The facilities could easily have supported A few hundered monks, we saw maybe 10 in total there. However the religious Kora (circumbiulation) was also real fun. Buddism like Hinduism is an 'interactive' religion where you do much more than just listen to a sermon as a devotee. The Kora saw me rubbing my handson certain rocks, peering through my rolled up fists like they were make believe binoculars at points, rubbing my entire body on boulders, walking through a crevice in the stone to prove my faith as well as the usual burning of large ammounts of leaves and twigs as an insence offering to the powers that be! It was huge fun, like a religious theme park almost.

***********Sky Burial**********

On the more serious front Joe was lucky enough to see a sky burial on his walk. The Tibetains believe that once soomeone has died, the body holds no more association to that person as a house that they once lived in. They perform 4 types of funeral; earth burials, fire burials, water burials and sky burials. The sky burial involves taking the body, cutting it into small pieces, breaking then grinding the bones down to a smaller form and then leaving it for the vultures to eat. As the burials all happen at the same sites, when ever one takes place the vultures understand what is happenning and gather in force ready to decend on the stripped-from-bone human flesh. When the Llama conducting signals and the feast of flesh is prepared, the Vultures as one swoop down and consume the body in its entirety. Thus it is that the Tibetans deal with their dead.

**********Treking**********

We were going to hire a Yak for the first 2 days, partly because the 2nd day saw us climb to a pass at 5,200meters - not an easy climb at all, and partly because we wanted to have our own Yak!
However, the Yak turned out to be a horse! We were unhappy, but it after much explanation they agreed to change the horse for a Yak at the first town 3 hours away. We met 3 other travelers who were heading out that day, and happily told them obout our horse and how much we were paying. They then brutally stabbed us in the back! They offered the guy more money and stole our horse! Well, we were not happy and at that point thought -sod you lot and decided to just walk the lot.
This turned out to be the best decsion of the trek. Being without a guide or a Yak meant not only could we start when WE wanted, camp where WE wanted, and trek with just the company of the two of us in what was a very remote and unpopulated region, but also we became truely hard core in the obstacles we had to overcome to complete our journey.
On the first night the Nomad kids from all the way across the river blasted a hole in our tent using a sling shot to propell a stone at extreemly high velocity.
On the second day we had to make the 5,200 meter pass. On the final climb up to it through the snow, the rain turned to hail which quickly turned to snow! The view from the from the top was amazing, and surounded by the snow caapped mountains I offered my prayer flags to the powers that be.
The third day saw a 2nd pass at a similair hight, and from there it was down hill. Problems over I thought? No way! From there we encountered the serious monsoon fed rivers!The height and strength of the rushing waters made it impossible to cross at points, and mearly difficult at others. At those times we took our shoes and socks of, and bare feet over the rocks through the freezing rushing waters trying to pull you away while your feet go numb, we made it through.
We finally made it to Samye and there the issue changed from a physical one to a a legal one. Samye requires a permit, and to get a permit you have to pay $400 us dollars to do the trek as an organised tour. We had no such permit. We kept a low profile to ovoid the PSB, and then tried to get back to Llasa. At first we couldn't find the bus. Then when we did, they wouldn't let us ON the bus! Eventually we offered to pay extra and they did.
Everything was going smoothly till the bus tried to cross a river. I say tried, because we failed spectacularly! The driver drove us straight into a deep bit and the front of the bus plunged into the river leaving us stranded. The irony came when all the other vehicals on the road drove through with no problems at all by simply using the shallower part about 4-5 meters to our right.
After much pulling and attempts for all the men to heave the bus out, me and Joe grabbed our bags and headed down the road alone. In the far distance we could see a town so we headed for it. We had no permit, no paperwork for the area - to be honest we didn't even know where we were! We just walked.
Then it all turned great. We managed to hitch a lift in the back of a 4x4. The next thing we knew we were zooming along very quickly towards the town with no effort or cost at all! Even better, as we were in the back of this chineeze driven Land Crusier, we drove straight through the check points with all the armed guards and military without even a second glance! If we had been walked we almost certainly would have been stopped - as it latter transpired we had arrived in Tsetang, the town which reputabley has the worst police in the entirety of Tibet!
Once in the Town we quickly realised this was not a tourist place. There was not a single other whiite person that we saw, and non of the types of shops that come with a place that has even a few tourists passing through. We thought it best to leave soon.
We made our way to the bus park, avoiding the poice by turing whenever we saw them. We got very lucky then, we found a mini bus about to leave with a few seats left. We jumped in, and just as the driver was about to pull away a police officer waved and made him stop. The next thing we knew the PSB had the driver out the car and walking around to the door to open the door. At that point I thought the game was up.... the officer took a glance around the inside of the vehical, then pulled out a chineeze guy and let us go! I couldn't believe it!!
Eventully we made it back to Lhasa that evening and I was one relieved traveler. All the hostels were full, so we ended up staying in an expensive 3 star hotel for the night - but oh that shower was good!

And so I made it back from an amazing trek in one piece.
Next stop - Mount Kalaish!!

Sanjay Shelat - Lhasa, Tibetian Autonomous Region, China.

posted by Sanjay Shelat at 1:09 PM -