Shotung Festival, Drepung Monastery

You will not believe it... having had a night out clubbing till 3am last night, we all woke up at 4:30am and got taxis to the base of the hill up to the Drepung Monastery- 8kn out of the city. In the dark and pouring rain, we started to climb the steep mountain to reach the Monastery. We were surrounded by pilgrims and there were very few other tourists. Eventually we arrived after an hours strenous climb and entered the monastery at just before six, to find a spot on the hill-side to watch the goings-on.

The reason for all of this is the annual "Shotung Festival" which is translated into English as the "Yoghurt festival"- although I'm still not certain what the relevance to yoghurt is! There were thousands of locals, mostly Tibetan waiting patiently on the hill side, in freezing wet weather. Being slightly deprived of sleep I was beginning to regret it after 2 hours of waiting, when... at 8:30 some drums and Tibetan horns started up and a slow procession of monks came out of the monastery towards a huge slab on the hill. They were carrying a giant thangka (a painting of a Budda) which was at least 100m high and 40 wide! They then strapped it to ropes and unveiled the beautiful Budda infront of the waiting crowd. It was a fabulous atmosphere, as all around us the locals were praying, chanting, prostating in worship to this picture.

After the thangka was reveiled, we wandered around the monastery and grounds just absorbing the atmosphere. For example there was a tent of old monks chanting in extremely low voices, so one felt it more than heard it as the noise was amplified over the area. You can see from the photos just how crowded it was as it is one of the most important festival of the Tibetan Buddism. We were so lucky that we are here in Lhasa at the time.

Sera Monastery, Lhasa

We visited Sera Monastery yesterday afternoon, one of the most important monasteries in the area. Between 3-5pm every day the monks debate issues in the orchard. The were a least 100 monks all shouting at the tops of their voices and clapping their hands every time they made a point. As we were approaching the orchard you could hear the commotion quite a way away.

It was very interesting to watch, I only wish I knew what they were arguing about. Quite a few of them had cheeky smiles on their faces, as though it was a show put on just for the tourists, but others were extremely serious.

Potala Palace

There was some confusion as to whether we would be able to enter the Potala Palace-the historical residence of the Dalai Lama. This was because there are now so many Chinese tourists visiting Lhasa due to the new railway, that there has been a new enforcement of numbers to the Palace. As long as two weeks ago we had to pay a deposit of $40 to hopefully have more of chance to get a place on the day n(basically a bribe!). We only got the go-ahead the night before yesterday that we had an hour's appointment at the palace at 12:30.

Ever since seeing "Seven years in Tibet" I have wanted to visit the Potala. It towers above the city and is mesmorising in it's individual archiecture style. Strangely although it is very expansive, over 1000 rooms, it looks quite miniscule at the same time. Our guided tour was a rushed hour through the rooms in the the monastery and Dalai Lama's private rooms. It was amzing inside, there were many golden budda statues and thrones that various previous Dalai Lama's have sat on. Three of the most impressive rooms were the tombs of the 5th, 8th and 13th Dalai Lamas; they were coated in copious amounts of gold and precious stones and were 10 meters high.

The Potala has been one of the highlights of this trip, just because of it's history and fame. I cant believe I've been there now!

Souvenir anyone?

I have spent my first day in Lhasa exploring the old-tibetan part of the city. It's very crowded at the moment because in two days time, there is a huge Buddist festival called the "Yoghurt Festival?!" that everyone is preparing for. We have been following the pilgrims route, 3 circuts of the Jokhang Temple, carrying their prayer beads and wheels and chanting. Some of them prostate themselves at every step, truely a remarkable sight.

We have also been pottering in and out of temples, monasteries and nunneries down side-streets. Everywhere one goes there are prayer wheels that you can spin (clockwise-always) to wish you luck on your journey. I'm really glad that this part of the city is still Tibetan in culture, because a lot of the rest of it is extremely like any other big chinese city.

Daphne's Prayer Flags

Daphne's has now got her very own set of Tibetan prayer flags to help her get over the high passes easily and hopefully without anymore breakdowns!

"EXTREME" - 5231m !!!

Wow, here's a picture of the highest altitude I have ever been - 5231m. This pass was the border of Tibet and are the first prayer flags we saw. We took a little time getting up to this height to acclimatise properly, nevertheless for a number of people it simply wasnt long enough. Quite a few of the others have been ill with altitude sickness. It's affected the young and old alike and some people have been sick and required oxygen, (they are now all better though). I have been extremely lucky and have not suffered at all, in fact I feel the most out of breath here, in Lhasa, at 3600m -which doesnt make much sense.

Shortly after this pass, one of Daphne's front springs in the suspension broke completly going over a bump. This meant we had to bushcamp almost immediately (at an altitude of 4700m) and Pete and Renee started to fix it. We had only just got all the tents up and were starting on the cooking when a storm hit us. Within seconds it was hailing like nothing I have ever experienced before. Burning, painful balls of ice hitting us all as we tried to secure the camp. The tarp that covers the tables completely ripped off the truck in the strong wind, and we tried to prevent it flying away. At the same time some of the tents were about to blow away. Once it was all safe, all we wanted to do was shelter in the truck but...aahhh!- we couldnt because it was jacked up to fix the suspension! For 15 freezing minutes it was absolute mayhem as we ran around keeping everything together, also just remember we are at 4700m with most of the truck were suffering from altitude sickness! I now know why the trip is called "EXTREME"!

At the time, I thought we were all going to loose our tents in the wind and get frostbite, etc. But looking back it was so exhilarating and rewarding because we all worked well as a team. Actually one of the best things about the last 4 days has been the team effort and support of those who aren't feeling well and getting everyone through the "extreme" part. It's been tough but fantastic, and for me- one of the best experiences of the whole trip.

Tibetan Plateau

We have covered an incredible 1200km in the last 4 days crossing the Tibetan Plateau. The whole journey has been along side the new Chinese railway that has just opened which is transporting 2000 Chinese tourists to Lhasa everyday. The landscape is beautiful and we saw some amazing wildlife. Herds of yaks- which are such cool animals with their shaggy coats, huge birds of prey, antelope and marmots.

Mogao Caves near Dunhuang

The main site around Dunhaung is the Thousand Budda Caves of Mogao. (nb, "thousands" in this scenario is not the number but just denotes many) We had a guided tour of 10 of the 700+ caves this morning. They were stunning, every cave was different, some small and intricate with delicate murals of Buddas, scenes and lotus flowers, others were huge. The first cave we visited contained a giant sitting budda statue which was 71m high. As you entered the cave all you could see was it's feet, then it's knees, hands, torso and finally it's head towering above. The outside of this cave is in the photo, unfortunately we werent allowed to take photos inside the caves.
The earliest caves were from 336AD but in various different dynasties up to the 14th century the caves were added to and restored. It is amazing how well the murals have remained actually probably due to the arid heat here. There was also a fantastic museum on the site so I feel all cultured-up today!

Sand Dunes outside Dunhuang

Yesterday evening, 5 of us rented bicyles and cycled 6km out of town to the famous Sand Dunes. We got there perfectly in time for sunset which was beautiful over the rolling dunes. Initially there were hundreds of Chinese tourists there, but for some peculiar reason they all disappeared before sunset (!?) so it was very peaceful and quiet on top. A few of my friends sand-boarded down the dunes, but, saving money, I ran down almost completely out of control! We then ventured to the night-market, which seems like the place to eat in these Chinese cities. Dunhuang's nightmarket was very modern with funky neon lights and heaving with locals. We had simple but delicious stir-fry veg noodles.

Vodka Melon - he he!?

The picture explains itself...

Desert Sunset

The sunset from our first bushcamp in the desert, isn't it breathtaking. We have bushcamped for the last two days on the edges of the Taklamakan Desert. The distance was considerable between Turpan and Dunhuang so both were very long days on the road. Yesterday's was longer due to a flat tyre, getting stuck in a sandy graveyard and attempting to find a suitable bushcamp for about an hour. I think the group is a bit tired from all the travelling but we have two days to recuperate here before heading up (literally) to the Tibetan Plain and even more bushcamping.

Hmmm... Shashlik

The most delicious meal throughout Central Asia, and we still cant seem to get rid of it, here, in China... though I'm not complaining. Basically meat kebabs but they are just so tasty. This meal was in a city called Kucha a few days ago. Shortly after the pic was taken we had one of those hilarious language/culture clashes, there have been quite a few. Sian's websites got brill explanation of the oddities! In fact, they've put loads of extra photos on recently so check it out, (weblink at the top of my page.)

Photo of general scene of Livestock Market

Finally getting around to uploading pics, hope you get the general atmosphere form this dusty busy photo. This is the cow and bull section, can you imagine the noise?


This little old Uigur man, was so intent on selling his donkey to the rich chinese merchant, that he was barging all the tourists out the way and trusting the donkey's face in his face! all in good humour though

Good News from the Border

Finally we have received good news about the truck, it was cleared through the border at 6:30pm today. So Pete is driving towards us at the moment and is hoping to catch up by the morning. We have come a distance of 700km from Kashgar on fairly rough roads, so it could well take him all night. But I bet he's looking forward to seeing us again and he should have some interesting stories to tell.

All being well, we should be heading on to Tourfan tomorrow, the hottest city in China (50m below sea-level) and we're hoping to have a huge celebratory party in the evening to welcome back Pete and Daphne.

Kashgar Sunday Market

The main Sunday Market is back in the centre of town, and although probably the biggest market I have seen on my travels it was not excessively interesting since it sold similar things to everywhere else- just more of it. I was quite amazed by the extend of haggling required though. I bought a necklace for 12yuan (1.5 US$) which was originally priced at 100yuan- actually quite impressed with myself with that particular haggle!

We left Kashgar by bus on Tuesday with still no news of our beloved truck, Daphne. Her and Pete are still stuck at the border with no papers to let them through. We stayed the night in the boring town of AkSu. It's amazing the size of population in some of these irrelvant never-heard-of chinese cities.

We did have our best meal out yet in China and probably the most interesting of the whole trip last night. Eight of our group stumbled across a small restaurant, buzzing with locals. We were ushered into a small private room with a round table. In the centre they placed a bowl of two different soups, one quite plain, the other so spicy we were all sweating in minutes and the taste blew your head of (but in a good way- if that's possible). We were then brought various different plates of things to cook in the soup; bean sprouts, beef, tofu, noodles, spinach, prawns, ham, lettuce, seeweed...wait it get's better... tripe, fish heads, and chicken necks! (The chinese have an amazing tollerance for whacky foods.) I ate them all in complete ignorance. One of the passengers in our group is of Chinese origins and although she cant read Chinese, she can speak a little and more importantly knows quite a lot about the traditions and food delicacies, so afterwards, amusingly, she explained what we had all eaten.

Today we drove on to Kucha, yet another big city. We stopped at some caves with "a Thousand Budda Images" dating from 5th Century AD, but the paintings had not been well preserved.