LHASA
19TH - 23RD JULY
We managed to get left hand seats on the plane as this side is where you get the best views of the Tibetan mountains. It was pretty cloudy and the views weren’t great but seeing mountains through cloud is always a good thing to see so we weren’t too disappointed! We had been warned about altitude and not being too hectic and remembering our experience with rushing off the cable car to avoid the mass of Japanese tourists at Agille du Midi, we were sure we weren’t going to make that mistake again. We sauntered off the plane feeling a little light headed, its really weird altitude it does make you feel funny!We were met by our Chinese guide, with his English name of Eric, we had been hoping for a Tibetan guide but I think the Chinese have pretty much taken over on that score. He was a very excitable man and greeted us with a lucky Tibetan Prayer scarf and then ushered us over to the van for the one and a half hour drive
to Lhasa. The countryside was beautiful and seemed to go on forever, the driving was too erratic so far and Eric was doing his best to tell us about everything as fast as he possibly could!
It was strange driving into Lhasa as it was starting to look like just another modern Chinese city and Eric was telling us how great Tibet had become since their liberation. You kind of got the feeling pretty quickly that you wouldn’t get indication of the true consequences of the Chinese invasion from Eric as he was marvelling about how much money China had pumped into the country and how they were building roads and railways all over for the benefit of the Tibetans of course! Apparently only 2% of original Tibetan buildings exist in Lhasa today, now I know I’m not the most patriotic but I think I would be pretty pissed off about that and the obvious watering down of Tibetan cu
It was strange driving into Lhasa as it was starting to look like just another modern Chinese city and Eric was telling us how great Tibet had become since their liberation. You kind of got the feeling pretty quickly that you wouldn’t get indication of the true consequences of the Chinese invasion from Eric as he was marvelling about how much money China had pumped into the country and how they were building roads and railways all over for the benefit of the Tibetans of course! Apparently only 2% of original Tibetan buildings exist in Lhasa today, now I know I’m not the most patriotic but I think I would be pretty pissed off about that and the obvious watering down of Tibetan cu