Bonjour from Lhasa

I've been here for four days now and I still can't remember how to say hello in Tibetan - I guess my language learner is on vacation too! After flying here, I spent the first afternoon gasping on a chair explaining who I was to the tour place, then lying in bed wondering how long it takes to get used to this kind of altitude. After awhile I felt a bit better and went out to eat, talked to a very interesting Tibetan guy who was born and raised in Nepal, and just recently moved 'back' to Tibet due to the instability in Nepal - he spoke pretty good English (with a distinctly Indian accent) and Tibetan, but not Chinese.

My first day with the tour guide we went through the Norbulinka (I am not responsible for the spelling of that) where the summer palaces of the Dalai Lamas are - they built several of them. Also to the Sera Monastery which was interesting, we saw a big group of monks 'debating' in a way unique to Tibetan Buddhism, naturally, not understanding them kind of limited my appreciation for their logic, but fun anyway. The next day we (this day it was just the guide and I, so much for the "you must have a group tour to go to Tibet" policy...) went to the Potala Palace, which was amazing. The stupas there contain the remains of the past Dalai Lamas. These things were really huge - the biggest one, for the 5th Dalai Lama, had like 3000 something kg of gold and who knows how much other valuable stuff in/on it. And the city is full of beggars... Well, I guess as an outsider I hardly qualify to make any comment on that but there it is.

Also went through the Jokhang Temple in the middle of Lhasa, which is really the center of it all, and kind of the main focus of all the pilgrims that come here to walk around (circumbobulate – there has to be a perfect sentence somewhere to use that word in) holy sites and stand in front of them all day prostrating themselves over and over. I have a movie about the current Dalai Lama called 'Kundun' at home in a box - I saw a lot of stuff that was in (or actually, well reproduced) in the movie, like the cars that the 13th Dalai Lama got from India, a couple old radios, the main hall in Sera Monestary where the monks would gather, and lots of stuff in the Potala. Anyway, so that was that for the tour guide part of Tibet.

Today I met a friend and went to visit a family here, which was really interesting. They were Amdo, from northeastern Tibet and part of what is now Qinghai Province. We had yak butter tea and tsampa (barley flour, yak butter, sugar and something else I don't remember, maybe salt?) which was OK, just kind of dough... And they got all dressed up in their fancy outfits for New Year’s (Tibetan New Years is in March I think) and I got some pictures of me in funny clothes... amusing I am sure!

I don't know how long I'll be here. To do a trip to Shigatse/Gyantse on my own would be like $400 US which is ridiculous, I might still consider it if I meet some other people who want to do the same thing, but that's not likely. The whole altitude adjustment process is getting better, but still I feel like a fish out of water when I go up too many stairs. Yes, look at a picture of the Potala, I climbed all the way up that, and it took me like four hours to get rid of the headache and to catch my breathe after that!

It is really cold here (you notice a shocking difference going from the sun to the shade), but I guess I came well enough prepared for that because it has been the lack of oxygen, not the cold, that has bothered me most! Apparently they sell oxygen at my hotel. I haven't figured out if you get your own pressurized tank of it or how it comes, I've not gotten quite that desperate yet, but I thought it was amusing to see the sign 'stamps, hot & cold drinks, snack food and oxygen available at the front desk'. Maybe they have an oxygen plant somewhere in this town, I don't know!

Breathe for me!