Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 3

August 2, 2014August 2, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 27 continued..

Thanks to Kid for withstanding 10000 km of torture for almost a month before we could see Himalaya from North:

Time to introduce the family, my co-travellers for this trip, we are almost coming to the end of this great journey now

The more I look at this snow wall, more I get thrilled, this is the wall that has changed the history and geography of India from beginning, without this wall we would have surely invaded from North by Tibetans, Chinese and Mongolians and our history would look different and without this wall our climate would look closer to Siberian than tropical, thanks to this great wall for making what India is today:

Ruins of some Tibetan fort those gave British a tough fight when they invaded Tibet from India (through Jelep la in Sikkim):

Friendship Highway going beside the wall:

Tingri Town:

That’s Mt Everest from Tingri:

Great Wall again from Tingri:

Even an Ultra Wide Angle failed to take the whole wall:

The Only Accommodation in Tingri, a very basic dormitory:

Friendship Highway:

Small Village:

Friendship Highway:

Colorful Grass:

Ruins of Forts:

And The Journey continues..

Tibetan Villages beside the Friendship Highway:

Friendship Highway, well built for bigger vehicles:

Friendship highway under the well decorated sky :

Previous: Day 27/Part 2

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 2

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 27 continued..

Along with that the snow wall in horizon:

Inching towards the snow wall of Mighty Himalayan Ranges:

Amazing Lakes:

Lakes with colorful mountains:

Reflections of snow wall:

That’s the snow wall of mighty Himalayas, first time looking at them from North side:

Continued the journey and we looked closely to Himalayan walls of great 8000 meters peak including Everest, Lhotse, Cho Oyu, Shisapangma from Northern side in Tibet Plateau. The view was completely different than what we saw from South side as the high Himalayan ranges are farthest when we looked from South overlooking lower ranges of Shivalik and Himachal Himalayas with lots of green. When we looked from North from Tibet Plateau at a height of 5000 meter, the Highest Himalayan ranges was the only range that was visible and that stood closest to us and all the great 8000 meters peak looked like within the touching distances forming an all white snow wall.

Entering Tingri, the gateway of EBC North:

See the 180 degree panorama of High Himalayan range, a number of 8000 meters are visible here, can you locate Mt. Everest (Called Chomolungma in Tibetans and known as Sagarmatha in Nepalese):

The snow wall:

See how High Himalayan ranges look like when you see from North, the highest range consisting of 8000 meter peaks are straight in front of you when you look from North standing in Tibet Plateau, the small village is amazingly located just in foot hill of the range, this you never could see from South side where smaller mountains would not allow you to see the complete range from top to bottom:

Mt. Everest North Face:

Colorful Mountains all around:

Mt. Everest in the center:

Snow Walls standing tall:

The small town near to us is Tingri, see the amazing location of Tingri from top of a nearby hill:

The great snow wall:

Previous: Day 26 and 27/Part 1

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 26 and Day 27/Part 1

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 26:

We just felt how big a disaster could be in high mountains, when cyclone Philine after loosing its 80% of strength hit Everest region last night and snowed 3 meters in just an hour or so. We were sheltered in a concrete house but still the sound and strength of hail storm was nerve wrecking. The road (Friendship Highway) was closed and Everest Base camp was closed indefinitely. It was a shock to us as EBC was our one of the most sought after destination in whole trip but we heard from locals that many tourists were killed in last nights snow and hail storm and many were still lost. The EBC since then been closed and never opened for the rest of the year, as of now what I heard it would reopen only in April 2014. We definitely had a bad day in the trip and forced ourselves in the room as it was completely snowed out but because of this cyclone, we saw a different views of Friendship Highway on next day when it reopened, a view very few could witness with clear blue sky, world’s highest peak looming in the horizon and few feet of snow in either side of the black tarmac of the road as long as you can see!!

Day 27:

We started early as we had to cover till Zhangmu (Nepal-Tibet Border) and we knew we had a lot of stops to be taken for the entire day as we would cross High Himalayan ranges today. Woeser was upset too as we couldn’t make EBC, promptly instructed the guide to refund our entrance fees for EBC and also he offered us 100 km extra ride to Peiku Tso, a wonderful alpine lake towards the way to Western Tibet (Mansarovar), Woeser repeatedly proved the worth of choosing a right tour operator in such an unpredictable circuit. Just outside of Shegar town there was a major military check post where permits and passports were thoroughly checked for all 3 of us. This is the most important checkpoint in whole Lhasa – Kathmandu route where all papers and even luggage could be scanned. After 5 km from this checkpoint the turn off for Mt. Everest appeared approximately at kilometer marker of 5145 (From Shanghai). As a last hope we still gone to the security check post to get an idea of latest situation, what we heard still tourists and cars were trapped in upper region with meters of snow and all tents in Rongbuk were still under snow, the Chinese rescue team were working with the aid of helicopters to rescue tourists. Any movement from here towards base camp was strictly prohibited. We once again felt, it’s the mother nature who takes the final call as we abandoned our EBC dream which we planned and well executed almost till end for last 2 years just from 80 km away from the final destination. We soon reached Tingri, once a Tibetan-Nepali trading center for grain, goods, wool and livestock. The trade largely died out since China took over but odd Nepali traders can still be seen here. The small town lies in the edge of a vast plain. There are great views of the Himalayan Giants, all eight thousanders in the south for 180 degree, Starting from Everest to Lhotse to Nuptse to Cho Oyu the whole range was looking spectacular, we drove just outside the town to south for a better view from hill top and it was simply looking gorgeous. Looking at mighty Himalayan ranges from North and seen them in South was an experience of a life time. We had our lunch done in Tingri and as we drove south western, we started entering a magical region which might be the real heaven as we experienced it. The views from double pass of Thong La whose North Crest at 4950 meter and South Crest at 5200 meter was spectacular and beyond any description. We started going all the downhill after this and sharply started reducing heights as in 50km we climbed down from 5200 meter to 3700 meter to Nayalam and then in another 25 km to Zhangmu which was just at 2250 meter. From Nayalam the amazing drop off of plateau down through lush forest terrain with gushing waterfalls, it was simply an outstanding drive which we would remember for some times to come. We again got a 4 star hotel (Hotels at Zhangmu were quite costly) and thanks to Woeser for ending the trip so well.

First ray of Sun in the morning:

Hotel at Shegar, 24 hours Hot Water was the USP :

Small town of Shegar:

Villages beside the Friendship Highway:

The road goes on:

The turn where our dreams were shattered just 80 odd km away from final destination to EBC North Base Camp (There is always a next time in life but that is not so easy when it comes to Tibet):

Dream Ride continues:

Going through small villages:

Amazing Drive through Friendship Highway:

Colorful Grasses:

Previous: Day 25/Part 2

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 25/Part 2

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 25 continued..

Friendship Highway as seen from Tropu La (4950 meter) towards Lhatse:

Traffic rules are enforced seriously and you would given a specific time to cross the certain stretches over Friendship Highway, if you drive fast and reach before time, they impose very heavy fine and might take your license, so cars are taking time out before reaching a traffic check post, quite common in Friendship Highway:

Small Village:

This part of the valley is fertile:

Amazing colors of grass and mountains:

Road towards Lhatse:

Kid is enjoying with the locals at Lhatse:

Lhatse Town, a must stop for any journey towards Western Tibet (Mansarovar/Kailash) :

Here the road diverts, Epic Highway 219 goes towards Ali and 318 continues as friendship highway towards Zhangmu/ Kathmandu, whoever are following this log from beginning must have seen the start of other end of highway 219, 2500 km road at Karghilik (yecheng) in Xinjiang:

Exact diversion point, left to Kathmandu, right to Kashgar via Mansarovar, Ali, Aksai Chin:

We are turning left towards Kathmandu (Right is still a dream to accomplish )

Diverting towards Kathmandu via Friendship Highway 318:

Snow peaks started getting closer:

Approaching Gyatso La:

Gyatso La (5200 meter) , an amazing High Himalayan Pass:

The landscape is amazing through out the journey on Friendship Highway:

Out of no where these Cops appeared and checked our speed at an altitude of 5000 meter

These trucks are the supply line of Lhasa from Kathmandu:

Reflection on Friendship Highway:

Needs no introduction

Reaching Shegar (Pelbar):

Previous: Day 25/Part 1

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 25/Part 1

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 25:

Shigatse is famous for Tashilhunpo Monastery known as seat of the Panchen Lama. This is a large monastic town with temples, assembly halls, living quarters, administrative offices. At it’s peak, it housed up to 5000 monks, today’s Tashilhunpo is just shadows of past, only having 500 odd monks. Maitreya Chapel, the largest building in whole monastery complex houses a 26 meter height statue of Maitreya Buddha which is gold plated, the structure is made of tons of copper and brass, moulded on a wooden frame. This was built in early 20th century by Ninth Panchen Lama and the architecture of this fortress style building would make you amazed. I had to pay 75 Yuan to get permission for photography inside the chapel but with the condition that I could use only one DSLR body and one lens for the entire photo session, strange Chinese way of making and implementing rules . We spent around 2 hours in different chapels inside the Tashilhunpo Monastery before we start our journey through Friendship Highway towards Shegar. We passed through the ruins of Narthang Monastery, formerly known as one of the three great woodblock printing Lamaseries. Further westward we crossed Tso La and due to shortage of time skip of the detour towards Sakya Monastery. In another 30 mins we entered in Lhatse at an elevation of 4000 meter we took the break for lunch. Just beyond the town of Lhatse, slightly towards West, Highway 219 forked out from Friendship highway and crossed the most desolate part of the world through Saga, Mansarovar, Kailash towards Ali and subsequently through the high plateau of Aksai Chin get down to Tarim Basin of Xinjiang. We started winding up slowly on mountain roads towards Gyatso La (5250 meter). Crossing Gyatso La we reached to Shegar (Known as Pelbar as well) and we started experiencing bad weather and heavy snow as soon as we crossed Gyatso La. Shegar’s height was 4350 meter and it was ideal place to acclimatize before you hit Everest Base Camp. We were booked in Hotel Snowland, the best possible accommodation available in Shegar by Woeser and thanks to him, this was a life saver for us. Woeser, unlike other typical tour operators, always chose the best possible stay in every place and helped us to get most out of the most unpredictable tourist circuit in world be in terms of weather or political sensitivity.

Hotel Lobby in morning:

Tashilhunpo Monastery:

Maitreya Buddha:

Inside Main Chapel:

Amazing Monastery Complex of Tashilhunpo:

Sheep crossing Friendship Highway:

Travelling through Friendship Highway is certainly a life time experience:

We reached 5000 km from Shanghai here:

Previous: Day 24/Part 2

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 24/Part 2

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 by Kaushik

Magical journey continued…

The decorated Yak:

Tibetan Mastiff:

The Yaks grazing:

Check out the different colors of the grass:

Friendship Highway winding up the Mountains:

Another Lake and see the friendship highway beside the lake:

The Prayer Stone with Altitude (4352 Meter) written on it:

Road side Villages:

The Vista Continues:

Entering the most fertile valley of Tibet Plateau near Shigatse, you would be amazed by the fall colors:

The room inside the hotel Tashi Choten in Shigatse:

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 24/Part 1

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 24:

It will be a long day with many breaks to Shigatse, so we started off by 7.30 in morning having a quick breakfast at 7.00am. This was the first real cloudy day, with dark sky in our entire trip, Cyclone Philine’s effect started showing far away in Lhasa even, we understood not all would be well in the route. We quickly started off and the heavy rain started as soon as we left Lhasa. The roads were brilliantly colorful with fall colors and the friendship highway was all made of concrete, a superbly built road and driving on that road was certainly a charm. There are couple of routes from Lhasa to Shigatse but we choose the one going Gyantse because of its dramatic view over 2nd most holiest lake for Tibetans, Lake Yamdrak Tso. Superior views make journey through this longer and more winding road worth. After exiting Lhasa, we crossed the Tsangpo Bridge and wind up to Khambala with stunning views all around. From khambala where prayer flags are shaken by winds, we saw the grand vista of Yamdrak Tso (Means the Turquoise Lake in Tibetans) in the backdrop of large snowcap of Kulakangri Range in the horizon on Bhutanese Border. This is Tibet’s largest freshwater lake. The funny part is you would see lot of people selling photo opportunities with beautifully decorated Yaks and big dogs like Tibetan Mastiffs for 10 Yuan. After crossing the great lake, we entered the town of Gyantse, that was established in the 14th Century and famous for its Palkor choide Lamasery and Kumbum Monastery. Later Centuries Gyantse was developed as an important centre of wool trade in Tibet and a bustling caravan stop on the trade route from Lhasa to India via Bhutan and Sikkim. The road from Lhasa to India through Gyantse and subsequently through the famous pass Jelep La is known as Young Husband’s track as this ancient trade route was used by British army to invade Tibet in early part of 20th Century. After China took over Tibet in 1950, they stopped trading through all these routes and Gyantse since then fallen into obscurity. By afternoon we reached Shigatse, the second largest town in Tibet after Lhasa (going to get its train connectivity with Lhasa and mainland China by 2014). We had an excellent Indian dinner at Tashi restaurant and then checked into Tashi Choten Hotel for night stay. This was a 4 star hotel and quite clean and comfortable at the height of 3750 meter.

The amazing Fall colors just outside of Lhasa towards South to Gyantse:

The epic river Tsangpo started from Mansarovar flowing eastwards till take the great bend near Namcha Barwa towards South, entered in India near Gelling, Arunachal Pradesh, named as Siang and then merged with Dibang and Lohit in Upper Assam to be named as Brahamputra in Indian Plains before flowing to Bangladesh and finally meeting the Ganges River system to become one of the mightiest river system in World to be flown into Bay of Bengal:

Friendship Highway leaving Lhasa Valley, winding up the mountains:

Guardian of Prayer Flags:

Amazing colors of Mountains, looking at them even in a cloudy weather is treat to eyes:

The Prayer Flags:

Far Away Lhasa Valley is peeping through cloud cover:

Holi Lake Yamdrak Tso (The three holiest lake in Tibet are Nam Tso, Yamdrak Tso and Mansarovar):

You can pay 10 Yuan and take snaps with them:

The magical lake:

Previous: Day 23

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet–Day 23

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 23:

The night was not gone well as my daughter didn’t feel well and we all had disturbed sleep, she specifically had some kind of stomach upset which made the matter worse. Nam Tso involved almost 10 hours up and down journey from Lhasa and means hitting an altitude of 4500 meters. So we decided to drop it off and rather decided to take rest for the day. We still had to travel more than 500km crossing the Himalayas over friendship highway to Kathmandu, so we didn’t want to take any chance in Lhasa. But instead of not sitting in hotel for entire day, we thought of visiting the old Lhasa town, the Barkhor, the Jokhang Temple and finally had a sumptuous lunch in Lhasa Kitchen with Nepalese and Indian Cuisine, our break from Chinese Noodles after a long time. Barkhor Bazaar was a lively combination of shops, pilgrim circuits and ethnic melting pot, it runs around the Jokhang and other structures and always remain busy. Jokhang is considered as Tibet’s most sacred temple, built in 7th Century by King Songsten Gampo, when he moved his capital to Lhasa. He had a Nepalese wife and Jokhang was originally built by Nepalese craftsmen to house a Buddha image brought by the Nepalese queen. In year 2000, this was also included in UNESCO World Heritage site in addition to Potala Palace.

After a nice stroll in Lhasa old town we were back to hotel and took an early dinner for sleep and ready for last few days of exciting journey through Friendship highway to Nepal.

Mother and Kid:

You would still find religious sites all around Lhasa:

Makye Ame , famous Coffee House where Dalai Lama used to come and relax, gone are those days:

The Prayer Flags:

Old Lhasa is still so beautiful:

The shops are quite interesting in Old Lhasa:

The colorful windows:

Jokhang Temple, Lhasa:

Enlightening the soul, inside the temple:

Bustling Old Lhasa:

Every 50 meters you would find yourself scanned in X-Ray along with your bags, typical security system of Old Lhasa, note it in background:

Old Lhasa:

Another lovely Kid, played lot of hide and seek before I could click her:

You can find the wide roads and modern transport even in older part of city, it’s changing, changing very fast:

Both direction you would find Beijing:

Lhasa Kitchen, gave us a break after a month long Chinese Food, you would get good Indian and Nepali Dishes here:

Old Lhasa City Center:

Tibetan Family:

Potala Palace:

We would start the final leg of journey from Lhasa to Kathmandu through Friendship Highway in 2014.. Smile

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 22

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 22:

All Tibet trip must have to be conducted by Authorized Tibet Travel agent. Authorized Tibet Travel Agents mean those agents who are authorized by TTB (Tibet Tourism Bureau) To get Authorization the company has to be Chinese / Tibetan owned company and must have a registered office in Lhasa. Why I am telling all these because if you take help from a Chinese agency located in Beijing for a China – Tibet combined trip and Chinese agency doesn’t have a registered office in Tibet, they would certainly outsource the Tibet part to a subcontracting agency. Similarly when you do a trip from Nepal through a Nepalese agent you would surely pay additional commission to him as he would have to arrange the Tibet part through an agency located in Tibet. Things are more complex if you get help from an Indian Agent, only a very handful directly have any link with Tibetan agency, most Indian agencies go to Nepalese and then via Nepalese agent they go to Tibetan agents. So you would end paying double commission. Now Tibet is again like Arunachal Pradesh as you can’t cover entire Tibet at one go because of permits and other logistics issue. Tibet can be divided as 3 parts, Eastern Tibet, Central Tibet and Western Tibet and you need to travel thrice to cover each of these areas. For Central and Eastern Tibet you have enough choice to select your tour operators but for Western Tibet story is different which is out of scope of this report. As my target was Central Tibet, I spoke with a lot of Tibetan Operators and finally Chose Woeser Phel as because he was very transparent on his dealings, kept whatever he committed during negotiation phase and quoted most reasonable cost at first go. My choice proved to be correct and finally I found a very trust worthy person who was very honest and committed to his business, again I must say I was lucky.

Woeser came to us in the morning, provided a brief overview on how to cope high altitude, not really needed for us who have visited Ladakh 4 times but definitely a good intent from his part. He also cautioned us about political sensitiveness of Tibet and asked us not to take snaps without consulting guide and follow the guide very precisely.

Lhasa, the name is derived from the Tibetan word Lha (Sacred) and sa (Earth) Most buildings of Lhasa were built one the three distinct phases of construction. The earliest phase coincides with the construction of Jokhang Temple and first Potala palace during seventh century, the second phase with the buildings of great Gelukpa monasteries like Sera and new Potala Palace and Norbulinka Palace during 15th to 18th Centuries and third phase is recent expansion under Chinese rules.

Our first destination of the day was Potala Palace followed by Sera Monastery. Potala Palace got into the list of UNESCO World Heritage site list in last decade of last century.This is winter palace of the Dalai Lama since 7th Century CE, symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism and its central role in the traditional administration of Tibet. Potala now a days run by Chinese Govt and practicing of Buddhism is banned inside the palace. It’s a 13 – storey castle, almost 120 meter high built with rammed earth, wood and stone, this amazing palace contains 1000 rooms and thought to house 10000 shrines and 200000 statues, more than thriving religious place, it’s look more like museum to me under Chinese Governance where most of the palace and rooms were closed for visitors.

It’s quite costly to enter in Potala and current entrance fees was 200 CNY and that too very limitedly sold only day before the visit, so unless your agent could manage this, visiting this place is quite difficult. We spent almost whole morning here.

Afternoon we visited Sera, one the three greatest Gelukpa Monastic Citadels close to Lhasa (Other two ate Drepung and Ganden). They all were established in early 15th Century, Sera was built in 1419 and it’s population was around 7000 monks.The monastery was famous for its fighting monks, who spent years perfecting martial arts. They were hired out in ancient Tibetan army. One of the biggest attraction of Sera is Tibetan Style debating, which takes place in the afternoon between 2 to 3pm. They debate religious and philosophical questions in the Tibetan style of slapping the palm of the hand to make a point. Monastic Debating is the method used for passing the exams to obtain monastic degrees but now a days this is completely controlled and monitored by civil dressed Chinese army and police and remain as a shadow of its past.

We came back to our hotel by evening and took rest as tomorrow our plan was visit the holiest lake of Tibet, Nam Tso.

The inside of Tibetan House:

Our Hotel, Shambala Palace, an excellent Tibetan style hotel to stay in Lhasa, thanks to Woeser for choosing this hotel for us:

Tibetan style is preserved even inside the hotel room at Shambala Palace, Lhasa:

Lhasa road in morning:

Potala Palace, an UNESCO World Heritage Site:

View from Potala Palace:

Thangka inside Potala:

Design inside the Potala Palace:

The Dalai Lama’s residential building inside Potala Palace:

View of Lhasa Town from Potala Palace:

Tibetan Lady encircling Potala Palace with Prayer Wheels:

Entrance of Sera Monastery:

Sera Monastery – Second largest Monastery of Gelukpa Sect:

The abandoned Monk Quarter at Sera :

The famous debate of Sera going on:

Now at last we are in old part of Lhasa:

Lhasa Old Town:

Previous: Day 21/Part 2

Next: Day 23

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 21/Part 2

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

This railway is a wonder of modern world of engineering and covered in NGC and Discovery many times but still looking at it and believing that they really made it was certainly amazing. The road to Lhasa from Golmud would be a pleasure to drive with high mountain passes, ice and snow all around, vast grassland, Tibetan village, Nomadic tents, sheep and yaks, the blue streams, wonderful sky with lovely clouds all would make a treat to your eyes. Not only this, there are 5 roads to Lhasa from different directions, all 5 are said to be a must drive for anyone who wants to see how versatile nature could be.

They are:

Sichuan/Yunan South Road — Known as another face of Tibet, a lush green country inside Tibet called Switzerland of Tibet. Presently closed for foreigners.

Sichuan / Yunan North Road — Must drive if you really want to see the Tibetan lives and cultures, passes through heartland of Tibet. Presently closed for foreigners.

Golmud – Lhasa Road — Can be done but reaching Golmud is a big ask as from Xining to Golmud the Delingha county is completely closed for foreigners. This one I am trying to show but it’s easier to cross through train rather than road because of complex logistics.

Kathmandu – Lhasa Road (Friendship Highway) – Amazing road through High Himalayas, passes through Everest and Shisapangma (Whole region is filled up with 8000 meters peak) — This can be done and I did in this trip, will cover in this log later.

Kashgar/Karghilik – Lhasa (The epic highway 219) — Probably if someone needs to know what wilderness is in High Pamir / Karakoram/Himalayan region, its must drive, the road goes for 1500km over 4500 meter and cross innumerable 5000+ meter passes and most desolate and deadly road to drive. This cuts through disputed India-China LAC of Aksai Chin. Foreigners can do but severely restricted if you are an Indian Passport Holder.

The magical vista continues:

Pastureland will make you amazed:

The awesome vista continued:

The scenery continued (Remember all shots are taken from running train at 100 kmph, so capability of frame selection was extremely limited, it was just click as you like):

And the show goes on:

There was no chain to pull to stop Chinese Train, I was frustratingly keep clicking sometimes from left and sometimes from right window, missed at least 100 frames in every 10 mins.