[ed. note: This is the second in a series of posts by my good friend Juliana who is traveling in China for two months. Intrepid world traveler, adventure enthusiast, sometime ski bum, she is the epitome of a Poverty Jet Setter. Make comments! She's love to get them. Do read on! Stay tuned for photos!]
I have had an absolutely amazing day and last night in Chengdu and I am sad to leave such delicious food and people and sites behind! I flew into Lhasa this morning on about 2 hours of sleep, and I think if Jessica was here (wish you were here), we would all be incredibly emotional and filled with tears of excitement over the endless beauty here. The reason I felt so great, was I felt like I was home, what I mean is, the landscape here is exactly what I love! The high plateau is exactly as you would expect, it almost looks like the eastern southern sierras, or baja mexico, then I look in one direction and feel like I am in Montana and in the other, I feel like I am in Alaska and to top off everything the birch and elm trees near the river are changing colors and the weather is cool, crisp and the skies are finally blue. No more pollution!
Technorati Tags: adventure, backpacking, china, ontheroad, povertyjetset, travel
So far, Tibet combines every precious landscape I have ever seen in my life, just minus the trees. My hands were shaking after the flight and I began clapping my hands over and over again and this guy I am travelling with clearly must have thought I was a bit crazy, but he ended up hanging out with me all day. His name is Simon who is a travel writer for the Rough Guides (what a job, right….of course some of you know, what a coincidence I thought this was…..I have been learning tons from him…such an interesting person….we just spent the day checking out the restaurants and hostel conditions and walking through the Barkhor Market and the Jokhang and walking in the pilgrim circuit, which is a clockwise circle around Jokhang and the series of streets surrounding it) anyways, he must think I am just like a little kid trapped in a 27-year old body! I kept saying things like, “yeah” (Chrissy Foot style) and doing these little cheerleading jumps! And then we would be talking about politics and overhear the wierdest conversations…one guy started talking to some Tibetans on how he thinks American is a terrible and false place! Of course, I listened more and I got irritated and stepped in and said how wrong he was and just looked at him and said, “come on.” Not sure where people would get the nerve to say that, and I found out he had never even been there. It has been an interesting day I guess! Such details and always that flair of culture drama!
I didn’t know I would be acting like a kid and then talking antics with foriegners, but the smallest things here are just get you pumped and when you are having such a fabulous time…the littlest thing can stir you up! Last night I was up till 3 AM with a Tibetan girl, Lillian from Switzerland and a guy, Paul, from Austraila (Slick Guy in the white shirt and white leather shoes in the Abbey bar-Jessica and I chatted with this guy one night..has been travelling the world for 3 years after doing financial banking for developers in London). After I uploaded my pics I met them for drinks and we sat with each other for over 9 hours at the Firefly (a little cafe) down the street from our hostel…chatting away, telling stories. Europeans seem to travel the world so much more than us Americans…they had been to Burma, Iran, Phillipines, Isreal, and even countries, I am ashamed to admit, I have never heard of. The wierdest part of the night was I realized we were all similar storytellers. Lillian and Paul kept acting out their stories, and getting up and demonstrating positions they would be in for 4 hours on trains in India and faces people would make when spitting some type of red stimulant chewing leaf, and how they would walk when they met the Dali Lama or something..because they were both so tall and were sick of being stared at, so when in crowds they would walk bent over….!
Lillian and I sat in the hall of Traffic Hotel until 3:30 last night exchanging stories about our parents and where we plan to go to in Tibet. She was adopted by a Swiss family and is coming here to find out more of her heritage! How amazing! We meet tomorrow for dinner!
For those of you who have been here, WOW! I am really looking forward to checking out the local sites and planning out our overland trip to Nepal and Everest! I already found Lillian and Simon who are into doing the trip and Simon is fluent in Mandarin, so I can have him ask the locals lots of questions about the culture if I don’t know something! We tried a lot of the local dried yogurts and cheeses in the market, which I would have never done if he wasn’t here….and I can firmly say I will never eat them again…it tasted like stale milk curds and it made me want to gag that all the woman started up in hysterics just by looking at my face….
Time to grab some more masala tea!
~Juliana
