The Blue Buddha of Lhasa

Lhasa. Finally.

The trip out here was crueling. Four nights on transportation. I tried taking the train from Golmud but that didn't work out. The one night spent crossing the virtually uninhabited northern Tibetan plateau was gorgeous. I've never seen so many stars in the sky. The air was crisp. Temperatures dropped to near zero. I could see my breath for most of the ride. At points I felt like my 260 pound brother was sitting on my chest. Breathing was difficult at the higher altitudes. The highest point we crossed was the Tanggu-la pass at 5180 metres.

Met a baby-faced Chinese man with the brightest smile in Lhasa at the hostel. He and his girlfriend and I rented bikes within an hour of my arrival and cycled through town in search of dinner. I had a spicy intestine soup, dry salt rubbed chicken and barbecue duck. Traffic was bad. I almost drove straight into four lanes of traffic when we reached the Potala Palace. It is a magnificent piece of architecture. Incredibly imposing and somewhat of a sad sight to behold considering its recent history.

My new strategy of just walking up to strangers in restaurants is paying off. I met Julia, an American studying Tibetan. We took a walk through the Barkhor and ended up sitting at a butter lamp stall in front of the Jokhang temple on an upturned bucket with a paper cup of yak butter tea. We were offered some snuff which we declined but they wouldn't take no for an answer when it came to refills of tea. It's definitely an acquired taste. The first time I had butter tea in Dharamsala I took a sip and immediately ordered a sweet chai. This time around it tasted good. Apparently consuming fat helps with the acclimatization process. Thankfully my altitude sickness hasn't been bad. The only complaint I have thus far is feeling out of breath and nausea in the mornings. I'm panting just typing this entry.

Dinner was had in the Muslim quarter. Lhasa's Muslims have been living peacefully side by side with the Tibetan population for over four hundred years. All of the butchers in this part of town are Muslim. Again, the city is divided into the Tibetan quarter (which incorporates the Muslim quarter) and the Chinese part of town.

For the first time on this trip my insomnia set in again last night. This morning the Chinese couple woke me at 6 a.m. asking for my ID so they could buy me a ticket for the Potala Palace. It's a two step process. First you get a number on your hand to buy at ticket early in the morning and then you come back and buy a ticket for the following day. I have had quite a few reservations about visiting the Potala and paying the ghastly 200 yuan to get in. However, now that I've seen it from the outside I feel very much compelled to go inside. I know where the money is going and I feel incredibly conflicted for wanting to go inside.

Today was spent walking. I came across the Blue Buddha, a cliff face covered in prayer flags and religious paintings. The oldest painting on this cliff dates back to 1000 years ago. It is the largest outdoor gallery of paintings in the world. Totally untouristed because it is not mentioned in LP. The Chinese have erected a mini lit-up radio tower resembling the Eifel Tower on the hill behind the cliff. It is the oddest sight in the Lhasa night you'll ever encounter.