Tibet - What a place! BUT its changing before the world's eyes!

March 15th, 2008 - hey there all...its been a bit since i last updated, but i decided it was finally time to put my summer trip to rest here on the blog, so this is the last entry from my amazing summer of 2007...finally! And i am ending with tibet...an amazing and wonderful and different and incredible and changing place...this is one place where you need to get to as soon as possible, not just because of the amazing parts, but also becuase it will not be its own entity for much longer due to china...and i felt with the violence there this week that i needed to get this posted....its a magical place, but not for everyone....for me it was mind-blowing and a truly wonderful experience and i hope i can get back there sooner rather than later ....

this is a shot from the day we arrived in tibet....snow was on the tops of the mountains and you know instantly you are someplace different....i did get sick...but i think it was combination of the food on the plane (i was the only one who had vegetarian food) and the altitude...i never really got over the queasiness, so i would recommend if you are going. take diamoxin...i didn't, but am glad i didn't....it was a short period of time and i am glad i made it....anyway...the drive to the city of lhasa is beautiful as you can see above....

the first day we were in tibet, after we finally got there and weather cooperated...we actually had to boomerang back to chengdu and wait for the winds to die down before we could land...we took it easy....the second day we went to a local house...they are sewers and make money from making things to sell to tourists...of course our crew bought some....this was the sewing machine they used to make these things....my grandfather used to have one of these :)
they allowed us to take pictures of all aspects of their house, but the one i was most interested in was the altar they had in a special praying/meditation room...they of course were buddhists and told us that they were not allowed to have any pictures of or words written by the dali lama...the only picture they are allowed to posses is the one below....the altar was beautiful as you can see...
here's that one picture - the dali lama and chairman mao....it happened once in history, and that is the only picture they are allowed to have of his holiness....crazy...if they get caught with any other pictures, they can be fined or jailed or punished in other ways...they can even lose their jobs, especially if they have anything related to tourists....it was a hard thing to see and deal with....especially me....i believe everyone is entitled to their beliefs and thoughs....
the other thing i was really intrigued by was the way they heated their water for tea and coffee and hot drinks...its a solar panel style method....and these were every where, especially on roofs of houses...how cool is this!

after visiting the locals we headed to the potala palace, where i really wanted to go....wowowow -i have had a picture of this place above my bed since i was about 15...so this was a dream come true....here i am standing in front of the entrance....

this is the shot of the roof top of the world....the potala palace was where the dali lama lived and learned and grew up...it is considered the most holy spot for buddhists in tibet...you see tons of pilgrims here...all walking clockwise around the building, some prostrating themselves on the ground every three steps....some who have been doing that for months or years....and tourists are only allowed to stay in the building for two hours...if you stay longer your guide can lose their job or pay a fine...it was insane...its all timed...they say its because too many people have been here...my bet is that they will close it down in the next two or three years in the quest to destroy what is tibetan....
no one is allowed to take pictures in the palace...and the place is mostly lit by candle light - from yak butter...pilgrims bring it as an offering and take some away as a remeberance...its amazing....these prayer flags are along the back of the building along with stone tablets with tibetan written on them....its an incredible place...you can feel and even taste the peace from within...although you also realize just how wrong it is that the dali lama is in india and not in his home country of tibet....
this is a front shot of the potala palace...i love this shot, espcially because you can see the bicycle and the the pilgrim next to it...just a perfect view of what it should be...simply incredible....

just another shot of this magical place so you can see it for what it truly is, huge and majestic and empty of what it needs....just mind-blowing and incredible...

from the potala palace we went and had lunch and after lunch had one of the best stops of the entire trip....the travel group i was with donates money to an orphanage that takes care of street kids from tibet...it is a local woman and her husband that run the place and they fund through donations and a coffee shop they run as well...they take care of approximately 90 children in this small enclosure with only 8 rooms...BUT a new spot is being built for this organization which we stopped by as well....it was an incredible place....here you see the kids singing songs to us in english like old macdonald...too adorable....

this is the woman who runs the place...all of the kids call her mom...this little girl was adorable and was deaf...she was really friendly and came up to most of us to check us out....she was about 2 at the time....such a cutie....
this is me and jaime, he was my personal tour guide for the orphanage...he showed me where they studied and played and slept and ate...it was cramped but you could feel the love throughout the place...kids played and helped each other and were quite excited we were there...
the next day we went to jokanda temple - the second most sacred place for tibetans and buddhists...this place was filled with pilgrims...walking around the temple grounds clockwise ...with prayer wheels spinning the entire time...as well as pilgrims prostrating themselves along the route around the building....here are some pilgrims...i love the hats on the ladies heads...
here are some more pilgrims...as you can see the gentleman has a prayer wheel in his hands and is spinning it as he walks...it was a truly friendly place and people seemed to enjoy themselves as they walked...some praying, some meditating along the way, some having conversations with friends...it had a great vibe....

this is the entrance to the temple...you can see the pilgrims and monks prostrating themselves on the ground of this most holy place...they did this before they went into the temple and after they came out....it was incredible...
this is the inner courtyard of the jokanda temple...i love the colors and patterns here and all of the green, very healthy plants, just stunning...

we were not allowed to take pictures in the temple, so this picture is back out of the temple...i wanted to show you just how much yak butter could be found in this place...and man does it have an acrid smell, if you aren't used to it....it can be quite overwhelming...pilgrims bring it as donations and take it away as rememberance from big vats of it where candles are burning in all temples and the potala palace....they use it at home for burning and fuel, to cook with and to make yak butter tea...definitely a culinary experience you should have, but in a small quantity to start, it can be really overpowering....
that afternoon we went to quite possibly one of the coolest places i have ever been in my life...its the sera monastery...where every day monks have discussions with one another in this courtyard...the one monk standing asks the sitting monk philosophical questions, which the sitting monk must answer....if the standing monk agrees with the answer he slaps his hands together and keeps his palm downwards as he points to the monk...if he doesn't agree, he does the opposite....
this monk was one of the most animated of the bunch...as you can see he is about to tell the two seated monks they are correct with their answers...its loud, it can get agressive, monks can roll around and hit each other on the head...its a wild scene and really fun...i have taken this back to my classroom, as my kids could tell you...to let them be able to tell me when they get something vs. when they don't....its a fun time :) and this monastery was incredible...and so much fun to experience...you have to do this if you go to tibet!!!!

after the monastery we stopped by a village where the new orphanage is being built...one of the newest families and their house was there, isn't it beautiful...the main prayer flag for tibet is white for purity...hence why you see it on the front of the doors, keeping the inhabitants pure and wishing them luck on their new path with their new house...incredible...

this was the construction site for the new orphanage....yes, that's a woman carrying a concrete block on her back...what a job huh...she would then climb the ladders in the back and bring the concrete blocks to the workers on the second floor...all people pitch in and work...not just men...it was wild to watch and i felt like i was on a construction site of the 1920's....
in my opinion tibetans are beautiful people...these two ladies agreed to a picture and just giggled as cynthia and i took them...the women tie ribbons of many colors in their braids and are just beautiful and seem to be quite peaceful to me...especially when they are at the palace or the temples...
the title of this shop in lhasa sums up tibet for me...strange, magical place...i loved it and i can't wait to get back...but am also very afraid it will look nothing like it did when i was there last summer...very frightening i think....because it is an amazing spot in the world....
this last picture is me with the jokanda temple behind me...it was a beautiful day and we were on the roof of a building we were supposed to be shopping in...i liked the view better than the shopping, simply incredible...go to tibet....and go soon...support tibet and the dali lama...i hope the world will do something, especially as the olympics are coming closer and closer...but i guess we'll have to wait and see what happens....china is an amazing place, but when you go to tibet you lose some of the faith and awe of the place that has taken them over....here's hoping a peaceful resolve can happen...i just don't think its possible at this point....hoped you enjoyed this update...next up will be either spain or some shots from romania...hope all is well :)

China Part 3 - sorry it took forever!!!!

2/24/08 - hi there folks....well, i just got back from my february break in greece and figured i really should finish up china from the summer...still need to finish up tibet as well...but at least this is the last about china....and here we started with a cruise on a yangtze river...it was my first riverboat cruise...and i was wowed by many aspects of the boat and food and size of things...i think cynthia was laughing at me the whole time....country mouse makes it to the city and is livin life....hahahahaha....what a cool trip this was though....enjoy!!!

the shot above is the river boat we were on...we actually made it to the boat in the evening so the first time we saw it, it looked like this....we actually were above the yangtze dam at this point because there was flooding in china and they were worried the boat wouldn't make it through the locks the next day....it was crazy how much water was coming through the dam...as you will see in future pictures....

a daylight shot of the boat...ours was the bigger one...it was all class...even to having a cruise director who was from the states and performed my way for us...he was nice guy, but very cheezy!!! swanky and dani...two great things that go together....hahahahahaha....

this was the first view we had of the dam...at night as we were headed to the boat...it was mind blowing....it is HUGE and there was so much water running it was incredible...our guide andy had never seen the dam at night and even he was blown away....it was pretty wild!

the next two shots are the dam in the daytime...the one above is showing the front of the dam and the amazing of water that is running through it...where you see all the white water...that's coming out of the dam...wow!!!!

this is a back view of the dam...just incredible in size....and of course they say now it will only supply 1/3rd of the necessary power for china ONLY....it was been an enormous project and they have had to relocate many people...

the shot above is a great explanation of why they have had to move so many people...in building this dam, the river will rise 175 meters (multiply that by 3 to get feet!!!)....this is showing you that height was still not reached when we went through the gorges....the white sign marks the 175 meter mark...and as you can see, this house will be on the river side...literally....they have wiped out farmland, entire villages and a lot of history....i am sure when they finally finish, if you were on the yangtze before the dam, you would never recognize the river as it will be....

these are some of the many modes of transport we saw on the river...the two smaller boats are actually where people live...many floating boats are house and home for the folks on the boat...there are ferries for people and bikes, there are big hualers of 18 wheeled trucks, there are river boat cruisers....it was cool to see all the different modes of transport on one river...

here's one of the many waterfalls we saw along the way...it was a bit rainy, which made more waterfalls for us to see...on the third day though we had some beautiful clear weather....there are three main gorges we went through and a set of lesser gorges we took a smaller boat excursion through....this is from the first gorge....

now you are in the second gorge, which is said to be the most lovely....when we were there there was tons of mist and the sides of the gorge were sooooooo green...it was a stunning site...

the next few shots are from the lesser gorges trip we took, the water here was more green and it was a bit cooler in this section....we also had this really cool mist show up about halfway through the trip which you can see above....in the mist are two boats, can you find them????

also in the lesser gorges we saw the famous hanging coffins...the chinese in this area used to scale the walls of the gorges and place their loved ones in coffins in these ledges...its hard to see here, but in the bit cave like hole there is a wooden coffin there...as you can tell there is no way to get there easily....so the loved ones were protected from everything....there are quite a few of these coffins along the way, but they are high up and hard to spot in most of my pictures....

i took this shot because everything you see here is below the 175 meter mark, which means that all of this currently is under water....the chinese government has relocated 100,000s of people along this river, but as you can see, they still had more people to move...some decided not to give up their land or homes if they were above the 175 meter mark....but most have moved to cities to be more prosperous....at least that's what they think...

this shot was taken because it will be some of the amazing history lost when the dam is at full capacity....this is a set of steps that used to be used for the pulling of boats through this gorge by people....the travel mode here previously was to have your boat pulled by people through the gorge and they would use these stone steps to do that...most of them are under water and these were some of the few that were still visible....

above is another of the hnaging coffins...but this one has really been demolished...its actually vertical in the fissure in the rock and is sort of poking out....this was one of the lowest ones we saw...and yes, it will be under water when the 175 meter mark is reached...which is a bit depressing....in my opinion anyway....

we visited a relocation village were some of the folks along the river have been moved...it was incredible and such a different way of life...they of course stared at us and we at them...i took so many pictures here, but the one above is one of my favorites...this is a the old fashioned way of carrying kids...not really seen except in remote villages these days...so cool...

i took this picture because i was freaked out by this....this is a corner dentist...can you see the rows of teeth in the case...they are on the top shelf...and how about that chair...looks comfy don't you think...and the dentist has air conditioning for you....i am sure its very sterile :)

some of the folks with us on the trip...they had never done jagermeister shots...of course cynthia and i took it upon ourselves to introduce lisa, andy and regina to these fun things :) yummy....
when you go on these boats there is a captains dinner...and you have to look nice...that's me...looking nice...had to take this shot for my mom to show her i cleaned up once in awhile on this trip...the champagne was tasty too :)

when we came off the boat we headed back to chengdu...which is famous for the pandas...tibet was in the middle of this, but i am saving that for its own entry....so onwards to chengdu...and the pandas....sooooo cute...these are two year olds having a snack...these guys were really hot...so they were chillin and eating their bamboo...

speaking of snacks...how cool is it that the pandas have their own kitchen of nutrition....so awesome...but unfortunately pandas are quite picky...which is one of the problems of them in the wild...they only like certain kinds of bamboo...some of which bloom and grow only every 17 years...not good to be picky...but its what they have chosen....

this panda hung out for about 5 minutes and then headed back into his enclosure where it was cooler...it was freakin hot day and with a fur coat like that, i would assume that all you would want is to be cool....we were quite close to this panda...so cute!

when we left mainland china we went to hong kong....what a city....I LOVED IT here!!!! it was acrazy crowded city, but when you left the city there were green spaces everywhere...its one of the greenest cities on earth....BUT people are packed into certain areas like sardines...so they can have those green spaces...but i still loved it...could definitely see myself living there someday, i'll keep you posted on that...

all over china you see mao...and on antique road in hong kong there is no exception...he's everywhere....

isn't it a terrific looking city...they of course have joined the race for the tallest building in the world and should be finishing theirs in 2009...but of course it will hold the record for a day and another country will take the title....but i think the skyline is fabulous...and look at that blue sky...i was told that most days hong kong has tons of pollution...we got really lucky i guess...

here's another look at the skyline but this time at night...they have a laser light show every night...they just go all over the place...so much water, so many people and so much fun!

and this buddha is on hong kong as well...the largest seated bronze buddha...it was incredible...and look at that blue sky...it was really cool to take the metro and bus and find a place like this...mid blowing for me outside of a city that big :)
to prove it...this is the view from the buddha...look no city....just incredible to think this is all on the same island...simply stunning :)

you made it...the last shot of china....me and hong kong...someday i will live there...what a fabulous trip through china i had...i love reliving this trip...it brings back great memories for me and for hanging with my friend cynthia and for all of the new friends i met along the way...too cool....hope you enjoyed it...next installment will be tibet...which holds a very special place in my heart....see you again soon....i hope :)