running into myself

Category Archives: Tibet

preparing for my trip

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Essentials


I leave in four days.

It’s all done:  the plane ticket to Lhasa, the arrangements for my 8-day tour in Tibet, the Tibet Travel Permit, the running around, shopping, and decision-making.

Anticipating my travels through different climates and health situations, I’ve made sure to stock up on altitude sickness medicine, vitamins, pain relievers, and Imodium (for the inevitable Delhi-belly that I’ve been told I’ll get in India).

 

This is what an official Tibet Travel Permit for foreigners looks like.

 

My hiking pants and hiking shoes that I bought on ebay have arrived from the U.S.; you can’t buy such things in large American sizes here in Chengdu.  I’m actually traveling light: one change of clothes, some extra T-shirts, and a hooded sweatshirt, a book to read, the necessary medications, and of course my camera.  Anything else I need I’ll buy along the way.  All my other baggage will be spiritual or emotional.

I’m in good shape from 10 weeks of cardio workouts on the treadmill at the gym – my legs are like iron, my endurance and energy have improved, and hopefully my heart will be in good shape for its encounter with the 12,000-foot altitude.  I keep thinking that there’s something I’m forgetting, but then it hits me:  I’ve been preparing for this trip my whole life.

 

hitting the road

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Ganzi, Dontok Gompa, Monastic Student [July 2007]

 Classes have finished, except for two oral English exams that I’ll give this week.  As I complete my fourth year in China, I’m feeling the effects of the long and sometimes difficult process of adapting myself to a new country, and to my life as a teacher.  I’m also looking forward to some heavy-duty travel.

I’ve been planning a trip to Tibet, Nepal, and India for four years; even longer, if you count the years I’ve spent anticipating my first encounter with the Himalaya, living vicariously through books such as Peter Matthiessens’s The Snow Leopard or Jeff Greenwald’s The Size of the World, not to mention Alexandra David-Neel’s My Journey to Lhasa.  Well, it looks like I’m going to get there at long last.

Following the civil unrest in Tibet in the Olympic Year of 2008, all foreigners must now engage a travel agency, and travel through the region with a paid driver and tour guide.  There’s no such thing as independent travel in the Tibet Autonomous Region for foreigners; this may change, but for now I must fulfill my dream via a high-price organized tour.  I’ll join two other people once I get to Lhasa, and our tour is organized by Snow Lion Tours, a Tibetan-owned and staffed company.  You can get an approximate idea of our 8-day itinerary here.

Here’s a general outline of my summer travel plan:  Fly from Chengdu to Lhasa Saturday morning, July 10; spend about 3 days in Lhasa, then travel by 4-wheel drive to Gyantze, Shigatse, Everest Base Camp, and finally to the China-Nepal border at Zhangmu.  From there I’ll take a bus to Kathmandu, and stay there as long as I feel like it.  I’ll make a side trip to Swayambhunath temple, and possibly Pokhara.  Then I’ll go by bus to Varanasi, India.  Depending on the heat and the cost of travel, I’ll venture quickly or slowly onward to Agra and Delhi, finally ending up in Dharamsala, where I’ll visit my friend Phurbu who’s studying English there.  I would dearly love to fit in a trekking trip to Ladakh, but any of the above plans might have to be modified or scrapped due to minor inconveniences such as running out of money or time (whichever comes first).

So there you have it: the dream of a lifetime (Asian version; I have other dreams for other parts of the world). I’ll be posting “from the road” as often as I’m motivated. Ciao.