How to quit your job and travel around the world

Before we leave on our trek tomorrow, a few things to fill you in on:

Yaks

Mmm. Yak dumplings aka momos; yak noodles, fried slicd yak, yak tar tar. They love their yak. I have to say this is some tasty meat. We even had halal yak yesterday when we went to the Muslim quarter. Yaks are not like cows - they are more succulent and tasty! They treat their (live) yaks like children and gives names to each and every one.

Yak butter

This is the ever-present smell in temples. The faithful bring their own jerry cans of yak butter to pour into the candles (yak butter candles). It is slippery and I am not sure I like the taste.

Incense

Also ever-present and burning in front of temples. As our room faces a major temple, I am awoken each morning by the smell of a fresh batch. It is also particularly useful in toilets, which rank among the worst I have had the pleasure of using.

America

What a nice change/surprise to have so many Tibetans excited that we are American. I am guessing it is because we have supported, at least through social causes, the Dalai Lama and we have a strong Buddhist community. They love America - and have at times been very conspiratorial in whispering to us how much they hate the Chinese.

Ok, heading out to wilds of Central Tibet. Tu jaychay (thank you) for reading. Will post when I am back....

PHOTO: Approaching Ganden Monastary, 35 km outside Lhasa.


Lhasa continues to amaze me -- we have to stay put here for a few days as we acclimatize, which we are and now we feel fine. Yesterday we walked around the outside of the Potola (and on our way inside today) and then into the oldest Tantric University (in the world, I assume). I am overwhelmed at the friendliness of the monks; they are always coming to greet us, to wave, to joke with Anjum about his height (well, them and the rest of the Tibetans - they get a big kick out of that) and the children are always yelling a greeting to us from windows or whereever. It is heartbreaking in a way to see the Tibetans constantly praying for a leader who will never return. The Chinese are here to stay - they have put in huge massive highways, big ugly glass and chrome buildings, tacky plastic sandal stalls, and most of them don't even know the Tibetan words for the basic temples, etc...in front of the Potola they have built a huge Communist style square with a Mao momument and red flags. You must walk counter-clockwise inside as another F-you to Tibetan custom (koras, or circumambulations are made clockwise). You must pick and choose who you adderss in Tibetan or Chinese to signal your intentions, though staying in the Barkhor, or tradtional Tibetan quarter, most are Tibetan. There are armed guards at the entrance to the Barkhor who sit around in their army blues and Ray-Ban aviators, slumped adn smoking and watching. It's disconcerting. However, it's not really doom and gloom - more of an annoyance.





We are all booked on our trek - we will leave Thursday morning to drive to a monastary called Ganden, a major one where one branch of Buddhism was formed, and then trek for four days overland with yaks and a yak man (already, I love the Yak Man) to another founding monastery. We will trek with three young women we ran into (Canadians) and then from there get a land cruiser and head down to the Nepal border with a two-day stop at Everest Base Camp. I really can't believe I am doing this - I think I have dreamed of going to E.B.C. (as they say) since high school and got hooked on mountain climbing books. I will make one more post tomorrow, then we'll be off, deep in Tibet....For those coming to Tibet, we used the F.I.T. travel agency and our whole 9 day trek/land cruiser is costing us 10,500 yuan, which comes out to about $700 each for the whole package (and they take care of getting the tents and yaks etc...). Much less than booking from home!

A few hours into our arrival, the headache set in, then the fatigue and finally the nasuea. We went from 600 meters to 3600 m. above sea level in a fell swoop to get here yesterday and our bodies threw a fit. Alititude sickness kicked our butts, and we took some Diamox, a drug which deepens and increases your respiratory rate, which helps with the sickness. Twelve hours of sleep and some paracetamol and diamox, and we're feeling much better. So after yak noodles and coffee this morning, we walked to the Potola, the former government building of the Dalai Lama, which is quite simply astounding in real life. They have a limit on how many people can go in a day, so we got tickets for tomorrow and did our own little 'kora' or religious circumambulation around the outside, spinning prayer wheels and giving yuan notes to the prostating monks along the way. We stopped at a smaller temple inthe back of the Potola where there are some incredible 18th centry paintings intact. The sun is blasting here - we have hats on and sunglasses; and we are making friends with our "Tashi Delek" - hello in Tibetan. At our lunch spot a group of monks spotted our Lonely Planet and poured over it, looking at the pictures and the language section. We are now arranging our trek - we are changing our original plan a bit and today are planning to get a land cruiser to Everest Base Camp (5200 m), whcih takes 3-4 days with stops, and then trek along the base for 3-4 days, and then drop down into the Kathmandu valley over 3 more days, and fly out from there to Karachi.