Tibet 2007

1 - Lhasa:

We were sleeping off the effects of arriving at 3600m and going paddling for two days in a row. Perhaps it was a little keen - the headaches and exhaustion certainly seemed to suggest so. But we'd come to Tibet to go kayaking and the opportunity for tagging on to a couple of raft trips had presented itself so we really had to take it, especially with the option of listening to too much of Brian Adam's lesser known output in the minibus to the river.

So there we were, in Lhasa, with all our kit and having incurred only fairly light excess baggage charges on the flight over the Himalayas from Kathmandu. There were four weeks ahead of us to head out exploring the rivers of Tibet.

On the second evening we went to meet up with Chris from Windhorse and Yeshi our guide. Chris has been paddling and arranging logistics out in Tibet for a number of years and he was going to give us the low down on the rivers suggest a direction in which to head out of town. The plan had been to head out the next day but the guys at Windhorse had managed to get us tickets for the next morning to go and visit the Potala, the imposing red and white palace of the Dali Lama and former Tibetan parliament which sits impressively on the hill overlooking Lhasa. Tickets are not so easy to come by, although they issue 2000 a day there are, apparently, up to 10000 people trying to get hold of them - mostly a somewhat bizarre mix of Tibetan pilgrims and Chinese tourists.

To be honest it's a bit of a weird thing to go and see. It's a massive cultural landmark but, being empty of any of its original activity, it has a slightly hollow feel to it. What further goes to counterpoint the missing monks and Tibetans is the fact that the people who now fill the open rooms are nearly all Chinese tour groups come to look at the vacant seat of Tibetan government and Chinese banished religion. In fact you get the sense across Tibet that a lot of the culture which has been left, or any which has been allowed to return, is fairly carefully calculated to maintain the traditional image to attract tourists and look good in TV advertising but to never quite be enough to allow true Tibetan or Buddhist culture to properly exist.