The Trip

Lhasa may be remote city, but that does not mean that the Tibetans don't like to unwind on a Saturday night. I decided that after a few beers at a restaurant I would accompany a decent ex-pat fellow and a couple of others to the local night spot. I cannot remember its name though it would be meaningless anyway. We arrived, said good evening and got in for free. In China they seem to let Westerners in for free because they drink more. I think they got very good value out of me. We took our seats at the front of the seating area and I realised that it looked more like a function room than nightclub (or "disco" as I still sometimes call it, showing my age). We were at the front of a large capacity seating area with round tables and chairs and the floor in front of us was empty. At this moment there was a Tibetan stand-up duo on. Christ knows what they were talking about but it revolved around tourists (Chinese ones) as one guy was wearing an ill-fitting suit and pre...

For reasons known only to the Chinese, they keep the whole of their country on the same time of day. China physically covers about 3 or 4 time zones. Starting as I did in the North East and having now made my way to the West I noticed that things seemed a little out of kilter. For example, a native Beijinger's day will start at about 0600. They would work until noon when they take lunch, and then finish up at about 1600. They would dine at 1800 and then be in bed by about 2100. This means that some Chinese cities shut down very early. In Tibet though, things are different. They open things up at about 0830 with the rising sun, eat whenever they like and because the sun does not set until about 2030 they stay up quite late. So on the morning when we had to depart for the Yarlung Valley it was about 0700, still dark and I was foggy and confused like I am most mornings. Things started well though as I instantly got on well with Dave and Carl, the two others, as well as knowin...

Or "How I learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Communists". Well, not quite. Tibet used to be an independent country from the end of the Chinese Emperors in 1911 until 1950 when the Chinese invaded. Come to Nepal and peruse any bookshop and you will see countless volumes devoted to this and the Tibetan Government in Exile currently in Dharamasala in India. This is where the Dalai Lama currently lives. There are also a lot of native Tibetans in Nepal waiting for the time that they can go home in freedom. But that's not going to happen soon. Tibet it currently the TAR ("Tibetan Autonomous Region") in a similar though less liberal way as Hong Kong currently is. “One country - two systems,” is what the Commies tout though this is of course bollocks. Until very recently all forms of Tibetan culture were enthusiastically repressed by the Chinese army who still man massive military bases on the plateau. These days the Tibetans can practise Buddhism and other cu...

We took an internal flight from Hefei to Chengdu. Chengdu is in Sichuan Province and is famous for their Sichuan cuisine. This is similar to basic Chinese food though it is laced with chilies, making it very hot. I enjoyed this food immensely though I think Matt preferred the milder stuff. Chengdu is one of the main routes into Tibet from China so there are a lot of travelers going through and as a result a good lot of restaurants, hostels, and more things geared towards the traveler. I liked the place as soon as I got there as anything was better than Hefei and the people here were friendlier and more helpful. We arrived late and managed to get to the hostel that we had "booked" before but they said that they had no record of the booking and they were full anyway; Chinese style. They hailed a cab and instructed him to take us to the other hostel nearer the centre called "Sam's Place" which is very popular, though again full. So Sam then said that we could...

Well, that chap in the room at Shanghai was correct. Hefei (pronounced hoo-fey) has nothing going for it. The town is the Chinese equivalent of Croydon but with more pollution and the now standard staring yokels. It was one of the most unpleasant places I have ever spent on earth. The only thing that made it bearable was the Holiday Inn hotel there. This was able to provide me with a protective bubble to stay in, not to mention hot water, decent toilets and clean bed linen. The final thing was the Indian restaurant on one of the floors there. This was run by an Indian chap with his brothers and the food was an excellent change from the Chinese fare that I'd been eating until then. Being able to talk to someone who spoke good English was a nice change too. The reason we came to Hefei was so that Matt and I could see the Huang Shan mountains in Central China. These are apparently the tallest mountains in China if you don't include the Tibetan Himalayas (Tibet used to be ...

As you know I started in Beijing 3 weeks ago and stayed there for almost 2 weeks. This long stay was forced upon me because Matt and I flew in before the tour we booked onto started. This was to our advantage though as the tour proper only stayed in Beijing for about 3 days. So by the time we left we had got the feel of the place and were handling the Metro, busses and local area with the skill of locals. Almost. Beijing is the most sprawling city that I have ever visited. The main thing that gives it the huge scale over all the western cities that I have visited is the roads; they are at most 6 lanes wide and can only be crossed at junctions using subways. One guide who we spoke to about it said that Mao said that the central roads through the city centre should double up as military runways in the event of a war with the Soviets! You could certainly still land a large jet on one of these things even now. Everything in Beijing is very spaced out. For example I could look on a st...