Friday/Saturday

June 23, 2007

On Friday we went to Namotso Lake at 5190 meters above sea level. It’s the highest salt lake in the world. For reference, Lhasa is 3750 meters above. The drive there was about a 5 hour bus ride which was absolutely horrendous, with bus drivers who smoked. But other than that the ride up was beautiful. Getting out of Lhasa the city, small huts lined the side of the road, but then farther out the villages were spaced out at the bottom of the mountains. There were lots of barley grown on the side of the road, which is one of their main sources of crops. This part of Tibet is pretty dry, so not much greens or fruits are grown. There were lots of herds of yaks grazing around and lots of sheep too. That’s where they get the milk/butter to make the tsampka tea, which uses yak or sheep milk. Also there were piles of yak poop made into patties piled up in 5 foot piles, which they use to burn for heat and cooking…yum.

At Namotso, as soon as we walked down near the lake, Tibetan village children would surround us and chase after us asking us to take pictures with them for 1 yuan. Also, the Tibetans have yaks down there for people to ride on and take pictures, charging 10 yuan. But sometimes to get money, they’ll lead their yak into your picture on purpose and then try to charge you for taking a picture of them, even though it was unintentional on your part. The harassing was pretty brutal. But seeing the number of tourists, they must make a load, plus there’s nothing for the Tibetans to buy out there.

The trip back was even more brutal cause there was nothing to look forward to, but overall definitely worth it. I have to attach some pictures, that’d be the easiest way.

Today I met up with the doctor and lady from the hospital who’s been helping me arrange this trip. They were incredibly nice and accommodating, so work at the hospital starts on Monday morning. I’m pretty excited to do some real stuff and take a break from the touring. They are going to give me a tour of the hospital and then arrange for specific departments I’m interested in, so I get a more specific experience in the hospital. This hospital is the biggest one and main one in Tibet with 500 beds. It’s hooked up with the SOS, NGO, etc and all major cases from all over Tibet gets sent here. Also, it’s the main teaching hospital for residents from the medical university.

So my dad left today so all alone here in the middle of Tibet. I met some pretty chill people, a Scottish dude, an Australian girl, a couple brits, and all a bunch of hippies, but very cool. The Scottish dude was teaching English in Naning and met the Australian girl in Vietnam, quit his teaching job and has been traveling with her every since, probably like a month or two. After their trip from here to Nepal and India, he’s going back to Australia with her and going to find a job. I can’t imagine me doing something like that, but I have so much admiration for people like that. There was an older British lady from Devon who’s doing a 6 months world tour and is currently on her 3rd month. She’s doing some amazing things, like safari and camping in the Serengeti, swimming with dolphins in New Zealand, bungee jumping, and so much more. I was quite inspired after this afternoon to do some backpacking in the future, especially with a special someone. Tonight we all hung out on the roof and watched Babel on a projector, pretty clutch considering I’m in Tibet. Drank some Lhasa beer and chatted with really cool people. People lead such free lives, it’s sad comparing it to how rigid mine is, but such is life. More the reason to take advantage of every break I get in the future. While talking to these people I felt a little naïve because I haven’t done the backpacking around different continents, but then as the conversation went on I had a lot to offer about the places I have been to, so I felt better about that. More to come…