The Grass Is Always Greener...

ahh...a welcome return to the internet, however brief this foray onto the web can be. through a week of traveling, i have finally found myself in front of a computer monitor and a keyboard under my fingertips. it's a grand feeling to finally get the fix needed after a prolonged period of withdrawal...i suffered through my trip with momentary bouts of the shakes as i couldn't read about the inconsistencies of my beloved Lakers, the mud-throwing of partisan politics, or the newest details of Brangelina's new vietnamese baby. but fret not readers, i have but this brief moment to enlighten (or bore) you about my journey thus far...

*i'll rank each day on a scale of 1-10 (10 being pee-in-your pants amazing and 1 being kick-in-the-nuts painful)
day 1 (3.11)
Chengdu (the heart of China's Sichuan province and home of spicy cuisine) is the stepping stone for most Tibetan trips, and also the location where i planned to meet up with my travel buddy (who will remained unnamed per her...oops! sorry Theresa about the hin....DAMNIT!!). well anyways, we continued the day by finding a place to put our heads that night. and what we found was a little hostel nestled into this little hutong (an old alley way) with great character and a plethora of backpackers and street food stalls selling all kinds of bbq-ed meats, veggies, and seafood. eating and sleeping being two of my most favorite activities, i'm glad that that was pretty much all day one consisted of.
rank: 7

day 2 (3.12)
waking up before the sun comes up has never been a joy of mine...but being how our hostel was a good 45 minutes away from our flight leaving at 8am, we were forced to pull ourselves out of bed and into a cab at the wee hour of 6am. this is also where we thought we'd parted with our newly found British backpacker, James...who was planning on hitchhiking his way to Mt. Everest..hope you're successful man!!!

collecting new stamps on my passport is one of my favorite side effects of traveling, so imagine my disappointment when i realized that China has gobbled up Tibet as an autonomous region...hence, no stamp. but whatever, at least i was in Tibet.

our tour guide, AYG (his name is just too damn complicated) met us at the airport and transported us to our hotel. being the wide-eyed, ecstatic traveler, theresa began a verbal diarrhea of questions about the river, the rocks, the birds, etc., while i decided that my sleep was more rewarding than knowing about Tibet's geological makeup. AYG also advised us to take this first day to rest and get acclimated to the altitude, as Lhasa is a good 3,400 m (around 12,000 ft) high. i happily agreed to the condition as it meant more sleep, but theresa pouted until we left the comfortable confines of our room.

so we lethargically made our way into the city and stumbled upon the bazaar where we made our first encounter with Tibetan culture...which, is incredibly rich and unique. the rest of the day thus consisted of people watching and surveying...not to mention a surprise run in with our good friend James. but alas, AYG was corrected and theresa's breathing was hampered and her head hurt as altitude sickness caught up with her. i, on the other hand, was completely fine and was content to laugh at her misery.
rank: 6

day 3 (3.13)
i will again make an interjection about how i hate waking up before the sun is up, but in this case, the reason is valid (i guess). China, being one everything, has kept the entire country on one time zone. so though we may have been 3,000 some miles west of Shanghai, the time on the clock reads the same...so though it may naturally be around 6am, the clock shows 8am (i know that i slept the same amount, but i still somehow feel cheated out of my two hours).

having come in the offseason, we faced the benefits of fewer yappy tourists, but must suffer the less-pleasant weather which forced us to abandon our hopes at an adventure tour around the country as most places are too cold to enjoy. thus we were left with the luxury tour package, which is much more slow and relaxed (not all bad), but can get a little more dull (which is bad). but it is too early in the trip to be throwing doubts about 'what if"s in my head. so on we went...

the day consisted of an exploration of the Potola Palace, a religious center of the city and former home of the Dalai Lama. being as how our tour group was made up of a shanghainese couple, chinese-loving theresa, and me...AYG proceeded with his explanations all in chinese, leaving me a little out of the loop of understanding. but nonetheless, i wandered around the temples and shrines a few steps behind them, admiring the dedication these people have toward their faiths.

we left the palace a few hours later with a sense of culture and a stench of yak-fat. but so far so good as we made a guided tour around the bazaar again. this one with a disgusting experience with yak-butter tea (apparently a local favorite). so with a little bit more walking, a little bit more altitude adjustment, and yet another James run-in...day 3 was over.
rank: 8

day 4 (3.14)
leaving this morning for the prospect of a relaxing bath in some Tibetan hot-springs (hence the luxury tour), the majority of us were excited...theresa, however, was more than a little perturbed at the idea of sharing a bath with more than just her rubber ducky.

but a two-hour drive into the middle-of-nowhere, instead of the resort we pictured, our van turned into a construction zone surrounding what can only be described as a pool. so with our heads hung low, the consensus was to just return back to Lhasa, leaving the "springs" to the koreans and japanese tourists. and to add onto the disappointment of the day, we failed to make our daily James quota. maybe tomorrow.
rank: 5

day 5 (3.15)
this day was not much different from yesterday...as the agenda consisted of a 5 hour+ drive over what seemed like endless speed bumps to Tibet's second largest city, Shigatse. at least the drive was a cornucopia of Tibet's natural landscape occasionally pocked with ancient villages inhabited by herders and farmers of the land.

but like the day before, our goal at visiting the local monastery was deterred by bad weather (hence the low season). so we camped ourselves in the hotel as we hoped for better weather in the morning. and again, though this time a little more expected, no James to brighten up my day.
rank: 4

day 6 (3.16)
with the winds dying down enough for us to explore the monastery, we exposed ourselves to even more religious culture and societal experience. though not as majestic as the Potola palace, this monastery was more like a small city unto itself where buddhists of all strips would come and study for the ultimate test after years of prayer...failure not being an option, as this test can only be taken once a lifetime (maybe if the US tested like this, our scores wouldn't be so low...well, probably not).

besides enjoying the traditions, there happened to be these three obnoxious chinese girls who seemed to be touring along side us. now i may be chinese, but i stand out distinctively as a foreigner. so thinking that i didn't speak chinese, they would pass me and call me "monkey" (i guess since my ears stuck out of my beanie sometimes and...well, i don't know...do i look like a monkey??). so after maybe the 4th time this happened, i turned and called them alvin, theodore, and simon...but not knowing the chinese term for chipmunks, i felt the insult was wasted (not to mention they probably had no idea who alvin and the chipmunks are).

with the memories of alvin singing with theodore and simon, a strong rush of homesickness washed over me. maybe it was the spiritual environment, but my heart began to ache for the comforts of home...and again, thinking how great it would've been to be there instead of here; but the grass...well, the grass wasn't so green on this side right now. maybe it'll grow a little tomorrow.
rank: 6

day 7 (3.17)
upon returning to Lhasa, we were excited to have learn that it had snowed the night before. sad that i missed it, i was at least hopeful at the prospect of enjoying the snow for the next few days as we trekked (rode comfortably in a van) toward Lingzhi, Tibet's scenic hopspot. but i guess the snow froze the grass from greening as we learned the roads were shut for a few days and it would not be wise to risk our lives to make the journey. so thinking it best, the tour company decided to cancel that portion of the tour. leaving us to fend for ourselves in a city we seem to have come to know fairly well by now.

so theresa and i decided to leave tibet early and spend the extra time in Chengdu, where at least we can play with pandas and thersea can not be so fearful of local cuisine (the sheep lungs were surprisingly good).

so goodbye Tibet, you have opened my eyes to a culture previously only visited by my channel surfing past the discovery channel. thanks for allowing me to enjoy your atmosphere and experience. though not what i had hoped for, it was definitely not what i expected.
rank: 5
overall Tibet experience: 5.9

the rest of the trip will consist of some extra time spent in Chengdu and then off to JuiZhai Guo, one of China's most beautiful scenic landscapes. if you remember Jet Li's movie Hero, the scene where he is fighting Broken Sword on the lake is JuiZhai Guo.

so now i'm signing off for now, i'm sure by now you are wondering why the hell you read this much. but if you did, i'm glad...if not, i'll only refer you to this blog as your punishment for not reading this when you ask me how my trip was. and hopefully i can shake this feeling of wondering if the view is greener on the other side...