Lhasa Day 1 - NorbugblinKa, Tibet Museum, Potala Palace

I woke up this morning at 6:00 a.m. and went to the lobby to feed the blog and check email. I meet Aaron for breakfast at 8:30 a.m., then we met our guide at 9:30 a.m. in the lobby.

Our first stop is NorbuglinKa, the summer palace of the Dalai Lama. There are actually several palaces on this site, built by different Dalai Lamas. The first one was built in the 1700’s. I wish I could have taken pictures on the inside, but that is not allowed.

Pavillions by the summer palace of the 8th Dalai Lama:

The summer palace built for the 14th (and current) Dalai Lama. This is where he escaped from in disguise in 1959 and has been in exile every since.

All of the doors in the palaces have this kind of braided handle. The five colors are to represent the five elements.

This entryway is an indication of the colors and design of the interiors:

Next stop is the Tibet Museum. Aaron and I are becoming extremely educated on this trip. It was interesting learning the history of the Tibetan people, while at the same time seeing the influence of China on Tibet e.g. the welcome board that says how the Tibetan culture has been preserved under the "correct leadership" of the socialist regine.

Our next stop is lunch. Who comes up to our table to see us? Liueea from the train! His mother and he are at the table next to us with their father, whom they came to visit.

The place is near the restaurant. Coming to your neighborhood soon? Mmmm, I don't think so.

Our final stop for the day is the famous Potala Palace, the winter palace of the Dalai Lama. Pictures can’t do it justice. It was begun in the 7th century and has over a thousand rooms. The artistry of the interior is amazing. Definitely, click to see this larger.

We climbed all of the steps to the very top. At this altitude, having been here less than 24 hours, it’s a killer. But slow and steady, we make it fine.

The view from midway up the steps:

After seeing many, many rooms of the palace, we head back to the hotel for a much needed break at about 3:00 p.m. I’d like to go out in the street and take some photos, but I can’t make my body get off the bed.

We are picked up and taken to dinner at the same place we ate lunch. Upon returning, we catch a little more of the sports on television we don’t see much at home: Badminton, Handball (the kind that is a combination of soccer, basketball, and rugby), and Target Shooting. Within an hour or two, we are both, with the lights and television still on, passed out.

Train trip to Lhasa, Tibet Day 2

That short nap yesterday at 4:00 p.m. went until about 9:00 p.m. last night, and then I only woke briefly. The times I did wake up after that, it was usually from a sore body. These hard benches push my shoulder blades and pelvis up to places they weren’t meant to go, and inversely my spine is going the other way. I slept most of the night until about 3:30 a.m. I woke up and read for about an hour (Anthony Bourdain’s “The Nasty Bits”) and went back to bed about 4:30 a.m. until 6:30 a.m. I woke up to find two more chocolate bars by my bunk and two more by Aaron’s bunk left there by Liueea. How nice!

Speaking of food, it was strange how little we ate yesterday. Just one bowl of noodles, half of a protein bar, and the chocolate bar we were given. It’s probably a combination of the inactivity and the altitude.

Everyone including us is eating these instant ramen noodles:

The oxygen vents in our cabin are really pumping now. We’re at 12,556 feet. We were at 10,000 feet only an hour ago. Some of the mountain peaks are covered with snow here. It is very desolate, just the odd truck on a road we pass now and then.

In just twenty more minutes, we have risen to 14,000 feet. All of the mountain peaks are covered in snow now.

We are now passing through a nature preserve. There is great excitement at the windows as people spot wildlife – antelope, yak, and wild donkeys.

We’re certainly an oddity on this train. People stare I walk through, as much for my height as anything I’m sure. A girl of about five has spent an hour cumulative at least peeking in our berth, then running to the other side and peeking in from that side.

We just passed the highest fresh water lake in the world – 14,639 feet by my altimeter.

It’s hard to believe, but after 48 hours we have arrived at the Lhasa train station! It’s a beautiful new facility as well. Past the gate, we see a sign with my name on it. It is our guide for Tibet, Ci Ren La Ji, the person who put the itinerary together, Miss Ma, and our driver Mr. Tang. Ci Ren La Ji is a native Tibetan, and speaks English very well. They greet us with white silk prayer cloths that they drape around our necks. We climb into Mr. Tang’s Land Cruiser and hit the road for our hotel.

The mountains around Lhasa are simply stunning. It is amazing to be here. We pass some of the sites we will see tomorrow, like the Potala Palace. It’s even more impressive than it looks in pictures.

We arrive at the Jin Bo Hotel. It’s a welcome change to have our own room with real beds. Oddly enough, these beds are nearly as hard as the benches on the train! It’s kind of like laying on box springs. We’re not going to complain. It’s still an improvement. I decide to sleep on top of the covers for more padding.

The lobby of the Jin Bo Hotel:

As we’re going off to sleep, we watch some Chinese television. Foreign television is usually just that anywhere you go, and entertaining. After watching a Chinese version of “Ninja Warrior”, we came across the oddest track meet we’ve ever seen. Sprinters racing backwards, hurdlers who crawl under the hurdles instead of jumping over them, a long jump where jumpers land face first with outstretched hands, and the best of all, competitors standing on mats who fall forward and are timed to see whose face hits the mat the fastest.

Leaving Beijing/Train to Lhasa, Tibet Day 1

It’s 6:00 p.m. and time for us to move toward the new Beijing West train station for the train to Lhasa. By the way, one more update for you McDonald’s old school pie types – the ones in Beijing are filled with coconut!

Another amazing new building, the Beijing West train station is packed with travelers of all types, mostly it appears more working class folks.

Beijing West railway station:


Main corridor of Beijing West station:


The waiting area for our train. They were many rooms like this throughout the station for other trains:


We have arrived early for two reasons. One is to buy groceries for the trip. The menu du jour it appears for train travelers is large bowls of ramen noodles. There is boiling water in the waiting areas and on the train for this very common food. We get six bowls of instant ramen and eight bottles of water. We have to stay hydrated to combat altitude sickness. There is a dining car, but we’ll likely use it only a couple of times.

The second reason is to try to secure a soft sleeper berth. That was our request when we made the reservation. Because it took so long to get our visas, which are required to buy train tickets, the soft sleepers were unavailable by the time our visas were secured. We ended up with hard sleepers. Carla, our travel agent, said we could possibly get soft sleepers once we are there in person. Well, that ended up going nowhere. No one spoke English anywhere at the station or on the train, and “soft sleeper” were not words we learned for our trip, nor are they in our language book.

So, hard sleepers we have. Boarding the train was kind of stressful. We were hurriedly stuffed into the narrow hallways outside the berths. We unknowingly walk past our berth, so now have to fight against the stream to get back. People are yelling, we're exhausted. Yikes!

The hard sleeper is a small compartment that we share with other passengers. There are six bunks, benches really, three on a wall, with a thick blanket used as a mattress covered by a sheet. The room is 6’6” deep, 6’ across and 7’ tall. There’s not much storage space for luggage, so my big bag is standing upright at one end of my bunk, now making my bunk 5’6”.

The T27 line, Car 1, Berths 5-6


There are fold down benches in the hall outside the berth. The people in the upper bunks spend most of their time there.


Once inside, the experience had a bit of the first night in prison feeling, or a really small dorm room on the first day of school. Crammed together in a tiny space with people you don’t know, plus the fact that we can’t communicate that well together. I won’t lie, there were moments when I wondered if deciding to take the train had been a good idea.

We each took a Diamox, a drug to prevent altitude sickness, then got to sleep pretty closely after our 9:30 p.m. departure. Twice during the night, an alarm went off in the hall. No telling what it was about. No crew from the train came by, and it eventually went off.

Waking up this morning, it seemed a little tentative on how the day would go. But, as it has turned out, I wouldn’t trade this for anything. The scenery is unbelievable. The small towns, the little plots of land being worked by hand, some mountainous areas where even a random six foot wide ledge will have some crop planted on it; the small shrines in the fields among the crops; seeing what people have brought to eat – large jars of pickled vegetables, the ramen, and other things that are yet to be determined. We are seeing so many different pictures of what China is that we would never have seen just staying in Beijing. It would be like someone visiting New York and saying they know what the United States looks like.

I almost didn't post any outdoor pictures from the train. The dirty windows and speed don't make for good photos. However, this picture shows how even between deep gorges, there are crops planted in between rises. You can see it better, and all of the pictures in the blog, if you click on the photos to see them larger.



We have settled in nicely. The boy in the bunk above me reached down a little while ago to offer Aaron and I a kind of beef stick. He is seventeen, from northeast China, and on the way to Lhasa with his mom to visit his dad. His name is Liu ee a (my own semi-phonetic/semi-Chinese spelling). He speaks a little English and is very nice. He was surprised Aaron is nineteen (“Too tall!” he said). He later gave us each a chocolate bar. We returned the favor later with a round of cokes.

Our friends in our berth in the hall playing a game:


We are the only non-Asians in the hard sleeper cars. We are definitely noticed. Again, I’m thankful for the way this worked out. The softer beds, the larger berth, a door on the berth would all be nice, but this is how I like it – not a sanitized, separate experience, but right in the middle of it. The only part I’m not looking forward to is having to use the squat toilets for the first time – on a moving train no less!

Toilet door sign:


Aaron and I watched the movie “The Bucket List.” Funny that two of the things they’re doing on their list are things we’re doing on this trip. The movie finishes as we pass through Lanzhou. I’m pretty tired and decide to take a nap at about 4:00 p.m.

Tokyo Day 4-Beijing

Some closing photos of Tokyo:

This the subway exit that leads to our hotel:


Aaron and me in front of the Kaminari-mon Gate. This is the entry gate to the Sensei-Jo Temple complex. We pass through this gate to get to our ryokan.


Aaron with new friends.


Aaron with the hostess in front of the Ryokan Shigetsu, the place where we stayed in Tokyo.


Aaron wearing a yakata. A ryokan is intended to be a place of relaxation. Among other things you are asked to do to fully utilize the ryokan, you are supposed to change into this when you enter your room.


Once we pass through the Kaminari-mon Gate, we enter the Nakamise-dori market. It is two hundred yards of stalls selling crafts and souveniers.


At the end of the market is the next gate before the temple, the Hozo-mon Gate.


I thought I finally got my body on Tokyo time. As hard as it was to stay awake, I didn’t go to bed until 10:00 p.m. last night. The first time I woke up this morning was 2:00 a.m. I got back to sleep for about an hour, but that was it. At 4:00 a.m., I thought I might as well get some emails written. I’m sure part of my sleeplessness was that I did not want to miss our 5:45 a.m. taxi call. There is no wake-up service at this Ryokan, as the front desk is closed from 11:00 p.m. until 7:30 a.m.

Everything went perfectly on schedule this morning. The taxi arrived at exactly 5:45 a.m. The driver, wearing an official hat and white gloves, couldn’t have been nicer. We arrived at Ueno station to catch the Keisei Line Skyliner for the sixty minute ride to Narita Terminal 2.



While we were waiting for our train to depart, I think about what a good co-traveler Aaron is. Of course, it’s just great being with him. But, he’s an active part of this, not just along to be led. He’s keeping his eyes open for signs and things we need to find, is problem solving, has studied the languages better than I have, is strong and adventurous and filled with the same excitement of discovery that I am, and is overall just great company.

Today is the first real sunshine we have seen since arriving in Tokyo. It made even the industrial sections look good on the train ride to the airport. The rain last night also helped the temperature cool a bit. The last twenty minutes or so of the train ride is the through the country side. Sections and sections of bright green rice everywhere. Beautiful.

Check-in, security, and customs went easily and quickly. On to the gate. Trying to spend the last of our yen coins, I purchased a triangle of rice wrapped in nori (seaweed paper) near the gate. I had seen them many places and wanted to give one a try. There were at least eight selections, all of which looked exactly the same except that the border of the label was a different color. Not wanting to end up with one flavored like sea urchin, I put my best deductive reasoning skills to work. First, I decided that I would choose from one of the rows that had the fewest in it. Those must be the most popular, I surmised. Secondly, I went for the pinkish colored border. I’m thinking it may be salmon. That should be okay. With purchase in hand, I took my first bite. Shrimp. Good choice!

Sitting at the gate, the announcement came that the flight to Beijing would board in fifteen minutes. A little wave of excitement came over me. I still can’t quite believe we’re about to get on a plane to Beijing, China!

Upon the completion of boarding, I note oddly that this is one of the emptiest flights I have been on in years. We’re on a 767, not a small plane, on a Monday morning, and it is at least seventy-five percent empty. What that means, I don’t know.

For much of the flight after passing over China, the air below us is one massive cloud. My guess about it being the air pollution proves to be right when we land. I knew it would be bad, but I was shocked. Think of the thickest fog you have experienced - that is what it looked like. It's like L.A. on its worst day times ten.

Stepping into the new Beijing Capital International Airport was a shock of a different kind. Just opened in March, we were stunned at this architectural wonder. The amount of square acres it covers is mind boggling. What a beautiful accomplishment. I'll try to get better pictures of it when we return. Here's one for now.



The excitement of the Olympics is everywhere. We rode the train to baggage claim with swimmers from the Serbian team. We met them and wished them good luck. We then saw members of the Italy Olympic team. It all raises our anticipation level for the Games.

Going through immigration was no problem. Customs was a little different. In passing our bags through the machine, we expected the worst. Sure enough, they wanted to see inside my suitcase. The cause for concern was a samurai sword Aaron purchased as a souvenir. We were prepared that it may be staying in Beijing for good. The customs agent was quite nice about it. Once he determined that we did not need to take it into Beijing, which he wouldn’t allow us to do anyway, he gave us a receipt for it, said they would hold it, and that we can pick it up on our flight home. Great! We were already concerned about what to do with it anyway, as we had just read there would be bag checks before getting on the train tonight. He did us a favor!

Carla Li, our travel agent, was at the door to meet us. After getting all of our paperwork together with her, we said goodbye, exchanged some cash, and had lunch at Kenny Rogers Roasters(!) in the airport. You could tell everyone has been trained to the extreme for hospitality. Our waitress gave us our menus, then dutifully waited for us to review them, never leaving lest we have a question, then took our order. Everyone working in the restaurant smiled and told us an enthusiastic goodbye when we left. As we were leaving, we paused for three workers from another restaurant to pass. The manager chastised them loudly and they ran out of our way.

Good stuff in any language:


We headed for the taxi to take us into Beijing. Another seemingly odd observation – there were very few cars on the highway. An hour later, we arrived at Feiying Youth Hostel. We’re staying there next week, not tonight, but they agreed to watch our bags while we got in a few hours of sightseeing.

The hotel is just two kilometers away from Tiananmen Square. We took the line two subway to the Qianmen Gate and walked up the stairs through the exit. Aaron passed right through, but I was immediately stopped by two men in green uniforms, a woman in a blue uniform and a man in plain clothes in a yellow shirt – perhaps an interpreter. They wanted to see inside my big camera bag of course, but more urgently wanted to know why I was there, what was I doing. After a brief exchange, they decided I could go on. Welcome to Beijing.

It was quite a feeling standing in Tiananmen Square amidst all of the buildings in it that have been so iconic all of my life. How many times we have seen this place on the news over the years?

The Tiananmen Gate on the north border of Tiananmen Square:


The Qianmen Gate on the south border of Tiananmen Square:


It was fun to see Beijing in full preparation mode for the Olympics, still a week away. These people were arranging a huge flower display in Tiananmen Square at the base of a massive Olympics logo sign:





Exciting stuff. It will be interesting to see what the city looks like when we return in a week.

Blog update!

We have arrived in Lhasa, Tibet. There are more blogs to post, but there is a line to use the one internet outlet in the hotel. Please check back!

Tokyo Day 3 - Ueno Park, Tokyo Museum

As mentioned, we woke up at 2:00 a.m. this morning. We tried to go back to sleep, but got up and kept busy on email and blog (me) and games and books (Aaron), waiting for the ryokan breakfast to start at 7:30 a.m. It made me think of Bill Murray in Lost In Translation having a similar experience.

It was a day of celebration, though. We had our first shower and change of clothes in three days! We traveled for two and fell asleep in our clothes, then woke up so early for the fish market, we just stayed in the same clothes.

Breakfast at the Ryokan was very nice. We got one Japanese breakfast and one western breakfast to try all of the local fare. The extra special treat was a lovely koto player providing breakfast music. That alone was worth the price. It appeared that her mother and her grandmother had arrived to listen. The grandmother couldn’t have been much over 4’5” tall and was absolutely beaming over the performance of her granddaughter.



The Japanese breakfast below – grilled fish, eggs, a mixture of eggplant and okra in a brown, sweet, hoisin-like sauce, green beans in sesame paste, rice, miso soup, pickles, green tea.



After breakfast, we hit the door for Ueno Park and the Tokyo National Museum. It has been unbearably hot and humid here every day. We are soaked literally within a few minutes of walking outside. The biggest change to our budget has been adding a lot more purchases of liquids. The drink below has become my drink of choice in this weather. The name isn’t very appealing, but it’s kind of like Gatorade.



The park was a great experience. We saw various shrines, all very interesting in their detail and design.






We thought we would go into the zoo just to see the giant Panda, a rare opportunity, but a note on the ticket the machine said that there is now no Panda exhibit. Ling Ling passed away April 2008. Very sad!

We reached our destination of the Tokyo National Museum. It was such an experience for the eyes and mind - great treasures of sculpture, armor, swords, Japanese calligraphy, art, kimonos, and silk. The most impressive thing to me were sculptures carved from wood dating from 700 to over a 1,000 years ago brought in from various temples. They ranged from the small, to life-size, to three times life-size. The detail in the human sculptures were so fine, that at first glance it looks like a real person.





We walked a little through the Ameyoko market across the street – a black market area in the 1940's that is now a bustling, vibrant bazaar.



We then hit the subway back to our hotel. We at lunch at Maguro Bito, a conveyor belt sushi bar.


We then got in our shopping for souvenirs for family and snapped some more pictures around the Sensei-Jo Temple and the massive gates, the Kaminari-mon and Hozo-mon, along its path. We had our first ice cream burger – two “buns” made from a thin, light ice cream cone type substance with a scoop of mango ice cream in the middle. Very refreshing on another incredibly humid and hot day.

We contemplated going to the Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Harajuku districts, if nothing else to keep us from falling asleep early in the room, but we couldn’t work up the energy. We decided for something familiar again in a McDonald’s dinner, then headed for our room for the night to pack for our departure to Beijing. Along the walk home, with some welcome rain drops starting to fall and fierce lightning starting to burst, we both talked about how if Tokyo had been the only part of our trip, it alone has been fantastic.

Tokyo-Day 2: Tsukiji, Museums, Ginza

We are up this morning at 4:00 a.m. and out the door at 4:30 a.m. to meet the taxi. Twenty minutes later, we are at the Tsukiji fish market, the largest of its kind in the world. I had read a lot about this and have wanted to see it. There are over 1,700 stalls of people selling the largest variety of sea life imaginable. We arrive this early to view the tuna auction. It’s a big deal, as tuna is like seafood gold.

The flash frozen tunas from all over the world are lined up.



Cuts are made in them for prospective buyers to inspect the meat and even taste it.





They are marked with paint.



I really enjoy seeing the culture of the work place. People who might never have met otherwise are brought together by a common business.





Shortly after 5:00 a.m., the auction begins with the loud ringing of bells. The auctioneers are very animated as you can see in the video.





We wander through the stalls. It’s just unbelievable the variety of sea life in the world, and equally so that someone somewhere has determined how to make all of this edible.















After a couple of hours at the fish market, we go to the food stalls to have what must be the freshest, finest fish breakfast possible. The tuna sashimi pictured below is the best I’ve ever had. It is served with shredded daikon radish, some sliced pickled daikon, rice, and tea. Aaron tries unagi (freshwater eel) for the first time and enjoys it very much. The gentleman serving us is quite chatty. He keeps taking pieces of paper and writing us things we should learn in Japanese or writing calligraphy, or sharing some other thing with us. We leave with a handful of pages he has written for us.









We go back to Asakusa station, then walk to the Drum Museum. It is very interesting and hands on. We are the only ones in the room at the time. A lady led us in, left us some different sticks and mallets, and told us which ones we could play. We couldn’t take pictures, but she wanted to take one picture of us posed as below.



From there, we go to the Sword Museum. It is quite a trick finding it through some winding streets, but we do. The amazing thing about the sword museum is the remarkable craftsmanship that was evident as early as 900 years ago. Those swords look identical to the swords made in the 1800’s. It’s the slight variations in curve or length that tell the era. This is a Tanto sword (short side sword) made in the 1300’s. They busted me after I took this picture. I didn’t see the No Photos sign.



Something familiar is sometimes nice when you’re traveling, so we eat at the McDonald’s across from the train station. For those of you that track this kind of thing (you know who you are), Japan McDonald’s serve the old school style fried apple pies. You just can’t beat them.

After changing trains at Shinjuku station (the busiest train station in the world – two million people per day!), we head to the famous shopping district, the Ginza. The Ginza is impressive. The street is closed to cars and people are everywhere this Saturday afternoon. Most of the shops are on the very high end, but it is interesting to see.




We go back to our room about 4:00 p.m. to take a short nap. We hit the bed and wake up from our "nap" at 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning. We have been up ever since.