Our Tibetan journey began with a 24 hour train from Beijing to Xining, a mid-sized city half-way between Beijing and Lhasa and the last real city in China proper. We boarded in the evening and quickly made friends with the three young IT businessmen sharing our 6 person closet with us. They asked us questions about our travels in broken English and shared their dinner of pickled mushrooms, nuts and other unfamiliar veggies (we didn’t try much) as well as their beer. We saw photos of little baby Chow Chow and when we ran out of things to say, they played us some famous Chinese music from their cell phones. We played Arcade Fire in return, but they seemed a little underwhelmed. Maybe our crappy iPhone speakers or maybe just lost in translation.
Sleep came easily. The train gently zipped along and we stayed warm in comfy pyjama sets we’d bought to use as long johns in Tibet. Only two interruptions in the night; when the sixth bedmate arrived and when our friends departed in the early morning. I suppose there were a few more self-inflicted interruptions as our high altitude pills forced us to the bathroom every few hours. Still don’t know how they worked but can definitely confirm that they are a diuretic and didn’t let up for our entire trip. No toilets (only stinky holes), below zero temperatures with no heaters, multiple layers of clothing to peel off and 6 hours a day in the car or 24 on the train….you can imagine the challenges both day and night.
We woke early the next day, Jess with a slight headache, and caught the end of a beautiful sunrise over frozen lakes and tundra with small mountains in the distance. We spent the day in our bunks in awe of the landscape and used the time to write blog entires, read, catch up on our sleep and let our thoughts wander. Many unknowns lay ahead and we were excited but also nervous to see how it would all turn out. Jess was especially anxious about high altitude sickness, which chooses its victims at random and can be fatal if left untreated (ie. if you don’t retreat down the mountain ASAP!).
But we had a more pressing issue to think about, our rumbling stomachs. Like the rest of the passengers, we had brought instant noodle bowls and used the hot water provided to make lunch. As the afternoon wore on the smells of too many passengers, too few washrooms (with no soap or toilet paper) and lots of noodle bowl became a bit overwhelming. We were happy to arrive in Xining that evening, but hiring a cab from the station proved challenging. That we were foreign, didn’t speak the language and/ or had bags dissuaded open cabs from picking us up. It was freezing and we were dirty and hungry. Out of frustration Luke tried to jump into one as it drove away. Finally, a kind Chinese Muslim picked us up in his tractor-turned-cart with plastic siding and we arrived at the hostel 30 minutes later still very cold but only $3 poorer. We tried our first tsampa, a warm dough made of yak butter and barley, across from our hostel at a Tibetan coffee shop, making conversation with an expat French Canadian spam king, before returning home and dozing off. After a shower.
The day in Xining let our bodies adjust to the higher altitude. ‘Pole pole’ as the Kenyans would say. We were driven to various viewpoints in nearby Kanbula national park and even managed a small hike before becoming completely breathless. On the way to our morning hike, it seemed we planned this trip a few weeks late: most of the leaves were gone and patches of snow lay on the ground. Regardless, strangely rugged scenes of red rock mountains, pine trees and a huge blue lake were impressive. The roadway infrastructure was almost as amazing as the mountains they climbed. Back in town, we met with our very friendly and helpful Tibetan trip organizer, Wangden, over coffee and spicy greasy noodles before boarding our second 24 hour train to Lhasa, Tibet.
This is where the title of this blog entry comes into play. The train we now boarded in Xining had left from Beijing 24 hours earlier so we essentially got back on the train where we left off. Smelly passengers, dirty washrooms, no soap or toilet paper and worst of all, already slept in sheets. Our beds must have been occupied from Beijing to Xining and then the previous passengers got off when we got on. Sitting in someone else’s crumpled sheets with crumbs, hair, food and drool(?) stained pillows for 24 hours is truly disgusting. And the night was so cold you had to snuggle right in. By this point we had worn our pj/ long johns for a few days, so we weren’t smelling so fantastic to begin with. And then the heart burn kicked in. Damn greasy noodles. Jess was up half the night because of it.
We woke up to Tibetan plateau. Yellow and brown tundra, sometimes almost green valleys, and mountain glaciers in the distance and then quite near the train route itself. Icy rivers followed our train. Real BLUE sky and very WHITE clouds, a Chinese first. The scenery was quite incredible. By mid day we were over the Tanggu-la pass (5072M) and into Tibet proper, passing turquoise lakes, red mountains and wild Yak herds. Our first glimpse of the far off Himalayan ridge was as stunning as you could expect. The view from the train window that second day was so breathtaking that we’d do it again in a heartbeat, but maybe next time with sleeping bags and Tums.
The scenery died down slightly for our entrance into Lasa, which seemed an unremarkable city upon first impression. We arrived in the evening and were thankfully picked up at the station this time and on the third try found a cheap and clean hotel. Some confusion followed upon arrival as the person we thought was the hotel manager told us we were getting married the next day as he showed us the room! Turned out that the manager was actually our guide and the person who picked us up just his friend. And the “traditional marriage ceremony with rented costumes and big celebrations,” that our guide had planned for us was just a slight misunderstanding. Luke had asked Wangden what the possibility was of us being blessed by a monk and the whole thing snowballed from there. Although we are very much looking forward to getting married, we can happily report that much awkwardness was avoided and instead, we visited the famous Potala Palace, historical residence of the Dalai Lama. Ascending the 300 steps to the highest palace in the world left us huffing and puffing and seeing stars, but our first glimpses into Buddhism and the Tibetan people made the climb well worth it. We look forward to sharing those thoughts soon.
The Hegira of Jess & Luke 