Last year, I visited Tibet via overland routes from Xining to Lhasa  (1,907km long). I had been curious about Tibet for quite some time.  The mysterious Tibetans that stayed up high on the mountain and their features looked a lot like the Native Americans in the US, the stories of the Dalai Lama with monasteries and nunneries playing a very strong role in Tibetan culture, the political struggles and so on.

My road trip started from Xining and ended in Lhasa, covering only a small portion of the geographically huge and famous Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. The Tibetan plateau was amazingly vast and as I can see it … Tibetans inherited freedom of space from their ancestors, the sky was the limit. But the vast geographical space smelt resistance.

Checkpoints by stern police and army personnel at every border crossing point created unnecessary twists on my stomach (checking for travel permits, passports and sometimes just finding excuses to look at your face). There were police personnel at every corner in Lhasa too.

And, the risk of experiencing altitude sickness was very high here as Lhasa itself was located at 3660 meters above sea level, passes and some inhabited plateau areas that we passed through along the way were mostly over 3000 meters. The highest was at Tanggula Mountain pass at 5231 meters.  

I thought that I could survive this journey without popping in the anti-AMS pill but I started to experience a bad headache when I was at Xining (2275 meters). The pounding headache stopped only after I took the anti-AMS pill.

Our journey from Chaka- Geermu- Tuotuohe- Dangxiong felt very isolated. It felt as if we were in a twilight zone. Some nights we were totally disconnected from the world (no phone signals at all, no electricity, no pipe water, etc). The view alongside the roads was empty, bared and cold.

No trees just piles of rocks, occasionally some open grasslands and plains (totally inhabited). The huge and beautiful man-made roads were empty except for some trucks and a  few daring motorists like us. The landscape view was splendid, the sky was in deep blue color and the clouds were thick like cotton candies.

I had a blast time admiring the sky and the clouds … God’s blueprint was everywhere for the thinkers to witness and to confirm on HIS existence.

I seldom feel homesick when I travel but during this trip after a week on the road, I started to feel bored and restless. The journey from one point to another was too long … and most of the time we were stuck in our seats on the bus. Plus the constant headache that I had, some drama here and there makes me a bit tired.

I think it would help to have a good companion during a hard trip like this. But finding a good travel companion was not easy. Sometimes a good companion during our ‘laughing’ time would turn into a monstrous companion when we were on the road.

Me? … I prefer to be alone and stick to my own business, with less drama and less distraction. Kurang kan kontroversi, tingkat kan produktiviti (less controversy, more productivity 😉 ).

What else did I see during this trip? From the eye of an outsider who spent just a few days mingling with locals there, what I noticed about Tibetans was their devotion to their religion. It seems like most of them had praying beads hanging at their fingertips at all times. Most of them were Tibetan Buddhism but … I did meet some Muslim Tibetans while I was roaming around Lhasa’s back alleys.

We came across a few monks performing their ritual act of religion… prostrating at the roadside of Geermu on their way to Lhasa. Amazing devotion … it took them a few weeks to reach Lhasa and they survived through donations (food, water and shelter) from passers-by. Talking about being a complete minimalist and living with no material burden at all,  I think they were obviously champion minimalists.

I am a self-declared minimalist myself but for this trip, I went overboard with my luggage and I left traces everywhere (i.e left my favorite jacket at one of the hotels and a few more here and there). It created unnecessary worrisome to my ‘simple’ mind. I had been taught well during this trip why I need to be a complete minimalist traveler.

So, what did I get for myself during this trip?

Honestly, I didn’t grab anything for myself because nothing caught my eye. Bought some souvenirs for friends and family but I discovered that I can get all these touristy Tibetan jewelry here in Kuala Lumpur at a much cheaper price. You can find made in China jewelry just anywhere in Malaysia, no big deal.

I bought one weird-looking pendant for my daughter for 20 Yuan (after much bargaining). While doing my soul cleansing (my jewelry soul-cleansing 😉 ) at Ikano Power Center in Damansara, Kuala Lumpur … darn! I saw a replica of that necklace pendant (a cat face instead) at RM10.00. Wow! Lesson learned… girl! … you are a lousy bargainer, lol.

Cheers,

MM

P/S – Happy Birthday Malaysia … Malaysia is always my Home Sweet Home