我到天边走一回(2)On the way to Tibet

文接自：我到天边走一回(1)Going Tibet

16/9/2012

← Aquarium fountain style with schools of bright colour goldfish located in front of Mecure Hotel Beijing. 

Woke up super early to catch the flight to Chengdu then transit to Lhasa.  There was not enough time for us to eat breakfast either, our tour leader packed up boxes of simple breakfast for us to eat in order for us to make it in time to the airport to check in.

As expected by most of them… 冰冷的面包，韧性很强哦……咬到有一点对不起面包这样……

6:40am we reached Beijing airport.
7:00am checked in our luggage.
Take note: to fly China Air, one person can check in one luggage only.

We were thinking “crap, we are taking China Air again”, but as we entered into the cabin it was surprisingly a bigger air bus with much more spacious leg length.  Aiyo, why didn’t they let this air bus fly the international 6 hour flight…   

Flying to Chengdu took around 3 hours with only one simple breakfast meal.  The meal served was: red bean paste bread, seaweed sesame salad, honey dew and plain yogurt.

Yesterday all of us were given a box of pills,  where we could only purchase this in Tibet.  Tour leader distributed the pills and advised us to eat it 2 hours before reaching Lhasa, or eat whenever we started to feel high altitude effect.  Some Aunties ate the pills right after their early morning breakfast, and the side effect came as they kept looking for toilets to pee. haha….

Instructions were stated inside the box: take 2 pills for the first time, do not take too frequently, later one pill at a time…  advisable only 4 or 5 pills a day.  My opinion, take it when you need it.

8:30am Boarded the plane….
12noon Transit at Chengdu Airport.  We had to keep hold of the same boarding tickets as we were going to take the same plane on the same seat.

As we stepped out of the aerobridge, a sweet sharp voice was shouting “Lhasa, Lhasa, Lhasa”.  An air stewardess was standing near the exit with a board pointed to the waiting area for boarding Lhasa towards the right.  At that moment we all found it so homely, because it sounded like “Laksa, Laksa… selling Laksa…” hahaha…..

It took us around one hour transit waiting for them to clean up the cabin in order for more people from Chengdu to board the plane to Lhasa.  As we waited, we strolled around the shops nearby. 

Cute panda teddy on display….   → 

After 45 minutes of waiting we were called for boarding again.  Although it was a short wait, yet it was a long hanging moment for us to reach our real destination, Lhasa…

1:00pm Boarding
3:30pm Landed on Lhasa

Before landing, the screen in the air cabin showed views right below our feet… the beautiful mountain contours….

We got so excited and had already started snapping photos and videos at the screen like a dumbo.. haha…

 At this moment I was so excited and tempted to do the jumping shot BUT… remember… must keep my movement and breathing in slow motion… even had to try to control my heartbeat to go slower.

Lhasa customs is very very very strict.  Our name list was given to the officer, our names were read out from the list and then we were allowed to exit the airport.  Even the inland citizens would have to report and apply for visa before entering Tibet.

One more important note~!  Do not take photos of the police, or army officers.  If anyone of them saw your camera lens facing them, they have the right to confiscate your equipments.  Opps~!

“Tza-Shi-De-Lek”  扎西德勒。 First met our Tibetan tour guide 小郭 as she greeted us with a white Khata 哈达(white scarf) which is a symbol of purity and the length signifies a long life.  哈达是一种礼仪用品，表示纯洁、诚心、忠诚、和尊敬。
Khata originated from Mongolia, when Tibetan Buddhism was introduced there.

车子从拉萨机场直往拉萨市区开去。山脉就此起彼落不断延绵得好远好远……黄色的秋叶洒出浓浓的秋意，无暇的点缀蓝天蓝山白云。

海拔3650m的神秘大地。拉萨我终于到了~！

 

 

 These were just normal sceneries of Tibet… more breathtaking sceneries coming up when we travel to higher altitude during the next few days.

We were sent to the hotel straight away to settle ourselves and the reminder about precaution on high altitude sickness was repeated again.  So far we didn’t really feel any difference, but it was told that the discomfort would become very significant in the night.  It maybe a sleepless night for most of us.

Most important point: DO NOT SHOWER because it will cause “Pulmonaryedema” 肺水肿which is increase in lung water fluid exchange between the blood vessels in the lungs and the tissue dysfunction, especially if you catch a cold here, it is advisable to go to the hospital immediately.  Many tourist die of taking this too lightly.

2ndly DO NOT drink gassy drinks, carbonated drinks, alcohol or smoke.  For sure you will have difficulty in breathing if you try any of these. 

5:30pm we reached our main accommodation, 2nights stay for us here in the XinDing Hotel, Lhasa. 新鼎大酒店

As we were admiring the great golden figure Potala Palace at the front desk, we heard that we could see the actual Potala Palace right outside the pathway of our hotel.  Actually it is a holistic building that none of the buildings in Lhasa are allowed to be built taller than this Palace.  And so, it can be overlook at any point even a few miles away in Lhasa city.

 

Our tour mates went up to the roof top to capture the full view of great Potala Palace.  We are going to visit it tomorrow so I was just focusing on checking in our rooms and unpacking to lighten my casual backpack.

6:30pm We were taken out for dinner at 成都印象 。Tea was served and I had just picked up to sip the tea, as I didn’t expect the taste to be so fragrant, the aroma lightened up my day.  I kept begging my parents to quickly taste the tea as we never had this flavour before.  There’s no bitterness like the normal Chinese tea but the mild wheat rice sweet taste.  We asked around about the name of the tea, and we were told it’s the Buckwheat tea. 顺口的苦荞茶一点都没有唐茶的苦涩，反而弥漫清清的米麦香甜。

It was unexpected that we could still eat tasty food in Tibet.  We were told that many inland people came here and then the Sichuan food gradually dominated Tibet.  What I am still not use to is the pepper corn which I remembered once I ate in one of the Sichuan Chili Hut Restaurant at Brisbane Australia, it made me spit out my mouthful of food.  A very strong perfume kind of taste burst out in my mouth… ptthhh ptttthhhh…… and it stays and numbs my tongue even though I tried to wash out the taste with many glasses of water.  I was caught unexpectedly in that toufu dish here.  That is my greatest fear of all~!!!

Once everyone had almost finished their meals, our tour mate, Junior Yong carried a bagful of dried walnut.  We didn’t even notice as to when he had disappeared from our dinner table.  “Where did you get all this?”,  “Just next door… 我在新疆时买不够回家，所以现在看到快点买。500g 人民币40"。This really enlightens everyone’s shopping mood… all of us flocked over to the shop next door 金果王。We could get all sorts of dried products from XinJiang like dried cherry tomato, dried apricot, dried or fresh walnut…  Junior Yong heard that the walnut could be bargained down to 500g 人民币30… he admitted that he should have asked for a lower price.

Shopping in Tibet is a must to bargain.  Things like 人民币100 normally can bargain down to 人民币20。
  
Tour guide advised us not to wonder around the city at night, because some locals are quite aggressive, more over that there was a night club opposite our hotel.  Even though she’s used to the life here, she still never stays out late in any place in Tibet.  The best is to sleep early and get ready for greater adventures for the days to come. 

Beautiful neon lighting, but it is the “Happy hour” opposite our hotel. →

And this marked the end of my day3 journey.

接下来的照片会越来越大张因为景色美到我猛打惊叹号~!!!!!!

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