天边走一回(8)Chasing the Railroad of Tibet

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       我到天边走一回(2)On the way to Tibet
         天边走一回(3)步步沉重的Potala Palace
           天边走一回(4)Barkhor Street@Lhasa
            天边走一回(5)Norbulingka宝贝公园
              天边走一回(6)into a TibetanVillageHouse
文接自：天边走一回(7)HeavenlyLakeS@Shigatse日喀则

 20/9/2012
7:30am We started off by entering the China National Highway 国道109 which connects Beijing with Lhasa.  On this road trip we came paralleled to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.  This was a journey where we admired the beauty of the train puffing through the great mountains from the road and tomorrow it would be the other way round.  This would be the train that we board tomorrow.  今天坐车看火车，明天坐火车看车。

【Mount Nyenchen Tanglha 念青唐古拉峰】was the great mountain rage that traveled along parallel with the rail road and our road way.  With an altitude of 7,162m, Nyenchen Tanglha is the highest mountain of the Transhimalayan range.

The【Qingzang railway 青藏铁路】 There were many technical difficulties for such a railway. About half of the second section was built on barely permanent permafrost.  In the summer, the uppermost layer thaws, and the ground becomes muddy.  Chinese engineers dealt with this problem by building elevated tracks with foundations sunk deep into the ground, building hollow concrete pipes beneath the tracks to keep the rail bed frozen, and using metal sun shades.

With the beautiful scene along the road, and the tour guide’s introduction of the great rail road, everyone was so anticipating to board on the the world's highest railway tomorrow. In order to take some time before reaching another checkpoint, we got to have a photo stop and have a breath of the super fresh mountain air.

牦牛 Yaks on the road~!!

This was a route for the Olympic torch relay during the 2008 Beijing Olympic.  The statue marked one of the point of the relay.

 This was a sport complex where Tibetan would have festival and various traditional sport competition, like horse racing while picking up Khatas laid on the ground, archery, wrestling…

More Yaks crossing the road~!

A yak swaying its bum elegantly across in front of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were getting nearer to the sky~ and this was a road with a nickname of “The Heavenly Road” 天路.  Through the horizon, it was leading us to the agate sky full of low puffy clouds..

 From a distance, a blue sparkling sight, with a magical colour tone attracted us.  Filled with awe, we gazed at the highest large salt lake in the world.

12noon 【Namtso Lake 纳木错圣湖 】納木錯 known as “Heavenly Lake 天湖” at altitude of 4718m with a surface area of more than 500 km².

 藏语中，“错”是“湖”的意思。

Self-travelers to Tibet, do take note that the admission fee: RMB 120
Recommended time to visit: June to September, and best to start off from Lhasa city at 7am so you can reach Namtso Lake by noon.  October onwards the mountain’s route will be close because of snow and blizzards.

←  The parking area was surrounded by stalls and the sacred lake was right behind these stalls.

不是太冷而是太晒……我包我包我包包包……

Be aware that in order to take photos of the locals, even of a child, a yak or a horse, we would have to pay.  So do ask the price first before taking any photos on anything belonging to them.  The above photo was taken by these 2 jumpy guys…  they even asked me if I wanted to jump or not.. I said that if I jumped, I would end up inside the lake… haha

Thanks Cheong for allowing me to use some of his photos.  Cheong, I think you deserve a DSLR camera lar~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left the lake and headed to a higher point of the mountain.  We still could vividly see the legendary lake 相映着天空的深蓝 from a distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Finally there was one thing that was free of charge for photo~ and it took us awhile to wait for our turn to step beside this landmark.  We had to keep saying “please.. excuse me.. please” or else the other aggressive tourists would just keep going one after another, I pushed through them and we had a quick snap.  The highest point that we had ever reached. 

 


It was a very long journey on the road, and our tour guide did advice us to bring along snacks because we would be late for lunch as the restaurant was really far away.

       

 Even goats here were so elegantly furry~

On this trip my brother’s condition went worse, he was coughing in the morning then he lost his balance in the afternoon and could not even hold the medicine pills I gave him in the bus.  He remained half conscious, sleeping throughout this journey which lead him to a fever later.  We were quite worried and the tour guide set up an oxygen supply for him in the bus.  While heading back to Lhasa, mum decided to skip dinner and urged the tour guide to bring him to the hospital.

7:30pm Dad and I remained with the other tour leader and the group for the Tibetan cultural show dinner.  As we entered Khata was presented on each of us and audiences were seated surrounding a platform.  Other than our group, the other tourist were mainly westerners.  They showed traditional music, festive dance and traditional costumes.  It was a buffet dinner, so while all these events were going on we had to move to grab our food, but there was not much variety.  It was less than 10 dishes with some Tibetan traditional tastes like Yak meat, tsampa (roasted barley flour and wheat flour mixed with the salty Tibetan butter tea), mushrooms and vegetables.  Yak butter tea and highland barley rice wine was served at our narrow tables arranged in lines.

8:30pm As the show ended with a few western tourists danced a circle dance with the performers, our dinner was over as well.  It was a short dinner and we were sent back to our hotel right after that.  Dad and I felt awkward without mum and brother around.  We ate very little and kept quiet all the way…

While wondering aimlessly in the hotel room for awhile, the room’s phone rang.  Our tour guide 小郭 called and told us that brother had to admit into Intensive Care Unit department (ICU) of the hospital.  I did not expect his condition to be that bad as tomorrow we would be leaving Tibet by train already.  Accompanied with the other tour leader Thera, dad and I quickly rushed to the hospital by taxi…

Click to continue 文接:天边走一回(9)Torment of separation in Tibet