(Pete says this is dedicated to the Cubs, who lost despite all of our offerings at various temples)
We are finally off to our big adventure, trying to get from Tibet to Nepal over land. We have a very nice driver, who rarely speaks, drives very well and obviously knows cars very well, and an energetic, yet not too in-your-face guide. Our first stop was Samye monastery south-east of Lhasa. The drive to this monastery was quite rough, since the road had only been blasted open last year and there was no asphalt on it yet. This monastery was quite nice, much less crowded than everything near or in Lhasa and had some very interesting statues in it. It was also the first time we had a guide explain to us the imagery, so everything started making sense now!
After the monastery we drove back on the bumpy road past the town of Tsetang to Yumbulagang. According to our Lonely Planet, this is the oldest building in TIbet. It looked like a fairy tale building, a pointy tower on the top of a steep hill. We didn't stop there of course, we climbed up a bit more to put up our first set of prayer flags!
Our first night on the road was spent in Tsetang, the third largest town in Tibet. There isn't much there... We did not like any of the authentic restaurant options and went into a fast-food chain restaurant. We each ordered our food by pointing at the menu and when the time came, we all received the item that was immediately above the english word we pointed at. Translation:
John's coca-cola = pepsi-cola (lucky guy)
Ayse's chicken leg = "eight jewel", some kind of brown beany, soupy, sweet pudding (like the Turkish Asure but gross)
communal french fries = "bitter coffee"
Pete's tea = lemon juice
Luckily, we were able to stop them from making us ham sandwiches instead of the chicken sandwiches in time!
Yep, we failed at ordering fast-food in Tibet!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment