Sunday 15th May - the train to Lhasa. We boarded the train at 9 last night and don't getting off until 5 tomorrow evening (44 hour in total). There wasn't much to do except read and admire the scenery. As soon as we hit the Tibetan plateau the scenery did change drastically. Gone were the steep green hills, rice paddies and tea plantations. We were now greeted with vast plains stretching out as far as we could see, interspersed with huge blue lakes, snow covered mountains and at one time huge sand dunes. The weather changed several times during the day. One moment it would be brilliant sunshine, then suddenly we'd pass through a heavy snow storm with strong winds blowing, then pass through a tunnel and be back into sunshine again.

At one point we went for a walk down the train to find the dining car. We were staying in hard sleeper and our walk took us through the more luxurious soft sleeper carriages. Out of the two soft sleeper carriages, all but one of the cabins had Westerners in. And I think we were the only Westerners in hard sleeper!

Monday 16th May - arrived in Lhasa. We were met by our guide at the station, who placed white scarves around our necks to welcome us. She is very nice and took us to our car and driver, who then took us to our hostel. The hostel is in the old town part of Lhasa, in a maze of alley ways. It's a fascinating place to be, with shops and stall selling all kinds of handmade clothes, Bhuddist paraphernalia and various other souvenirs. It's also a very religious part of Lhasa as it houses one of the oldest temples and the streets around it are used to make a religious circuit around the temple. The streets are crowded with modern Tibetans and Chinese, people in traditional clothes, monks, people on pilgrimages from the countryside prostrating themselves, as well as police and soldiers. This is by far the highest concentration of soldiers we have seen, and they are dressed in riot gear and armed.

Our hostel is nice enough. There seem to be several monks staying here and it's quite odd to pop out of your room to use the showers in the morning and bump into one of them!

Tuesday 17th May - Potala Palace (but not quite), Sera Monastery and the Norbulingka (Summer Palace). We arranged with our guide last night that we would meet her on the main road outside the old town the morning before heading to the Potala Palace. Entry to this is strictly controlled and you have to be there at an designated time and are only allowed in for 55 minutes. We happily set off through the alleys, confident we remembered the way. The walk should have taken five minutes. After twenty minutes or so we realised we had no idea where we were. So we headed back to the hostel to call her and ask her to collect us from there instead. Another twenty minutes later we weren't back at the hostel and were more lost than ever! All the streets look the same and they are all selling the same wares, it's a nightmare! Eventually we got back to the hostel and called our guide. By this time we were an hour late and had completely missed our window for the Palace. Our guide didn't let us miss out though. Despite the fact tickets have to be booked at least two days in advance, she visited every single ticket office and entry point at the Palace until she got us tickets for the next day.

So our first tourist spot of the day ended up being the Norbulingka. This is where the Dalai Lama would spend summers. It is a very tranquil place, with lots of gardens and a stream. Apparently the Dalai Lama likes yellow flowers and everywhere we looked we could see masses of dandelions. Inside we saw meeting rooms, reading rooms and the bedroom of the Dalai Lama. Everything is so ornate, from the paintings on the walls to the wall hangings, the doors, and of course the many statues of the various Bhuddas. It's quite a spectacle.

Afterwards we went to the Sera Monastery. In the old days this housed several thousand monks. However, the Chinese "liberation" and Cultural Revolution changed this. Now only a few hundred monks live here, and they have to share the monastery with Chinese government officials. The most interesting thing here was the daily debating session the monks have. From what we gathered from our guide, to be a Tibetan monk takes years of study and examinations. These debating sessions are kind of like tutorials. The junior monk sits on the floor asking questions about Bhuddism whilst a more senior monk stands above them replying to the questions. It's a very lively affair though, with the senior monk gesticulating, shouting and smacking their hands together to either praise the young monk for asking a good questions or reprimand them for asking the wrong questions.

Tourists are invited to come into the debating grounds and stay as long as they like whilst taking photos, which begs the question of how much of this debating is a serious part of life and how much of it is a show. There were definitely monks checking out the tourists and seeing who was taking photos and we got the feeling they were playing up a bit. The Tibetan monks in Lhasa live a slightly controversial life. They all have fancy watches and new mobile phones, happily taking monetary offerings from poor people from the countryside, who have spent weeks walking in pilgrimage for the privilege.

Wednesday 18th May - Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple. This day ended on a bad note, but I'll come to that. We managed to successfully meet our guide and get to the Palace in time - hurrah! A massive palace on top of a mountain, it towers over Lhasa and is a must-see, so we are so glad our guide managed to get us tickets. This palace is the winter home for the Dalai Lama. It is huge, it's got over 1000 rooms! And set so high up, with lots of stairs, it's quite an effort to visit it at this altitude. Only a few rooms are open to tourists though, many of the closed ones are used by the Chinese government. As well as the various rooms used by the monks and the Dalai Lama, we got to see some tombs where the remains of previous incarnations of the Dalai Lama are kept.

The Jokhang Temple is located in the old town, just round the corner from our hostel. Built in the 7th century, it is one of the oldest temples in Tibet. Inside are huge statues of Bhudda, as well as several different Bhuddas and representations of previous Dalai Lamas. we also were able to go up onto the roof where we had great views over Lhasa across the rooftops of the old town to the mountains and the Potala Palace.

It was at the temple that our trip took a turn for the worse. As we entered the police in the temple called our guide over. After seeing all her documents about us and her tour guide paperwork, they kept one piece and sent her on her way. However, the paper they kept was her only proof that she was an official tour guide. Without this she couldn't take any tour groups, which left us a bit high and dry. She told us to look around the temple whilst she called her boss and tried to get everything sorted out. Later, we found her in a corner crying. They refused to give her paperwork back. For reasons we didn't quite understand, although she'd taken and passed the exams to be a tour guide she never received her certificate and the paper the police had taken was something from her employer stating she was legit. Without this, and with no certificate, she couldn't work as a tour guide. She had just lost her livelihood.

She kept reassuring us that the agency would send a new guide for us tomorrow, but this wasn't what we were worried about! She has been a great guide and we got on well with her, so we were worried for her. But all we could do was wish her luck with getting her licence back and thank her for all here help so far. We're a bit low now, especially as we don't really understand exactly what happened. The police weren't checking every group so it seems it was only chance that she was singled out.

Thursday 19th May - Lhasa to Shigatse. We met our new guide and hopped into the car for the long drive to Shigatse. This trip had potential to be quite eventful, but thankfully was not! Firstly there were the traffic accidents. According to our guide, a lot of the tourist buses are driven by Chinese rather than Tibetan drivers and they aren't as familiar with the twists and turns of the roads. Though, if they are driving the same routes all the time, we can't see how a Chinese driver is any worse. We saw a bus rolled over onto it's side, but fortunately no-one was hurt. Secondly was the weather. On the drive we went through thick fog, rain, snow and hail. And the icing on the cake? Our driver getting stopped for speeding. This was literally minutes after our guide explained to us that speeding drivers get arrested and made to live in the police station for two weeks whilst they attend driving school, during this two weeks they are being charged for board and lodgings which they are made to pay at the end on top of a fine. Following on from losing our original guide the day before, there were a tense few minutes whilst we waited for our driver to finish talking to the police! It was all okay in the end, just a fine, phew!

During the brief glimpses of the countryside between various storms, we got to see very pretty landscape - rolling hills, trickling streams, snow-capped mountains, a glacier and beautiful blue lakes. There was some wildlife as well. Mostly yaks and sheep, but also a couple of golden eagles - one of which we almost clipped with the car!

Our hotel was horrendous though. Whilst it looked okay at a glance, when we settled into it we realised that it was filthy. It didn't look like it had ever been hoovered and the bathroom... Well, the less said about that the better! It did have a wonderfully hot shower though.

Friday 20th May - Shigatse to Everest Base Camp. Another long day of just sitting in the car watching Tibet go by. Though the day started off lovely, the weather slowly got worse as we neared the camp, so that when we got there the mountain was hidden in cloud. The camp itself was very disappointing. It wasn't an actual base camp that climbers went from. It was just a tourist base camp i.e. a spot where tourists can get nice pictures. The only thing there was a hut where soldiers checked tickets.

Our accommodation made up for it a bit though. We stayed in a yak hut! We were getting very confused by our guide as he kept referring to our accommodation as both a tent and a guest house. Only when we got there did it make sense. In the area was a couple of dozen yak huts, each of which called itself a hotel or guest house. There was even a Hotel California! The tent was large with just one room with day beds all around the sides and a yak dung-burning stove in the middle. The outside of the tent was made from yak wool. When it came to bedtime our hosts made beds up for us on the day beds. We knew it going to be a bit nippy at night, but we started to get worried when they laid out a blanket, two duvets and another blanket on top! We slept in the hut with our driver and guide - how cosy! Having been fine with the steadily climbing altitudes so far, at Everest we started to experience a bit of altitude sickness in the form of headaches, but hoped a good night's sleep would get rid of it.

Saturday 21st May - Everest Base Camp to Shigatse - The weather was better and we had picture-perfect views of Everest. It was amazing, so majestic. It took our breath away as it glowed in the morning sun, the light reflecting on its snowy peak. However, our altitude sickness had worsened over night and we were both suffering from horrific headaches. We managed a few minutes gazing at the mountain before we left for lower altitudes. It took most of the day before we were feeling better, but luckily this was spent driving back to Shigatse so we didn't miss out on anything.

Sunday 22nd May - back to Lhasa. Before we left we visited the Tashilunpo Monastery. This red and white complex looks like a smaller version of the Potala Palace. More of it is open to the public though, and it felt like less of a tourist trap than the Sera Monastery in Lhasa. There were the usual temples, Bhuddas and the like (including the world's largest gilded Bhudda) but there were also monks going about their daily business, which we hadn't really seen so far.

We took a different route back to Lhasa, so instead of passing through snowy mountains we drove through sand dunes and desert. In Lhasa our guide managed to get us into a hotel for a fraction of the advertised price. Thankfully this place was lovely and clean!

On the whole we were a bit disappointed with Tibet. It wasn't what we were expecting. Lhasa looked very much like any other Chinese city with all the same high street shops, though maybe less tower blocks. In the countryside the traditional dung, stone and wood houses are being steadily replaced with ugly, grey, brick and concrete blocks. Building work seems to happening on an even bigger scale than in China and there was barely a street that didn't have some new building going up or pavements dug up or piles of rubble everywhere, even in the villages. And whilst people working for the Chinese government are living comfortably, farmers are living hand to mouth, toiling in the fields with yak-pulled ploughs whilst their children beg from tourists on the streets.

Bye!

Lindsay and Chris