It was a brutally hard driving day all the way back to Lhasa. You had to grit your teeth, try to absorb all the bumps and jarring over the non-existant "roads" (that were killing my back), and hope that there wouldn't be too many hold-ups. Alas, at one point, there was a huge traffic jam of cars and trucks, trying to ford a river because the bridge had washed away. Thank goodness for 4WD!
And when we drove back over the 17,000' pass from Nam Tso, it had snowed overnight. Several trucks had gone off the road and were lying down the side of the mountain. Very scary!
top of 17,000' pass
Roger also gave us a Tibetan conversation lesson, and with his permission, here are some practice sentences. Who knows...they may come in useful? We only mastered Tashi Delek (hello).
"Please give me a dog." -- Nga la Khyi Chig nang-ro-nang.
"Your mother's cat." -- Khyo re a.me shi.me. (Do you think this one could be used to replace: "Nya nya, your Mother wears army boots...")
"Please give me an armful of wood." -- Nga-la shing pang-pa kang nang-re-nang.
With this, our "Heart of Tibet" trip came to a close. Some of our group were taking the optional 7-Day Lhasa-to-Kathmandu overland extension. I will be forever grateful that we didn't do that...our backs couldn't have taken another day of bumping over those "roads." Hopefully, there will be another opportunity to take that trip.
It was a wonderful Wilderness Travel adventure which Roger Williams (our guide) made more unique with his Tibetan language skills and knowledge of the country. This gave us entree to parts of monasteries that ordinary groups would not have been given. Even though there were times that I thought, "Oh no...not more monasteries," each one was different and unique.
An oil painting (purchased from a shop by the Potala Palace) hangs in our bedroom, bringing daily reminders of the lovely Tibetan people and amazing scenery. Just deal with the Tibetan altitude, terrible roads and other inconveniences...you will be overwhelmed both visually and spiritually.
Published by Sheila Simkin on July 12, 2006 05:00 AM
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