Day 5 in Tibet (Lhasa)
Door: Feng
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Feng
18 Juli 2007 | Nederland, Amsterdam
Today it was time to get to the main city of Tibet, Lhasa. But first we would take a visit to the Yamdrok Tso lake. At least, that is what is written in our offical itinerary. The tourguide said that we would not visit this river, due to road constructions. He stated that it would be impossible because of this. Luckily, some tourists have done their homework and said that it was possible to visit the lake with a 140km detour. The tourguide denied this possibility. So then the whole group got upset and refused to get into the cars. After some riotting, we decided to call the local board of tourism. The tourguide and the drivers didn't appreciate that, so they started to shout. We as "civilized" western people knew that staying relaxed was the smartest thing to do.
So after 10 minutes a lady and a guy from the tourism board arrived. A fierce discussion started and the conclusion was: The tour agencies didn't communicate correctly about the road constructions at the lake. The offical chinese itinerary sheet from the chinese government stated all the cities where we as a group were aloud to go. Yamdrok Tso lak wasn't stated on this sheet. So if the drivers would bring us to this lake, they would be fined. This is the reason why they didn't want to bring us. But the tourguide didn't explain us this story, he just say that it was impossible to go there. The toursim board guys told us that we could file a complaint in Lhasa's agency and that perhaps we could get some compensation. Our group also had to arrive in Lhasa before a certain time, otherwise we wouldn't be aloud to enter the city. So then we took off to lhasa.
Because the road which passes the lake was under construction, we had to go via a detour. This was through the mountains without any road. Luckily, our landcruiser had no problem with handling that. Actually, we were stuck at one ditch, but we got easily out of it with some pushing. The scenery on that road was amazing. It was surrounded by mountains, there were yaks and sheeps and the sky was vivid blue. The wole ride was about 7 hours and the distance is 250km. So we spend like half the day in the car. Luckily, we had some pitstops for some toilet visits, lunch and taking photos. Once we got closer to Lhasa, the scenery suddenly changed. The dirtroad turned into a 4 lane highway and everywhere were advertisements for the Beijing Olympics of 2008. As I suspected, it looked more and more like China.
Once we arrived at the hotel, it seemed that this wasn't the hotel which was stated in some of the tourists itineraries. So some complained to the tourguide again. Actually, the hotel wasn't stated in our itinerary, so we were fine with it. We got some rest and at 7pm half the group including us left to get some diner. We walked through a Lhasa market and we ended at the Stranger Restaurant. So now i'm here again. The internet cafe is huge! Especially, considering that we are in Tibet. These crazy pc game addicted chinese/tibetans are making the owner pretty wealthy. Well, i got to get our of here, it's packed with chain smokers. Bye.
So after 10 minutes a lady and a guy from the tourism board arrived. A fierce discussion started and the conclusion was: The tour agencies didn't communicate correctly about the road constructions at the lake. The offical chinese itinerary sheet from the chinese government stated all the cities where we as a group were aloud to go. Yamdrok Tso lak wasn't stated on this sheet. So if the drivers would bring us to this lake, they would be fined. This is the reason why they didn't want to bring us. But the tourguide didn't explain us this story, he just say that it was impossible to go there. The toursim board guys told us that we could file a complaint in Lhasa's agency and that perhaps we could get some compensation. Our group also had to arrive in Lhasa before a certain time, otherwise we wouldn't be aloud to enter the city. So then we took off to lhasa.
Because the road which passes the lake was under construction, we had to go via a detour. This was through the mountains without any road. Luckily, our landcruiser had no problem with handling that. Actually, we were stuck at one ditch, but we got easily out of it with some pushing. The scenery on that road was amazing. It was surrounded by mountains, there were yaks and sheeps and the sky was vivid blue. The wole ride was about 7 hours and the distance is 250km. So we spend like half the day in the car. Luckily, we had some pitstops for some toilet visits, lunch and taking photos. Once we got closer to Lhasa, the scenery suddenly changed. The dirtroad turned into a 4 lane highway and everywhere were advertisements for the Beijing Olympics of 2008. As I suspected, it looked more and more like China.
Once we arrived at the hotel, it seemed that this wasn't the hotel which was stated in some of the tourists itineraries. So some complained to the tourguide again. Actually, the hotel wasn't stated in our itinerary, so we were fine with it. We got some rest and at 7pm half the group including us left to get some diner. We walked through a Lhasa market and we ended at the Stranger Restaurant. So now i'm here again. The internet cafe is huge! Especially, considering that we are in Tibet. These crazy pc game addicted chinese/tibetans are making the owner pretty wealthy. Well, i got to get our of here, it's packed with chain smokers. Bye.
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