Day 6 in Tibet (Lhasa)

This morning it was time to arrange the Qinghai railroad train tickets to Chengdu. Actually we had a sightseeing tour at 9:30, but the train tickets were more important. We took the cab to the train station, which looked pretty futuristic. The station is located somewhere outside the city, so the ride was quite long. We were planning to take to train to Chengdu, but unfortunately, no tickets were available untill the 28th of july. This meant that we would have to stay in Tibet for 7 more days. I didn't really felt like making a sequel: 7 days in Tibet. So we asked the ticket office at the train station, which tickets are available on the 21st or the 22nd. The only tickets which were available, were the ones to Xining. This city is like halfway to Chengdu. Because we didn't had any choice, we just bought those. We are travelling together with Ahmed. He is a Moroccan lawyer from the middle east. He is planning to go to Xian, so we will split up in Xining. From there we can look for alternative transportation.

Because of all this, we missed out on the whole sightseeing tour. We thought that the tour would start at the Jokhang temple. We knew that we would go to the Potala palace at 14:30. So we went to the Jokhang temple first to find our tour group. At the temple area, there is a big market. They sell all kinds of stuff. Of course I did my share in supporting the Chinese economy. We were walking around and suddenly we saw two people of the group. They said that the sightseeing tour started in the market area. Our tourguide even brought them to some shops where he would get some commission at their purchases. Wicked evil right? So actually we didn't miss out on anything.

The couple told us where we were supposed to meet for transportation to the Potala palace. So we reunited ourselves with the group and took off to the palace. The palace is really huge and amazing. First, we got some time to take some pics in front of the palace. At that moment I asked most of the people of the group if they are willing to contribute to Jacky's phone bill. Jacky has done alot of arranging for the group and calling with his overseas sim card isn't cheap. I asked each person 10 yuan, which should cover the costs. Luckily, everybody was happy to contribute. Once we almost entered the Potala palace, I wanted to ask a spanish threesome about their willingness to contribute. Jacky asked me who I still haven't asked. So I said the spanish people. The spanish son heard that and thought we were gossipping about his mother or something and he gave Jacky the angry face. I explained him what we were talking about, but he still didn't show any sympathy. He said: "Why should we even pay if nothing has happened". He meant that Jacky's effort to help was useless, because nothing has changed. So I got really angry. The spanish momma's boy hasn't done any shit during the group problems. I scolded him because he accused Jacky of saying bad things about his mom, while Jacky has been helpfull to everybody all the time. It's not about if something has been achieved or not. It's about the effort and responsibility Jacky has took in this whole mess. I guess the spanish boy needed the 10 yuan to facilitate his chain smoking addication. That should be the main reason. Okay whatever.

So we entered the Potala palace, which was quite nice. Except for the fact that the guide didn't join us in the palace to provide us with information about the different artefacts. Not that his way of giving a tour is very helpfull, but it's all about the principle that he should do what a tourguide ought to do. So instead of that, we as a group followed other Chinese tour guides and Jacky did a pretty good job translating it to us. So we could have at least some understanding about the Potala palace. The tour wasn't actually that long, because a lot of parts were closed for visitting. I even heared that they are planning to close down the Potala palace for tourists, because of the poor condition of the palace.

Tomorrow, we will visit the agency which arranged this tour and file our complaints. During diner, Karen made a list with all the complaints to offer a clear overview about what has gone wrong. So I hope we can get something out of this crappy tour. I don't mind if it's financial compensation, the tour guide losing his job or something else. As long we can let them know that the way this tour was arranged is unacceptable.