This summer, I had the good fortune to be able to take a trip to Tibet. It was a hell of a journey and an eye-opening and all around breathtaking experience. Really, it’s one of the best places I’ve been.
So here is the first batch of pictures. These are all from Lhasa, and they are all mixed up.
As soon as I get the second batch- including Mt. Everest- done, I’ll post a link.
Very nice, thank you! Shame about the weather that day though.
Coool!
Did you take the train there?
I did- it was two days from Chengdu (my turf) to Lhasa. We spent eight days going down the friendship Highway to Kathmandu. I spent another week in Nepal and flew back.
Your pics are much better than mine! Love the ones of Barkhor and the Jokhang. And that one of the Potala at night is stunning!
(Did you mean “Drepung” when you wrote “Deprang”?)
Heh, I can barely spell my name right.
Okay folks, here is round 2. We went down the Friendship Highway to Kathmandu, making a detour to go to the awesome Everest Base Camp. So these pictures are all the places we stopped along the way.
Everest was awesome.
Oh, yeah here’s the pics!
These are spectacular. Thanks for sharing your experience.
even sven, those are really gorgeous. I put the nifty wind powered prayer wheel on my desktop.
Truly magnificent pictures. I just started a job that will send me to China on occasion; I may have to make a detour to visit Tibet, now.
Gorgeous pictures. I’m planning to go to the general area from the Indian side, at Leh.
But first my family and I are going to China-I spent some time looking at your pictures. In the “Travels with Mom” set, are you in Suzhou or Tongli with all the canals? Your photos are gorgeous.
Awesome pictures! Thanks for sharing!
It’s really sad that my American brain is polluted enough by junk culture that when I looked at the picture of the prayer wheels, all I could think of was Eddie Murphy in The Golden Child spinning one of them and intoning “I want the knife…please…”
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Nomad tents for me!
Those are spectacular! Thanks for sharing your experience.
How much longer are you in China?
Truly beautiful pictures, sven. I have an interesting question for you.
Based on what I’ve heard about teaching English in China, I don’t think I’d enjoy it very much (I’m currently teaching English in SK). As an American, could I get hired as an English teacher in Tibet? Or is that right out?
Glad you like them! It’s really pretty hard not to take nice photos in Tibet. Everything you point your camera at is spectacular.
Renee, I’m in China for one more year.
Linty Fresh, what makes you think you wouldn’t like China? I’ll admit it isn’t really my cup of tea. From what I understand, there are tons of foreign teachers in Tibet. But, it is more difficult for Americans. I don’t really know much more than that, except that you’d be dealing with a lot of security restrictions and the like that could get annoying real fast. There are a lot of things, that I won’t elaborate on, that you don’t see in my photos. I’ll just leave you with the fact that the Lhasa police station is the tallest building in the entirety of Tibet.
You might want to look into Tibetan areas of Sichuan and Qinghai province. They would have a similar feel, but with less hassles. No idea what it takes to find work there, though.
I love traveling through other people’s pictures and through the SDMB, I feel as if I am a world traveler!
Thank you for sharing!
Okay, here is my last batch of pictures, this time from Kathmandu and Pokora in Nepal. All in all I had one week in Nepal. I’d been there one time before, but that trip was interrupted by Maoist activity. This time I finally made it to Kathmandu. It was a good break from China and I found Kathmandu to be a fascinating city.
great photos. I was finally able to see them here at work. for some reason in Shanghai they are blocked.
Damn, I miss Tibet. I think you captured it - there is something magical about attending the early morning prayer sessions. The rows of chanting monks, the smells of yak butter and incense, the villagers.
I love the yak butter tea, but it’s hard to find the good stuff in the Tibetan restaurants in the big Chinese cities.
Linty Fresh, look into the Tibetan areas of Yunan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces. There are some amazing areas - I spent about a year altogether in the Tibetan areas of sichuan and Yunnan in the 1980’s. If you want an adventure, this would be it.