Looking luxurious is not a guarantee for warm enough, and breakfast brought up to you doesn’t mean it’s good. Did I mention that the nice-looking bathroom only provided ice-cold water including the shower? Well at least Internet was free after I managed to get it working (they had decided to not use dhcp). But of course it’s freezing and I have to crouch and break my back since the cable is too short.

I put on more clothes than I’ve worn before and started walking towards Potala, the residence of 5th and forward Dalai Lamas (excluding the current one who lives in India). I should have guessed that this would be the warmest and sunniest day during my whole trip. Anyways, the Potala is very impressive but what beats it is the pilgrims. Their kindness, ever-smiling and ever-humming is very easy to like. Walking the Potala clockwise together with the pilgrims was almost a spiritual experience.On they way up to the inner Palaces I was approached several times by monks or pilgrims wanting nothing else but smile, exchange a few phrases or a laugh. I felt almost guilty expecting them to have some sort of agenda.

The same buzzing feeling when walking inside, now added to the chanting and prayer-mumbling was the smell of incense and wax. It was however not permitted to take any pictures inside the Potala, which now acts as a museum with the Dalai Lama in exile.

After walking through the Potala and I did some old school park strolling and enjoying the wonderful weather and aimed towards the Barkhor area. At Barkhor square I joined in in another kora (ritual circuit clockwise around something holy) around the Jokhang. Cleverly placed on the sides of this 6 meter wide street there were stands selling anything from horseshoes (I kid you not) to spice, peppers and denim copies.It was time to eat and I found an awesome place overlooking the Jokhang and market stalls, having the Potata as backdrop. I ordered some tsampa, the basic tibetan food which is a kind of a dough. As lonely planet puts it, “a fine trekking staple, but only a tibetan can eat it every day and still look forward to the next meal”. I decided to have some fried yak meat and a thermos of sweet tea to go with the tsampa just to be sure.On the way back I run into a place called “Spinn Café” which tempted with free wifi if ordering anything. I had a Lhasa Beer which did me more than good, mental note about drinking on high altitudes.

The owner of the place, Kong, was a very talkative and friendly guy from Hong Kong. They played some soft french old music and when I asked him he immediately sat up an ftp to give me the three albums (Georges Brassens). He also had some hints where message boards regarding finding groups for traveling.

When checking one of these boards someone calls out my name, and I see Sakura, the japanese girl from the train. I guess Lhasa isn’t that big, we discuss itineraries and see that we might team up for a land-cruiser. We call a number and after a rather magical discussion head to another hotel to discuss details. Who do we find there if not Jung-Wook. It appears that our destinies are intertwined so who are we to go against fate itself?

It looks like I’m going to Nepal, Kathmandu, to then fly back to Beijing. That was until I checked prices and realized that it’s a bit too expensive (about 500 €) so I will probably backtrack from the Nepal Border / Mt Everest Base camp instead. Good news is that it looks very promising to find groups to split the costs with. After a meal at Spinn Café with Jung-Wook and Sakura I head to my new home (Sakuras hotel had a double room for a third of the price, same features + message board).

Waking up rather early again, this time the bright light didn’t only come from the lamps. It was white on the outside, we were now on the Tibet Plateau. It was beautiful with the snow-covered steppes, the blue sky and here and there some frozen rivers or lakes. I’m writing this from 5000 meters above sea level on the highest railway in the world.
The earth here is consisting of permafrost, which in addition to being an unpopulated area and limited oxygen proved a tough scenario for the engineers constructing the railways which have several long tunnels and a good share of bridges. “Impossible is Nothing” posters in Beijing proudly declare regarding the upcoming Olympics with all the challenges it brings and it seems like the same spirit was used when building this railway. The permafrost is also studied by geologists, movement of glaciers and the having continuos earth samples from a frozen piece of earth for over 40 years I guess is valuable for some science.To get back to more concrete problems I magically lost my toothpaste right after using it. We are talking about 15 meters walk but after vigorous search there is still no clues.

I had some brief conversations with my korean room-mate Jung-Wook but most of the day is spent being amazed by the views. We passed the highest freshwater lake in the world which was a sight. The coolest thing was when I saw through the narrow slit the real colors of these scenes. All pictures so far are shot through windows which discolor and add dust and smudged fingerprints, the real deal is simple magnificent and I think that I will try to capture the beauty with obscenely many pictures during my stay in Tibet.The high altitude doesn’t show any signs on me yet, although my korean friend went to sleep since he was getting some headaches due to altitude sickness. I help Jung-Wook to transfer some of his photos from his camera to his iPod with my computer when a girl comes by and strikes up a conversation. Her name’s Sakura (cherry blossom) and lives in Japan when not traveling.
After some nice chatting about permits and travelers tips we close in our destination and we say our goodbyes. After returning my ticket to security at Lhasa train station (I decided not to question this to me strange behavior) I searched for a guy holding up my name or similar. Right. The station closed and I was kindly asked to wait outside in the brisk Lhasa weather. I had no idea of who would pick me up or how they would know who I was.

A guy comes and ask me if I know a japanese girl called Sakura who took the train from Xi’an. Weird coincidence, I say I think I’ve met her but can’t see her now. He calls his agency to make sure that she didn’t steal my guide and vice versa. No such luck though.

After a few minutes I took the liberty of calling my travel agent in Beijing. She promised to call back within five minutes but another call comes in and my driver apologized for being late and assure me that I will be picked up in a minute. Two guys close up on me and ask for my name. Jackpot, I get in and end up at the Kailasih Hotel. I get a nice double room with shower a small TV. Definitely above my standards.I get out to hunt for some local food and pass a guy looking rather lost on sidewalk. A guy who looks a lot like Jung-Wook, he had taken the bus to close-by and was now searching for the Yak hotel which he planned to stay at. I had nothing better to do so I joined him in his search, we stopped for food though and I ordered something that the group the table next to ours eat. It tasted quite nice, rice and some fried pork/vegetables. It costed 0.8 € which I think is quite affordable. I guess the fact that the restaurant didn’t have a door but instead a missing wall against the street causing the temperature to be a comfy 3-4 degrees had its effect on the price though.

Jung-Wook asked for Yak Hotel in my reception and it was apparently rather close so I wished him good luck and went up to my room. After writing this I think I will get a good sleep, the breakfast will be brought up to my room at 0830. Sweet.

I woke up rather early, I guess the fact that all lights are shared and are time-controlled did it’s part. I’m surprised how well I liked the bed though. I guess you can compare my lodging here to a capsule hotel, except privacy, showers and personal lamp. But the view is far better so I guess it evens out. I definitely made the right choice asking for hard sleeper, soft sleeper seems like a waste of money (45 € more) while hard-seat for 48 hours might be pushing it a bit too far.

I luckily found a power outlet just nearby in the corridor, and the restaurant sold instant noodles for 0.5 €. The remaining item would be toilet paper, which seemed out of reach for this trip. I was glad to find that they had a bathroom for disabled which meant a real toilet (well at least to the shape, the hygiene left some things to be wished for). Water comes in two sorts, boiling or ice-cold. Almost everyone has a plastic bottle they use for cooling the boiled water to more pleasant temperatures. I might get one of those in Lhasa.
Looking out to see the landscape gives plenty of scenic pictures, I alternate between that and reading No Logo. The sun sets quite early though so I decided to watch some movies as well.

I had dinner in the restaurant consisting of rice and some fried vegetables and chicken. I guess my low expectations helped but it actually tasted rather good, perhaps I’ll be pleasantly surprised by the Tibetan food as well. I went to sleep rather early after some more reading and contemplating.