After waking up and eating breakfast we checked out of the hotel but left our bags in the lobby. We wandered down the street to the post office, bought some post cards, and entered the Potala Palace. If you are reading this and intend to visit the palace, make sure to leave a few minutes to walk up the stairs. Like, 30 minutes.
The palace is quite remarkable. I think on our trip we had seen more magnificent places, places with more gold, and places with more history. But the Potala Palace gives the viewer an amazing feeling. The spirituality of the pilgrims is fascinating, and the dichotomy between humbleness and grandiose of the palace cannot fully be expressed in words. In one of the rooms the second largest diamond in the world exists, however there is only one meager guard standing nearby. And he looked sleepy.
After leaving the palace we grabbed our bags and headed to the bus station. Our bus to Shigatse was intense. Despite the fact that I was traveling without a permit – the bus was packed with local people. Each bus trip on this trip I marvel at how near death I come. As we cruised around windy mountain roads, this ride was the pinnacle of experiences. About five hours later we reached Shigatse, one of the largest cities in Tibet. We didn't have clear directions how to get to our guesthouse, nor a map. Consequently we had to wander through the city slightly, and marvled how dirty the city was compared to Lhasa. Either way, we found our guesthouse and checked in.
Since the day was ending and hunger was coming, we sought out dinner. Unfortunately, almost every place appeared to be closed. We finally reached a place that had a bunch of locals in it, but no indication that it might actually be a restaurant. We inquired if they had food, and they assured us they did. Interesting, however, not that many people spoke Mandarin. The food was superb, and really inexpensive. One of the things we kept realizing on our trip were that the people who had the least gave the most – and this place was no exception. They kindly gave us free soup, and were eager to try to chat about our history (I don't think many westerners came in here, if any). We chatted with the large group of people for quite some time and eventually took a photo with them.
A great night.
This entry is from my journal and was written on July 9, 2007. It's been tagged with Travel and Friends and Crazy Bus. There have been 0 comments so far.