Notes from Tibet - Part V

After half of the group left that morning, Tom and I had an interesting conversation about his travels. He said that the worst country he and his friends biked through was Ethiopia as many of the people walking on the streets would throw rocks, not stones, at them. Luckily, he was able to get through unhurt, but his bike frame was damaged. I watched him pack up his things and prep his bike for the next part of his journey to Beijing. The tour of Tibet was the longest period of time that he didn't ride his bike and I think he was smart to avoid riding through the rough roads of the Himalaya.

After we sent off Tom, I moved hotels with Kris and Jan. Kris, Tony, and I met up with Lola and Yolanda (sisters from Barcelona) for lunch. The sisters had just heard about it from other Spanish tourists who had raved about this new place. When I walked in the door to Cafe Nomad, I was immediately brought back to California by the calm ambiance with a Tibetan twist. I feasted on fresh carrot juice, seaweed soup, and fried rice chocked with jalapeno which was so comforting as it was safe and delicious. Nick from the Bay Area opened Cafe Nomad only two weeks before and his place was already receiving much attention from tourists. I recommend this place to even the Lhasa regulars as it was quite a nice change from the other restuarants.

After lunch, Lola, Kris and I visited the Lhasa School for the Blind. Braille Without Borders was made famous a few years ago when Sabirye was on Oprah.

Here is the website where you can read a shorter version of the 90 minute story that we received from Paul:

http://www.braillewithoutborders.org/ENGLISH/index.html

BWOB is doing so much for blind children all over the world; teaching vocational skills while in an environmentally friendly manner. Sabirye learned Tibetan, and created a Braille system specifically for Tibetan. The school has a printing press that can create books of Tibetan Braille for its students and, I think, for publication.

I planned to meet up with Peter and Helena, my cousin Will’s friend, and his girlfriend, that evening. Shopping in Helena’s boutique, Lumbini, was a delight as I perused the high quality and high style items. They took me out to the best Chinese cuisine dinner I ever had as Helena ordered in Mandarin which ensured there wouldn’t be MSG present for Peter and I to get sick on. Thick and incredibly slippery rice noodles, unusual Asian mushrooms, the freshest sweet and sour chicken, fish that could only be properly eaten by Helena with her agile mouth that could remove the delicate bones, vegetables including the longest string beans on this side of the world, and the best vegetable dumplings made Helena’s menu cut.

After dinner, Peter and Helena treated me to a much needed message. The three of us were given a room with lounging chairs and a flat screen TV. I was very much looking forward to this since Peter mentioned it upon my arrival in Lhasa as the week was tough on my back; not working out combined with injuries from the accident, the hard mattresses and folding my legs into the back seat of the rodeo ride through Tibet. If there was ever a question over the torture techniques used by Asians, this “spa treatment” confirmed the POW reports from Vietnam. Hot water was poured into a wooden basin lined with plastic. After my masseuse held my feet down during the initial shock of the hot water, she rubbed them and I immediately knew what a Lobster felt like as it was boiled in water. But that wasn’t the end of the torture as this was done four more times intermittently with messaging on other parts of my body. Feeling like a weakling, I purposely held my feet out of the basin to allow the water to cool for 30 seconds before I put them into the lava temperature liquid.

Helena was smiling during the entire message as she apparently loved the burning feeling since Chinese believe that the “hotter temperature, the better” as it is hygienic and healthy to use superheated water. Peter was used to the hot temperature and gave me some sympathy as he remembered his first time. During the tortuous hot water rub, we watched TV. Chinese TV is hilarious as many shows are based on American Idol with talent shows of dancing and singing. Being an expert in Asian culture, Helena would blurt, “Korean” or “Taiwanese” or “Japanese” with every new act or new show when Peter would change the channel. We were eventually directed to turn onto our stomachs while they rubbed us over our clothes. I slept the hardest I had in weeks that evening.

TV watching from the night before intrigued me to watch it in my room the next morning. China is really working hard to get the Chinese people ready for the Olympics as every commercial on the sports channel was about the games for next summer. One commercial flashed a picture of a baby and then an athlete, and then another baby and then another athlete, over and over again to the song, “We Will Rock You” by Queen. The Chinese Olympic athlete ego is slowly building; I hope the Chinese athletes are able to get their heads through the stadium and arena doors so we can beat them.

Peter, Helena, Helena’s friend’s daughter and I went to lunch at Café Nomad as I wanted to introduce Helena and Nick as local business owners. I confirmed with Nick that I gave Paul from BWOB his number as Nick was interested in offering dishes on his menu with the cheese from the farm in Shigatse where the blind children learn animal husbandry besides cheese making (I know many of you are laughing as I couldn’t help my usual self by networking in Tibet!)

Peter is currently working on an eco-tourism project in Tibet. He and his partners are planning on creating stone kitchens and placing gers or yurts (circular tents with cone roofs) around it that are moved every season to prevent wear on the flora growth in the area. He described the same waste separating latrines that Paul from BWOB mentioned and solar heated showers among other environmentally friendly accommodations. Between Peter’s eco-hospitality and Tsedo’s private tour company, please let me know if you want to see the real Tibet, not the Chinese Tibet.

While talking to Peter about good and bad Tibetans and Chinese, I had a second déjà vu session within 24 hours. That was the first time in my life that I’ve had two so close together. I still don’t know why I had one immediately following the other, but it seemed as though it was written in the cards for me to be on this trip. If you didn’t know, my mother has premonitions of when people are going to die when she smells flowers without being in the presence of flowers. Although we both smell cigarette smoke when we think my dad is sending us a signal, I only smelled flowers once, in 2005. I smelled cigarette smoke on my way home from spin class the Thursday before my bicycle accident, but of course, I didn’t as much pay attention to it as I should have.

Helena took me to her wholesalers after lunch so she could look for more rings and pendants for her shop and I looked for more Tibetan and Indian jewelry. It felt great to go through the market mall with a local as I wasn’t bothered for the first time to buy things from vendors. Being tall, broad shouldered and pale skinned, I felt like a large walking target with dimples to these Tibetans who preyed on tourists.

Kris, Jan, Tony and I met one more time in Lhasa before I was leaving the next morning for Kathmandu, Kris and Jan were leaving for a trek to Ganden and Tony was continuing his monastery visits and Koras. Before we met at Café Nomad (of course!), I was taking some pictures of lamas and Buddhist devotees in Barkhor square to capture the last bits of Lhasa and Tibet on my camera. Tony is a magnet for good people as he started a conversation with some lamas who were soon affectionately playing with him and I was able to get some great shots. Although Tony wrote the address to the store in Mandarin that is going to deliver the hard copies of the pictures to the lamas that I am going to send them when I return, I wonder if the pictures are going to arrive. These lamas reinstated my warm feeling for Tibetans they smiled and interacted so genuinely without ulterior motives.


During dinner Tony, Jan, Kris and I talked about the military, licorice, and cultural sensitivities. I had no idea that Germans were greatly sensitive when talking about Hitler. Apparently, Jan’s 97 year young grandmother still tells him stories of what is was like to suffer during the war. While the Jews were persecuted and executed, the other Germans who weren’t killed were starving while bombs exploded near their houses by the allies. It’s so amazing how history books can paint a specific picture in our minds of how the Jews were exterminated, the French were taken over and other small countries in Europe suffered during the war, but I never really stopped to think about the regular Germans who might not have agreed with Hitler. Even movies like “The Pianist” failed to bring this to my attention. Kris described how much tension there was in Germany, even after the Nuremberg trials as many officers in the Hitler regime were still powerful in government. Now I know not to make jokes about political sensitivities until I ask questions first. Jan said he was quite offended when people from other countries immediately make fun of Hitler without really understanding how sensitive the issue is with Germans.