 |
| supermarket staff warm up for their day ahead |
The first stop today was a group expedition to Jokhang Temple, dating from the 7th century and a very popular stop for Buddhist pilgrimage. I lose the group while taking pictures at the front where there is a sizable queue. I thought that they might have taken a walk around the temple, which is both a holy walk for Buddhists and a bazaar. Being bored of Bazaars, although this one is somewhat bizarre, I walk quickly around in a failed attempt to find the group. Back at the front, I find out that they had done some queue hopping with the help of Dawera and had gone in after waiting for me for a while. I saved 85 Yuan by not going in anyway (c. £8).
Instead, I go to Potala Palace. A group tour had been organised for the next day, but I declined that offer as they wanted to charge 300 Yuan (£30) and I wasn’t sure that it would be worth it. We were told that the ticket price was actually 100 Yuan, but that if we didn’t book in advance we were unlikely to get in. I think the extra 200 Yuan probably goes to the booking agency, which Kevin is connected to. When I get to Potala Palace, I find signs that do say that the normal process is to collect a voucher one day in advance, but I am let in buying the 100 Yuan ticket at a ticket counter inside the complex without being asked for a voucher. There are no pictures allowed in the temples, so there’s no surprise surcharges, but it does mean that I don’t have much to show you from inside.
The palace is an imposing sight from outside, but inside it has the air of a quiet market village, although the only thing sold here are bottles of water and some snacks by occasional wandering vendors with small carts. However, the various temples are the most intricately decorous and ostentatious ones that I have seen yet. There is also access to view the residential rooms of the Dalai Lama. I would say they are like a stately home, except more basic and I couldn’t help feeling that the Dalai Lama’s bedroom would be a children’s room in an old British National Trust house.
There are more Buddhas than I could bother to count and some very fine ornaments in the temples, including the gold or silver tombs of all the thirteen deceased Dalai Lamas, unless of course you say that, as each one is the re-incarnation of the previous one, there has only ever been one. Anyway, they all look gold in the darkened rooms.
I actually enjoyed visiting the monasteries and temples at Shigatse and Gyangze more. At Shigatse, we saw an active monastery, whereas this one is more of a march through darkened rooms of relics. This is not just a tourist site. There are fewer visitors than I thought there would be, but at least half of them are here as Buddhist pilgrims, coming here to pay homage and pray. I don’t want to seem derogatory towards Buddhism, but I find the obsessive worship of objects here quite off-putting. It is definitely worth visiting as a site of historical importance, but I am glad that I only paid 100 Yuan to get in.
 |
| Potala Palace |
 |
| view from the palace grounds |
 |
| another view from the palace |
 |
| giant news video in square below the palace |
After visiting the palace, I go back to the hotel and meet up with Laurie so that I can go back to the square in front of the palace to get a guitar picture (see: a journey around the world in E minor). However, there are police and army guards here, and I knew that playing a guitar would be viewed with suspicion. I get the pictures quickly and am zipping my guitar back into its case by the time a guard gets to me, so he doesn’t say anything and passes on.
It is unlikely the guard would have spoken English anyway, so what he would have said or done I don’t know. I had thought that for some reason there were more people who spoke English in China than there were people in native English speaking countries. This seems to be wrong, at least in Tibet, although much of Lhasa is populated by Chinese. Brian incredulously questions their education system when I raised this in conversation, as if they have a duty to speak our language because we don’t speak theirs. I was a little surprised that the hotel staff didn’t speak any English, but I would guess this will change when we get to places like Beijing, where there are more university educated people. So far the best English speakers we have found have been the staff in branches of Dico’s, the Chinese KFC – though there are plenty of actual KFCs in Chinese cities too.
I should note that the hotel we are staying at in Lhasa is the best we have experienced on the trip so far. We have double beds and TV in sizeable rooms. The bathrooms have western toilets, although they could do with some more robust cleaning and/or redecorating. The second floor, the one below us, is locked off by sliding glass doors covered by a red curtain. We strongly suspect we are staying at a brothel, or ‘massage parlour’ for the aesthete. This is despite Kevin picking this hotel because it is a government sponsored tourist hotel.
I visited a supermarket today. Here I am enthusiastically aided by a group of young female staff, who keep pointing at things that they suggest I might like to buy. I mime the shaving action to get them to lead me to some shaving cream. I buy a packet that they point at, but I find out later that this is more like soap. This may do for the less follicly chinned locals, but wasn’t really what I was hoping for. One of the young ladies leads me to the checkout to make sure I get the discounted members price, although this is probably only a saving of one Yuan. Still, the gesture is appreciated. This being somewhat of a midlife crisis trip for me, the fawning attention of young ladies doesn’t go unappreciated either.
In the evening I go to a bar with Laurie. It’s nice sitting in a cosy enclave, but the Bacardi Breezers are 25 Yuan and a shot of vodka is over fifty. Having got used to paying eight Yuan for a large bottle of beer, or five in a shop, this seems expensive to me now.
Helen, the Scots widow in our group, got her foot run over by a taxi today. Crossing the road here is like a game of Tetris, especially where taxis are concerned. Red lights don’t seem to make any difference to drivers or pedestrians alike.
No comments:
Post a Comment