Misc stuff about Tibet

No bathing in Tibet, is the thing i remember the most. Yeah. no bathing on the train there, then first few days to acclimatize. I bathed on day5, after which we started ascending again and i stopped bathing. Only bathed twice in my 12 day trip. But i bet we all smelt the best in Tibet. Coz people there bathe only 3 times a year!

For the first 2 days in Tibet, we followed a tour group of 28 people. From the 3^rd day onwards, we left the group, 8 of us split into 2 SUVs and had 1 tour guide to bring us on our mount everest stint! Both tour guides are pretty young, first one from Chengdu called Xiaowen, while the 2^nd is tibetian called duojie. (well, I guess only tibetians can really bear with the altitude and weather of everest. While we were freezing in layers of clothes and down, duojie was wearing a t-shirt and not feeling cold at all!! >.<)

I guess it’s coz the group size was small, thus we got along better with the 2^nd tour guide. Furthermore, he followed the SUV with sam, pris, bong and I in it. Actually, he didn’t look THAT young.. but found out tt he’s only 25!! Must be the long hours under the strong UV in tibet, plus the chain smoking that caused him to look older than he actually is. Haha. Interestingly, our tourguide is also a part-time artist, drawing tibetian paintings (thangkha) to sell in his free time.

That’s me with our tour guide, right at Everest~

Toilets in Tibet.. are.. not really existent. Haha. However, non-existent toilets are still better than smelly and gross toilets! The most tiring thing that makes me out of breathe is usually toilet visits, as you either have to hold your breathe while you’re in there, or you have to climb some hills to find some rocks to hide behind.

Pris and shu’s hiding place

My peeing rock

Bong’s rock

And since everest is an important place, I even took a VIDEO of the toilet there!! ^_^

Somehow, many people whom I’ve talked to after this trip, told me “I’ve never seen this (nature) side of you”. Well, it’s not a new side of me, but simply a side that seldom gets revealed in the midst of city life. I DO love nature. In fact, when leaving Tibet, I actually asked myself, why was I willing to succumb to pressures and remain in Singapore? Why did I not have more courage to give up everything I have and move to some remote village and lead a simple life? I even wondered if a compromise could be reached. Something like in the movie Painted Veil, where a guy risked his life to do research on infectious diseases in a village in China. Maybe I could do some cancer research in some village too. Then I’d have the best of both worlds. Whoahaha. I am just day dreaming.

This path I have chosen. 10 days a year, is the max I will be able to find retreat in some simple place from now on.

Enjoying the sky, the mountains, the view, the cold air.. together with tibetian singing.. is the most enjoyable moments..

Thanks Sam for inviting me on this trip. Thanks Bong for being my nice roomie, and being so stern with me and thus keeping me safe during the trip. Thanks to Jinghui, Pris, Anshu, Patrick and Yifei for making such wonderful company~