Looky! Looky! Cheap Cheap! It Tibet!

So it has now been a week since we returned from Tibet, but I have been procrastinating on blogging about it. Since I took sooooo many pictures in Tibet, I have decided I will share my adventures by a commentary on a few of my favorites.

This is the first view of Tibet we had as we left the airport! It was spectacular because we had not seen blue skies in weeks and they do not have mountains like this in Chengdu. Our flight to Lhasa was uneventful. I didn't sleep the night before I left because I decided to procrastinate on packing so I took a nice nap on the plane.

This was our first stop on our way into Lhasa. It was the first of many Buddhas we saw during our time there. It was also our first encounter with the many rich colors that you find all over Tibet in monasteries, in houses, and on the sidewalk. In this photo we all wearing white scarves, which were given to us when we boarded the bus. These scarves symbolize greetings and good wishes. They can also mean safe travels and are a sign of respect so we received them again as we left Tibet.

This is Erin, Lexi and I in front of Jokhang Temple, one of the biggest and most important monasteries in Lhasa. This temple is also surrounded by a huge market, where you can find just about anything you want. As a group we probably spent the majority of our time in Lhasa at this market and shopping was a common theme of the trip! I got all my Christmas shopping done! YAY! At this market it was essential to bargain and as the shop owners only knew few English words, such as "Looky, Looky, Cheap, Cheap," I got very good at my Chinese numbers. I also mastered a few bargaining phases, my favorite being "Tai gui le!" which means "Too expensive." It is fun to say and sometimes I would forget to even ask how much something was and immediately resort to using it. I got some wierd looks when that happened.

It was very interesting interacting with the shop owners. They would do anything to get you to look at there booth even if that meant grabbing your arm and pulling you in. Also to prove their items were genuine they resorted to methods such as scratching beads on the hard concrete ground, or banging metal items on the ground repeatedly saying "It Tibet! It Tibet!"

On our first full day in Tibet we went to the Polata Palace. This is the former residence of the Dali lama and is full of temples and Buddhas. It also used to be a monastery as well.This is in front of one of the temples in the Potala Palace. This was the traditional architecture that we saw on most buildings in Tibet. The black tapestries were also very common and found in all colors and with different significant symbols. Also notice we are all wearing scarves. Tibet was a little chillier than Chengdu and scarves were sold at every other booth in the market so they became our group uniform.Here I am all bundled up in one of my new hats in front of a temple at Drak Yalpa Hermitage. I am still not entirely sure how a hermitage is different than a monastery, but I think it has something to do with location. This hermitage is located up in the mountains about an hour outside of Lhasa. As you can see all the temples we went to were decorated with rich colors in very intricate patterns. It was beautiful!This is a stupa at the hermitage. Stupas are a very holy type of burials that important monks and lamas are buried in. Whenever you come across a stupa you must walk around it clockwise. In this picture you can see Colin holding money. It is customary at temples to give small denominations of money to each Buddha. It is mostly locals and Buddhist that do this, but Colin decided to try out the custom as well.

After wandering through the temples at the hermitage a few of us decided to climb up the mountain above the buildings. It was a steep climb and involved a little slipping and sliding. However, we knew others had been there before us because the mountain was covered in prayer flags.

After four days in Lhasa full of visiting Monasteries and shopping, we took a leisurely trip to Guiantsie. We drove through beautiful mountains. At one of our stops I got to ride a yak and pretend to be a Tibetan for a few minutes. It was quite a hoot!

We had lunch right next to this beautiful lake. This is turquoise lake and is the most sacred Buddhist lake in all of Tibet. After this picture was taken Lexi decided she wasn't satisfied with just wading in this lake and decided to go for a little swim to soak up more of the sacredness (or rather she slipped on a rock and fell in).

Our day of travel was full of animals. At another one of our stops there were baby lambs for tourists to hold for a small fee. Someone in the group paid and we all got a chance to hold this adorable little sheepy!

In Guiantse we went to Baiju temple. This monastery is famous for its giant stupa with 180 temples. It was at least 4 stories high and this picture is Lexi, Tyler and I on the 3 story.

From Guiantz we traveled to Shigantze and visited one last monastery. Ta Shi Lhun Po Monastery is home of the biggest sitting buddha which is made of gold and copper. This monastery is also the home of the Panchen Lama and the Stupas of the 5th-10th Panchen Lama. This temple probably had some of the most beautiful Buddhas we saw the whole trip, but it was also about the 6th monastery we visited so we were quite monasteried out by the time we arrived.

The drive back to Lhasa was a little shorter and had less stops. This was taken at one of the stops and shows how beautiful the scenery of Tibet is. Everywhere we looked we saw mountains, blue skies and bodies of water. An interesting fact about the roads through the mountains is that every vehicle that passes through must stop at checkpoints to be given a time to get to the next checkpoint. If you arrive before your given time you are fined. This policy was set in place after there were large amounts of accidents on these roads with the intention of slowing down drivers. Due to this policy we would always have to make stops right before checkpoints because we would be too far ahead of schedule

The food in Tibet was amazing. Being so close to India, Indian food was very prevalent. I got my fill of curry, spinach paneer, and naan. Tibetans are also very good at making momo (dumplings) and I tried many different types. This picture was taken at one of our favorite restaurants in Lhasa called "Snowland Restuarant." I went here at least three times and lived on the naan featured in the pictures. Yaksong (our yak friend) also makes his debut here. Lexi bought him to remind her of all the Yaks we saw in Tibet and he has been on many fabulous adventures since.