Updates from the Road
Updated : 4th July 2006, Kathmandu, Nepal
LAOS, CHINA, TIBET, NEPAL...
Well then, we crossed into Laos over the Mekong on a tiny canoe and were greeted at the laid back Laos immigration office by a trio of travellers wanting to recruit two more punters for a two day long-tail boat trip up the Nam Tha river to Luang Nam Tha (in northern Laos, where we were heading). This was an opportunity to visit a remote region of Laos, passing riverside villages cut off from road access to the rest of the country (and the world). After a few Beerlaos with them we agreed it would be a rockin' idea - one more Laotian adventure before continuing onwards through China. We were off the next day (with one final recruit added last minute). It was serene isolation, the kids swimming in the river screamed "hallo!" hysterically and waved, the fishermen and women smiled, the old folks in traditional garb paddling themselves alongside looked at us in astonishment as our boatmen worked hard to navigate an obstacle course of jagged rocks and rapids.Yep, we were back in Laos.
Our accommodation turned out to be the living room floor of the main boatman. The girls of the house served up instant noodles and sticky rice and the entire village turned out to watch us eat. As the night wore on the men got increasingly sloshed on Laolao, the karaoke machine (powered by a car battery) was cranked up and we were treated to 3 VCDs of terminally bad video-clips. It proved the adage I coined myself "wherever you are in Laos, you are never more than fifty metres from a karaoke machine". Three mattresses were thrown on the floor under a mozzie net and all six of us squeezed in along-side each other. By sunrise the crowds had returned, dozens of villagers, mothers with their kids sat on their laps, all sat around our six horizontal bodies chatting away excitedly and gasping in awe as one by one we each emerged from under the mozzie net. Then, as we began strapping our packs on in readiness to scramble back down to the river bank and board our boat, our boatman dropped the bombshell : Sucked in falangs!!, you've been had! Pay me the equivalent of half a months salary or you're stuck here forever! Half a months Laotian salary ain't that much between six comparatively rich westerners, but the vibe was killed. For a while we tried to bluff him and pretend we really were happy to stay there until he gave up his extortionate ways. But that game quickly became boring and we had places to go. We paid up and were laughed at by his accomplices every step of the way until Lunag Nam Tha.
From Luang Nam Tha, you jump on a mini-bus, cross the border and there you are in the People's Republic of China among 1.3 billion Chinese. Rain, mist and a road like a half eaten chocolate mud cake lead the way. We spent alot of time in busses where the men smoke and hack up vast quantities of expectorated matter from deep within their tar-scorched lungs then discharge it with fierce velocity against the floor like a phlegm torpedo. Folks pass you what looks like the steamed toe of a terradactal for munchies, "Cybercop II" dubbed in Mandarin blares from the TV up front and 24 hour highway/dam/hydro-electric plant construction rages at full throttle outside transforming the picturesque rice paddies into a sprawling industrial landscape. Armed and uniformed officers board you at some un-godly hour, waking everyone up, searching pockets, bags, under the seats, scrutinising ID cards, frisking and questioning everybody (except us).
It's true about China - it is booming and the place feels like one big construction site. iSh travelled across the country for three months a decade ago but barely recognises it now. As you travel through the countryside past traditional villages of squat houses and tiled roofs, you blink and before you know it are smack bang in the middle of a concrete and steel metropolis : mammoth shopping mall complexes, towering video billboards, every brand name imaginable screaming at you from all directions. Chinese characters, food and faces aside you could be anywhere in the western world. Kunming reminded me alot of Melbourne (on steroids). I'm no Marx/Lenin expert - but I don't think this is what they had in mind. The only thing communist about China seems to be the public toilets (emphasis on public), designed and built as they are in the true spirit of collectivism (one long troff).
Our route to Tibet took us through the ancient Chinese cities of Dali, Lijang and ultimately Zhongdian up on the Tibetan plateau. My first impression of these places was "hmmm, this is a bit more like it" - labyrinths of cobble stoned streets, ornately carved wooden facades, trickling dykes spanned by stone bridges lit by red-lanterns. But after walking around these places a while you begin to feel they're a bit too picturesque, a bit too much like a movie set. Then you stumble into the town square to discover a million Chinese tourists and more shops/cafes/bars/restaurants than you can wave a stick at. You see construction going on all around - restoration, reconstruction and expansion. Entire new streets are being built in this "authentic" style. The effort put into the woodwork is impressive. It looks good, it's Monkey Magic all over. You expect to see three evictees from heaven (with animal appendages and staffs) escorting their spiritual-ladyboy-guide on a horse coming around the next corner. But it's ultimately characterless, just a theme park for tourists. Fairly un-inspiring truth be told. You wonder what happened to the original owners and tenants of these places, the original town folk. It doesn't seem real.
So we fast-tracked our approach to Tibet. This was our first introduction with the infuriatingly corrupt, un-just and exploitative world of Tibetan tourism, Chinese style. To cut a long story short - the Chinese don't like independent travellers wandering into Tibet, they want you to join a package tour. But they know there's plenty of folks who wont jump on their tours, so they charge a very large fee for permission to go independently. Once you've paid for your "Tibet Travel Permit" you'd think your free to wander around inside Tibet at your own discretion right? Wrong. You pay the Chinese Government for an "Alien Travel permit" which you never see, you pay the Chinese Military for a "Military Permit" which you never see, you pay the Chinese Government for entry into "nature preserves" or "archaeological zones", you pay the Chinese Government incredible sums to visit Tibetan monasteries and temples. The People's Security Bureau wait outside every town to extort bribes from your Tibetan drivers for not having their I's dotted or T's crossed on their documentation. In many instances you're not allowed on regular public transport and have to pay the Chinese for their services (such as a flight into the country). You must pay the Chinese - end of story. What do the Tibetans see of all this cash? Nada. They live in squalor under the thumb of a greedy and oppressive regime exploiting them, their culture and their land for every Yuan. First they destroy their heritage (smashing it to bits during the cultural revolution), then they charge visitors and arm and a leg to see what's left and give the Tibetans nothing. Roads? Yeah sure, to carry Chinese army truck convoys. Schools? Sure, to teach Tibetan kids Chinese and a revisionist version of their recent history. Jobs and opportunities? For Han Chinese immigrants sure, Tibetans get nothing (or very little at best) despite being the indigenous inhabitants of a country that is geographically, culturally, ethnically and spiritually unique to them and separate from China.
Tibet doesn't exist in any geopolitical sense. It's been appropriated by China and incorporated into the Chinese provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Xinjiang. The rest (what is these days refereed to as "Tibet") is called Xizng Zhizhiqu (meaning "western treasure house", mmm, all those natural resources and tourist potential) or the Tibetan Autonomous Region ( T.A.R, though what autonomy exists there is beyond me). It's still an incredibly alluring destination, a place I've been wanting to visit for a a long time.
Lhasa, the old capital, is now a sprawling, modern Chinese city with a Tibetan quarter. The Potala Palace, one of the most unique and impressive buildings in Asia (former residence of the Dali Lama and his predecessors) now towers over glitzy shopping arcades, fast food joints and a patronising "Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" monument. The Tibetan quarter is an especially atmospheric place. It throbs with resilient Tibetan culture - prostrating pilgrims, burning juniper and yak butter lamps, smiling weather beaten faces, spinning prayer wheels, white washed, flat roofed mud brick buildings. It's amazing, you get so mesmerised by it and lost in it's maze of old streets that you almost forget the Chinese garrison surrounding it.
From Lhasa we embarked on an epic trip through Western Tibet. This was a major ambition of mine, something I wasn't sure if we would realistically be able to do until we were there. We hired a 20 year old Landcruiser, a Tibetan driver, found three other keen participants and headed off into the sparsely inhabited, extremely arid and rugged Tibetan wilderness on an 18 day odyssey. Our main objective was Mt. Kailash, among the most venerated (though little visited due to it's remoteness) pilgrimage sites for Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Bon faiths. It's dubbed the "navel of the world" or my favourite "centre of the cosmos". For Hindu's this is the abode of Shiva, where he sits in all his transcendental and benevolent wisdom smoking ganja and making love to his beloved wife Paravati (Shakti). The dude is blue with long matted hair (which flows into the Ganges), wears a tiger skin, sports a live cobra around his neck, holds a trident, is the creator and destroyer of everything - This guy is cool OK? (what other deity makes Ziggy Stardust look like an Australian MP?).
So hang on, what's a couple of agnostic heathens like us doing going to such lengths to embark on a pilgrimage in Tibet? Well, there are other reasons to venerate Mt. Kailash. It's one of the most attractive looking snow-domed hunks of rock on the planet. It's four sheers faces align perfectly with the four cardinal points of the compass. It is the source of four of Asia's most important rivers including the Indus and the Ganges. Still not impressed? Bugger it I give up, go watch Big Brother.
En route to this mountain we passed another well known hill - Chomalongma (that'd be Mt Everest to you). Last time I visited the foot of the world's highest mountain I trekked with my Yorkshire chum for three weeks in Nepal to get there. This time the Landcruiser just parked smack bang in front of it, all we had to do was get out of the car and gawk at it in awe. We walked for the best part of day up the valley to get as close a view as we were permitted. An incredible sight, what more can I say?
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