Top Tibet hotels
Sponsored Links
The yak is one of the most important domesticated animals in Tibet. You encounter the Yak on the grassy plains where they are grazing. The nomads lead the herds to places where the grass is best in summer. The Yak is everything to the nomads it provides transportation, meat and milk. The long dark hair is used to make the traditional tents of the nomads and even its dried dung is used as fuel.
One of the most famous drinks of tibet is the Yak butter tea. It is a dark smokey tea, with a large lumb of Yak butter in it. It tastes salty, like clear soup. It is supposed to warm you and the fat is nourishing.In case you are not sure weather you like this you can always order a beer, like this Lhasa beer, to wash it away...
As said before not many tibetans have privat bathrooms or toilets. The public toilets cost money, so when you got to go.......Urinating in the streets seems to be very normal. We saw monks walking in front of us, kneeling down, pulling in their robes for a few centimeters and the sound of a small waterfall was filling the air. Ofcourse not everybody is conviently dressed for that manouvre.
As most Tibetan houses have no privat bathrooms you will see people brushing their teeth on the street in the gutter.Most houses don't have toilets too, they use the public toilets. Public toilets in Tibet mostly charge you 2 jiao (2 eurocent). Most of them smell terrible but in general they are clean holes in the ground. Most of the time there is no water availlable for flushing.
You will see many people begging in Tibet. But it is not always good to give money. You encourage people to beg, because it is worth the trouble. In Lhasa we saw children begging, and in the next street they had to give the money to an older guy........ It looked like they were send out to get money for him.When monks are sitting there, chanting and asking for money they completed a pilgrimage and need money to get home.Also don't mistake the friendly gesture of some people holding their hand like begging, but there is no money in it. This means they wish you good luck. People begging always have some notes in their hands.
If you head into the smoky tea houses of Lhasa you might just find some friends. Very few travellers enterr these denizons but it is the best way to meet people, and drink chai We met this family twice and chatted at a teahouse and visited a festival with them. The little girl is very smart and the father (although unemployed) speaks perfect English. Lets hope they have a bright future.
Like many visitors, I brought little real knowledge of the country with me to Tibet. I had read portions of my several guidebooks but found much of what I read difficult to assimilate while sitting in Chicago. For instance, although I knew Tibet is a Buddhist country, my knowledge of Buddhism was minimal. I had always thought of Buddhism as a religion but Buddhists tend to consider it more of a philosophy or even a way of life. Unless you come well-prepared and well-versed in Tibetan Buddhism, the statues, murals, and almost infinite decorations are nearly too much to comprehend.Nearly every day I encountered dozens of figures in Tibetan history--Tibetan and Buddhist history are indescribably intertwined--and I learned but a tiny fraction of the stories, myths, and legends of the Buddha and his followers. Images, whether painted, sculpted, or drawn, were everywhere.But one lesson I...
Road construction and maintenance is a regular feature of modern Tibetan life. There are an extraordinary number of people--children as well as women and men-- engaged in road work. For the most part, the crews fill holes with gravel, build up soft shoulders, or level badly worn roads. But the numbers are astonishing. Tibet must have a higher rate of road crews per kilometer of road than any other nation on earth. Except on paved roads, we might pass as many as five or six crews a day, ranging in size from a few people to as many as several dozen. Formal road grading or paving equipment was virtually non-existent. The most technologically advanced tool that the crews possessed was a shovel.
I love to walk the Kora (pilgrimage circuit around religious objects), together with the colourful and devoted pilgrims, who come from the rural parts of Tibet to complete the circuit. These religious objects can be anything, a shrine, a place where the Dalai Lama has been, even a mountain or a lake.The busiest Koras are certainly in Lhasa around the Jokhang and/or the Potala, and in Shigatse around Tashilhunpo Monastery.The most famous is probably the Kora around Mt Kailash. To go there nowadays you need to be either very adventurous (ie. try without a permit) or rich. Hopefully the strict permit policy will change soon....
While in Lhasa it was impossible to obtain an individual permit for travelling overland to Nepal, in Shigatse, however, it was given quite easy. Travel by bus to Shigatse and enquire at the local PSB! If you want to make sidetrips to Sakya and EBC, you should have it stated separately. Travelling individual along the Friendship Highway from Lhasa to Nepal is really a must. From Lhasa the only alternative seems to be jeeptours from a state run travel agency with an official Chinese appointed guide. In Lhasa you will get only grouppermit. It will give you hardly any freedom and big problems may occur when someone get sick (since you have to stay together).***this was correct November 2001***
Yak Hotel Lhasa
8 Reviews and 61 Opinions This is a supposedly 3 star hotel but why remains a mystery. We stayed there for 2 days on our...
Gyantse Hotel Gyangze
2 Reviews and 29 Opinions The hotel's official rating is ***, which did mean it was pretty basic - and so it was (it would not...
Kyichu Hotel (Jiqu Fandian) Lhasa
1 Review and 65 Opinions I stayed at this hotel in February 2007. The beds were hard, but that's normal in China. They had...
Reviews and photos of Tibet attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for Tibet sightseeing.
More Cities in Tibet
Q: I am planning a trip of a life time and have two years to do so… so first I want to get some ideas from seasoned travelers and...
A: If you want to hike or bike, Tibet (which is stunning, by the way) is probably not going to work out. The Chinese government will only issue permits for people to enter...
Read 4 Replies
Sponsored Links
