okay, so i have FINALLY come back to reality and am here to update this blog! sooo much has happened in the last month or so and i dont know where to begin... so i will start with some more pics from the return trip from Lhasa, Tibet to Kathmandu, Nepal and a story that i couldn't tell while there ( i was too traumatised to tell the story on this blog)...
so the drive to lhasa ('capital' of tibet, which is under chinese oppression) was insanely beautiful, but also pure insanity! to enter tibet from kathmandu you have to go in a group because a few tourists flew a "FREE TIBET" flag a few weeks back and so the governmebt made it mandatory for all tourists to be accompanied with a guide. actually, it just occured to me that that was maybe all they were there for since they didn't have to speak a lot of english or know anything about tibet.
anyways, the guide on the first day said
"if you have any expectations of this trip, you will be very unhappy."... and then he followed it by saying
"i am only taking you to the border, and on the other side there may or may not be a jeep waiting for you. you might have to wait as much as 2-3 days for the jeep." and he went on like this for 10 minutes detailing all the things that
probably would go wrong. i thought it was hilarious - when have you ever heard a guide talk like that?! soo good!
anyways, the drive itself was really interesting/nauseating. everyone got really sick which was probably a mix of altitude sickness and having to get up at 2:30am to start the 2nd drive day which ran until 4pm...oh, and the roads made it impossible to sleep because you'd always hit your head (hard) on the window. man, i have been in some sketchy situations on roads before, but this must be the hardest drive i have ever had to endure. lets just say that by the last day i was overjoyed to be at our final hotel. the other days had a few insane 'close' calls that i cant believe we survived, but they were nothing compared to the last day.
so about 2 hours in we had to take a little detour and drove through the desert. our driver took to the idea that we were on one of those dirt race tracks where you purposely try to catch some air. just before we hit the paved road he sent us flying (all four wheels) so badly that when we landed he put a huge hole in the gas tank. thank god it had two tanks!
that was the point where i started to get a bit concerned. but i thought that after that he'd
have to calm down. unfortunately, it somehow made him worse! he started taking the usual blind-mountain-pass things to a whole new level. i mean, our driver didn't believe in driving on the right side of the road anyways(which is where we should have been in tibet), and so he started just driving on the left side and regardless of there being absolutely no time or space to pass someone who was on the right. he'd go for it anyways. sometimes he was just driving head on with no one to pass and make the oncoming traffic swerve o nto our right. i have no idea how many cars/people who narrowly escaped death...but the number isn't small. i'd guess that he was averaging on one major stupid thing every 2-5 minutes.
by the 5th hour i couldn't look anymore...i would just cover my eyes and hear everyone else in the car screaming/nervous laughing and then sigh. i know this probably sounds like i am just blowing it up into a big thing, but a long time ago i learned to not be so nervous in crazy cars... but i've never experienced anything quite this intense. i actually was so anxious that i broke into nervous laughter and tears couldn't stop coming out of my eyes... it was horrible! but anyways, i am just REALLY happy that i am alive and well and getting to experience all of these wonderful things!
...but all of that was over a month ago and i´m in germany now enjoying the crazy drivers on the autobahn instead now!
above is kopan on the mountain... it's on the right side surrounded by trees
