Back in the Big City

After a long absence from internet, cell phones and most other signs indicating the current century we're living in, I have returned to Kathmandu and the place has never looked so advanced. All is relative I suppose. I'm only here for a few days. Just long enough to squeeze in a book release, a ceremony at the small library I supported, visits to my old school & host family, editing of a new class 10 textbook to be published and to record my voice for some audio CDs to be produced. Actually it's not quite enough time for all the things I'd like to do / people I'd like to see being back here again, but it looks as if extending my trip by about another year is not quite possible.

My time in Tibet was fascinating, exhilarating and calming all at once. I wrote blog entries in my notebook to try to capture more of my thoughts in the moment rather than a more hazy summary after the fact. There are 4 of these altogether and I'll be typing them up over the next little while (when I find the time and motivation) as I slowly make my way back home. It's far too many words to take in all at once anyway, so any readers still hanging on out there will probably appreciate some short delays between posts. With that said, here we go:

TIBET BLOG #1 - Saturday, June 4 - Tour to THE Mountain

Right now I'm in Xining, China after a spectacular and eventful week and a half since departing Kathmandu. Being in Nepal for so long must've lulled me into a sleepy comfort about the ease of moving about in foreign lands because, I must admit, I came completely unprepared to this new country. It was only after arriving that it dawned on me how little I knew of Chinese or Tibetan languages (zilch) or really the country in general. I'm sure, now, that a big part of what made the Nepal transition feel so seamless and natural was all that I had learned about the culture & language before getting there. All this effort I had completely forgotten, so as I dove in head first, it was with slight surprise in mid-air to find that it was directly into the very deepest end of the pool that I was headed.

In Western China and within Tibet itself, there's hardly any presence of English whatsoever, so I found myself doing a whole lot of pointing, hand-gesturing and laughing to make myself understood. Well, the laughing didn't exactly help with the understanding, but it did keep people from either getting frustrated with my ignorance or completely giving up on trying to help the out-of-place Canadian that wound up in a part of the world not commonly tread upon by foreigners. Simple things like getting taxis and using a payphone at the airport in particular turned into highly amusing processes. But once I met up with my hosts all went very smoothly and I was extremely well taken care of.

I still had a week before my project was to start, so after 2 days in Xining, I boarded the new train to Lhasa, the old heart of Tibet. Up on the plateau between there and the Nepal border, I heard so many times I was standing in front of the highest something (lake, wetlands, palace, monastery, river, blade of grass...you name it), that I almost forgot to be impressed when I eventually laid eyes upon the world's very highest point. But that first glimpse was at a distance on a cloudy day. There was no denying its awesome presence upon turning up right at its feet and sleeping at its base overnight. Sagarmatha to the Nepalis, Qomolangma to the Tibetans, and Mt.Everest to the Westerners, there's probably not a culture in the world that doesn't hold the tallest peak with some sort of reverence. I, myself, must've taken about a hundred photos of its North face in an attempt to capture it under the absolute best of lighting conditions as the sun was setting, though on reviewing those pictures I have no idea how to judge which the very best of these might be.

All in all, I can't imagine a better introduction to Tibet and am now looking forward to heading off to a small place very far removed from anything at all.