Representing Brackendale in Tibet

This was written September 26

Last time I wrote I was in Felai Si, 80 kilometres from the Tibetan border
in the northwest of Yunnan province. According to all the guidebooks and
travel agents, Felai Si is "the end of the road as far as foreigners go."
You need a permit to get into the Tibetan Autonomous Region, but the
section of Tibet accessed through Yunnan is off limits to foreigners all
together. I had decided I wasn't going to go into the Tibetan Autonomous
Region and was headed quite the opposite direction. The last email had me
going in the direction of sun in either the Philippines or Indonesia.
Tibet, one of the main reason I came travelling was out of the itinerary.



Well most of you know me as being very random. And sure enough, less than
twelve hours after I last wrote, I found myself on an old beatin up bus
headed towards the border of Tibet. I didn't know how long I would be on
the bus or how far the journey would take me. I couldn't even pronounce
the name of the city. I would just have to wait and see what happened. And
besides, I had been travelling for a couple weeks now and time was becoming
less and less a thing I thought of.



The drive was one of the nicest I have ever been on. The road wove it way
through valley and over mountain passes. At the bottom of the valley, some
three to four thousand feet below, was the mighty Mekong River. This river
is more commonly seen in either Thailand or Vietnam. But there it was,
thousands of kilometres up stream from Thailand, coming out of the
Himalayas. At the top of the mountain passes were Tibetan prayer flag and
some Temples. When ever we crested the top of a pass the Tibetan
population aboard would begin singing and cheering, a we started our
decent into another valley.



After five hours we entered a dusty one town street that had more
livestock on the street than cars. This town was the first stop in the
Tibetan Autonomous Regions. I was officially bad ass by being in a no
foreigners zone. But I definitely did not want to stay in the town. So I
began acting lost and within a few minutes a Chinese tourist who could
speak a couple of words of english approached me and asked me where I was
going. I told him I wanted to go to Lhasa and he motioned me to follow
him.



We got in a minibus the length of a Toyata Tercel and somehow managed to
cram a driver and 8 people inside, along with bags. Again I was on a bus
with no one speaking english and had no idea where I was headed. Right off
the bat there was some comedy. A usual, the driver had stopped for an
unknown reason at a house along the way. When he returned he backed out of
the driveway and began driving. But there was a small hill about 5 metres
longs. He had er pinned and just couldn't make it up the hill. He tried a
couple times unsuccessfully before we started unloading (this was about 5
minutes into the trip). But even without the weight he couldn't make it up
the hill. So we had to push him the 5 metres while he had the little
lawnmower engine pinned. But he was able to make it up. We climbed for
about 30 minutes on a moderately sloped dirt road before we stopped. We
were in the middle of nowhere. There weren't even any yak or donkeys
wandering around. But there was a bus parked on the side of the road.
After paying the driver I followed everyone onto the bus.



This was the third bus of the day in which I knew nothing of the journey.
But it ended up blowing away even the earlier trip of the day. It is
without a doubt the most stunning scenery I have ever seen. The passes
were higher, the river looked tiny far below, and in all directions their
were rolling grassy hills. But best of all were the Tibetan villages along
the way. These villages were more or less untouched by the Chinese.
Surrounding the village were people working on the farms. I'm not talking
about people driving tractors or other big machines. I'm talking about
people walking along side yak pulling sticks. It was incredible to see
people living a life like this.



This scenery continued into the night. I had been on a bus since 8 in the
morning and now it was getting dark and I had no idea how much longer it
would go on. My back had been getting progressively worse as we went over
every bump and I was launched into the air again and again. Finally, about
12 hours after getting on the first bus we pulled into a small town I
later learned was Mangkang. The town was surrounded by rolling hills with
temple and prayer flags covering the peaks. The majority of the population
were Tibetan. However, like most Tibetan towns, the majority of business
was carried out by Chinese. The Tibetans are very poor in their own town
as the Chinese flood in from the rest of China. The reason the Tibetan are
so poor is because the Chinese businesses owners are heavily subsidised by
the government. Prior to the Chinese invasion almost all of the
businesses were Tibetan.



While in this town I met Tse Top. He was in his late 20's and had run away
from home when he was younger. He ran away to India where he studied and
earned his masters degree. He was returning to his home town for the first
time in 15 years. He explained a lot about Tibet to me. He told me how he
can barely recognise his own country. It had been totally Chinafied. HE
went on to explain how Tibetan people are living in fear. They fear the
Chinese spies who carefully watch the local. They are careful of what
they say as it is possible to be imprisoned for mere speech. If you ask a
Tibetan what they think about the Chinese most of them will say they love
them. But it only a precautionary measure that they this. "The Tibetan
people look happy on the outside but on the inside are deeply sorrowed."



Tse Top was really interesting and has actually changed my entire trip.
After talking to him, South East Asia was out of the plan and I was now
heading towards India. He gave me his and some of his friends contacts in
New Dehli as well as the address of the Tibetan Hostel where they lived.
After Lhasa I would go onto Nepal and then into India.



When I tried buying tickets the next day I had a bit of trouble. They
wouldn't sell us any. And because no one could speak english I had no idea
why. I assumed it was because we weren't supposed to be in town. But there
had been a cop on the bus earlier and just like everyone else in town the
military and cop both stared at me when ever they saw me. I ended up
finding a Chinese tourist who could speak some english. I brought him to
the Bus station with me after I explained my situation. When we got there
he began talking to the ticketer. After a minute or so he began yelling
and the ticker. I had no idea what was going on. After a couple more
minutes they topped talking, both smiled and I was told to thank the man
who had been yelled at. I soon found out that I could buy my bus ticket
for Lhasa at 7 the next morning.



The next morning when I went to the bus station there were passengers but
no driver and no one selling tickets. After waiting an hour some one
showed up. I casually went up to buy my ticket but was denied. I asked
another tourist to translate. She began yelling at the ticketer but then
turned to me and said I needed a permit. After arguing for a while I gave
up. It was no use. I began thinking about Seven Year In Tibet.



The only thing to do was turn myself into the cops. I took the 10 minute
walk toward the station. Would anyone there be able to speak english?
Would I get fined or put in jail? I had no idea what to expect. When we
got there no one was there. There front door was open but there were only
some old motorbikes parked in the front entrance. We waited outside for 15
minute before a guy pulled up. He looked at us then walked inside. He
began to bang on one of the doors and then opened it and yelled inside. He
pointed for us to go in. Inside the room were 3 sets of bunkbeds filled
with sleeping cops. As we walked in they pulled the blankets over their
heads. The man yelled at them again and one poked his head out. I asked
him in Chinese if he could speak english. He nodded. I told him my
situation about needed a permit. He clearly had no clue what I said as he
staired at me blankley for a couple of seconds before banging on the bed
below him and then returning to sleep. The cop below was able to
understand me somewhat.



Without even getting out of bed he asked to see my passport. He still
asked where I was from even after reading it. But he also told me to go
photocopy it. I returned with a photocopy and gave it to him. He then said
I was good to go on the bus. He hadn't done anything with the photocopy or
even talked to the bus station. I told him they wouldn't let us get a
ticket. After confusing him even more he sent me to the military to deal
with my problem



At the military base things were a little more professional, but not by
much. In there I explained my situation yet again. They were very helpful
and knew exactly what I needed. But the permit issuing office was not
opened for another 45 minutes. After eating I returned just after the
office opened. They gave me directions to the office inside the building.
When I got there no one was there so I returned to the soldiers and told
them. One of them looked at his watch and told me that no one would be in
because it was Saturday. But he did tell me where I could go, to the
polices.



When I returned to the Cop shop the only people awake were a couple of
toddlers. The kids were sitting inside the cop van and honking the horn.
Inside everyone was still sleeping. By now it was 10:30. But upon our
return one of them got up. After a lack of communication he motioned us to
sit down and then made a phone call. He had called a translator who was
supposedly making his way over. In the mean time the cop asked me if I
had a camera. I gave him mine and he giggled as he looked through the
pictures. He also took the opportunity to practice his english. And after
45 minute of pretty funny conversation with the cop the translator walked
in.



Finally I would be able to know what was going on and how I was going to
get out of town. He told me that the area I was in was off limits to
foreigners and that I could take a taxi out of Tibet. I was in town
illegally. So that was it, I would be out of Tibet before I knew it. I
began walking down the street towards the taxis at the bus station. After
about 2 minutes the cop car pulled up beside me with flashing lights. I
got inside the car and as we drove towards the bus station the cop in the
passenger side was talking into a mic that was projecting loudly above the
van. When we got to the taxi vans he told me how much to pay and then they
threw on the sirens, busted a U'ie and the waved as they drove away.



There wasn't any mention of paying a fine or anything like that the
entire time. I wasn't off to Lhasa and it was lot of driving but the
experience was awesome. The good new was that I didn't have to back
track. I made my way directly into Sichuan Province where I am now.
After being that close to Lhasa I have given in. I bought a permit and
leave for Lhasa by train on the 28th. The train I 45 hours and the only
class available was hard seat. I will without doubt go partially crazy.