Trip to Tibet: [Part One] Getting Nowhere

I miss an ordinary day back home, so I figured two months ago that I better plan my next trip to stay sane. You have no idea how much I was looking forward to getting out of Shunde. Work sucks, except for my amazing students of course, and I miss my friends and family like bananas... but you knew that already.

I had a three-day break for May Day, which actually should be an American holiday if you know your American history.  Three days was not enough, however, for the trip I had in mind and so it took a bunch of sifting through bureaucracy (emails back-and-forth and long conversations) to get more vacation time approved. Even though I have five paid sick and personal days, I suspect that my program had no intention of actually letting us use them. In fact, they are taking these days away for teachers next year. Yup, that’s the kind of program I am working for. Despite using my paid leave days, I had to make up all of the classes that I would miss in the six weeks that lead up to the trip as part of the agreement with my boss. I didn't fight this stipulation much. It did not seem like a big deal because I was too happy focusing on how I would be spending eight days in Tibet!

Friday April 25^th:

The day before my flight, I took the free school shuttle into Guangzhou. I could not afford to be late for the early morning flight, so I reserved a night at a hotel near the airport. I hopped on the subway and grabbed some halal food for dinner because I did not have chicken in ages. The hotel wasn’t so bad once the woman who owned it played with the electricity to make it work for my room. I watched 127 Hours before passing out, probably not the best movie to watch before venturing off to the Himalayas.  

Thursday, April 26^th:

The People's Seat.

I woke up the next morning and got ready to take the hotel shuttle to the airport. I forgot to get there early, as most Chinese folks usually do, because I was the last one to get into the shuttle. Lucky for me, all the seats were taken so the driver pulled out this little plastic stool and placed it in the second row without blinking before climbed into his comfortable, driver’s seat. I sat on that stool with my big backpack, holding onto the window trying to stabilize myself for the whole half-hour ride, thinking this was not a good sign.

I checked in at the airport, almost forgetting to show the Tibet travel permit necessary to get my boarding pass. I received it in the mail just one week before the trip. Traveling to Tibet is highly restricted, particularly for foreigners. The permit lists and approves all of the sights I will visit as well as the tour company I will travel with. I would later learn that Chinese and Hong Kong nationals do not need to purchase a permit prior to the trip, but Taiwanese nationals do. Foreigners, especially Westerners, have a history of supporting Tibetan separatism so their travels are closely monitored. Plus, China wants to control the image that is perpetuated by them in regards to their relations with the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Fortunately, I did not have to do much to get it because my tour company arranged it all for me. I only had to choose which tour I wanted to take and with whom. I had selected a Tibetan-owned company called Explore Tibet. Upon some research I had done on the Interwebs I learned that a lot of companies are scams but this one seemed legit. Looking back, it was one of the best decisions I made and I HIGHLY recommend this company as much as I highly recommend the trip!

When the time to board came and went, people were getting restless. The skies were grey and it was announced that my 9AM flight would be delayed by three hours. That was annoying after my ridiculous ride to the airport. Then, noon came and went and it was announced the flight would be delayed for another three hours. I was going nuts at this point and wrote a bunch in my journal to keep myself occupied. Six hours later, me and my fellow passengers were happy to finally start boarding. The skies were clearing up and I had the pleasure of sitting next to this family with an adorable baby. He kept staring at me with the widest eyes, through which my face was probably perplexing. His mom giggled at his staring, trying to get him to say “hello.”

Two and a half hours later, I landed in Chongqing for my layover. I said "bye" to the cute Chinese family and a young Chinese guy named Leon sat in the aisle seat. I savored my window seat, looking forward to the first sights of Lhasa. Another two and a half hours later, it would be night time by the time I got there, so we could not see much. There were just a few spots on which some of the mountain peaks were able to catch some light. This was simply a tease as the pilot gave a long announcement in Chinese. I could not hear a thing when he gave the same announcement in English because there was a huge uproar. Leon had to translate that there was a huge thunderstorm below so the pilot did not want to land. We had to turn back and land east of Lhasa in Chengdu, land of the pandas.

It was 11PM by this point and I was fed up with anything that had to do with airplanes. We landed in Chengdu to learn our flight would leave the next morning at 9AM. The airline arranged for our hotels but would not allow us to get our bags for another two hours. The wait wasn’t worth it, but I met two other girls, Tracy from Hong Kong and Wong Chong Jo from Guangzhou. Both were really sweet and only spoke broken English. I learned I was the only foreigner on board and appreciated their attempt to keep me informed about the flight situation. We bonded over our frustrations. By that point, I was starving and tired and just wanted to be in Lhasa already.

We took a shuttle to our hotel, which was actually nice. Me and Jo decided to share a room because she did not want to stay alone. She went to bed early, but Tracy was hungry so we decided to get something to eat. Leon joined us too and called a local friend who ended up paying for our dinner. No one ate meat out of respect for me. I tried to explain I did not mind if they ate meat, but they had a hard time understanding that eating halal did not mean vegetarian. They asked me lots of questions about what I thought about China and I impressed them with the random Cantonese and Mandarin I knew.

We were all exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel. It had been such a long day and I was nowhere near where I intended to be. Eight months and my whole trip to China has been like this. I have learned that nothing turns out the way you expected. The key is not to lower expectations, but learn to better handle losses and to celebrate gains. I showered and went to

bed carefree and excited to give my destination another try the next day.

From this map, you could clearly see where I started, where I wanted to go, and where I ended up. Guangzhou is in the southeast, near Hong Kong. Lhasa is near the Nepal border in the west. Chengdu is in central China in Sichuan province (which has gorgeous-looking people, I may add).