12 months, 11 countries, 0 flights 🌏

We survived our 21 hour train ride from Lhasa to Xining on seats with fitful sleep and some very cute Chinese children to keep us company. The time had actually gone pretty quickly, and we had both had a few hours of sleep in all sorts of weird and wonderful positions. We had been inspired by Edda and Tekla and their very lean budget to change our seats from sleeper bunks to seats (for about half the price), and although cheaper we definitely both arrived feeling pretty sleep deprived! We had finally arrived in Mainland China and the culture shock we started to feel in Lhasa only increased. The entire time in Tibet had been easy mode with a guide, a personal driver, and our accommodation all booked. Now we were on our own!

Xining is the capital of Qinghai province in central China with a population of around 2.5 million people. In the Chinese city tier system it is only a tier 3 city, so relatively small by Chinese standards. Nevertheless we felt like we had just returned to modern civilization for the first time since Mumbai as it felt like a very modern city. The cities population is made up of a mix of Tibetan, Hui Muslim and Han Chinese, with an increase in Han Chinese in recent years. 

Our first day in the city after a big sleep was overwhelming but exciting. Everything was new and we spent the whole day learning. First impressions for me were surprise, confusion, excitement, and amazement. Almost every vehicle was electric, nobody spoke English, the people were so kind and welcoming. For our first breakfast in the city we had Jianbing (kind of like a savoury crepe) and the lady in the store was so lovely, she wouldn’t let us pay and said “Welcome to China”. We visited Popmart, Uniqlo and Sephora much to Alice’s delight, and really enjoyed being in a city again. We wandered around a nearby park that evening on a random week night and were shocked at what we saw. Aunties and uncles were forming huge dance groups, kids were playing ping pong on outside tables or kicking around balls. People were out with their friends and family enjoying a meal or chatting in the park. It felt like one big community enjoying a summer evening in Xining.  

We spent most of our time here adjusting to the culture shock, sorting our admin (it took us about two hours in a store to get our SIM cards), and enjoying what felt like the first modern city we had been in for a long time. We were already plotting a move to China, and slowly but surely getting our head around how to do things in this new environment. Alice had been doing Mandarin on Duolingo during the lead up to our trip, and I had started a couple of weeks ago. It was very cool to be able to try this out in real life, and we felt very proud of ourselves every time we managed to order a coffee semi successfully, or spot one of the handful of characters we recognized. 

Josh from the present time here, we are actually about two weeks behind with the blog. We have been writing these blogs for nearly six months now and are thinking it’s time for a buit of a tone shift. We’ve been writing really in-depth posts this whole time and loving it, but we’ve been really struggling to keep up with our crazy itinerary through China. We have been to seven places in the last two weeks alone, and have done so much in each location that we want to tell you all about. It’s not maintainable for us and we really want to be up to date with the blog so we can write them while things are fresh. So, we are going to try and shorten the future blogs, while hopefully still covering our thoughts, impressions and the overall themes of each place we visit. We are having the best time in China and can’t wait to share our adventures with you all!

For most travelers, Lhasa is the gateway to the rest of Tibet. An arrival point for acclimatization days, and an introduction to Tibetan culture and customs. After our exposure to Tibetan Buddhism and culture in India, Nepal, and over the last few days, it was a special experience to finally be arriving in Lhasa with some understanding already. This city is one of the highest of its size in the world, sitting at 3,656m above sea level! We were pretty well acclimatized at this point and had stopped the Diamox, but it was still high enough to be inconducive to deep, restorative sleep and generally fatiguing, despite our time spent at altitude. The city is the historic spiritual and cultural heart of Tibet and was the seat of the Dalai Lama as spiritual and political leader from 1642 - 1959. Today the city is still home to a number of important monasteries, temples and pilgrimage sites, but there is also an increasingly obvious modern Chinese influence. You’re all going to stop reading if we mention the word ‘infrastructure’ one more time I’m sure, but I can’t stress enough how impressive the scale of everything is here. Driving in at night it felt like we were arriving in a big modern city, which wasn’t how I had expected to feel in Lhasa. From what I could understand this feeling is common and only increasing year on year. The population of the greater area is around 900,000, and the percentage of Han Chinese in this mix is increasing due to government incentives to move to the area. 

We had three days here which felt like a treat after the last week on the move, two days with the tour and then a day just exploring before our evening train into Mainland China. The girls were on a really tight budget so had opted out of the Lhasa sites, and the Italian family had mistakenly (and devastatingly) booked their flight back to Nepal one day early. This meant we got a whole day with Yeshi by ourselves which was a real treat, private tour vibes!

Over our time in Lhasa we visited four major sites for Tibetan Buddhism - Drepung Monastery, Sera Monastery, Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple. Drepung Monastery and Sera Monastery felt very much like living, breathing places of worship and deep spirituality, with lots of visitors (both tour groups like us and local visitors). Again it was clear from the empty Monk residences, size of the maps of the monastery and the general quietness that what felt like energy to us was nothing compared to their former states. 

Drepung was perched up on a hill above the city and we got some amazing views over the valley, despite the cloudy day. With the classic Tibetan style white washed walls and traditional window and door coverings, you could close your eyes and really feel like you had gone back in time 100 years. 

Sera was very busy with families, as there is a particular deity here that you take young children to for blessings. It made for some great cute baby spotting for Edda and I, and walking through the leafy alleyways here was lovely. A highlight of the whole time in Tibet was watching the monks debate at Sera. Tibetan monastic debates are a dramatic and rigorous tradition used to train the mind and sharpen one's understanding of Buddhist philosophy.  A large group of monks were gathered in the courtyard paired up with one sitting (the answerer) and one standing (the challenger). The challenger begins with a dramatic clap and then poses their first question to the answerer. The challenger then follows up, and they go back and forth. Sometimes the process is slow, with long answers and pauses for thought, but often it is fast, quippy and very dramatic. They were debating in Tibetan so we didn’t know what they were saying, but it looked like a lot of fun and often got very fast paced and theatrical. 

Potala Palace felt more like a museum than a palace or a place of worship, but it was very special to be walking through the former residence of the Dalai Lama. Security was high and no photos were allowed inside, but the history was deeply steeped in this place. We saw some incredible three dimensional mandalas, made of ghee, gold and sand. This was our first experience of an intense tourist attraction in China, and with hindsight it is comical to look back and think how busy we found it!! 

Our final major site in Lhasa was Jokhang Temple. Located in the center of the old town, this place is an active worship site for many and a major pilgrimage destination with people coming from all around the Tibetan Plateau (often by way of prostrations) to visit. It was founded in the 7th century, and is home to the Jowo Rinpoche statue, a depiction of Shakyamuni Buddha that is believed to have been blessed by the Buddha himself, and bought to Tibet by Princess Wencheng. It is the most venerated object in Tibetan Buddhism. Being inside this temple was insane, it was packed with visitors and worshippers, but being outside it was almost more special. It is considered very meritorious to perform Kora around the temple on the Barkhor circuit, spinning prayer wheels, chanting mantras or performing prostrations. Walking this route at sunset with the locals was very special, despite visitors often getting in the way of this sacred act with their photo shoots while dressed up to the nines in traditional Tibetan constume… yikes. 

The whole downtown area around the temple was busy with monks, tourists, pilgrims and police. Once we were through the check point to get into the old town area, we loved exploring the shops, contrasting from Popmart (no Labubu in stock) to local Thagka studios. One day we were searching for a specific tea shop in the center of town and it turned out to be closed. We got chatting to an older monk on google translate, and tried to ask where else we could go for tea. He promptly got up and told us to come with him, walked us into a tea shop nearby, bought us a pot of tea, wished us well and was on his way. We could hardly even talk to him (Tibetan is not supported for voice translation on google translate), but he was so warm and friendly and kind. The old town was a real blend of new development (Popmart, KFC, photo shoots, new buildings with stylized facades to look “old”) and then pockets of history (pilgrims prostrating, Thanka studios, this monk walking us through centuries old streets to his favourite tea shop). It was a real privilege to stumble across these little moments in a very quickly changing place. 

It will be no surprise to any of you that we ate well while in Lhasa! We thoroughly enjoyed the “east meets west” buffet at the hotel every morning which offered everything from fried eggs to steamed buns. My highlight meal was the noodles and tea we had in a traditional tea house with Yeshi, and for the one and only time on the tour (at our insistence) he joined us for the meal. The noodles are everything we dreamt of and more, and this Tibetan variety was rich with flavour, heat and comfort. We found another spot which turned out to be a local hangout for young people, and thankfully a few other customers had enough English to help us out with ordering. KFC in China for the first time was also a great experience, ordering completely through a Wechat mini program not so much. Very hard, very confusing! 

Our newly found freedom in Lhasa felt like learning to walk again. I’m sure we’ll touch on this time and time again but everything is different in China. Sri Lanka, India and Nepal were in many ways “cut from the same cloth” and by the end of our time there it was feeling pretty easy. Something as simple as using maps is a real challenge, the English version of their google maps alternative (AMap) is hard to navigate and often incomplete. One night with the girls we tried to work out where to go for a few beers, and none of us had the first idea where we would even start with researching what might be a good place. We ended up back at the room with a box of beers and many good stories, which of course made for a fun night regardless. Every time we left the hotel felt like a battle with translation apps, map apps, WeChat mini programs, silent electric vehicles and culture shock. We were still loving it, but felt incredibly incompetent. We were so excited the first time we managed to book a DiDi (Chinese Uber) and I proudly reported back to mum and dad when I managed to ask someone where the supermarket was in Mandarin, and even understand the number when they told me it was on the second floor. The small wins felt amazing!

Before long we were headed to the train station in the pouring rain, ready to start our 20 hour journey through the Tibetan Plateaux to Qinghai province. We were both nervous for the trip, but armed with cups of noodles and boatloads of enthusiasm for our journey in this strange and exciting new world.

It had been a long day on the road when we finally arrived in Shigatse, the second largest city of Tibet, just in time for one of the included meals on our tour. We were booked in for a Tibetan style hotpot and a cultural performance as entertainment. There was a huge variety of vegetables and meat in the hotpots, and it was all delicious. Probably worth mentioning that by this point I had already given up on my idealistic vegetarian lifestyle. I was finding it far too difficult to avoid eating meat in Tibet / China, it seems that vegetarianism is very uncommon here, and combined with the language barrier and confusing menus it seemed impossible. I had gone over a month without eating any meat, and it felt good, so I will definitely revisit it again once we are finished travelling. This meal was also the first time Alice had drunk alcohol in 3 months, thanks to the included beers! The friendly waitresses were very interested in us (note from Alice - especially interested in Josh) and spent lots of time smiling at us and hanging out around our table. At the end of the night while we were enjoying the cultural performances, one of the waitresses told me to come with her, and when I asked her “Where am I going?” she responded “No English, just go!”. So I found myself standing on the stage with three Tibetan musicians who were rapidly strumming their instruments while singing and dancing. In front of a packed Tibetan restaurant I struggled to keep up with the fast paced dance, while the crowd cheered at, laughed at, and filmed me. 

The next morning we woke up bright and early to go and walk Kora around the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery which we were scheduled to be visiting at 8:30am with the rest of the tour group. This monastery is historically and culturally important in Tibet, founded in 1447 by the first Dalai Lama, it is the traditional monastic seat of the Panchen Lama.

Kora is the meditative act of walking clockwise around a sacred site, such as a monastery, stupa, or even a mountain, often accompanied by mantras such as the auspicious Om Mani Padme Hum, and the spinning of prayer wheels. The clockwise movement mirrors the sun's path and the movement of stars across the Tibetan sky (symbolising harmony with the cosmos) and the circular path represents the cycle of rebirth (samsara) and the path to breaking free from it. The belief is that each circuit done with the intention of helping others erases collective karmic debt, and purifies the soul. Kora is practiced daily by Tibetan Buddhists usually early in the morning and in the evenings. It was a really beautiful experience to join such a peaceful and meditative Tibetan tradition at such an important (and beautiful) monastery.

We met the rest of the group at the entrance and started our tour of the monastery. It was a really beautiful place, but very busy with lots of Chinese tour groups visiting. We were on a timer as there was a lot planned for the day, so after a quick tour we were back on the road again, next stop Gyantse. This small town between Shigatse and Lhasa is home to the stunning Palcho monastery and the imposing Gyantse Fortress (which was actually conquered by the British in 1903 during a British expedition to Tibet). This monastery is home to the largest and most famous Kumbum in Tibet (this is a multi-storied stupa-like structure you can walk up). This structure was very beautiful and intricate, and we were allowed to climb up to the top level for panoramic views of the monastery and the fortress on the hill. Unfortunately, most of the statues in the Kumbum were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in China, and have been replaced by clay replicates which lack the artistic merit of the originals.

After a quick lunch break for some noodles and coffee we were back on the road again. The landscape in Tibet is so beautiful and we were totally in awe as we looked out the windows of our van. We passed over multiple 5000m+ mountain passes, all of which have smooth roads with endless switchbacks that would put the Crown Range in New Zealand to shame. We stopped on one of the scenic mountain passes to admire a magnificent glacier, and Yeshi confirmed for us that just like everywhere else in the world this glacier has also retreated much in recent years. 

Our next stop was at a lovely Tibetan family home on the forefront of the picturesque Yamdrok Lake (one of the three largest lakes in Tibet), for a delicious home cooked dinner. This lake is one the sources of the Yarlung Tsangpo river which flows through Tibet into India and Bangladesh where it is known as the Brahmaputra. China has just started construction on what will be the world's largest dam on this river in Tibet, costing an estimated 167.8 billion US dollars. The electricity produced by this dam is estimated to be enough to power the entirety of the UK with room to spare, but has also sparked significant environmental, geopolitical, and humanitarian concerns. We had already seen early indicators of this with the incredible infrastructure and feats of engineering to literally pave highways over numerous 5,000m plus mountain passes! After our delicious dinner with the lovely Tibetan family by the lake, we all hopped back in the van for a final drive through to Lhasa accompanied by loud car Karaoke to ABBA. It had been a long and incredible day filled with such beautiful scenery, awe inspiring monasteries, and so much kindness from the lovely Tibetan people.

From Nayalam the road wound up, and up, and up to reach Qomolangma/Everest Base Camp. We spent quite a lot of time thinking about how bizarre it was that we were covering in two days the elevation we had spent nearly eight days walking up in Nepal. The whole group was feeling the altitude, it’s intense to go from 1,000m to 5,000m in two days, so there was lots of quiet time napping in the van. It took most of the day to travel the 221kms to Base Camp, with a few stops on the way for lunch and to check out the view from some of the scenic passes. Unfortunately it was quite clouded in, but we were so excited regardless just knowing how high we were. Again, we were in awe of the quality of the roads and the general infrastructure, even the highest passes and the smallest towns seemed to have constant construction underway. As we got higher the landscape got more and more arid until there were basically no trees in sight. China has implemented a policy where everyone travels to the base camp area by electric bus or minivan, leaving all personal vehicles at a facility about an hour down the road. This does wonders for reducing the congestion at the top and reduces pollution in these special areas, something New Zealand could learn a lot from for some of our major sightseeing spots. 

Once we arrived at the main Base Camp area I was in shock, we found what looked like a prefabricated tent city with literally hundreds of tents available for accommodation! After a quick confused text exchange with Lydia, I learnt that the actual climbers stay further up the valley at the foot of the glacier which made a lot more sense. We weren’t staying in the tent city, and instead pulled up to what was called a guest house but in reality was more like a hotel. Our room had two very comfortable beds, an oxygen dispenser that pumped the sweet stuff into the room during the night and a private bathroom. Very different from my experiences at base camp on the Nepal side a few years ago!! We were coping pretty well with the altitude, mostly due to the help of our altitude sickness pills and the fact we didn’t really have to walk anywhere. It all felt very lush and luxurious compared to when we were last at this altitude a few weeks ago in Nepal. We were pretty limited to where we could go, there were cameras everywhere and only a short stretch of road to a viewpoint that we were allowed to explore. I asked Yeshi if we could wander to any of the points up above base camp and was quickly told that under no circumstances was I to try and explore out of bounds, or he would likely lose his job.

It was about 5 PM by the time we arrived, and it was pretty clouded in. Our spirits weren’t too fallen though, we had learnt from our time in Nepal that the mornings were always the most reliable time to see the big mountains. Alongside the obvious views of Qomolangma, there was also an incredible monastery, Rongbuk Monastery, right next to our “base camp” which was a real privilege to visit. This is the highest monastery in the world (!!!) and it used to be home to 500 monks and nuns. This monastery has an average temperature of −17,5 °C, due to its severely cold winters. While in June and July days commonly hit temperatures of 10 °C, they drop significantly during nighttime, making it the coldest continuously populated place outside of Antarctica. The lowest temperature recorded around the area is −55,7 °C.

As with most monasteries in Tibet, this number has now reduced significantly, and now only 20 monks and 10 nuns live here. We enjoyed looking at the different meditation halls and enjoyed some conversation with Yeshi away from the scrutiny of cameras and microphones in the van. One of the highlights of the monastery visit was sharing yak butter tea with a few of the monks in their kitchen/dining area. A Tibetan specialty, butter tea has a very acquired salty taste, but apparently it helps with altitude so we all gladly enjoyed a few refills. One of the monks was pretty enamored with our camera, and enjoyed trying it out which resulted in some great photos. We also met a 85 year old monk who had spent 20 years meditating in a cave further up the valley, and although he can’t sit so easily in the meditation position anymore, he still regularly visits to look after the altar and offerings. 

After the monastery we wandered down to the viewing area, and despite mostly cloudy views we had the best time. The area was packed with tourists from Mainland China and it was so fun chatting to different groups of young people who were so interested in where we were from and if we were liking our time in China. One pleasant change was how polite everyone was when asking for photos, they really stopped to ask if we would take a photo with us and made conversation. A stark contrast to the arm grips and cameras in the face we experienced in India. We were mainly chatting with other young people, and soon enough our WeChat contact lists were filled with locals from all around the country. If we can remember who is who, we will definitely be calling them up when we get to their respective home towns. It is a totally different experience to visiting nature in New Zealand, Nepal or even a more remote part of China (I’m sure). There are photo spots with lines and time limits and speakers talking to you and selfie sticks everywhere and clear rules about where you can and can’t go. But rather than critique this approach, we just tried to enjoy it. Of course it’s different, that’s why we come to other places! A lot of the other tourists were using supplemental oxygen, either through hand held respirators that you used every couple of breaths for a “hit” or hospital style tubes that sit under your nose. One of the most hilarious things was meeting a young guy who had his oxygen in one hand and a cigarette in the other! 

Dinner at the guest house was a whopping 80 yuan per person, so we ventured to tent city to find some instant noodles to make in our room. After a quick browse in the supermarket Josh was sad to see that every flavour had meat. We decided to look elsewhere and ended up at a little place selling meat kebabs and beers, and that was very quickly the end of Josh’s vegetarianism. All jokes aside, we were quickly realizing that being vegetarian in China would be hard, and from what we had heard this would only continue as we headed west. (Note from the future - chatting with Tekla and Edda as they kept traveling across China proved this point, they are struggling to find anything vegetarian.

It seems weird that I have written 1,000 words and hardly actually talked about the mountain, but I guess the true experience of this place was everything else around it. It felt so foreign to us, but also so fun. The following morning we woke up at 6:30 AM to a clear sky and dark but clear views of the mountain! We walked down to the viewing area with Edda and Tekla and parked up to wait for sunrise, with only a few other people around. It was a totally different experience from the chaos of last night. Unfortunately as dawn approached, so too did the clouds, and by the time it got light we couldn’t see anything. Feeling a little defeated, we headed back for breakfast still maintaining some hope that it might clear before we had to leave. After breakfast and some quick packing, we were all very excited to see the mountain slowly but surely coming into view out of the clouds. We headed back out to the viewing area and it was very satisfying watching the cloud slowly move away, apart from a little on the summit. We took the compulsory photos at the designated spots, trying to give the locals a run for their money on their posing. Spoiler alert: we didn’t, it’s hard!!! We wandered back to put our bags in the bus and get on the way to our next stop.

As we were walking back, Josh looked back and saw that Qomolangma had totally and utterly come into view! No clouds! It was a dream! I ran back and quickly checked out while Josh found a great spot for some photos, and we promised Yeshi we would only be “5 more minutes”. Of course you want the photos and the memories, but really there is nothing more awe inspiring than staring up at the biggest mountain in the world in all her glory. For me, I’m always reminded how much bigger this world is than any of us, and how we must do whatever we can to protect her. There’s been a very special feeling of synergy between the Tibetan people and their land, a kind of mutual respect and way of life that feels very complimentary. This was personified to me as I sat watching an old Nun feeding a friendly yak under this beautiful mountain. A scene that could have been the same for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Qomolangma actually means ‘Goddess mother of the world’ in Tibetan, and in that moment, even surrounded by feats of Chinese development, it couldn’t have felt more true. 

After all the uncertainty and stress we had finally made it to the Tibet/Nepal border. We woke up that morning excited and a bit nervous about the border security and process. It was another 20 minutes of bumpy driving from Tatopani to the border where we met two lovely girls who were joining our tour, Edda and Tekla. They had just finished a meditation retreat in Kathmandu and had to get a separate jeep to drive them to the border that morning. Coincidentally they were also on an overland journey from Germany to Japan (here is their amazing instagram account, make sure you give them a follow). We were all very excited to share our stories from the magic of overland travel and have some like-minded friends on the tour, but first we had to get through the border into Tibet!

We had heard the border security was very strict with full bag searches, checking messages on phones and inspecting laptops. But the reality was much more relaxed, there were some half hearted bag searches and nobody had their devices checked. The technology in the Tibet/China side of the border crossing was very advanced, and it felt like an airport. There were passport scanning gates and fingerprint scanners with cameras everywhere. But we all made it through smoothly where we met our guide for the next seven days, a lovely Tibetan man called Yeshi and our friendly driver Wang Len who spoke no English but always had a handshake and a smile to offer. We had made it to Tibet!

The road immediately after the border crossing was a little precarious as many parts of it were under construction. We got our first glimpse of Chinese infrastructure, which is extensive, ever present and world-leading. There was major work being done to carve a motorway into the side of the mountains, and reinforce the landslide prone hillside. It wasn’t long until we made it through the roadworks and on to the best road we have seen this entire trip. The road twisted and turned its way 2000m up the valley and had barriers the entire way, we passed through tunnels and underneath waterfalls, and the driving was so smooth. It was such a contrast compared to the treacherous Nepalese roads and we quickly climbed up the valley towards the incredible Tibetan Plateau.

We reached our first destination of the Tibetan tour at 3750m, a town called Nyalam. After we had settled into our room, a very lush hotel that we would never normally stay at, we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring this remote Tibetan town. China covers almost five different geographic timezones while only using one official timezone, China Standard Time (CST). This means that the Western parts of China have very strange daylight hours, and we immediately noticed this as sunset was around 9pm (feels like NZ during summer). Seeing as we were still close to the Nepali border, it also didn’t get light until around 7:30 AM which felt a bit strange. 

We were unsure what the free time would look like on the tour given the restrictions of the area, so we were very pleased when we were told we could basically explore the local town independently for the afternoon, and were left to our own devices for lunch and dinner. As soon as we left the hotel to explore, Alice and I had one thing in mind. A fat bowl of noodles. We went into a place Alice had spotted from the bus that seemed popular with the locals and had a menu with no English. The owner was so friendly and excited to see foreigners and started speaking to us rapidly in Mandarin. Alice put some of her Duolingo lessons to use and tried some basic Mandarin conversation, but after we got through the basics of where we were from, we resorted to translation apps and pointing at pictures on the menu to order. The food quickly arrived and it was the most delicious noodles with egg and tomato for me, and wonton soup for Alice. The friendly owner was super stoked when I asked for chilli oil in Mandarin! After lunch we found a great coffee and spent some time wandering through the town. We were definitely getting a lot of attention, and quickly remembered that foreigners really didn’t usually come this way, it was a total one off with the border switch! 

We had started feeling very comfortable in South Asia. The amount of English on menus, products, transportation and apps, as well as in conversation, made it pretty easy to navigate life. The culture shock here was immediate for us. There are hardly any English signs. Supermarkets have no English anywhere and most of the products are unrecognisable to us. Google Maps doesn’t work in China as all Google products are blocked, so we were trying to use a Chinese map app. And lastly, hardly anybody speaks even basic English. It felt like a completely different world to the previous day in Nepal, which was only a few hours drive away. It was scary, confusing, and so insanely exciting. We were both fizzing with excitement as we explored the town that afternoon and couldn’t wait for the days to come. Tomorrow we would be driving all the way up to Mount Everest base camp at 5,100m where we would be staying the night, stay tuned for this adventure and more exciting moments from our week in Tibet!