Eileen and I are on our own, as of 1 October, Monday. The night before we left, Hoe and Son and I went to a music bar in the backpacking district and had a great time. We drank beer until too late then took a taxi home. A great night of getting to know each other even better with Son reading my palm and telling me aspects about myself that he observed. Every time he was correct we drank a toast - - he was right quite often and only wrong once! Considering we don't speak the same language, that's pretty good! Hoe probably gets tired of interpretting for us but was a good sport about it. And sometimes he just refuses to let the two of us "talk" and just talks to me himself without clueing Son in to any of it - - he holds complete control with the communication. Communicating with people when we don't speak the same language: I could write a whole entry just on that!
The guys headed off trekking in the East, we took off in a Toyota Land Cruiser (with 582,689 kilometers on it before we left!) toward the west and south. We were thrilled to be getting to the heart of our vacation, but it was kind of sad to say good-bye to the guys because I had so much fun with them for the 3 days prior - - and who knew what lay ahead?! We drove nearly 6 hours the first day through the most barren yet beautiful terrain I've ever seen. Barren like the moon in some spots. Beautiful because of the textures and colors: brown/gray mountains that are rounded and sharp all at once, sagey green shrubs, bright purple flowering bushes, sand colored dust blowing everywhere, and a blue sky so blue that if you told me in a paint shop that this paint is called 'sky blue' I'd laugh at you because it would be just far too bright for what I was thinking sky blue should be. Absolutely breathtaking. The terrain is a geologists dream, too, because you can actually see how these mountains took their shape at one time; how they came together rising up from the earth. Indescribable.
We climbed to about 4500 meters (roughly 15,000 feet) the first day and we could feel it. It was hard to walk much of a distance at all without getting winded. But it's not the kind of winded that makes one think they need an inhaler or even to make you think the next breath isn't going to come. Rather it's a fast breathing or an out-of-breath feeling like you've just finished running when you're not used to running. No pain associated with it, at least not for me, just the fast heart beat and shortness of breath that would disappear within a minute or so as I aclimatized to the new altitude. But talk about sinus problems, whew! EVERYone blows their noses constantly. CONSTANTLY. At least I use a tissue (as do most travellers) but the locals just use their hands or blow into the air. What on earth? But I'll bet their noses don't get chapped like the rest of ours that way!
At every pass, at the hightest point of the pass, there are prayer flags strung across the roads. The higher the better for hanging prayer flags because the prayers will reach Buddha better at a higher level. So there are flags everywhere in the mountains; often in spots precarious and perching. It's beautiful!
On our way to our first stop which was a town called Sakya, we saw a most touching site that still haunts me. First of all, let me give you some background. There are monks and pilgrims/followers of the Buddhist faith here that do what's called prostrating themselves. It looks like an aerobic exercise, truth be told. The person begins standing upright then folds their hands at their navel then raises the folded hands above their heads. Then they bring their hands down to their sides and lie face down flat on the ground and slide their hands/arms forward above their heads in this prone position. Then they get up and do it all over again. Many wear knee pads and most use slippers or cardboard or some other thing that slides under their hands making it easier and faster to slide. It is best if a person does a certain number of these prostrations in their life - - I'm not sure how it works. It is done mostly in the Barkhor Square in front of a monastery. The sound it makes with all of these people sliding and moving with their jewelry making tinkling sounds is really quite nice. The ones that seek eye contact during prostration are the ones I question if their faith is real or if they are showy - - it's obvious which ones are doing it for all the world to see vs those that do it because they believe it is the right thing to do. At least in my opinion.
Okay, so on with my story. Driving along the road we saw a 'lead car' with two prostrating monks behind. These monks were prostrating themselves for who knows how far in the bright sunshine and heat. Evidently they seek alms in the morning and prostrate through the afternoon and evening. I don't know if they stop at night or not. Our driver stopped and offered one of the monks some apples and a bottle of water; he took the apples but didn't want the water rather requested tea (probably because water would cause him to have to stop too often). Now I'm new to the whole prostrating thing and don't particulary understand its relevance or even believe in doing that kind of faith-bearing BUT the fact that someone does this sort of thing because of their faith is amazing to me. Lappa (the phonetic spelling since the real spelling is very difficult), our guide, said that many monks go all the way to India - - hundreds and hundreds of miles. For the rest of the week I've wondered and asked "I wonder what the prostrator is doing tonight and where he is?" It was really quite something. Something I won't soon forget. A highlight, I guess.
We stopped in a small town called Sakya where the only real feature for a tourist is the monastery. Otherwise it's a dusty little town with a slaughter house outside our hotel window and cows that move through the street. Very dusty. In the restaurant there was a waiter who had charm up to here with the biggest personality ever! His English is good but he still struggles so ordering our food took awhile. Plus, he was busy talking about where we were from and would rather have done that all night than work - - and he told us so. He said he wants to leave Sakya so bad but can't get out. He has tried for a US visa to no avail and even moved somewhere else in Asia but returned for whatever reason. It made me think that where we're born has so much to do with who we turn out to be or we believe we can be. If I'm a person with lots of energy and motivation yet am born into an area where I feel I am stifled it would be difficult to change or move. I am thankful for the resources I have to seek my own life - - a life that suits me, a life of my own choosing.
This waiter asked where I live in the United States and when I said Minnesota he informed me that there are a lot of Tibetans living there. He said there's a famous musician living there now. 'Do you know him?' he asked. 'He sings such-and-such song, you know, [and starts humming and singing this song in Tibetan].' 'Do you know that song?' No, I said, but I promised to look him up when I go home - - and I will. The 'joyful and delightful' opinion I hold about this place proves itself once again. He hummed a song to me then asked me if I knew it!
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