Seven Days in Tibet - Train Ride

Our "7 Days in Tibet" trip started from Chengdu a few days after I arrived. We weren't even sure we were going to get a government permit to Tibet until about 3 hours before we left. But with a little help from our hostel manager Mei Mei aka the 'Mistress of the House' we were successful in convincing the Chinese government to let us in the fabled Tibetan Plateau. The train we caught is billed as the "Highest Train in the World" because it reaches an altitude over 14,000 feet. They actually pump oxygen into the train cars to help you cope with the change.



The train line travels from Chengdu to Lhasa, the Tibetan capital city, and takes about 46 hours per trip. This equals a ton of time to take pictures (and for me to ace the Sam-man at our favorite card game of the ages about 37 times). Here are a few of the better shots.



At the train station before the longest train ride of my life!



Off we go into wide expanse. I love how you can see Aaron's walking sticks that he got blessed by a Taoist priest and carried them around with us for the rest of the trip!

A shot of my half of our train cabin, and half of Sam's legs.

This is what we did for a good portion of the 46 hour long trip. Sleep on Sam!



I got a bit tired myself from time to time. Good thing the ol' iPod had lots of Jack Johnson and Johnny Denver to lull me to sleep!


You might not be able to tell, but my box of Choco Pies was having an intense reaction to the alititude. Unfortunately, one of the individually wrapped treats couldn't handle the metaphorical or literal pressure and burst on me. Fortunately, it was loaded with so many preservatives, I couldn't taste the fact that it had been exposed to air days before consumption.


We treated ourselves to a celebratory dinner on the food car of the train one day. The whole thing cost us about 20 bucks for all four of us. Matt treated us to some orange drink, and there was much rejoicing.


Our delicious meal after we became acquainted with it.



Our fellow Tibet explorers sit down to dinner. Aaron always got us the best dishes by using his awesome Mandarin vocab powers to dazzle the waitresses into submission. This caused lingual envy between us and fellow travelers, but prevented us from getting ripped off too.


The Tibetan Plateau in all its window-view glory! We had 2 straight days of breath taking scenes of open ranges and farmland with the occasional city.




I like this one because you can see the horse herder in action. Cool stuff eh?!











End of the line: Lhasa Railway Station!!


Yeah, here we are reveling in the fact that we just took a 2 day train ride to Tibet. It took us like 2 days to come to grips that we were all half-way across the world from home, but it took us like 2 seconds to realize we were totally hardcore.

I'm not sure what face I was trying to make, but before you mock or hate remember that I made it in TIBET!!! When was the last time YOU made a stupid face in Tibet???? Yup...thought so.

china trip - Chengdu

The city we stayed in the longest was Chengdu. This town is roughly the size of Los Angeles and a central hub for lots of fun things. From here we got our train to Tibet, got buses to Leshan (and the largest Buddha in the world), Qingcheng Mountain, and lots of great food stuffs!

Here are some cool shots of Chengdu:


This was my first breakfast in mainland China. It cost me about 75 cents, and yes, that IS a tasty robin egg hiding the corner of my bowl there.


This was our hostel we stayed in. It was located in the middle of a posh outdoor mall, which made for a fun atmosphere when we walked home late at night.


Sam is lambasted with his new Taoist dragon friend.


We saw this awesome gate when we were walking around the city one day. The crazy part is that there is stuff like this everywhere.


Chengdu has over 12 million people in it, and most of them live in apartment buildings like this or over there shops like this:


Some cool Chinese buildings.


1. Sam talks to person in Chinese
2. Person understands about 1/2 of what Sam says
3. Sam shows them our Lonely Planet guide
4. Person tells us where to go (or where we are)
5. Sam cracks a funny joke about being a cool American who lives in China
6. Person smiles and tells his Mandarin is okay, but to improve it he should live in Chengdu and marry a Chinese girl.

(This process repeated itself no less than 4 times in this city.)

china trip - Hong Kong

After spending a record 17 hours in the air, I finally landed in Hong Kong. Lovely town by most accounts, but the best part was that we had free housing (thanks Eric & Sarah!) at Discovery Bay. Here begins our photo documentations of the 2010 China adventure!


Off we go to epic awesomeness!


The fantastic view from our 17th floor room.



Night shot I took when I finally mastered the universal concepts of light, aperture, shutter speed, and Canon cameras.


Sam with quite possibly the cutest kids on the planet...depending on the planet.


Hong Kong dawns in the day our trip to the mainland commences.

International

So, I'm going to visit the People's Republic of China for a while. More to come.