china trip - crazy + fun stuff

This post is dedicated to my friend who turned 20 last week. Welcome to the 2-decade club BreAnna! This post highlights the kind of crazy and funny things 20+ year olds find when they have too much time on their hands...have a salary...have no homework to do because they graduated...and go to China...to see crazy and fun things.

Here are some in no particular order:


The thing that melded "crazy" and "funny" the best on the trip was the Chinese-English translations. Sometimes I couldn't for the life of me figure out what they meant. All the times I couldn't for the life of me stop chuckling. Here is one at Leh Shan temple.


Uh, hate to break it to you China, but to the untrained eye your language actually kinda looks like....

Nope, that little puddle under that little girl is most definitely NOT a remnant of an afternoon rainstorm. Wow.


The bottled water brand of choice for sadistic villains and thirsty tourists.

This is some crazy cool art we saw in a Daoist temple in Chengdu.


Click on this photo for close up. I love its use of word choice and laughed at its lack of visual discrimination when explaining which side it which.

Here is me and a Buddhist monk I met when I was up visiting Namsto Lake. I saw him, smiled and walked over to shake his hand, and motioned if I could take a picture with him. Obviously he agreed.
The best part was when I turned around and there was my new monk friend taking a picture of me with his CELL PHONE! Everyone in China is hip with the technological times...even monks. (Which means I am probably the Facebook profile of some random dude in China)

The placement of this fan makes me question how popular some of the items in this restaurant really are...

Me and Chairman Mao!

Chairman Mao (or his large great nephew who bears a striking resemblance to him) in the flesh!


Don't like the sun? The Tibetan solution: just get your friend to hold a package of toilet paper over your head to block out the shining radiation!


Two crazy/fun things about this picture: First, check out the crazy soldiers across the street. In Tibet there are Chinese national guards all over the place. We didn't take pictures of them often (because we didn't want to get jailed, deported, or make our guide nervous) but I just happened to caught them here. They carry around black shotguns and rifles and don't smile much. This is aimed at discouraging uprisings or mass demonstrations in Lhasa.

Second, check out the fun sign above my solider subjects. This store was actually part of a chain of two stores with the same great brand.


"Beauty is generous!" Another classic Chinese-English blend that made us smile. Can you guess what this is on? Perhaps some facial cream, or cosmetics, or.....

Lets think about that mystery over a dinner of...yak curry! (succulent and delicious by the way)


Nope, not what you guessed. Its a toothpick dispenser!! Yep, just press down the chimney on the right and a pointy pick rises from the spout on the left.


Yeah, this little kid kept following us around as we walked around Tibet. No joke, this short-round was on our tail for like 3/4 of a mile. After about 10 street blocks (including 3 corner turns mind you), I was sure he was like the ringleader for a pickpocket gang. This was when we alerted our group to stash their cash and cameras. He finally took off at some random corner, probably home to his family to tell them of the strange white folk he saw coming home from his weekly community service.

If any of you watched Lost for any of seasons 2-4, you know why I look so disgruntled at the apparent revelation that JJ Abrams ripped off the ancient Daoist symbol of "a strange map in the middle of the jungle."


Yeah, this was cool. So Sam and I were walking down the street one morning and we saw a small alley way with some people going into it. Of course we all know the standard equation: Suspicious alley way + curious 20 somethings = adventure waiting to happen!
We walk through about 10 meters and the alley way opens up into a huge mess hall where all these Tibetans are just chilling and enjoying morning breakfast. Of course everyone stops and looks at us when we come in (just like when Clint Eastwood walks into a bar in the old spaghetti westerns) and so our natural reaction to to wave at the people who are checking us out. Here is a table of women that were kind enough to try and communicate with us and share their tea (they were unsuccessful at both attempts).



This little girl was adorable. She was all "Mama..foreigners! White people mama!" Sam then went up to her and took a picture with her. This is her returning the favor for the foreigners.


Tons of wares in just one vendor stand. There were easily 300 stands like this one in this market.


Buddhist pilgrims in Tibet. This woman either really hates leaving her pets alone at home while she travels, or owns very religious livestock.

Closer look at the pet on its Tibetan pilgrimage.
"Can you tell me if this is a goat, or a sheep? You're right!"


The worlds highest concentration of tibetan prayer flags!!!


This woman had clearly been influenced by Texan tourists before I got to her. Hold on to your heritage Tibetans...dont give in.



Cool stuff that we shopped for in Tibet. You know...like Chinese armor.



Yep, this was a sad irony I couldn't help but photograph.

Sam and I had a running tally of wins at our favorite card game. Unfortunately, this is the only documented record that I was ever ahead during our trip.

Seven Days in Tibet - Best of Tibet

We saw tons of amazing things in our week in Tibet. Aaron nicknamed our Tibet excursion "Where were you when we were getting high?" Here are some of the best shots we took while we were on the top of the world.


Literally about the highest I have ever been: 5190 meters baby!


This is a less than great shot of one of the coolest things I have ever seen: Tibetan monks engaged in their daily debate. You should really see this in video form.



The trading market we went to in Lhasa. This place was chalked full of pilgrims, tourists, and yak meat vendors.


Some awesome landscape shots taken on the Tibetan Highway. We spent hours on this road, but well worth the view we were able to soak up. I have never seen so much open space before.





In the middle of one of our trips on the Highway, we hit this freak hailstorm. It went from blue sky to thick hail for about 6-7 minutes straight and then stopped just as abruptly. Even our guide said he had never seen anything like it. It just kept hitting our van, so we pulled over and got some shots of the craziness.



We hiked up a bit in the Himalayas. We made it to about 17,000 feet before we puttered out like a VW bug running on fumes.



So the government makes you sign this health waiver before you enter into the plateau. Click on this picture and read the whole thing. We didn't stop laughing for hours. I can't decide whether C or E is my favorite.

Lovely Tibetan colors adorn the holy sites.


Check out some real Tibetan clothing. People dress traditionally all over, especially the women.

This was how much cash I dropped for my share of the price of the Tibet trip. 6,000 quay and worth every one.

Prayer flags are all over the place in Tibet. The Tibetans believe the wind carries the prayers, which isn't such a bad thing considering how windy it gets.

Prayer barrel. There are Buddhist prayers in these, and when the people spin them, they feel as it is almost like repeating the prayer. These things are all over the holy sites, and get used constantly.
This is the Dalai Llama's cat, or at least the cat at his palace.

The temple at Lake Namsto, the highest lake in the world. Below is our crew on the shore of Namsto.


Me at the main monastery where the monks take their examinations and where the Dalai Llama received his doctorate in philosophy. This place was amazing!

Quote of the yesterday #5

"How is my SIN?" - Sister H

Seven Days in Tibet - Potala Palace

Behold, the Potala Palace! This palace was the main residence of the Dalai Llama himself (until he was exiled in 1959 by the CCP government) and was built in the center of Lhasa almost 400 years ago. It sits right on a mountain that is visible from almost anywhere you go in the city.



For years this palace was both the religious and political center of Tibet. Thousands of people in Lhasa come to make a pilgrimage around its walls everyday.

Our Tibetan guide and his sidekick. These guys not only 'rocked house,' they gave us tours of the Dalai Llama's house!


A view of downtwon Lhasa from the top of the palace steps.

Us walking up the stairway mountain to the door of the palace. They only allow a few thousand people in everyday, so we had to wait until our wave of people was accepted into the grounds.


This is what the rest of Lhasa looks like when you get to the top of the palace steps.

This section of the palace is where you enter into the main halls. There are 1,000 different rooms in the palace, and the Dalai Llama used only a few regularly. Because the Dalai Llama belongs to the 'Yellow sect' of Buddhism, many of the things relating to him are yellow. At the top of this picture you can see a yellow window. That is the window he would come out to address the people, and see the cool stuff in the courtyard.


These guys were laughing at their buddy who was posing with people that wanted to take pictures of real Tibetan looking men. They just couldn't get enough of how their friend soaked up the attention. I didn't want them to feel left out, so I snapped a photo of them.

Here is our crew after we finished our 90 minute tour. We were officially stoked about the cool ideas of Tibetan Buddhism by the end of the 90 minutes, and couldn't wait for another dose.

This is the main courtyard of the Potala Palace. You can see the brown yak cloth that is draped all around. You can see two of the 'auspicious symbols' in Tibetan Buddhism- the eternal knot, and the dharma wheel (the symbol of political power for the Dalai Llama).

The door of the Potala Palace!

Look mom, white people! Look Sam, Chinese people!

One of the protector dieties painted on the wall near the door of the palace. Most every major monastery or temple has these painted inside to protect the building from evil spirits.


Me at the end of my first experience with Tibetan Buddhism. We couldn't take any pictures inside, but we saw all sorts of cool stuff, and probably like 900 Buddhas!






Some of the dorms outside the palace proper, but still on the grounds.