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Retreat Day 12 to 15 - Lhasa/Chengdu/Singapore
Day 12 - Shotun Festival (Yogurt Festival)
This is the famous annual festival where the Tibetan monasteries (seems like only the yellow hat sect) display a giant Buddha Thangka (晒佛)and thousands of Buddhists will flock to give offerings and pray for blessings. It is really fortunate that we are here at the right time to be part of this festival. ( Read more... ) -
Retreat Day 11 - Shigatse/Lhasa
If I wasn't in Tibet today, I would have cursed and swear and decided this day to be one of the worst this year! Our jokes of "water seep into handphone" and "handphone dropped into shit hole" literally happened this FINE morning! After breakfast, I visited the toilet at the hotel lobby and that was where I dropped my mobile phone into the ( Read more... ) -
Retreat Day 10 - Lhasa/Yamtso Lake/Gyantse/Shigatse
Approximately 1 hour away from Lhasa, we reached a site where the Tibetans hold their traditional sky burial. According to Jigme (realised this is the right way to spell his name), this site is only used for children that passed away. Apparently, sky burial is only allowed for dead with intact or undamaged bodies. If a body was cut or dismembered ( ( Read more... ) -
Retreat Day 9 (Part 2) - Sera Monastery
We set off for Sera Monastery at around 1400hrs. Sera Monastery is a Yellow Sect monastery and it is famous for the debating lamas. We took a local public bus that costs RMB2 per pax. On the bus, we met an elderly Lama and Jikmi started chatted with him in Tibetan language. Apparently, this Lama is also going to Sera Monastery and he's afraid he's ( Read more... ) -
Retreat Day 9 - Lhasa
My sleep last night was very much disturbed, both by weird dreams and dry throat. The air here is very dry and we have to drink lots of water at regular interval to prevent dehydration and altitude sickness. The dreams I had are about work and office and when I told Willie about it, he said that he knows I had been having bad dreams over the past ( Read more... ) -
Retreat Day 8 - Lhasa
Slept at 0400hrs this morning because of the slow internet connection here in Tibet. Took a long time to upload the photos. As a result, we woke up rather late today. Anyway, it turned out not to be an issue. Originally, Jikmi intended to bring us to Potala Palace today immediately after picking up the 2 Spanish in the morning. But due to some ( Read more... ) -
Retreat Day 7 - 大昭寺 Jokhang Temple / 小昭寺 Ramoche Temple
Finally had a good night sleep on a proper bed. Can’t say the same for Willie as he was disturbed by some weird noise throughout the night. Fortunately for me, that noise doesn’t bother me.
We were greeted by Ba Sang (巴桑) when at around 0900hrs at the recept area. He is the boss of this hotel and also a close business partner of Mr Sim. Jikmi can’t ( Read more... ) -
Retreat Days 4 to 6 - Journey to the Holy Land of Lhasa
Retreat Day 4 - On the train…
There’s no internet connection on the train, no socket for charging, so I thought I’ll just share whatever battery life I have on the laptop between writing short notes on Words (to be pasted to LJ later on) and Prison Break.
Boarding the train itself is already rather eventful. Fortunately not directly for us, but for 6 ( Read more... ) -
Retreat Day 4 - Preparation for Tibet
Went to the supermarket to get supplies for the train ride. Chatted with Wenquan over coffee about the situation at my work. Not much, more of sharing with him on the overall situation. At the same time, I'm also hoping that I can clear my head over a lot of things that I am currently feeling lost ( Read more... ) -
Retreat Day 3 - Dinner
Dinner with Wenquan and Mr Sim was a sumptuous mushroom steamboat. Something like Singapore's Mushroom Pot, but at a much cheaper price (I think 1/4 the price - RMB231 for the 3 of us and thank you, Mr Sim, for the treat!) and much more variety of fresher mushrooms such as 松茸，羊肚菌，竹荪 etc. According to Mr Sim, 松茸 is expensive and 羊肚菌 is aphrodisiac. ( Read more... )