Day 3 :: MONDAY 17 Aug 2015  from Kathmandu to Lhasa... entry into China and Tibet!!

One thing that we were going to master during this trip was the fine art of unpacking, repacking, packing etc etc etc… Started opff with unpacking our suitcases and repacking all into waterproof covers and into the duffel bags. Duffel bags made a lot of sense as it is the easiest for the sherpas to handle and stack in the truck. Converted INR to Yuan @ Rs 11 each. 

Had breakfast and headed for the Guru Puja. Collected our Isha Sacred Walks T shirts. This was very chaotic and disorganized, very very uncharacteristic of Isha. The T shorts were not properly labeled as S/M/L and the covers too did not have any markings. In many cases if the cover said M, the T short inside was either S or L !!!. This could surely be done in a far better way. We were also told to collect a quota of provisions (lentils / rice / spices / oils etc) and add that to our duffel bags. This was to be handed over at Lhasa to the accompanying sherpas who were part of the cooking team. From there on our duffel bags and these provisions would follow us in a separate truck. We had to manage our own backpacks.

We were told about being split into 4 groups A to D and our individual group coordinators names. We were briefed about being sensitive to the Chinese concerns on Indians support of Tibet issues and therefore not carrying any material pro Tibet or speaking out on any aspect related to Tobet / Dalai Lama etc.

Left for the KTM airport in two buses for our outbound flight to Lhasa. Our group visas had been issued in two lots one of 41 and another of 20. We were also told how to line up in that specific sequence for our immigration into China at Lhasa airport.

While I was given to understand earlier that it was a chartered flight for the Kathmandu-Lhasa sector and the return, I discovered that it is a normal commercial airline flight of Sichuan Airlines that we were flying !!  Boarded the Sichuan Airlines KTM – Lhasa flight at 1120, which took off late at 1200 .The 90 odd minute flight gave us a brief glimpse of the Himalayan ranges. The trip organisers had not specifically asked for vegetarian meals so what we got for a snack was some buns / cakes , chinese style kimchi etc. This is another thing that the trip organisers could have done better. (Note :: We discovered this lapse more on our return sector  many days later (Lhasa kathmandu sector by the same airline, where we were travelling at lunchtime and all that they had on offer was chicken fried rice !! If they had pre-specified we may have got veg fried rice instead!. We had to do with the buns and chinese style kimchi again) 

On landing at Lhasa, the Chinese immigration process was very efficient and thay also used infra red scanners to identify anyone with fever. Collected our duffel bags and boarded the two buses to the hotel “Hotel Hao Di” just a couple of kms away.

Kathmandu is at approx 4700 ft above MSL and Lhasa is at around 11600 ft abobe MSL. A big jump in altitude in a few hours !!  Luckily none of us had any high altitude sickness issues thus far. Only one lady had a slight giddiness when we were in the queue at Lhasa immigration and she was given a small piece of camphor to inhale through the kerchief and she was OK.

Loading our duffel bags onto the truck

Hao Di hotel at Lhasa

Room allocation & wi-fi password!!

The scramble at any new location is not just for getting the rooms allotted. But more so to get the password for the wi-fi!!  All of us were very keen to log in to the wi-fi network and connect up with folks back home on Whatsapp!!

Strange thing is that the places that we stayed in may not have attached toilets or hot water or some of the other basic amentites. But wi-fi they surely had !!! We had hot orange juice ( Tang!!) followed by a lunch at 1830 hrs local time !! The sherpas accompanying us had to take over the kitchen and whip up a quick meal for us.  Cut apples , cucumber, roti ,  dal,  rice with spinach+potato +cauliflower bhaji and pickles on the side.  

We were told that we should not venture outside the hotel at all as the local authorities did not want outsiders especially Indians to interact with the local Tibetans. So it was a forced “hotel-arrest” for all of us!!