19 June 2010

After a good night sleep in the very busy Kathmandu city, here I am at 05:30am in a bus driving me and a group of 15 people to Tibet…

First surprise, the deluxe bus supposed to take us there is in fact just an old crappy bus with no air, no leg space… hummm… ready for 8 hours of bus ride… but on the other hand, the group looks really nice, we are all travellers aged between 25 and 30… Ambiance !

Before the bus departs, we are reminded that any books about or written by the Dalai-Lama , or books illustrating pictures of monks in Tibet are strictly forbidden to enter Tibet. Erm, sorry, I mean China.

Believe it or not, the Lonely planet is also forbidden. If you get caught at the border with one of these books, not only will the book be confiscated and you will be refused to enter the country, but you will also be questioned for hours or days by the police… without necessarily having a translator…

After a 6 hours rough and boiling hot bus drive, we arrive at the Chinese border of Zangmu, which we have to cross by foot. We were actually very lucky that the bus managed to drive up all the hills and landslides, as it is apparently not often the case and jeeps must be organized (and paid) half way up…

So here we are crossing the border without being allowed to take any pictures of course (after the book rules, nothing else will surprise me on this trip). Our bags are searched by the Chinese militaries… I have a sudden fright when I realize that I have actually a book from Greg Mortenson in my bag… illustrating not monks, but Americans and little veiled Muslim girls…. (and the words terrorism and Al Quaida are often mentioned in that book…) They take a look at it and through all the pages and finally decide to let me go… pfew….

Although the bag searching may seem very intruding and inappropriate, I was actually surprised to discover that it was done very politely and respectfully…and I was even more surprised when they helped me to close my backpack after search… one point for China !

Then, it’s checking passport time… The members of the group get through one by one but I am asked to wait on the side… my passport is taken out to another room « for verification »… I wait for about twenty minutes wondering what the hell is wrong with my Swiss passport… well, the red passport does unfortunately not have the reputation it used to have years earlier…

20 minutes later, I am set free and can join my new friends waiting for me and speculating on what the hell is happening to me…

We walk to our bus… wow… a deluxe half conditioned bus… two points for China!

But unfortunately, we get stuck in traffic in the terrible heat, the traffic is completely stopped and we have to wait for about 4 hours before being able to leave the border…

We arrive in Neyalam, a Chinese village at 3600m around 23:00, have a quick dinner and head to our dormitory where we get some sleep despite the dirty venue and the already beginning altitude sickness headache…

To be continued… (check out the new pics in the meantime !)