Day 11 – Alicante, Spain

We’ve finally got the perfect weather. It was obvious the minute we opened our balcony door and found clear skies and a temperature of around 72°. We docked in Alicante, Spain at about 10:00am. Alicante is on the Mediterranean coast about half-way between Gibraltar and Barcelona. The Romans called it Lucentum, or City of Light, a reference to the sand and bright sunshine.

The Romans established an irrigation system of aqueducts and waterways to move water from the mountains to the arid land along the coast. Olive, citrus and almonds were established first, and now wine grapes and hot house tomatoes are also grown in abundance.

The Arabs, or Moors, invaded this area of Spain in 718 AD, and expanded and improved the irrigation system. They also brought date palms from their native lands, which have flourished in the area. They were driven out by the Christians in the 13th century, but the water system and a number of Moorish castles and fortresses remain today.

We took a bus tour to the Canelobre Cave, about an hour out of the city. It is the largest cavern in Spain, and it was discovered in the 9th century. It was used as a machine shop to rebuild aircraft engines during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39. Unfortunately, they blasted a tunnel into the heart of the cave and the concussions caused many of the stalactites and stalagmites to crumble and fall. It’s still an impressive place to visit.

From the cave, we returned to Alicante and the 14th century Castillo de Santa Barbara which rises high above the City. It was originally built by the Moors, then after they were driven back across the Mediterranean, the Christians rebuilt and added to the fortress. It’s built on the edge of the sea, and overlooks the entire City. Our bus took us up a steep hill into the fortress, but then we had to walk further on a steep path to reach the top and its spectacular views.

From there we traveled into the old part of the City and for a guided walk. When the bus returned to the ship, we remained behind to further explore the area. We walked along a broad esplanade next to the waterfront and found a sidewalk café for a light lunch and a beer or two (of course). After a couple of hours we returned to the ship in plenty of time before our 5:30pm departure for Barcelona.

Day 10 – Gibraltar

After leaving Tenerife and the Canary Islands, we enjoyed another restful day at sea. By restful, I mean that we slept in and missed breakfast… again. The weather was very pleasant, just not very sunny. We tried our hands at Trivia once more, and again we were discouraged at our lack of knowledge. Oh well, I guess we won’t try out for Jeopardy any time soon. One of the featured entrees at dinner was lobster tail, so we each had one, then another one. Shipboard service is too generous for our own good!

We docked at about 9 AM on Friday at the Rock of Gibraltar. It’s only about three square miles in size, but its location at the western entrance of the Mediterranean has resulted in its development as a military strong point over the past 1000 years.

Europe and Africa are only eight miles apart at Gibraltar so whoever controls Gibraltar controls the passage between the Atlantic and Mediterranean waters.

The ancient Greeks called the two sides of the straits the Pillars of Hercules. In 711 AD, a Moorish army crossed from North Africa and took control of Gibraltar as they began the conquest of Spain for Islam. Over the next seven centuries, the Moors and the Spaniards fought for control several times. Finally, in 1462, the Spaniards recovered control.

In 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession, a British naval force captured the town and the fortress. Gibraltar has remained in British hands ever since, in spite of many Spanish and French attempts to recapture it. The most dramatic effort was the Great Siege of 1779-83, during the American Revolution. A large force of Spanish and French ships and soldiers attempted to bombard and starve the British into surrendering. The British tunneled into solid rock for safety and built cannon emplacements to shoot down on the attacking troops.

During World War II, the tunnel system was vastly expanded and fortified by British Royal Engineers, who expected a German attack several times. That attack never came, but the Rock became a major naval and air base for the allies.

We decided to skip the ship’s tour offerings, and instead, hired a taxi for a two hour tour of the Rock. We traveled through town and out to Great Europa Point, the far eastern edge and the closest point to Africa. While there, we first encountered the Barbary Apes, tailless monkeys that are native to the area.

There are about 600 apes on Gibraltar, and they roam freely over the rock. They love tourists, so they can be a bit pesky at times.

We stopped for a tour of St. Michael’s Cave, a natural cavern within the rock. It’s beautifully illuminated and has a large underground amphitheater.

From there, we drove the length of the rock to visit the Great Siege Tunnels. Blasted into the rock by the British in 1782, the tunnels are over a mile in length, with many gun emplacement openings, ammunition storage rooms and crew staging areas. From the tunnel opening, we could look down on the airport, which separates Gibraltar from Spain. The road to Spain crosses the runway, so traffic is stopped when an airplane is landing or taking off.

Our taxi dropped us on Main Street in downtown Gibraltar. The street is closed to traffic, and is filled with shops and pubs that are very British in every respect.

We found a likely pub and had a bite to eat and a couple of beers. After lunch and a bit of window shopping, we walked back to the ship, about a kilometer or so. We sailed again at 3:30 PM, on our way to Alicante, Spain, our next port. From this point until the end of the cruise, we’ll be in a different port every day. I believe we’ll be pooped by the time we get to Rome.

That’s all for now.

Day 8 – Tenerife, Spain

After seven days at sea, we finally put our feet down on solid ground, in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Tenerife is the largest island in the Canary Islands, just off the coast of Morocco, but belonging to Spain. A large expedition from Spain seized the islands in 1402 from the natives, known as Guanches, tall, light skinned people of unknown origins. Columbus visited the islands on each of his four voyages to the new world. The British attempted to capture the Islands in 1797, but were driven off by cannon fire from the Spanish. Admiral Lord Nelson lost his right arm during the gun fight.

The classic question is, “are the Islands named for the yellow birds, or is it the other way around?” Actually, the ancient Romans noted the large number of wild dogs on one of the Islands, and called it Insula Canum or Dog Island. Later, when the little yellow finches were discovered there, they were called “dog island birds, or canaries. 

We took a shore excursion from the ship and traveled across a range of volcanic mountains through the Orotava Valley, a lush garden valley, and one of the oldest settlements on the island.

From there, we drove to Puerto de la Cruz on the northwest shore, which has been the island’s premier family resort area since the turn of the 19th century. We had time for shopping as well as a mid-morning coffee at a sidewalk café. 

While there, we stopped to visit a beautiful orchid garden and had time to sample some of the local beer. That was so enjoyable, that I think we’ll make it an event in each port we visit.

The weather, which has been very good to us, left something to be desired today. Although the sun came out as we were docking in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, as we started over the mountains to the Orotava Valley, the fog closed in, and it was misty for most of the rest of our journey. Once back on the ship, it was warm and pleasant, although not very sunny.

We sailed at 3:30pm for Gibraltar, but we’ll enjoy our last day at sea before reaching our next stop on Day 10.

Crossing the Atlantic

It's day seven of our fifteen day cruise to Rome, and we're about done with the Atlantic Ocean crossing. When we left Ft. Lauderdale, we had 3700 nautical miles to go to our first port in the Canary Islands. This morning the navigator announced that we had traveled 3300 nautical miles, and had less than 400 miles remaining. We're due to arrive at the port of Tenerife, Canary Islands tomorrow at 7 AM, and should be leaving the ship for sightseeing by 8 AM. We'll sail again at 3:30 PM and have one more day at sea before arriving in Gibraltar. Then the busy part of the cruise will begin. We'll visit six ports in six days before arriving in Rome. Or maybe, what's left of Rome. We heard on the news this morning that a long dead seismologist had predicted a devastating earthquake for Rome this Wednesday. Apparently, this prediction has worried some Romans, as a number of people have left the city. The predicted date will have long passed by the time we get to Rome, so we're not concerned.

So, what have we been doing during our week at sea? Sleeping, eating, drinking, reading, chatting, and other strenuous activities. We've celebrated two wedding anniversaries, 54 years for Herman and Annie, and 50 years for Lu and Joe.

Each was celebrated with good times, good friends and a great deal of hilarity among the 14 in our group. Special cocktail parties, balloons and rousing versions of "Happy Anniversary" accompanied each celebration. 

The weather has been great.  I expected to encounter cold weather and rough seas, but I guess I was thinking of the North Atlantic.  This crossing, at 28 degrees North Latitude, has been calm and warm.  The air temperature has remained in the 70's with the sea temperature just a few degrees warmer.  We did get a couple of brief showers and periods of cloudiness, but we've also had a lot of sun.

We've participated in shipboard Trivia games most afternoons, but our knowledge and skill are seriously lacking! Our highest scores were 14 right out of 20, and one day we got only 9 of 20. I think the humiliation is catching up to me; I'm losing interest in the game.

The food has been terrific, but we're skipping the hearty breakfast and lunch options available on the ship. Instead, we're grabbing small bites for breakfast and lunch, saving our calories for the sumptuous dinners in the dining room. Last night along with John & Judy and Lu and Joe, we ate in one of the specialty restaurants on board, Sabatini's Italian Restaurant. Wow! It was spectacular! And huge! An appetizer course of about 8 items, a salad course of 4 or 5, a pasta course of 3 items, a main course with a choice of about 8 items and a dessert course with about the same number of choices. Needless to say, we waddled away from that meal.

About the only thing that's bothered us so far is the fact that we've had to change our clocks ahead five times in the seven days we've been aboard. This, of course, is because the time in Europe is five or six hours ahead of Eastern Time. We're now on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or as it's now known, Universal Time Constant (UTC) and we'll only change once more during the cruise. Hooray! Maybe our body clocks will catch up!

That's about it for now; we'll tell you more about our visit to the Canary Islands in a day or so.

Voyage to Europe

We’re traveling again; this time without someone else to write a travel blog. So, here’s what’s happening.

We left home last Monday morning to catch an 11:30 AM flight from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale. Because we were flying against the sun, we arrived at 7:30 PM, Florida time. Our friend and travel advisor, Lu, had found us a hotel that provided shuttle service to and from the airport, as well as to and from the nearby cruise dock. That was particularly handy, ‘cause on Tuesday we boarded the ‘Star Princess’ for a transatlantic voyage to Europe.

The weather in South Florida was typical for this time of year; cloudy, warm and a bit muggy. After a short walk to a sports bar for dinner, we turned in for the night. Tuesday morning we caught the hotel shuttle to the pier where we were quickly able to board the Star Princess. Princess Cruise Lines tells its embarking passengers that boarding is between 1 PM and 4 PM with sailing at 5 PM. But, as we have learned from previous cruises, the boarding process is usually set up by 11 AM, and if you board early, you avoid the crowds. The ship carries 2,600 passengers, so boarding can be frustrating process.

We sailed on the same ship to Antarctica in 2010, so we knew the layout and quickly found the hot dog stand where we enjoyed a hot dog & a beer for lunch. I have vowed that on this trip, I’ll not overeat; I know, I’ve said that before, but this time I’ll try harder!

We sailed about 5 PM, and after a couple of turns to get out of the harbor into the open sea, the ship set a course almost due east (87°). We’ll maintain that course for seven days and 3700 nautical miles, until we come to the Canary Islands which will be our first port of call.

So far, and we’re now three days out of Florida, the seas have been calm and the weather mostly sunny. The air temperature is in the mid 70’s, and the sea temperature is in the upper 70’s; just right for sunbathing, as long as you can stay out of the wind.

We have an easterly headwind of 5-10 knots, combined with the ship’s speed of 20 knots, which makes for quite a breeze.

Our daily activities, so far, have included sleeping late and missing breakfast, working a little on a suntan, reading, and joining other passengers in a trivia game each afternoon. In the early evening, we join our traveling friends, John & Judy, for a cocktail or two followed by dinner. Our travel advisor, Lu and her husband Joe, join us for dinner, as well as four other couples that Lu is shepherding on this trip, who are seated at an adjoining table.

Debbie and I haven’t attended any of the shipboard shows as yet, but a couple of nights ago we went to “Movies Under the Stars” on the pool deck and saw ‘Avatar’.  

It was a much better movie than I had expected, but also longer than I had expected. We didn’t get to our room until almost 1 AM, which is at least partly responsible for causing us to miss breakfast.

So, where are we going on this trip? As said earlier, our first stop will be Tenirefe, the capitol of the Canary Islands. The islands, which sit a few hundred miles off the coast of Africa, are owned by Spain. Our next port will be Gibraltar, followed by Alicante and Barcelona Spain, Marseille, France, Livorno, Italy and finally, Rome.

We’ll leave the ship in Rome and spend a week sightseeing in Rome and Tuscany with John and Judy. They’ll return home, and we’ll fly to Munich to spend a week with our good friend Karin and her husband, Wolfgang in Bavaria. We finally head home on June 2nd, after what we expect will be a fantastic vacation.

We’ll keep you updated on our fun as we go along.

Hong Kong

Our trip by bus from Xichang to Wuhan took about five hours and passed through a lush agricultural region. The highways, as we saw in the rest of China, were as good as any we see in the US, but without much traffic except around cities. We reached our hotel in Wuhan, and after settling into our rooms, we walked a short distance to a restaurant for dinner. After dinner, a number of us went exploring on the street near the hotel and found a grocery store to check out. We were interested in their wine selection which included many brands of Chinese wine and a few from the US and other western countries. The store was similar in many respects to grocery stores everywhere, but with a limited selection of fruit, vegetables and meat, probably because there seem to be street markets throughout the cities and towns that specialize in those foods.

After a good night’s sleep, our bus took us to the airport where we caught a flight to Hong Kong, our last stop in China. Downtown Hong Kong is about an hour’s bus ride from the airport. It is a city filled with high rise office buildings and condominiums, most of them fairly new. After a severe economic downturn that followed the reintegration with China in 1998, the city is booming, as was apparent as soon as we approached the outskirts.

Hong Kong was an outpost of the Chinese empire until the early 19th century, when British traders started importing opium into the country. China’s attempts to stop the opium trade resulted in two “Opium Wars” in 1841 and 1860 which resulted in the British taking possession of Hong Kong and Kowloon Islands. In 1898, the British were granted a 99-year lease on the “New Territories” which adjoins the two islands. In 1997, with the lease coming to an end, China was unwilling to renew or extend the lease. Negotiations resulted in the entire territory taken over as a “Special Administrative Region” by China, but with the provision that Hong Kong would retain its free-market economy as well as its social and legal systems for 50 years.

Once settled into our hotel, our guide, Mike, pointed out restaurant, store and bank locations and oriented us to the local transportation system. We stepped across the street to a tiny noodle shop and had an excellent late lunch.
Later that evening Mike led a group of us to the Star Ferry for the seven minute trip across Victoria Harbor to Kowloon. The fare is $1.70 in Hong Kong dollars or about 15 cents US, but seniors ride free!

Every evening at dusk, there is a choreographed light and music show on the buildings that front on Victoria Harbor. Tourists flock to the harbor wall for the show, so we took our positions early enough so that our view wouldn’t be blocked by others.

The show lasts about 15 minutes and is very entertaining. At the conclusion of the show, we made our way back to the Star Ferry for the short voyage back to Hong Kong Island and our hotel.


The next morning we took a bus and walking tour that included a stop in SoHo (South of Hollywood Blvd.) to ride the Mid-Levels Escalator, the longest passenger escalator in the world, at 800 meters in length.
It transports pedestrians from the many condo and apartment neighborhoods to the downtown business area. A couple of blocks from the escalator, we passed through the Graham Street Food Market to see all kinds of fruits, vegetables, meat and fish sold from open stalls along the street.

From there we caught our bus and stopped at the incense-filled Man Mo Temple built in 1847 and one of the oldest in Hong Kong.
Large coils of incense are lit and hung from the temple’s rafters to smolder for hours, along with smaller incense offerings burning in the temple. Escaping from the smoke, we went across the street to an internet café for a coffee and quick email check while waiting for the rest of our group.

We then made a stop at a jewelry manufacturing company where we watched several jewelers at work on intricate and beautiful pieces of jewelry. Of course, they had a large show room for us to visit before departing. We felt we’d “shot our wad” in other places, so despite the persistent shopkeepers, we didn’t purchase anything.

Our next stop was Aberdeen Harbor at the south end of Hong Kong Island. The large harbor is home port for a large fishing fleet as well as many live-aboard sampans and other vessels. We took a harbor cruise on a motorized sampan, and saw all sorts of vessels, including the famous three-story Jumbo Floating Restaurant.

After returning to our hotel, we had the afternoon free, so we once again took the Star Ferry to Kowloon where we shopped along Nathan Road, the neon-lit main drag. It was very hot and muggy so we walked to the well-known Peninsula Hotel for a drink or two. Those British sure know how to mix a gin and tonic! We were picked up by our tour bus and had dinner at an “Asian” restaurant which served Thai and other Asian dishes, as well as Chinese.

After dinner we visited the Temple Street night market, the liveliest place in town to bargain for cheap clothes, fake name-brand goods and knockoff DVDs. Debbie purchased a couple of Chinese-design pillow cases for decorative pillows. It was interesting to wander through. Following our market stop, we reboarded the bus and took a winding road up the hillside to Victoria Peak.
Besides the gorgeous view of downtown, the mountaintop shopping mall had many of the same stores we see at malls in the US. Our bus took us down Victoria Peak, and then we got off to ride a double-decked streetcar back to our hotel. It was a great ride.

The next day was a free day, so after breakfast, we embarked on a “Mike Tour” which, after paying our own bus fare, Mike took us on a city bus ride along the edge of Repulse Bay to the town of Stanley. There we spent some time at the Stanley Market, a market of covered stalls that sell all sorts of trinkets, clothing and other goods for locals and tourists alike. While there, we bought a carry-on suitcase for $15 US, to take some of the weight out of our bulging suitcases. On domestic flights in China, passengers are allowed one checked suitcase and one carry-on, but on international flights, passengers are allowed two checked bags, and the new carry-on could serve as that second checked bag.


After returning to our hotel, we had some time to rest before joining the rest of our group for our farewell dinner at a wonderful seafood restaurant within walking distance. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and spent an hour or so reminiscing with our tour group and Mike about the adventures we had shared. Then it was time to get back to our rooms and pack for the long trip home.

The next day we checked out of the hotel and took a small bus to the airport to catch our 12:45 PM flight to SFO. The 12-hour flight was uneventful, except that we had bulkhead seating which gave us practically unlimited leg room; much better than the cramped seats we had on the flight to China. We arrived in San Francisco at 9 AM the same day, which made up for the day we lost on the trip over.

What were the highlights of the trip? For Debbie it was the terracotta warriors in Xi’An, for Tom it was our tourist-free visit to the Great Wall. For both of us, a highlight was our time in Tibet. Our impressions of China were significantly different than we had expected. China is a thriving, modern country, with excellent public and private transportation. Their cities are huge and crowded with the traffic you would expect in any large city. Their agriculture is family-based and is very labor intensive, although there seems to be an abundance of food everywhere in the country.

Would we go back? In a heartbeat!!

Yangtze River Cruise

When we arrived back in Chengdu, we were met at the airport by a driver and his very large and very comfortable bus. That was a good thing, because we had a five-hour bus ride through the countryside to Chongqing, known in the Cantonese language as Chungking, just like the canned noodles. Chongqing was the temporary capital of China during the Second World War, as the Japanese had occupied Nanjing, the previous capital of the Republic of China.


Our bus ride took us through some beautiful agricultural scenery. Rice is the main crop grown in southern China, but we also saw wheat, corn, taro, lotus and other crops. Farming in China is very different than what we are used to in the U.S. During the Mao years and the Cultural Revolution which followed, farms were large collectives, with conscripted laborers providing the work. Farm production suffered and the country had a hard time supplying enough food for its citizens. Farm laborers were finally allowed to cultivate small individual plots to supplement their family’s food supply, and it became apparent that the production from these small plots was significantly better than the collectives, themselves. Following the collapse of the Cultural Revolution, the collective system was scrapped and farmers were given small plots of land on which to grow crops for sale. Crops could be sold to the government at a fixed price, or the farmers could choose to sell on the open market. Food production soared, even though individual farms are very small by our standards.

Production is not very mechanized; we saw a few small tractors, actually more like large rototillers, and also saw many water buffalo used to plow the fields. Rice seed is sprouted in trays, and then transplanted by hand to flooded fields. When the rice is ready for harvest, it is also done by hand.

Upon arrival in Chongqing, we had dinner in a local restaurant, and then transferred to our cruise ship, the Victoria Queen, for our three-day cruise down the Yangtze River. The ship carries about 200 passengers and 110 crew members. It is pretty much a miniature version of other cruise ships we have been on, with a large dining room, a bar, a showroom, a beauty salon, etc. Our room was on the top deck, and we had a private balcony. Most of the passengers were overseas tourists from the U.S., Europe and Australia. Most were travelling in groups, but a few had booked their travel independently. As we prepared to depart Chongqing that evening, the buildings fronting the Yangtze River were lit up by a colorful light show.

We sailed through the night and the next morning after breakfast, we sat in on lectures about the Yangtze River and the Three Gorges area we would be passing through in the next two days. There was also a lecture by the ship’s doctor on acupuncture. Our friend Andy volunteered to participate in the demonstration and treatment for a sore shoulder. It was very interesting, and Andy said it helped his shoulder, at least for a little while. The lecture and demonstration resulted in Tom deciding to try acupuncture to get relief from sciatica which he periodically experiences in his right hip and leg. So, he made an appointment with the doctor, who is both an acupuncturist and an internist. Tom had two acupuncture treatments over the next two days, and, TA-DA, the sciatica has not bothered him since. If it comes back, he says he’ll try acupuncture again.

Later that day, the ship docked near the city of Fengdu which has been relocated to escape inundation as the river rises from the completion of the downstream Three Gorges Dam. We had a shore excursion to visit a nearby farming village which had also been relocated to higher ground. We visited the home of a local family who run a small store and tea house in their home, as well as raising pigs in their basement. It appears that they lead a very comfortable life in their new village. On the way back to our ship, we stopped for a visit to a local market with stalls and shops selling all sorts of meats and vegetables, including live chickens and ducks. Once back on board, we continued our sail down the river and after dinner the crew put on a show to demonstrate the various regional costumes of China.

The next morning we sailed through the first of the fabled Three Gorges. The canyons of rock rise hundreds of feet on either side of the river which varies from 300 meters to less than 100 meters wide. The scenery is spectacular and the various types of other river traffic are fascinating. We passed an area where a number of coffins have been found, set in caves high on the cliffs, probably placed there by an ancient tribe. Later in the day, we docked at the town of Wushan and transferred to smaller sightseeing boats for a trip up the Daning River to the Lesser Three Gorges. After traveling through the gorges to a very narrow section of river, we transferred again, this time to motorized sampans, to travel even further through the gorges. Finally, at a spot wide enough to turn around, we proceeded back down the river to our ship.

That evening, we traversed the ship locks at the Three Gorges Dam.
Going through the five locks took most of the night, and the next morning we woke up docked at the base of the Three Gorges Dam. After breakfast, we took a bus for a tour of the dam site. The dam measures 600 feet high and is about 1¼ miles long. Its hydroelectric capacity is equivalent to 18 nuclear power plants. It was constructed to provide hydroelectric power to western China, to improve navigation on the river which already transports 70% of the entire country’s shipping and to provide flood control to an area where flooding had claimed more than 1 million lives in the past 100 years.
Dam construction cost approximately $75 billion dollars, and more than 1.5 million people were moved from areas which will be inundated when the river behind the dam is at full capacity. The dam is essentially finished, but the complete hydroelectric generating power system has not been fully installed, and a ship elevator, which is supposed to lift and lower ships in less than an hour instead of the lock system which takes up to five hours, apparently doesn’t work, and the engineers aren’t sure how to fix it, or so we were told.

The water level in the upstream reservoir varies with the season, and when we passed through, it was about 150 meters above sea level. Last winter it reached 171 meters, and the maximum level is at 175 meters above sea level. The dam itself is at 185 meters above sea level.

We were docked for the night, and in the morning we went through the single lock at the Gezhou Dam, just downstream from the Three Gorges Dam. The Gezhou Dam was built as a test before the Three Gorges Dam was built. After traveling another 30 kilometers or so, we reached the city of Yichang, a city of about 4 million, where we disembarked. When we originally boarded our ship, our luggage had preceded us, and we assumed it had been carried in luggage carts or something like that. As we disembarked, we found it to be entirely different than we had believed. Laborers, known as “stick soldiers”, came aboard the ship, placed up to four large suitcases in rope slings attached to long sticks, hoisted the sticks to their shoulders and proceeded to carry the luggage out of the ship, across a long dock and up the stairs to the top of the river bank. It was a shocking and amazing sight!

We were met by a bus which loaded us and our luggage, then headed out for another five-hour journey to the city of Wuhan, another city of 4 million people, where we transferred to a flight to Hong Kong, our last stop in China.

Tibet - "the Rooftop of the World"

As we mentioned at the end of our last update, the flight we were scheduled to take from Chengdu to Lhasa, Tibet was cancelled. We didn’t find out about the cancellation until we reached the airport, and then Mike, our guide, had to really scurry to get us all through flight and baggage check in. While waiting in line, we noticed large market displays of fresh fruit. It all looked delicious, but in our hurry to get checked in, we passed on the opportunity to purchase some. Once through the check in process, we were rapidly on our way.

We reached the Lhasa Airport in about three hours, then had a one-hour bus ride into the city. The bus, with its driver and guide, had dropped another OAT tour group at the airport for their flight out of Tibet, and they were returning to the city, when they got a call that we were arriving earlier than planned, so they turned around and were able to meet us as we cleared the baggage area.

For the first time since our arrival in China, the sky was bright blue and the air was crystal-clear. Lhasa is over 12,000 feet in elevation, and we guessed that the winds were able to keep air pollution away. On our way into the city, we saw a number of yaks in fields and along the road. We were told that these were domesticated yaks that are used to pull plows and give milk. There is also a large population of wild yaks in Tibet, but we didn’t see any sign of them. Because of the country’s high elevation, crops seem to be primarily grown or at least started in hot houses. There were a number of roadside stands selling all sorts of vegetables from beans to watermelon, which our local guide said were all dependent on the hot houses.

Buddhism is the universal religion in Tibet. It spread from India during the 3rd through 7th centuries AD. In 1641, two Buddhist sects fought, and the Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) sect won. Their leader adopted the title of Dalai Lama, and presided over both religion and politics. Each Dalai Lama was considered a reincarnation of the previous one. With the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Tibet enjoyed a period of de facto independence until 1950, when Chinese forces invaded. China brought modernization and mandatory schooling to the region, but by 1959, growing popular unrest resulted in a revolt that was crushed by the Chinese army. The Dalai Lama, fearing a plot to kidnap him, fled to India where he continues to represent over 100,000 Tibetans in exile.

One of the first sights we saw as we approached Lhasa was the impressive Potala Palace, once the seat of the Tibetan government and the winter home of the Dalai Lama. It rises 13 stories on a hill and contains more than a thousand rooms. Parts of the palace are painted red, other parts are white. The red section is full of chapels which are used for religious functions, and it contains the tombs of a number of previous Dalai Lamas. The white section was used as the living quarters for the Dalai Lama and it now functions primarily as a museum.

Our hotel was located in a section of the old city near the Jokhang Temple, and is in the midst of a large bazaar. The streets are very narrow and crowded with pedestrians and Buddhist worshippers, who walk, prayer wheels in hand, round and round the periphery of the temple area. Many of them prostrate themselves over and over as they go around the area. Spiritual items and tourist baubles are sold in shops and stands that line the route.

Since many travelers suffer from altitude sickness upon arrival at the high altitude of Lhasa, the rest of the day was at leisure, although a number of the more adventurous walked and shopped their way around the bazaar until dinner was served in our hotel.

The next morning we visited the Potala Palace and climbed the more than 600 steps from the street to the top floors of the palace itself. The present palace was built in the 17th century, and supposedly took 7,000 workers and 1,500 artists and craftsmen more than 50 years to complete. At the time it was built, it was the world’s tallest building. The views of Lhasa from the top are spectacular.

After lunch we took the afternoon’s optional tour to the Sera Monastery, about three miles north of Lhasa. The monastery, founded in 1419, was one of two great monasteries in Lhasa. Originally the home of 5,000 monks, about 600 are still in residence. We arrived to find their daily “debate” in full swing. Held in a garden in the center of the monastery, teaching monks quiz their students in a hubbub of loud and emphatic chatter while tourists, both local and foreign, skirt the perimeter, snapping photos as fast as they can. It was a mesmerizing exercise held in a captivating setting.

From the monastery, we traveled to a small mountain village near Lhasa and visited the home of a local farmer. They live a fairly primitive life, for while their homes have electricity; they draw their water from community wells and heat their homes with dried yak dung.


After leaving the village, we returned to our hotel and soon were having dinner at “The Original Crazy Yak Restaurant”. Dinner also included a music and dance show featuring typical Tibetan culture. At least it did until several of us “big nose people” were encouraged to join in the show. The cultural experience rapidly deteriorated from that point on.

The next morning found us at the 1,300 year-old Jokhang Temple, where we were able to observe worshippers prostrating themselves and making clockwise circles of the bazaar on their hands and knees in reverence to this sacred site. Smoke from burning incense and thousands of yak butter candles filled the air in the temple, built to house the 7th century Sakyamuni Buddha statue. Other religious observances that we saw included large brass prayer wheels that the faithful spin as they walk past in prayer, and thousands of prayer flags flying from rooftops.

That afternoon we visited the De Ji Orphanage and school, which is supported in part by donations from Overseas Adventure Foundation. Started a number of years ago by a woman who saw an urgent need for housing and schooling local orphans, it has recently moved to a much larger facility which provides for about 60 children from infants through their teen years. We were impressed with the large room full of computers for the kids’ use, and the beautiful artwork that they have produced. While we were there, several other groups were visiting as well; most of them bringing various supplies for the orphanage.

Following the orphanage visit, we were welcomed into a local home where we enjoyed Tibetan snacks and yak butter tea, which we decided was definitely an acquired taste. This local family, like what appeared to us to be a very large majority of Tibetans, practices their Buddhist religion enthusiastically. They have a room in their home set aside as a spiritual shrine. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to interact with the local culture.

It rained in Lhasa during our last night, and we woke up in the morning to snow topping the nearby mountains. We loaded ourselves and our luggage onto our bus and, after a stop at the Potala Palace for a group photo, headed for the airport, and our flight back to Chengdu and a bus transfer to our Yangtze River cruise.

More later.