Alex's Asian Adventure

Today was supposed to be a rest day. I spent the morning doing dick-all, for instance writing in my blog.

I met another travel agent. I am (supposedly) going to Everest tomorrow. More on this later.

At around 2 PM Julien called me - evidently his plans fell through and he's going on another trip tomorrow. He said "dinner at 7 and I'm going to Drepung now". I joined him on a trip to Drepung Gompa. Gompa is Tibetan for "Monastery".

Drepung was at one point the largest monastery in the world, a home to 10000 monks. The place is huge and imposing, built on the side of a mountain, and very impressive. We got there late in the day, so many of the chapels were closed - good enough for me - although we did get to see monks in mass-mantra-mode inside the Tsokchen, the main assembly hall. Since some of the tourist-oriented parts (ie the chapels) were closed, we had more time to roam the grounds and look around.

We roamed for a while when we bumped into a construction crew of monks, who were digging some stuff and moving earth and making a big commotion. They called us over to take pictures. Very friendly guys. We're all smiles and "tashi deley!! tashi deley!!" and they're all smiles and pantomiming the camera and stuff.

Then they invited us in to have butter tea and eat their food. I had a bit of butter tea the day prior, and it was nothing like this stuff. So strong. So rich. So salty. OMFG. Anyway, I got a handle on it, and it goes okay with the tibetan bread (also very heavy) and their eggs (fourth egg of the day - I'll be dead of cholesterol!). Mmmm..

But really, the experience was sitting and eating with the monks was what this was all about. Their chief English-speaker (whose English was only a little bit better than my Chinese or Tibetan) was great conversation, and I figured out the following facts:

• His name is Sangye Gyantso
• He is 24 years old
• He's Tibetan
• He's a monk.

Two of the guys, Sangye and another one, were wearing football jerseys. I had some Canadian on me (two lapel pins), so I pinned them on the guys. Sangye was wearing a French national team jersey so he became a French Canadian. His friend was wearing a Manchester United jersey - he's now an English Canadian. They were very impressed.

Sangye taught me some Tibetan, counting & stuff. The pronounciation is quite hard, much like in Chinese. However, what I didn't expect was for Sangye to take me into his bedroom to show me letters he's received and his photo album. He also had a copy of an English book (whose name sadly escapes me at the moment, since I'm in an internet cafe and it's in my room) translated into Tibetan, with both versions printed together. I looked at it in wonder. Then he gave me the book. I knew that if I didn't take the book, he'd probably be offended. Besides, how do you politely say no to a monk who's trying to be extremely generous to a perfect stranger?

I am totally and completely touched. For people who have so little by our standards, they give so much and so freely. It's pretty amazing. I will send them prints of the pictures I took at Drepung Gompa. It is the least I can do.

Eventually, after more pictures, more "tashi deley!!" and more smiling and laughing with these construction-monks, we left for dinner.

Dinner, in this case, was 6 girls and 3 guys. There were many Canadians present, the largest such concentration I've seen since arriving here. My Everest plans changed there & then, since it turns out that three of the girls are going on a 6-day trip to Everest (with a detour at the local hot springs!) on Friday. And they want a fourth to split the cost of the jeep.

Yup. A Quebec girl, a Western Canada girl, and an Australian girl. In a Land Cruiser. For six days. I dig it.

Assuming this doesn't fall through (and I don't think it will) we leave the day after tomorrow, ie May 5th.

Neither of my travel agents for the trips that are leaving tomorrow (and that I was looking into and said "if the people are good, I will come") have called me today. I called one and he said "I'll call you back" and never did. I'm not impressed, and I'm willing to get in doubt in a big hurry.