Skytrain to Lhasa

After our adventure with Drolma to his hometown, we had a little less than 24 hours to pack up everything in Xining and prepare to go to Lhasa! It was hard to leave our hostel and Xining as they had quickly became our home away from home. We said our goodbyes to the workers we had come to know at the hostel and headed to the train station. Drolma greeted us there and gave each of us kadas!

It turns out our train was delayed four hours, which ended up being a blessing since we got to hang out with Drolma some more! We went to the Tibetan market near the train station and he helped us buy some popular Tibetan CDs. Then we went to the Construction Bank of China Hotel, which has a revolving restaurant on the top floor. We had a delicious dinner there, enjoying the changing views, and then headed back to the train station.

Our train ended up leaving around 8:30PM and the boarding process was quite frantic! Drolma and Cedric, the translator from our travel agency who facilitated our departure from Xining, weren't allowed on the platform at the outset. We weren't able to carry all our bags in one trip, however, and it was clear we were struggling. Plus our train was on the second platform over; we had to cross under the one closest to the station. Drolma and Cedric were finally allowed to enter the platform area, and Drolma helped tremendously by carrying one of our big bags!

We rushed to board the train and not long after we were aboard, the train departed from the station! We were able to say farewell (albeit a rushed one!) to Drolma and Cedric. We hope to see Drolma in Beijing since there's a good chance he'll be there when we're there in a few weeks.

We settled into our ‘soft sleeper’ on the Lhasa Skytrain, or Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which was completed about two years ago. The room was quite cozy and consisted of two sets of bunks. We shared the room with two Chinese soldiers who were to join us for part of the journey. The four of us watched part of the latest James Bond movie and then went to bed. The beds were surprisingly comfortable, and the train ride was so smooth, we felt like we were being gently rocked to sleep.

The next morning we woke up to stunning views: vast grasslands, turquoise lakes, majestic mountains, dramatic clouds, and several hundred sheep and yaks. We read for a little onboard but found the scenery too breathtaking. We spent a lot of our journey admiring and taking pictures of the landscape. As we headed to Lhasa, we saw quite a few villages of brick houses and prayer flags.

After about 24 hours of travel, we arrived in Lhasa at the relatively new station, whose architecture emulates the Potala Palace. We were greeted by our Tibetan guide, Tashi, who had patiently waited in the rain for us. He helped us to the car, where we met our driver, Jawang, who is also Tibetan. Tashi speaks excellent English and is incredibly knowledgeable about the history and culture of Lhasa and Tibet!

We drove into the city of Lhasa and our jaws dropped when we saw the Potala Palace. Its magnificence is legendary but nothing compares to seeing it in person! Seeing it lit up against the black sky was incredible.

We dropped off our luggage at the Tibet Gorkha Hotel, which has several gorgeous traditional Tibetan murals and is outfitted with traditional Tibetan décor. Then Tashi took us to a delicious Nepalese restaurant for dinner called Lhasa Namaste where we had Nepalese chicken curry and Tibetan yak stew. Yum!

We headed home and rested up for our first full day in Lhasa!