The first new post of many more to come

I'm back, having had a truly fantastic time in Tibet. It's the most phenomenal country I have ever been to. I reckon that what I've been doing over the past month will be more interesting than what I do over the next month, so I think I'm going to be posting in retrospect about Tibet for a while to come.

Here are some of the very many highs and some of the handful of lows of my trip, some of which I will write about in more detail later.

HIGHS

- Flying with Iran Air. And surviving.
- The Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. One of the most spiritually intense places I have ever been.
- Witnessing the destruction of a mandala at Sera monastery, followed by the monks playing unforgettable music on 3 metre long trumpets.
- Watching the monks debate at Sera monastery.
- The adorable kid tending the candles in Ramoche Temple. I wanted to adopt him.
- The Potala Palace seen from the outside (the inside wasn't as special).
- Picnicking with a monk and his friends on the side of a mountain at Ganden monastery.
- Laughing with Emily about Tibet's shitty toilets (oh so literally shitty).
- Making a spoof lonely hearts advert for George Bush and posting it up in Lhasa.
- The world's best ice mocha in the Summit Cafe, Lhasa.
- The total relaxation of being on holiday for so long. Playing Jenga with Emily like a kid again.
- Reading "The Life of Pi", which Saara recommended to me about three years ago and I only just got around to.
- The awe-inspiring landscapes of Tibet. The vast space, the pure air, clouds and sky, the serene quiet.
- Nam-tso lake. The highest salt-water lake in the world.
- Hanging out with a 23 year old monk in his monastery in Shigatse.
- Walking to Everest from the world's highest monastery.
- Getting to know the other people I shared the land cruiser around south-west Tibet with for six days and despite them not being soul mates or anything, being sad to see them go when we went our separate ways.
- Meeting a Japanese-speaking Tibetan in Lhasa in the most random way possible.
- Brief conversation with a bank employee through the credit card slot of an ATM in Lhasa.
- The kindness of two strangers at Lhasa airport when I was in a bit of a fix.
- The satisfaction of screwing over two Chinese girls who tried to con me in Beijing.

- And above all, the Tibetan people. Absolutely inspirational.


LOWS
(Some of them pretty low, most not so bad)

- Drinking one can of shittily-made Lhasa beer and being violently ill for two days.
- Tibetan toilets.
- Kind of being sexually molested by a monk in Ramoche temple in Lhasa.
- Being attacked by a dog in Gyantse.
- The other passengers on the bus from Shigatse to Lhasa. Chronic smokers and chronic spitters.
- The zoo in the Norbunlingka park in Lhasa. An animal gulag.
- Generally finding that my Chinese was too basic to be of much use for anything but the simplest statements.
- Getting a little smelly after not being able to find a shower for several days while on the road and having to wear the same dirty clothes for days on end.
- The taxi driver to Lhasa airport.
- Having not been bitten by a single mosquito in Tibet during three weeks, getting bitten by about twenty in one day in Beijing.