Rikeze Lhasa

Hong Kong Highland Exploration Team 2006

Author：Jasmine Ma

Picture：莫炳亮及Hong Kong Highland Exploration Team

28th July
Dingbai , Rikeze

We were lucky to have 4 x 4 vehicles running on the road. There was always road works everywhere and the road conditions were always terrible. We had to change our tires at the altitude of 4,750 m and we had changed 3 tires before we arrived Rikeze.

We had changed 9 tires , 8 wheels for 7 cars since we entered Tibet. My father’s no. 8 car was still in Lhasa under repair. The roads in Tibet were really bad and covered with sharp stones . Finally we had experienced what my father mentioned. He said he had never needed to change tires when he drove all the way back from Europe , the middle East , Afghanistan and India before and he needed to do that in Tibet.

29 -30th July
Rikeze – Lhasa

We had left home for half a month already and we had arrived Lhasa . Budala Palace was known as the Winter Palace of Dalai Lama and Luobulinka , full of beautiful flowers was the summer palace of the previous Lama . The flowers in Budala Palace were mainly red and white where Luobulinka’s beautiful garden were full of yellow flowers.

After three days hard working around the clock , Lhasa Toyota helped to repair the No.8 car with a brand new main chassis.

Lhasa city itself was not too large. We could easily see Budala Palace located in the centre of the city , the mixture of red and white were really eye catching. Budala Palace was with the highest altitude in the world and was the largest construction project of its kind. There were lots of joss , Buddha’s lections , frescos etc. The Buddha’s followers had a lifetime wish to visit Budala Palace at least once in their life. On our way , we saw many Buddha’s followers moving towards Lhasa in the way of bended knees , people called that “ Three kneel downs & Nine kowtows” For each “worship on bended knees” trip Lhasa would need to take several months on the way and they needed to sell all cattles , sheep and almost everything available as travel expenses.

The Budala Palace was so magnificent and looked like a labyrinth. We could easily loss our ways . My younger brother was so innocent and decided to finish the way by himself , and we couldn’t see him in seconds. We knew we had to find him instantly. He didn’t know of the direction. We should get in from the East gate and out to the West. We still couldn’t get him after a longtime and we reported police and seek for assistance from the security guards. Several Tibetan security guards were very nice to help us searching around and made lots of telephone calls , lastly we got him after almost one hour. In the afternoon , we arrived “Ba Jiao Street” outside Dazhao Temple . My younger brother seemed forgot what he did in the morning and started to wander around by himself.

When we left The Budala Palace , our drinks were seized by a pair of dirty hands . We were shocked to find that was from a little Tibetan boy. We just wanted to forget about that , however , that kid wanted to go further . He kept a tight grip on the owner of car No. 7 with one had and with a handful of phlegm on the other to threaten him with money ! The owner of Car No. 5 was very annoyed to see that and forwarded to offer a helping hand , unexpectedly , that kid splashed his bottle water against him. My mother broke her silence and talked to him in a sensible manner , however the kid yelled at a sudden and said he was bullied by us . He was but a kid less than 4 years old and why he was so wild ? He might be spoiled in that tourist area !

31st July
Lhasa , Namucuo , Naqu

Namucuo was the highest salt water lake in the world with the altitude of 4,178 m . Namucuo meant “Sky lake’ , “God’s Lake” and “Spirit Lake” and it was the famous holy place for Buddhists in Tibet. Luckily the lake had not been become a tourist spot . Even heaven would be ruined by tourist easily. We drove along that remote areas and we felt it was a lot better than many of the tourist spots. Steep massifs , green grasses , calm and peaceful lake water , fresh yellow flowers reflected the beauty of Namucuo. The sky there was also special , apart from normal blue sky , it was full of white clouds and looked soft and fat …..