Tibet: The Other Side of the Mountains
Travel can be an adventure. Little was known about the destination. It almost cost me my life. Tibet: The Other Side of the Mountains
Tibet: The Other Side of the Mountains
We moved to Kathmandu in 2015, but a long time ago, in 1985, we were just on the other side of the massive Himalayas: Tibet. It was an adventure.
Travel to Tibet had just opened to foreigners in our last spring in Beijing. We flew from Beijing to Chengdu, and then another flight to Lhasa. We flew in a newish Boeing 707. Odd for the time, it was not one of the ubiquitous old Antonov or Ilyushin aircraft left over from the better times of the Sino-Soviet relationship.
The flight was filled with very young PLA (People’s Liberation Army) soldiers. It was obviously the first time on a flight for many of them. They stood up during take-off, played with the trays, and had large hawking expectorates onto the carpet.
Journey to Lhasa
The flight was only part of the journey. We landed on an airfield that was only a runway and a small cabin. Everyone piled into buses for the 4+ hour ride to Lhasa.
The road was just a direction that the bus moved in over a barren wasteland of stone and gravel. Other buses and trucks moved in…
