Tibet Trip Part 1 - Introduction

 Prayer flags, dancing in the wind

To begin with, you could say that this whole trip began in December. It was the time when I signed myself up for this trip, after much hesitation because I was so worried about leaving work (and home) for 2 weeks. I've never done this before, after all this is the first trip that I went to, where I have to leave work behind. Since my other trips usually happened during the Hari Raya holiday when everything comes to a stop. Or during long school break when I was still a student, like my US trip in 2012.

But from this hesitation, comes a quiet push. I constantly asked myself: when else can you go to Tibet? And also, this might be my only chance of going there. So after a few encouragements from a few people (thanks Saeyeoh, Vithya, and my sister), and also from myself, I said screw it and I just signed up for the trip! My parents didn't know I signed up for the trip. I asked them after I did. Oops.

I've been keeping contacts with the leader of the trip, Jamin, via email. I did my visas, booked my flights and so on, and the long wait begins. Although somehow the next 4 months flew by kind of quickly. I could still remember feeling shocked when I realised that I only have one more week to the trip.

So I left for Tibet on the 16th of April. I went to Bangkok first, spent a night there, and then flew to Chengdu the next day on the 17th, where I met up with the rest of the group. It was an exciting day for me, meeting with these people that I would be sharing this adventure of a lifetime with. I was sharing a room with Will, an awesome and friendly Canadian. We met and introduced ourselves, and we went for dinner at a restaurant near the hotel. The next day, we left for Lhasa!

Going to Tibet is a life-long dream of mine. The first time that I "came across" with Tibet was around 17 years ago. I could still remember seeing a music video of a Buddhist chant at my uncle's house, where it is showing Buddhist pilgrims in Tibet doing prostrations. There was images of Lhasa, beautiful statues of Buddha and other Bodhisatvas (like Avalokitesvara) and just this beautiful beautiful land with a wonderful landscape. I could still remember asking my uncle where this place is and he told me Tibet. And it is since then, that I made a promise with myself to go to this holy and beautiful land.

And when I arrived in Lhasa, I still couldn't believe that I am here. The capital of Tibet! 

So anyway, let me summarise the timeline of the trip:

18th to 20th April: Lhasa

21st April: Lhasa to Gyantse

22nd April: Gyantse to Shigatse

23rd April: Shigatse

24th April: Shigatse to Basum

25th April: Everest! And then Shegar

26th April: Shegar to Shigatse

27th April: Shigatse to Lhasa

28th April: Lhasa to home :(

Before the trip I was telling myself how long the trip is. But halfway on the trip, I was like this trip is not long enough, I wish I can stay longer hahaha. But anyway yes, as you can see from the timeline, I'm going to divide the next few posts about the places I went to and what we did over there! :)

I'm still feeling pretty overwhelmed by the trip (in a very good way). This is the most incredible journey I've embarked on and I am still very very thankful to have been part of this trip. Thank you to those who pushed me for this trip, and to those who made this trip possible (especially my family). There are so many things that I did and experienced for the first time in my life during this trip. And things I did, and see, that I never imagined of doing and seeing. So yes, it was indeed an amazing trip.

And of course special thanks to Jamin and Jampa for being such awesome guides/friends/mentor/teacher of this trip! They are two people I'm glad to have crossed-paths with in life!

Alright, I will see you in part 2 when I'll talk about Lhasa! One of my favourite cities on earth now.