OVERLAND TO LHASA

Day 1 : Golmud to Tuotuo He

The entire road journey to Lhasa is 1165km and takes 3 days. The first lap from Golmud to Tuotuo He the source of the Yangtse River is reputed to be the most difficult and yet our guide optimistically prepared us for an 8hr drive over 402km. The journey starts on a good tarmac highway with desert on both sides and brown mountains in the distance. Cables, wires and electric lines contrast with the gradually opening amphitheatre of rocks, granite and sand. The passing mountains alternate between changing shades of beige, olive and ochre. Although the Qinghai plateau is a desert there is no lack of water because of the many glaciers and spring and underground waters.

Passing through the famed Kunlun Mountains, it is a steep climb to the Kunlun Pass and on to Kunlun Qiao at 4000m, then on to Kunlun Quan which is a natural spring whose waters refreshed Princess Wencheng and her entourage on their epic journey to Lhasa or so the story goes.

Kunlun Qiao

In front of the Xue Shan Cafe, a designated lunch stop, the white tongue of the Meikuang Glacier protrudes down the Kunlun Mountain slopes. The weather is unpredictable and all the way up the pass, snow fall alternates with azure skies.

At the top of the mountain pass we are awed by endless vistas of snow fields and moorland, while Yuzhu Peak at 6177m sits like a crown on Kunlun Mountains. The Kunlun Pass 4700m, is marked by a broken plaque, the result of recent earthqukes. A snow lion and an eagle decorated with scarfs stand on either side of the plaque.

The Chinese marks high passes with pillars, statues and plaques. The Tibetan way is more artistic and spiritual. They decorate the passes with gossamer flags which hang in long strands from poles or tied together to form a pyramid like structure. These prayers flags have chants inscribed on them and wing their way heavenwards. Small cairns built with stones and rocks and some times laced with prayer flags and wild flowers are another Tibetan expression of reverence.

Prayer flags express the Tibetan faith

Leaving the Pass our trip literally started going downhill. It has been said of this Highway that if the mountains don’t kill you the traffic jams and road blocks would. The Qinghai Tibetan Highway at an average elevation of 4000m is under constant stress all year round from adverse weather conditions while wild fluctuations in temperature cause the road surface to crack up and break open. Whole stretches of the Highway maybe arbitrarily closed without prior warning for repair and resurfacing. Staring in our faces, as we descended was an epic high altitude traffic jam. The sight of the vehicles lined up bumper to bumper was enough to give us mountain sickness!

Epic traffic jam

All the vehicles including ours had the ignition off and from the stoic atmosphere all round it looked like everyone was prepared to camp overnight on the mountain. The guides tried every trick in the book to get us out of the jam. An eternity afterwards a policeman comes aboard to inspect us. It transpired that our guide had “bluffed" him that some of his passengers had taken ill and to give us special concession. Our wan faces must have convinced him because miraculously he agreed to let us move and was quite solicitous about our welfare! At the next road block we were not as lucky. We were not accorded VIP treatment and had to wait in line until the authorities allowed us to move. By then it was pitch dark.

The road blocks and jams had delayed us by many hours and we had hundreds more kilometers to cover before Tuotuo He. We were travelling on a rough road which felt like a dirt track. The coach raced along at breakneck pace and I did not know whether to be glad or alarmed by the darkness. The altitude was getting to our heads and hunger was gnawing at us. Instead of enjoying Qinghai’s endless plains, it felt more like enduring endless pain on an endless journey!

In this manner we must have climbed to the Feng Huo Shan Pass at 5100m in the dark! And we were to pass the source of Tuotuo He at 4530m in this manner too. We were too dumbstruck and shell shocked to complain that we had missed all the sights.

At 11.30 pm we finally pulled up at Tuotuo village, at 4650m, for dinner and at 12.30pm, after 18hrs on the road we reached our overnight hotel. The ‘hotel' which everyone afterwards referred to as the ‘Hei Dian' or Black Inn did not have electricity. The entrance was lit up with a gas lamp but the interior was plunged in ghostly shadows. Someone was passing candles around and in the confusion we were shunted into shack like rooms. I tottered to the common loo which by the light of a torch turned out to be a trench!
(Day 2 to be continued in next post)