Day 5 - Guang Zhou - Lhasa - Tibet

Sept 28 2008

It’s 4:30 a.m. and time for us to wake up. Our flight from guang zhou to lasha 8 am but we haven’t get the ticket from our tour agent. And claire’s driver waiting us around 5.45am.

arghhhhhhhhhhh so sleepy but we must wake up, prepare go to guang zhou airport for the flight to lhasa – we ate our breakfast on the way to airport -.

We have arrived early coz we don’t have any idea about the ticket and whom we will meet – everything can be happen in china - hehehehe.

Our flight from guang zhou – lhasa , will stop in chongqing to change the flight

and Yeah….. boarding the flight was kind of stressful and going through immigration was so many problem.

Security is extremely tight at the airport. All luggage goes through an MRI machine and passengers through metal detectors just to get inside the terminal.

1. Christ give me seal document , our travel agent said we cant opent the document because its secret , when we arrived at lhasa just give the document to our guide.THATS IT , if u open it, our trip will be cancel.

2.So of course we remember what our agent said, but the problem when we want to check in the airport officer want us to open the document , they want to see our permit after long argue with them we let them open the document.

3.Customs was a little different , passengers who have flight ticket to lhasa or chong qing have own line to queue the customs and before we passing our body through the machine we must take off our shoes and put them through the machine. No vehicles are allowed to pull up front.

THE HOLY DOCUMENT - TIBET PERMIT

Fuih… after all the custom , we finally sitting at the gate, the announcement came that the flight to Lhasa would board in fifteen minutes. A little wave of excitement came over me. I still can’t quite believe we’re about to get on a plane to Lhasa – Tibet !

Yeah… TIBET Here We Come, we prepare for this tibet trip from june , but serious research around end of aug but I think its not enough to make us stay as comfortable as possible because we heard that people will exercise at least 6 month to go there , but we didn’t do anything even jogging everymorning to prepare the weather.

we arrived at Lhasa Gonggar airport at 2 PM the airport is not actually in lhasa , but is 2 hours away. We were ready to get off the flight and we followed the crowd of the people to the area where passangers are picked up. We were look for a sign with one of our names on it and I finally saw a man waving a sign that wrote our name. We waved to him and he beckoned us over. He told us that his name was Wang Dui and that he would be our guide during our stay. We walked over the car that we would use for our travels and met our driver.

They greet us with white silk prayer cloths that they drape around our necks. We climb into a car and on the way to our hotel. We promptly stopped for take a first picture to see Buddha that had ben carved into this rock and so many prayer flags drapped all over the hill.

Buddha... right there waiting for us .

Our guide took us to our hotel and we will meet them around 5pm to had dinner with them a. Our hotel was a 3 star hotel and near with potala palace , just cross the street.

first impression about Tibet’s capital city – Lhasa - Lhasa literally means "place of the gods" There are many police controls around Lhasa.

Near our hotel we headed down was lined with army trucks and The soldiers had set up 1 place with various position , 1 soldier see in the north side , west side , south side and the last see the east side, I want to take a pic but I am afraid if they know I took a pic I will go to trouble zone.

Speaking of food, Our first dinner in Tibet we went to Lhasa Kitchen ,

around barkhor lhasa area.

We order tibet native food such as tsampa , yak momos (momos are the Tibetan version of the Chinese dumplings) , some Indian food also we ordered butter tea.

We returned to the Hotel and start to take a rest. When I do sleep I feel so uncomfortable may be because of the high altitudes, its feels like u already sleep very long time. I always woke up after 2 hours slept and its still dark. It’s so terrible when you keep waking up in the night, checking the time, and get frustrated because it’s not time to get up yet and hope its will over soon.

For me and ge, we still have a planning to stay at Mt Everest Base Camp and its will be a story to tell to our grandchildren. hehehehehe

coz i always believe if u can think about it so u can do it.

Day 4 - Guang Zhou

Sept 27 2008

Claire’s house very nice , from her house I can see pearl river
and today We wake up very late I think its around 9 am , after take a bath we go to ICBC Bank. Its so near just cross the street and we found seven eleven , yipppyy…. So hungry…. But we just buy cha dan (egg with herbal flavour).
we try to find medicine store to buy some high altitude medicine *just in case in Tibet we got sick*

Lunch time, me , Geraldine and Claire meet eveline – she also from philippine – Claire take us to Japanese restaurant “ roku roku “is and I think one of the best Japanese resto in Guangzhou .
The interior of the restaurant is good and cozy.Upon entering the establishment, we were immediately confronted with a fresh sushi bar. Hmmmmmmmmm yummy….
The staff gives us room –we share the room with Chinese family - with a very open flow where light and aromas are free to smell and its make me so hungry .

We ordered set meal of tepanyaki , chef very quick preparing our meal and I love to watch the chef slice and dice the food.
I received my first order , miso soup , sashimi salad , rice , and thin slices of meat.The meat sooooooooooo good its like melted in my mouth. It was marvelous!
As part of the set menu we were served ,everybody so full, me too and I feel sleepy hahahahaha cant take food anymore miso soup , fruits , ice cream , sashimi salad , meat , rice gosh.. so full.

It’s a great lunch with good converstation also we can watch each item is prepared one by one.
The overall experience at Roku-Roku was awesome. A healthy meal there could set you back a good RMB 50 per head, its actually RMB 55 but Claire’s have a member card.

for the standard of service and quality of food they provide is worth it.Prices are at the high end but worth it for the quality of the food.

After lunch claire's driver took us to medicine store , we want to buy some high altitude medicine , because tomorrow we will fly to Lhasa - Tibet.

and you know what.. i am so surprised that ge bought so many different type, different brand of chocolate to bring it to our tibet journey
and also she remember my fav dried mangoes from her country,i am so touch even she said she bought it in hong kong. hahahahahaha mmmmmmmmmmm yummy

i take a nap while ge finishing her report , and our dinner its chinese food. Gosh we order everything may be because we still cant believed that we meet again after our last trip to yunnan province and we are in china again , in this time we will go to tibet
yeah.. we cant finished it... so take a way for tomorrow breakfast.
we must wake up around 5 am and arrived at guang zhou airport around 6 am.

Day 3 - Zhuhai Border

Day 3
Sept 26 , 2008

Nothing to do in the morning , after lunch I went to traditional market but I am forget the market name and we ate AGAIN noodle with pork ribs , soya bean with melon flavour hihihihi quite weird though and I think the original soya bean with ice better.

Around 3 pm leaving from my aunti house and go to Guang Zhou. She said take a bus to the Border – Zhu Hai - but I am slept at bus and I realize the bus already back to my auntie house.. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh its 5 pm.

I am so panic because I don’t want cross the border at night , its safe but I just feel uncomfortable ..... when I see Ponte 16 Hotel – Casino Aha… I know what I do. I must get off from the bus and I hope there is free shuttle bus to the border hahahahaha
Yeah.. I am right there is free shuttle bus , but I need the ticket to get the Ponte 16 shuttle bus.
I talk with the Door Man , I said I am lost and I want to go to Zhu Hai border. But He cant speak English so he ask his other friend to talk with me. I think He is from Philippine coz he start talk tagalog. He help me to get the ticket he said I must pretend enter the casino around 5 min inside the casino and then come out , somebody in the ticket office will give me the ticket.

Many Thanks…

Ponte 16 shuttle bus drop me at the Border Pass. I Just follow the crowd into a large white building and follow the signs. It already 5.30pm

The line between China and Macau called Gong Bei – district in Zhu hai and located at the southern estuary of the Pearl River Delta in Guandong province.

prepare your passport , china visa and better use luggages that has rollers as you have to walk from border to border .

After I Checked out from Macau immigration border and then walk across the China Immigrations. And in Here I have to rush up an escalator amongst hundreds of people.
I found many people running the 100 meter sprint to get to the head of the immigration line.
Gosh….

Nowadays, most Chinese and HK based visitors go through a card reader system which speeds up the process exponentially yet people still run.

Once you get thru the immigration, just follow the crowd and walk to the border takes 15 mins walk. As usual, the crowd was overwhelming and the queue took more than 30 min .
Just make sure to stand in the correct line for foreigners, otherwise you will waste a lot of time.

After all the human rush , its will be in Gong Bei. There will be lots of taxis waiting to fleece u... The bus station in Gongbei is very close to the border but not obvious to locate so cross the street , go to the right I saw ICBC BANK and the Gong bei terminal.

From 2008 09 24 - 27 macau

I take the bus to Guang Zhou from Gongbei bus terminal costed RMB 70 and took 2.5 hours. They will give me 1 free mineral bottle and the buses leaves every 15 mins.

In Guangzhou I am arrived to the main train station and arghhhhhhhhhhhhh its Raining , so I catch taxi to China Hotel its costed RMB 14.

When I met with Christ its already 9 pm, she help me and Ge to book and give the payment first my Tibet Tour.
After I paid the Tibet tour and she explained about the tour. She back home and its quite far around 1,5 hour its called Foshan City

I supposed to be go to Guang zhou airport to meet Geraldine , but its raining and I queue almost 1 hour *sigh* cant get taxi. So I am waiting her at China Hotel, its 5 Star Hotel but with old style.

Fuih…. Finally met Geraldine around midnight , she have delayed flight too from shanghai. And she bring big suitcase hihihihi cant compare with me coz I only with my back pack.

We stayed around 2 night at Claire’s House , she is Geraldine’s friend from Philippine. Her house so cozy with Pearl River View… mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Feel so tired but I cant wait our journey to Tibet.

Note :
if you catch the AP1 bus from Macau to Zhu hai border crossing it can take anything from 40 - 90 minutes depending on traffic, cost MOP 3.30. There is a luggage area at the front of the bus; drivers are permitted to charge and extra MOP3 for each piece of luggage larger than cabin baggage size.

So.. better you take the shuttle bus, coz its FREE