Life with cats, and other things…
1735/4th March 2021 Perhaps listening to Russian choral music is not what I need to be doing at the moment, but it is so very lovely. It pierces the heart. The piece I am listening to is Tchaikovsky's Hymn of the Cherubim sung by the USSR Min. of Culture Choir. There is something about the … Continue reading Detective stories
My old travelling buddy, Tim has mopped me up more times than I can remember. In the beginning maybe he paid more attention, but once he got to know me better, he would tend to chuckle. Or sometimes he would just ask "what's wrong now, Dor'". (He used to call me Doreen...too silly to explain.) … Continue reading Free Tibet!
Until the latter half of the 1980's it had been difficult to gain access to Tibet and only the fairly hardy attempted it. Photographer and adventurer Galen Rowell was one of those. The stunning photograph he captured in 1981 of a rainbow emanating from the Potala Palace is the kind of amazing thing that could … Continue reading Lhasa
Following two very long, difficult days on the road, we now had a whole day to spend in Shigatse, the second largest city of Tibet. It was the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, second in authority only to the Dalai Lama. The 10th Panchen Lama had remained in Tibet after the Chinese take-over. A … Continue reading Shigatse and Gysantse
Having survived the latest rockfall, our intrepid little group may have thought the worst was over. We had set out only the day before on our journey from Kathmandu, though it felt as if we had been underway a lot longer! But we had set foot in Tibet and I for one had been energized. … Continue reading Getting to Shigatse
The exhilaration I felt upon setting foot in Tibet was not momentary. For several weeks thereafter, I felt as though I was walking on air. Which was just as well, considering the assortment of complications that were to follow. Tourists had started to arrive in Tibet a year before we went, but at a very … Continue reading Zhangmu
It was the day of our actual departure for Lhasa, a place I had longed to see above all others. With some challenges, we had arrived at our departure point in Kathmandu. We had shopped for extra food supplements, we had listened to the briefing ref: altitude, possible anticipated problems along the way, and now … Continue reading Friendship Bridge
Swayambhunath Temple, Kathmandu What journey ever goes off without a hitch? Or two? When you travel on "space available", or "subject to load" tickets, as airline personnel do, the hitches tend to be more numerous. It was ironic, therefore, that the first hitch on our journey to Tibet involved our fully paid, "full revenue" tickets. … Continue reading Nepal 1986