Project VELAIA

The time in Lhasa was great, but short. I met so many interesting people and it was really hard to leave them after only one short day (which I have mostly spent on the internet). But it’s no holidays, it’s hard work

Lhasa left the impression of a big big city in the middle of nowhere. On the one side the Tibetan culture, the Tibetan faces everywhere and on the other side the fast and hectic life of a Chinese metropolis. The big, fast and dirty cars of the rich next to the shit burnig, yak butter tea drinking and horse riding Tibetan family who visits the center of their culture. I guess these contradictions between the rich and the poor, the modern and the culture will follow me through the rest of Tibet.

The meeting with the filming tandem riders Dolphine and Domien from Planet.D and their short video presentation in the evening was especially impressive and made me wish for a camcorder immediately Check out their website in the linksection on the right!

From Lhasa, located on 3600m, I planned to leave Tibet on the fastest way, following the Road 109 to the north, to Golmud. The map which I had copied from the Spanish cyclist a few days before proofed to be quite bad and my calculations got pretty disturbed by that.

After a few kilometers I realized these Tibetan pilgrims. I had heard from them before but seeing these people going 3 steps, falling down to the ground, getting up again, clapping their hands and then the whole process again, left a mark in me! I make one pedal stroke every time they go down – how easy that is. And on their arrival in Tibet they fall down the whole day long in front of the Potala Palace!

But at least most of them have their trucks which follow them and provide them with a warm shelter for the night – something like the team-cars for the Tour de France riders

Another impressive thing that followed me through many valleys and over many passes was the railway which connects the capital of Tibet to China – many more bridges than for the G109 and even tunnels have been built to fit the railway into sometimes very narrow valleys.

Whenever I heard the sound of the 2 to 3 locomotives I stopped for a minute and enjoyed the view of this “monster” which often looked like a H0-train in front of the 6000 and 7000 meter mountains in the background!

Due to the lack of data in my map I thought that the glacier-laden peaks would soon end and after every pass or mountain range I was hoping for a plateau with no mountains at its end or for a long valley which would bring me down.

But instead the railway left me for 2 days and I had to go through really hilly areas with a new uphill every hour making me feel like doing step aerobics (up and down and up and down).

Having finished that hilly part the mountains started again and I went from one high plateau on 4500m to another one on 4700m and so on, always waiting for the “final valley”.

Ha ha, this is Tibet, fool! And as I reached (virtual) km stone 900 (from Lhasa) and was still waiting for the way down to Golmud (on 2800m) heavy side winds started off, blowing me off the street 50 times, blowing away 50 Yuan which I had deposited under my seat pad and making the passing of a truck the beginning of a dangerous S-curve. At least I managed not to lose my seat pad by staying on the bike until the wind stopping valley started – man, what a day!

And then I reached it, the ONLY 5000+ m pass of my map. But reality proofed the map wrong and it was immediately followed by another pass, even higher (5231m). The following downhill brought me into a f…ing cold valley where I was happy to convince some Tibetans to let me stay in their house and recover my white fingers and toes again.

Ha, even that was not the last pass above 5000m. And as if these had not been enough the temperatures went down more and more! So from now on I always tried to find a secure place for the night, either a wind protected house, pipe under the street or a dormitory or something alike.

Once I was really lucky to get a bed for 20 Yuan which hat its own heater built. There were spots under the bed that got 50-60 deg C warm, what a difference to the pipe which I got another time – the cycling computer quit working at -20 deg C and I was lucky to have put 6 packets of instant noodles, all my clothes and even the spare plastic bags which I had with me into my sleeping bag for additional insulation before falling asleep – could have been an eternal sleep otherwise or at least a cold night or a trip with one of the passing trucks or Jeeps (they never stopped, not even at night!).

On this road the tourist Jeeps which are omnipresent between Lhasa and Ali stopped nearly totally. But whenever one passed (every one or two days) somebody was jumping out, taking pictures, giving you food and whatever they have packed – many really nice Chinese!

Now even during daytime the temperatures seldom touched the 0 deg C and I realized that my shoes and hand shoes were not made for these climates! Often I had to stop every few km, waiting for feeling my fingers and toes again. If I started too early in the morning (eager to do my 130km average which I had in mind) I sometimes even had to walk for 1 or 2 km to warm them up!

But as a compensation I had these stunning scenery all the time, these snow and ice laden peaks often in a distance of 50-60km, or the white north side of the mountains. The frozen rivers and lakes!

Once I managed to get another warm night with a Tibetan family (a thing which seems to be very rare – I often asked for hot water first and as they realized that I was no Chinese spy or policeman, no killer, no alien from another galaxy but just a nearly frozen German touring cyclist, they got more relaxed and invited me to stay), organized by a really friendly Chinese girl.

And then I went over the “final pass”, 4700+m. Now 150km of downhill followed – sometimes a bit windy or hilly but at least the temperatures went up and made this a “melting experience” as the water was flowing again next to the street and plants bigger plants appeared again, the snowfields gave a last stunning impression of the altitude I had been on but then said good bye!

I spent a wonderfully warm night in a cave before the last 55km which brought me into Golmud. 30km before this big big city the mountains stopped and I was at the border of a big plateau which goes down to the north.

Here the first thing I had was a shower – the last one was long time back! Even in Lhasa I forgot to have one

During the coming 3 weeks I will explore “real China” – the China that has been in my head before I came here – the western part and Tibet hadn’t been part of that picture so far! But it won’t be an easy part as I’ll have to do quite some km per day to reach Beijing in time – so the next update will probably be from Beijing!

Till then, your Daniel Lama