We ate at a Yak Steak House tonight, thought we did not eat yak steak. Instead, we had yak stew, yak pot stickers (really delicious, I ate like 6 of them), veggie lo mein (our first noodle dish in China, I think), amazing pita bread with yak butter on it, some excellent tomato/cream soup, and a few other dishes. Overall, it was my favorite meal so far. Tomorrow night, they say we are going to eat at the same restaurant and, for the first time in China, we will actually get to order whatever we want off the menu instead of just having a combination of meals brought to the table. I am so ordering yak steak!
Also, the meal came with regular sized plates and we actually got full cans of sodas to drink! Wow!!
Our Tibetan guide told us an interesting story about why they eat so much Yak around here. He says Buddhist people hate to take a life, even that of an animal. If a family were to eat a chicken or a fish, it would only feed them for one night. Heck, they might even have to kill 2 chickens or 3 or 4 smaller fish to feed the family one meal. On the other hand, if they eat a Yak, they only have to kill one animal but they get enough food to eat for weeks, maybe longer. All of us agreed that it is a very interesting philosophy and we like it. Chalk up another point for Tibet in terms of its spiritual nature.
Our guide also told us a few things to look out for during our stay in Lhasa. So, without any further ado, I present to you the 5 rules to live by in Lhasa…
1. Don’t ask your guide about anything political. He may have strong feelings about the Dalai Lama and Chinese occupation of Tibet, but he has no desire to be sent to prison so he doesn’t even want to hear your questions.
2. If someone else asks you about politics, don’t answer them. There are spies and undercover agents all over the place in Tibet. Hey love to come up to people and pretend to be angry with China over the situation in Tibet. Then, when you sympathize with them, you get in biiig trouble. So, it is Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell when it comes to the Dalai Lama and politics in Tibet.
3. Don’t take pictures of the police. There are lots of Chinese soldiers and police crawling all over Lhasa and they don’t want you going back to the states with photos showing the large military presence in the city. So, if the police see you taking their picture, they will come take your camera. Our guide warned that the police sometimes hide on top of the buildings and we may not see them but if they see us taking pics of the buildings, our camera could be confiscated.
4. Beware of street merchants trying to sell stuff to you. If you show even a little bit of interest in their items, they will chase you down and not leave you alone until you buy something. Some of the street vendors have been known to follow people all the way back to their hotel and knock on hotel doors trying to make a sale. If you show any interest, you better be ready to buy it.
5. When you buy something, make sure you either pay with a credit card or with exact change. There is apparently a lot of counterfeit money floating around Lhasa. If, for example, you buy something for 160 Yuan and give the merchant 200 Yuan, you will get 40 worthless, counterfeit Yuan in change. As foreigners, there is no chance we would be able to see the difference.
Doesn’t Lhasa sound like a wonderful place? Our guide says most of the nasty things are from folks outside of Tibet who have moved to the region, not from native Tibetans.
I have to say that even with the warnings, the entire group is tremendously excited to be here. I have heard many people echo my own feeling that Tibet is the reason they came on this trip instead of the many other tour that go elsewhere in China. We are all extremely excited for tomorrow when we will get to begin to really explore this land that has remained largely unchanged for centuries.
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