Malaysian Meanders: 10 Photos of Tibet through a Car Window

It's taken me a while to write about our family trip to Tibet back in October. A multitude of images flood my mind when I reflect back on our visit. There are the ones you would expect of towering mountains and peaceful monks. Buddhist temples and praying peasants. You know what I mean. The postcard shots.

Interspersed with those are memories of my family hit hard by altitude sickness. The image of my 8-year-old daughter so lethargic that she spent most of her time flat out on the bed or carried in the arms of her dad. The picture of my bacon-loving son turning down a plate of crispy strips — so hard to find in Malaysia — because of loss of appetite. My throbbing headache and cotton-filled brain where coherent thoughts weakly struggled to swim up to the surface. The way my lungs begged for air, and my heart raced as if I had just sprinted a mile even though all I had done was walk slowly, oh so slowly, from the hotel room to the lobby. Tibet was literally breathtaking.

On our second day, we took hits off the canisters of oxygen in the mini-bar. To think that I had found them so amusing when I saw them for sale in the airport baggage claim area. I assumed it was for Everest expeditions, not mere sightseeing excursions. It was so strange to teach the kids to press the button, inhale deeply, and then hold their breath for a moment before exhaling. Finally, those After School Specials about huffing have finally come in handy. If we had planned on spending more than three nights there, I would have cut the trip short and flown out earlier.

Straight Up Oxygen (and the stink eye)

Then, there was my teen who hovered in the sweet spot of being both old enough and young enough so that the altitude did not affect him as much as the rest of us. He would bound down the hallway, barely stopping to wait for the rest of us to catch up.

Riding around in the car was some of the best sightseeing for us. It was passive enough that our sorry physical state was not too much of a hindrance. Watching Tibet whiz by the window, it struck me how it was simultaneously exactly what I expected but, on the other hand, much more modern than I anticipated.

Come along for the ride.

Lhasa River plain between the mountains

On the hour-long ride from the airport to Lhasa, I could not stop staring out the window in wonder. In the wide plain between the mountains, branches of the Lhasa River flowed like ribbons of blue silk twisting together. The sky was brilliant and clear, and stands of yellow trees brightened the scene. The reality of being at an elevation of 11,450 feet (3,490 meters) had not hit us, yet.

Prayer flags on bridges

Strings of prayer flags festooned the bridges over river crossings. Each color represents the Five Elements. Red for fire; yellow for earth; blue for sky; white for air; and green for water.They fluttered gaily in the wind as if welcoming us to the Roof of the World.

Wide, orderly boulevards in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet

Lhasa was not what I expected. I thought I'd find something much more rugged and rustic like an Asian frontier outpost. Instead, I found the work of a top-notch city planner. Wide boulevards and well-planned intersections guided an orderly stream of vehicles through the city. It was so different than the crazy streets of Penang. Cars, trucks, and taxis that would be at home in any Westernized country shared the road with motorcycle-trailer hybrids hauling things like loose piles of oranges as shown in the photo above. It was not completely modern, though. Some people relied on pedal-power to carry items through the city.

A public bus passes bicycles carrying goods throughout town.

A woman transports her shopping in a pedicab while a policeman speaks with a man on a bike.

Notice the green street sign at the top with the information shown in
Tibetan, Chinese, and phonetically spelled out Mandarin.

Schoolgirls walking home after school.

People were walking everywhere, and a railing divided the sidewalk from the street in many places. I thought the school uniform of a track suit was both practical and comfortable. By the end of October, the tourist crush was long gone, and most of the people we saw were locals dressed in jeans and puffy coats. Other visitors were primarily Tibetan farmers who had brought in their harvest and were taking advantage of the good weather to make a pilgrimage to Lhasa's holy sites. They were dressed in traditional clothing.

A pedestrian street with architecture typical to the city.

Many of the buildings in the city had a similar architectural style. Most were four stories tall and seemed to be sturdily built. A regular array of windows were adorned with decorative railings and rectangles painted with a colorful, patterned design motif. If you look closely at the end of the building, you'll see a few poles with prayer flags attached to them. These were a common sight around the city.

A cluster of buildings on the outskirts of Lhasa

On one of our sightseeing days, the guide and driver took us out 90 minutes outside of Lhasa to Ganden Monastery, and we had a chance to both see the smaller towns of the region as well as reach an elevation of 12,467 feet (3,800 meters). The buildings in the outlying areas were only two stories tall. They weren't as highly decorated as the structures in the city, but I could still see a similar architectural style. In this photo, the building is flying a Chinese flag instead of Tibetan prayer flags. The Chinese government has encouraged such an influx of Chinese settlers into the Tibet Autonomous Region that the ethnic Tibetans are now a minority in their homeland.

Farmhouses at the base of the mountain road leading up to Ganden Monastery

By the time we were far away from the city, the population was rather sparse. Farmhouses with cows and chickens in the yard clustered together into little villages. Even at this smaller scale, I could still detect the distinctive, boxy Tibetan architecture with prominent windows. Poles with prayer flags topped almost every house.

Cattle crossing in the middle of town

I'll end with the image of the herd of cattle we had to avoid while driving through a town. It reminded me of Penang and having to dodge cows on busy roadways.

One of the major things that I don't show is the military presence in Tibet. The Lhasa Riots and Tibetan Uprising a few months before the 2008 Beijing Olympics signaled an uptick in dissent in the region. Soldiers are stationed throughout Lhasa to serve as a reminder of China's power over them, and we passed through numerous checkpoints when driving to outlying areas. Apparently, I would make a horrible photojournalist as my fear of disappearing into a Chinese prison is enough to keep me from sneaking photos.

By the time we were there for 48 hours, the symptoms started abating. My girl roused herself enough to eat what she has deemed to be the "The Best Hamburger in Asia." We boarded the plane still feeling a bit woozy and immediately improved the moment they closed the doors and pressurized the cabin. By the time we landed in Xi'an, we were feeling fine and ready to take on the world.