Calishou Tibet!

Thursday, September 4, 2008 – 9:00pm

Well, my bags are packed…I’m ready to go. Time has come to say “Calishou”, or goodbye to Tibet. I have to say that David, Ethan and I did it up in style for our last day. The day began with us waking up pretty early in order to go down and have one last breakfast with Mirjam and Fran.
It was bitter sweet. All of us excited to move on from Tibet to new experiences, sad to say goodbye. We really got on well. We all feel that now is the perfect time to leave Tibet because everything has been so amazing. Go out on a high note – always a good call. We will all remember our time here as a special one. Fran and Mirjam were picked up at 8:30 to head to the airport. We said our goodbyes and went back to bed as we were not going to be picked up until 1pm for an afternoon tour.
I used the time to get up to date with my blogging… a big weight lifted for Chengdu. Ethan napped and watched a movie on HBO and David putzed on his computer. It was nice to have some downtime.
At 1pm we met Tse Tan and Tashi and were off to Norbulinka (meaning jewel park) – the summer palace of the Dalai Lama. Even today’s Dalai Lama (the 14th) took up residency there until he fled to India in 1959. It was actually from there that he made his escape.
The park was beautiful (of course), and full of people as the Yoghurt festival was still being celebrated. Many Tibetan families were there picnicking, eating, drinking and making merry. We toured the grounds and saw the respective summer dwellings of various Dalai Lamas, the highlight being that of the 14th Dalai Lama – the one alive today. David compared it to visiting the White House.
Following our tour, we then stopped, listened to and watched some traditional Tibetan Opera. It was more like a pantomime play with elaborate costumes, dancing and singing - very interesting to see. The three of us were pretty wiped out from 3 FULL days of touring, climbing mountains and other such enjoyable pursuits, so we asked Tse Dan where we could get a good, inexpensive Tibetan massage. He knew just the place. It was only 65 Yuan for a massage lasting over 1 hour and it was attached to an orphanage.
Tashi drove us all there and we invited Tse Tan and Tashi to come get a massage with us for all of their hard work, good driving and excellent hospitality while we were in Tibet. It was an experience. Ethan, Tse Tan and myself opted for the “foot reflexology massage” and were in one room, and David and Tashi opted for the full body massage and were somewhere else.
Now, if any of you come to Tibet or China, here is a piece of advice concerning massages. I always opt for the foot massage for three reasons: 1. My feet were always in need of some TLC due to how busy the Olympics were and how much walking and hiking we did on tours. 2. They are cheaper than full body massages. 3. When they give a foot massage, they also do your neck, back and shoulders… or so I thought. This place was different.
Tse Tan, Ethan and I all got our treatment in the same room. We entered the room and there were three reclining style chairs with footstools at the bottom. I picked mine and got comfortable. We were all in jeans and Tse Tan asked if we wanted ‘thin pants’ to make the massage better. We were up for it and said sure. “Thin pants,” as it turns out, were women’s pyjama bottoms. Mine were bright purple, Tse Tan had a nice pair of white ones with black polka dots, and Ethan (seeing as he is an absolute behemoth at 6’4, in a land that is built just for me) had yellow and orange striped ones that came just below his knees – culottes perhaps? It was quite funny. We stopped laughing, however, when they came in, picked up our shoes and ran out of the room with them. We had no idea what was going on, but later found out that they took them and cleaned them for us! My shoes were as good as new when all was said and done.
The treatment began and I was walking the line between pleasure and pain the whole time. It started with pleasure – them bringing us fresh apple slices and sweet flower petal tea. It then went to pain with my girl soaking my feet in the ABSOLUTE HOTTEST WATER I have ever felt. All that kept playing in my head was the public service announcement from when I was a kid: You know, the one with Sylvester and Tweety Bird saying “and remember, boiling water can burn in less than three seconds!”. Once my feet adjusted (after turning bright red), it was back to full on pleasure.
My masseuse then spent what seemed like forever working on each foot. Tse Tan kept asking if it was OK. Ethan had to tell his girl to be a bit more gentle, whereas I told Tse Tan to tell my girl that the harder the better. She loved this and went to town. She did reflexology on my feet, massaged my calves and my legs. Ethan and I were a little anxious because we really wanted to have our neck, back and shoulders worked on too – and from the massages we had in China, they always did that while our feet were soaking. Here it did not work that way. We asked Tse Tan if they would do our back and he said yes. We needed to relax and be patient.
I thought that my massage had ended, but then my masseuse kicked it into high gear. The foot portion was done, then it was onto the rest of the body. They did not just do neck, back and shoulders here, they did it all! Back to pleasure… but pain would soon come. The Masseuse then worked my legs from the front (I was laying on my back at this point) – She got into every knot and I was in heaven. My legs were then pulled and stretched every which way.
This massage was not for the shy, however. I had never had my pubic bone massaged (nothing dirty people) just heavy pressure applied in an acupressure sort of way right around the goods. It took a moment to adjust from the initial surprise (her hands just kept creeping up my leg, past the thigh…you get the picture), but then it actually was quite nice (in a non dirty way people! There was nothing sexual, her eyes averted the whole time… although she did tell Tse Dan that she thought I was handsome).
It was then time to flip and the neck, back, shoulders, back of my legs, and gluteus maximus were then fully massaged. Hot stones were used on my back and stomach - and I have the red heat blisters to prove it... I have never had my butt massaged before either… It was a day of firsts. I am sure it was quite therapeutic. See, all that for 65 yuan (less than 10 dollars) – and I didn’t even have to buy dinner first!
Following the massages (Tse Tan and Tashi were very thankful), we were starving. We asked Tse Tan to take us to a local joint… and that he did. We went to a restaurant that used to be a tavern and was literally a cave in the side of the hill beside Potala Palace. It only had enough space to have long narrow tables flanking both walls of the cave. The five of us could not even sit at the same table, we sat across the cave from each other and just yelled across when we talked. It really was a local place and I am not sure that there had been any westerners in there before. We were stared at, a novelty among locals. Tse Tan ordered food for us – Tibetan noodles, a rice/potato curry and yak momos in broth (of course!). It was delicious – and for the five of us it only cost 32 yuan – less than 1 dollar each. Once again, ridiculous. What was also ridiculous (and fun) was that for some reason they kept playing “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas – and seeing as it was a western song with English lyrics the three of us sang along – it is weird, no matter how wrong you know it is, you can’t help yourself. They got a kick out of that and I think that is why they kept playing it.
After dinner it was home to pack, watch some HBO and then write this blog. Tomorrow we are off to Chengdu in the middle of China. We are going to meet up with Kate there – a friend of a colleague of mine from Beijing that I met once at a pizza place. She has been living in Chengdu for over a year and speaks fluent mandarin – a winning combination in my books. Again, this is why I like travelling – travelers open their doors to one another. So, my readers – I leave you here, and will hopefully be able to continue to post regularly. Let the