Things you didn't know about Tibet

This is a photograph given to me by my friends who have visited Tibet recently.

I wonder how many people in Malaysia have visited Tibet? We have seen a lot of documentaries on TV about this country but I guess not many people have been there.

When we think of Tibet, we would automatically think of temples, worships and monks. This is true because worshipping is basically the most important activity among Tibetans everyday. However, my friends have told me something which I didn't know about.

According to my friends, food is really scarce there. If you thought going to Tibet is just like going to China which they would bring you to restaurant for meals everyday with lots of food on the table waiting for you, then you are wrong. In Tibet, you will get tomatoes with fried egg for every meal and if you are lucky, they will give you some meat. You will also get porridge for all breakfast. Thus, an advice from my friends, you must bring some food with you if you don't want to feel hungry most of the time.

You must bring oxygen and tablets for high mountain sickness from your own country. If your travel agent tells you not to worry because they have everything there for you, it is not true. One of my friends started vomiting from the third day there and felt really sick for the whole trip.

For certain nights my friends had to stay in tents because they don't have hotels in certain places. There are four beds inside a tent and nothing else. In these tents, you only get one hour of electricity at night and no water. So you don't brush your teeth at night. You need to share a public toilet which maybe located 10 minutes away from your tent. So all my friends decided to pee outside the tent in the open air.

In big city like Lhasa, my friends stayed in 4 stars hotel which is really nice. After looking through the photographs taken by my friends, I found that most houses look nearly the same from outside. They all look very simple and rough. However, they put a lot of emphasis inside their houses. I would say Tibetans are very good interior artists. Beautiful pictures are drawn on their walls and furniture with bright colours. They also use a lot of fabrics to decorate their windows and doors.

Well, if you look at the picture posted above, the colourful flags is a common sight in Tibet. They are hanging above the road or along the mountain side. Prayers are printed on the flags and you are supposed to write your name on it before they hang it up for you.

I asked my friends how they felt about the whole trip and they said there is only one word to describe, that is, it is an Experience. An experience which you will never get in our country because we don't have to eat tomatoes everyday and we can take shower whenever we feel like it. People in Tibet only take shower once a week or even a month.