Looks like it’s going to reach the end of my Tibet 2009 and this will be the so called last post. Well, who knows there could be a reprise of it in the coming future as I looked upon to travel to Tibet again in the coming future. Below is a 1280 x 850 Snow Mountain photo for you to look at and to download. Some people prefer the black background.

So how’s the weather around September 2009? During that time, the leaves are starting to turn yellow and Autumn is approaching. Winter is definitely going to be a super cold time in December.

One thing I like about Tibet is the country side. I loathe the shopping complexes compared to the country side where everything is peace and harmony, and there are no busy cars and motorbikes moving around all day to make one feel frustrated over the busy roads of a metropolitan city. *RANTS RANTS*

Sometimes we complaint how unlucky, how nice if we were to stay near the mountainside. But let me show you how does the people there live.

The 4 to 5 story buildings were built alongside the cliffs. I mean, what happens if there was a landslide. I dread to know. Kind of a scary place to live in.

By the way, it was really a superb sight when traveling in the morning in the jeep high up in the mountains. The scenery is superb.

Of course, when you travel at night, it’s what we call dangerous instead. Though with the above scenery, it makes me wanna do crazy and weird stuffs like a cartwheel.

FAILED though. Shadow was removed to show it’s really the WEIRD ONE.

Now most of you must have been thinking, how did I manage to get along in Tibet with my half past six Mandarin. Besides I don’t even speak Tibetan. It’s all thanks to this person, our handsome Tibetan Tour Guide.

Fuiyoh…. kinda modern. He speaks quite good English too.

A picture of me with a Tibetan. Why not??

Though I look weird here. The wind was blowing straight at me and boy do I look thin.

Here’s the Tibetan Jeep Driver. Now it looks like I am reaching to the end of the post.

In the end, what was the most memorable occasion when I was in Tibet with Ek Wei and Kenny?

There is one I can still remember, the taste, the aroma and none other than the Yak Butter Milk Tea which can be viewed at the mentioned link. Another thing I would miss on this trip is the amount of crazy things I did. Imagine jumping up with a face mask.

Finally this wraps up my post and looks like the post about my 20+ days journey in Tibet has finally ended. Now what should I blog about? There is Bali and Philippines and Taiwan upcoming too. Looks like more drafts to do and more photos to share.

For those that just came to this blog and would love to read further and previous issues, you can visit it under Travel > Tibet category or refer to the list below.

[Tibet 1] Hello from Lhasa, Tibet
[Tibet 2] The Rough Journey Tibet
[Tibet 3] Another Day in Lhasa
[Tibet 4] Visiting Drepung Monastery Tibet
[Tibet 5] Monastery Visitation Tibet
[Tibet 6] Moving Around Lhasa Tibet
[Tibet 7] The Day I Visited Temples at Lhasa
[Tibet 8] Weird Blue Lake Tibet
[Tibet 9] Randomness at China and Tibet
[Tibet 10] More Monasteries and Mt Everest
[Tibet 11] Journey to Mt Everest
[Tibet 12] Journey to Namtso Lake
[Tibet 13] Namtso Lake Scene
[Tibet 14] Return to Lhasa from Mountains
[Tibet 15] Lhasa Town Free and Easy
[Tibet 16] Beginning the Journey to Chengdu in Jeep
[Tibet 17] The Giant Tree and Tibet Tradition Wear
[Tibet 18] Journey towards Midui Glacier, Tibet
[Tibet 19] Midui Glacier Tibet Adventure
[Tibet 20] Last Few Days Tibet Trip

It’s going to come to the end, and yet I felt that there are many more photos to be uploaded and shared on this blog. Though as time passes by, these are all but memories of my trip in Tibet with 2 friends, Ek Wei and Kenny. The posts about this trip is going to end in the upcoming series with maybe a filler in the end for some memorable moments.

Tibet as we know it, is a land far far away from my home in Malaysia and it’s like a land of a different culture. Earth is definitely a wonder, a splendor when you view it from photos. Tibet used to be governed by the Tibetan government under the Tibetan King and the Dalai Lama until the China Government took over. Well, anyway, the last few days in Tibet will all be here.

On the way back, there are loads of stream and water along the road. As expected, it’s from the mountains. Basically you have got to see how close it is the road along the hills. It’s so close to the ravine, it’s dangerous.

No barrier whatsoever, just one small mistake or if the driver were to fall asleep or careless, we would all meet our doom. The guy peering out of the jeep is none other than Ek Wei. Well, I was outside when I took this shot. Love the sky there. Love the scenery.

Of course, when I am out there, it’s time for some pose of the Weird One.

Daniel Chew is the Superman. Darn, just realized that I have already lost about 3 to 5 kg when my jeans are getting loose. Seriously, I can even see my jawbone protruding out. That is the same case for the rest of us too which includes Ek Wei and Kenny.

Well, along the way, we only got to see rocks and clouds and trees and more trees and more rocks and ahhhhhh…. basically it’s kinda boring along the road driving back towards Chengdu with no more magnificent scenery to take or places to visit. I will surely miss my trip up Mt Everest Base camp, Nam Tso Lake and others. Strange, it has been a year and I really want to go travel once again. I am never tired or bored of the same place though.

Anyway remembered I did say it was a whole lot dangerous when we traveled at night? Yes, we were like traveling in total pitch darkness as there are no street lights on top of the mountain trail. One eventful thing though that stuck through our journey was we had our jeep tire punctured. Oh man, of all things it happened during a super duper traffic jam up in the mountains. What a day to happen.

It was actually cold in this dark night traffic. It should be about 8 to 12 degree Celsius. Still it was an experience that the whole lot of us definitely won’t forget. Though at times, cameras take certain shots without me realizing that it can actually capture certain scenes.

One of them is the one below.

Bird Returning To It’s Nest

Maybe I should have  zoom this photo a bit closer and see how it looks like instead. Partly modified so that the background is all gray.

Well, I must say that all 3 of us are very sad that we are going to be off from this land in another 2 days after this photo was taken. It was Chengdu afterwards which we didn’t bother taking any photos as we only arrived that place in the night and thus we all regretted for not taking out our cameras after that.

For those that miss parts of the trip, here are the whole issue again.

[Tibet 1] Hello from Lhasa, Tibet
[Tibet 2] The Rough Journey Tibet
[Tibet 3] Another Day in Lhasa
[Tibet 4] Visiting Drepung Monastery Tibet
[Tibet 5] Monastery Visitation Tibet
[Tibet 6] Moving Around Lhasa Tibet
[Tibet 7] The Day I Visited Temples at Lhasa
[Tibet 8] Weird Blue Lake Tibet
[Tibet 9] Randomness at China and Tibet
[Tibet 10] More Monasteries and Mt Everest
[Tibet 11] Journey to Mt Everest
[Tibet 12] Journey to Namtso Lake
[Tibet 13] Namtso Lake Scene
[Tibet 14] Return to Lhasa from Mountains
[Tibet 15] Lhasa Town Free and Easy
[Tibet 16] Beginning the Journey to Chengdu in Jeep
[Tibet 17] The Giant Tree and Tibet Tradition Wear
[Tibet 18] Journey towards Midui Glacier, Tibet
[Tibet 19] Midui Glacier Tibet Adventure

Nevertheless, there are some things which is more important than going on a travel trip. They are friends who loves to travel and stick with you through thick and thin.

A filler will come in sooner or later, and then time for my post on Bali. Hooray!!

We’re now finally back to Midui Glacier and more and more adventure as we carry on. Surprisingly it’s going to reached almost a year since I last came back from Tibet. Well, actually it took quite a while to draft this whole post and I haven’t even started writing on Bali and Philippines too.

Now this is the journey to the Midui Glacier, Tibet 2009. That’s like a year ago and from this post, I am leaving to Taiwan in awhile.

Midui Glacier against the brown sandy stream. Now wait, how did the water came about? The source is the ice that is and still melting.

Then we got a bit closer.

Then it was then super close. Alright alright, it’s just the lens doing it’s thing. Of course let’s judge how far is the glacier from the lake.

Now that’s what I call far. It looks near but indeed, the ice block the one you see like a small little brown hill is where we will be heading, and that’s like still a mile away from the snow. Of course along the way, there are many things that caught my eye. One of them is something protruding out from the stream.

Something white in the middle of the stream. It’s big.

Oh… it’s a piece of the ice that was left all alone there slowly melting but right in the middle of the stream.

Remember the brown hill? It’s actually ice covered with mud. Yes, it’s all ice blocks. This is the part where we get to stand on though. Of course, shooting can be done with a different setting. The above shot with a lighter color style.

To show the ice is really there, I took this shot and you can see that it’s really ice. Of course, nothing would be complete without making my mark that I have been to this place. What’s will all the scenery if I don’t have myself in it too. It shows that I’ve been there. I don’t know about others but that’s what I will do when I reached to another distant land. Maybe I should have done something like Matt? DANCE??

Or just pose!! Of course some of my antics were caught by my friend Ek Wei. This I got to show you.

Kenny and me trying to take our best shots of the place there. Of course we didn’t know that the camera was pointed at us. Until…… Ek Wei called my name and Kenny’s.

What else! Pose time. I guessed I can forever do the cool type of pose.

Of course, there were many photos taken, but if all things have to be posted on this blog post, it’s gonna take forever on Midui Glacier.

Important Side Note: I had one of my scary experience here also (besides the night experience). When I took photos of the Glacier, I have been looking at the camera for too long pointing towards the Glacier. Bad move…. after that I had problem with my vision as the Glacier is too bright with the ray of the sun shining on it. I was seeing everything with blurness and whitish all the time. It was hard to adjust. Thank God I was okay after a few minute rest without taking any photos.

Of course, where there’s great photos, there’s also time to depart from the place due to time constraint.

We went pass a lake which have huge ice blocks in it.

Anyway for those who don’t believe the water was cold when one touches it, believe it. Imagine what will be in the next picture?

It’s cold and he got hold of an ice particle in the lake and brought it along. Now imagine how cold his hands were. The whole ice and under the hot sun. His hand is gonna sting. Ouch!!!

By the way, this post is a pre-setted post as I am currently away in Taiwan and that means more photos to come in the coming future blog posts. Of course there are Bali and Vigan photos to be uploaded too. If you would love to see more of the photos, do visit my facebook photo page that I’ve shared. My facebook link is found on the right.

Here are the previous posts in case you just chance upon this post though.

[Tibet 1] Hello from Lhasa, Tibet

[Tibet 2] The Rough Journey Tibet

[Tibet 3] Another Day in Lhasa

[Tibet 4] Visiting Drepung Monastery Tibet

[Tibet 5] Monastery Visitation Tibet

[Tibet 6] Moving Around Lhasa Tibet

[Tibet 7] The Day I Visited Temples at Lhasa

[Tibet 8] Weird Blue Lake Tibet

[Tibet 9] Randomness at China and Tibet

[Tibet 10] More Monasteries and Mt Everest

[Tibet 11] Journey to Mt Everest

[Tibet 12] Journey to Namtso Lake

[Tibet 13] Namtso Lake Scene

[Tibet 14] Return to Lhasa from Mountains

[Tibet 15] Lhasa Town Free and Easy

[Tibet 16] Beginning the Journey to Chengdu in Jeep

[Tibet 17] The Giant Tree and Tibet Tradition Wear

[Tibet 18] Journey towards Midui Glacier, Tibet

Simple post this time. It’s more towards scenery.

Last few more posts upcoming and this time Tibet is finally gonna rest it’s head. Well, I meant the post though. This time journey is what I am looking forward to show to you people out there. It’s time to head towards the Midui Glacier. If you’ve missed all the travel post about Tibet, the links to the respective places will be at the bottom of this post.

Along the way there, we are met with few animals that would like to greet us whenever they can. For example the Yak, famous animal around Tibet.

Moooooooo…… this is my road and I can do what I like, I am the lone ranger here. Of course there are other animals there, say, the horse.

Snorts….

We see a lot of animals along the way on the road, sometimes on mountain roads where we’re like far from civilizations. Anyway we were given a shock though when we saw Tibetans on the road doing their pilgrimage and will lie on the floor and up after a few steps. I kid you not!!

See… is like something after that we’ve grown accustomed to. Amazed right? Of course the road is so wide, sometimes no vehicle goes along the path at times. So much that we even have someone on the road.

Jeng Jeng Jeng, another Shanghai girl on the road. Yes, imagine posing on the road. Too bad I wasn’t the proper photographer, or I would try to capture the scene against the scenery backdrop.

Well, sitting in the jeep has got it’s use though, we can take scenery shots from inside the jeep as long as the windows are clean though. Imagine how many wipes we’ve done.

The rocky mountains are such a wonder. I suddenly miss these kind of scenery with blue sky.

Of course these are part of what is nice about traveling overseas. Well, it always has been. Though there’s always no place like home but traveling to see the world is also what I would love to do. Even when we hardly get to eat, walked and hiked and near the brink of danger.

So much we have gone through, we would love to travel again as a group, taking photos and showing to people how wide and wonderful is the world out there. Well, as usual the usual 3. Yes, Bae Yong Joon *cough… Ek Wei* is with us again.

It was during that time, we were stalled from continuing our journey due to a fallen tree. So we took the liberty to take a photo against the jeep door. Now and then we would stop by at some restaurant along the road and order our meal. I dare say, I definitely prefer Malaysian food, but sometimes we just have to stomach what we’re given.

Herbal Chicken Soup in Hot Pot. Well, shared amongst 6 people. Well, it looks tasty, and yes, it definitely taste so good, I would love to have another bowl. Well, what are the ingredients for this soup? Wait till you see what they thrown into this soup for the delicate taste.

Amazingly weird. All parts of the chicken were used. Even the head wasn’t spared. Ginger, herbs and some other parts. Well, I guessed not everyone would love to think that a chicken head is in their soup.

Finally the moment to move to what this post is actually all about, The Midui Glacier.

Just look at Ek Wei can’t wait to get his photo taken amongst the lake and the glacier at the back. Hehehe…

Well, the destination is the glacier which takes about 30 to 40 minutes of walking. Yes, we have to walked all the way in. No food, no lunch yet. It’s about 1030am.

Hard to get the right exposure with the yak being all too dark in order to capture the sky and the snow. Of course another way to go to the Midui Glacier is by riding a horse there.

Simple and faster way to the next stop which is about 20 minutes away on foot, but with a horse it’s only 8 – 10 minutes. Of course it all comes with a price though say 40 Yuan?

Of course, one can also travel with style. You can bring along your umbrella to protect from the scorching sun but on a cool weather. Look at how the leaves are turning yellow. Autumn is arriving and definitely a sight to behold. There aren’t 4 seasons in Malaysia, thus having a look at the changing of leaves in another country is fascinating for me.

So with that in mind, I have to get a simple shot of myself in this lovely weather and season.

Now if only there were more trees at the background, the whole thing would have been perfect. So perfect if the color of the background is like the one below.

Yellow, green and the trail to the Midui Glacier. Huh? Wait!!!! Did I meant that I won’t be posting any photos on the Midui Glacier? Well, I kid you not, since this is post is about the journey to the Midui Glacier and not the Midui Glacier.

Well, of course I wouldn’t want to dash the hopes of having a glance of what’s around that area.So I’ll present to you a part of the Midui Glacier.

The whole chunk of ice on which I will stand on it later.

I know that this post has lots of weird photos and not as surreal like the previous posts. I would post more pictures of the Midui Glacier in the upcoming post though. For those that missed other posts, here are the lists below.

[Tibet 1] Hello from Lhasa, Tibet
[Tibet 2] The Rough Journey Tibet
[Tibet 3] Another Day in Lhasa
[Tibet 4] Visiting Drepung Monastery Tibet
[Tibet 5] Monastery Visitation Tibet
[Tibet 6] Moving Around Lhasa Tibet
[Tibet 7] The Day I Visited Temples at Lhasa
[Tibet 8] Weird Blue Lake Tibet
[Tibet 9] Randomness at China and Tibet
[Tibet 10] More Monasteries and Mt Everest
[Tibet 11] Journey to Mt Everest
[Tibet 12] Journey to Namtso Lake
[Tibet 13] Namtso Lake Scene
[Tibet 14] Return to Lhasa from Mountains
[Tibet 15] Lhasa Town Free and Easy
[Tibet 16] Beginning the Journey to Chengdu in Jeep
[Tibet 17] The Giant Tree and Tibet Tradition Wear

Altogether peace out and till the next post.

Finally time to continue our journey towards Chengdu. For those that missed the last post, and to recap, we were actually taking photos of the rushing water resulted from melted ice. These are the rest of the chapters if you’ve missed them.

[Tibet 1] Hello from Lhasa, Tibet
[Tibet 2] The Rough Journey Tibet
[Tibet 3] Another Day in Lhasa
[Tibet 4] Visiting Drepung Monastery Tibet
[Tibet 5] Monastery Visitation Tibet
[Tibet 6] Moving Around Lhasa Tibet
[Tibet 7] The Day I Visited Temples at Lhasa
[Tibet 8] Weird Blue Lake Tibet
[Tibet 9] Randomness at China and Tibet
[Tibet 10] More Monasteries and Mt Everest
[Tibet 11] Journey to Mt Everest
[Tibet 12] Journey to Namtso Lake
[Tibet 13] Namtso Lake Scene
[Tibet 14] Return to Lhasa from Mountains
[Tibet 15] Lhasa Town Free and Easy
[Tibet 16] Beginning the Journey to Chengdu in Jeep

Now it’s time to continue on and to visit the Giant Tree.

Giant Tree? What Giant Tree? By the way, the oldest and highest tree is recorded here. Highest as in a high location. Of course, in order for us to do that, we all need our rest for the night as the sun sets and it’s still like 4000m above sea level. It’s gonna be cold, there’s no fan in our place. Dinner time we ate the local Chinese “Ma Lat” dishes and can tell you, I was starting to miss home and Malaysian food.

Rest for the night and no one bothered to fold their blankets. Of course at the far end, you can still spot Kenny there still sleeping. Ha ha ha..

So onward we go for our next stop.

The World Cypress King Park. Here is the excerpt from the ticket being sold to us. Cost us 10 Yuan.

It is 13kms away from Linzhi county and the altitude is 3040m, there are 10 hecares precious cypress. It is 44m in average height, 1.58m in average diameter. Here you will see a cypress which has a history of 2600 years, it is 57m in height, 5.8m in diameter and was named “The King of Cypress in China“. It was said that the tree is regarded “Life Tree” by the founder of Ben Sect- Xinraomibao.

Now that was very good information about this place. Lucky I still kept the ticket. The stone marking the tree that is 2600 years old.

Man vs Tree. 20+ years old vs 2600 years old. Young vs Old. Look at how wide the tree is compared to me. They barricaded the place so people would not step in.

Now who said I was old? I am not old.

Now see how big is one of the other trees. I used up most of my strength to tear out a hole in the tree. It was so hard to pry it open (yeah right~~~) that soon after that I became totally exhausted.

Exhausted, The Weird One can’t take it anymore. Kenny thought I was posing, so he did something even better.

Whoa~~~Kenny! Nice expression. Priceless.

Finally it was time to go back to our respective jeeps and on the way out, peddlers are selling the specialty here. Ling zhi and mushrooms and other herbs.

Mushrooms?

Ling Zhi? Mushrooms? They both look the same to me.

Anyway, we didn’t buy any as we don’t know what we’re gonna do with it since we have like 8 days journey left. Yes, days passes by so fast and then we were asking how come it’s so fast coming to an end. There were many stories we talked amongst each another, about how the Mt Everest was superb. How the lake was magnificent in one of the days.

Since it’s Autumn, many flowers started to wither but few remained and that’s where my cameras got moving. Going to places is not all about taking scenery, one have to pay to small minor details. Flowers (nature) is an important part of it.

Along the way we came to a place where the stream was so calm and nice. I spot this lonely tree in the middle of such a vibrant and calm place. I just had to take a shot of this. This shot reminded me of how wide the world is, when you’re just a speck or in this case, you’re just a tree. Okay, wrong analogy, it could also meant I was lonely.

This shot is strange. Felt that there’s something missing with it. Maybe the hills are too high and lack of water background. But still a picture I would show nonetheless. Could have been better.

Of course, every picture is not complete without the 3 of us showcasing what we do best. To pose in front of the camera. Well, we’ve reached to another stop for photo shooting and that’s where we all have our own picture being shot at about the same location.

Meet the 3 Handsome Guys (pssst.. best one is the one on the right), Kenny Lim, Ek Wei, Daniel Chew.

Of course, have to thank our jeep driver, for driving us all along the way. Well, there were clothes for rent that day and we have to pay 10 or 20 Yuan for trying on the clothes. Well, our Jeep driver had his photo shot by me then.

A Tibetan and if only I was using a 50mm portrait lens, the bokeh would have been better. Of course, it’s not everytime one would be going back to places that we’ve been to. So what the heck, I also paid 15 yuan (after figuring the price out) to get my whole self in the suit.

Fui yoh!!! Stylish, looks like a Tibetan Cowboy (whatever that is). If I am dark enough, people might have mistaken me for one though. I am sure some of you are dying to try this kind of things. I did, and I am glad I did.

By the way did you know that there are 3 jeeps on the same course and we’re all part of the driving group going towards Chengdu. There are 3 people from Shanghai there (2 girls and 1 guy). I had problem conversing as my Mandarin is totally no good.

Here she is, one of the Shanghai girl in the traditional local costume. Pretty right? Wonders if she actually know about this photo. For guys out there, no… I don’t have her contact, you can stop wasting time asking for her contact.

But will we ever see her again in part of the journey? That depends. So come on and comment some.