The Potala Palace
What trip to Tibet would be complete without a visit to the legendary Potala Palace? Not ours. I think the best part of the palace was ascending the steep, never ending (so it felt to my thighs), historical steps around the outside of the 13 story, mountainside building.
You have to buy tickets to the Palace a day in advance and it is a process. It's kind of amusing actually. A young Dutch woman with a nose ring and a mischevious air about her let me in on the confusing ordeal. She had gone for days in a row without getting tickets, and having finally figured out how to get them, saved us the trouble!
You don't buy tickets at the entrance, you go behind the third stupa on the right and through giant red doors. There a man will write a number on your arm and inform you to return at 2pm. When you return you must make your way through countless bead vendors, pilgrims, and children playing Tibetan instruments very poorly before you arrive at a line of benches. The benches have seats numbered to 200, the quota of tickets sold to the palace each day. We were 126. You then stand on the benches for another hour, because sitting on the benches, well, that would be just silly. The line moves and maneuvers and occasionally people move forward or back displaying their number. When you get to the front, contrary to expectations, you don't buy a ticket. You get a piece of paper with a time written on it. Ours was 3pm the next day. That's when you go the Palace entrance the next day. When you enter the palace, you don't pay. You walk up those amazing winding steps for about 30 minutes in the brutal sun. It's really fun, actually. I enjoyed the outside most of all. When you finally enter a building further up the mountain, you still don't pay...in fact if you're cheapity cheap, you could turn back here for free and still have an amazing experience, but I wouldn't recommend that unless you're flat broke. Finally your arrive at the ticket window. There was at some point a student discount, but someone crossed that out in pencil, so there are only discounts for the handicapped now.
Inside the palace is the most Buddhist of Buddhist temples. I wish I knew more about the religion before going in. After a while I experienced ornate, gold statue overload. Also, if you're Buddhist , be sure to bring loads of cash to throw at these statues. The floor, walls, and practically every crevice were covered in money. It really neat to see monks sweeping a money ridden floor as though they were cleaning rubbish. There were about 20 rooms open to the public, including the incredible, gold encased, stupa tombs of past Dalai Lamas. There are really educational descriptions, helpful monks, and plenty of gift shops inside. The big downer is that no pictures are allowed. You can buy one of their tourist books with pictures for the low price of...oh wait, that price isn't so low...in fact that's highway robbery. Crap.
But for the casual Christian visitor, I don't think it's a big deal. Just visit Amazon later on and buy the same books for a fraction of the cost :).
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