China - Tibet Autonomous Region and a bit of Japan on the way home

[Matt_01]

The Shangri-La seems to be in a good part of the city. OT from the TR I would like to get a replacement part for my NC cans. It is no longer available in AU but is available in the US, UK and China however they cannot be ordered from overseas and sent to AU as B&O do not allow this. It turns out there was a B&O shop 15 minutes from the hotel so I wandered over, it ended up been a waste of time as the sales rep did not understand what I was after. Any how it may be a good thing that Mrs&MissM are not with as the shops along the way and the mall B&O were in it is most likely I would still be there as closing time is 10pm. Just some random shots of my short time in Chengdu. BTW no idea what the electronic bill board was about, things just scrolled through it. All the locals were taking pictures and video so I joined in as well.

Edit. Later in the evening there was a fair bit of noise and music coming from the place below. It turns out it is a covered bridge full of restaurants and other things to do. The southern side of the river was alive well into the night.

This is the covered bridge taken from the hotel room in the morning.

 

[Matt_01]

The Shangri-La lounges based on my experience they don’t do things by halves. It’s not a few small snacks but rather it can be a meal. Afew photos of the lounge both the restaurant area and downstairs. The staff refer to downstairs as the lounge and upstairs as the restaurant.

 

[Matt_01]

I saw this yesterday day but didn’t go in, it is the lobby lounge. It is a nice space and the drinks on offer is quite extensive. If you like your whisky there is a good selection, from what I understand the standard spirt pour in China is 30ml and I suspect these prices are for a standard pour. That Hibiki 21 will set you back north of AUD2000

 

[Matt_01]

So it is travel to Tibet day first order of business back to the lounge for some breakfast. I ate more than I normally would as it should keep me going for most of the day. Also in the lounge there is an A La Carte option for eggs, waffles, pancakes and a couple of other things. Next was to travel to the airport, I will be flying TFU-LXA with MU. At the airport security to enter the airport, checkin no issues (I had been informed my permit would be required for the checkin process). With checkin out of the way off to security and the machine said no. I was sent to talk to a security person who inspected all my documents then the penny dropped for him, I was off to Lhasa. What seemed like a long time he read through the permit (there are not that many words) said ok and let me through.

 

[Matt_01]

Whatever preconceived idea I had thinking TFU was small I realised how wrong I was. I was only in the domestic terminal and counting through the various gate numbers I think there are around 90-95 individual gates.

 

[Matt_01]

I killed some time in the MU J lounge which was a lot better than I was expecting and would put the QF J lounges to shame. QF should send the cooks from the MEL J noodle bar over to China and learn how it should be done.

 

[Matt_01]

On entry the lounge staff had informed how long it would lake to get to my gate. Around 25 minutes prior to boarding I thought I heard my flight number called and gate, I wasn’t paying attention so I went to talk to the Lounge Staff. They informed me they had announced my flight but it was a reminder that PAX should start leaving now due to the distance and time to get to the gate. I said to the Lounge lady that the airport seems big and was informed it is the second largest in China. I left the lounge about 20 minutes prior to boarding after a bit of a hike back to where you enter the terminal, down an escalator, a train ride, up a couple more escalators and then another 600m or so walk I was at the gate and boarding was in full swing. If you are ever planning on flying domestic out of TFU and your boarding from gates 35-40 be prepared for a hike, all 6 gates are in a row at the far end of the airport.

 

[Matt_01]

On board and MU do not seem to have the same restrictions as other carriers when it come to bulkheads. I was informed there was no one next to me so my backpack could stay on the seat. I have flown MU narrow bodies before but if you haven’t the pitch in the bulkhead J seats is tight. The IFE is a bit old school. The meal was fruit which was more than enough. Unlike VA MU still use proper curtains and on arrival they fix webbing across the aisle to stop the Y PAX from leaving until all J PAX had left.

 

[Matt_01]

A few random photos from the plane, there was a fair bit of cloud cover so taking pictures of the mountains was intermittent.

 

[Matt_01]

On arrival at LXA there was a driver waiting to take me to the hotel, this is part of the tour offering and I was given a white scarf. It takes about an hour to get into Lhasa.

The driver mentioned this tunnel was the first tunnel in Tibet. I am not sure if he meant the first tunnel ever or just from the airport. It shaved 34km of the route to Lhasa.

Arrival into Lhasa

 

[Matt_01]

The hotel is called Lagari Hotel and is in the comfort range and my initial impression is that it does what it says on the box. I am glad I paid the extra and wonder what the standard accommodation would be like. Sure the St Regis would have been nicer but it is just a place to sleep. You need your permit to checkin and your passport is registered with the police. They give you a pink coloured herbal drink called Rhodiola which is meant to aid in the prevention of altitude sickness. The white packets in the photo of the tea are tubes that you can stick in the oxygen machine and put in your nose if breathing becomes difficult. The fellow who showed me to the room tried to explain how the supplemental oxygen works but about the only thing I understood was the part where he indicated not to touch anything. The sign on the wall is tips and rules.

 

[Matt_01]

Chatting with the driver on the way to Lhasa was interesting:

• He was telling me that they all use a VPN to access western social media but they have to apply through the Government and and they know it is monitored.
• For Tibetans it is near on impossible to get a passport and the Government restricts them from travelling. The drive said he has been on the waiting list for over 20 years. Even if they move out of Tibet in any other city in China they still cannot get a passport as there ID card has them recorded as Tibetan and that can not be changed. There are only a few situations in which a passport will be issues a couple were ‘a business owner doing business abroad, teaching in a foreign school’ and a couple of others. Even once issued he said they still come with special conditions.
• Up thread I posted about driving to Tibet, I now know the process, even after landing there is a check point and they check your permit.
• He also advised if you see police or soldiers under no circumstances take a photo of them as you will be asking for trouble and most likely get arrested. He said if they are in the way of a photo you want to take it is better for you to move or wait for them to move out of the way but don’t ask them to move.
• He also recommended leaving the window open in the hotel room just to let in more oxygen.
• Another thing that surprised me was he said when Tibetans travel off the plateau to lower altitudes they also can get unwell as there is more oxygen than they are used to.

 

[Matt_01]

At the start of the TR I mentioned that I would like to update as I go. Things may slow down a little as some of the restrictions in China are causing a few issues, not just google and other blocked social media, even when writting the report direct into AFF I get constant dropouts and reconfirmation requirements from cloudflare. Not sure if these are caused by the settings on my iPad, AFF, the WiFi in Lhasa, China restrictions or a combination of these and other things.

 

[Matt_01]

On a personal front I have now been in Lhasa for 6.5 hours and I think I have mild symptoms of altitude sickness but so far it is not to bad. I was half expecting given 30 hours ago I was basically at sea leave (HKG) and now at 3650m (12000ft).

 

[VPS]

I had to stay one night in China to collect the travel permit. I have always liked the Shangri-La chain and found them to be exceptional and reasonably priced in China. The executive suite was around AUD230 a night when I booked it and suspect prices fluctuate. The hotel car transfers were more expensive than the accommodation.
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I picked up the permit from the concierge, he was a happy fellow and started asking if the internet was working and detailing that google, facebook, instagram etc. won’t work in China and went on to let me know I should just use a VPN if I have one. He then started offering free things so I ended up with a panda although I had initially said no he just said I will have some one send it up to your room. This is what a Tibet travel permit looks like, it is mainly in Chinese and as I did not know if it was personal details I blacked it out. Also my free panda
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Miss M is going to love that Panda