Deep Inside China's Most Controversial Region (Tibet Autonomous Region)
tashi delek from the Nyang Valley 3,700 m up in Tibet what a beautiful way to start a day off unbelievable today we're going to be exploring the Bome County in Nyingchi not very commonly explored jesus not very commonly explored we're going to be going over mountain passes around between 4 to 5,000 meters up through the snow capped valleys and snowcapped mountains of Tibet we're going to be trying our best to show you the real authentic side of this beautiful part of the world of course we're with our designated tour group here like I said we're going to be doing our best to show you guys the real side of Tibet up here on the side of this mountain you can see it's draped in the five colors of the prayer flags tons of prayer flags there and this is actually one of the many many many holy mountains of Tibet i'm not too sure of the exact name but it is just as beautiful as the rest of them so let's get this adventure started today and we are on the famous route 318 and it's called the must go in your life street it goes all the way from Shanghai to Tibet to Tibet into uh Nepal border oh to the Nepal border border yeah wow so total they have 5,300 kilometers from Shanghai to the end of the Tibet site wow to the Nepal and from here to Shanghai it's 4109 kilometers and right now we're on 3,700 m of elevation and we're going to go up a lot higher today yeah yeah higher today the highest point is uh 4,780 m oh my god we're all going to get altitude sickness no I think we're going to be fine we're We're accustomed now to the elevation I think wow just got off the bus in one of the snow capped mountain areas and it's actually snowing i didn't think it was going to be snowing oh my god it's freezing cold and it's super slippery as well of course as always I have the right shoes on not I'm just wearing like Vans oh my god this feels like home feels like home for us feels like Germany not Ireland but Germany oh this is crazy oh my god i just I nearly disappeared in the snow oh my god check this out we're nearly at the mountain top oh my god i keep Look at how deep the snow goes i keep collapsing in the snow and it's very difficult to breathe wow what a cool experience though i keep falling all over the place snow is proper deep out here we're over four 4,700 m up and you can see for miles out there snow and ice covered mountains it's very very hard to talk very hard to construct sentences right now but this is bloody beautiful out here i keep disappearing in the snow unbelievable oh my god you can see prayer flags in the snow and obviously these ones here blowing in the wind and the Tibetan people believe that as the wind blows it carries the prayers up over the mountains wow this is absolutely crazy can barely feel my face out here oh we didn't feel this kind of cold in probably 5 years or so, 4 years unbelievable you want a sweet tea oh yes please can we have two oh maybe we can share That's the milk of the gods right there milk of the gods i'm so cold I forgot how to drink what are we thinking for 20 RMB 20 RMB not bad not bad not bad very good very nice now I look like I'm really ready for the slopes we're going souvenir shopping they have everything this is the thing that I want Luke the fashionista got a new pair of sunglasses for 20 RMB and I have potatoes so we're both happy so you can see the aim is you need to shoot the small front there right the little aim yeah yeah and it's so far away uh for them is not far for us very far but for the local people it's not far it's for the children probably no yeah also you know the centre they have if you shoot the centre the red things then it's go wait a second i need to take a video of you doing it show me show me how do you do why does it make a sound like that oh it's making a whistling sound yeah yeah they have for you wow by the wind that's so cool go through wind and then here's a empty whistles go you want to try bes that was an insider not meant for you bes okay babe go take a arrow um per arrow it's two RMB oh so do 10 10 arrows for 20 you always giving it a go wow oh did you hit he got close very close you give it a try what a bad ass there's the arrows over there do you have to wear the glove oh that was cool this is fun i think you need a larger one a larger bow better when you pull try to make it a line let's go but don't shoot the lady careful with the lady now pasang please be careful there was three three this is amazing this could be very addictive you're going to pick up bow hunting now okay let's swap swap No no just finger like this finger like this like this yeah yeah you're pinching it back what if I hit the uncle uncle get out of the way oh this is feels weird there you go oh too high how do you say to chi thank you thank you i'm too high why is so high i have the long nails you're a bit down oh close close close last one last one toss oh my Okay the nails let that be your lesson don't have long nails and shoot bow and arrow it's not smart it hurts what an amazing experience thank you for showing us so cool wow check out this beautiful restaurant i'm going to ask for the English pronunciation of the restaurant here for a minute just came here to have some lunch luke is outside trying to make friends with a horse you see the horse and Luke but yeah let's just have some lunch and maybe warm up i hope that they have some sweet tea i love the sweet what is the What is the name of this restaurant do you know the name tashi tashi tashi and we're going to try chicken yes chicken stone chicken stone stone pot stone pot chicken chicken yeah stone is from the me we have a area called Meadow from that area this is a very famous stone pot okay all over the world and this lady is the owner yeah yeah hello she's so beautiful yes yeah try Tibetan mushroom hot pot this is serious thank you thank you thank you oh it's so good cuz of how cold it is outside it like properly just warms up your your insides and uh I think my nose is like clogging up from how cold it is this is definitely going to help me out now so good so flavorful the broth as well oh chili so much chili okay spicy very chicken yeah chicken flavor yeah it's like a chicken mushroom hot pot good yeah it's properly like warms you up from the inside bones really hearty do you put this inside this hot pot by the way is like crammed full of chicken i did not expect that at all top base layer of it is just loads of chicken mushrooms and the broth it's flavored with all that goodness too and then you basically just create your own little pot of goodness here got the mi feng which is the rice mix it in not sure how to say rice actually in Tibetan let us know down below please chili little spring onions and it all comes together basically and it's delicious truly delicious so good although I made the mistake of putting chili into the broth and that just made it like incredibly spicy but I'm not mad about it it's still very good hello Tashi Delek yeah tasty huh straight from the Tibetan hot pot so good so good yeah you like it yeah i like it too it's very tasty yeah very tasty careful careful crossing the road wow this place is unbelievable no idea where we are but found ourselves a little bit of a market here we just made a quick pit stop everybody else went to the toilet and we saw the fruit so we were like "Okay let's have a go to the market have a look at the little market." Yeah the fruit around here that's locally grown so everything here is all locally grown here looks unbelievable got like pickled and canned stuff and loads of fresh fruit as well let's see what we can get ourselves maybe some bananas or something chili is from here oh nice this lady is selling a lot of handcrafted goods wow i think this is a knife is it a knife wow oh how do you open it look at how beautiful that is there's no way we could travel with it but Oh look at that that was difficult for you yeah the I don't know what the name for this is in English but it's made from wood that's why it felt difficult for you ah probably that is a beautiful knife if you want to ever get on a train again in China you cannot take this can't even take like a small scissors on a train here yeah every time uh we get on a train I have like I uh cut my own hair right so I have hair scissors they always take them away from me and I have to buy new scissors every time look at that craftsmanship on this very beautiful it looks like some completely handmade and you've got like the proper heavy heavy Tibetan beads the prayer beads and look at these do you want to get some nice unbelievable you want to get some of the beads maybe how much is the uh the beads 80 80 80 RMB beads is it good that's uh €11 is that a good price yes okay okay let's get them too it's a good souvenir very beautiful qr codes even in Tibet ah wow look at this the quality of this stuff you can feel it like this this doesn't look like much but it's heavy okay look at that our first souvenir from Tibet jesus look at that look at that thing crazy wow what the hell is this oh this is a Look at this something to scratch your back with i don't know what it's made out of what's that this is made out of uh it looks the top part looks like a horn the lower part maybe plastic Oh yak oh here you have the prayer wheel so you always have to go clockwise if you're a Buddhist and if you were a bun you go anticlockwise and they place they place all of the prayers and the the mantras inside of the wheel and then the movement of the wheel is supposed to basically send those prayers out and that's how they chant got some really cool combs here look at this perfectly shaped handle how cool is this oh amazing it's amazing so nice so much beautiful stuff that's the the years that you were born the years the astrology sign the Chinese one yeah local people always check like this oh you have one yeah yeah i have one small oh this this is you wow for amulet wow that is gorgeous unbelievable it's heavy too can't believe how nice it is so many cool things to see he is from Shanxi welcome to visit Shanxi oh yes nice he invite you local nice food oh yes yes oh 6 days 6 day trip wow amazing incredible 3,000 km 3,000 km wow what a guy bye-bye good luck wow crazy have a look at this scenery here i can't get over this bridge it's really crazy looking the backdrop of that beautiful Tibetan landscape i was trying to figure out which products are from this local area the other things that we bought were not from the area but the tomatoes are from here and the chilies as well unfortunately we don't have a kitchen but we can eat tomatoes like this so tasty they're good yeah and apparently they don't need to be washed or anything like that because everything here is very very organic and there's no added pesticides or any other like crazy chemical stuff added on top so they're just basically nice natural Unbelievable i can't believe how sweet they are right let's go let's go and explore some more thank you we made it to a lake i don't know what type of lake it is but we have made it to which is actually a river but people call it a lake because in the summertime the water is much much higher kind of to where the tree line is over there and it kind of looks like a lake all the way around of course when all of the snow from the snow cap mountains uh melts or I don't know if all of the snow melts but a big part of it melts basically and then uh this entire area here fills up with water in the summertime and then it's called a lake but in reality it's a river oh let's go and see it if we can get a better view of this river here river oo look at this wow this is Parlung Zangbo River/Lake and it goes through a massive valley that connects a lot of Tibetan villages and ancient monasteries as well and look at that for a beautiful site huh even though the weather kind of took a turn for the worst here today it's quite cold and it's rainy but it is nonetheless jaw-droppingly beautiful and that's a common theme that we're finding so far here in Tibet everywhere you go it's just stunning like unbelievable the weather changes quite fast here though so one second it's like beautiful sunshine and kind of 15° or something you look around the corner okay rain and cold amazing though what is very interesting to see is that when we arrived in Lhasa a lot of the buildings were actually built of stone because there's not that much wood or forest growing around Lhasa because of how dry it is of course this one is also made from wood but here in the area you can see a lot of buildings the traditional style type of buildings made from wood which you cannot really see that much of in Lhasa or on the way in between Lhasa and Nyingchi at all it's very cool to see kind of the difference and what people use as building materials depending on what is available have a look at that for a view it's a typical Tibetan style house there and they have some wood sheds where they're storing things actually storing wood in that woodshed there on the left and then the other one I think they're storing some sort of vehicles possibly farming vehicles or little things to get around this place is mad we're currently in Bome County which is it's beautiful there's a viewing platform up here you can get a Wow that's nice that's very nice got myself a coffee as well any type of movement up here [Applause] bye-bye bye-bye the local Tibetan people are very special very very kind some of the most warmhearted people that I've um that we have ever met honestly they're also down to earth very welcoming they always want to take photos they're not used to seeing many foreigners obviously because it's quite difficult to get out to places like this for a lot of Westerners number one it's a long way away number two you need all the permits and everything else you have to make all of the travel like look at this here peach blossoms they've been growing here in the valleys of the Nyingchi area now for probably thousands of years i don't know how many years but a long long time it's the natural beauty combined with the Tibetan people it's so nice i think if you do get the chance if you get the chance to come and visit it's it's been on both of our bucket lists for for a long long time now and uh it's amazing to be able to say that we're here it's a truly cool place i don't really know i'm I'm actually I'm speechless uh the vast majority of the time like I'm just speechless we spent the majority of the day today in our tour bus cuz it's a long long travel you have to travel a long way to get anywhere really in Tibet and the majority of it is on somewhat difficult roads some of the roads are amazing some of them are really not um but hey the scenery all along the way during the whole time is just crazy and every little interaction with the people here is just special look at how big this mushroom is you can buy lots and lots of different medicinal herbs and spices and mushrooms here at one of the pit stops which is so crazy to see this one just check the size of my coffee beside it it's so big all right we have just arrived in Bome at our hotel our hotel is called the Tibetan King Hotel and uh let me take you around on a quick tour we have this beautiful bathroom apologies for the flickering lights don't look here to the right and then this is our stunning room we have two quite large beds uh but it's kind of it seems to be some sort of a mix in between single and double bed it's not quite a queen bed but it's also not a single bed a very nice Recamiers to relax and this is our view out directly onto the mountain yeah this room generally very very comfortable pretty clean i'm happy here i think we can stay a very nice night yeah not bad at all we're only here for one night so this is obviously the hotel that gets assigned to you uh as part of the tour so you don't like have actually like a clearcut choice of a different hotel or whatever but this is where you will be staying if you are coming to Bome and um yeah I think my favorite part about this has to be the view so this is where we are right now is Bome Town which is the base for exploring around obviously Bome County and um there's a lot to see around here and I think that's what we're going to be doing over the next day or so and what we did all day today as well pretty much now today consisted mostly of driving so uh it was 8 hours actually I think on the road that we were on eight and a half eight and a half a lot of uh driving a lot of looking out the window but it's like I said incredible views and the highlight I think for us so far in Tibet has been the warm people the incredible organic food as well and the nature and the nature and we still have so much nature so much everywhere literally there's no like there's no escaping it even in the the towns you just you're just constantly met with beautiful mountains everywhere so we're going to hit the hay we're going to take it easy and then tomorrow we're back on the road
2025-04-18 19:03
