Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

My heart skipped a beat as a Tibetan man, a nomad, walked across the rock-strewn earth to greet us, looking as old as the land, the wind and cold etched into his toughened skin. So much history and culture had been whitewashed from the tour I took by bus across the Tibetan Plateau from Nepal?s border to Lhasa. Stops along the Friendship Highway were limited, and I soon tired of staged tourist traps, such as one entrepreneurial group of Tibetans selling hats and posing for pictures, demanding 5 yuan a piece. So, I thrilled to see the nomadic man proudly show us how to use the woven yak herder like a large slingshot. Thawp! The rock sailed far across the plateau called the Roof of the World. Then what disappointment I felt when a fellow bus traveler handed the man 20 yuan as if the herder was for sale.