Ever taken a ride on a Yak in Tibet?

One of my bestest buddies (Cath) has this amazing life and is currently in Tibet leading tours. She is a fabulous writer and a wonderful character but for some reason she never publishes her stories. So when I received this email and saw these photos today, I just couldnt resist publishing her work for her.

If you havent heard me talk about Cath before, he's the story.

I met Cath in my first big Corporate role at BMW Australia almost 20 years ago. I admired her the moment I met her, big buxom, womanly presence with a proud stance and an attutide to suit. She had already travelled the world and had amazing views that had me constantly captivated.

When Cath left BMW in a huff over sexual harrassment issues (stuff that today is clearly unacceptable) we kept in contact. Since then she has lived in Thailand and China and has travelled every province of these countries, she learned to speak the native languages and has this amazing resiliance for situations I would find traumatic. She's a tough cookie and a constant inspiration to me.

So here's a little tidbit for you, if you enjoy this story and her photo's please drop me an email and I can publish some more stuff she has sent me. In the meantime, I will encourage Paul to fall over in public, lose his pants in a performance or just tweeze out any kind of humorous situation from his incredibly funny existence.

Ever Taken a ride on a Yak in Tibet? by Catherine Miller

What a great trip it was to return to Tibet, the most remote and amazing place I have been to in this world.

With a great small group, our 15 days covered Beijing - Great wall, Lhasa, Shigatse, Gyantse, Sakya, Mt Everest (Qomolongma), overland, to finish in laid-back Kathmandu.

The biggest change I've seen in Tibet since 1999 when i first travelled there is the huge increase in foreign tourists... & more shops, hotels, restaurants to cater for them.

The culture of Tibetan Buddhism is still as strong a faith as ever for the people and monks are active in some of the monasteries, we even got to experience chanting in the prayer halls twice.

And Mt Everest promised nothing but clouds as we arrived, only to find a short while later a clearing and picture postcard blue skies to back up our stunning mementoes.

This was an even more amazing & incredible trip to Tibet, showing some locals in remote areas the pics from my previous trip, one man recognised a "monk" in one of my photos & explained he is actually a policeman and very sympathetic to the Chinese.this is not uncommon, sometimes army personnel dress in robes & collect money & monitor the interaction of Tibetans with foreigners.

There is still a strong anti-chinese feeling amongst some of the older Tibetans, the ones with some memories of the "cleansing" of the Cultural Revolution which saw many monks & nuns killed, tortured, imprisoned & forced to "disrobe" & become good communist citizens.

As i toured the countryside visiting monasteries wearing a traditional Tibetan outfit (long wrap around dress with 3/4 sleeved shirt, the local tibetans were so thrilled to see a foreigner in Tibetan style... maybe this is why more of the tibetans opened up to me & told me stories.

In one of the monasteries, one monk showed me an image left from pre-china days, now illegal. Definitely a highlight of all the times in Tibet, in the sakya monastery, a small group of us were sitting outside the prayer hall enjoying the chanting & were invited in by the "living Buddha" reincarnation to a tiny meeting room crammed with statues & paintings & a throne for the visiting high llamas (monks) - we drank tea & spoke for a while with translators interpreting for us & then he motioned us to be shown back into the prayer hall again to see his face amongst the murals on the wall of the prayer hall. such an amazing gesture to invite us in as foreigners, & i was so overawed, i was speechless, no probing questions on buddhism or monastery life.

But it was still such an enchanting moment and such an honour to be included in the "mini tour" of the inner sanctum, seeing the tiny kitchen & sleeping quarters that the senior monks live in. and on to Mt everest again, with some clouds overhanging as we rode the pony carts from Rombuk to he base camp.

Yet, as we were in the litte teahouse/cafe, the clouds lifted to give us spectacular sunset golden light over the peak. those of us who were planning on enjoying a whiteout sleepin were pleasantly surprised by a stunningly crisp clear morning with bright blue skies & blinding
snow peaks - more great photos!!! yay...

On the previous trip, the day before we arrived at the mountain, an independent american group unfolded an outlawed Tibetan flag at base camp & promptly got arrested, jailed & tortured for a couple of days before being deported to Nepal. this trip, a more tragic event occured on the North Face (tibetan side of Everest): a group of climbers lost 2 Korean members of their team in an avalanche.

Both of these events were not spoken of & only found out about them after leaving china & back into the arena of western media. In Kathmandu the North Face outdoor equipment store set up a shrine in rememberance of the 2 Korean climbers so I looked in & paid my respects. the dangers of climbing Everest are so real but so many people want to do it.