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April 06, 2005
On The Road To Shigatse
No, it is not early in the morning. The weather is just bad. Back in 1987 there were two ways of moving from one place to the other in Tibet. Bus (not possible for short distances) and truck. Officially it was not allowed for tourists to hop on the back of a truck. I suppose Chinese officials didn't like the thought of foreign embassies complaining about tourists falling off trucks. The solution was simple. You would negotiate a price with the truck driver. Then you would walk half a mile outside of town and the truck would pick you up. Or you would climb on the truck, hide under the canvas, if there was one, until you're out of town. Well, you would continue hiding anyway, because of the cold, the wind and the dust. If the truck gets checked somewhere on the way, you pay a shall we call it additional fee to the Chinese soldiers. We've never heard any rip off stories by the way. The truck drivers were all completely reliable, friendly and honest.