General Tips for travel Tibet. Part II

Hello, dear Tibet-lovers, now let’s go on with our travel tips! Are you ready to get acquainted with 4 more tips? So, they are the following…

1. Entertainment Tips

   First of all - people, they are so kind, hospitable and friendly. They are always ready to open the doors of their houses to you. Just imagine, more than several hundred of palaces. Various clubs, popular sport complexes. So, there is a great number of bars and cafes in Tibet, among the most popular in Lhasa can be named:

   • Niwei Recreation City Opposite Youth Mansion;
   • Kelsang Metok Minzhu Recreation Center;
   • Salon Nightclub Near Lhasa Military Branch Region;

   Also, Tibet can be proud of a wide chain of stores, boutiques and just shops, the most interesting and worth visiting is (in Lhasa): Barkhor Street Bazar Inside Barkhor Street. So, anyway, you won’t feel disappointed!

   

2. Currency Exchange

   To tell the truth, only 2 currencies are popular in Tibet (and sometimes exceptionally they can be accepted): US dollar and Chinese Yuan. But, be careful, dollars are not used in each shop and credit cards you can use only at some hotels, moreover, the exchanging rate is fantastically low.

   Remember, official and profitable operation you can make only in the Bank of China, it has sub-branches in Lhasa. Sometimes, you can think, that it is no use to go to the official representative office, but you are not right, because making exchanges on the black market, you can be cheated. And this mistake can spoil the rest of your holiday and leave awful impression about this country.

   

3. Tips for Photographers

   I don’t know a single person, who hates making photos, while travelling to new countries. So, I believe, you are not an exception, but before taking your paper or digital memories with you, find out how to make it and not to provoke an international scandal. So, the following travel tips are useful for photo-lovers:

   • general preparations, such as taking batteries, taking more films, spare balconies, equip the camera lens with UV lens;
   • it is forbidden to make photos inside the chapels, as a rule, you can use a camera in monasteries (unless, lama didn’t tell you not to do so);
   • do not offer money to a person you asked to photograph you, better give him or her a small present;

   

4. Various cultural taboos

   There are a lot of them, but let’s just specify the most popular and sometimes harmful, because very often your behaviour can lead to misunderstandings:

   • Taboos on social courtesies

     So, it is better to forget of naughty words usage, add “la” before a name of a person. Show your respect in everything: take the gift only with 2 hands, while giving wine, tea or other drink, don’t even dare to touch the bottom of bowl. Before drinking a cup of tea or a glass of wine - dip your ring finger in it and flick the wine three time, thus, you will show, that you really respect the heaven, the ancestors and the earth.

   • Taboos on behaviors

     Do not: step on the threshold while entering the house, use paper with Tibet characters for your personal needs, cross any musical instrument, that is used in the Buddhist mass, enter the house if you see the sign (hanged in front of the house: a fire, for example), touch other people head, come in before the elder people, clap your hands before Tibet people and etc.;

   • Taboos on diets

     As a rule, people of Tibet, do not eat fish, shrimps, eggs and chicken. As to meat, they do not use monkey, dog and horse.

   • Taboos on Belief

     While arriving to mountains, do not make rackets (they considered to be provocateurs of rain and storm), do not touch the statue of Buddha, be quiet in a monastery and don’t even dare to kill an animal near a monastery.

Good luck!