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Yackety-Yak
I visited India and Nepal for the first time on a Buddhist pilgrimage led by Shantum Seth in 2007. The following is from my 2008 trip to India, Nepal, and Tibet. The following is from my first evening in Lhasa, the capitol of Tibet.
The Yak Hotel, where I’ll be staying, is down the street from the Potala itself, on the main drag, Beijing Street. It is a wide and modern and clean paved street, again in sharp contrast with what I’m accustomed to seeing in India and Nepal. (Well, okay, Delhi has wide, clean streets in certain neighborhoods.) The streets in Lhasa remind me of Western streets, and the steering wheel is on the left side, like in America. In both India and Nepal, it’s on the right, and traffic goes on the left side of the road. It makes sense in India, because of British colonialism.
The Yak Hotel is at least two stories tall and has a grey concrete façade. Facing the main drag is a wide doorway into the lobby, and the doors are open and display two door curtains, or whatever they’re called, that are white with blue trim and appliquéd with big blue Buddhist continuous knots; we saw some for sale at the nunnery in Dharamshala, and Marsha purchased one in the gift shop.
