Wee glimpse of Himalaya - First encounter with high altitude

Okay guys, how do you do it? Manage the heat while travelling? We changed a city but are still in Laos. And it’s still hot! I have been fighting with an travellers belly for couple of days and today I decided that I am not going to spend one more day cooped up inside of our apartment.
And out we went. And lasted whopping 30 minutes or so…It was so hot! All we did was walk a little bit and I was soaked! And now I am back cooped up inside. At least my tummy is mostly quiet so that is something. And our 21st story-balcony is on the shade side. Albeit I am sitting inside under the AC-tree.

But back to the story. I wanted to tell you about was our Himalayan adventure. This trip has been so far our only splurging on our budget. Only trip booked from the travel agency too. We mostly want to travel by ourselves without a guide but…Everything started when I was planning our trip some time ago. In my first plan (now we are on plan X or something like that, hah) the route was something like this India – Nepal – China – Vietnam. I wanted to travel via land as much as possible and part of that was the Friendship Highway from Kathmandu to mainland China via Lhasa. When I was looking the options, I was sucked in to the “google rabbit hole” and ended up booking a trip including Bhutan. So, the trip with driver for couple of days morphed in to 2 weeks itinerary with guides. Oops!
Need for these guides came mostly because of Tibet and Bhutan. I am not 100% sure do you still need a guide while travelling in Lhasa but you most definitely need one if you want to go in to Bhutan. And by needing one I mean it is mandatory to have one if you want to travel there.

But here I go again, hopping ahead in the story.

Switching my original plans meant that we needed to take a flight from Xi’an to Lhasa.
I don’t remember ever feeling so bad on the airplane and it was little bit surreal to see a first aid station almost immediately walking out of the plane. Lhasa is situated in 3 650 meter from the sea level and that high up is real risk of altitude sickness. Neither of us has never been this high up before. Luckily neither of us felt bad enough for need that firs aid station and we found our guide, Mr. Rocky, and driver Mr. Yen, easily enough.

This was one of the plusses when travelling with the guide, you really don’t need to worry about logistics at all. They welcomed us to the country and took us to the hotel. Also they gave us oxygen bottles and instructions how to minimize the effects the altitude might have on you. And also what to do if the effects are really bad. Basically if you feel like being in hangover (headache, little bit ill or lazy, or all 3) you need to rest and acclimatize, drink lots of water and take it easy. But if you can’t catch a breath even when resting, vomit or feel dizzy, you need to go to a hospital. Something in the between, you can try to feel better by taking extra oxygen.

There are actually these help clinics where you can get oxygen if you need it. Also the hotels have oxygen bottles and I would think that the staff are capable helping too.
I was faring better than Toni, just little headache and breathing was more difficult than back home, but not hard enough to be alarmed. Toni had quite bad headache and both of slept very restlessly.

When I made our itinerary I chose a relaxed one, neither of us enjoys if we are running from place to place just that we can say that we have done this and this and this. By choosing I mean that I pruned and tweaked an ready made one to suit to us. Allan from Asia Odyssey Tours have my everlasting gratitude for his patience dealing with me!

So both, because of our preference, and so we could get used to the altitude, we had a late morning and left to our excursions good way after the breakfast. First stop was making incenses while learning Tibetan culture. Incense making was fun and the culture part fascinating. Religion is huge part of everyday life and Tibetan Buddhism still have some elements of old shamanistic practices. Their language is based on Sanskrit, one of the oldest known languages in the world and Buddhism originally landed from India.
We were also served tea which was really good, and our cups were topped several times.

From there we headed to Barkhor Street and Sera Monastery to see monk debate. It is one of the largest and oldest monasteries in Tibet and it is one of the places where monks go to learn about their religion.

What I imagined monk debate would be like, and what it really was, were very different. I thought monks to dignified calmly debating about things. Well, they did debate. It would have been interesting to understand what they were talking about but it was interesting even without deeper understanding of it. What I know is that during morning the young monks are having lessons and during afternoons they memorize them by doing the debate.
Monks pair up, one sitting down and one standing up. The one who is sitting are asking a question and the one who is standing claps his left hand with his right one while answering the question. Left hand is representing a hell and right hand a wisdom. In hell there are no wisdom so by clapping with right hand the monk are helping someone in hell with wisdom. After that, the other monk is asking another question relating to the answer he was given to the first question.
All this clapping made the debate much louder than I had anticipated but passion of these young monks was contagious. I left the monastery in very good spirits.

Next day was the day of the trial. Trial being Little Old Me vs. High Altitude.
We would visit the Potala Palace.
432 steps.
Approximately 100 meters.
Doesn’t sound too bad.
But the altitude made it much harder than just climbing a few stairs..

But I did it!
And it felt awesome!

Some people were even taking some oxygen on the way up, but luckily I didn’t need it. The weather was excellent too, sun was shining.
Originally Potala Palace was called something else and it belonged to the King of Tibet. In the 7th century in Tibet, there were several kings fighting for the land and a Khan from Mongolia came to help The King. He conquered all the other kings and gifted the Palace to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet. From that day forward until 1959, when the Chinese came, Potala Palace was the winter residence of the Dalai Lamas. Current Dalai Lama is exile in India.

Potala means compassion in Sanskrit and the palace had had been extended to its present state. And its present state is big. In the palace there are personal apartments to all the Lamas (10) who had been living there and also funeral Stupas to all but one (the 6th) Lama. His body has never been found.

Nowadays Potala Palace is a museum but monks are still keeping the religion alive up there. Just like in Sera Monastery, incense and butter are constantly burning in the shrines. It is said to bring good karma to have that flame burning day and night, and people are bringing butter from home to give to the Buddhas and deities. The smell of incense I liked but that butter..Well, lets leave it at that. The main feeling both in here and in Sera Monastery was peaceful. And little bit sad. Think about all the history, and now the current Lama most likely will never be able to come back home.

We also visited the summer palace of the Lamas, Barkhor Street again and a Jokhang temple. Barkhor Street are street that circuits Jokhang temple. People are walking the street clockwise, spinning prayer wheels or counting the prayer beads. Some of them are even doing the full body prayer where they “walk” the street by first kneeling, then stretching their hands as far as they go on the ground, bringing their feet to their hands, standing up and kneeling..Whether you walk with the prayer wheel, do the full body prostration or just walk, this is called Kora.
Barkhor Street is said to be the heart of Tibet and you can really feel and see the peace that practicing Kora and religion in general gives to the people.

I think Tibet would have lots more to offer to me, but I might need little bit longer to adjust to the altitude. Something to keep in mind if I wander to these parts again in the future! For now I will keep dreaming about that colder climate while sitting under my AC tree in Laos and waiting for the sun to set so I might dare to step outside again. It will still be warm but maybe not as stifling as it is in broad daylight!