Hello from Tibet!

We’re now at 11,750 feet in Lhasa, Tibet. We just got off the 48 hour train ride from Chengdu. The train ride was ok because we took a soft sleeper. We also managed to get our whole group of 4 into the same cabin, even though after about 2 days you start feeling a bit cramped. I am not sure if we will manage 3 days. The train was ok, even though the electricity sockets did not work in the room, and it was far from being a ‘pressurised cabin’ as they advertised. In fact because of my mild cold from Chengdu (the air pollution does not help), every time we descended by 300+ feet, I would feel my eustasian tube block and I’d have to release it through diver tricks. Pretty painful!

Chengdu itself wasn’t that interesting IMO, so I am not sure if I will go again. I did try alot of sichuan spice, went to the Panda Zoo and climbed Le Shan and saw the giant buddha. It was not as impressive as I hoped it to be. The city is too expansive, too large, and personally I just found it hard to locate anything. We spent like 2 days hunting for Diamox and Dexamethasone for the Tibet trip as it was not in stock anywhere. After about 3-4 hospitals we found a place called Global Doctors that were run by an Asian-Australian venture, but they had a $30 USD charge for meds. Let’s just say I stocked up beyond Diamox and Dexamethasone…

We stayed at Sim’s Cozy Hostel, which I highly recommend. It’s actually voted one of the best hostels in Chengdu, and at 160y a night ($20 split between Scott and I), it was a pretty good deal as we had our own private room with our own private shower. There was also wifi in the room. The hostel was great especially for organising tours, including heading to Tibet and sorting our permits etc. Sim and Maki, a couple from Singapore and Japan, set it up like a Japanese place, and had an awesome garden too. I would stay there again, despite the hostel being super busy, they did a good job.

So with Tibet: The whole trip is working out to be pretty expensive. Cost around 4000y for just the tour guide, the permit, the 4×4…. actually that’s it. The soft sleeper ticket costed around 1k, and I spent around a further 1k for gear like the meds, warm clothing, food, sleeping bag, etc. This price is also for managing to arrange a group of 4 on a 4×4 tour. We will be travelling with Vicky, a Taiwanese ex-Siemens consultant, and Carl, an ex-yahoo marketing partner, and they are both very cool people, so the next 11 days here from Tibet through Nepal should be okay.

But my concern now is getting from Nepal back to Hong Kong. I really want to do Mt Everest base camp, and it won’t make sense to turn back to Lhasa from there as it’s just around the corner from Nepal. Kathmandu is supposed to be a really interesting place, but it’s looking ridiculously expensive as flights seem to be in the 5k yuan region (like $700-$800). Other options include going enroute New Delhi, or flying back to Chengdu first, but both add alot more toll to the existing trip.

Having been here now for about 6 hours though, all the gear actually came in use. I’ve started the diamox when we hit around 14,000 feet on the pass to Tibet on the train because I was feeling light headed. It was a good idea, as the next morning I felt fine, but Carl who we were travelling with had a bad headache and felt like he wanted to vomit. Having said that when we got to around 15,000 feet (!) I did feel a bit dizzy and nauseated. The descent, as Carl described, was like removing kryptonite from our systems.

It’s pretty cold here in Tibet, and it doesn’t help that I’m still in mid phase with a cold. Have had a running nose but I’m dressed up pretty warm, and just probably need more sleep. Tomorrow we hit the Potala Palace and a couple of other places, so I should hit the sack soon. We are staying at a place called the Cool Yak Hotel (because the Yak Hotel was not cool enough).

Related Posts:

• October 28, 2009 -- Day 3 in Tibet: Potala Palace / Summer Palace
• October 27, 2009 -- Tibet Day 2: Jokhang Temple, Sera Monastery, Interesting Food, and Blind Massage

Related posts:

1. Tibet Day 2: Jokhang Temple, Sera Monastery, Interesting Food, and Blind Massage
2. Day 3 in Tibet: Potala Palace / Summer Palace