Wonderous Journey to Lhasa Continues (LINK)
June 3rd 2008 03:08
International Mix !
The group as we were came of an international mix, from Italians , Aussies, to Americans.
None of us had ever been to Tibet before and after 2 days of intense type travelling we were well and truly starting to bond.
It is not for the feint hearted but for the true adventurer. One thing though , everything within the country must be viewed with wonderous eyes and an open heart. To me it is one of the most beautiful places on earth , not because of any great resorts or hotels or sporting activities or anything that you would want, on what I call a claytons holiday.
This is a place that has a magnificent heart and soul even for those who are not in search of any spiritual journey initially. The traveller becomes a part of the Tibetan spirituality unwittingly and it remains within your psyche forever.
The sheer beauty of the landscape and its aura , the harshness that surounds you and the culture of a wonderful gentle people that struggle through the life they lead is an amazing journey of life on its own to experience.
Waterfall Magic
The trip we are on to is the road Xegar taking 6 to 7 hours fro 250km trip from Zhangmu climbing to the Tibetan Plateau which is at 3666metres , heading onto the Lalung Leh at 5050metres.
At this point we get a stunning view of the Himalayan panorama but due to the fog and mist it is very difficult unfortunately to see Mount Everest from the northern side.
At these altitudes some of us experienced severe light headedness , whilst some of our group had a nasty headache. Some of us found it very hard to concentrate and when getting out of our vehicle , movement was very laboured as was our breathing.
Talk about a fish out of water, I now knew what fish felt like when their air supply becomes limited.....Not a pleasant feeling. We had brought oxygen with us but none of the others had been advised to . At this stage we still did not need it but at least we knew we had it.
From the plateau the descent actually relieves the pressure on the brains and the sensation is a little better on the mind but still one can feel the pressure. As our journey was by vehicle we may have been travelling a little faster for true aclimatisation to take place properly hence we were pushing our bodies in ways that they were not used to.
We were told by our Chinese/Tibetan guide that each person will react to altitude very differently .
Captivating View
Our descent has taken us to the Chinese checkpost of Xegar which is at 4350metres. I say checkpost because along the way our whole trip is monitored by Chinese checkposts throughout Tibet. Every move through Tibet is logged and checked.
Xegar has approximately 1500 Tibetans living here(this is according to my stats in 1999), have not checked since then.We have an overnight stay here in quite comfortable accommodation , relatively speaking except for the fact that there is no power after a certain time of the night so we have candles in our back packs and have to use them here .
After an exhausting trip we were all glad to rest.
Melodrama though ,unfolds as I start severe vomiting and unable to breathe ,and start gasping for air , my blood pressure going all over the place and wanting just to die and faint. All at the same time. We try to get help but all the corridors are dark and no one in sight, in the darkened room the candles flicker and I am sitting in the bathroom on the floor, being viloently ill . My husband grabs the oxygen and with some fumbling of valves and masks starts giving it to me slowly and I start to recover in stages ,my breathing starts to feel normal as does y heart rate and I start to be not so confused in the head.
I am on the oxygen for some time but stabilising, I had just experienced an attack of altitude sickness. I did not sleep much at all that night as one can imagine.
With no doctor around anywhere I had to tuft this out , luckily for me I stabilised , it just hit like a bolt out of nowhere , I had felt a bit light headed after dinner but then this awful throbbing head as we reached the room and then wham it hit me most unbelieveably.
Next morning I recounted my nights events and no one else had any problems other than severe head aches.
From this point on I must say I had no more problems at any altitude we went to and at one point later on in the trip we go near 6000metres and the others get very sick and need oxygen but I am fine, strange that ,I must have passed a threshold when I got sick the first time or we were travelling way too quickly to aclimatise our bodies on the trip to Xegar.
Rock Slides...Clearance Team needed!
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