So it was just me and the three guys. We were sad Eileen wasn't with us. The flight from Chengdu to Lhasa (or Lasa as it is spelled locally) seemed like it would be uneventful but only for a few minutes. Then, looming up above the clouds this is what I saw! It was breathtaking and one of those moments where I thought what good fortune I have in this life to be able to experience so much and mostly to appreciate what I experience.
I obsessively took photos AND deep breaths, cherishing the pressurized air in the plane. Then we landed. We were warned to move slowly and deliberately which we all did. As I walked through the walkway to the terminal I felt hungover, or like I had been drinking and taking pain medication, or I had been taking Valium. It was weird. The Diamox makes my appendages tingly like they're asleep. My fingertips get like they're prunes after having been in water too long but haven't touched liquid. But no headache! It's like I'm looking through my own eyes but through a really thick tunnel first. I walk slowly, get up from a prone position slowly and bend over to tie my boots gently.
We met our guide Gayyoung (pronounced like Jie Yaung) and he presented us with white "silk" (nylon) scarves. See photo of Son getting his and of all of us in ours. We're holding our water (mandatory at this elevation of 3500 meters) and our cans of oxygen (hopefully not mandatory as we climb even higher, probably to around 5000 meters in the coming days). We drove 1 hour and 20 minutes to Lhasa through beautiful countryside and villages. No toilets so the van just pulls over to the side of the busy road and out we go. !! I've been told to purchase and umbrella to shield myself if I want privacy. Uh, yeah, I think I do. Tour buses, vans, public officials and police, everyone! drove by while I did what I did. And I'm not ashamed of it, either. This Diamox makes you have to do what I did - - a lot.
Eileen's and my room is really beautiful! I'll be in it alone tonight. The beds in China are hard, a little softer than a floor - - just a little. I sleep fine, thankfully, but most would not be able to tolerate it. I sleep in a silk bed/sheet liner I purchased in Vietnam in 2000 so I don't have to trust the sheets to be clean. I have a photo of the room itself as well as the courtyard with the prayer flags.
This place is very friendly. The people greet you with big smiles and are almost always singing. At any given time I hear people singing or whistling. In fact right now there's a guy whistling the song he was just singing and a girl hitting chopsticks in a certain rhythm on her plate and a guy tossing a coin in the air catching it and whooping a little sound. When some of the people sneeze they say REALLY LOUD "A-A-A-Choo!" Oh, there went a girl singing out the door. Seriously, it's constant and it's really beautiful and calming! But don't think it's all happy fun sounds. No sir. The Chinese are GREAT ONES for inhaling from their nostrils deeply and loudly and then spitting what they've inhaled loudly and with great fervor. Yuck. I try not to let it get to me and I try to not hear it but I always sort of gag when they do it. I can't help it. Sorry for that; I'm trying to be polite in my descriptions.
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