Beijing to Nepal - Part 1

Beijing to Nepal Summary
(Cant seem to get any pictures uploaded today. So frustrating.)

Leave Beijing Friday, 17 Oct, on the 8:24 p.m. train to Xi'an
Arrive Xi'an Sat, 18 Oct., at 8:40 a.m.

See the Terracotta Warriors, walk around Xi'an

Sleep in Xi'an

Sunday, 19 October
Up early to catch the 8:40 a.m. T27 to Lhasa, Tibet. We walk to the train station from our hotel.

Beijing to Nepal Lianna's story
What a crazy a wild adventure we have been on over the past week. Tibet was much more of a physical roller coaster than I would have ever imagined. From arriving in Tibet and disembarking from the train until we were at the lower altitudes of Nepal, I have never experienced such physical difficulty. Tibet is located 4000m above sea level. There is much less oxygen. Realizing this, we thought the slow train ride to the higher altitude would make it easier for the transition. As soon as I got off the train I was immediately hit by the inability to breathe. I could barely walk to the vehicle. The night was restless and my head began to ache. I took ibuprofen and that helped me sleep.

The next day was busy going to the home of the Dalai Lama, Portolo Palace and another monastery in the city. In order to reach the top of Portolo Palace we had to walk up stone steps, hundreds of them. It almost killed me. Mark and the kids seemed to be doing much better but I had to stop every 20 steps or so to gain my breathe and let my head calm down from the aching. The rest of the day was slow, resting often. The evening was Caleb’s Birthday at a cool restaurant that even served chocolate cake and then watching a movie of his choice “Raiders of the Lost Arch”.

The next day I woke up feeling much better. Although I still had problems breathing my head ache had calmed down. Mark on the other hand was slowly getting sick, experiencing fluish like symptoms. The kids and I went out to another monastery where people are blessed to have a long life. There were many families with children, all getting blessed by a monk who would place a red splosh of paint on their foreheads whereupon they would bend down and stick their heads into a dark hole which is where I assume one gets officially blessed. Our tour guide explained details about the workings of the monastery but her English accent was very strong at times, it was not always easy to decipher.

Caleb was very tired by early afternoon as he had not slept the night before, another symptom of altitude sickness, insomnia. Artemis and I headed off to the market returning to the hotel mid afternoon to find Caleb waiting in the lobby for the doctor. He had wantd to go out and find some drugs but they would not let him leave the hotel.

The doctor checked on Mark who was now getting worse and worse. The doctor perscribes, in his broken and very limited English that Mark get a blood transfusion. Ha Ha Ha. Not going to happen. Finally after about 15 minutes we figure out he means intravenous. So Mark does it and is then better after 2 hours.

At the same time I was experiencing more of a headache. By the evening it was stronger so I took some oxygen which seemed to calm it down so I could sleep a bit. However by the morning I was in great pain. My whole head was ready to explode and I was having problems seeing clearly. Mark was much better so he went downstairs to see if anyone had some western drugs to calm my headache, as we had run out of everything we had. He came back with a motherload. I took some advil and some other Chinese drugs for altitude sickness. My headache was so severe though, Mark was not 100% yet and Artemis had thrown up the night before so we decided it was time to leave.

Our guide was able to find a car and driver to leave a day earlier, so we packed up and left for Nepal. The drive was going to take 3 days so I wanted to get started earlier than later. Not to mention that in order to get to Nepal one has to go over 3 very high passes of over 5000 m before even reaching Nepal. And to top it off 150km of the drive was on gravel roadway and about 50 of the last km involved winding down a very steep gorge on a gravel path half built, in the process of building, landslides all over the road including waterfalls raging over the road, animals crossing in herds, barely wide enough road for 2 cars. It was terrifying to say the least. We held our breathes and relied heavily on the skill of our driver. At one point we arrived at a river. The road had collapsed. There was a one ton truck half stuck on the land and half in the swiftly moving river. Workman were trying to hall the truck out. Did this at all phase our guide and driver? Not really. They processed to locate a spot in the river where we might be able to cross. The first try not successful, getting us almost stuck in the river. The second try, he guns in through and we make it. After this part of the adventure, the kids put their books down and were on high alert.

The drive was visually amazing however and I guess I managed it because the car was so noisy I couldn’t hear my head pounding. I had also taken some Brazilian high altitude pills the night before and in the morning. When I woke the next day my fingers and feet were numb, I was not seeing straight, my dexterity had completely gone and I was having problems breathing. I held off on all the drugs this day as I knew we would eventually be in Nepal at lower elevations.

Although I thought Tibet was worth the journey, I was very glad to get to lower elevations. Once in Nepal I could breathe and I once again felt like myself.
Lianna