My first days in Tibet

Saturday morning, we woke up at 5am to take a shower and to gather in the hotel lobby at 5:30am. We walked to the minibus where all the other tourists for the Tibet group tour were waiting for departure. From here, we made a 3 hours drive to the Tibet border Kodari . Over there we had to sort out alot of paperwork. As bureaucratic as they are, we had to pass several counters to settle our stuff. At one counter, they checked my temperature by holding a stick to my head. After all that, wec could finally cross the "red line" on the bridge. There we were, in Tibet. Our group consists of 37 people and one guide (we didn't realize it untill much later). There were 11 Toyota Land cruiser available, but we only needed 9. So they had to send the remaining two back. The two left back drivers weren't that happy to hear that and they asked for some compensation.

After all that was settled, we stepped in a Jeep with a spanish couple and the Tibet tour could begin. We had to make another stop in Zhangmu (2300m) to go through the immigration. We noticed that the chinese checked the passport documents thoroughly. They looked at the passport from every angle. They even checked the stitchings. My hypermodern Dutch passport didn't took so long to convince that it is real, but Jackies cheapy ass Singy passport got some doubts. Luckily, after proof from a military card, they finally let him pass. Unfortunately, there was a British guy who's passport was claimed to be fake. I saw the passport and his photo was pretty outdated. So I guess, it was because of that. He tried to arrange some possibility to show that his passport is genuine, by calling the British embassy in Kathmandu. They had to call to Chinese embassy that his ID is confirmed and they have to call the immigration office to establish that. Unfortunately, the Chinese embassy wasn't open during weekend because of an holiday. They have a 24/7 service but it was only for emergency. It seemed that this didn't count as one. So he had two choices: He could go back to Kathmandu immediately or they would detain him and fine him for possession of a fake passport. In the end, he and his girlfriend went back. Now we were remaining with a group of 35. A great start of our tour.

We stayed in Zhangmu for the night. At first the tourguide said that we had to sleep in the car and that we would leave at 2am. Some other tourists knew that some guides do this to save money for accomodation and then they would put it into their own pockets. So we insisted him to arrange us an hotel. We got to our hotel dormitory (yes, dormitory) and we were supposed to get up at 2am. We would drive at night because there is less traffic. It rained pretty hard and alot of people were pretty sceptic about the tourguide's great idea. So finally we arranged to leave at 5am. I played some games of chess with a french guy (bonne malie or something), and went to bed. Suddenly one of the other tourists woke us up. So I thought it was 5am, but no, it was 2:30. Suddenly he reinstated his previous plan. What's all that about? So okay whatever, we just got into the jeep and left.

The road ahead was just crazy. Actually it doesn't deserve to be called that way. It was more like a mountain rock path where only 4WD vehicles could manage to go through. Well chinese don't care and they just let trucks drive on it. It was terrible bumpy, comparable to a crazy rollercoast ride with an innovating left and right tilting feature. On our way, we saw a truck tilted over. Maybe the chinese tourist association put it there on purpose. To give the tibet tour a more adventurious and exciting appeal. Well, if that's so then it definately worked.

So, we were like driving and humping. Suddently we arrived at the decent asphalted friendship highway. The sun also started to come up and the views were amazing. I can compare it with the views I had of the great Mongolian sceneries. After many hours of driving, we stopped by Tingri (4300m) to get some tibetan breakfast. Did you noticed the elevation? Zhangmu 2300m to Tingri 4300m? Well, I don't know if you have ever hearded of the acclimatization rules. Above the 3000m you shouldn't elevate more then 300/400m a day and you should stay one extra night at every 1000m above that. So we did 2000m in 7 hours! I know it's crazy. Actually, we wanted to organize a private tour with every acclimatization rule taking into account. We had set up a wonderfull intinerary and we got a great deal. But the deal was only great for a group of four. So we considered the costs and the possibility to find two companions within a couple of days. Finally, we decided to save some money for the group tour. I was already sceptical about the itinerary and the elevations which we had to go through, but I thought: What the heck, this is like a standard tour and it has been done by hundreds of tourists. So it should be okay right? Well, that wasn't really the case. If you elevate to fast, you might suffer from Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) and it might escalade to a severe form called HAPE or HACE. The latter two are known as the fatal onces.

When I arrived at Tingri, I feeled a slight headache, loss of appetite and a difficulty to breath. Other people experienced the same thing, but not everyone took the acclimatization rules that serious. So again, I thought what the heck, i will feel better along the way. After Tingri, we headed to Lhatse to spend our second night. Lhatse is at about 3900 meters, so less than Tingri. Well actually the altitude of Tingri isn't that relevant. The acclimatization rules counts for the altitudes at which you sleep. There is a whole theory about it. You can check out google if you are interested in it. So according to the A-rules, we went from a 2300m to a stunning 3900m. And to top that, we also drove through a 5200m high pass. During that pass, my head feeled like as if someone was banging on it with a hammer (from the inside). So after that pass we descented to the Lhatse altitude. My headache felt slightly better. When you are in high altituded, it's important to keep yourself proper hydrated. Unfortunately, my driver was overtaking all the other jeeps and thought he knew the way to Lhatse. But he didn't and so we got lost, I also ran out of water and I still got my headache. He finally called the tourguide and asked for the right direction. So instead of being the first in Lhatse, we were the last. Pretty cool right? So as I was having a major headache. I went straight to the dormitory which was included in the door. Just like the road, this dormitory didn't deserve it's name. It was more like a barn shed with some beds in it. It was full of flies and some people even saw rats. We were already quite pissed on the driver, the tourguide and the whole tour. So we (Karen, Rickie, Jacky and me)got ourselves some decent hotel rooms in a fancy hotel. We were not the only one. Alot of other travellers joined us. So I finally could get some rest. After some sleep, I got some diner and know I feel pretty ok. Tomorrow we will go to Shigatse, which is luckily at about the same altitude as Lhatse. We still have to go through a 5000m pass. Unfortunately, there is no other choice.

During the tour and all the problems, all the travellers quite got to know each other. It feels like we have known each other for quite a while, because trust doesn't seems an issue. Jacky, is because of his mandarin skills promoted to our primary tourguide. People ask him for help in translating, booking an hotel room and lots of other stuff.
Without him, we would be quite screwed. The tourguide doesn't really speak mandarin and his english is highly questionable. How is one guy even supposed to run a 35 person tour? If he was a great tourguide, it maybe would be possible. But he is like the worst I have ever seen. Remember what I said about the Nepali tourguides? They provided us with an overload of information. They did all the talking for us. This crappy tibetan guide doesn't explains us anything. He just gives the drivers instructions where to drive to and that's it. For instance, when we were in Zhangmu. I wouldn't mind some information about the city, it's history and people. But no, "we stop here sleep and 2am we go".

As you can see, most of the people (if not all) aren't that satisfied with the trip. Some people arranged this tour from their home country. They paid like 600/500 euro for this trip, while we "just" paid 400USD so about 300 euro for this trip. The spanish couple booked the deluxe tour, meaning they get the deluxe hotel rooms. Nothing true of that, they were send to the same barn shed as we were. They got fierce and are trying to arrange full compensation.

Well, it may seem that this is a tour from hell. But there also some positive things about it. The great tibetan scenery (up to the extend in which I can enjoy it, due to my headaches). The nice co-travellers, with whom we are still able to make a good time out of this. And hopefull the better acclimatized second part of our trip. Well that's it for know. I'm getting some rest for tomorrow and don't worry, i'll be okay. I'll keep you updates shortly from know.

P.S.: Please don't inform my parents about my sickness and stuff.