Lhasa & Flight to Chongqing

Wednesday, 20 Sep 2017 – After breakfast, we meandered down to the buffet breakfast.  Since our stomachs felt queasy, we limited our breakfast to fresh fruit, yogurt, coffee, and tea.  We met our tour group in the lobby at 9:30 AM.  We were scheduled to tour the Jokhang Temple, Barkhor Market, and the Sera Monastery; and visit a Tibetan family and enjoy lunch at a local restaurant.  However, just before boarding the coach, Sally realized that her stomach was not in traveling condition; therefore, we opted out of the day’s tours and returned to our room, where Jesse relaxed while Sally lay down, continuing to fight off headache and upset stomach.
For dinner, we took a coach ride to a local restaurant where we had a choice of Chinese or Tibetan cuisine.  We tried the Tibetan yak, barley beer, and a few other dishes, but mostly stuck with the more familiar Chinese.  Tibetans eat a lot of yak, which tastes similar to beef but might be compared to bison.  After dinner, we were entertained with a Tibetan singing and dancing performance.  Our favorite part was the performance of the Yak Dance, when two performers pranced around the audience in a yak costume, causing us all to laugh.  We were back at our hotel by 8:30 PM.

Tibetan Singing & Dancing Performance

Thursday, 21 Sep 2017 – We decided to visit the hotel’s Oxygen Lounge before breakfast.  Several other members of the group had visited the lounge and found the sea-level air pressure relaxing.  After spending 30 minutes there, we continued on to the breakfast buffet.  By about halfway there, the effects of the Oxygen Lounge had already worn off.  We both ate very light breakfasts before returning to our room.  Since by then, Sally was feeling ill again, we opted out of the day’s tours.  Several other members of the group were also experiencing the effects of the high altitude, but none as badly as Sally.  Although Domingo has a heart pace maker and was also having problems, he did not opt out of any of the excursions.  Everyone that we spoke with said they were eager to get back to sea level!  The day’s schedule included a tour of the Potala (Dalai Lama) Palace, lunch at a local restaurant, and a visit to a local Nunnery.  Again, Jesse spent the day relaxing, watching TV, and working on our blog and e-mails; and Sally tried to sleep.  We shared the dinner table in the hotel buffet with three others from our tour group.  None of us had very much of an appetite (effects of the high altitude).

            We believe Sally’s extreme reaction to high altitude might have been caused by her low-normal blood pressure and low red blood cell count.  Much after the fact, she wished that she had consulted a doctor right away (and received meds that might have helped her).  Also, she might have taken a pillow and cover to the Oxygen Room to sleep the night there.  However, at the time, neither her mind nor her body was functioning normally.

Friday, 22 Sep 2017 – After another night of intermittent sleep, we awoke by our alarm in time to place our luggage in the hallway by the 7:00 AM deadline.  Sally was feeling better, but still very weak.  Jane assured us that Sally would feel much better when we reached Chongqing.  Jesse went to the buffet for breakfast and brought back food to the hotel room for Sally.  We boarded our coach at 8:45 AM for the transfer to the Lhasa airport, where we were each given a bag lunch from Burger King and prepared to wait for our 11:30 AM flight to Chongqing.  However, due to military exercises, our flight was delayed until 3:00 PM.  Jane found us all seats in the waiting room; in some cases asking some of the locals to move their bags from empty seats.  It was interesting watching the military aircraft take off and land.  Jane gave each of us another [Chinese] meal while we waited for our flight.  Although our plane left the gate at 3:00 PM, military exercises continued to have priority.  Our plane did not take off until 4:40 PM.  While waiting in line on the tarmac, we were actually served another [Chinese] meal while we waited.  Several passengers declined the meal, since we had already been served two lunches prior to boarding the flight.