Lhasa

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Hmmmm...where do I start? This place is something else! The train was comfortable, and oxygen masks were supplied. I didn't get round to using mine. I was kind of relieved at that for they were of the type that have two small tubes that go up your nose. At one point I looked around my cabin at my fellow travellers and it looked like some weird adult version of Great Ormond Street hospital, with oversized children sitting around on cabin beds looking pale and weak. The highest we got was about 4972m I think, although it could have hit 5000m at one point. I spent most of my time playing Solitaire on my laptop (having only just bothered to look at the games applications on it!) and being abused/ignored in the restaurant car by the superbitch waitress/matriarch dictator of the catering area.

Lhasa is now one ugly city, similar to Ulan Bator in terms of (lack of) modern town planning. The han have ploughed roads as wide as motorways through and around it, thus carving up the place like spaghetti junction. But still the Potala Palace looms overhead, ramshackle and massive, surveying the city like a watchful buddha. Inside it is a rabbit warren but quite honestly one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen.

The tibetans are as a rule, so friendly it makes you think they must be a longlost relative. The poverty here is obvious; people look hungry, haunted and cold, but the spirit is very high. I have discovered the Summit Fine Art Cafe, which is really out of place amongst the rest of the tibetan quarter, which could be unchanged from 500 years ago. It's like a one-off tibetan take on Starbucks. It has wifi which is really handy and the people who work there are so nice to me I think I might move in.

On the traveller/tourist front, Lhasa seems pretty quiet. My two travelling companions and I had the Potala Palace to ourselves yesterday morning, except for few tibetans doing their thing with candles and prayers. And I am noticing that tour groups that I do see are mainly of 'mature' americans or scandos wearing beige and/or head to toe logo-d hiking garments. I have only seen about 5 people of my age group who are not Tibetan so far.

Altitude sickness finally caught up with me yesterday and I conceded to a temporary period of madness, looking back. My travelling companions have been dosing up since we left Chengdu with pills, oxygen canisters, and god knows what else. A pill is being popped every other minute as far as I can see. Apart from horrific heart palpitations when I attempted to walk at my normal pace to a shop on the first day, I have been relatively untouched by it. But yesterday evening I got a pounding headache, and looking back I was babbling nonsense for much of the afternoon. Maybe that was why they took me under their wing at the Summit Cafe... Also I was out in the sun most of the afternoon and my skin was chafed and sore last night even though I put on loads of suncream. I keep forgetting we are so high up here! So that explains it. Heatstroke and altitude sickness. Marvellous.

I have yet to find deodorant. I cannot believe that it is the singular thing I need so spectacularly, yet no shop seems to sell it?!?! I can't get used to the disgusting smell of B.O, I find it disturbing and repulsive on other people, but now I am the culprit I have reached a new level of self-loathing. I even went into a big shiny supermarket yesterday. As usual, there was no obvious section for deodorant, so I did the universal sign language for it (lifted arms up and motioned a spraying action) and they shook their heads rapidly, saying "No no no", like I was asking for some kind of rare tea made out of essence of yak's bladder. That was that.

The food has been lush so far: lots of soups, lush dumplings called momos, sweet tea, and more dumplings. There is a comedic amount of yak meat on offer but so far I am finding veggie options everywhere so no need to resort to it just yet. Have just ruined an excellent breakfast though by sprinkling what I presumed to be shredded coconut on my pineapple and yoghurt. One mouthful confirmed that it was actually pungent pungent shredded cheese.

*heave*