My impressions of this fast away land is that it is lovely. But I spent much of it wardimg off a constant altitude headache. Even with the altitude pills it was still difficult. So slowly we walked breathing through our noses and out through our mouths. Yoga breathing. My oxygen level went from 74% to 79% so there was some improvement over the 4 days we were there. There was talk butter tea, yak meat and yak cheese. It all has a pungent smell that one eventually gets used to. Lhasa is a vibrant city and is growing.
The Himalayas are their western border with Nepal. The cultural revolution failed to eradicate the Buddhist religion for from Tibet and has brought benefits such as medical care to the region and mandatory education for everyone. But I see the Tibetan language and culture being quietly eroded Only Chinese is being taught in school.
We visited a monastery where we saw the monks in heated debate with each other. The big draw is the 13 story climb to the top of the potola palace. Home to the Dali lama. Of course the 14th Dali lama lives in exile in India. Nevertheless the climb is not for the faint of heart. And with the altitude already at 13000 ft you go slowly and stop along the way to get your heart to stop racing
We left Tibet and flew to Chongqing. Another busy city and it is here we we boarded the Victoria Jenna river boat for a 4 cruise along the Yangtze River. We met with a women who was relocated when the 3 gorges damage project was going to be built. She was quite the fireball and incredibly tiny. We enter the gorges tomorrow then disembark a day later and head to Hong Kong. There will be no more posts as we will be home in less than a week. I'll be posting photos then.
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