We got up early and drove to the airport in very little traffic for a 2 1/2 hr flight to Lhasa Tibet. Of course this is a controversial area which China claims as theirs, and tibetans claim as a seperate place. Our passports were collected after we went thru the airport, and during our stay, they were checked and shown many times. After plunking down in a beautiful new hotel...The "Shanga La", we rested a bit and waited for the altitude to disable some of the group. I was lucky, and felt nothing the whole stay, except a little heavy breathing on excursion. Others suffered a lot with headaches, nausea and malaise. People started skipping meals and even excurions,,but Steve and I did fine. My major complaint was dry air at over 12,000 feet which made my noise and throat scatchy, but that even went away. Many people took a prevent pill, And they seemed to get the worse of the deal.
Lhasa is a big town and getting bigger, but we concentrated on the older part,the Buddhist history, and the complicated history with China. We had a great local guide who was a devout Buddhist, but alsoa practical thinker, and understood many of the conflicts. We met him and ventured a few miles to Jokhang Temple, which to Tibetan Buddhist is the holiest of all temples.
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