Seven Years in Tibet

Really only about seven days, though It felt like seven years. I think that I just experience one of the longest weeks of my life.


Tibet has an average elevation of 16,000 ft. making it the highest region on earth. Meaning the sun is hot, the cold is cold, and altitude sickness is a given. We went from 4,500 ft. to over 17,000 ft. in one day. Every single person with us experienced altitude sickness at some level because you are given no time to acclimate. The worst part for me was the cold. In the sun you start sweating, and then you'll walk in to the shade and immediately be freezing. The temperature change is very drastic. The first few nights were absolutely horrible, there was no heat in hotels, so you are chilled to the bone. Your entire body ache's from being so cold.



On a better note. The first few days were breathtaking. I've always loved mountains and so the Himalaya's were a must see for me. In Nepal they are amazing because they move from flat plains, to green hills, to the giant Himalaya's. Driving through them was spectacular. Even when you are at 16,000 ft. they still seem huge! Since the Chinese have taken over Tibet I think the only thing positive they have done for the region is create an amazing highway from the Nepal border to Lhasa. They are in the middle of finishing it and it is probably the nicest thing you will see in all of Tibet. It really made the journey more enjoyable.


At the top of every pass and on many of the mountains there are always prayer flags. Tibetans are very superstitious people and so in order to have safe passage they always do some sort of ceremony and leave prayer flags. The higher the pass the more prayer flags they feel are needed. I figure anything can help when your above 17,000 ft., and it really adds to the atmosphere seeing all the prayer flags flying.



I've also always wanted to see Everest. The day that we were supposed to see it I was so so excited. Unfortunately, something I've been waiting to see most of my life was blocked by clouds. Of course. I was really disappointed. I had really been building that moment up, to see it from a lot closer than we had been able too, and then just had it ripped from me by something so mundane.

Unfortunately Josh got really really sick from the Altitude. While I only was sick for the first few days, he got increasingly more sick through out the drive. After the first few days he was restricted to seeing Tibet from the hotels and car. I think he probably had the worst week of his life, but I was lucky enough to get some joy out of it. I would go see the sites during the day, then come back to make sure he hadn't died while I was away. Run and get him more oxygen, food, etc. Then go out with everyone again. I felt really bad that he wasn't able to really experience Tibet while he was there, but super glad that we made it back to Kathmandu alright. He had a scary week.