10/16/2006 China Day 21: Train Golmud, Qinghai --> Lhasa, Tibet - Farewell Golmud!
Since the incubation period for food poisoning can range from several hours to several days, I really have no idea if I got sick in Golmud, Qinghai; in the taxi ride from Dunhuang, Gansu; or in Dunhuang; but regardless, I don't have a great memory of Golmud anyways. So I was happy to leave Golmud.
In a brand, spanking new train, no less! The train cars from Golmud, Qinghai to Lhasa, Tibet are specially designed - they are pressurized like an airplane cabin, and in addition, each berth has an oxygen supply if needed. This train line reaches the highest elevation of any train line in the world: 5,072 m (16,640 ft). Another
engineering marvel, the track includes a 550 km section built on permafrost. The permafrost is hard and expands in winter, but can be soft and wet in summer - not very stable for train tracks. So what Chinese engineers did was build in a solar-powered cooling system along the railway to ensure that the permafrost along the tracks is indeed "perma" and "frost" (i.e. always frozen).
So Tian Fang and I got up at 3 AM to catch the 4:15 AM train (350 RMB / person). I was surprised again in the morning that I still didn't have smallpox. I was still sick with food poisoning, so I slept the entire 12-hour trip from Golmud to Lhasa, with the obligatory restroom breaks. I also found the appetite to eat a bowl of instant noodles. Oh, and to try out the oxygen supply. I didn't feel any difference after 5 minutes (although the plastic smelled funny), so I figure that my extreme fatigue was due to my illness rather than altitude sickness.
We arrived in Lhasa around 4:30 PM, caught a bus to the city center (1 RMB / person), and then another bus closer to the Tibetan (west) side of town (2 RMB / person). We still had to walk 10 minutes with our big backpacks to get to the hostel / tourist area. We checked out a couple of the top hostels recommended by Lonely Planet. Yak hotel was full, so we settled on Pentoc Guesthouse (30 RMB / person). Tian Fang wasn't too happy about the dormitory rooms at Pentoc because 4 beds were squashed into a really tiny room (admittedly so), but I'm not that picky. If you're staying in hostels, I figure, beds are for sleeping, and the rest of the time you're out and about anyways.
We walked around Lhasa for a bit, and then decided to have dinner at a Western-style restaurant that served Chinese, Tibetan, Nepali, Indian, Italian, French, and probably other kinds of food. She ordered from the Chinese menu, and I ordered from the English one. I was really surprised when we both ordered the same thing: Chicken Tikka Masala! The actual dish itself was mediocre by San Francisco standards. The portion was small, but more importantly, the flavor wasn't that great. Nevertheless, I still didn't finish my serving, since I was still sick.
Went to sleep around 11:00 PM.
In a brand, spanking new train, no less! The train cars from Golmud, Qinghai to Lhasa, Tibet are specially designed - they are pressurized like an airplane cabin, and in addition, each berth has an oxygen supply if needed. This train line reaches the highest elevation of any train line in the world: 5,072 m (16,640 ft). Another
engineering marvel, the track includes a 550 km section built on permafrost. The permafrost is hard and expands in winter, but can be soft and wet in summer - not very stable for train tracks. So what Chinese engineers did was build in a solar-powered cooling system along the railway to ensure that the permafrost along the tracks is indeed "perma" and "frost" (i.e. always frozen).
So Tian Fang and I got up at 3 AM to catch the 4:15 AM train (350 RMB / person). I was surprised again in the morning that I still didn't have smallpox. I was still sick with food poisoning, so I slept the entire 12-hour trip from Golmud to Lhasa, with the obligatory restroom breaks. I also found the appetite to eat a bowl of instant noodles. Oh, and to try out the oxygen supply. I didn't feel any difference after 5 minutes (although the plastic smelled funny), so I figure that my extreme fatigue was due to my illness rather than altitude sickness.
We arrived in Lhasa around 4:30 PM, caught a bus to the city center (1 RMB / person), and then another bus closer to the Tibetan (west) side of town (2 RMB / person). We still had to walk 10 minutes with our big backpacks to get to the hostel / tourist area. We checked out a couple of the top hostels recommended by Lonely Planet. Yak hotel was full, so we settled on Pentoc Guesthouse (30 RMB / person). Tian Fang wasn't too happy about the dormitory rooms at Pentoc because 4 beds were squashed into a really tiny room (admittedly so), but I'm not that picky. If you're staying in hostels, I figure, beds are for sleeping, and the rest of the time you're out and about anyways.
We walked around Lhasa for a bit, and then decided to have dinner at a Western-style restaurant that served Chinese, Tibetan, Nepali, Indian, Italian, French, and probably other kinds of food. She ordered from the Chinese menu, and I ordered from the English one. I was really surprised when we both ordered the same thing: Chicken Tikka Masala! The actual dish itself was mediocre by San Francisco standards. The portion was small, but more importantly, the flavor wasn't that great. Nevertheless, I still didn't finish my serving, since I was still sick.
Went to sleep around 11:00 PM.
posted by Coquin at 4:56 AM
1 Comments:
Honey thanks for catching us up on your adventures. Have a great time in western Tibet. Look forward to hearing more when you come back in about two weeks.
Love,
M
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