Travel Songs

** This is Part Two of my travel-log, Tibetan Song, to the Tibet Plateau in July 2013.

I’ll never forget that day when I checked-in at the Shangri-La pension in Tibet. I jumped naked into my bed to sleep with my loneliness and insomnia! I was tired of tossing and turning in my bed when felt that there was an urgent meeting chaired by my brain with the lung and heart to discuss the crisis of the Oxygen shortage at the altitude of 4,800m! For those who don’t know Altitude Sicknesses, it’s a pathological effect of high altitude on humans, caused by acute exposure to low partial pressure of oxygen at high altitude. It commonly occurs above 2,400 metres (8,000 feet).

My brain gave his military commands to summon the red blood cells reserve military force, ordering lungs and the heart to operate at their full capacity in order to solve this crisis and to save my life. I surrendered to sleep once the meeting has ended. Silence and mystery were surrounding me. I could hear the wind caressing the mountains’ cheeks in the distance. I am not sure if I slept or I was suffering from insomnia when I heard as if someone is knocking on my door after midnight softly. I ignored the voice and slept as a bear in hibernation. The sound of the wind woke me up. I stared at the lethal beauty of the holy mountains in the background. My body is still very exhausted as an old Russian car that needs to warm-up before it moves in a snowy morning.

The tour guide; Mr Choden, arrived at 09:00 apologizing for not being able to start the old Lahas city tour as agreed on time because of the sad news of the loss of the old Korean pilgrim, Mr Sang, who was staying next to my room, and failed to win his battle with the altitude sickness. I was about to scream. It was the death angel who was knocking on my door last night before he moves to Mr Sang’s door, when I didn't open mine, to take his soul to a place we will all travel to sooner or later. I yearned to see mom and dad, being afraid of the death angel that might knock on my door again tonight apologizing from his unintended mistake last night to take my neighbour’s soul instead of mine when I delayed opening the door for him.