hello all,
Whilst the regular blog writer is otherwise occupied I
shall offer my words of wisdom
We are aboard the Qinghai-Tibet Railway which is
the world's highest railway and one piece of impressive engineering .It
has 160km of bridges and elevated track much of which is built
over permafrost some parts of which have cooling pipes inserted to help
ensure that boggy ground stays frozen in Summer.Some
960 kilometres of its tracks between Golmud
to Lhasa are over 4,000
meters above sea level and the highest point is the Tanggula
Pass, at 16,640 feet (just over 5,000m) above sea level.meters Due to the lack of oxygen at this
altitude, all passenger coaches have extra oxygen pumped into them and
extra oxygen is also available to passengers through oxygen outlets if
they experience problems.The cabins are not pressurised so sealed bags
are expanded to bursting point and bottles threaten to blow their tops.
Soft sleeper berths come with individual TVs and oxygen sockets so life
is relatively comfortable if you are willing to pay 3 times as much as
a hard seat. We have 4063 km and just over 47hrs to travel so our
choice was easy. We have been fortunate enough to have the cabin to
ourselves for over half the journey so we can´t complain.
No one can predict who will be affected by altitude but this time
David seems to have drawn the short straw and is experiencing mild high
altitude sickness with headache,nausea ,stomach bloating thus
flatulences,frequent urination and aero bar poop (aerated in other
words)have a painted a pretty picture doesn´t it just want to climb a
high mountain pass .David who as I just mentioned is feeling the
effects of the altitude has been forced to break the cardinal rule of
high altitude acclimatisation by needing to frequent the squat toilet
on the train whilst I seemingly unaffected by the altitude other than
a physically notable drop in blood pressure and increased back pain
laze around like a 10 toed sloth moving only when absolutely necessary.
I was a little disappointed to find a squat toilet in the soft sleeper
carriages as I had been misled by photographs that I had seen into
believe that we would have a western toilet.Never mind both David and I
ripped some new thigh muscle fibre whilst climbing the Great Wall the
other day so the exercise would be good for them .We each have a
different approach to dealing with squat toilets but that is not
something that should be on public record so I´ll just say that we
have learnt to carry copious quantities of toilet paper,hand sanitizer
, to hyperventilate before entering the squat toilet and the hold our
respective breaths for a staggering amount of time whilst in for
mentioned squat.
Here is a mind BOGgling statistic for you.There are at least 1.2Billion
people in China and if each defecates every day and purely for
statistical purposes we say that ´it´ weighed 250grams that would be
300,000tonnes of faecal matter .Whilst you ponder that statistic lets
not forget that we haven´t include the millions of tourists that visit
each year and get intestinal upsets.....as for the amounts of urine
passed each and every day lets just say that there is more than one
yellow river that flows through China.
I hear you saying that you have had enough statistics for one reading
but I think that you do protest to much and are enjoying pondering over
these facts so I shall continue with the amount of phlegm that is
expectorated each and every minute of everyday somewhere on a pavement
in China fortunately for you I do not have that statistic at hand but
shall say that even though the Chinese authorities are trying to
educate the public about the health risks there still continues to be
too much phlegm on the streets for my liking.
>From Beiing the train to Lhasa passes through endless farming
villages and some extremely polluted and ugly cities. The scenery is
good, but becomes quite monotonous, especially
by the end of the second day. Beginning early on the third day the
scenery drastically changes. The train is now on the northern Tibetan
Plateau
heading south from Golmud so the farmlands is replaced with endless
grasslands inhabited by thousands of shaggy yaks,
sheep,donkeys,ponies Tibetan antelope and other wildlife. High
snow-capped mountains surround both sides of the train with all but
the strongest flowing rivers ,lakes and streams being frozen.The glare
from the ice is so intense that we need to don our new genuine fake
Emporio Armani sunglasses to look out the windows. The train passed
the 6178m/20,270 feet Mt.
Yuzhu, the highest mountain in the eastern Kunlun Range. and luckily
for us we have a perfect clear
day so the view of the mountain is impressive.We have seen the black
yak wool tents of the nomadic tibetan and many many shepards both
young and old dressed in traditional tibetian clothing tending to their
free range yaks and sheep.No trees on the tibet plateau so when nature
calls you just have to get down to business regardless of the passing
train. or a curious yak.Heaps of piles of yak paddies piled up in
preparation as fuel fundoudtedly for the family stove and heater A
small number of pilgrims could be seen wandering along the highway
braving the frosty winds of winter on their way to who knows where holy
site and an ever increasing number of pray flags and stupors as we
travel further into the ´rooftop of the world
We are yet to see other foreign tourist aboard the train so everyone
that passes our open door seems to feel compelled to take a good look
at us this eventually grates on our nerves and we shut the door and
announce ´shows over folks´ Despite the fact that will will have
travelled over 4000km unlike in Russia we have remained in the same
time zone meaning that the sun is rising at 845hrs and sunset is well
after 1990hrs
I don´t wish to monopolise this blog entry so my contribution is
concluded and I happily hand the responsibility back to the original
blog writer
Bye,
Vanessa and David
