Tibet > View of the Himalayan giants

During the night, it rains heavily. I even check at the open window to see if rain is coming in, but it isn’t. At a quarter past six, the alarm goes off. I pack my things, and after breakfast, we leave for the airport at seven o’clock. The streets are wet, but it has stopped raining. Today we are flying to Lhasa, and the flight goes over the Himalayas. Jozalien hopes that if we arrive at the airport on time, we might be able to get window seats. However, it turns out that many other tourists had the same idea. In the end, we are checked in in order and end up sitting in two rows in the plane. Only a few people have window seats. I am in the middle section, so I won’t see much of the mountains. The baggage check is strict. I am frisked three times, my luggage is scanned twice, and my carry-on is opened once — this is standard procedure. This also means spending quite some time in line. The Chinese have a different understanding of queues. Repeatedly, they walk past a line only to cut in at the front. When we point it out to them, they look as if they’ve never seen a queue before.

Tibet - The Potala Palace in Lhasa

After the final check, we finally board the plane. Due to bad weather, the flight takes off one and a half hours late. The departure can be followed on a monitor in the plane via a camera on the front of the aircraft. Along the way, Mount Everest is hidden by clouds, but other Himalayan giants are visible. The blue waters of Yamdrok Lake are also clearly visible. We will visit this lake later on our trip. We land about an hour later in Lhasa, but the clock is set forward by two hours and fifteen minutes. All of China — including Tibet — uses a single time zone, which makes mornings in Tibet very dark and evenings longer. This means that it is already four in the afternoon, and the day is passing quickly. Tibet’s airport is an hour and a half from the capital. By bus, we head to Lhasa. On the bus, we meet Thasi, our Tibetan guide who will accompany us during the trip. Driving along wide roads, we enter Lhasa. From a distance, we can already see the Potala Palace towering above the city. First, we stop by a bank, but it is already closed — it’s now half past six. I’ll try again tomorrow. Our hotel is a little further along at the edge of the Tibetan quarter. At the hotel, I exchange thirty euros for local currency for tonight’s meals and drinks. Lhasa is at an altitude of 3,650 meters, so it’s important to take it easy and drink plenty of water to adjust. The recommendation is to drink at least three liters per day. We have dinner at Thasi 2, a small Tibetan restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet Tibet. It has about 30 seats. I order soup and a light meal. Everyone experiences mild effects of the altitude, though I personally don’t feel any discomfort yet.