TREKKING

I admit, I enjoyed dressing the part. Lhasa had plenty of stores with the perfect trekking accessories. My favourite - the all important neck scarf. The sun in Tibet was so intense, you could feel it radiating off the pavement. I quickly lost all sense of shame and walked around with the scarf pulled up right over my face, the prospect of sun damage is terrifying!

We originally planned on a four day trek, but it turned out to be a bit more difficult than we thought...

The first day we drove to a monastery two hours from Lhasa at 4500m above sea level. From there, we met our yak man (who looked after the yaks carrying our bags, or us if we got tired!) and set off on a 4 hour walk.

The hills were much cooler than the city and we quickly needed all of the clothes we had brought. It was tough going, walking at altitude was like nothing I've experienced, especially as we had to go so high so quickly in order to finish the trek and return to Hong Kong.

There were a few other groups doing it as well, so it was altogether quite social. We arrived at the village (aka 4 houses) of Leten to set up camp. Thankfully our guide made friends with our yak man who let us pitch the tent in his courtyard and rest inside his house. At 5100m above sea level it was cold! Thankfully the yak dung powered stove kept the house toasty warm.

By this time altitude sickness had seriously set in, and the rest of the evening was spent lying down, feeling nauseous and headachy. These symptoms didn't desist until we were well on the way to Lhasa again the next day. I don't think I have ever felt so terrible before, walking down again felt like it took a lifetime! 

So, although only two days instead of four, it was a great opportunity to get out of the city and into the spectacular hillside.

Lessons learnt:

• Take the time to properly acclimatise, don't rush it! Go up higher slowly. 
• Walk high sleep low.
• Take more clothes than you think you need, it was zero degrees at night and the tent was not warm!
• Always buy a warmer sleeping bag then you think you need.
• Take high calorie foods. I couldn't touch the instant noodles we took. Once the nausea set in, we didn't eat until we got back to Lhasa which made the walking hard going.