Retreat Day 8 - Lhasa
Slept at 0400hrs this morning because of the slow internet connection here in Tibet. Took a long time to upload the photos. As a result, we woke up rather late today. Anyway, it turned out not to be an issue. Originally, Jikmi intended to bring us to Potala Palace today immediately after picking up the 2 Spanish in the morning. But due to some miscommunications between Sim’s and here, the Spanish flight only arrived in the afternoon. Ba Sang and Mr Sim really need to sit down and sort out their workflow and communication systems.
We ended up spending most of today in our room watching shows on our separate laptops. It may seem a waste of time to be staying in our room, but at an altitude of over 3,600m AMSL, it may just be a good thing. I have been having intermittent headaches since we reached here due to the lack of oxygen. Such that once in a while, I need to remind myself to slow down and take slow and deep breaths. Activities that we take for granted in our daily lives become a no-no here. For instance, the climbing of stairs to our room at level 4 becomes a strenuous issue. By the time I climb to level 3, I’ll be panting heavily already. Of course, my lack of exercise for the past 8 months contributed to this, but not to this extent. And talking about exercise, reading my previous LJ entries reminded me that I actually had a New Year resolution for exercising some time back. I guess I’ll have to set an exercise regime up after this trip, otherwise, I may not have the physical fitness to come back to Tibet in future.
Anyway, it started raining since last night and the weather out there is pretty cold, especially where the sun can't reach.
I was just chatting with Willie earlier on about Tibetan’s culture and sovereignty issue etc. He told me that there are other places in Sichuan that I can explore to understand and experience a more authentic Tibetan culture and religion. In addition, when I was buying a Tibetan knife at a store in Bakhor Street just now, the lady told me that Tibetan knife made and sold in Tibet is not “real” (I guess she meant “authentic”). According to her, traditional Tibetan knife are handmade and the ones she has are old knifes she collected from her hometown. It is a place called something like “Gamba” or “Ganba”. Perhaps this is one of the other places where Tibetan lives.