Pre-trip: Acclimatization

At first, I was planning to fly from Hangzhou to Lhasa directly to save time as I didn't want to waste my precious (and limited) vacation leave. Jeff suggested that for better acclimatization, we'd better take train to Lhasa. Actually, I didn't think about acclimatization before. I was able to adapt to the high altitude quite well in my previous trip to Yading in 2011. The highest point we went were at 4800 m. I didn't have any trouble there except from short of breath due to the low density of oxygen which was quite common in high altitude. After Jeff mentioned about acclimatization, I began to get real worried.

I asked my friend who went to Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal last year whether she was having any trouble with the high altitude. She said everyone in the trip was okay except her. She vomited once or twice. This same friend went to Yading with me and she also vomited badly last time. Later, I looked up the elevation of Kathmandu and all the places we had to go through in this trip in Wikipedia. And I was shocked...

Elevation
Kathmandu = 1400 m
Lhasa = 3490 m 
Everest Base Camp = 5200 m
Namtso Lake = 4718 m
Dolma La Pass (during Kailash Kora) = 5636 m

I also asked another friend who just came back from Lhasa a week ago. She went there doing news reporting (and didn't have to pay anything.. lucky her!!). She flew from Beijing to Lhasa. She said she got serious problems with the high altitude. She almost fainted on the first day that she arrived at the airport. She also had a headache every day and couldn't sleep well at night. It was very cold. Her lips were shaking constantly. The air was thin. Also, the sunlight was strong up there. She told me to bring lots of sunscreen. She said that her colleague who went with her was even worse. He had to use oxygen bottle. In the end, he didn't get enough oxygen and developed lung infection. After chatting with her, I also officially developed a panic attack.

I read a post in Yowangdu website about flying to Xining, spending a couple of days there to acclimatize and then taking a train from Xining to Lhasa. Though, it would take me additional 3-4 days in Xining and around, it would better guarantee that I would arrive in Lhasa in a well-acclimatized condition and decrease the chance of getting high altitude sickness. I wanted to fully enjoy this trip in the healthiest condition of mine. Taking the train to Lhasa seemed to be the smartest option in this case.