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.

Pre-Trip: Itinerary

After getting rejected from the dream team, I got back to my only option with the Latvia couple. At first, their trip only included Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar. I asked them whether it was possible to add Everest Base Camp in our itinerary. It would be quite a shame not to go there if we would go to Tibet already. The cost might be higher, but I was willing to pay it once rather than paying for another trip just to go to EBC.

As I was just tagging along with the couple later, I didn't communicate directly to the travel agency. The Latvia guy was the direct contact with the agency. We managed to add EBC into our itinerary and everything was looking all right.

Later, I also asked them whether they could add Namtso Lake on the last day. It is quite a popular lake and not far from Lhasa. The trip could be made in one day or so. The agency agreed to add Namtso Lake at the end of the trip (WOOHOO!!).

I didn't have time to do a research on other towns like Gyantse, Shigatse or Saga. I thought they were just middle towns on the way so there shouldn't be anything interesting. I think it might have been better if if read something about these towns before we went.

I didn't care much about the monasteries and temples. As long as we would to Potala Palace in Lhasa, that would be enough for me.

So here was our final itinerary (at that time).

Day 1: Pick up from airport and transfer to hotel
Day 2: Jokhang Temple and the Barkhor Circuit and Drepung monastery
Day 3: Potala Palace and Sera Monastery
Day 4: Lhasa-Yamdrok Lake-Gyantse 260kms, 5.5 hours
Day 5: Gyantse- Shigatse ---Saga 540 kms, 9 hours
Day 6: Saga --   Paryang -  Lake Manasarovar 480kms
Day 7: Lake Manasarovar-Darchen 35kms, 1 hour
Day 8: Trek from Darchen-Dira Phug 18kms, 5 to 6 hours
Day 9: Trek from Dira Phug-Dolma La Pass 22kms, 8 hours
Day 10: Trek from Dolma La Pass- Darchen –Saga
Day 11: Saga-Phikutso lake-  Old Tingri- Rongbuk monastery- Everest base camp
Day 12: Everest base camp - Rongbuk monastery –Shigatse  (350km) 7-8hours
Day 13: Shigatse- Namtso lake -7hours
Day 14: Namtso lake –Lhasa -4-5hours
Day 15: Depart from Lhasa

[click to enlarge]

You can customize the trip as you want depending on your negotiation skill with the travel agency. The agency might not include all the important places in your itinerary. Make sure that you do a thorough research on the places you will be visiting before booking the trip. You wouldn't want to come back home and realize later that you should have stopped here or visited there. Tibet is not cheap, folks!!