天边走一回(9)Torment of separation in Tibet

    我到天边走一回(1)Going Tibet
      我到天边走一回(2)On the way to Tibet
        天边走一回(3)步步沉重的Potala Palace
          天边走一回(4)Barkhor Street@Lhasa
            天边走一回(5)Norbulingka宝贝公园
              天边走一回(6)into a TibetanVillageHouse
                天边走一回(7)HeavenlyLakeS@Shigatse日喀则
文接自：天边走一回(8)Chasing the Railroad of Tibet

As I stepped into the 1st ICU ward, I realized that brother’s lips and finger nails were all in a fade purplish colour, body full of cables and drips connected to the monitor for observation.  Doctors showed us how serious the situation was, that either brother had to stay for a few days in the hospital or fly down to the low land immediately; he should not follow the group to leave Tibet by the Qinghai-Tibet train, as it would have been extremely dangerous for his condition.

Brother spent a night in the Tibet Emergency Center, while parents and I spent a disheartened night in the hotel as we discussed and struggled about our decision to continue staying or not.  Mum decided to let brother stay in the hospital a few days in order to have a proper care before anything went worse, but our 2 main luggage were already sent by the earlier train carriage to Xining 2 days before, as so, one of us had to follow the group to Xining.  In that situation father had to leave with the group and I had to make a choice whether to follow dad or mum, but either one of them wanted me to stay with them.  At one point I decided to leave with dad because there were 2 luggage upon arrival in Xining which only one person can only check in with one luggage during the airline departure from Xining to Beijing according to the itinerary.  However I was worried about mum’s sense of direction, she will be so lost to travel alone.  Struggling until almost midnight we were still sitting at the lobby pondered very deeply, finally we asked dad’s best friend, Mr.Lee to help us to handle one of our baggage while I stayed back to accompany mum and brother.

21/9/2012 7:30am worrying about the condition of my brother, we quickly had our breakfast.  I went around bidding farewell with the other group members and requested some of them to take care of my dad.  It was a torment for our family as we needed to separate our route at this point of the journey.  Tears were rolling from my eyes leaving dad alone with the other group members, mum and I then rushed to the hospital by a taxi.  深深感受到离别之苦……但不用担心爸，有这么多人陪他。担心的是我们三个被逼离队了~

8:30am 就这样难以置信的……含着眼泪……我们就这样分道儿行了。
医生语气真的很严厉：“你们怎么看他状况这样也没带他就医，更带他到海拔更高去。怎么做导游的你们~！”导游跟领队都不知如何反应…… 虽然医生不是很友善但对病人的关心举止很让人钦佩。骂病人犹如骂孩子一般的医生真的少见到绝种了。Though the doctors sounded very strict and loud but they showed a lot of care to the patients.  Especially the attending physician, she scolded the tour guide for not sending brother in for check up earlier and worse was to bring brother up to a higher altitude suburb tour.  Every hour they checked on brother’s temperature, blood pressure and oxygen level in his blood. 

还好有旅游公司安排代表“阿伟”照顾我们，买三餐和找医院附近的住处。We were still wondering how long we would have to stay in Lhasa, as according to the doctor it might take 5 or 6 days.  I thought the tour agent would arrange a backpacker type of accommodation for our temporary stay.  At noon he brought us to this 4* hotel Xueyu Tiantang International Hotel 雪域天堂大酒店 which was 15 minutes walk to the hospital.  He said they felt not nice to arrange a lower budget hotel for us as a foreigners.  Well it was indeed better than what I had expected.   The hotel was hidden in an alley off the main road.

As for my father, after breakfast, their group walked to the nearby wholesale market to do their last minute shopping.  With the local guide, as long as she showed her tour guide license, group members could get better discount for most souvenirs.

Photo of them bidding goodbye to our local guide 小郭 as she would stay in Lhasa after settling the procedure for boarding of the train.  According to the tour guide, it was very difficult to get tickets for the train, because most of the time the Chinese government would have the priority to use the train.  Whenever the tickets were open to public, the crowd would snatch and the tickets would be sold out immediately.  Moreover, there were only 3 departures per day which were very limited. 青藏鐵路一票難求，官方機構又頻頻舉辦活動，招待各界人士搭乘青藏鐵路，幾乎將大部分的車票拿走。

The passenger carriages used here were specially built and provided oxygen supply that filled up the whole cabin.  There were different classes of carriages: hard or soft seaters, as well as hard or soft sleepers.  At the front of the train were the seat class carriages, followed by the dining car, and then 4 sleeper carriages, and lastly the hard sleeper carrriages.  The soft seats were seats that could recline further back than the hard seats.  As for the “hard sleepers” it did not mean that the bed was “hard”, it was just that the beds were not as thick as the “soft sleepers”.  There were six beds in a hard sleeper cabin - an upper, middle and a lower one on each side.  Beside the difference of the price between the hard and soft sleepers, in the hard sleeper carriage you can not lock your cabin door and there would be limited number of power sockets.  Our group was arranged to the soft sleeper carriage.  The soft sleeper class was the most expensive ticket in the Tibet train.  There were 12 cabins with lockable private doors and each cabin had 4 beds and a small table.  Even the windows in the first class carriage appeared to be newer and cleaner compared to the others. (stated in the internet research)

However, the truth for the first class carriage was not as comfortable as what they had expected, and it was quite difficult to take photos from the “full hand printed” screen.  Worse thing was that some partners were forced to be separated and slept in the same cabin with the other strangers.  The whole carriage shared a toilet, which you could imagine the level of hygiene… one secretive group member actually went in and sprayed air freshener before it was used.. haha…

These were the meals served on the train.  Our group leader had made an appointment for the time slot to have meals at the dining carriage, so that there would be no congestion problem from people flocking in at the same time from all carriages.

 10 点20分，他们的火车扬长而去之时，留在拉萨的我们……While they were on their way leaving Lhasa, mum and I had our free and easy time.  After having a short rest in the hotel, we took our 15-minute walk to the hospital.  The road was quite busy and we really had to look out for cars as they took less consideration for the pedestrian. 

各式各样的车路上乱窜，不过比起上海杭州苏州那一带，拉萨的路少了哔哔不断的车笛声。耳根清静多了~    漫步在拉萨街头，别有一番风味……

As for our meals, the tour agent had a representative 阿伟 took care of us.  He was a very quiet and humble young man.  He insisted to carry our bags…… insisted to buy all our meals…..

However I was quite tired of the Chinese cuisine, I dragged mum to “Dico’s” which was the only fast food brand in Lhasa.  “Dico’s” dominated the whole city, we could see it in every street every corner at every turn 三步一间得克士，拉萨唯一的快餐店。

There was no food served in the hospital, so we had to pack food for brother for every meal.  After a few days of losing appetite, we took away “dico’s” for a change of our taste buds.  Finally I got to feed myself happily~!

Our tour guide 小郭 came to hospital by bicycle to visit brother in the evening, and she bought a lot of fruits and bread snack.  We felt very grateful for her concern, especially when she apologized for using white bags as the supermarkets only provide this, because in their culture they should use red bags to give any gifts to people.  The fruits she bought, apples and grapes, were really big, sweet and crunchy.  Mum was tempted to go to the supermarket to buy more.  We were told to avoid buying fruits with any of the road side locals as we did not know the price and it would be a hassle to bargain.  The supermarket was just on our way between the hotel and the hospital.  We were excited to see some interesting food culture there, there were a lot of XinJiang traditional food.   I bought one pack of XinJiang snack, which was called “MaHua麻花, fried crunchy dough sprinkled with a lot of sesame seed.

For these 2 days, mum and I had walked to and from the hotel and hospital five times a day.  Especially at night, it was quite scary to walk alone as the alley was not bright.  However we felt deeply indulged in the culture of Tibet and started to make a few friends. 

Next to brother’s bed was a Hong Kong lady, and her husband accompanying her day and night.  He is a Qi Gong doctor in Hong Kong and he was very friendly to everyone in the ward, gave tips of how to maintain our health in an easy way.  This rang a question in my mind “Why would his wife end up in the hospital as well”?  Her condition was worse, she fainted in one of the suburb attractions and was sent to the hospital by ambulance.  Obviously they thought they could handle the high altitude sickness, but they were a very optimistic couple and very devoted Buddhists.  It was great to know them as there were tonnes of  knowledge and information that he could share with us.  We felt so sorry as we were so noisy the night before, when brother was admitted and yet she did not show any sign of frustration for disturbing her rest.

Opposite us was a Chinese businessman and next to him was a Tibetan local old man.  The Tibetan old man was a farmer who harvests wild cordyceps who was extremely rich~!  His daughter in law was the one that communicated with us.  She is a physician in a Tibetan traditional clinic.  She and her daughter look different than the locals, as they had very fair skin, especially her 12 year-old daughter looked exactly like a Korean.  One thing always cought my eyes on the Tibetan lady was her one shiny tooth that shown each time she smiled. (observe her golden tooth on the left in the picture)

Dad and the group spent a night in the train.  A ridiculous thing happened that at one point the air ventilator stopped to function, and therefore everyone seemed to be sleepless and went walking at the narrow corridor gasping for more oxygen.  It was definitely the right choice not to let brother go through that “lack of oxygen” situation.  As they reached the normal altitude of low land, the water bottle showed a very significant difference in air pressure.  Anything that was sealed packed got crumpled up.  

 

 

 

Around 11am they reached Xining west station and the first thing they did was, hunt for the toilet~!

After traveling for two and a half hours, they reached Canmbra National Forest Park 坎布拉国家地质森林公园.  After the grand scenic tour in Tibet, nothing was comparable anymore.  They were suppose to take a boat ride in the lake, but after everything was ready, a group member found out that they were taking the small uncovered speed boat.  Some of them became very furious and were insisting to change to a bigger covered boat or else to claim a refund.  After an hour of argument, their ride was canceled and everyone was given back RMB150 on the spot.  However this did not cease their anger as they had already spent most of the day traveling in and out of the national park.

While they were spending their tiring day in Xining, mum and I were eager to know whether brother could be discharged the next day, as we hoped to catch up with our group in Beijing to fly back with them, then we would not have to pay extra airfare from Beijing to KL.  It sounded impossible for us because everyone in that ward stayed almost five to six days.  We waited for the whole morning for the attending physician as she had a very long hour shift the day before.  The tour agent representative 阿伟 said if we wanted to catch up with the group for the next day, we must book the air ticket immediately.  We waited very anxiously, until almost 11am we finally got to meet her.  She instructed brother to stop relying on the oxygen supply for half and hour then a few junior doctors to check the overall health condition of brother especially the oxygen level in his blood.  After the check up the doctors said it was 80% oxygen in the blood which was considered low, as the normal level should be 90% and above.  We became worried again, and mum immediately told the attending physician that we already got the ticket to fly the next day.  After half an hour of discussion she finally nodded her head and 阿伟 immediately rang up to book the tickets.  We felt relieved at once.

I insisted to go for a walk to the Bhakor street as deep in my heart I felt a little reluctant to leave Lhasa.  阿伟 accompanied us to take a short walk there.  We did our last minute shopping, as we did not buy anything at all before that.  It was good that 阿伟 came with us, he showed us into the alley which we could get cheaper stuff rather than the open stalls along the whole Bhakor street.

     23/9/2012 5:30am We walked in the dark to the hospital, the street was really quiet.  We reached there and stopped by the locked wooden frame glass door at the level where brother’s ward was located.  Mum bravely knocked at the door and I saw a shadow of the nurse waking up from her sleep in their office.  I felt bad and quite scared that she might ignore or shout at us, as it was quite rude to come and disturb at that odd hour.  However we had no choice because we had to reach Lhasa airport by 7:30am.  阿伟 came and picked us up at 6am.  He seemed to be very unfamiliar with the car or the road, he drove extremely slow, and it was quite restless to see the way he drove.  Anyway we still reached the airport in time.  Lhasa airport checkpoint was very strict, only people who were departing could enter the airport.  阿伟 told us if the officer asked, to say we needed his help to guide us. Then he accompanied us carefully into the airport.  He dragged our hand luggage so the officer did not ask him at all.  We had to finish the apples and grapes that we were carrying with us as Lhasa strictly does not allow fruits to be taken out of the country.  We tried our best to swallow the tasty fruits without wasting it, until the time when we were queuing up before the security scan, we took our last bites of the fruits.

Farewell Lhasa…

Overlook the grandeur mountain of Lhasa, took our last look outside the airplane window, we planned to close our eyes for a rest.  “Snow mountain~! Snow mountain~! 雪山啊……还不快点拍~！”A Chinese guy sat in front of us urged us to look out the window.  He must had known that we were taking photos with DSLR camera and wondering why we stopped at this point.  He was busy clicking his DSLR shutter as well.  I had goose bumps all over as I saw the magical scene~!  I would have never forgiven myself for the rest of my life if i had missed this sight.

     

食物来了也不在乎那么多了。窗外一望无际的雪山每一秒都不能放过。冒出云端的都有可能是世界最高峰…… 人类到不了的地方用这种方式观望真的好过瘾啊~！

 

Was this the highest peak on earth?  Anything that rose up above the carpet of clouds, the same question would be raised in my mind. 

 

 

 

This was indeed a very spectacular sight, we flew over the snow covered mountain ranges for almost one hour.  I believe that we had flown over the great Himalayan mountains… the breath taking view looked exactly like travelling into the outer space.

回到灰蒙蒙的城市，心情有几许的失落 After two and a half hours flight, a gray hazy covered land appeared in sight.  We were back in Beijing…

← Dad the the group were departing from Xining.

This was a tight moment for us, as mum, brother and I had to figure out by ourselves how to check into the other flight to meet up with the rest of the group.  Tension built up as I could not get through anyone’s phone to find out which counter to go to.  Mum was extremely lost, asking anyone she could for direction.  Suddenly a familiar voice called us, it was someone in our group.  He happily said he did not expect to see us as he had already sent his regards for us to my dad.  Mum thought it was a relief to see them, but later found out both of them actually checked out to self travel in Beijing, tension built up again.  We still had to continue to find our way to the check in counter, as the group went through the transit passage way while 3 of us had to check in ourselves.  I could proudly say I was smart, I quickly found the board and spotted the one and only flight to KL, ran to the counter and was tensed up to see the queue so long.  I was still trying very hard to get through the tour leader or dad’s phone, as I wanted to make sure I checked in the same flight with them.  Mum thought of cutting the line as we had no baggage to check in, we were smart enough to pack everything into our hand luggage so that we could transit in a shorter time.  The passengers on queue were very considerate and let mum cut in, however the land stewardess was annoyed with us for cutting queue and refused to proceed our check in, unless we queued up.  We were forced to be queued up obediently in spite of our situation, finally dad’s phone came through.  Confirmed that we did not queue up at the wrong place, dad and the tour leader waited anxiously after the custom check point.  It was a tedious and strict check point.  The wait was long and the officers were oppressive. 

Two hours of intensity finally came to a relief as we reunited with the rest of them at the waiting room.

It was a big difference where domestic flight boarded and alighted from aerobridge, but yet our International flight boarded and alighted by air-stairs.  This was the way how China Air treated us, the “Aliens” from Malaysia.

This marked the end of our Tibet adventure.  Although there was some rugged moment, tears and tension, but this was the most unforgettable experience for all of us.  A special kin feeling had imprinted in my heart, like a distant love one’s…

Tibet I will come back to embrace your beauty again…                                                                 

~THE END~