24 Apr 2007 (Tues)
2330hrs - Arrived at Changi Int'l Airport T1. Most major flights have left, shops were shutting their shutters, staff heading home...& for the 1st time in history, I'm spending a night at the airport. Its a pity that if I only had a handheld baggage, I could've slept in the restricted transit area where sofas are ubiquitious. We had to head towards the viewing mall (coz it seems dimmer) and gosh...the area was rather occupied by overnite sleepers as well! Settled on one of those rows of HARD, acrylic chairs, like how the others slept. It was rather unbelievable trying to doze off there, despite having lots of experience sleeping at all kinds of public areas. Tried all kinds of positions adjusting the comfort level, but to no avail.
25 Apr 2007 (Wed)
Day 02 - Singapore-Chengdu
Temp: 14-17c
Cutlery: All colored transparent plastic (to prevent thefts); No porcelain plates for main dish.
Interiors of Chengdu Xuangliu Airport (Int'l)
This time we had a private driver & guide to bring us along in Chengdu. Located in southwest China and being the capital of Sichuan Province, it is the fifth most populous city in China. We were told that the city seems to be hazy but it is just fog. Chengdu has one of the lowest sunshine totals in China (less sunshine annually than London) and most days are cloudy even if without rain...Why? Coz its situated at the western edge of Sichuan Basin...Seriously, I thought there was great pollution here..
It was a long morning...had lunch at around 2pm+, typical oily oily Chinese food, but I was impressed by the cutting skills of the fish (extreme right) and it turned out to be almost boneless! Bravo!
Thank goodness the food wasnt that spicy which I have anticipated as the Sichuan cuisine is known to be extremely spicy, with 30% of the dishes relying on red chili. And its amazing that Chengdu outnumbers Shanghai in the number of tea houses and bars despite having less than half the population. The inhabitants have a reputation both within Sichuan and in China at large for having a laid back attitude and for knowing how to enjoy life. Wahhh...Travelled to Furong Ancient city... Basically its just like ancient China city that went great revamp and renovation, but the authenticity of the architecture remains. It looks like a street for tourists...The pictures depict the scenes taken from the Ancient Town...
Entrance of Garden
Ancestral Tablet
Opera Stage - For Special Occasions
Mid-range al-fresco dining & pub
Be intrigued by the paper cutting skills....
The hawkers >> Reminds me of Food Republic
Wondered how long have those food been soaked.......
V.appealing for tourists, but just imagine the costs in constructing that...
Visited the shopping belt of Chengdu - Chunxi Shopping District (recently renovated)....
Pedestrian Shopping District
Wangfujing Shopping Mall (another typical mall)
Berries & Mangosteen Hawkers (warning: they'll rack up $ for tourists)
Junction of Chunxi Shopping District
Acrylic Models at the entrance of Chunxi Road
Sichuan Province Library (near Chunxi Road)
YMCA Chengdu - very oriental huh?
Swensens Chengdu Chunxi - old European style dining
Real blooming flowers, they are not artificial mind you...Basically, Chunxi Shopping Belt reminds me of Shanghai Nanjing Road, but the staff here seems to be more friendly, prices are lower. There is an influx of international brand esp Adidas - saw at least 3! International branded goods are more expensive, there are no exceptions but I somehow liked their unique Beijing Olympics 08 designs...
Here comes the horror of horrors...Authentic Szechuan Food. I could smell the whiff of spicyness from afar, it wasnt pleasing for my nasal cavities. Their spices don't appeal to me, you can imagine the amount of food soaked in red hot oily chili. It is totally HOT, its something so HOT that I hvnt tasted before...Most of those food soaked in red oily chili cant be salvaged, had to forgo them. Eating them = glupping down few glasses of water. Try it there and experience your senses blast out....Hahahha
Ahhh....The romantic Chengdu Tianfu Square, blooming with a huge plethora of flowers planted around.
Basement of Tianfu Square is the future Metro Interchange for Chengdu, look at the grandeur of the structure....
The giant Mao Statue (behind is Sichuan Science & Tech Musuem). His frontal view is facing Chengdu Tianfu Square
Tianfu Square Musical Fountain
The ambience at the Tianfu Square was spectacular...A kaleidoscopic of lights, splattering water & melodious music....It is defintely one of the must-see attraction in the city. In fact, we did not realise we have drifted off too far away from our hotel...Today is another late-nite event, well, one must maximise our time especially in overseas ritez? haha...that's my perspective...0430h - Rise & Shine!
It was simply a tiring night...I barely slept at Changi Airport and the previous dosage of sleep was insufficient due to our curiousity to see more of Chengdu within a day. Come to think of it, this vacation schedule is even more jam-packed than my daily events.
Waking up early is crucial this time as we have an early domestic flight to catch. It was a chilly morning, the city void of any souls and the hotel lobby lights was dimmed. Our breakfast was probably prepared last night in a disposable-carrier paperbox. Interestingly, there were slices of quality wholemeal loaf (like those in Carrefour), hotdog, strips of luncheon meat and a boiled egg wrapped in plastic foil. The temperature probably dipped to 11c as I could even feel the coldness with my jacket on. It wasnt a good morning to start, all was dark and rain was pouring. We had breakfast along the way through the highways of Sichuan. I appreciated that the driver & guide made an effort to wake up far early to make arrangements for us =)
It was a blessing the weather is not misty enough to cause traffic diversion like my previous trips, hence we arrived Chengdu Xuanglin Airport (CTU) pretty early at 0600h. Every entrance has this baggae tightening sevice or should i say...a baggage sealing service. The moment you walk in, the staff manning the counter will insist you to bring your baggage there and seal it up. I found out it was a gimmick coz this service is optional and is chargable at RMB 10 per baggage. Its an official service endorsed by the Airport Authorities as there was an receipt issued, but I still didnt like the idea getting conned for an optional service. Urgh! Got cheated so fast...and the guide didnt even mentioned it coz she was ahead of us and was looking for the check-in counter.
CTU does general check-in for domestic flights (al 3U, CA flights). It was a peak period and there was a squeeze in some zones. Seriously, the airport staff seems unfamiliar with our Sg-issued air tickets, always pointing here and there, checking with the duty manager, before accepting the tix. Oh goodness, our ticket is IATA-recognized international tix with magnetic strip, unlike theirs on a flimsy, printed paper that you & I can print.
This was not the end, at the restricted zone entrance, we were supposed to show the "air ticket". Air ticket??? Wasn't the air ticket the one they airport guys just issued to us??? The officials were robotic..."Air ticket!" "Air ticket!" in Mandarin. "Not this, not that". In the end, I found out it was the IATA ticket...the proof of purchase of this ticket with the passenger name on it. Oh Gosh! It was kinda embrassing getting stucked there, thank goodness i wasnt the only one, even PRC Nationals seemed to have problems understanding what the airport officials wanted to check. Finally, I'm given an all-clear chop on my boarding pass. The security scan was all-cleared too =)...im delighted coz i seem to fail almost all PRC airport security checks in my life...like erm...metallic objects, alcohol, etc. Hence, the lesson is domestic flight must have Proof of purchase of Airtix and Boarding pass. Oh, I actually brought in my half-eaten breakfast with boiled egg into the x-ray machine...I thought that it will be confiscated, but it wasnt! Hahahaha. However, the eagle-eyed guard actually went to take a peek into my breakfast box. Hmmph! =(
The restricted zone is just like another exclusive place with all the exorbitant prices. There was a Chinese herbal shop selling all kinds of medicinal products. Pretty amazing to see dried worms, gecko, flying squirrel, dog's penis, packets of dried ants, starfish and your usual dried seafood you can find in homeland. My parents was obsessively interested in the medicinal and bookshop nearby, while I took a stroll elsewhere. As you can see from the picture below, our dear flight is only departing at 0800hrs, but there was a queue forming at 0705h!
In the background, I could hear announcements of other flights to Lhasa, Tibet as well. There's an average of 16 flights to Tibet a day and from what I've gathered, the tickets are premium-priced due to high tourism demand. True enough, there was a interesting mix of passenger load aboard my flight - Caucasians with enormous bagpacks, Japanese with their sophiscated cameras, China Tour Groups from other provinces easily identified from the large no. of pple wearing bright yellow tour-agent caps, adventurous North Indians, sparse groups of Asian community like us. There was even a CCTV crew group boarding our flight! Air China is the most expensive airline to fly to Tibet, however, it is the safest and most experienced airline.
Yes, by 0710hrs, people started queueing up even before the announcements. This seems to be the trend in China Airports i realised. Cutting queue is prevalent too.
0735h - Entered Gate B9. Flight CA 4401; Airbus 330-200 aircraft. B-6072
Generally, it was a much bigger plane with a 2-4-2 seat configuration. The walls are white, the LCD Screens were large. Its pretty amazing to see the PRC people bringing in packets of food like KFC, boxes of fruits, and the poor aircrew have to persuade passengers to settle down quickly. No pillows, no blankets. Many were requesting "Can I have blankets?", "Do u have pillows??". The poor air stewardess have to cope with a huge demand as the moment one had a blanket, many others requested them as well, so she had to take a big bag filled with pillows and started distributing. Come to think of it, i thought it was the norm to have a pillow on the seat in the first place. Anway, sweets were offered before the flight took off.
0811h - Flight CA 4401 finally takes off, after a shaky journey on the taxiway. The inflight screen was showing the panoramic view of foggy Chengdu environment. It somehow rained when we took off, so the screen was very blurred with all the rainwater splattering on the lens. Very soon...bbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......the screwn went black and the LCD Screen was retracted back and shut. Lol. Seriously, Chengdu looks very gloomy in the misty and rainy weather, however the moment we went above the clouds, it was all sunny & bright, with no signs of dark clouds! As usual, the captain announced in fluent English that there will be a late plane arrival at 1020h instead of 0950h due to late departure.
0845h - Breakfast was served! Corn Porridge, Szechuan preserved vegetable, spicy vegetable, cubes of rockmelon, and very sweet beverages. Hmm...this is defintely my 1st time having porridge in the air. The kind of inflight programmes is totally foreign, 1st it was "Just for Laughs" then "Garfield Movie", in addition to the Olympic 2008 ads and the patriotism ads.
And for the welcoming tea of the flight, its the Tibetan Yak Butter Tea! A stewardess was holding a porcelain china teapot with a stack of cups enquiring who would like to try (more like dare to try) =p. The tea...is defintely not a highlight of a trip to Tibet. Made from yak butter mixed with salt, milk, soda, tea leaves and hot water all churned up in a wooden tube. Its taste is like a cross between brewed old socks and sump oil.
^ Snow-capped Mountains of Himalayas
^ Lhasa Gongkar Airport Runway (LXA), Tibet
Our flight CA 4401 finally arrived at Lhasa Gongkar Airport at 1007hrs. The airport was modern and spanking new. As you can see, the airport is situated in a valley with mountains of height 5000m & above surrounding it. The tourism board has definitely done alot improvements considering we don't even need to take a stairs down the plane like many rural places i've experienced...
One of the highest airport in the world, Lhasa Gongkar Airport ~3700m above sea level
The moment we alighted from the plane, there were hundreds of passengers awaiting to board our plane back to Chengdu. As expected, Cacuasians take up a significant number of the race that I saw.
The moment I alighted the plane, my main concern was the symptoms of altitude mountain sickness (AMS) as all travel advisories have placed huge emphasis on this aspect. It is a pathological condition that is caused by acute exposure to low air pressure (usually outdoors on high altitudes).
Generally, different people have different susceptibilities to altitude sickness. For some otherwise healthy people Acute mountain sickness (AMS) can begin to appear at around 2000 meters (6,500 feet) above sea level such as at many mountain ski resorts. AMS is the most frequent type of altitude sickness encountered. Symptoms often manifest themselves 6 to 10 hours after ascent and generally subside in 1 to 2 days, but they occasionally develop into the more serious conditions. Symptoms are described as headache with fatigue, stomach sickness, dizziness, and sleep disturbance as additional possible symptoms. Exertion aggravates the symptoms.
High altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) and cerebral edema (HACE) are the most ominous of these symptoms, while acute mountain sickness, retinal haemorrhages, and peripheral edema are the less severe forms of the disease. The rate of ascent, the altitude attained, the amount of physical activity at high altitude, as well as individual susceptibility, are contributing factors to the incidence and severity of high-altitude illness.
Symptoms of life-threatening conditions resulting from extreme altitude sickness include:
pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs) - persistent dry cough, fever and shortness of breath even when resting
cerebral edema (swelling of the brain) - headache that does not respond to analgesics, unsteady walking, increasing vomiting and gradual loss of consciousness.
Hence, altitude acclimatisation is very crucial in high altitude areas. Once above approximately 3,000 metres (10,000 feet), most climbers and high altitude trekkers follow the "golden rule" - climb high, sleep low. The general rule of thumb is to not ascend more than 300 metres (1,000 feet) per day to sleep. That is, one can climb from 3,000 (10,000 feet) to 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) in one day, but one should then descend back to 3,300 metres (11,000 feet) to sleep. This process cannot safely be rushed, and this explains why climbers need to spend days (or even weeks at times) acclimatising before attempting to climb a high peak.
Of course as you can see, most of us just boarded the plane at around 500m (Chengdu), and flew straight to Lhasa at 3700m, thats a 3200m rise in altitude within 2h! Humans will defintely need time to acclimatise to such conditions. At higher altitudes, oxygen level is only 60-70% of what you are breathing at ground level. That's why some people recommend taking the Tibetan Plateau Train Service from Qinghai as it ascends at a slower rate and symptoms wont be as bad as this.
The moment I was at the baggage belt collection area, I felt a tinge of coldness & numbness between my skull & cerebrum. It was like cold icy water streaming across the sulcus of the brain, paralysing it and causing a headache. Thank goodness it lasted a minute or so unlike another passenger who kept bleeding nose due to low pressure. I have heard of places like Kathmandu, Nepal (1335m) have O2 cylinders ubiquitously sold at many places, but this is so unlike here! 
We were shortly greeted by our Tibetan tour guide and driver (both Sichuan people)..haha...not native Tibetan. A "hata" was given to us, its actually a white silky Tibetan cloth hung over our necks as a form of welcome. As this is a solely a private trip, we had the whole van to ourselves. Most of the time, I realized the tour guide often communicated with the driver in Sichuan Dialect which was totally foreign to us.
Tibet is a plateau region in Central Asia and the indigenous home to the Tibetans. With an average elevation of 4,900m (16,000 ft), it is the highest region on Earth and is commonly referred to as the "Roof of the World." Lhasa is the traditional capital of Tibet and the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the PRC. The city is the traditional seat of the Dalai Lama and the Potala and Norbulingka palaces and in Tibetan Buddhism is regarded as the holiest centre in Tibet. The city is home to about 255,000 inhabitants and, at an altitude of approximately 3,650 m (11,975 ft), is one of the highest cities in the world. Lhasa literally means "place of the gods", although ancient Tibetan documents and inscriptions demonstrate that the place was first called Rasa, which means "courtyard place" or "goat place".
It was a totally sunny day in Lhasa the moment we landed, a huge contrast as compared to light snow on the morning (as claimed by the guide). Weather is totally unpredictable here. Oh, due to the low pressure, if you do have any tubes of lotion or liquid, there will be like an "explosion" of the contents the moment you open the tube/bottle.
With a new highway and a new 2.4km tunnel dugged through the mountains, the journey to Lhasa city is now reduced 50% to 1hr. The scenery is just mountains & mountains, grasslands, fast flowing water with melting ice, wild birds flying around. It is indeed the earth's highest ecosystem and the source of Asia's greatest rivers! In fact, the Tibetan pleteau is one of the most isolated regions in the world and 4 of the world's 10 highest mountains straddle Tibet's southern border with Nepal.
^ Rows of greenhouses to grow vegetables
We took roughly an hour to reach Lhasa City. It is amazingly clean city with proper paved roads and nice lamp-posts along the road. There is even lanes for bicycles, typical of a China city. Lunch was at Tibet Bianfang hotel. We were really the 1st guest to enter as the lights were all still off and the staff was half-dozing. Lol. However, the dish was cooked rapidly and we were served 7 dishes of non-spicy food. Thank goodness it isnt Tibetan or Sichuan flavour as it is not too my liking. So far, this seems like one of the best welcoming dish I ever had. Real Tibetan food is like for survival, not pleasure.
Basic Tibetan meal is tsampa, a kind of dough made with roasted-barley flour and yak butter, mixed with tea or beer. Otherwise, rural places of Tibet is limited to greasy momos and thugpa. Momos are small dumplings filled with meat/+veg while thugpa is a noodle soup with meat/+veg..worse still, its the yaksha (yak meat) or dried yak cheese. For the 1st half-hr, it is like having a small oily rock in your mouth, but eventually starts to soften up and tast like old, dried yak cheese. Yucks!
The symptoms of AMS has started for some people, like my parents who didnt had appetite already and a thai tourist who started vomiting profusely. The Thai tour co-ordinator was trying to be hip, wearing one thin layer of shirt, thinking he macho...until one Tibetan person warned him to wear thicker as he can catch cold very easily.
Meanwhile, it started raining outside. Weather is really unpredictable. It turned out to be gloomy but the temperature (8C) wasnt cold enough to solidify it into snow. However, it is clearly visible that the mountains surrounding us is already experiencing another snowfall again. From the streets, I could observe that a typical Tibetan has very red cheeks, dark skin tone (oevr-exposure of sunlight UVB rays due to high altitude). After navigating a few routes & crossing Lhasa river (kyi-chu), we finally arrived Xianzu Island Holiday Village Hotel. It is indeed situated on a island itself. Our accomodation for that few nights...
^ Lavishly decorated hotel lobby
^ Reception Counter
As you can see, its just a 3 storey hotel, full of privacy, with great Tibetan architecture
A standard room all to myself...note that the walls have Tibetan motifs
Back gate of the resort - ~5500m high mountains
Generally, the entrance of the hotel has a huge wooden door and a connecting garden with basic playground facilities. The lobby is like some monastery. Due to the low-peak season, there is hardly anyone in the vicinity. It feels like a ghost town. Got room 8104.
Now this is the beginning of many problems & glitches: The carpet seems drenched or perhaps its condensation. The toilet bowl flush doesnt seem to work, one must press very hard to get it activating. There's even a sign that warns people from throwing tea leaves & garbage into the toilet bowl as it will be choked. The bath tub seems very clean, maybe hardly anyone bathes in Tibet (all 1st day arrivals to Tibet shouldnt bathe as you can get cold easily = get hospitalised or airlifted; its fatal). Oh, the door latch was also broken...by me...its too loose and there seems to be some great friction hindering the opening the door. The TV reception is B-A-D. My 51 PRC channels cant work properly...then halfway while I was inspecting...bzzzz....power shutdown. Total shutdown. No warm air! Very soon, my room temperature declined to 10C.
Oh goodness, the telephone is faulty as well...after taking a long time searching for staff, the assistant manager came over and said they'll restore the energy supply and started rectifying all the faults. Imagine a guy in blazer fixing the toilet bowl. Whoa!
Soon, the symptoms of AMS is starting to appear on me...yeah, after 8 hrs upon arrival...I had all kinds of unwellness like a pregnant woman. Felt like vomiting, had a headache, giddyness, breathing difficulty, chest pain...its so bad that I feel like ripping my head off. Theres no warm air, so I had to cuddle myself despite the blankets being insufficient. We 'rested' until 1900h before leaving for dinner. Somehow, the sunset seems very late. It feels like 4pm at 7pm.
Dinner was at a restaurant next to Potala Palace. It was horrible. Looks like its a fusion of Tibetan & Chinese food. Wintermelon soup w/ unknown bony meat, szechuan spicy food, harden rice. Only the tea was good. My m2 who ran to catch her cap that flown away felt very nauseous and breathless. Seriously, I think i felt that my age was 4 times than I was. Climbing a few steps was tedious and breathless. Giddyness is very common. Dinner was not pleasant.
Returned to hotel shortly after, had a chat with the Chinese doctor, who was supposedly to be on 24hr standby (his bed was there) and he gave us a few old advice heard from the others & guide books as well.
I probably woke up a few times in the middle of the night due to breathlessness. Other than that, the sleep wasnt that peaceful at all. The night was pretty cold as well. 3 blankets and it seens insufficient. It was snowing heavily in the mountains le....
We know life's hard, truth is hard, lies are hard, they are all hard to accept when they have been
found out, and i'm rushing history homework on the Abyissian Crisis about Italy and Abyssia going into war and that the League Of Nations cannot stop this from happening, and beacuse they are formed by means to stop war and
peace-keep the countries together, they have thus failed to achieve that. I think i tend to hold a class for history instead of telling you about me, i'm basically a what subject-realted lover (humanities) and thus
I am more analytical and critical about things, and likes to study about dead people, haha. lol. it's history what can you expect and also geography, it amazes me. I really like it alot, so what have you? Again to find this answer
you need to enter into your own reality and reflect
it's amazing. amzing how people change the way of things, like how I used to hate outdoors in Band
felt it was a complete waste of time, i've acquired to like it more, i guess people change, their thereotical means and applications in life just goes on into a new direction, and see things in another perspective, i guess- it's
all in the mind. It really amazes me how these comes into action, from someone so pessimistic has changed his own view of things, and thus my friend is scoring much better, being more optimisitc and not think of his old way of suicidal
thoughts, which are pretty daunting. and thus we need to see things, in another light, another perspective and another new way, to enable us to open up our minds, and make more new things, the new way it is. 