Had an extremely rough night on 23rd at the hotel, did not get much sleep. Reason was quite apparent, I had not acclimatized to the altitude we were at (15,000 feet). Even walking 15 yards was a strain, but did not anticipate sleeping would be an issue.
I’m not a bad sleeper but the high altitude was playing games not only with my mind but importantly also with my breathing, even if I tried to breath normally, I would be out of breath within 30 seconds. Because I do snore at times, I was frightened if I did snore tonight, I would be doubly deprived of oxygen! All sorts of rubbish comes to your mind when you are oxygen deprived. The room too was not particularly warm, I was sleeping in my sleeping bag. I was thinking of the bathroom to contend with the following morning – this was going to be a long night.

I was restless throughout the night and didn’t sleep at all – Sharing a room with Kirit, and he too seemed to be fidgeting around, switching on the lights etc.
We both suffered with the same breathing issues – driving tomorrow was going to be tough.
Although Manvir and Peter had gone to sleep earlier that evening we found out in the morning that neither of them had got any rest either and had same problems.
In the 5 weeks to date, none of us have been so sleep deprived.

The interesting dilemma we have is that we will be spending nights in similar altitudes on and off for the next week or so.

We all got ready in a calm, not in a rushed way. No one had any energy and lack of sleep, puts people on edge.
However, in anticipation of encountering similar oxygen deprivation we were informed by the hotel we could actually carry oxygen in an inflated pillow like unit – we purchased three, without any hesitation!

Finally on our way, it was agreed by all, that the max each will drive will be for an hour and a half – mainly for safety with the tricky roads and our possible lack of concentration.

We were leaving China today and will be entering Tibet. Almost feel we would have liked to have spent a bit more time in Eastern part of China – I will definitely be coming back to China, don’t want to miss out, there is just so much more to see. Our short experience of China has been very good, although without our guide, visiting and appreciating China would be very difficult.