Wednesday night, I slept heavily; straight through the night, but that’s been the only night I have slept without interruption. Last night, I tossed and turned, suffering from the damn “perioding breathing” that can occur at elevation. This is what happens when your brain can’t figure out whether you should continue breathing because you need more O2 or that you don’t need to take the next breath because your CO2 is low because your breathing has increased to the point of expellling too much CO2*. Thus, I stop breathing for a sec, which is followed by a large intake of air, which wakes me up because I have a slight sensation of not getting enough air. I dread using the term “suffocation” because that sounds terrifying, when it’s less disturbing than that; more like sleeping in a very small room with no ventilation. So, I fall asleep, and then awaken with a deep breath and the need to breathe deeply a few times, and then attempt to fall back asleep. This happened for hours, and then a few times through the night. But, of course, I wake after sunrise, despite sleep mask and ear plugs. My Body must feel the sunshine on its skin, which causes all sorts of biochemical and endocrine reactions, and my Mind demands that my Body open its eyes and rise upward. Need I say, I feel tired today? Yet I will ply my body with coffee and breakfast to make my way up, up to Paomashan; not by way of the German-made cable cars that would take me to the top, but with my still-tired quadriceps, gastrocnemius, biceps femoris, and the many muscles I won’t name here that enable me to climb the requisite 500-2000m (?) uphill to gain the summit of Paoma. And for breakfast, I enjoyed the usual, with some leftover yak and pepper sauté, and I sit with my lovely Tibetan hostesses: Lamu and Bamu. Bamu loves to read through pages of my Tibetan phrasebook after I attempt to say something in Lhasa Tibetan. For instance, in Lhasa dialect, “Good morning” is “nga-to delek”. In Kham dialect, it is ————-. (Oops, I have already forgotten he correct beginning, and have to inquire again!) Nu Wi and her friends show up a little later and join us. I believe her niece is here, who lives in Chengdu but works in Dartsendo, and her sister and aunt, but the relations may have gotten lost in translation. They invited me to join them yesterday to (finally) find JuiLianshan grasslands, but I had gone the day before. This morning, I was invited to go to the museum, but that’s the one I visited yesterday! But Nu Wi determined we would have a party tonight and that I should join them, rather than eating out! Definitely! I should be off, it’s almost noon, and I’m still waiting for the caffeine to kick in. I still have to shower, and then head upwards! *References: http://www.altitudemedicine.org/physiology/
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iGallivantGina The Great in the country of The Great Wall!
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