The plateau scenery such as glaciers and holy lakes is the first thing that comes to people’s mind when talking about Tibet. However, most people still don’t have the courage to go to Tibet because of its high altitude. In fact, the high altitude of Tibet is not to be fear at all. There are thousands of tourists going to Tibet every year and seeing the amazing scenery that they have longed for. You only need to be careful while travelling in Tibet, and altitude sickness won’t stop your journey at all. This article will give you the answer to the question of “what kind of activities will worsen altitude sickness”.
After having served numerous tourists, we find out that not all the people who go to Tibet for the first time will get altitude sickness. Although more than half of them will get symptoms such as light headache and dizziness on the first day, these symptoms will go away in 2-3 days, so they won’t have influence on the following journey at all.
Generally speaking, doing activities that can consume large oxygen or cause breathing disease will easily develop or worsen altitude sickness.
Strenuous exercise include jumping, fast walking, quick mountaineering and climbing etc. Fast exercise will accelerate the heartbeat rate. You will feel short of oxygen, and this will worsen altitude sickness. You may not have extreme discomfort while you are jumping or climbing, the symptoms will be more obvious and serious few hours after the exercises.
Taking showers is an activity that can worsen altitude sickness more easily than strenuous exercise, because you need to consume a large amount of oxygen while you are taking the shower. Besides, Tibet is cold at nights, and you might catch a cold if you take a shower at this time. In fact, the weather in Tibet is dry, and you won’t sweat easily. Therefore, you won’t feel uncomfortable at all even if you don’t take showers for a few days in Tibet.
We will remind every tourist not to take showers on the first few days in Tibet. You can begin to take showers till you have adapted to the environment and climate here. However, there are still tourists who will ignore our reminds and take a shower the first evening in Tibet. They will get a headache and dizziness the next day, which will have a bad influence on their mood.
If your altitude sickness doesn’t get worse after you finish visiting the Potala Palace, you can then take a shower in the evening in a warm environment.
If you catch a cold before or after the arrival upon Tibet, it is possible that your altitude sickness could get worse. A cold will cause breathing disease, tonsillitis, sore throat, etc. You will be pretty uncomfortable if you get the above diseases in Tibet.
Notes:When a cold plus other symptoms such as coughing, chest pain or difficulty in breathing occur, please contact your tour guide and driver immediately. Otherwise the situation will get so worse that you would be at the risk of getting Pulmonary Edema (fluid buildup in the lungs).
Your tour should be proceeded in an orderly way of gradual-increasing altitude, which means that you should start your journey from low places, and then head for higher locations gradually. Going to over-high places from a low place directly is not suggested.
We will mostly arrange tourists to visit low attractions firstly, and then go to higher places slowly. Therefore, tourists will stay for about 3 days in Lhasa to adapt to the altitude, and the journey to Namtso is usually arranged on the last few days of the tour.
The temperature difference in Tibet between day and night is so huge that you can experience four seasons within only one day. Therefore, keeping yourself warm is of great importance for a tour in Tibet. Clothes that can be easily taken off and put on are recommended.
Drinking alcohol will expand the blood vessels of the whole body and increase the heat dissipation of the skin. Therefore, the heartbeat will be accelerated, and such vicious circle will increase the chance of developing heart failure and fluid buildup in the brain.
According to our experience, drinking more water to replenish water for the body is good to relieve altitude sickness. The dry air will easily make people uncomfortable and cause nose bleeding. When such situation occurs, you can drink more water to relieve the discomfort. If you don’t like water, you can replace it with Tibetan sweet tea or buttered tea, which can also replenish water for your body.
You will do a lot of exercises while visiting the attractions in Tibet. For example, you need to climb many stairs before visiting the Potala Palace. You need to climb up mountains to visit Drepung Monastery and Sera Monastery, as they are all located on mountainsides. Besides, you need to walk nearly all the way when you do kora around Mt. Kailash.
We will generally arrange the first three days for tourists to visit the attractions within downtown Lhasa, so that you can adapt to the high altitude and climate here gradually. And then you can go to visit other places with a better mental state. Although downtown Lhasa is not large in size, we still suggest that you slow down your pace to see how local people live here, and truly feel the enthusiastic Tibetan atmosphere. This will be much helpful to alleviate altitude sickness.
We have taken all the demands of tourists into consideration to make better travel plans. Most of the travel agencies will normally give two days for tourists to complete the trekking journey around Mt. Kailash, while we will leave three days for you. In this case, you don’t need to be hurried and can walk slowly to enjoy the scenery along the way.
A good sleep can guarantee people a better mental and physical state. On the contrary, if you don’t sleep well, you will feel bad and your resistance will be weakened. It is normal that you won’t get a good sleep when you are not sleeping on your own bed, so we suggest that you bring a pair of pajamas that you wear often at home to help solve the sleeping problem.
The hotels that we arrange for tourists are all highly recommended by tourists, so you can have a better rest in those hotels.
We have kept improving our services according to the tourists’ comment. We will fully take tourists’ comfort into consideration to make better travel plans, so as to guarantee a wonderful and unforgettable Tibet tour for tourists. You can click 【about us】 to know more about our company, and click【contact us】if you have the plan to travel to Tibet.
Data in submission...