Not the Potala Palace, Friday, October 14, 2016

I got travelers’ diarrhea at about 1:00 a.m., maybe from the unpasteurized yak butter and cheese that we had had on Thursday morning, or maybe from an uncooked salad I had eaten at lunch. After she ate breakfast, Abby reported that about a half dozen of us had come down with it. I decided that it was not part of my Karma to climb the steps of the Potala Palace, or even to go to the palace. When Abby left at 10:00 a.m., I went back to bed and slept until 12:30 p.m. For lunch I had a banana and some rice soup that Abby had left for me. It was by far the best banana I have ever had – sweet, delicious and full of electrolytes.

Abby got back from the palace at about 2:00 p.m. She and two others had walked around the base of the palace, while everyone else who wasn’t too sick to do so climbed the 500 steps. Afterwards Len stopped by to see how I was doing and said that the steps were not too bad. No photos were allowed of the inside of the palace, so a couple of our comrades had purchased a book that included photographs of the interior. Len said that the palace contains opulent tombs of the 5^th through 13th Dalai Lamas. According to Fodors, the Potala Palace was the tallest building in the world until modern skyscrapers were constructed. Fortunately, we had driven past the Potala Palace the day before, so I have a shot of the exterior taken from our tour bus.

At 6:30 we gathered in a special room where we were treated to a farewell banquet and a series of traditional Tibetan dances, complete with traditional costumes. The soup was a salty onion soup that helped to restore my electrolytes. The only meat I could eat was a few bites of tandoori chicken, which was pretty good.  After we ate a dance troup presented dances from Western, Eastern, Northern, and Central Tibet. There was also a yak dance, which I’m pretty sure is not traditional. I gave the “yak” some hugs and kisses, which it seemed to appreciate. Someone else gave the yak a bottle of water, which it danced around with for a while. It was a fun way to end our stay in Tibet.