These last two days have been miserable, culminating in a three hour IV drip at the City People’s Hospital. But I feel so much better now, and got to see a side of Tibet most travelers never see.

Yesterday I woke up with the evil headache again, causing me to immediately cancel my plans of riding a bike to a nearby monastery. I figured some light exercise might help, so I decided to walk to the Norbulingka, a park with summer residences of the Dalai Lamas. It was actually really far away, through the uninteresting Chinese part of town. A kora, or pilgrimage circuit, went through this part of town. It was strange to see old Tibetan pilgrims crossing busy streets spinning their prayer wheels. Tibetans sure look out of place in Lhasa.

Need a horn?

It cost an arm and a leg to get into the Norbulingka, and was thoroughly depressing. The park was poorly tended, and the buildings were in bad shape. However, the New Summer Palace, built by the present Dalai Lama before he fled, was interesting. The walls of the throne room were covered with fascinating “cartoony” murals. And you even get to see his bedroom and bathroom. The Dali Lama had a Western toilet and bathtub!

I was feeling pretty crummy, so I figured some food would help. I sought out the Yak Café, which took me about an hour of walking to find. By the time I got there I couldn’t move my head without causing severe pain. Plus my nose was runny and my throat hurt.

Tibetan cuisine, while not exciting, is not bad, and if I closed my eyes I thought I was eating tater tots for lunch. I felt a little better after eating, so I started walking back. I made it as far as the huge park the Chinese made in front of the Potala. Since it hurt to move my head, I pointed it at the Potala and stared at it for a while.

When I got back to my room I passed out for about three hours. When I woke up I realized I had a fever. I was cold and had to put on all my clothes, including my wooly cap, which I promptly drenched in sweat after going back to bed.

I managed to sleep in the next morning, and was hungry enough for a pizza lunch after I awoke, but still had the fever and headache. So I went across the street to a little clinic. The nurse there spoke no English, so the medical section of my phrasebook was actually useful. She took my temperature, looked in my throat, then gave me a vile herbal concoction and some vitamin C.

Or a prayer?

A couple hours later I was still feeling awful and still had a fever, so I decided to seek out Lhasa’s City People’s Hospital. It was a huge complex, deserted, and less than sterile. And nobody spoke English, so I never knew what was going on. After wandering around for awhile I eventually found some doctors, and was pretty shocked to find myself being hooked up to an IV drip and oxygen for three hours. But it worked. The headache and throat pain immediately went away. I have to go back tomorrow for another session.

The cost of the medicine at the clinic was the equivalent of $0.75. The cost of the hospital was $50. That’s too much for the average Tibetan, so they go to the clinic. While I was there a parent brought a sick baby in. I wonder if the baby will get better with the cheap herbs the nurse prescribes?