June 21, 2007

I had a traumatic event happen to me today. I still get woozy thinking about it. Because you are all living in luxury right now with nice clean bathroom facilities I’m going to tell you what happened. We went to Potola Palace today which is the Dalai Lama’s palace from back in the 17th century. The 5th to the 13th Dalai Lama’s are buried there in tombs of tons of gold and lots of jewels. So we’ve been drinking a lot of water cause the weather is soo dry here. After taking the hour tour I really had to go to the bathroom by the end and found one finally at the exit of the palace. Mind you the palace is 120 meters higher than Lhasa which is already 3750 meters above. I can smell the bathroom from like 100 feet away so I walk in and there are two holes in the ground but two people are already in there. So I wait until one of them is done, by now I can’t wait for the 2nd person to leave so I walk in. Whatever, I’ve been in bathrooms like this before (holes in the ground/squatters) except this time I look down and it’s basically a big hole in the ground that’s 100 feet below where I’m standing. It’s not like a well where it’s dark with walls all the way down, it’s just a pile of garbage below on the ground somewhere, with complete natural lighting. I was so scared shitless….no pun intended. JIA: warning do not go to the bathroom in Potola when you come here!!! You are skinny enough to fall through! The hole in the ground was like half a foot wide.