Hor and Darchen

Hor is a disappointment. It is bare, dusty, and full of rubbish, although it stands on the shore of Lake Manasarovar, the holiest lake in Tibet.

According to legend, Manasarovar is the source of four great rivers. In fact, only the Sutlej flows out of it; the others rise nearby.

Earlier travellers to the lake had been so moved by its holiness that they burst into tears. The author, instead, drinks tea in a cafe with broken windows. Holy places in legend can look very different in reality.

At Darchen, 4,760 metres high, the author catches a cold, and the altitude makes things worse. Every time he lies down, his chest feels heavy and he struggles to breathe. He stays awake all night, afraid that if he falls asleep, he might not wake up.

The next morning, a Tibetan doctor gives him a five-day course of medicine. That night he sleeps soundly, 'like a log, not a dead man'. Tsetan, joking that a dead client would be bad for business, sets off back to Lhasa, leaving the author to continue on his own.