The Train to Tibet

I woke up in the night with a hot forehead and a headache and a tight chest. I could feel we were gaining height: the train had slowed down and the coats in the cabin were all hanging diagonally to the right. The digital display said we were at almost 5000 metres above sea level and I thought for a while about dying but then I must have fallen back asleep.

In the morning, the beautiful Chinese children I was sharing the cabin with shared their breakfast with me. They didn't have any English except "hello" and "I love you", but they taught me the names of all the farm animals we passed along the way. We ate oranges and cinnamon cake and hot jasmine tea, and outside the land started to look less like China and more like Tibet. Yaks grazed on plains below snowcapped mountains, and all of a sudden I felt an enormous rush of adventure and gratitude and peace and happiness.