Is Drinking Water Safe?

Hello! I am planning a trip around Tibet in late September, 2009. I%26#39;m not sure what to bring as far as food goes --

Is the drinking water safe in Tibet?

Is there vegetarian food available?

Any anecdotes about your culinary adventures around Tibet would be MUCH appreciated!

Is Drinking Water Safe?

I agree with the advice to use bottled water from larger stores. If you want to boil tap water, be aware that at Tibetan altitudes it needs to be boiled for 10 - 20 minutes in order to kill all pathogens (owing to the lower air pressure making for lower boiling points).

Is Drinking Water Safe?

Hello,

We were in Tibet for 19 days in 2005 and visited various cities/towns. Our food experiences were interesting and sometimes hilarious.

No, the drinking water is not safe. We were also told not to eat any vegetables or fruits that have not been cooked, because they would have been washed (or not) with the local water. We brushed our teeth with bottled water. Our guide also advised us not to drink alcohol until acclimated, or we%26#39;d get a headache for the rest of the trip....

There were a few vegetarians in our group and restaurants seemed to have many options for them - they just specified when ordering. That will not be a problem for you at all.

I had no idea what to expect food-wise, perhaps you know this already and are more prepared that I was!

There was a lot of Chinese and Indian food. My favorities were the Nepalese restaurant we visited in Gyantse and Szechuan style food in Tingri. Traditional Tibetan food was varied, the staple ';tsampa'; is moist barley flour squished into a lump........yak tastes a bit like beef. Momos are dumplings, and were really yummy. I passed on trying the dried yak cheese at the base of Everest and we didn%26#39;t get a chance to sample yak butter tea (which I heard tastes more like broth). Their barley beer tasted like a combination of old beer and lemonade.

Many places kindly attempted to make Western style food like pizza (which was naan bread with something red on it, not very good) or Western breakfast (rock hard fried eggs). French fries seemed to be ubiquitous, but the ketchup was, well, not ketchup.

At the base of Everest, they boiled our tea and cooked our meal over a dung fire.

I would have to say overall the food was not very good there, although there were a few bright spots and it was definitely interesting. I guess it depends where you are going - in remote areas there are not that many choices. Oftentimes we played ';guess the meat.'; Sometimes we stuck to the ';Tang and Rice Diet'; - the prepared food was not appealing. Several times we ecstatically paid $2 for a Snickers bar.

By the time we got back to Beijing, we all hit the Hard Rock Cafe to eat a cheeseburger, being completely sick of Chinese food.

It was truly a phenomenal trip, and the things we saw, people we met, and experiences were incredible. Not to mention that I lost 8 pounds eating french fries and Snickers every day!

: )

Re the boiling point issue : water is safe by mouth once it boils even a thousand meters higher than Lhasa. The boiling point in Lhasa is higher than the standard for hospital disinfection units , but pathogens start to die already at 60 degrees - which is why washing machines run at this temperature for underwear. So the tea is safe , also the thermoses with boiled water you find in hotels and guesthouses.

%26lt;pathogens START to die at 60 degrees%26gt;

Having worked in an area higher than Lhasa for a couple of years, I am well aware that the high-altitude specialist medicos working there strongly suggest boiling water for a minimum of 10 minutes.

As the tea and water for thermoses is normally kept boiling over a fire until it is needed, it is normally safe.

From highaltitudemedicine.com :

';Heat kills microorganisms, and virtually all enteropathogens are readily killed at temperatures well below the boiling point. The process of heating water to a boil makes it hot enough long enough to disinfect it, even at elevations as high as Everest Base Camp (references 1,2). There is no need to boil water for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 20 minutes, as some guide books recommend! Bringing water to a boil is adequate for disinfection.';

high-altitude-medicine.com/water.html#heat

Classic reference page for the issue , and other methods , the only thing lacking being UV methods.

It%26#39;s safe

there are many tomatos

you can taste real tibeten food