26/3/07 - Back to Lhasa

Everest Trip Day 6: Lhatse to Lhasa,

Today was nothing but a long drive over 400km from Lhatse to Lhasa - the photo says it all, we were totally knackered.

Back at Lhasa - drinking at 'Another Place' next to the Yak Hotel with Jack Johnson playing in the background after having hot showers and a big dinner with lots of meat. We're celebrating a successful Everest expedition!

25/3/07 - Roughing it in a 4WD, Relaxing in hot springs

Everest Trip Day 5: Cho-Dzom -> Old Tingri -> Lhatse

Had the most awesome 4WD'ing experience this morning - we drove from Cho Dzom to Old Tingri which is quite close to the Nepalese border on the Friendship highway. The thing is there is no actual road between Cho Dzom and Old Tingri, just a trail made for horses and trekkers. This made for heaps of fun in the 'cruiser because we were way off the beaten track, there were no other tourists around and hikers rarely use the trail at this time of year because its too cold and dry. We'd often lose the trail and have to drive around in search of 'the path' and we even had to get out of the car at one stage because we were scared it was going to tip over as we crossed an iced-over creek on a steep incline.

As we moved towards Tingri we got views of the Himalayas again, seeing Mt Everest and Cho-Oyu in the distance. Our main reason for going to Old Tingri was because we wanted to try the hot springs there. Udu our driver thought we were crazy to go to Old Tingri - he told us there was nothing to see or do there and boy was he right - its another one street town surrounded by dust, the only thing attractive is the view of the mountains. Tingri was up at 4320m and Hugo started getting sick again so we actually abandoned our hot spring visit there and drove to Lhatse straight after lunch to get somewhere lower in the hope that he would feel better. I now think he's got something worse than altitude sickness, he's definitely got a bad flu as well.

Old Tingri:

Luckily for us, Lhatse also has a hot spring and Udu was kind enough to drive us there after we'd put our packs at the guesthouse and put Hugo to bed. The hot-spring experience was absolutely fantastic. I'll post photos when I get them off Holly but basically it was a bath the size of a 25m swimming pool and about 80cm deep. The water was probably around 45 degrees and it was heaven to soak there. The interesting bit was that we were a total exhibition for the local Tibetan population who were also having a soak. There were a group of old topless Tibetan women who'd brought their own homebrewed 'Chang' (Tibetan beer) who just absolutely loved Phil and I. They'd pull on my leg hairs when I walked past, splash water on us and even pulled Sarah's bikini top off! They kept on asking him and I to try out their homebrew, saying 'haa-lo' to us and eventually we gave in - Chang is supposedly feral.

It was quite a spectacle, I had to make a cup out of my hands while standing in the hot-bath, an old naked Tibetan woman would pour some Chang into my hands and tell me to drink it out of my hands and while I was slurping it out, she poured it all over my head in some sort of 'blessing ceremony'. After a few handfulls of Chang I felt a bit dizzy and sat down for a bit - its actually ok for the 1st couple of gulps but starts tasting like paint-stripper the more you have.

Miraculously, even after bathing in a public bath that was a slimey we felt totally clean afterwards! The Tibetans come and soak probably once a month and there was even a monk there with his tight swimmers on! The apparently believe the hot-spring has healing powers.

Lhatse Farmers Guesthouse - our driver Udu and the chef having a bit of a tussle.

We spent 188rmb on dinner tonight which is a record between 4 people - its not our fault that we're all porkers, we had a total feast 'cos it was Phils birthday today. Be going back to Lhasa tomorrow - finally...

24/3/07 - Hiking Mt Everest

Everest Trip Day 4: Rongphu Monastery -> Base Camp -> Intermediate Camp -> Base Camp -> Tents (all on foot)

It was a real effort sleeping at the Rongphu Monastery Guesthouse last night - half because of the extreme cold and half because of the extreme altitude - really simple things like going to the toilet (latrine) and just eating take so much effort. I've still got that blocked nose so when I'm eating I can't breathe through my nose and I've got to hold my breath as I chew with my mouth closed - this becomes really tiresome after a few mouthfuls because I'm not getting enough air. Even unpacking and packing your bags will get your heart rate and breathing up and make you feel tired.

The toilet thing is a problem as well because when you sleep at night it's really too much effort to go for a marathon 100m to the outdoor latrine in -10degrees, to compound this you have to drink a lot of water at high altitudes and that leads to urinating alot as well but I just held my bladder all night to make for another uncomfortable night of sleep.

Nevertheless, despite all these problems it's worth seeing the sun rise over Mt Everest as you wake up. I've taken a liking to Tsampa as well for breakfast energy food. You just get a scoop of barley flour in a bowl, add some Yak butter tea, some sugar and some powdered milk and use your spoon to mix it into a gooey looking paste and then eat it. It looks like raw sewage but actually tastes halfway palatable.

After breakfast our driver drove us 8km to the site of Everest base camp where we'd continue on foot. Today was our lucky day as it was the last day of the climbing off-season so we were allowed past EBC as there was no-one there to stop us. Usually, normal tourists like us aren't allowed past basecamp. We thought it would be cool to see if we could make it to camp 1 and back in a day. Mind you, with the strong winds and cold temperatures I had to wear a scarf around my nose and mouth as well as a broadbrimmed hat and 'blind-man' sunglasses to stop getting sunburnt and keep the dust and cold air out of my eyes, nose and mouth.

Basecamp and beyond is total moonscape - nothing grows here and you are hemmed in on the eastern and western sides by desolate mountains made out of loose rock and dirt. To the front is Everest with the Rombuk glacier at its foot. The Rombuk glacier has blue spikes resembling the planet Krypton.

It was really tough going at about 5300m - I don't know how these freaks/idiots make it to the summit at 8850. We had to stop and and pause for a break to get some water and let our headaches subside a bit every few hundred metres . We all got headaches from the lack of oxygen but nothing serious enough to stop us from moving forward slowly. It's a shame we didn't have the time to acclimatise properly to the altitude first before we attempted our trek.

It felt absolutely incredible to move closer and closer to the Everest mountain itself - at times this would override the heache and exhaustion and I would move a little more spritely. Lunch was a picnic on some rocks at 1:00pm consisting of cold pancake, dried apricots and banana chips - you also lose your appetite at high altitude hence the small lunch - I guess it will be my highest picnic ever.

After lunch, Phil forged ahead at mountaineers pace leaving Holly, Sarah and myself to trudge along slowly - I'd given up making it to camp 1 and now the goal was just to get to Rombuk glacier before turning back. Our headaches got worse and worse and exhaustion was beginning to set in at about 3pm where with each step forward, we knew it would be an extra agonising step to take back. I saw a pile of rocks overlooking the glacier and set that as my final turning point - it would be the highest I'd get and the closest to the summit of Mt Everest I'd get this time I thought to myself, satisfied with having come this far.

Me looking cool on top of a pile of rocks at the self-imposed turning point - Everest is the 'smoking pyramid' on top of my head.

A 'self-shot' with Everest in the background...

With my camera's 3x zoom this is what you actually see with your eyes where I was standing.

The walk back down to basecamp and then the tents 4km beyond was torrid! We were now heading down the valley without the psychologically magnetic pull of Everest infront of us anymore -

the physical exertion we'd put on ourselves throughout the day had been huge so the headaches got worse and the rest-stops more frequent - at about 6:30pm we'd made it back to Hotel California with the help of our Landcruiser for the final 800m. All-in-all I think we'd walked a total of 12km today which is not so much at sea-level but a total killer at 5300m. You can just make out the black tent on the right hand side - 'Hotel California'.

I'm now staying at the most unsanitary dormitory ever in Cho-Dzom deep in a valley where we left Hugo to help us recover from our altitude sickness. The place reeks of a mixture of Dog and Human body odour and the walls are manky. Too much of Tibet has no running water or electricity and I'm using my sleeping bag for the first time to shield myself from the smell. I'm looking forward to a visit to the hot-springs tomorrow to relax my tired body and clean myself.

23/3/07 - I've seen Mt Everest!!

Everest Trip Day 3: Shegar -> Rongphu Monastery

101km to go!!

An extremely exciting day today! We left Shegar at a relatively late 10am after our 'cruiser got a '15 point suspension and brake safety check' which is just a bunch of dodgy Tibetans crawling around underneath the car with a spanner. At least they decided to change the front left wheel which had almost no tread on it.

It was an awesome drive up to the Pang-la pass at 5120m - the road winds like a snake up the mountain just outside Shegar - it's just left, then right, then left again, then right again and so on each time just climbing that little bit higher. At Pang-la we had panoramic views on a totally clear day of the Himalyas surrounding Everest between Makalu and Cho-Oyu - both 8000m+ peaks. It was our first glimpse of Everest and we were totally excited - so much so we were breathless again from the altitude as we ran and jumped around for a photo taking frenzy!

"That's Everest!!!"

Jumping for joy!

Next we snaked down a descent into Cho Dzom - a relatively low (altitude) and tiny (population) Tibetan town for lunch. Very unfortunately for Hugo he has what I had in Panzhihua 3 weeks ago, a horror combination of car sickness, flu and altitude sickness so we had to leave him behind with bottles of water, panadol and a good book because he needs to rest below 4000m for a few days - our driver refused to take him up to Rongphu for the sake of his own health and safety. It was a really hard decision to leave him behind and I still feel guilty for playing doctor this morning and giving him Diamox to mask his symptoms - at least he made it to Pang-la and saw Mt Everest with his own eyes.

From Cho Dzom to Rongphu which is only 8km away from Everest Base Camp it was another 2hour drive back uphill - we were greeted with postcard views of Everest when we reached Rongphu monastery guesthouse which is where we're staying tonight. The classic view of the Everest Peak rising in the background of a deep valley is what we're sleeping under right now. We were also adventurous enough to go for a 4km walk towards base camp which is about halfway where a number of tents are being setup to receive hikers and tourists for the summer.

Rongphu monastery - the guesthouse is on the left out of the picture.

It was so serene to walk in the valley towards Everest during sunset with the valley shadow chasing you as the Everest peak loomed larger and larger - satisfied with our acclimatisation efforts we got our driver to pick us up from the tents and return us to the Rongphu monastery guesthouse where for dinner tonight, I tried Tibetan Tsampa - a barley dough you make yourself and now I'm huddled up next to a Yak-dung stove as I write this diary entry...

Being pulled towards the highest summit in the world.

Award-winning photography - this one belongs in National Geographic!

22/3/07 - Gyantse -> Shigatse -> Shegar

Everest Trip: Day 2

Got up today at 8:00am in Gyantse to a not-as-cold-as-expected morning. I didn't sleep well because at 4000m I tend to breathe too heavily during my sleep and I had a blocked nose as well - I woke up feeling like I hadnt slept at all. Fortunately today was almost a full day of driving as we had to move 250-300km southwest from Gyantse to Shegar via Shigatse.

It was only a short 1 hour drive to Shigatse over a paved highway and by 10:30am we were walking around the Tashilunpo monastery, one of the largest in Tibet. We were able to catch the monks in the middle of their mid-late morning chants and prayers as we walked the pilgrimage circuit around the monastery. The pilgrimage circuit or 'kora' as its known in Tibetan took us through a number of chapels and some monk assembly halls and in some ways it was more enchanting than the Potala because its a 'live' monastery.

The Potala, although architecturally impressive is not much more than a tourist attraction nowadays with the Dalai Lama unable to return to Tibet but Tashilunpo has a small army of monks residing within giving it life. The interior adornments are also more beautiful (I sneaked photos once again) and better cared for. The most impressive chapel was the Jamkhang Chenmo - it had a gilded chorten inside holding the remains of a deceased Panchen Lama, I'm not a Tibetan Buddhism expert so some of my descriptions could be wrong as I try to match the commentary in the Lonely Planet to what I see.

The main attraction for me wasn't the gilded chorten with the gold statue on top but rather the frescoes on the roof and the walls. There are also heavy fabrics that hang from the ceiling and these are the most colourful and intricate I've seen so far during my trip. One neat touch the chapel had was an open window in the ceiling covered by lightweight curtains - everytime a breeze blew, the curtains would part slightly to let in rays of sunlight to rest of the gilded statues head. Nobody speaks inside the chapels, there's only a slight murmur as the monks pray and the pilgrims prostrate themselves infront of the buddha statue.

As we moved on we walked into an assembly hall full of monks chanting and every so often making a racket with their simple percussion instruments - cymbals and bells. I guess it was some sort of prayer ritual, very religious for them and equally as interesting for us tourists who had the priviledge of watching. Some old Tbietan guy even brought in a painting scroll for the head monk to bless.

After more chapels, assembly halls and admiring the exterior architecture I was templed out (its easy for me to get templed out) and we had Yak burgers with fries for lunch. Food is really expensive in Tibet because nothing grows here and it's so expensive/hard to ship food here. There's only Yak meat and starchy dishes like potato, bread, heavy dumplings and thick noodles.

The drive to Shegar save for the final hour was boring - just brown barren mountains in the desert with a paved highway winding through. Close to Shegar however we crossed a 5200m pass that marked the entrance into the Qomolangma Nature Reserve otherwise known as the Mt Everest National Park! The road became unsealed and littered with rocks once again making for a bumpy ride - bumpier than usual as I'd copped the Landcruiser kiddy seat in the boot today with all our rucksacks. We have to take turns at being on 'backseat duty' in the Landcruiser. At least there were the Himalayan peaks to gaze at in the distance as we wound our way down to Shegar at 4050m.

The backseat of the 'cruiser - cramped as with the packs on my right!

Entering the Qomolangma Nature Reserve - getting close to Mt Everest

Shegar is quite frankly a one-street shithole - The beggar kids crowd around the 4WD as soon as we stopped with cries of 'money money', the electricity for the hostel is produced by a diesel generator that is only turned on for a few hours a night, the stoves are literally powered by dried Yak dung and the toilet is a cesspit that drains into a creek! Needless to say there won't be hot showers from now on, even washing hands is difficult. At least the food in the hostel is decent and its warm and comfortable in the restaurant, so even though sanitation has been kicked off my list of 'needs', my nutritional and shelter needs are taken care of so I'm still happy.

Shegar Guesthouse with 2 'cruiser loads of backpackers.

Not the cleanest nor the warmest but a bed is a bed.

21/3/07 All hail the mighty Landcruiser!

Everest Trip Day 1: Lhasa -> Yamdrok-Tso (lake) -> Gyantse

I'm usually a vocal critic of 4WDs especially when they're driven around Sydney by posh soccer mums who can't drive but a Toyota Landcruiser on the unsealed roads in the Tibetan mountains driven by a Tibetan who knows how to handle the vehicle is a wonderful beast of burden - I now understand why the country folk in Australia love them so much now.


We - the usual Hugo, Phil and myself + 2 new group members Sarah and Holly - hired a Landcruiser and a driver to do a 6 day trip to Mt Everest Base Camp and back with detours to some of Tibets more rural areas. Our first leg today took us first to Yamdrok-Tso, a huge lake south of Lhasa ~ 4000m above sea level that was still in the process of melting. We were lucky as most of it had melted already giving us the postcard turquoise waters you usually see in Tibetan postcards for us to take pictures of.

The drive out of Lhasa involved a zig-zagging winding mountain road to take us over a 5000m pass to see Yamdrok-Tso from above, there was a backdrop of snow-capped 7000m peaks behind the lake and the sky was blue for this part to make it for a literally breathtaking experience. I'm was a little bit more acclimatised to Lhasa's altitude but any sort of exertion at 5000m set my heart pounding and my head spinning.

Yamdrok-Tso in all its glory:

A team photo in the same spot.

A decorated Yak at Yamdrok Tso

After having our fill of Yamdrok it was another 4 hours to Gyantse with 1/2 an hour for lunch at a small Tibetan village along the way. Our drive took us through the most barren of landscapes - there were huge rocky mountains surrounding you as you drove through the valley over an unsealed rock/dirt track. We even saw some glaciers as we drove right past the base of Mt Nojin Kangtsang (I think that's what it's called) - I really loved the drive and scenery along the way as you can only reach such remote places using a 4WD unless you hike for a week on foot.

A glacial valley with an extremely remote settlement.

We reached Gyantse in the late afternoon and had a stroll around the beautiful old Tibetan town before dinner. Gyantse is purportedly one of the most Tibetan towns in Lhasa and when we climbed a hill to get a better view of the town all we could see was an expanse of colourful prayer flags on all the rooftops stretching out into the sunset.

My attempt at black and white photography in Gyantse...

A old Tibetan street - notice the prayer flags on top of every house.

20/3/07 - The Potala Palace!

Of all the famous buildings in the world I've ever wanted to see, the Potala Palace in Lhasa has always been near the top of the list, along with the Forbidden City, the White House, the Kremlin and Buckingham Palace - I'd easily rate it as more of a world wonder than the Sydney Opera House. I guess '7 years in Tibet' really did leave a lasting impression on me.

The fact that the Potala is built on a rocky hill makes it doubly as imposing - it's just one of the buildings you could take postcard perfect pictures of all day (as I have). When you walk up to the front entrance and look up all you see is this white and ochre monolith of a building above you that stretches wider than your own field of vision. It's not only the size of the building that's impressive but the tasteful architecture with the gold 'pointy things' on the roof and the yellow wings on each side of the central ochre section sitting above the white base.

The view of Lhasa as you ascend the stairs at the front is also pretty cool - you can see that Lhasa is built in a valley surrounded by mountains, the higher ones behind being covered in snow, the smaller ones in the foreground being green as Spring is in full swing now. The weather was outright hot today and I've dispelled with the need for long johns and long underwear now - it felt like it was above 20 degrees Celsius as we walked around in the Sun.

You're not allowed to take photos inside the Potala which is a real shame because the collection of Buddhist scriptures, statues and beautifully decorated Dalai Lama tombs weren't boring like they usually are in other temples. There's a story behind every room and antechamber and a lot of the walls were covered in undamaged (or well restored) Buddhist murals as well. It really put the Mogao caves to shame (entrance was also 100rmb but this time it was worth it) and we spent a total of 3 hours just wandering inside the Potala by ourselves undisturbed by security or the 'authorities'. I managed to sneak a few photos of the Potala interior but they're blurry and I almost got busted so I put my camera away after a while...

The main hall of the Potala:

One of the many rooms inside the Potala with Yak butter candles burning in the middle:

The Potala is haunted! Look at the 3 ghosts appearing in front!

My friends and I - we managed to recruit another 2 poor souls will be going on a 6 day trip down to Mt Everest and back by hired Landcruiser tomorrow passing some more famous Tibetan sights on the way so it'll probably be 26/3 before I update the blog again.