EBC and back

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Day 1 - 20th December: The Driver From Hell

Our driver turned up at 9am at our hostel in his pride and joy, a 4500 series Landcruiser, which he spent a fortune on 1million yuan to be exact (which really is a fortune especially if you convert it into AUD $150,000) but as he said this is his livelihood so he needed to invest in some decent equipment. We left at about 9.30 which wasn't a bad turn around for getting people organised and a few last minute arguments with the driver who wanted to bring a fifth person and jack the price up another 700yuan. But after all that was sorted out we were on the road.

After driving about an hour we stoppoed on the side of the road next to a large river where the driver showed us a water burial site, which was interesting for me as i knew nothing about water burials although the principle is similar to the sky burial. This site was far less gruesome than the two sky burial sites that I visited in Xiahe and Langmusi, although the pile of rusty, old knives and axes hinted at its potential gruesomeness (I'm sure gruesomeness is a word, right?).

We drove another hour or so, stopping off on the side of the road so that the driver could pointout the odd sight or two before we arrived at Yamdrok Lake. Yamdrok Lake is one of the three holy lakes in Tibet and to the local people around the lake it is said to be the female guardian of Buddhism in Tibet. When we arrived it was a very windy day so the lake's famous mirror-like reflection wasn't on show but its beautiful turquoise colour was still definitely visible and very impressive. As we made our way down to the lake we stopped to view it from the pass and I got on a yak, Matt on a yak, has a catchy vibe doens't it. There was also a 'famous' dog at the pass too and for an extra 5 yuan you could have your photo with the dog, but it looked like all the other strays running around most of the towns we had been through and I figured I would photograph one of them for free. But the yak was cool. As we left the lake we passed the enormous Mt Nojin Kangtsang, or at least I think we did, and this was the first of many more enormous mountains that we would see.

Throughout all of this sightseeing, our driver was an absolutely crazy bastard and also a member of the TFAPSL - The Tibetan Front Against People Sleeping in Landcruisers: every time someone fell asleep in the Landcruiser he would put his window right down adn turn the stereo to maximum volume. Nice work Mr Driver, nice work ya bloody $%@#. Anyway this wasn't the biggest threat to our trip, his driving, however, was. At one stage as we climbed up a pass I was almost 99% sure I was not going to make it nd was readying myself for an end to my short life. It was an experience that I never expected and never hope to be in again, I can honestly say that I was making peace with the powers that be and repenting like there was not going to be another 5 minutes, let alone a tomorrow. His approach to these hairpin bends as we climbed was as follows: apporach the corner in fifth gear doing about 80 or 90km/h, then as we entered the corner he would do a fancy flick of his wrist and change down to third and turn hard into the corner letting the back end of the 4wd slide out making the tyres squeal. By the time we reached the top my hands had cramped up and were completely drained of blood from holding on to the rails on the roof.

Somehow we managed to arrive safely, albeit sh*tscared, at Gyantse were we were let out of the Landcruiser from hell and allowed to step onto solid, unmoving ground. At Gyantse there is a monastery but unfortunately they wanted to charge us 55yuan to go in and to be honest, it didn't look much chop from the outside. So, instead we wandered around the backstreets of the town and discovered the town toilet - which was a street that was lined with poo and pee stains on all the walls, some walls even had finger paintings which were interesting but then I realised they were not done with brown paint...Wandering around a little more we came across the lesser known Great Wall in China - the Great Wall of Yak Poo, which stretched so far that I wasn't able to capture it all on camera. But seriously Yak poo is a valued source of fuel for cooking and heating stoves and in order to burn properly must be completely dry, so patting it into a nice round shape and sticking it to the outer wall of your house is the best bet for drying.

Unfortunately it was soon time to board the 4wd from Hades and head to our first overnight stop in place called Shigatse. After another hour or two we arrived and were driven to a hotel by the driver only to inspect the rooms and find tht a) they were expensive for what they were, and b) they had no heating or hot water. So we then proceeded to walk around town trying to find a hotel, which turned out to be a bit of a problem as we encountered the old 'we don't ccept foreigners' line a few times. In the end we found a suitable place that had hot water and a reverse cycle airconditioner that could be turned on to heat the room from 1030pm onwards.

Day 2 - 21st December: Everest Sighted

We had a few hours in Shigatse before we had to leave so Sho Hua (Formerly known as 'The Chinese Guy') and I headed to Tashilhunpo Monastery. This is the seat of the Panchen Lama and one of the six great Gelugpa institutions and was so busy with Pilgrims that we got swept along with their flow and followed them around from temple to temple and hall to hall. This place was absolutely fantastic and had a much better feel to it than the Potala in Lhasa, especially considering we were the only tourists which meant that we got to see the temple as it is used by the Tibetan Pilgrims, it was a magical experience. Tibetan people are by far the friendliest people I have ever met and being the only western tourist meant that as we wandered around I was greeted with golden-tooth smiles and cries of 'hello!', 'welcome to Tibet', 'what is your name?', or 'tash dele!' (which is Tibetan for hello). The monastery itself is also quite spectacular, especially the tombs of the past Panchen Lamas, in particular the tenth Panchen Lama which is coveredin 614kg of gold, 868 precious stones and 246,794 jewels. Equally impressive is the 27m high statue of a sitting Maitreya Buddha decorated with gold, copper, pearls, amber, coral and diamonds. All in all it was a very good monastery to visit.

We left Shigatse at about 1pm and began to make our way to the Qomolangma (pronounced: Cho-mo-long-ma) National Nature Preserve (Qomolangma is the Tibetan name for Mt Everest, which some argue is the real name of the mountain). Our drive there was far less scary than the first day, but was no more enjoyable as the driver thought he would include me in the music so he decided to play an entire two CD volume of bad early 90s American RnB and hip hop, and no matter how much I pleaded he insisted on playing some 'English music'. Nevertheless we passed into the Qomolangma Nature Preserve and made our way to Tingri where we had lunch, again. This was strongly recommended by our driver as the hotel we would be staying at had a limited menu.

After eating we made our way further into the park and up to a pass were we were treated to our first sighting of Qomolangma. It was another windy day and the surrounding area was nothing but dirt and rock so the air was full of dust and our view was a little cloudy but you could still easily make out the majesty of the mountain. We drove up a small hill next to the pass and from there we watched the sun set on Qomolangma. It was an awe-inspiring site that instantly put everyone into a slightly ecstatic mood, we were here looking at Everest and four other mountains over 8000m! After taking a stupid amount of photos and the sun dipping behind the mountains we heded to our hotel for the night which was in a small village, the name of which I can't remember.

When we arrived at our accomodation for the night, the only accomodation in the village I wasn't sure whether to hate it or love it. It was easily the worst place I had ever stayed in but it was so bad that I loved it! It was basically someone's two-storey home and the top storey had been turned into lodgings. Downstairs was two living rooms, one was the main living room with a tv, fire and numerous tables filled with locals eating and drinking and the odd cat and dog roaming around. Upstairs the rooms were oddsizes; one was the same size as the main living room and had about 15 beds in it and was heated by the chimney coming up from the fire downstairs. The mattresess were thin and placed on rickety old wooden or iron bed frames and the blankets were ridiculously thin and the light switch had to be turned on with piece of wood which was used to connect the two wires together. I sat downstairs for a while enjoying the ambience of the locals eating, drinking, playing cards and watching tv before I headed to bed as we had an early start. Somehow I had a fantsatic sleep and had not been cold once during the night, and woke feeling refreshed and excited about seeing the sun rise over Qomolangma.

Day 3 - 22nd December: An inspiring morning and a dark night

We woke up at 5.30am and packed our bags, we were joined overnight by two other 4wds so there was quite a rush with so many people trying to grab some breakfast, pack their bags and hop into the cars. Somehow our 4wd was last off, by fifteen minutes, but knowingour driver I knew we wouldn't be last for long and I was proved correct as he zoomed past the first 4wd, soon catching the second and overtakingit and then accelerating into the lead. We would be first at base camp.

By the time we arrived at base camp it was about 7.30am but still very dark and our driver informed us that we were not allowed to go any further than this point, to which I inquired whether we actually at base camp and the reply I got shattered me. We were not. Base camp is reserved for climbers only and those that go there without a climbing pass or getting permission from base camp staff risk a $200USD fine, although at that point I was thinking that if they don't catch me they can't fine me and even if they did it would have been worth it. The driver told us that on the other side of a small hill we would be able to see Qomolangma and would have a good view.

Disgruntled I got out of the car and felt the wind hit me and instantly felt my core body temperature drop: I needed more layers. This was the first time that I had worn my windstopper fleece under my down jacket but boy was it needed. I tightened every cord that could be tightened in myvain attempts at keeping the wind out, however the hood of my jacket when facing the wind onylserved as a funnel, channelling the freezing windinto my jacket. Despite the cold I startedto climb the hill which was probably only twenty metres high, but five metres up I was breathing hard as my lungs searched for the rare oxygen. I slowed my pace down and made the top but was still out of breath, but the sight in front of me made it definitely worthwhile. There it was, in all its glory, so close I just wanted to keep walking right up to it and then just keep going. It was mesmerizing. At the top of the hill were massesof prayer flags wrapped around cairns and boulders, I snuggled down behind a boulder to shelter from the wind and sat and watched the massive mountain.

It is hard to explain how I felt sitting there looking at Qomolangma, which is essentially a big rock sticking out of the ground, but looking at it, watching it catch the early morning rays of the sun it is so much more than a rock. I immediately felt humbled, for even though it didn't look that high from where we were you still had to climb another 3600m in some of the most trying conditions, and knowing that many have died trying gave Qomolangma a power and presence that I wasn't expecting. Sitting there freezing watching the sun come up I was flooded with countless emotions: inspiration, motivation, fear, hope, awe, respect, sadness and many others that added to the turbulence inside.

I climbed down from the hill and headed into the valley to take some perspective shots, and some of my handsome self (I have had so many good comments about the beard I am thinking I am goingto keep it). I found a nice big rock to rest the camera on and set the timer for ten seconds and then I stripped off. Well not all the way, I removed my down jacket and my windproof fleece and pressed the timer button and ran to a rock that I had determined was the right distance away and with a snap of the shutter the Slush were at EBC. It was freezing (really it was, thedriver told us later that if we factored in the windchill he wouldn't have been surprised if it was near on -20C). I quickly put all my layers back on and instantly felt warmer, kind of like when you go from hot spa to cold snow and back I guess. But all too soon I realised that my fingers were not responding as I expected them too, as they were constantlybeing removed from my pocket to take a ridiculous number of photos. Even through my supposed windproof gloves my fingers were absolutely freezing. I made my way back to the 4wd and removed my gloves and noticed that the tips of my fingers and my fingernails were purple. I warmed up my fingers a bit and then dug around in mypack and found my fingerless thinsulate gloves and put those on underneath my windproof gloves, hoping that would keep the circulation flowing to most of my hands and headed back out to take more photos.

Quicker than I would have liked it was 10am and our driver was on his horn signalling us to get back to the car and get moving, and like a small boy not wanting to leave his favourite toy behind or his teddy I snapped furiously with my camera hoping that through the photos I took this feeling and this memory would never go away and that I would never be apart from the mountain that I had come to love. I can't deny that my love affair extended to me entertaining the idea of climbing the great mountain because it did, sinceI first saw it I wanted to climb it and all morning I sat there thinking about climbing it. Completely disregarding the physical strength needed to attempt such a feat, my dreams were only shot down by the driver who told us that to join a summit attempt you would need almost a spare $80kUSD. Bugger.

Soon we were back in Tingri having some brunch, as most of us had missed breakfast in the rush to get going. It was here that I was given raw yak meat to try, which had frozen afterbeing left outside all night, mmm sanitary! Having eaten many thingsraw in my time I was not averse to the idea but was unsure what to expect with raw yak meat. We were to dip the meat in some sort of chilli paste and it actually tasted quite good. I was considerably hungry after mssing breakfast so I devoured a plate ofcurried beef and rice and then some Chinese egg noodles, washing it down with the salty goodness that is yak tea (its actually not thatnice, an acquired taste I suspect). After Tingri we were soon climbing the pass from which we had first sighted Qomolangma the day before, only today there was no dust in the air and we were given a crystal clear view of Qomolangma and friends; a perfect chance for me to say goodbye, especially when we got a flat tyre!! The tyre was fixed and we were back on the road and heading to Shigatse.

We were staying in Shigatse again that night and the drive there was relatively calm considering our driver's previous performances adn we arrived without a single moment of white-knuckle-fists. The hotel was really nice the first time around, with scalding hot water and of course the heater after 10.30pm, but just as I had the water running for a nice hot shower the lights went out. The whole hotel was without power and the explanation I got from Xiao Hua (formerly known as 'Sho Hua' and before that as 'The Chinese Guy' - I finally found out how to spell his name properly!)was that the Government had turned off the power and it wouldn't be back on until midnight - sweet.

To while away the hours we wandered around Shigatse for a bit, had dinner and then Xiao Hua and I hit the town, hopping in a cab and ending up at a 'bar' which was really a nightclub that was relatively empty as it was obivously too early for party-goers being 10pm and all. We stayed for a beer, much to the amusement of the small local crowd that were in there and to the delight of the barmaids - a laowai (foreigner) in the bar, a real live laowai! Anyway that wasn't the type of bar we were after and we headed next door to a little bar that was a lot quiter and would do the trick for the next hour or so, sinking a few beers that were well-earned in my book. Getting back to the hotel the power was still not on and it was too late for a shower so bed time it was, although five minutes later the tv comes on and all the lights are on, stupidly we had forgotten to turn them all off before snoozing. The next morning I had arranged to meet up with the other guy from our group and go shopping with him, he wanted a Tibetan knife and I didn't know what I wanted.

Day 4 - 23rd December: Back down to earth

I was woken up by Tian (the other Chinese guy from our group) as my alarm had not gone off because myphone had died the night before and with no power I was unable to set it, so I quickly showered, got dressed and headed to the markets. We spent the next hour there, me just wandering along having a "lookie lookie" at all the "cheaper cheaper" wares on display and Tian going from knife vendor to knife vendor trying to find the best deal. However, Tian's thoroughness meant that we were late back and were confronted by a not-so-happy driver who was eager to get going back to Lhasa. Soon we were off however and the drive back was pleasant as we avoided all the high passes where the driver almost drove me to religion. Almost. We stopped off a few times along the way, either for sightseeing breaks or so the driver could have a rest but were soon in Lhasa and back in the hostel.

The last few days had been amazing and had some mountainous highs and lows of its own: scary as hell driving, despair of the hotel, the excitementof the hotel, the inspiration beyond all belief of witnessing Qomolangma as the sun set and as the sun rose, and the peace that I felt from the whole journey.

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Photos

Pilgrims storming the temple
As soon as the monk who had arranged everyone into a neat queue left, they stormed the entrance causing more monks torun out and take control of the crowd. It was intense.

Comments

[Mike Vicars]

Merry Xmas
Hi Matt - Merry Xmas, what a place to spend it in - very memorable! Matt on a Yak does have a ring to it, but I dont think you will find or be able to keep a Yak in Melbourne! Slush at EBC is timely with Big camp about to start. Have fun D x