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Published: April 6th 2008
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EBC Trip, Friday 9th November
With a bright and early start (sort of...) we set off for the small nondescript town of Shegar where we stopped to purchase our Everest Base Camp (EBC) permits - yet another section of red tape on the bureaucratic highway we seemed to be travelling, but one which we hoped would be the last.
Shortly after departing Shegar we reached the Everest turnoff from the Friendship Highway and started a long off road stretch; EBC is only about 60km from Shegar but it took the best part of three hours to get there because of the road conditions; much of the time was spent on long narrow dirt tracks clinging to hillsides and it soon became apparent why a 4x4 was necessary for this journey.
As tourism to Tibet increases it is surely only a matter of time before the Chinese put down a layer of asphalt, but for me, and for many others I'm sure, the fact that Everest Base Camp remains such a difficult and remote place to reach makes it all the more alluring.
We passed vast plains and tiny villages on the way, spotting a fox and a few
hamsters briefly as they bolted away from the loudening roar of the 4x4's engine. Miles from anywhere we came across the startling sight of the track blocked by a truck on its side, surrounded by a dozen or more people, who had all presumably been in or on it. The truck was piled high with belongings, and perhaps it was just too top heavy as it mounted the bank on the side of the narrow track and toppled over. We jumped out straight away to check that the people were ok, which fortunately they were aside from a few distressed children. We gave them a hand pushing the truck back onto its wheels before going on our way.
We arrived at Rongphu Monastery Guesthouse at around 5pm and as we got out of the car something immediately appeared to be wrong - the drivers, looking shifty, turned round and told Sean that it was too cold to stay (because neither of them were prepared), that the mountains were cloudy and we wouldn't be able to see anything (conditions not uncommon at this time of day), and that they wanted to go. This was obviously something they'd been planning -
an attempt to persuade us to leave immediately - which infuriated us all; the reason we'd paid to do this trip was to spend the night at Rongphu and trek up to Everest Base Camp in the morning.
I don't know if they thought we'd just turn around and say 'ok, let's go' but they didn't seem to have much more of a plan. While they were thinking of their next move we checked into the basic guesthouse which cost us ¥40 each for dorm beds with free ice on the floor and aircon included! (broken windows...); they had rooms in another building for ¥80 per bed but they still had frozen floors and broken windows boarded up with cardboard. It wasn't immediately obvious what the difference was between the two options, but on asking we were told that the more expensive rooms were cleaned!
It soon became apparent why our drivers wanted to go. There was a Chinese military officer around who wanted to check our Alien Travel Permits - which are required for travel outside Lhasa and were supposedly provided by our travel agent - and all of a sudden our drivers started acting dumb and
Our first view of Everest
If you can spot it behind the clouds! getting pissed off, leaving Sean to try and converse in Chinese with the military guy when they should have been sorting out the situation or ringing their boss. The rest of us were helpless to do anything but sit and watch it unfold, and none of us were harbouring high hopes of a happy resolution.
However, after an hour or so, and thanks to Sean's linguistic and diplomatic abilities, the military guy relented and stated that he would allow us to go up to Everest Base Camp in the morning so long as we started out early and were only there for half an hour; a relatively good result for us in the end considering that he could have asked us to leave there and then, but we were furious with the tour agent, who evidently hadn't got us the required Alien Travel Permits, and with the drivers, who obviously knew that they didn't have the permits which we'd be asked for and hadn't made any effort to help us at all - in fact, on the way to Rongphu, in anticipation of what was going to happen, they had asked Sean not to speak Chinese to anyone when
we arrived to avoid getting into any sort of trouble!
Once that was all thankfully sorted out we went to the Rongphu monastery, over the road from the guesthouse, and walked around the perimeter. It was only a short kora but it was pretty tough going and would test anyone unacclimatised, given the temperature and the sharp increase in altitude - we were now at an elevation of 4980m. One of our group had a thermometer attached to her bag which told us that the temperature was -12C, but with the wind chill factored in it must have been approaching -20C; needless to say, it was very cold - the coldest I have ever been - and I had four or five thick layers on. The scarf which I had wrapped around my face became icy from my breath, and before long I lost all feeling in my fingers and toes.
But we did have a view, albeit cloudy, of the stunning, imposing Mount Everest (known as Mt Qomolangma in these parts). Seeing it peeking out from behind the clouds for the first time sent a shiver down my spine - walking to the Base Camp tomorrow is
going to be amazing!
A disappointing part of the kora, sad even, was a beggar following us round asking for money, dragging a totally inappropriately dressed little boy around with her - he was without both gloves and hat, his poor face looked frozen stiff, and his hands and the extremities of his face were black with frostbite. This combined with the sight of her wrapped up in thick warm clothes was a terrible thing to see, and demonstrates the lengths that some people will go to to make you feel guilty enough to give money. However the site of that poor kid was too much and put everyone off for fear of encouraging her, but it is a difficult situation. Everyone wants to help, but if they give money away it will surely encourage this woman to bring her child out in these freezing conditions again when she sees more tourists. What would you do?
Our evening was spent in the guesthouse common room regaining feeling in our digits, eating pot noodles, playing cards, and drinking brandy to keep warm - everything cost ¥10; bottled water, crisps, small bottles of brandy, cans of coke. At those prices
The Rongphu Monastery Guesthouse
Five star luxury if you're a yak we were all of the thinking that brandy was the best option of defence against the cold!
They closed the common room at 10pm so we retreated to one of our dorms to carry on until the electricity went off at 11pm. When the lights went out we all went outside to look at the most spectacular night sky any of us had ever seen - and it wasn't down to the brandy!
There were just so many stars, the sky looked crowded! I think this was due to the combination of being so high above sea level and the lack of light pollution for hundreds of miles around. We could clearly see a spiral of the Milky Way, and I counted five shooting stars in the fifteen minutes we spent outside before the cold got the better of us.
It wasn't much warmer in bed - I slept in all my clothes including my stylish coat and hat, in a sleeping bag, under four blankets and still wasn't warm enough; nevertheless, it was a small sacrifice to make and tomorrow it would all be worth it!
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