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Published: March 25th 2007
Mt. Qomolangma
Our first glimpse of the highest mountain in the world. It's funny how things just seem to work out when you're travelling. When I arrived in Lhasa I quickly began trying to figure out how I was going to make it to Kathmandu through Tibet. In any other country this would not be a problem, but Tibet is a police state and you need special permission to go anywhere and everywhere. Without it, and even sometimes with that permission, the local buses will not sell you a ticket. Most people are forced to take a tour from 4 to 6 days. I ran into an Irish couple who were booking a tour. After talking about it with the tour agent we went down to discuss what we would do. I was hesitant to book with only three people as it would cost too much. Just then I ran into Lucas whom I had met randomly in Shanghai and in Beijing. I asked him if he was headed to Nepal, he was, and if he wanted to joing our jeep, and he did. With that sorted out we booked our tour and waited a day to leave on our journey through the Tibetan plateaux.
The four days and five nights
The highest lake in the world?
Could be, but maybe not. We were at over 5000 meters looking down and it seems like everything in Tibet is the highest something in the world. turned out to be an awesome trip, actually reminding me a lot of the trip we took through the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia some year and a bit ago. The roads were mostly gravel and the countryside was mountainous but disturbingly brown. At least twice a day the jeep would climb to heights above 5000 meters, and reach a plateau where we would drive along seemingly looking down on snow-capped mountains that are all well above 7000 meters. It wasn't until after our descent that we could truly appreciate the sheer size of the surrounding mountains. Yaks were everywhere on the mountains although I have no idea what they ate because from what I could see there was no vegetation.
While one of the towns that we stayed in was quite big and quite Chinese, the others were simply one street towns with maybe twenty or so dwellings. The houses in Tibet, all the same design, look much like little castles. Square, and made out of brick, they are then covered with white plaster and black trimming around the windows and rooftop. At each corner of the roof are little turets that support wooden polls laden with prayer
Taxi?
The local means of transportation in Tibet for the middle class folk. Rich people use small tractors and poor people use horse drawn carriages. flags. Our rooms in the hotels were small, uncomfortable and extremely cold. At over 4000 meters every night it was difficult to get a good night sleep, and even more difficult to leave the bed to face the cold in the morning. I was extremely happy that I had enough premonition to buy long johns in Beijing.
After three days on the road we got our first glimpse of Qomolangma, the Tibetan name for Mount Everest. One can't help but be in awe of this massive mountain that was even more impressive once we had reached the base camp. From there we reached a pass of 5200 meters before we descended to Zhangmu on the boarder with Nepal. During our descent the temperature became warmer, pine trees began appearing on the hillside and it became a lot easier to breathe.
I'm in Kathmandu right now looking to arrange a trek into the surrounding hillside. By arrange I mean looking for someone else to trek with because I don't thinking trekking alone is a great idea. In the meantime I will head down to Chitwan National Park for an elephant safari and possibly elephant bathing. The differences since arriving
Glimpses of Snow
One of the many snow-capped mountains in the region. in Nepal are quite stark compared to the month and a half of traveling through China. Almost everyone speaks English, there is a wide variety of food including great breakfasts, and it is hot out! So incredibly nice after freezing for so long. The only problem that I have found so far is that there are snake charmers on the streets of Thamel. This has caused me a great amount of anxiety as I constantly worry that one of their cobras has gotten loose and perhaps moved in to my bedroom.
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Lushious
James Lush
Sssssssssssssnakes
Hey Ry, great photos! Looks and sounds like you're having a blast man, keep it up! I think you should be able to get closer to that cobra by now... or is the phobia getting worse!? Cya later!