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Published: October 30th 2007
PK at Potala
Potala Palace Lhasa, tibetA few days ago Kevin, Dan and I arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal after one of the most epic and incredible journeys we have ever been on. On the 13th we left Lhasa, Tibet with a group of four people (Kevin, Pat, Dan, Brook) and a driver (Denzing) and also our guide (Yula). We planned to take 5 days to go 1300km traversing across Tibet, through the Himalayas, and then drop off the Tibetan Plateau into Nepal. We slated the name of this trek the “A.W.E.”, or the Alpine Watermans Expedition.
Our mode of transit was a late 90’s Toyota Landcruiser with few tires that were starting to bald and a questionable power steering fluid leak. The day we left Lhasa we first went and checked Yam-drok-so Lake, one of Tibet’s holiest lakes. The deep turquoise color of the water and the 17, 000 foot peaks that surrounded the lakes were striking. After we spent a little time around the lake we set off for Gyanaste, a small town with a monastery that we walked around for a couple hours. I do not have much knowledge of Buddhism, but I can say that the monastery that we visited was
very impressive. The time spent on all the small intricacies of the temples was extraordinary. After exploring for awhile, we were given the option of staying in Gyanaste for the night or continuing onto Shigatse; a bigger town with perhaps a little more to see. We made the 70km drive to Shigatse, and when we arrived, we found out that our rear left driver side tire had a puncture and was leaking air. We all pulled together and helped Denzing change tires, which took less than 10 minutes. After the minor vehicular repair we grabbed some food at a restaurant and then found a place to stay for the night. The next morning we had a chance to visit the monastery in Shigatse, but we all decided that we’d rather just walk around and explore the town. We walked around Shigatse, and I was looking for some gloves that I could wear for when we got to the Everest region. I found some lime-green cotton gloves with little dangly fur balls hanging off. It wasn’t my first option but it would have to do. We had to meet our Landcruiser at 12:00 that day to continue on to Shegar to
stay the night.
After about a 3 hour drive we decided to forgo a night at Shegar and continue to drive 70km in the Qomolangma Nature Preserve which is home to not only blue sheep, but also Mount Qomolangma, or better know as Everest. The group had summit fever and wanted to make it to base camp before sundown.
Well we didn’t get there before sundown, but made it to a monastery just short of base camp about 7.5 km. The extra rooms in the monastery turned out to be full, which was fine because we had confidence that our camping gear would hold us out for the night. Yula and Denzing didn’t realize who they where dealing with and thought that we would perish in the cold Himalayan nocturne. We assured our guide and driver that we were amply prepared for the night, and went ahead with tent setting procedures. Once we got camp set up, we fired up Dan’s MSR camp stove to make some hot water for tea. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do in the dark, on an incline, with frigid winds piercing all the layers of our adorned Patagonia jackets and base layers;
but sipping some hot jasmine tea at the base of Mt. Everest at 17,000 feet was well worth the minor difficulties.
Dan, Kevin and I brought some warm sleeping bags along for the trip, but Brook wasn’t expecting to go camping and didn’t come as prepared for the cold weather as us. We all pitched in some extra warm clothes for her to layer up, and put her in between Kevin and I. The night was as cold as I expected it to be, but I was colder than was planning. Reason being, Dan was on the other side of the tent with plenty of space between him and the tent wall, Kevin was smushed in the middle, and Brooke was in between Kevin and I. I was smashed up against the side of the tent that the wind was blowing against. Consequently, my knees and ass froze all night as I rolled back and forth trying to keep the other warm. That night we all got about 30 minutes of sleep.
The next morning we “woke up” early to hike in the dark to the official base camp. It did not take us long to get out
of the tent, we looked forward to start moving in order to generate some sort of body heat. Minor altitude sickness was affecting Kevin and especially Dan who really wasn’t feeling too well. Needless to say we kept moving towards the camp. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the camp by sunrise, but we still had a awesome of the wind blowing off the top of Everest as the orange, pink and purple hue of the rising sun lit up the Eastern face of the mountain. After our ascent, Denzing met us, and took us back down the road to our tent. After we enjoyed some oatmeal and tea we started to pack up to head for the next leg of our trip.
That day we drove through some beautiful desert-like valleys with snowcapped peaks surrounding us. We made our way to Tingri, a very small one horse, err…donkey town. We decided to skip the Snow Leopard and head for the “Tingri Hot springs,” both had equally bad conditions but the sound of soaking in a hot spring was much more appealing. When we got there we found a mud pit with warm water. This did not dampen spirits
especially after a few Lhasa Beers.
During our stay at the Tingri Hot Springs, we were the center of attention. All of the local Tibetans would sit at the edge of the hot springs, stare at the westerners whisper to each other and laugh. After a long soak, we decided to make dinner with what was leftover from the Alpine Watermen’s Expedition (AWE) at Everest. This attracted a considerable amount of attention and made feeding ourselves quite a chore. We thought the locals would have been bored with us by this point, but when we retired to our room, we had locals peering into our room with flashlights. We had a new found sympathy for animals living in the zoo. All through the night we had locals trying to open the door and shouts of laughter coming from the bathers in the hot springs just outside our window. None of us slept that well that night and the next morning we quickly packed and piled back in to the Landcruiser. Next stop was to the Nepali boarder at Nylam (translation; gateway to hell).
From Tingri onto Nylam, the scenery started to change. We went from 17,000 feet down
to about 10,000 feet, and we were on the front side of the Himalayas, which meant we transitioned from dry high mountains of a moist verdant environment in about 20 miles. It was noticeably easier to breathe as we descended down to air with a bit more oxygen and humidity. At Nylam, we reached a checkpoint that we had to stop at. The road from Nylam to Zhangmu (the final border town of China/Nepal is supposed to be closed until 7pm because they do roadwork on the narrow muddy road with drops of nearly 1,000 feet off the side. We were told we’d have to wait till 7, so we went to a restaurant to grab some food. After about 15 minutes, Denzing came in waving at us to follow him quickly. Apparently the bribed the Chinese gate guard with a pack of cigarettes to let us through early. We ran to the truck, hopped in, and headed for Zhangmu.
From there, we really dropped in elevation to Zhangmu. Nylam was still pretty cold, but in Zhangmu we had descended into sub-tropical jungle. We found a hotel for the night with plans to cross the border into Nepal the
next day. The next morning, we crossed without much trouble to Nepal. We had a price war with the jeep to drivers to get us to Kathmandu, which was about 150km away. We got a ride for about $60, which I still think was way too much, but we anted to get to Kathmandu faster since Kevin had o leave the next day.
Kevin insisted that we stay at another 5-star hotel for the night since it was his last night with us. We went swimming and sat in the sauna for a good while, and unwound from our trip through the mountains, it was a nice change from our usual accommodations. Kevin is talking about meeting us in Japan too. We hope he does, because we really like 5- star hotels. (Just kidding Kevin). In Kathmandu, Dan and I spent time seeing the city , and it was a good time to be there since it was one of the biggest Nepali festivals of the year. The Dalian festival was in full swing so the city was full and busy with Nepali’s celebrating. Apparently during this time the Nepali’s sacrifice animals, so we went and observed a few
in the city’s main square. As morbid as it sounds it was very interesting to witness a cow getting its head chopped off. (a good cultural experience?)
We also spent a few days whitewater rafting on the Bhote Khose River, which is supposed to be one of the best short white water rafting trips in the world. Dan and I had a great time. We had been feeling a bit dry, because we have been away from the ocean for so long, and it was just the thing we needed. When we get home we both are looking forward to rafting the Kern River in the spring.
The day after our raft trip Dan and I took a Bus to Pokhara. It’s nice little town next to a lake. We’ve been hanging out here for about 4 days now. We rented a couple of motorcycles to check the area, and had a great time riding on some of the local highways that wind through the jungle. Yesterday we rented a boat and paddled around the lake and went for a swim. Tomorrow morning we are going on a 4-5 day backpacking trip in the Annapurna range. If the
weather is good we will be able to get a full panoramic view of the Himalayas. Once we return, we are taking a bus to India which is about 12 hours away from here.
Well, that’s the most current news. Chances are we will update when we get back from backpacking or once we get to Varanasi, India.
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