Mt. Everest Base Camp, Day Two

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This morning we are up at 5am and leave at 6:15am. We seem to be making good time as the road is fairly smooth and the views keep us entertained. Yak, horses, sheep, goats, the locals - it's all post-card beautiful. Everybody is in a fairly chipper mood because we are excited about seeing Mt. Everest but honestly no one is looking forward to the rough riding we know is coming. We drive all morning, take a break at 10:15pm to stretch, find a rock, etc. The girls have it much rougher than us guys simply because there are few bathrooms, if any, on our road so they have to find whatever cover they can. We joke with them saying "But at least it's not freezing like it was at the Karola Glacier...", they are not jovial about using the bathroom on the side of the road and who can blame them...😊

Take a look at all the pics from today's adventure here...

As we step off the bus we do notice the weather has turned considerably colder though and it's clear we are very high because any walking takes work now. We are actually in the clouds at several parts of our journey this morning but everywhere we look is classic Himalayan scenery stretching out as far as the eye can see. Sparkling blue water beneath snow-capped peaks and lime-green and muted yellow grasslands dotted with herds of yak. We are vacillating between about 13,720 and 15,500 ft. high so it takes work just to walk around but the views are worth every bit of what is turning into strenuous effort just to get full breaths.

Checkpoints, Mt. Everest Base Camp
We are stopped at a major checkpoint at 12:15pm and the driver and Don have to get out and present our permits to Chinese guards. These checkpoints are the Chinese’s way of controlling all road traffic to and from Lhasa. Our guide shows his travel permit and gets time-stamped. Our bus can go neither too fast nor too slow on the road before arriving at the next check point or we are fined. In reality this means we end up stopping for ten minute ‘breaks’ four or five times per check point so we do not arrive too quickly. At least there is no problem finding time for a bathroom break on today's adventure.

Take a look at all the pics from today's adventure here...

All is in order and we are on our way again and just as quickly the road becomes horrendous. It is if we reached the end of decent road, dropped down a few inches and are now plowing our way over and across the moon. It's spine-jarring at best and we are on a dirt road barely big enough for two vehicles to pass each other, with sheer drops of hundreds of feet on both sides. We pay attention to the scenery as it changes from lush green to brown and broken and barren. Unfriendly.

Some call the views enchanting, others are calling them surreal. It’s definitely not like any other mountain range I’ve ever seen. It’s lonely, sparse, it would be difficult to live here and we do not see many people except those passing us on the road. Our heads bounce against the window glass as we hear from Don that the actual base camp we are headed to is one of several but we are allowed to go up to only the tourist base camp. Closer to Everest there are additional, A, B, and C base camps used by climbers and I suspect tourists who offer more money than we did.

Take a look at all the pics from today's adventure here...

After an hour or so on this road we look at each and laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. I’ve been to Costa Rica and taken the infamous ride from San Juan up to the Tabacon Springs located on the side of an active volcano, Arenal. I’ve joked with other folks all over the globe who have endured this drive and we have all agreed the roads in Costa Rica are the worst in the world. I felt like I was ready for whatever Tibet could throw at our group, especially knowing we were going to be driving in 4WD Land Rovers. However, even at our slow pace of about 30 - 35mph things are flying all over the bus; backpacks are opening up and spilling contents everywhere, water bottles, bags of fruit, shoes, everything that was packed up tight now becomes airborne - and we are tossed up and slammed back down every minute or so. We are on this road in a bus??? Jenny and I look at each other and through our smiles we watch each other’s teeth chatter like a wind-up Halloween toy. I try to touch my nose and I miss and almost poke myself in the eye. I am so surprised at how bad it is that I take a video with my camera so I can remember this for a long, long time. We will be on this road for another three hours all the way up to the base camp of Everest!

We are on the road from hell for over four hours total, not saying much, shooting interesting pics when they come into view, and more often than not we are getting passed and honked at by Land Rovers and Toyota 4WD's for much of the trip. It's just not worth getting irritated about anymore...

This is it? Tent City?
We eventually come to a stop and arrive at what can only be called a tent city. In a small, barren valley there are about two dozen tents arranged in a horseshoe design, complete with hand painted signs that say Grand Hotel, Base Camp Villa, etc. on the sides of army green tents and the ground is muddy, rocky, and littered with trash. It looks like the old movie set from the television show MASH. We look around and don’t see anything that even remotely looks like Everest. We are stumble out of the bus, disoriented, bumping into each other, stretching our entire bodies and asking each other, "Where the hell are we??"

Take a look at all the pics from today's adventure here...

Our guide informs us that we have to pay another driver 20yuan each to be taken another 5km towards a gap in two mountains to eventually get to our destination. We grumble enough that our guide decides to pay for us all himself and we pile in a smaller bus and all stare at a large picture the driver has taped over his seat - a spectacular panoramic shot of Mt. Everest with sparkling blue skies in the back ground, it's snow-capped peak glistening and calling to all adventurous souls. We get excited again and a few of us even take a quick snapshot of the picture itself because from the looks of things outside; it's wet, damp with clouds and fog, and there is no huge mountain anywhere in sight, we don't think our Mt. Everest is going to look this beautiful.

Will the Real Mt. Everest Please Stand Up?
The trip across the glacial plane takes about fifteen minutes by bus and it's our only option to get to the infamous tourist base camp. Apparently it takes about two hours to walk this road on foot and it's already getting a bit dark. We arrive at the base camp and shuffle out and almost set out at a light jog up towards the top of a small hill where the views will be the best. We are doubled-over and gasping for air when we get to the top but there she is right in front of us - Mt. Everest!!?

Hmmm...There is a large mountain on the left and an intimidating mountain on the right that looks closer to what everyone knows Everest looks like. But I thought she would be bigger, much bigger...

We are all taking pictures like crazed Japanese tourists in NYC, pointing, gasping and whooping it up but after a few minutes it's obvious that nobody knows which mountain is actually Mt. Everest! We look around and want to ask our guide, Don, but he is nowhere to be found. Apparently he didn't make the climb and is back at the bus talking with the permit visa folks. I break out a few small cigars and pass them out, Bruno actually packed a few Lhasa beers so we all have a swig, and we take a group picture and laugh at the situation - we're here, finally, but, uh, which one is Everest? Just to be safe, we all take pictures of both of them and we'll sort it out later. Jenny and I huff and puff and build a stupa in honor and blessing of our finally getting here, this is the culmination of our summer vacation here in China, so we take more pics, appreciate the time and the moment and we are all on the hill for almost an hour. I end up taking so many pictures the battery in my camera dies.

Take a look at all the pics from today's adventure here...

The bus is honking for us to return so we all eventually stumble back down - out of breath, giddy from the satisfaction of knowing we made it - we are here, at the base camp of the highest mountain in the world, and most of us are quiet and peaceful until we get to the bus where we bombard Don with questions about which one is Everest.

He keeps a straight face, explains that he would have come up but the Chinese guards kept him busy with our permits and in a stone-cold monotone voice tells us that neither of those mountains is Everest! Everest, it seems, can only be seen clearly in April or May, of course our tour company website doesn't mention this tidbit, and in August the clouds and fog are completely hiding her from our view. The whole group exhales, looks around with blank stares of disbelief, then shuffles back onto the bus quietly.

It's a perfect end to the whole adventure actually, and we all laugh once we get going again. We pile our belongings back up on the racks and quietly bounce and rattle and roll back to tent city. After about an hour on the road back down the mountain, Swami spots what he calls a cotton ball up in the sky. The bus driver slams on the breaks and pulls over and we all watch as the clouds thin out and the top 1/3 of Mt. Everest appears as if by magic. There is no mistaking this mountain from any other mountain on earth. She is spectacular! She is breathtaking in her size and beauty. We watch for about forty minutes as we are treated to crystal clear, picture-perfect shots of the top peak and some of the left face.

Did I mention that my camera is dead...?? alas, no pictures of this angelic moment...

However, we all appreciate getting to see any of the mountain so it puts us back in a good mood and the three hour ride back to our hotel for the evening goes a bit smoother.

We do stop for dinner at a small restaurant on the way back down and then pull into a pitch dark parking lot in the back of what looks like a hotel around 10:30pm, get our key and open the door to what turns out to be some of the roughest accommodations in Tibet...

Take a look at all the pics from today's adventure here...

Peace.

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Photos

Tibetan youngster...
I had to take these shots from my hip, without this little guy knowing he was being photographed. He wasn't mad or angry, just stoic...

Fossils for sale...
Dozens of kids surround our bus when we stop selling us fossils...they were very cool, but heavy, so I only bought a small one. In return we gave them chocolate, toothbrushes, and candy so our bus was quite popular...

Please, and Sorry...
All the English this little girl knew was "Please" and "Sorry"...she was selling fossils too, so I bought one and gave her the rest of my chewing gum...we both ended up with a smile...

The long and winding road...
Through the middle of desolate, cold country, is small and tight and vicious on cars, vans, or buses...

That's Mt. Everest behind us...
Of course, you can't see it and neither did we...but she was there, just completely socked in with clouds and fog...

Our group on the hill...
We all walked up this steep hill for the best view of what turned out to be, clouds...what the hell, we built a stupa, took pics, smoked cigars and had a few swigs of beer just for getting there in the first place...

Comments

[Tommy Toes]

Amazing!
What an amazing trip. The artwork alone speaks volumes for how unique their culture is. It looks like the music hall was good times. I am glad I finally got the link from you. I would hate to have missed this.