Ten Days in Tibet

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It was the start of my 10-day tour of Tibet—the Winter Special of the Tibetan Guide travel agency (tibetanguide.com) that included a trip to the Mt. Everest base camp—but all I could think of when I stepped off the train at Lhasa station was the altitude. At 12,000 feet it was higher than I’d ever been outside an airplane. Here the air was something new. How would I handle it? As it turned out after two days of discomfort—a mild headache and rapid heartbeat—I handled it fine, and I was left to marvel at how quickly the body adapts to new conditions, briskly getting down to the business of accommodation.



Aside from this little hitch in the pleasures of travel, I was enjoying Lhasa greatly: Our tour of the dimly-lit yak-butter scented Jokhang Temple, our hike to the top-most chambers of the high, austere Potala Palace, our falling in with the circling pilgrims making their kora around the Jokhang, in the area known as the Barkhor. And then we were off to points west, to Gyantse, Shigatse, and then Tingri, the gateway city to Everest. On we went, south and east, pausing at the prayer-flag festooned Pang La pass, where we stood for photos against a backdrop of Himalayan peaks: Makalu, Lhotse, Cho Oyu, and Everest—among the tallest mountains in the world. After navigating several checkpoints, we arrived at Everest’s north face and walked in to the base camp. There a marker announces “Qomolangma” (Tibetan for “goddess mother”), “8,844 meters.” My companions and I wandered around for an hour, not wanting to leave, such was the excitement and wonder of being at the foot of the tallest mountain in the world on a bright fall day with a perfect view of the sharp-edged gray mass gathered to a point where a white feather of snow blew off the very tip of the summit against the clear empty blue. We wandered around in a daze, shooting pictures. Then our guide led us over to the nearby Rong pu monastery, which we climbed to, slowly in the thin air (17,220 feet); and there we had another view of the mountain, standing atop the ancient bricks of this sacred space, where all around us prayer flags were flying.

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Photos

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Nearing Everest

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Base camp

tibet group pic-2
Happy to be here!