Friendship Highway - Tibet

---

---

12/04/07 The start of our land cruiser trip down the friendship highway from Lhasa to the Nepalese border via Mt Everest! The first two hours was easy going along nice roads up through snowy mountains. Stopped at the peak at 4794m for some photos and a turn at sitting on a yak. The toilets were just the beginning of how bad they were yet to come, with just an open pit behind a small wall in which you were expected to pay for. Drove past Yamdrok Tso lake which was beautiful and past many deserted looking town. The desert looking fields were being plowed by the locals using yaks and donkeys and hand held plowers. Was a step back in time. Stopped in the 'town' of Gyantse in the early evening which was a great little place. Such a different place Tibet is. Amazing.
The next day we stopped off in the town of Shigaste but was a place with large open roads fill of carts and stalls and beggers everwhere. Kids as young as five were smoking away. Couldnt get out of there quick enough. Lunch was spent in Lhaste which consisted of the usual large dishes of food to be shared amoungst us all. Always nice stuff to eat. Another long drive through the bare but facinating landscape to Shegkar where we collected our Everest base camp permits and found a hotel. No showers as usual and a two storied indoor long drop toilet but apart from that it was OK. One small street consisted of the town with roaming dogs and begger kids selling fossils. Cute place for tea in a small wooden house warmed with a fire while we spent the night playing cards.
The next day was incredibe. Up early for a terribly bumby drive to Rongbuk Monastry guesthouse then onwards upto Everest Base camp. Was a long walk up the mountain to get there and Don and I thought we would take a short cut but ended up climbing onto a mountain above base camp. Came across the local deer up there and took some amazing photos of everest. Was incredible views. Went exploring the tent city and got invited in for hot chocolate with some of the groups up their ready to climb Everest. Found out the permit people were not around today so we managed to go exploring further up the valley to some glaciers which was around 5150m. The sun began to set and the temp plumpered so we caught a donkey ride down the mountain a little way to the tent city. This was where the locals live in summer and contained tent 'hotels', shops etc. We bunked down in one tent which was run by a young women and her brother. They loved us there and kept wanting their photos taken. The seats/beds were compfy enought but even under 5 layers of blankets it was still freezing with minus 12 degree temps and in the morning all our drinks were frozen solid including Olis contact lenses.
Watched the sunrise over Everest before our grumpy driver came to pick us up. Was a manic drive over ice, rivers and boulders to a tiny town of Tingri. Came across lots of Tibetian hamsters and even saw a fox. We could stay in this tiny town for the night or push on so decided to keep going as another night in a bare hostel with no showers proved to much. The drive consisted of a 4hr trip down into a magnificant gully to the border town of Zhangmu. It was great to see water and vegetation again. This town was set on a sheer cliff face so was quite a climb to get anyway around the town.

---