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Published: October 25th 2008
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This morning we head off in a convoy of 4x4's into rural Tibet. Myself, Joe and Craig are in one and our driver Phubu, who has pigeon English at best and yet nods at anything you say as if he understands it perfectly, has a serious penchant for Tibetan disco music...............you could almost call it Tibetan disco meets German punk rock I think................he has a cassette (Tibetan Disco Greatest Hits?) playing on a loop. Enough said...!!!
W're driving to a place called Tsetang, which is only a couple of hours from Lhasa. The comfort of the 4x4 (the drivers music taste aside!) is unreal. Where have these been all our trip?!! In Tsetang we visit Tibets first castle and go to a Temple also. There is a bit of a climb up to the castle - in total it takes about and hour and a half to walk up to it and then we go further up again. At the very bottom a group of women selling prayer flags latch onto us, trying to get us to buy them. There are prayer flags all over the country side in Tibet - people put them up when they are looking for good
luck or if they have some trouble in their lives they need sorted out. (they have the potential to look tacky and make the place look littered but somehow they don't because you know they signify something personal to people.) Anyway we're panting our way up the....well the mountain basically and the group of women gradually fall away as we ignore them. (there are no Buddhists in the group apart from Zshoka our guide and we're not about to embrace the religion now) One extremely persistant woman however obviously spots 'sucker' written on mine and Criag's heads and alternates between the 2 of us pestering us to buy these flags. She sticks to us for over an hour (no joke!) and just as I am about the break down and give in, she walks away in disgust. We've christened her 'the Terminator' since - considering the similarities between her and the actual terminator, it seemed fairly appropriate.
We've been pretty much warned that our accomodation is going to get more basic from here on in - so we have all taken to checking that the toilet flushes and tht there is hot water in the shower the minute we get
to our rooms (I mentioned that our standards have totally dropped??!) By hot there I meant lukewarm by the way. Shower head pressure doesn't even come into it any more. 😞 Luckily our hotel in Tsetang ticks the few boxes and we end up eating dinner in a really nice place that served Western food. This was a mega treat because of the disaster that was lunch that day - it's not even worth mentioning and I don't want to turn anyone off their Chinese take-away!!
The next day we drive to a place called Gyantse which is at 3950m above sea level. The scenery is stunning ansolutely amazing. Joe took some amazing pictures but they almost look fake they are so stunning! We passed by Yamdrok Lake (Tibetans believe that as long as there is water in this lake their Tibetan culture will survive - there is plenty of water in it but scarily the level is dropping!!) and arrive in Gyantse at about 4 o'clock. We have a walk around the place - it's incredibly rural - as in cows and pigs just wandering around the streets - but the children are gorgeous, so friendly and dying to
get their pictures tken just so they can see themselves on the screens. We climb up to this fort (can't remember the name!) but it was a pretty steep climb and at that altitude we are all really feeling the exercise.We get great pictures from the top and have to climb down the steepest set of steps I have ever seen in my life! I could only look at the next step ahead of me on the way down because to look down to the bottom gave me serious vertigo!
The next morning we visit Pelkor Chode Monastery in the town, have our lunch and head for Shigatse. Shigatse is apparently the last big town we visit before Kathmandu and it's the last place we are staying for 2 nights so we're all ready to recharge and stock up on supplies for the journey to base camp. Shigatse is at 4200m and the slightest exertion leaves us out of breath now. Thankfully our hotel fits our (very basic) criteria! Actually it's pretty nice and there's a lovely restaurant next door to it. We're taking this opportunity to catch up with people and update this blog because we don't think we'll
have internet access for few days. We are due to arrive at Everest National Park next Monday and have a 2 hour trek to base camp on the Tuesday morning. We're staying at 5200m on Monday night so we probably won't get any sleep - the altitude really affects it...............well it will be that and the excitement of the next day also. Here's hoping for good weather that day...........................we'll update with all the news as soon as we can.
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Tony
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Yes, great journey, enjoy it!-tony from www.tibetctrip.com
Hi guests, Glad to read your stories above, and glad to view nice photos you have taken. Enjoy your Tibet tour. Tony from www.tibetCtrip.com,