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Published: October 25th 2007
Tibet 9/19-9/28/07 After going back and forth between taking on Tibet or giving it a miss due to permits, high trip costs, expensive plane tickets to get out there, etc., we decided that we'd probably never find ourselves so close to Tibet again. So, we said screw it. We'll go to Tibet, suck it up, and pay the extra money that we hadn't originally budgeted for. Wow am I glad we made that decision. Tibet was awesome! I feel like I use that word to describe every enjoyable place I visit, BUT, it was truly awesome.
I stepped off the plane at the Lhasa airport, which is about an hour and a half outside of town, and immediately felt a strange pressure on my chest. At over 12,000 ft, breathing in Lhasa was a bit of a shock for my beach air breathing lungs. After retrieving our bags we hopped on a shuttle and were carted off to the city. Lhasa had a completely different feel from anything I've experienced in China. A large majority of the locals were either wearing the red and yellow (toga-ish) monk outfits or they were dressed in very bright clothing. The first thing
Potala Palace, Tibet
Home of the Dalai Lama before he went into exile.I noticed about the Tibetans was not related to their clothes, but instead, their faces. Back in the States, Chinese people are everywhere. Being in China, I haven't experienced that great of a culture shock as far as seeing nationalities that I've never seen before. However, once we got to Tibet, I found myself staring in awe and curiosity much like the Chinese people seem to do to me everywhere I go. When people stare at me I find myself saying, "Hello!" The person staring seems to snap out of the trance and look a bit shocked. I was staring at a local women in Lhasa and she said, "Hello!!" I blushed a bit and chuckled to myself...I got caught doing the same.
Lhasa itself had a much cleaner aura to it. The streets in China are pretty clean but the air quality is terrible. It was nice to take a deep breath of air and not feel like you were breathing in the nice thick layer of yellow smog that hovers above China. BUT, something that you should know about Tibet. The entire region wreaks of yak. The yak seems to be the crux of the Tibetan diet.
Namtso Lake
Andy, Heather, and I As you walk down the street, there are open shops with slabs of yak meat just hanging about. Most of the time a hoof or a nice patch of fur is still chillin on the meat to give it that nice freshly slaughtered look. I thought it was cool, but it gave Heather the hee-bee-gee-bees every time she walked by. In fact, I think she crossed the street at one point to avoid them. I guess you just have to kind of except the smell because everywhere you go the scent of yak seems to follow. One of the hostels we stayed in had a unique smell to it. We decided that the room had been christened with a yak rolling around on the carpet. It was always a blast of yak as you walked in the room. Then you just hoped that you got used to the smell as quick as possible...mmm yak.
The Potala Palace in Lhasa was definitely a highlight. They only sell a certain number of tickets and there are always more people than available spots. So, in order to get tickets we had to get up at the crack of dawn to get in
line to buy tickets for the next day. I think we got to the line at about 6:30 am and there were already about 40 people ahead of us. That was freakin cold. I was wearing a large portion of my clothes and I was still bouncing up and down to keep warm. The locals must have thought I was a wuss. If I was that cold in Lhasa wearing all my clothes, I was afraid of how I would avoid freezing my arse off up at Everest...Anyway, after waiting in line for a few hours we managed to get tickets. Yes! The palace was really cool. It was the home of the Dalai Lama until the commies attempted to kidnap him, forcing the Lama into exile in India where he remains today with tens of thousands of Tibetan refugees. The palace was set high on a hill and had an almost royal, elevated feel to it. You're not free to roam about within the palace. You meander along a designated path, which was cool, but I would've liked to venture off away from the "guided tour" atmosphere which I've grown to dislike after the freaking Terra Cotta Warrior fiasco...not
that I'm bitter or anything. It was really cool to see the different areas that the Dalai Lama resided in. In most of the rooms we entered, there was an elevated sitting spot with the Dalai Lama's shroud that looked like it hadn't been moved since he left. Along the path through the palace we came across the Chapel of the Dalai Lamas' Tombs which I think housed the tombs of the fifth through the thirteenth Lama. The tombs were massive and completely covered in gold. They were decorated with all sorts of precious stones including jade, diamonds, sapphire, ruby, etc. Very beautiful. Some of the tombs in this area are believed to contain relics of Buddha himself... pretty sweet.
In the midst of planning for the Everest Base Camp journey we found out that it was cheaper to cram four travelers plus the guide and driver into a Landcruiser, which meant that Heather, Andy, and I needed to locate a fourth. This is a common occurrence. There are message boards at most of the backpacker hostels. So, we searched the boards, sent out a few text messages, and found Allan. Allan is a drinking and swearing Irishmen. I
was working on toning down my language as I've developed a bit of a potty mouth over the years. But that pretty much went out the door due to Allan's love of the "F-word." Anyway, Allan was in and we were set to go.
Before the big adventure began, we took a quick day trip to Namtso Lake. The lake was gorgeous. The snow capped mountains lined the shores off in the distance and Tibetan prayer flags flapped about with each passing gust of wind. This was the first test of whether or not our bodies would be affected by altitude sickness. At 4700m, many people feel its effects. An acquaintance was giving me tips about Tibet before I arrived and said that 3 of the 5 people in his group got sick and were up all night at the lake. Luckily, besides a few minor headaches, we were ok.
Ok..the adventure begins. After 4 days of planning, meeting up with Alan, and kicking about Lhasa, we were stoked to begin our journey that would hopefully climax with a spectacular view of Everest. We loaded up our bags, said hello to our driver Dowa and our guide DumDee,
Yamdrok Lake
The Tibet Crew - Allen, Heather, Andy, and I and away we went. The Base Camp was the main focus of the trip, but we also made many stops along the way during the 6 day excursion.
Our first stop was Yamdrok Lake. The water was bright blue and inviting. I wanted to go for a swim, but at just under 5000m in elevation, the water would be ice cold. I didn't have my towel or a heater handy so I decided it wasn't the best idea. After the lake, we headed for a small town called Gyantse. Gyantse was home to a Fortress high up on a hill as well as the Pelkor Chode Monastary. Over the last 2 months in China, I've seen about 900 monasteries (slight exaggeration) and wasn't thrilled about another one. Luckily, everyone in our crew had similar experiences and were in no rush to tour another. We decided to check out the Fortress, but ended up not being able to find the entrance. So we went to the monastery and just took a few pics of the grounds. From Gyantse we made our way to a larger town called Shigatse. Shigatse's main attraction was, you guessed it, another monastery. Don't get me
wrong, the monasteries are actually really cool. Unfortunately they get a bit repetitive. However, the Tashilunpo Monastary did have a pleasant uniqueness that set it apart from the others...lots and lots of gold. The monastery was founded in the mid-1400's and is home to a 26 meter statue of Maitreya, The Buddha of the Future, made of gold, brass, and copper. The grounds also housed the Tomb of the Tenth Panchen Lama, which reminded me a lot of the tombs of the Dalai Lamas at the Potala Palace. The tomb was constructed of gold and jewels and cost 8 million USD back in '94 to construct.
I think the most interesting part of the trip leading up to Everest was the drive itself. True, one of us had to sit in a make shift seat in the trunk, but it was nice to get off the main highway and take in the sights along the backroads. At one point we came across miles of sand dunes which was a bit confusing. We went from flat plains of farmland surrounded by towering mountains to sand dunes. It looked like we were in the middle of the Sahara. I decided that
it would be a good idea to fling myself off the side of one of the dunes. It was fun, but I spent the next half hour hanging myself out the window trying to shake the sand out of everywhere. Along the way we passed stopped into a few other towns, Sakya and New Tingri. Sakya was a very poor Tibetan village that was scattered with old crumbling buildings. We hiked up to the remains of the Northern Monastery, which was constructed in 1703 and destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. New Tingri was merely another stepping stone on the way to Everest. We stocked up on food here and Allan convinced us all to buy the local moonshine to keep us warm up at EBC. We all reluctantly agreed with scared faces and packed them away in our bags and secretly hoped they would not be brought out later.
After a night in New Tingri we loaded into our SUV, and off we went with big hopes and excitement as today was the day that we would see Everest (or so we thought). As we climbed the switchback roads that led us up towards the pass, the weather outside
On a Back Road in Tibet
Somewhere on the way... took a turn for the worse. It was getting even colder then it had been the last few days and it was starting to rain. After hours of zig zagging up the mountain, we finally made it to Pang La Pass at 5100m. At this point we all piled out of the car in hopes of an awesome view...which we didn't get. The clouds engulfed the enormous peaks of the Himalayas and left us little more than a view of their bases. We stuck around for awhile in hopes of the clouds moving on, but they were stubborn and refused to budge. So, off we went down the other side of the mountain to the Base Camp. Base Camp D was made up of many large, temporary 20ft by 20 ft tents lining the main dirt road. From here, an amazing view of Everest could be had...as long as the clouds weren't looming about, which they were. Anticipating this possibility, we planned to stay at EBC for 2 nights in hopes of getting a glimpse of the highest point on earth. So, with no view in sight, we settled into our tent and tried to get warm, which proved to
Sand Dunes
Somewhere on the road again... be a difficult thing to do. I didn't bring hardly any warm clothes because we had originally ruled out Tibet as an option. Luckily, I had a thermal layer to wear, which did help a bit. I ended up wearing most of my clothes which consisted of: two t-shirts, a long sleeve shirt, a fleece, a rain jacket, a beanie, "authentic" north face gloves I picked up in Lhasa for 5 bucks, a pair of jeans, a pair of quick-dry zip pants, and two pairs of socks....and I was still cold. I don't get cold that easy, but my butt was frozen. We made the 8km round trip hike out to Base Camp C later on that day to see if the view was any better. It wasn't. Our guide, DumDee had spoken to a few of the locals and were convinced that as the snow fall continued and the clouds remained thick, there wasn't much hope of getting a view of Everest. This happens. The clouds love to nestle themselves around the mountain. Many times, travelers make the journey out to EBC and only see clouds. I was so unbelievably stoked to be at Everest freakin Base Camp but
Prayer Wheels, Shigatse
The prayers inscribed on the wheels are released into the heavens when they are spun. I couldn't help but think that after all the effort it took to get here, we weren't going to get a view.
The next day the weather cleared up a bit and a fragment of Everest was visible through the clouds. We were stoked. We raced out to Base Camp C and were blown away. I took about a hundred pictures and marveled at its enormity. Little did we know it would only get better. That night at about 1 am, DumDee comes racing into our tent blabing something in broken English. We jumped out of bed still asleep and stumbled outside and wow. WOW. The sky was completely clear. A single cloud hovered above a huge mountain of rock and ice. Everest in its entirety. I stood there staring in awe in only my thermals and boots mesmerized and shivering.
The next morning was another huge let down. Despite having such a great view the previous night, the clouds had rolled back in before the sun came up leaving us again without a daylight view of Everest. So I went back to sleep for a few hours and was woken up later by Andy running into the
tent saying, "The clouds are clearing! Get your asses up!" So I got up, threw on all my clothes again, and went outside. Holy shit! This is why we came here. This is what I wanted to see. This is the view of a lifetime. Bright blue skies surrounded Everest with a single halo-like cloud circling the peak. We practically jogged out to Base Camp C. Allan, Andy, Heather, and I all stood perched at our viewing spot and laughed with big grinning smiles. We were here...in Tibet...staring at the rooftop of the world. After soaking up the view for a long while, we hiked back to EBC D and decided to head back toward Lhasa.
We stopped in at Shigatse for the night to break up the 12 hour journey from EBC to Lhasa. So, in celebration of our adventure and the amazing view we were granted, we picked up a case of local Lhasa Beer and the delicious Chinese moonshine that had yet to be touched made an appearance. We played drinking games for most of the night and after we killed all the beers, we took turns sipping the 112 proof liquid of death. When we
returned to Lhasa, we stayed the night and then said farewell to Heather and Allan. Heather would be heading to Yangshou, Allan was planning on heading north, and Andy and I were off to catch a flight down south to Yunnan to meet up with Michelle for the next leg of the journey.....
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aunt linda
non-member comment
beer
Hey Derek, You didn't have a headache after all those beers?!! GLAD you saw Everest and had such a great time. Keep enjoying your travels of a lifetime. Luv, Aunt Linda