Gawking at Everest

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Ever seen the top of the tallest mountain in the world? Well neither have we but we got a good view of the side today.

Today we flew to Tibet and the biggest highlight of this flight was flying past the famous Himalayas and in particular Mt Everest. Due to Kitty's paranoia at not being able to get a good window seat on our flight, we arrived at the airport 3 hours before departure. Surely we'd beat the crowds that morning right? Wrong. How incredibly wrong we were.

Everybody wanted to see the stupid mountain and so we joined the thronging queues for Air China. Luckliy we still managed to get second place in the queue. When we finally got served, Kitty checked and double checked that we would get a window seat that wasn't blocked by the wing. Can you believe the attendant that apparently spoke English booked us a seat right on the wing (ok just a little behind the wing). The poor couple that was first in line got a perfect view of the wing.

So, the view (though partially blocked) was still fantastic. There's just something about flying over big snowy mountains and knowing that you've just flown over the tallest point in the world. We took heaps of pictures but we're not sure if we took photos of the right mountain. They all looked the same.

Our tour guide named Tuktin (who we fondly refer to as Tin Tin) met us at the airport. The drive to Lhasa was an hour and a half and we got to see some really nice scenery on the way. Lhasa is 3700m above sea level and surrounded by huge mountains. The countryside looks really barren because everything is sandy like a big desert high up in the sky but it's very evokative - like being in the middle of a big wasteland. There are heaps of rivers that snake their way through the plains. They are so still that you can see a mirror image of the mountains in them.

I was incredibly terrified of contracting Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS)which can make you sick when you climb to high altitudes such as Lhasa. So Kitty wouldn't let me read about the symptoms to avoid me being a hypercondriac. I was still convinced AMS was really bad because even the hotel staff told us not to expend much energy on the first day or so. They even provide cans of oxygen. Would that make any of you paranoid?

Anyway, that night we took a slow stroll through the windy streets. We stopped every 10m for a rest just in case we did have AMS. We found some really cool street hawkers selling really yummy food. Turns out that potatos must be huge here. Every couple of metres or so there was a person selling deep fried potatoes coated in chilli stuff.

Lhasa is a holy city to many people in Tibet. Many people will travel incredibly long distances to make a pilgrimage to this city. Every morning and evening Tibetan pilgrims walk clockwise around either the main temple, the main palace or the whole city centre as a sign of devotion. Many of them do so while chanting mantras and spinning prayer wheels (a stick with a wheel on the top that spins around and around). It's quite mystical and incredible to see such devotion. Some of them even prostrate themselves every couple of meters.

Tomorrow we would start our 3 days of visiting temples and monasteries. Yay.

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Photos

Everest itself
We think this is everest. Even if its not, its one of the ones around here.

Ugly tibetan sand
In stark contrast to the Himalayas is the barren Tibetan plains.

Tibetan momos
Fried dumplings of pure joy.

Fried Yak and Yak soup
Surprisingly quite tasty. Kind of like tought beef.

A yak
The yaks all wear earrings for some reason. Some even have head bands. They really love their cattle here.