Days 237-240: Road from Lhasa to Nepal
Gyantse, Shigaste, Shegar, Everest Base Camp, Zhangmu
We took a four day 4×4 ride from Lhasa to the Nepalese border by way of Mt. Everest through some stunning scenery.
It took a bit of searching for other travellers that wanted to take the same trip on the same schedule as we did. Our visas expired on the 7th of November and we were running out of time (we tried to get our Chinese visas extended, but the police bureau was worthless). By some miracle, we hooked up with Kenny and Amy from SoCal who were the best travelling companions we could have asked for. Not only were they great folks, but they spoke fluent Mandarin and could communicate with our Tibetan driver and the locals along the way.
We paid extra to get a “new” Toyota Land Cruiser. Turns out “new” means from 1990 and 340,000 kilometers on the odometer. More importantly, we got what was probably the best driver in Tibet (he’s been doing the trip since 1983) and two spare tires (which we needed). The Friendship Highway through Tibet to the border is a long, rough, mostly unpaved road that travels through some incredibly gorgeous and varied scenery.
Our first stop on the ride was a high pass at Yamdrok-tso Lake, and a few of the locals had caught on to what the toursists want. “You want yak photo!?”
All of the high passes we travelled through had prayer flags.
There were abandoned Mongol-era forts (‘dzongs’) all over the place.
Another scene we saw everywhere but failed to get a picture of was houses covered in drying yak dung chips. The circular pattern was quite asthetic, as long as you didn’t get close enough to tell what it was.
A lake formed from a dammed river. Aparently the motherland is keen to tap Tibet’s natural resources.
The monks at the Gyantse monestary were a bit overzealous when it came to collecting fees from tourists. We had to subject to a pocket search to show we weren’t hiding extra cameras to avoid the 10 yuan ($1.25) “camera fee”. A monk even stalked tourists up five flights they suspected of having extra equipment.
A colorful doorway with pilgrims paying their respects at the many-leveled stupa(?) in the Gyantse monestary.
Buddha keeping watch over Gyantse.
Can’t say Gyantse was our favorite place. Maybe it was the gang of street urchins trying to pick Kelly’s pocket led on my an attentive, well dressed, well fed “mother” (who needed a kick in the teeth). Glad we had sewn zippers into our pockets.
The Tenzin restaurant wasn’t exactly packing them in. Maybe it was the bag of yak chips at the entrance.
Shigaste is home to the Panchen Lama’s monestary. He had just been returned from years of “re-education” by the government. He’s supposed to be the government-approved spiritual leader, as opposed to the Dali Lama who is living in exile in India.
The palace at Zhashenlumbu monestary.
The monks at the monestary were engaged in debate. This is a noisy affair and the monks perform an exagerated hand-clap when asking a question to say “Answer me that!”
The drive from Shigaste to Shegar looks a lot like Death Valley. In Shegar, it was so cold in our hotel that we had to sleep in one twin bed for warmth. Got up early to see the sun rise over the Everest range. Some of the heavy hitters are Mt. Everest (8848m or 29,029 ft) and Mt. Cho Oyu (8153m or 26,749 ft). Click here to view the range; it’s a bit wider than normal.
We drove on to Everest Base Camp at 5200m (17,060 ft). During the climbing season, there is supposed to be quite a settlement here, but it had closed a few days before we arrived. The good news was that we could drive up the last 8km rather than having to hike it; we had just driven up from a much lower elevation and were sucking wind.
The base camp being closed didn’t stop Marcus from trying to break into “the world’s highest post office” to mail some post cards. (Another traveler told us they check it monthly in the off season, so those cards may just make it…)
There was a surprising amount of animal life around base camp. These “blue sheep” (didn’t see much blue on them, and they looked more like mountain goats than sheep) were having a bite to eat at base camp.
Mt. Everest is also known as “The Third Pole”. And no visit to a Pole in extremely cold temperatures would be complete without Marcus taking his clothes off. Nice hat!
It’s always good to warm up in by a fire after some quality streaking. The yak chip stove at Rongphu monestary near base camp – where we spent the night – was the warmest place for miles and very popular with frozen tourists.
Sunset on the top of the world.
The Tibetan mastiffs are huge dogs known for their ferocity. The driver told us one dog could fight off three leopards. Fortunately, these dogs thought Kelly was nice. They’re so tough that one of them still had frost on his head from sleeping outside (we were freezing inside under six layers of bedding).
The Rongphu monestary guest house was great for its warm room and good food, but the toilets were the worst we’ve ever seen. Good thing the dry, cold air deadens your sense of smell. Almost everyone chose to brave the wind and overly-friendly Tibetan dogs and take care of business outside.
The road to Nepal was a stunning scenic drive through the Himalayas.
Once on the other side of the Tong-La pass (5120m) we decended into an amazing gorge on a road chipped out of a shear cliff. It was remarkably green and lush with waterfalls. There was a temple high on a cliff where the locals performed “sky funerals”, which are where they chop up the dead body into tiny bits, mix in some flour, and leave it for the birds to consume. Sounds environmentally friendly.
Just on the other side of the pass the Land Cruiser got a blocked fuel line and our second flat of the trip. Luckily the experienced driver jury rigged an auxiliary fuel tank from a water bottle and a bit of hose that got us going again. We made it to Zhangmu at the Nepal border and were pleased to find it much nicer than the normal armpit border towns we’ve been to.
A bunch of us caravaned from Base Camp and had a celebratory last-night-in-China dinner. Kenny braved the yak sizzler but Sally didn’t seem too keen on it. To be fair, it had been on fire moments before.
Tags: Tibet
Kelly & Marcus
December 5th, 2005 at 3:14 am
Lori – Sorry to ignore you. Must have been low on oxygen. 🙂
Vic – Trying to buy hydrofoil tix, but there was more dumbness than english on both sides of the window.
Jon – I’m sure the locals think all the westerners spinning prayer wheels are lame. But we’re banking up some major karma.
December 5th, 2005 at 8:49 am
I must be the envy of mother-n-laws everywhere…a second opportunity to see their son-in-law at a ‘pole’ wearing nothing but a hat….
Everest was awesome…
December 5th, 2005 at 8:36 pm
Glad you got the comments to actually work…. Suzi may be a proud mother-in-law, but I’m not sure that holds true for your mother (moi)… Didn’t I always tell you to dress appropriately for cold weather … any mosquitos at that high elevation 🙂
Hugs xoxox
December 7th, 2005 at 7:25 am
Hi moms – Always glad to make you proud! Everest was great, even with clothes on. 🙂 It’s not mosquito season.