10/10/2004
Continuing on from our last update in Lhasa - we are now in Nepal, having spent the last fortnight roaming across Tibet in Landcruisers on roads that don't exist, getting totally monestaried out, being plagued by blackouts and the wonderful experience of a case of the runs for Andrew that nearly stopped us from getting to Everest Base Camp.

Final day in Lhasa
After a relaxing five day stay it was time to hit the road for 10 days on a whirlwind tour of Tibet. Unfortunately one of our group, Virginia, sucummed to altitude sickness. She had trouble breathing and the hospital diagnosed blood poisoning so she had to go down. She flew to Beijing and then Kathmandu to meet up with us at the end of the trip. It was qute a shock to the rest of the group that one of us could get ill so quckly and a life threatening illness at that.

It was also on this day that we visited what was to become our favourite monestary - Drepung. We were really lucky with our timing as at midday all the monks started their showcase of debating in the courtyard. You may have seen this on TV, the monks clap their hands together when making a point and as the debate draws to a conclusion the claps get closer and closer. It's quite a spectacle to watch.

Shopping for horns
The last day in Lhasa also meant the last chance to buy semi decent Tibet souviners. After plenty of bargaining we managed to get Andrew a horn and we negotiated ourselves $2 replacement wedding rings. We've got a good case of green finger from them!!

Getting simple in Samye
It was time to get friendly and up close with the locals. Samye is an isolated monestary and village with surrounding walls. You have to take a simple passenger ferry for an hour to get there. It was the first monestary to be built in Tibet and it emerged quite unscathed from the cultural revolution. The locals kept throwing sacrements in the river on the way over including 100% proof alcohol which happened to spray over Zoe when the wind changed. Andrew retaliated by throwing water over the perpetrator, an old man! Revenge is sweet. When in Rome...

We stayed in the simple monestary guesthouse, we had a TV - but only one Chinese channel. A good indicator of the Chinese dominance in Tibet. When we had a tour of the monestary we had some issues with the Public Security Bureau as we had a Tibetan guide. It's not easy being Tibetan in Tibet.

On our second day in Samye we rested - Andrew read a whole book! It was nice to take a day off from playing tourist.

A brief glimpse of Gyantse
This was an 11 hour travelling day and the bumpiest so far. Our driver kept falling asleep and so did the guide in the passenger seat and his head kept falling in the lap of the driver. Didn't make us too confident considering the winding, narrow roads. An exhausting journey through three passes, the highest being 4930 metres and we got to see our first glacier for the trip.

We collpased when we got to the hotel and Andrew had a bath. We watched the Chinese national day celebrations on the TV. The Chinese flag was on every building back in Lhasa. We think they had to put them up.

We were in Gyantse primarily to see the monestary and stupa, which we did in the morning. Had a bit of a sleepless night, air is getting thinner. Even turning over in bed makes us puffed out. Gyantse monestary was pretty average and the monks at the stupa were very rude. Our ticket claimed to be all inclusive but the monks wanted 10 Yuan ($2) each for a camera or you had to leave it with them. 10 Yuan would buy you dinner and there was no way we would leave our cameras with them, it was equivalent to leaving our passports!!

Shigatse
Nice hotel this time, but single beds again. China isn't thinking about married life too much, we've only had one double bed so far - maybe it's an extension of their One Child policy!

The monestary here had the biggest Buddha in China - it was HUGE! The insides of the monestaries tend to be very dark and lit by Yak butter candles, which in turn burns and make the decorations and murals darker. Not great house-keeping.

We found out today that another Intrepid group ahead of us could not stay at Everest Base Camp, as they all came down with symptoms of alitiude sickness and had to descend. Got us all a bit worried, but they did climb high faster than us.

After Shigatse we spent the day at Sakye monestary, and the night at Lhatse. Not much to report. Lhatse is a dead town, and Sakye monestary is mostly shut off to tourists, but we saw a Yak being butchered in the street - very interesting! We've been eating vegetarian food for quite some time now, as the meat here is not refridgerated.

No room at the inn - Everest Base Camp
What a saga! Knocked back over 3 litres each of water in an attempt to prevent altitude sickness.  The first pass was over 5200m, and everything was going OK. We got to Rongpu monestary at 3:30pm. Our accommodation with a view of Everest for the evening - or so we thought! There was no room at the inn! The only other accommodation was a Chinese hotel, and they had no room either. The nearest village was a few hours away, so the negotiations commenced with the Chinese hotel management. We ended up with half of the group sleeping in the hotel restaurant and half in a Tibetan Nomad tent erected on the roof. We got the tent, and we think it was the best option in our cosy sleeping bags. So we got to see Everest at sunrise and sunset, our troubles were over - or were they...

During the night, Andrew got an upset stomach and had to dash out of the tent in his thermals and boots in sub-zero temperatures 7 times to empty in the squat toilet. Nasty! He was not feeling very well in the morning when we were due to walk the 4 hour return hike to Everest Base Camp itself. Much to our disappointment, it looked like we were not going to make it. But then were told we could take a horse and cart, and so like King and Queen we passed our group with a Royal wave, and made the journey to the 5200m Base Camp with the least strain on our bodies. It was worth it as the cloud cleared and blue sky appeared for us to see Everest in all it's glory, with the plume blowing off the summit. There was even an expedition camped out there, which was good to see.

Three hours of hell in a Land Cruiser
Even though we took a horse and cart, the sleep in a tent at 4950m was a short one, as it was difficult to breath. So we were totally knackered for our journey to Tigri, just 60km away. It took 3 hours of being thrown around in a Land Cruiser, until we had no strength left, and Zoe got a banging headache.

Tigri and our Guesthouse was simple, but we had great chips, and we splashed out on a Mars bar. It was good to have a shower too, after 3 days of "Wet-One" washes.

Goodbye China
Went over our last pass at 5000m and said a brief goodbye to the mountains, until the Annapurna circuit. It felt good to be leaving an occupied country.

We spent our last night in grotty Zhangmu, waiting for the border to open in the morning. It rained all night! It took a couple of hours to get through customs, as we had to queue for a while, and when we got to the Nepal side, our bus hadn't arrived due to a landslide. Our guide comandeered vechicles to take us down to the bus, and in the process they had to lift a car off the road as the narrow dirt road was totally blocked with traffic - we caused quite a commotion!

Food
Bland. Lots of egg fried rice and egg and tomato. We enjoyed aubergine and pepper sauce, and we developed a liking for a particular Chinese peach drink, when we got sick of drinking copious amounts of water. We avoided alcohol totally to ensure we acclimitised well. Good chocolate was hard to come by, and Chinese chocolate tasted like cheap Easter Egg chocolate (Andrew thinks it also tasted of Yak butter - yuck!!!) western imports costs as much as a whole meal.

Toilets
Mostly basic, just a hole in the floor over a pit of poo at the monestary guest houses. The Rhongpu pile of poo was level with the floor, but we heard the toilets at Everest Base Camp were overflowing with poo and required Wellington boots.

Landscape
Arid, dry, dusty and high. Highest point recorded was about 5200m. Everything we own is filthy with dust.

People
Children beg a lot, sometimes for pens but not always. Small children beg holding smaller children in a bid for sympathy. On the boat to Samye, we got chatting (by playing charades) to the locals, as they wanted us to guess their ages.  This was particularly difficult as the harsh climate and poor dental hygiene makes their faces age fast.

Health Update
Virginia from our group getting altitude sickness was a bit of a shocker. Andrew had the runs...again. Zoe's nose has finally dried up, although the dust in Tibet creates some amazing bogies. We have evening nose pick sessions in a bid to clean them up!