Tibet # 16 Road to Everest –part 2

Ronnie taking one of the many photos that we all took of Everest.

We kept wanting to stop and take photos because the view of the range was almost more amazing than eventually seeing the peak of Everest at the base camp. And with all of the clouds we worried that by the time we actually got there, the peak would be enclosed by clouds. Lobsang was very cautious about predicting how clear it would be when we finally arrived.

We had turned off the Friendship Highway and onto a dirt road, a long and windy dirt road!

And then there would be a community because water was available; probably run off from the glaciers.

Looking towards Everest

Looking back over road we’d traveled. I just fell in love with the landscape.

So did David and Ronnie.

Here we are posing. It’s bright and sunny and I’m wearing a t-shirt but no sweater because it is quite warm.

We still had a distance to go.

Here drove along the road towards base camp so we could take a bus to the actual spot with the Everest sign and as far as you can go. But, alas, when we arrived, the last bus had already left and we would have to walk a few miles if we really wanted to go. We weren’t allowed to take our own van. Randal didn’t want to walk and I wasn’t sure how I’d do, but David and Ronnie were determined so Lobsang left us in the van and he David and Ronnie walked part of the way. Lobsang left them to take their photos and then returned to the van. After about a half hour’s worth of photos, David and Ronnie came back, very happy, but very windblown and cold. They had wanted to capture the sun setting on Everest. Lobsang said that we would all go again the next morning when the bus would be running. We had gotten to the EBC late for a few reasons. We’d gotten a late start that morning because Lobsang had to go to get our Everest permits and that meant waiting for the “permit office” to open. And then we stayed a while at the monastery while he did that and then we kept stopping for photos. Would we have rushed along if we’d known the time of the last bus? I hope not. It might not have been the best possible planning on the part of Access Tours, but it worked out fine as it was.

We knew that our accommodations at EBC were going to be very basic. “Comfortable class hotel twin-sharing room accommodation in Lhasa, Shigatse, 3 star standard. The best available hotel in EBC area, Sightseeing hotel. (Still very poor due to the remoteness) That’s what it said in the info we received from Access Tours. During the 217 mile drive from Shigatse to EBC, Lobsang began to explain the choices we would have for the night at Everest. He said we could stay in a very basic hotel with no heat and no running water, a family homestay, or a tent right at the base camp. He seemed to say that the homestay would be best because the family would provide a yak dung fire for heat and local interest. The tents would have the best location for viewing Everest. He seemed to imply the hotel was a poor third option. At least that’s the impression I got. Randal had pretty much hated our Indonesian Long-house Homestay. And our friend Lydia had done a Tibet homestay in November of 2004 and said she’d never been so cold. I figured from past experience we wouldn’t be doing the homestay option. And when we felt the wind and cold near the tents while we waited for Ronnie and David, I knew Randal and I weren’t going that route either. I don’t know what David and Ronnie would have chosen under other circumstances. When they came back to the van Lobsang told us that he thought the hotel would be the best choice for all of us since it was so late; by then about 9 pm. We would all be in one location (easier for him to keep track of) and that’s where we could also get dinner. We all agreed and drove back to the hotel. It was basic. There was no heat or running water. But dinner was good and so was breakfast. The views were wonderful. There were plenty of blankets to keep us warm. I did wake up about 2 am and when I came back down from the second floor bathroom I got one of my altitude headaches. No way to take a hot shower so I took 600 mg of ibuprofen and spent a miserable night. If I hadn’t been so tired I would have taken my towel and wet it with the hot water from the huge thermos in our room and then put it on my face. It’s exactly what I did in the morning and it did make me feel better.

Ladies’ toilet and wash room. View from the ladies’ room

I ate noodle soup for dinner and a huge pancake for breakfast. The food was plain but good. We arrived at the hotel, checked in, ate dinner and went to sleep. We ate breakfast about 7 am and then checked out and drove off to go see Everest in the morning. So nothing much to show about the hotel.

Across the dirt road from our hotel was the Rongbuk Monastery.

If our timing had been better, we were to have visited the monastery. But we needed our morning to visit the EBC so the monastery visit didn’t happen.

“Rongbuk Monastery lies by the foot of the Rongbuk Glacier at 5,100 meters (16,700 ft) above sea level, making it the highest religious building, as well as one of the highest-elevation settlements and overall structures ever built and colonized. It is only 200 metres (660 ft) lower than the north side Everest Base Camp of Mount Everest. ….It is accessible by dirt road – a two to three hour drive from the Friendship Highway, soon after kilometer marker 5145. (Those hours seemed to take us forever!)

Climbers must pass through Rongbuk in order to reach the highest peak of Mount Everest via the North Face. It has been described as having some of the most dramatic views in the world, presenting a panorama of the Shishapangma, Mount Everest, Cho Oyu, and Gyachung Kang peaks to visitors

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rongbuk_Monastery&printable=yes

From the distance we saw parts of that cloud shrouded panorama and it was most amazing.

Our view at breakfast!

Next email: Base Camp

Ru

DoraMac

July 21, 2010

Friendship Highway was a two lane road through miles and miles of open, mostly uninhabited landscape. I was never bored with it, though the closer we got to Everest the more we all wanted to finally be there. The Friendship Highway splits into two routes at Lhatse and that’s where we stopped for lunch.

Our lunch stop was the place of David’s famous tiny yak burger.

The huge parking lot at this complex was empty except for one other car of tourists. They were also the only other people eating here. Locals ate elsewhere. Good thing my cheese naan and yak chili were filling because it would be 9:30 pm before we ate dinner!

Tingri is both a town and county in Tibet and the highest point on our trip, higher even than Everest Base Camp.

17,217.84776902887 feet above sea level.

Thousands of prayer flags were hung from this sign. I imagine that being so high makes it a holy place ideal for hanging a prayer.

There were folks selling souvenirs or “photos” and probably living in that tent. Notice the little boy in the white hat at the left of the photo.

I just didn’t have the heart to say no so I paid to take a photo and then she asked for more money because there were 2 people in the photo. Then I did say no though they don’t have many other ways to earn money and at least it wasn’t begging. She made an effort to dress for photos with that huge silver belt.

This woman was asking for money.

Most of the time we all just learned to say no. I had bought a bag of candy in Shigatse and did start giving it to the children who asked for money.

Randal looked at the souvenirs but didn’t buy.

My souvenir.

I picked this up from the ground at Tingri thinking it was just a broken piece of molded concrete. Ronnie looked at it and he said he thought it was a fossil. Originally the area was underwater until India bumped into Asia and caused the uplift that are now the Himalayas. It might be an ammonite? Or it’s a piece of concrete.

We continued on seeing green fields interspersed among the mostly desert.

Sometimes small communities, not really towns,  would be located where there were water sources.

On the left side of the highway you can power lines which seems quite amazing.

We stopped for petrol in this small town where we saw the original form of horse power also refueling.

In many parts of mountainous, unpaved Tibet horses are still the main means of transportation.  The towns that do exist are very tiny and you can drive through in about 2 minutes.

We were just about to pass another pony wagon as I took this photo. You can see how rock strewn the ground is and we saw this for miles and miles.

Finally we were able to catch our first glimpse of Everest off in the distance with its summit in the clouds.

Next email lots of Everest photos!

Ru

DoraMac

7/21/2010

Mount Qomolangma known to us as Mount Everest

This sign is planted at 16,600 feet. The summit of Mount Everest, the highest place on earth, is over 29,000 feet and actually still growing!

I was still cold enough to not be so smiling. I had on a thermal shirt, wool sweater, Red Sox Hoodie, a neck warmer, my heavy weight rain jacket, my B Hoodie hood and jacket hood.

After breakfast we took our packs out to the van and noticed the windows were iced over. That’s actually when we realized that we had no heater in the van which made it colder inside than out. But there was nothing to be done other than get in and drive with the side window opened a bit for the driver to see. It’s about 5 miles from the hotel to where you get the base camp bus. If we’d had all day, it would have been nice to walk from the bus parking area to the actual spot where we took that photo. Instead we got into the freezing cold bus and drove there, about 2 miles or so.

Even here there were bits of something for these yaks to eat. I was tempted to walk up closer, but smart enough not to.

Randal with his biggest smile of the entire adventure.

Randal was pretty cold and still having breathing issues so after these few smiling photos he walked around for a bit and then watched as David and Ronnie and I walked up to the top of that small hill behind Randal’s head. Lobsang said to go slowly and I did. I had to stop a few times when I felt myself getting a bit light-headed. But it was definitely worth it.

All of the water on the left is snow and ice melt from the glaciers.

The view at the top.

I was warmer here than I had been since we arrived at EBC because the sun was so bright!

I might have liked to have gotten closer; but not any higher!

Stone soul houses! I didn’t build one here; just by the lake.

An exuberant David holds up his “Lhasa” hat. He and Ronnie had bought the hats in Lhasa so they would look like the locals. Not a chance.

Everest reflected in the pool of water

We all took about a zillion photos from every angle.

And then, all too soon, it was time to go. We had a long, all day drive to the border town of Zhangmu where we would stay overnight and then cross into Nepal the next day.

Ru

DoraMac

Mount Qomolangma known to us as Mount Everest

This sign is planted at 16,600 feet. The summit of Mount Everest, the highest place on earth, is over 29,000 feet and actually still growing!

I was still cold enough to not be so smiling. I had on a thermal shirt, wool sweater, Red Sox Hoodie, a neck warmer, my heavy weight rain jacket, my B Hoodie hood and jacket hood.

After breakfast we took our packs out to the van and noticed the windows were iced over. That’s actually when we realized that we had no heater in the van which made it colder inside than out. But there was nothing to be done other than get in and drive with the side window opened a bit for the driver to see. It’s about 5 miles from the hotel to where you get the base camp bus. If we’d had all day, it would have been nice to walk from the bus parking area to the actual spot where we took that photo. Instead we got into the freezing cold bus and drove there, about 2 miles or so.

Even here there were bits of something for these yaks to eat. I was tempted to walk up closer, but smart enough not to.

Randal with his biggest smile of the entire adventure.

Randal was pretty cold and still having breathing issues so after these few smiling photos he walked around for a bit and then watched as David and Ronnie and I walked up to the top of that small hill behind Randal’s head. Lobsang said to go slowly and I did. I had to stop a few times when I felt myself getting a bit light-headed. But it was definitely worth it.

All of the water on the left is snow and ice melt from the glaciers.

The view at the top.

I was warmer here than I had been since we arrived at EBC because the sun was so bright!

I might have liked to have gotten closer; but not any higher!

Stone soul houses! I didn’t build one here; just by the lake.

An exuberant David holds up his “Lhasa” hat. He and Ronnie had bought the hats in Lhasa so they would look like the locals. Not a chance.

Everest reflected in the pool of water

We all took about a zillion photos from every angle.

And then, all too soon, it was time to go. We had a long, all day drive to the border town of Zhangmu where we would stay overnight and then cross into Nepal the next day.

Ru

DoraMac