Early on Sunday 16th May nurseing a slightly sore head myself my two travelling companions, Jessica and Terra, our guide Tenzin and our driver Tenzin... climbed into our trusty Land Cruiser for the long drive to Nepal.
Day One :- Lhasa to Gyantse
The first part part of the journey invloved climbing up to an altitude of over 5000m to view the Yamdrok-Tso Lake. The main highway was shut so we couldn't get to the lake so instead we spent an hour climbing up to the pass, we stopped for five minutes to take a picture, got hassled by touts and then we got back in the car and went back the way we came.... a well spent 2 hours.
Bathroom Rating : Good, private western flushing toliets but loses points on the shared showers.
Day Two :- Gyantse-Shigtase-Sakya
Before leaving Gyantse we went to the cyangtse pachu monastry but sadly I didn't find out till later that I missed the Anti British Museum... an obvious must see.. After an hour of being laughed at by locals for drinking nescafe we headed off to our next stop of Shigtase. We arrived there at lunch time and were told that we had half an hour to view the monasetry, at a hefty charge of 55 yuan(4 pounds). So we decided that you've seen one monasetry... so instead we spent our half an hour and 55 yuan on local crafts in the market!
There was a lot of hanging around in shigatse as we were waiting for our permits to go on the next part of the trip which meant more time to contiue the Tibet Rummy Championship.... We had tried to play rummy but relised we didn't know the rules so we made them up... current standing Jessica 1 Elin 1 Terra 0...
We finaly got the permits and then made our way to Sakya for the night where we stayed in the coldest creepiest hotel imaginable. The power went out so we had to use candles and there were lots of strange noises.. we weren't sure if we were going to get eaten by the Yeti in the middle of the night.
Bathroom Rating: Average; flushing squat with half doors,no showers but gains points for cleanleness.
Days without showering 1 (slightly smelly)
Day 3 Sakya- Rongbuk Monastry
We survived the night but nearly didn't survie the boiled eggs at breakfast. To make a change this morning we thought we would go and see a monastry. This time it was the Sagya monastry which was actually a construction sight pretending to be a monastry but actually well worth the visit.
After a brief stop in Shegar for lunch we finaly made the Gyasto-La Pass which at 5220m is the highest in the world.. and from there we saw our first glympse of the hymalays and the big lady herself...Standing at 8848m Mount Qomolangma (also known as Mount Everest) towered above the rest.
We got to the monastry around 4pm and settled in the guest house resturant for the next round of Tibet Rummy. By this time the cloud had come in and you couldn't see the mountains. We were told by some people who were there the night before that the cloud often disspared just before sunset (which isn't till nearly 9pm here as Tibet is on Beijing time). So we waited and waited and then finaly the clouds cleared and there she was straight in front of us... we rushed out took loads of photo's...it was just perfect there were Yaks grazing, snow everywhere. We got back in side and our guide and driver were laughing at us...saying that's not everest....which we couldn't understand as clearly there she was the only and tallest mountain in view...and then slowly but surely the cloud behind our "Mt Everest" started to clear and there was a mountain probably twice the size of the one we had just got very excited about...Doh!
Bathroom Rating: Poor; no running water, communal squat pit toliet with no door but gains points for good view of the Yaks!
Tibet Rummy Leaderboard: Jessica 2, Elin 2, Terra 0
Days without showering 2 (Getting Festy)
Day four :- Rongbuk Monastry-EBC
We got up for a slightly dissapointing sunrise as there was a lot of cloud cover but at least this time we were looking at the right mountain... Then after breakfast we set off on the long hard 8km trek to base camp...it was really just a little walk along a road and the most difficult part was not getting run over by donkeys.....The whole walk was just overshadowed by the sheer beauty of Everest...I just couldn't stop taking photo's...I think I got up to about 40 and I don't want to delete a single one. Base Camp was just a series of tents houseing all the crazy people who go to the summit...although it didn't look too hard.. I mena from here it's only another 3648m.....easy!
Bathroom Rating: Very Poor; Tent with wooden boards over the pit...so we used the rocks!
Tibet Rummy Leaderboard: Jessica 2, Elin 3, Terra 0
Days without showering 3 (Total Festation)
Day Five :- EBC- Zhongmu
We regretfully left our little tented home at EBC and headed towards the Nepali border. The road was pretty hairy and for the first tim on this trip I sucommed to a bit of car sickness...but I'm a touch cookie and got though it and somehow managed to keep my breakfast where it should be which was more than our guide managed...The road got hairier throughout the day with the last bit being the scariest but the most beautiful. Forthe last 5 days all we have seen is a stark, dry moon like landscape and on this last section the road just goes down and down along a river and becoming more green and lush as it goes. We spent the night in Zhongmu which is a little town perched half wat down a gorge, which looks like a big rainstorm might wash it all away...
Bathroom rating: Averagly Poor; Shared but sperate flushing sqaut toliets with shared showers with limited hot water that got used by a tour group.
Final Tibet Rummy Standings; Jessica 12, Elin 83, Terra 0
Days without showering 4 (Toxic)
Day Six Zhongmu- Kathmandu
After breakfast we doned our backpacks and treked the 500m to the Nepali border, here we were inundated with money changers and hawkers trying to get us to ge in there cars for the 8km across the no mans land to Nepal. At some point in the crazyness some clever little chap managed to aquire my watch from my wrist...I wasn't amused.
We finally made it to Nepal where we went through this makeshif hut that turned out to be immigration... We got a jeep to take us the four or so hours to Kathamandu. We had met a Danish couple who seemed a bit lost about what to do to get to Kathamandu so we took them under our wing and invited then to come with us. This meant that me and Terra had to share a very small front seat for what turned out to be six hours.... and the Danes turned out to be the most miserable people I had met...definately not worth the pain...
We finally made it to Kathmandu...hot, sweaty and tired but we had a room with private shower..total luxury...which made it all better.....And now I can do my laundry before my clothes take themselves...
Bathroom Rating: Excellent; private western flushing toliet and private shower with unlimited hot water.
Days without showering 0
