30.5

As one can figure out from the date this is written, it has been a while since I wrote last time. We’ve been in Nepal for a while now. We flew from Lhasa to Kathmandu, pretty cool flight as you could see the Himalayas from the plane. Only annoyance was that you could not see them from both sides of the plane, but only from the side where I happened to sit. So what happened was that everyone one the other side of the plane crowded over to my side to gaze out the window and disturb my reading.

We spent a few days first in Kathmandu arranging plane tickets, permits, gear etc. necessary to conquer Mt. Everest. Our first attempt on Everest was short lived. The plane that flew us to Lukla, the place from where the trek began, had to turn around 7 minutes out due to bad weather. But the next day the weather cleared and we reached our destination. It was quite an experience landing at Lukla airport. The landing strip is on the edge of a cliff, and its not flat as landing strips normally are. When landing, the plane hits uphill and when taking off, its downhill.

Even though its like a week ago since our first trekking day I remember we were quite exhausted when we reached our lodge for the night, not least due to that the both of us were starving. But, what we didn’t know then was that the next day was going to be even worse.

The next day we climbed up to this small town called Namche. Right before the town  there is a decent of like 600m, which is a lot I can tell you. Especially when you are carrying not only your own gear but Annika’s as well, plus some of her photo equipment.

Not much to report about the hike until we reached a place called Thengboche, also a small town. It’s at an altitude of approximately 3800m. Once we arrived there we had lunch and then unpacked. To our horror(mostly my horror) I’ve forgot the warmest piece of clothing I have with me, at the place where we stayed the night before, and there’s meters of snow up on base camp. So unless I go and get it, we will have to cancel our expedition. There was no place  to buy new clothing in thengboche either. Worst of all, the trek that day had been the worst so far. We started at 3550m, and then descended in to a valley at an altitude of 3200m, and from there we then began our ascent to thengboche which was at over 3800m. So what I would have to do is run all the way back, first down to 3250, up to 3550, down to 3250 and then up to over 3800.

It took me and Annika three hours to reach Thengboche from Sanasa. I did the round-trip from Thengboche to Sanasa and back to Thengboch in 3h.

Thengboche was the highest Annika and me made it, I got insanely sick that night. We suspect that I had actually been a bit sick before as well, and the pain I endured that day drove me over the edge. We turned around the next day. I was so weak that we even had to hire a porter to carry my load down to Namche and then onwards to Lukla from where we flew to Kathmandu.

Now that I’m writing this the time is 7am, and I’ve been awake for a while already. I had a high fever last night as well, so I guess we did the right decision to abandon our quest for Mt. Everest.

MT Everest from the airplane

This is how close we got to MT everest...

17.5

Lhasa day one.

We live in the Tibetan neighborhood of Lhasa. One surely does not need to worry about being robbed here as there is military checkpoints in every second intersection, military on the roofs of most buildings and last night when walking home from a bar two armored vehicle carrying troops passed us on the street. In addition to this, there is patrols of army guys walking around all the time, usually you spot one every five minutes.

So, the first day in Lhasa is almost over. Just got back to the hotel after having spent the whole day sightseeing and unfortunately visiting jewelry stores. I’ve been told there are a lot of nice things here.

We went to Potala palace today, its that iconic building on top of a mountain most people probably have seen in pictures and on TV. Our guide told us that it took fifty years for tens of thousands of Tibetans to build it by their bare hands. I asked him how many died, apparently none died. I doubt that.

Lhasa day  two.

We went to Jokhulam monastery(I probably misspelled it), the atmosphere was better than at Potala. There were all these monks and ordinary citizens praying, burning incense, queuing up to meet monks from whom they want to ask advice etc. The lack of atmosphere in Potala can be attributed to the fact  that it is not used anymore, when again Jokfulam is the most important monastery in Tibet.

Other than going to Jokfulam monastery, Annika did some shopping and I followed. I’ve been told there are a lot of nice jewelry here.

I felt kind of out of place today when it started snowing and I was wearing sandals and shorts. But for some strange reason it still did not feel that cold, and the snow didn’t stay on the ground for too long. It melted almost immediately. But you can see that the hill tops that surround Lhasa are covered in snow, something that they weren’t when we arrived here.

Last day.

Haven’t written for a while, but then again not much has happened. Just been visiting all these different monasteries and nunneries, and today we went to a sky burial site. It is custom in Tibet that when one dies, he or she is fed to vultures. How this works is that, the relatives bring the corpse to a sky burial site where it is sliced and diced in to smaller pieces while the relatives watch. After this the body is left out in the open for vultures that come and eat it, ones there is nothing left the relatives are free to leave. There is seating and everything where the relatives may sit and watch while the body is cut in to small pieces and subsequent feast.

Oh, one more thing. We were in our second car accident in China today. The car that was transporting us back to the hotel collided with another car. Last time the same happened was last fall in Beijing when our taxi collided with the car in front of it.

15.5

I'm currently writing in the restaurant on the train on my way to Lhasa. Been here since last night. We just passed a city called something I don't remember, but I do remember that it was at an altitude of 1500m. Soon the train will start to ascend and it should ascend as high as over 5000m when we cross over to the Tibetan plateau, this should be some time tomorrow morning.

The train itself is quite decent, it’s no older than maybe a couple years. I even have in my bed my very own oxygen mask thingy, just in case. But other than that my bunk is just awful, I have the upper most bed, the third bed that is, and its so cramped. With our entire luggage etc. up there as well, the bed is too short, I can't get my legs straight. We are switching beds with Annika the coming night. 

And the security checks for the train were significantly more strict than anything I've encountered in the PRC before, our passports and travel permits have probably been checked no less than five times since we arrived at the train station.

The following morning.

We were issued oxygen masks last night, these we could in case of emergency attach to the oxygen supply everyone has in their bed. Neither me nor Annika had to use them, nor did any of the people we've met on the train whom we've talked to today. I guess they are just in case the train looses pressure or something.

The views are just amazing, even better today than yesterday. Early yesterday the views were kind of similar to those at the yangzi river, all these high hills and in the valleys farms and small towns. But as we ascended higher and higher, the landscape became more and more rugged. The trees and rivers gave way to desserts and enormous lakes. Today morning when we woke up the landscape was something that could be best described as an harsh high-altitude dessert. There are some patches of snow, but mostly its just frozen sand and dirt. Oh, forgot to mention. I think we are at an altitude of close to 5000m. When we cross over to Tibet (which I think hasn't happened quite yet) we will be at an altitude of slightly over 5k, after which we will descend on Lhasa, which is at an altitude of 3600m.

 

12.5

I haven't written for a while, been doing so much relaxing that I haven't had had the time. What have we been up to? Well, we went to this monastery with a gigantic buddha statue, we went to another monastery that was fairly big, not much to say about it. Oh, and we went to see pandas today. They were kind of cool, although if it would have been up to me we would have left significantly earlier. Event though they are cute and everything, enough is enough. 

9.5

I went out jogging again today, feels nice. Other than that we went to see a giant buddha statue. 

8.5

Just got back from jogging for the first time in over a week, it was great even though jogging in the middle of chinese morning rush hour is quite an experience. 

After a whole day of planning and deliberating, we've decided to go to both nepal and tibet. The train to tibet leaves next thursday( it takes a while to get all the necessary permits). We'll spend five nights in lhasa, after which we will fly to kathmandu. How long we are going to be in kathmandu is not decided. Depending on the weather we either just stay in kathmandu and then fly to south east asia, or we go hiking and see mt everest. 

7.5

We had a early wake-up today, at 6.20. Apparently we had not paid enough for the hotel, so the hotel staff decided to wake us at 6.20 and ask for more money. After some long negotiations, which were mainly conducted by our chinese friends, it all worked out. 

Off to Chengdu.

We found the hostel, definitely the nicest place I've been to in mainland China, but then again it is also the most expensive.  Only thing that annoys me is that many of the other guests dress like hippies.

Me and Annika were disappointed to find out that we can't do both Tibet and Nepal due to that it takes a week to get the necessary permits for Tibet and that doesn't leave us enough time to then travel to Nepal to hike due to the monsoon season. In addition to that, it turns out that Tibet is ridiculously expensive due to that we need a "guide" with us, this because pro-tibet activists have ruined it for everyone. So, if me and annika were to go, it would be RMB3000/each plus transportation, meals, etc. Long story short, we've decided to go to either Nepal or Tibet, we can not do both. Tomorrow we are to decide which one we are going to visit.