And Now What You've All Been Waiting For
It's time for Qomolongma! What's that, you ask? You'll just have to read on and see.
We were in for a long, long drive after we left Shigatse. Here we are at the top of a 5,000-meter pass. The colorful banners are prayer flags, which are to help people make it over the pass safely.
We drove for about a half a day before we reached the entry to Qomolongma National Park. Here it is!
Oh wait, you can't read Chinese? Fine, I'll tell you. If you haven't guessed already, Qomolongma (pronounced Cho-mo-long-ma, with all long Os) is the Tibetan (and now Chinese) name for Mt. Everest, which you can almost sort of see behind the clouds in the distance.
We thought we were almost there, since we were finally to the park, but oh no. We had about another 6 hours of driving before we reached base camp. Some of it was really beautiful, like this:
And a lot of it was really boring, like this picture only without the mountains in the background (meaning lots of red sandy hills):
Not to mention all the checkpoints and permit checking we had to go through. It's not that big of a deal because the driver and guide take care of everything, but it still takes a lot of time, and you have to show your passports and permits and sign in when you get really close. (One tourist came in behind us and wanted to know if we were at border control for Nepal, which gives you some idea of how uptight everything is.)
We stopped to eat some really awful Tibetan food at this village that looked like something out of the old West, Tibetan style. The food may have been bad, but we were happy to get out of the car for a little while anyway. But we had to get back on the road right away since we still had a few hours of driving.
We were so excited when Everest finally came into view. The only problem was, this was the view:
It was about 5 p.m., and there wasn't much else to do, so we sat down near a mountain stream and waited around in the hopes that the clouds would clear off in the evening. After all, we'd spent two days on a train and two days in a 4x4 to see this thing! If it didn't clear off, let's just say there were going to be four very unhappy campers the next day.
It was pretty cold, but the sun was still out, so it wasn't awful. Plus we had lots of yaks to keep us company.
Wonder of wonders, the clouds did gradually start to clear off a little, to the point where we would have been OK if they hadn't cleared off any further--we could still see most of the mountain.
Luckily for us, though, they eventually cleared off all the way, and the mountain stayed clear all night and the next morning.
Night time at 5,000 meters (16,404 feet) was a little rough. First off, we were basically sleeping in a tent. We had a stove in the middle and really warm yak blankets, but there wasn't any running water, of course. And the toilets (if you can even call them that) for the camp were...let's just say they're tied with this one bathroom in India that was flooded with urine and feces for worst bathroom I've ever seen! At least they didn't smell too much (too cold, I guess!).
Second, the altitude was just plain hard. None of us slept very well, and we all got headaches. But none of us had to use our oxygen canisters or altitude sickness medicine, so I guess it wasn't too bad. It was just a very long, uncomfortable night.
The night wasn't all bad, though. Everything was incredibly still, and the mountain glowed in the distance, and the stars seemed close enough to touch. So that pretty much made up for the discomfort (although one night was more than enough). The payoff? Qomolongma at sunrise.
The next morning we took pony carts to the actual base camp, which was about 4 kilometers away. There weren't many campers there since climbing season begins in the spring, but we did get as close to the mountain as you can without actually climbing it.
It was unbelievably cold, and we had another long drive ahead of us so we didn't stay long. We took a picture in front of the sign (which says "Mt. Qomolongma Base Camp, 5,200 meters) and waited until our fingers were about to fall off before we left.
It was definitely an adventure, and maybe even the highlight of the year. It was worth the money, altitude sickness, and red tape to experience it. It's hard to explain the feeling that comes with being so close the world's biggest mountain, and so high you're on the roof of the world. Let's just say it was magical and leave it at that.
Still to come: Rongphu monastery and Gyantse, and then back to Lhasa. My goal is to get everything about Tibet posted by the end of the year--promise!
We were in for a long, long drive after we left Shigatse. Here we are at the top of a 5,000-meter pass. The colorful banners are prayer flags, which are to help people make it over the pass safely.
We drove for about a half a day before we reached the entry to Qomolongma National Park. Here it is!
Oh wait, you can't read Chinese? Fine, I'll tell you. If you haven't guessed already, Qomolongma (pronounced Cho-mo-long-ma, with all long Os) is the Tibetan (and now Chinese) name for Mt. Everest, which you can almost sort of see behind the clouds in the distance.
We thought we were almost there, since we were finally to the park, but oh no. We had about another 6 hours of driving before we reached base camp. Some of it was really beautiful, like this:
And a lot of it was really boring, like this picture only without the mountains in the background (meaning lots of red sandy hills):
Not to mention all the checkpoints and permit checking we had to go through. It's not that big of a deal because the driver and guide take care of everything, but it still takes a lot of time, and you have to show your passports and permits and sign in when you get really close. (One tourist came in behind us and wanted to know if we were at border control for Nepal, which gives you some idea of how uptight everything is.)
We stopped to eat some really awful Tibetan food at this village that looked like something out of the old West, Tibetan style. The food may have been bad, but we were happy to get out of the car for a little while anyway. But we had to get back on the road right away since we still had a few hours of driving.
We were so excited when Everest finally came into view. The only problem was, this was the view:
It was about 5 p.m., and there wasn't much else to do, so we sat down near a mountain stream and waited around in the hopes that the clouds would clear off in the evening. After all, we'd spent two days on a train and two days in a 4x4 to see this thing! If it didn't clear off, let's just say there were going to be four very unhappy campers the next day.
It was pretty cold, but the sun was still out, so it wasn't awful. Plus we had lots of yaks to keep us company.
Wonder of wonders, the clouds did gradually start to clear off a little, to the point where we would have been OK if they hadn't cleared off any further--we could still see most of the mountain.
Luckily for us, though, they eventually cleared off all the way, and the mountain stayed clear all night and the next morning.
Night time at 5,000 meters (16,404 feet) was a little rough. First off, we were basically sleeping in a tent. We had a stove in the middle and really warm yak blankets, but there wasn't any running water, of course. And the toilets (if you can even call them that) for the camp were...let's just say they're tied with this one bathroom in India that was flooded with urine and feces for worst bathroom I've ever seen! At least they didn't smell too much (too cold, I guess!).
Second, the altitude was just plain hard. None of us slept very well, and we all got headaches. But none of us had to use our oxygen canisters or altitude sickness medicine, so I guess it wasn't too bad. It was just a very long, uncomfortable night.
The night wasn't all bad, though. Everything was incredibly still, and the mountain glowed in the distance, and the stars seemed close enough to touch. So that pretty much made up for the discomfort (although one night was more than enough). The payoff? Qomolongma at sunrise.
The next morning we took pony carts to the actual base camp, which was about 4 kilometers away. There weren't many campers there since climbing season begins in the spring, but we did get as close to the mountain as you can without actually climbing it.
It was unbelievably cold, and we had another long drive ahead of us so we didn't stay long. We took a picture in front of the sign (which says "Mt. Qomolongma Base Camp, 5,200 meters) and waited until our fingers were about to fall off before we left.
It was definitely an adventure, and maybe even the highlight of the year. It was worth the money, altitude sickness, and red tape to experience it. It's hard to explain the feeling that comes with being so close the world's biggest mountain, and so high you're on the roof of the world. Let's just say it was magical and leave it at that.
Still to come: Rongphu monastery and Gyantse, and then back to Lhasa. My goal is to get everything about Tibet posted by the end of the year--promise!
Labels: tibet
posted by AJ at 7:59 AM
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