Day 01 of Himalaya travel diary
Flight London Heathrow to Dehli.
Today is the day.
It is not only my 30. Birthday, – today is the day I am facing my dream: travelling to the Himalayas. Half my life I wanted to see Lhasa and travel Tibet. The time has arrived.
We left our London home in the afternoon to get to London Heathrow. The flight was an overnight flight with Jet Airways, an Indian airline I have never heard of before… let’s see how it goes.
The check-in and the security procedures were straight forward. We had a last bye-bye-beef-cheeseburger in the restaurant in the duty-free area… I am a bit scared and excited.
Day 02 of Himalaya travel diary
Arrival in Dehli, India
Flight to Kathmandu, Nepal
Time difference UK – Dehli: 4.5 hours
Time difference Dehli – Kathmandu: 0.25 hours
GPS link: Hotel Moon Light in Kathmandu
N 27°43′01.56″, E 85°18′30.43″
After an 8 hour flight, we arrived at the Indira Gandhi airport in Delhi. I was pleasantly surprised by Jet Airways service and I can recommend flying with them. There was a huge selection of movies, but I just tried to get some sleep. Didn’t work out, – couldn’t sleep for even one minute. Flight was a bit shaky over Europe… and the landing was super soft. Impressive.
We were led into the business lounge (no idea why) where we could wait for our connection flight to Kathmandu. We got snacks and cold beverages, and certainly newspapers… the Times of India had a page takeover: the cover page was from the year 2050. Wow. The flight didn’t seem that long.
By the way… I was told that the Kathmandu airport is one of the most complicated airports to land at in the world. Hmm.. no, now I can tell you: no, the airport isn’t scary at all. The flight was quite nice and comfy and we arrived in Kathmandu in time, -where we were fever-checked with a small handheld device measuring the body temperature on the forehead. Oh holy swine flu.
We were picked up by some – well, our – travel agent. He hailed a taxi, – obviously he was in a hurry. The trolley guy wanted a small tip, and they didn’t let Florian get in the taxi until he pulled out some money. Since he didn’t have small change, he ended up giving him $5. So first impression was quite stressy, chaotic, a bit negative…
I was wondering if we are the only passengers from our travel group arriving today… obviously, since the agent rode with us in the taxi. Since it was an incredibly small taxi, he had to put my backpack on his lap. Florian’s backpack was squeezed in the, well, – trunk that doesn’t deserve its name…
The taxi ride was crazy. The car was so worn out and kaput I got scared. Even worse was the chaos on the streets. I am happy that I don’t have to drive here. It is incredibly noisy, and since it is so chaotic, everybody is honking. I had to laugh because it seemed to be so obviously useless. Nobody cared about honking. The horn says “Here I am” and nothing more. Maybe it is some weird sort of prayer…
We arrived at a hotel. Some guy was coming towards Florian’s side and said “Give me your passport!” – then he smiled. It was another travel agent who was in a hurry to get in time to the Chinese embassy with some forms we had to sign. Sign now. So they kind of pushed us in the hotel, – backpacks in the hotel driveway since the taxi left after they paid him. They gave us pens to fill in the forms and sign them. Five minutes later, he was gone with your passports. That really left me with a bad, bad feeling. Florian could calm me down: they had our photographs and some basic information pre-filled into the forms. Since we just sent the photos 30 minutes before we left for Heathrow (-they seem to love last minute stuff-), those had to be the right people. I was relieved.
Some other guys organized a bigger car for us that would bring us to our hotel we are supposed to stay in. Hotel “Moon Light” was our destination. As we arrived, the hotel guy (dressed in uniform) grabbed my bag to bring it upstairs. I kindly resisted, but he was pulling the backpack so much, that I gave up and accepted the fact that he was very determined to get a tip. He showed us our room, 410, 3rd floor. Not too bad, I thought. I didn’t expect white fluffy towels or a striking clean bathroom. And I didn’t get any of that. Since there was no proper flush, we used the little bin with water…. hm. Nice. But hey, it works.
We were really tired, so we relaxed a bit first and later we decided to take a look outside. Exploring the neighborhood and buying some bottled water.
A litre water costs her 15 Nepalese rupee. That is less than 10 pence. I think that is quite alright…. but we made it a bit further than the little corner-shop: and yes, it was quite scary, busy, frightening, dirty, lively, shocking, disgusting, well and bad smelling…. anyhow everything altogether. After 10 minutes left-right-left turns, we decided to go hide in the hotel room again.
They say that the soul can’t travel as fast as the plane and that you have to wait until your soul arrives at the destination. Maybe that’s why we felt so strange and displaced.
I unpacked my tripod, took some random shots from our balcony (we have a quite exciting view on a mountain here – plus sun set).
Took us some time to fall asleep (honking, aggressive dogs barking, neighbors moving in their rooms…) later that day… I am so nosy what the next days will bring.
Day 03 of Himalaya travel diary
Kathmandu – free day. Shopping, exploring.
Today is our free day.
First things first: Slow breakfast: Porridge, scrambled eggs on toast without crust, tea, hot chocolate, 3 small slices of potato with garlic and herbs, quarter of a hot tomato. Orange juice, some toast with jam. Hm, weird breakfast.
A bit later, at 9am, Meena from the Sherpa Society (Neplese partner travel agency) came over for a briefing. First she apologized for the chaos yesterday. Then she informed us that we are the only ones in the group. Aha. What a surprise. So we are the only ones… I wasn’t really happy about that.
She gave us our China visa and the passports and warned us regarding the Tibetan hygienic standards. Meena recommended getting a sleeping bag, since the Tibetan hotels don’t take it too serious with washing bed linen… Therefore we needed to do some shopping…
Wanted to leave for shopping at 12.30 and after 10 steps the rain drops hit us. Returned to the hotel, the staff laughed about us. I asked how long the rain shower will take, – they wondered about my question…
So we went upstairs and took a nap. After one hour the rain was over and we left the hotel again. We went shopping and checked out the area. Meena recommended a pizza place called “Fire and Ice” where we had lunch. After that we bough two cheap sleeping bags, two shirts and rain trousers for Florian. The shop assistant gave me gloves for free, one black and short, the other one blue and longer, funny. I didn’t know that those might come in very handy a few days later…
We returned to the hotel, left the shopping there (well, washed some of it, and went out later again to find the Kathmandu Durbar Square, 10min down the road. They say it is a very beautiful big place where are many really nice buildings. But we couldn’t find it…
I started taking pictures of the architecture. Got to admit that I am a bit scared of taking pictures of people, since I was told to ask them beforehand. Not everyone likes to be on a photo… So that’s why I decided to focus on architecture and general street life. It is half impossible to exclude people walking by from a wide-angle lens… Ok, I am a cheater and the angry souls of the people I am photographing will hunt me down in my dreams.
Later we went to an internet café so that we could send some emails to our families. It was crazy, since it took us 50 minutes to send one email. Was terrible connection speed. I wouldn’t even call it “speed”… but only 15 rupee (=10p) an hour.
Back at the hotel we learnt why there are candles in every room: they come in quite handy when there is an electricity blackout (and yes, it happens every day).
That night it was very hard to fall asleep for me. Those angry souls were really keeping me awake.
In the middle of the night I got up and took some night photos from the wonderful orange moon. The dogs stopped barking/fightinga and a bit later, the crickets stopped chirping. That is the sign for me to get some sleep as well. But then a thunderstorm came up…
Day 04 of Himalaya travel diary
Sightseeing in Kathmandu.
GPS link (somewhere between Patan and the Boudha Stupa)
N 27°40′09.86″, E 85°20′12.06″
Had a tough night. I was just falling asleep when the alarm clock rang. Today’s breakfast: pancakes with honey and French toast. Excellent.
The guide picked us up at 9am. He is a Kathmandu-ian, or how ever they are called. He is incredibly knowledgable, but isn’t really eloquent. He tends to stop in the sun and explain everything in one long sentence. Since we haven’t been reading a lot about Kathmandu before, all these different names and words in Nepali sound funny and hard to remember…
First sightseeing stop: the monkey temple (Swayambhunath stupa) in the East of Kathmandu.
Second stop: Patan Durbar Square. Patan is a city next to Kathmandu and there is no way a non-local person could ever tell the difference between those two cities. The guide showed us around, and I have to admit that the buildings here are incredibly amazing. It feels like time travel…
Third stop: Boudha Stupa in the west of Kathmandu. It is the largest stupa – well I forgot – in the world? – We had lunch at a restaurant next to the stupa. Florian ate fried noodles. That was a mistake, since he got quite sick in the evening/night…
Fourth stop: Pashupatinath with its famous crematorium site. The Hindu corpses get burnt here and the ashes get washed into the river Bagmati. This river is holy, but surprisingly polluted. The more important/richer Hindus have separate burning sites, but every dead body can be burnt at Pashupatinath. When we were there, a corpse got prepared for being burnt. It is a quite long ritual. It is possible to witness the ritual from the other side of the river. Incredible view.
In the evening we had dinner at a traditional Nepalese/Newari restaurant. Was a nice atmosphere: We had to take our shows off, got a red colour dot on our foreheads and sat at small tables on pillows in a quite dark, cave-like room. First course: popcorn. Yes, we laughed, but it seems to be a traditional Nepalese dish. Couldn’t believe it. Second course: fried potatoes. Quite some resemblance with French fries. I bet the Nepalese invented those as well. We were wondering what the next course might bring… maybe cheeseburger or chicken wings?
Later in the evening, some musicians played traditional music, sometimes accompanied by traditional dancers from different regions of Nepal.
It was quite nice until half the room was filled with tourist groups… Though, it was really nice and we enjoyed the evening. We went home to re-pack for tomorrow’s trip to Lhasa.
I am scared that my dream of Tibet/Lhasa gets smashed.
Day 05 of Himalaya travel diary
Flight to Lhasa, Autonomous Region Tibet, China
Time difference Kathmandu – Lhasa: 2.25 hours
GPS link, airport close to Lhasa:
N 29°17′40.03″, E 90°53′59.44″
At 0730 the alarm clock rang. It was quite tough to get up and get a half warm shower (yes, the other half was cold). Florian was feeling sick, he spent quite some time in the bath room… His sickness mixed up plans. I went downstairs and ordered pancakes and French toast as breakfast for us, while Florian stayed in the room and put the rest of the stuff together. The kitchen’s breakfast preparation took quite long… Florian didn’t eat much pancake, – I eat mine quickly and some French toast, which looked reheated from yesterday… hm.
Returning to the room we find the portier knocking at our door. He wants our luggage, taxi is here. We should hurry.
Taxi brought us to the airport, this time we were able to resist the greedy trolley men. Got security checked before even entering the airport properly. Check-in went alright. I forgot to ask for seats on the left side of the plane. So we got seats on the right (i.e. wrong) side. Damn. Now we wont see Mt Everest during the flight…
We went to departure area and queued for the passport check. We had to fill out a form – which we forgot- so back again and filling it in. And back in the queue again. Passport, visa check went fine. Luckily.
The last thing you want to do when you are sick is to be at a disgusting airport toilet in no man’s land and feel utterly sick. I was really worried about Florian.
We tried to delay the security check as long as possible. (At that point in time we were not aware what might be the “security check”.) Probably we waited a bit too long and we saw a large queue that had built up. A bunch of people simply jumped the queue… nice. After that we needed a stamp on the boarding cards for bag check. So we had to queue for bag check again. It took long and I had the feeling they had no idea what they have been looking for after 2 scanner checks.
Then we were allowed to proceed to the boarding gate. Well, boarding area since there were no properly labelled gates. I guessed one of them is for Lhasa and bingo: we were allowed to proceed to the bus. But between boarding gate and bus there was yet another security body search. At the aeroplane we faced one more boarding card check. Crazy. It is easier to enter Israel from Egypt. (What we didn’t know ar that time: they check you even more often if you fly to Delhi.)
The flight freaked me out. We waited for missing passengers and had a 1 hour delay. Great. The stewardesses seemed not to understand English.
Had a few air holes during flight. But the mountains looked incredibly beautiful. Mt Everest was certainly on the left side so we couldn’t see it properly… I asked a woman to take some photos with my camera.
Guess what happened after we landed in Lhasa: Medical staff boarded with fever thermometers (one for each passenger) and some forms to fill in. They took everybody’s temperature. It took very long since it was a large machine. Rows 18-21 weren’t allowed to leave the plane afterwards. I couldn’t believe it.
After 20 steps behind the plane, next queue for the next health double check. I had 37.1 degree Celsius, Florian had 37.0 degree Celsius. Each passenger had to hand over the form with his temperature that was taken on the plane. Depending on this number, the passengers were sorted again: into those who had a too high temperature and those whose temperature was alright. Guess what? – The threshold was 37 degree Celsius. I was .1 over it. Therefore I was separated from the others to get my temperature taken again. I got quite angry annoyed since there is no connection between swine flu and fever. – And they took my passport from me. I really don’t have so much humour. Geez, I was lucky that my temperature (after 15 minutes of waiting) was alright.
Then passport and visa control. Luckily they pulled us out so we could jump the queue. After that we waited for quite some time for the luggage. But we were happy that the backpacks arrived safely (and checked, one zipper was still open).
Customs next stop. Queue. They checked for that the passport again and I still don’t know which one was the green or the red channel. They simply scanned everything again.
After that, there was another queue and I had no idea what for. Someone pulled us put again and brought us to the gate where our guide was waiting. Gate was opened after the visa was checked again. Welcome to China.
Our Tibetan guide, Tenzin, had to wait for 3 hours for us without any information what is going on. And it was only a 70 min flight. He brought us to the car, a quite spacey Hyundai and after we tucked our luggage in the trunk, he received our first white welcome to Tibet scarves. Ah great! The airport and the parking lot were clean and a bit sterile. Have to admit I was relieved to see this after the Kathmandu chaos.
The airport is 60km from Lhasa and the ride took about one hour. Tenzin explained a few things on the way. (Actually he looked like a Londoner, since he had a quite trendy haircut and a cool outfit.) The landscape was amazing, the streets fine. Entering Lhasa city made me a bit sad: it is as they wrote in the travel guide I read – Lhasa is a city of concrete. Though, the first glimpse on the Potala Palace was exciting.
In order to change money, we stopped at Bank of China. None of our cards worked at the ATMs – nice omen – so the driver was so friendly to lend us money.
The hotel looked quite nice, posh and maybe a bit cold and heartless. Nice view, lovely room. Shower – wow – with side streams. Took a hot shower and felt like newborn. I know that this luxury doesn’t come from nothing and that I should save water and energy… (What I didn’t know: it was one of the few warm showers in these two weeks.)
Florian felt much better again. Luckily. We were tired after all that troublesome day, but the idea of being in Lhasa kept me awake for quite some time.
Day 06 of Himalaya travel diary
Sightseeing in Lhasa
GPS link: Bank of China, Lhasa
N 29°39′29.21″, E 91°6′39.86″
Got up at 8 am. Prepared our sightseeing gear for the day. I noticed a school next to the hotel. The children were repeating the words the teacher said in a screaming voice. Was scary to listen to that… We went to the breakfast buffet on 2nd floor and got completely disappointed. Only edible thing was a reheated white toast with packed salted butter and packed strawberry jam. I ate four of those, Florian only two. Thought a nice intercontinental breakfast would expect us here, but no, it is worse than in Kathmandu. The breakfast area was a small chaos and people were smoking. Awful, – not used to that anymore. Orange juice was a vitamin tablet dissolved in water, hm. I miss the Kathmandu pancakes!
Tenzin, the guide picked us up at 10am. First thing: another try at Bank of China. Took an hour to get a few British Pound Sterling exchanged. What a mess.
First stop for today: Drepung monastery (Tashi-Megyur-Chakju-Ling). It is the sixth largest monastery of Gelupa sect (Yellow hat sect), about 10km from Lhasa. Build in 1416. We had to take quite a few steps to get up there…
A monk that was watering the garden, sprayed us with water. He had a good laugh and was so happy. Was a marvelous sight! Another Tibetan man paid Florian his respect by bowing in front of him. Amazing.
A bit later we had lunch at the restaurant Lhasa Kitchen in the old centre of Lhasa, in front of the Jokhang temple. Florian ate Yak sizzler – our first bite of a Yak. Quite tasty, but it was our first and last Yak encounter in a restaurant.
Next stop: Jokhang temple, the prime seat of the Gelupa sect (Yellow hat sect) So it is a quite important – if not one of the most sacred sites for the Tibetan Buddhism. This month seems to be a special month, we were told, and many pilgrims circumambulate the temple area. It is quite special to see so many Tibetan pilgrims.
There was no way to take pictures inside the Jokhang temple. A pity, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles here.
We returned to the hotel at 4pm. I was quite surprised that the school next to the hotel was still quite busy – they started in the morning and I was happy to go sightseeing. But even in the afternoon, the kids were screaming and repeating after the teacher. I tried to get a nap, but there was no way… We ended up changing the room, facing the other side of the hotel. Since they have 2 computers in the hotel lobby, we email to our families. An hour in the internet costs 15 Yuan. We only needed 15 minutes, but they made us pay the full hour. (The next day we asked how much half an hour is, – 5 Yuan…)
The hot water didn’t work in the new room… but we started not to care anymore.
Day 07 of Himalaya travel diary
Sightseeing in Lhasa
Our guide managed the day before to get tickets for the Potala Palace for 09.20am, so he picked us up at 9am. First we had to conquer many, many steps. Quite a challenge at this altitude. Again it wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside and the inner courtyards of the Potala temple. Hm. Sad but true. They are quite strikt about it.
Exploring the Potala from inside was an incredible adventure. Amazingly beautiful, magnificent. And everything was full of incense – got to admit that it nearly killed me.
Were brought back to the hotel, had a short rest and went then to Dunya at lunch time. It is an international restaurant with a huge variety of nice good. Anyhow they used rosemary in the noodle sauce and the pizza dough. Tasted really strange. I wonder why they put rosemary in all kinds of sauces (e.g. was in the Yak sizzler sauce yesterday as well).
At 3pm we met our guide again. He showed us the Sera monastery. Was really interesting to watch the debating monks in the garden. There is a chapel for the “Horse necked one”, where we got his blessing by touching the figure with the forehead. We walked around a bit, =- it is really a quite nice monastery.
Later that day, we went with Tenzin to the Barkor area for some souvenir shopping. We bought some nice pieces with the help of our guide. He is a haggling genius. The tourist prices are indeed up to 10 times higher than the normal price.
In the evening I felt sick and I ended up with diarrhoea. Seems it was might turn…
Tomorrow we will start our trip to Kathmandu.
Day 08 of Himalaya travel diary
On the road – from Lhasa to Shigatse (South route, via the Yamdrok Tso and Gyantse) – ca. 370 km
GPS link: Top of pass at Lambrok lake
N 29°11′38.67″, E 90°37′02.03″
We got up at 7.30 and I wasn’t feeling well at all and Florian felt a little uneasy. So we both had problems with our stomachs and the thought of spending most of the day in a Land Cruiser isn’t so nice anymore.
Our guide Tenzin and a new driver picked us up at 9am.
First stop: an outdoor shop in Lhasa to buy some tinned oxygen in case we need it when passing high mountains. Funny tin, – looks like a hair spray.
After a short drive we reached a Buddha statue (near Nyethang). It is chiseled into the rock and about 10m high. There were plenty of scarves andprayer flags. Last year there was a big fire that burnt all the old flags. The fire was triggered by one of the lamps or incense. I wonder what it looked like two years ago then… And how did the people get them up there?
On the road again, we drive past the Lhasa airport and come eventually to a water burial place (near Chusul). Our guide explains that the dead are chopped into pieces and fed to the fish. (Other types of burials are sky burial (being chopped up and fed to the birds in the mountains) and fire burial, but the latter only for very high lamas.)
Next stop is the Gampa La pass. With it’s peak at 4,794m it offers magnificent view over the Yamdrok Tso (the Turquise Lake). It is the largest fresh water lake in Tibet. The lake is holy to the Tibetans, – unluckily not to the Chinese, who simply built a hydropower plant there. But that is another story…
It is even possible to see the border to Buthan, marked by the moutain Kula Kangri (7,554 metres). It is an incredible sight, and we spend easily half an hour just looking and enjoying… The drive down towards Nakartse took quite some time, but the sight of the lake, which was all the time on our left hand side, was astonishing. We had lunch in Nakartse: a bowl of rice with vegetables, a bowl with stir fried potatoes and a bowl with curry potatoes, it was freaking good but way too much. Funny that there seems to be always exactly one restaurant for all the tourists. You get used to meet the same western tourists again and again in these restaurants.
Then it was time for the Karo La. The pass is 5,020 metres high and you stand right in front of the glacier tongue. As usual, there were children, carrying little goats and asking if you want to take a photo with them. They are quite “sticky”. For me it was easy to ignore them, – I simply concentrated on my camera and the landscape. Florian was therefore their victim, – pushing, touching, begging, following around…
We passed by Gyantse – one of the larger cities in Tibet. Unfortunately we had no time for sightseeing but I was able to take a few pictures of the beautiful castle (Dzong) that is set on top of a mountain – similar to the Potala Palace.
Nearing the next town, Shigatse, we stop at a small mill that grinds roasted barley into a fine flour using water mills. It is just a tiny shop and very, very dusty inside – I bet they never heard of flour explosions. This barley flour is used to make “Tsampa”, the main grocery of Tibet. With a bag of roasted barley we headed towards Shigatse and arrived just before 6pm at our hotel. The room is really nice, like the one in Lhasa, but then, Shigatse is the second largest city in Tibet. Across the street of the hotel was a field with Yaks and cows. Hilarious to listen to them moo-ing until it was dark. And guess who woke us up? It felt like being somewhere in Austria.
For dinner we went to the restaurant “The Thrid Eye”. We had vegetable curry with rice. (Now I can tell you that it was the best I have ever eaten…)
Day 09 of Himalaya travel diary
Drive to Xegar
GPS link: Gyatso La pass (5,220 metres)
N 28°54′52.08″, E 87°25′54.37″
GPS link: (somewhere on the road)
N 28°38′07.20″, E 87°10′18.55″
We had a very good nights sleep. In the morning we went to the Tashilhunpo Monastery where quite tall Buddha statues are. Since Tenzin had to go to get the permits for Mt Everest base camp, we had to walk around in the monastery by ourselves. Was quite intense and interesting and luckily we had a Tibet book with us.
We wanted to meet the guide and the driver again at 11am, but they didn’t appear. The place in front of the monastery is full of pilgrims and begging families. At first a few interested Tibetans wanted to see the photos I made. That was funny and alright. But then a little boy came up to me begging for money. He started to touch my trousers and he ended up grabbing one of the pockets and didn’t let go anymore. I couldn’t get rid of him, mainly because I didn’t want to hurt him and I have to admit that he was so dirty that I didn’t even want to touch him. I “walked” with my sticky package to a family sitting on the ground and went to a woman who I thought could be his mother. She got at once very angry with the boy and at last he let me go.
Neither guide nor driver appeared. We waited, full of worries: they had our luggage, our passports and Chinese visa. We haven’t exchanged phone numbers and we had no idea where they are. These 30 minutes were indeed quite nerve-wrecking. Luckily they appeared then afterhalf an hour. Man, we were happy. And angry. The driver was angry at our guide and we couldn’t really figure out what was going on. They were discussing for quite some time as we felt someting was wrong, but we weren’t told what. That’s even more annoying.
Then we drove to Xegar. It is a quite small and boring village. But the landscape was nice, and the sky/clouds were amazing!
We met another German couple, and it was quite nice to exchange information. They were heading towards Mt Everest the next day as well.
Since the guide couldn’t find a proper restaurant in the village, we just had a muesli dinner in the hotel. It was our first night in our sleeping bags. And I was quite happy we had some, since the beds didn’t look and smell too inviting. The night was quite cold… so I ended up with a sleeping bag covered with a thick wollen blanket…
Day 10 of Himalaya travel diary. The most intense day of my entire life.
Drive to Mt Everest base camp, to Tingri, Nyalam and Zhangmu. Yes, all on one day.
GPS link: Beyond Mt Everest base camp
N 28°8′31.10″, E 86°51′04.14″
At 4.30am the alarm clock rang… I didn’t have much sleep… and even not much of a breakfast at 5am, since they served mouldy bread. What a nice way to start the day. The traditional breakfast (that you ever get as Westerner) looks always fresh and much better…
Certainly it was still completely dark and the star sky was amazing. I wish I had more time to take some nice photos, but it was all about getting in the car as quickly as possible. Half the hotel was in the lobby, the guides and driver picking up their sleepy tourist. And guess who didn’t appear again: Our guide and driver. They overslept and they were woken up by us – through reception.
So instead of 5.30 we left at 6am, which is annoying as we were incredibly tired and had to wait in the cold of the morning.
We passed the Tibet Pass check and headed up the Tse La pass (5,200 metres). Driving the pass uphill was mind bending. I saw an incredibly nice composition of the mountains, the road and the car that was driving with a few hundred metres distance to us. I didn’t take this picture. I didn’t stop the car. I saw the moments for this photo passing by…… It was cruel. I got sad, – I realized the chance is gone. For a photographer photography is not about the pictures you take, since you “took” them. It is about the pictures you don’t take. Those are the photos that will stay for every perfect in your memory and make you sad. This was the 3rd time I was getting upset. I still remember the composition and how they felt like. And how it felt not to capture them…
Just a few metres before we reached the top of the pass, I had to get out of the car since the regret was too hurtful and I didn’t want to miss the next great one in a lifetime opportunity. This time I didn’t want to miss the first sun rays touching the mountains. Since I thought I wouldn’t have the time to set up the tripod, I lay down on the ground to get a steady base for my camera. I had built up some inner tension and it was highly probable that I mess up the shot. I tried my best, worked through all the tricks I have learnt in the last 6 months. Hell, it was tricky and I left with the feeling that I failed and the situation was too hard to capture properly for me.
I had to let it go.
That was a hard lesson.
I got back in the car and we passed the top a minute later. A few metres behind the sea of prayer flags, an amazing sight appeared: Mount Everest and his fellows. Clear sky, no clouds covering the mountains. I took my tripod and camera and joined the tourists taking pictures. It was freaking cold (the sun hasn’t come up high enough yet). Florian brough my photo backpack and luckily I had the gloves in one compartment… The gloves that I got as a gift in Kathmandu…. They served me well, since I wouldn’t have been able to take more photos without them. Seriously. I was wondering if I would accept frost bitten fingers as price for this view…. my answer was no, since there are so many other tourists and most of them will have the same photos as I do.
After some lens-swapping, I was able to leave this viewing point without regrets. The car climed the pass down again on the other side. After maybe two more hours, we nearly reached Rongbuk. Mt Everest suddenly appeared on the horizon again. Brilliant view, no clouds whatsoever. After a quick photo session, we reached the Mt Everest base camp. I was quite disappointed I have to admit. (Base camp and no snow at all here?) There is a shuttle bus that brings the tourists even closer to the mighty mountain. And certainly we took the shuttle bus and we reached a control station, where our visa, passports and tickets were checked again. God knows why.
We passed a few yaks, walked a small hill up and took pictures. It was time to eat the Kendal mint cake we brought from London… quite yummy! I felt privileged to be here and to have the hightest mountain in the world in front of my lens. Completely uncovered.
After we returned to the base camp with the shuttle bus, we wrote a few postcards to our families. Then we drove to the Rongbuk monastery. It is the hightest monastery in the world and when the weather is good, it is the best place to be. It is one of the few monasteries where nuns and monks live together. An old nun came up to me and chatted with me. Was interesting,- I was excited – and I would have never had the gutts to go up to a nun and talk to her…
The drive to Tingri was wicked. There is a yellow line on the map that designes a road. But that wasn’t a road. I wouldn’t have known where the road/way/path is. Anyhow the driver drove somewhere. Either he was so experienced to know where to drive, or we were just lucky to end up in Tingri after several hours. It is a pity that I didn’t take pictures, – we crossed amazing fields of white, round, head-sized stones, passed steep cliffs (I looked out of the window on my side and didn’t see any street left, – seems that we were so close to the edge that there was nothing to “see” anymore, except a small river several metres below us). The trusted the driver genuinely. He did a great job.
We checked into the Snowleopard hotel in Tingri. Yes, the worst hotel room we have encountered yet. We went for late dinner, again vegetable curry (save bet). After we returned to the hotel, the guide asked us if we would like to drive to the next town on the route, Nyalam. He said that the rooms here are not so nice and that the weather is so good, that we might want to drive now (to actually have a nice view from the Tong La pass). Otherwise we would have to leave at 4 or 5am the next morning, since the streets are closed otherwise (construction work) and we wouldn’t see the view from the pass. The driver agreed. So we packed our stuff again and left for Nyalam at around 3pm.Tenzin said it will take 2 hours to get there.
The view from the Tong La (it is a double pass with 4,950and 5,200 metres with view on the mountain Shishapangma). It took nearly 4 hours in the end. There were ongoing street works, and we often ended up driving through the street works, forcing heavy plants to get out of our way. Incredible and completely crazy.
We reached Nyalam. The first trees appeared. Now we needed a hotel. And guess what? – Everything was full. Well, that is what our guide told us. There are so many tourists from India, that no more beds are free. I couldn’t believe it. We had nowhere to stay. Why did we come here then? – Our guide hasn’t reserved anything before we left Tingri, although he knew that the city is always busy with Indians. I got angry. And the driver didn’t believe him as well, since then the guide started asking people on the street for hotel rooms. The guide suggest that we drive on to the next town, Zhangmu, and that we could stay there then for 2 nights, instead of 1 that was planned beforehand. Zhangmu is the last town before the Nepalese border and known to be dodgy and full of people that you don’t really want to meet.
We told the guide that if we cannot stay here in Nyalam, then we have to drive to Zhangmu tonight. But we would like to cross the border then the next day, and not the day after the next day. He was upset, – the driver as well, – we suspected they would loose some of their salary/premium because of that. Even if, we wanted him to contact the travel agency in Nepal, so that they pick us up behind the border the next day. I didn’t like the idea to depend on a person that I cannot trust. We thought he planned in Tingri already to drive all the way to Zhangmu and not to stay in Nyalam…
And then we noticed that they will close the road to Zhangmu in ten minutes.
We left Nyalam as quickily as possible. The drive to Zhangmu is an incredible long, winded road downhill. It is a drop off the plateau, and there are waterfalls, jungle and many gorges. The nature itself is incredible and after several days without trees or proper vegetation, I felt like being in a fairy tale. Very surreal.
The street was deathly. Yes, most of it was proper concrete, but the Chinese didn’t get rid of the immense problem of rockfalls and landslides. The hill facing side of the street was full of massive rocks. This road has to have very sad statistics… It was getting dark, it started to rain. I closed my eyes, – I was too scared. Extreme experiences burn scarns in a brain. So I closed my eyes since I don’t need any more terrible images appearing in my dreams. Florian stayed calm, held my hand and told me what is happening. I felt completely irresponsible and stupid to be here, now, on this road, way too speedy for my taste, with rockfall and construction works. I didn’t know that the worst was still to come.
We were quite alone on the road, until we came to construction works where our side of the road was closed. So we drove on the other side, until we faced another car. It is the worst case. Especially since there were more and more cars behind the car facing us. Maybe they had closed the road uphill and opened it downhill at the same time, so that we are in trouble now. The driver found a quite simple and brute solution: he drove into the construction works, i.e., on the new contrete way where spikey steel bars where scratching the tyres. No tyre can survive that. Never ever. We drove on, and I expected the tyres to be perforated. It isn’t a good feeling to speed a wet street downhill then.
At the next construction works we could see that there is a car coming through, so we waited. Then another car appeared, and one more… and one more… For 10 mintues new cars appeared and drove through the conctruction side. Where the hell do they all come from…? Seemed like an expedition with tourists from India. And seems that they have really opened the road at the bottom of the hill.
Meanwhile it was 9pm and we were since more than 15 hours on the road. I just wanted to get to the hotel.
Then the car stopped at a barrier. It was a Chinese military barrier and we were told that no car can go through anymore. Our guide and driver got out of the car to ask what is going on. The driver returned and indicated that something was exploding or that there was an explosion. The guide didn’t tell us anything at all. He left us in the car without information. We got worried and scared. It was cold, rainy, fog was pulling in the valley and we heard stones falling down behind us. We feared to stay here over night or that we have to return to Nyalam – oh no, there are not hotels free – so to Tingri (which is 5 hours away). The situation was terrible. After some time we were told (by other tourists that got stuck as well), that the military removing large rocks from and above the street. They block the street, trigger an explosion and clean up afterwards. One soldier said that nobody will pass during his shift (that ends at midnight). More and more cars parked behind us.
After two nerve wrecking hours and two explosions, one car was allowed to pass through. A bit later we were let through as well. We didn’t get far, since something was blocking the road. So the car stopped right under the area where the explosion has happened and the soldiers were removing the smaller pieces. Seems that it was highly likely that some stones will fall on our car, since the guide and the driver half panicked looking up the hill. Then a soldier asked the driver and the guide to get out of the car and help removing the blocking stones. Florian and I were sitting in the car, – hell I was scared. After 5 minutes our trip continued. I closed the eyes, I didn’t want to see… I felt completely terrified and was wondering if I will be able to sleep at all this night.
We reached the hotel after probably another 50 minutes. It was ok and I didn’t care about anything else than getting a shower and then dozing off. Tenzin said he was sorry and he brought us a soup. Meanwhile it was nearly midnight. I started to feel relieved, while Florian was getting more tense. He was scared that something else could happen during the night. Nothing happened, luckily.
Day 11 of Himalaya travel diary
Crossing the border to Nepal and enjoying the Last Resort Hotel
Surprisingly we both had a good, deep sleep. At 9am we ate breakfast, – some toast with fried eggs, peanuts (?) and some ham. We prepared to leave at 11am, although our guide tried to convince us to leave later. There is a 2 hour lunch break at the border. So we had to get there beforehand, otherwise we would have to stay there and wait… and that is the last thing we wanted to do.
The ride down to the border was similar to the ride last night. But I closed my eyes and relaxed. Luckily we made it in time and after a quick byebye and tipping, we queued at the Chinese border. The checks were thorough and took their time. Our guide was allowed to join us to the nobody’s land between the borders. He talked to a few of the guys there that were sitting around. One of them was “hired” to take us to the other side of the Nepalese border and make sure that someone from the Nepalese travel agency will pick us up. This worked out quite well… well, more or less. The travel agent got stuck on his way to the border. Some demonstrators blocked a bridge so he couldn’t get to us. The Nepalese fixer organized a cab for us all. After some time we encountered a blockage as well: again, demonstrators occupying bridge, and no ways around. The fixer said that we walk over the bridge and he will organize another cab on the other side. And indeed it worked. After 10 mintues we reached the entrance to the hotel. We had to carry our luggage over a suspension bridge to reach the hotel,”The Last Resort“. Each hotel room is a quite nice and cosy tent, – maybe a bit smelly, but there is no way to keep a tent cinically clean in this environment. After a very delicious welcome drink, we settled in. I took the time to get my 50mm lens out and make some more detailed photos of our jungle surroundings. Lunch was yummy as well. We decided to go for a massage at 3pm. Florian went for a Aryuvedic Massage, and I enjoyed a Reiki treatment. It was fantastic and totally relaxing. I realized that I can let the stress of the last few days go… Actually we planned to stay here for 2 nights. So we already thought about booking the next massage treatment for the next day… until the hotel manager came to our tent: he informed us that there will be strikes and demonstrations starting the day after tomorrow. It might last for one or two days. (Or maybe three or four?… Hmmm.) We realized it is too risky to stay here. Who knows what will happen in the next few days. And in worst case we would miss our flight back to London.
Sadly we had to decide to leave the next day. No two nights in this paradise. No second massage. No more soul relaxing but back to Kathmandu. (We were supposed to stay one night in Baktaphur, but we decided to skip that as well and try to fly back earlier to London.)
We had a beer or two with dinner and went to bed early. No luck on this trip…
Day 12 of Himalaya travel diary
Return to Kathmandu.
We got up very early and had a hot shower. I felt quite sad to have to leave this nice resort again. So I took a few pictures of the surroundings – e.g. plunge pool, which we enjoyed yesterday for a few minutes during the heat of the day. Later we had some breakfast – omelets and hot chocolate. We packed our stuff after that and then the Nepalease guide came to pick us up – half an hour too early. I think he wanted to see the bungee jumper that were due to jump soon. We watched them together. Wow, – I am not sure if I would ever do that.
Then we crossed bridge and rode back to Kathmandu. Again it was quite an exciting ride, but more relaxing. Anyhow everything seems to be easier here in Nepal. After a few hours we arrived at a the Holy Himalaya hotel with free internet -yay! Went for Japanese food at Momotarou, and it was utterly delicious! Was quite nice to be back in Kathmandu. We knew where to go and what to watch out for. And after some shopping we returned to the hotel, watched a bit TV. Anyhow we both want to return to London as quickly as possible.
Day 13 of Himalaya travel diary
Shopping in Kathmandu
We met Meena from the Nepalese travel agency Sherpa Society again. We had a talk about what happened and what to do next. Since we wanted to try to get an earlier flight to London, another travel agent and Florian went to Jet Airways to ask if it can be rebooked for the next day (Monday). We were a bit worried that the strikes and demonstartions could interfer with our flight anyhow and there was no need to stay three more days in Kathmandu.
After a few hours, Florian returned to the hotel with good news: we got tickets for tomorrow’s flight. We were really happy about that and did some last minute shopping (after a quite heavy but delicious Chinese lunch).
You can see that my photos are a bit half-hearted. Anyhow I didn’t feel the vibe, the excitement of the travel anymore. And as soon as this spirit leaves you, nothing is worth being photographed anymore… a pity, but couldn’t help it…
Day 14 of Himalaya travel diary
Kathmandu – Dehli – London. Home sweet home.
We got up around 5.30 and packed the last things up. Had breakfast at 6am. The hotel was so kind to start breakfast 15 minutes earlier for us. Got fruits and pancakes. Lovely. Unluckily we had to exchange a bit more money to pay the beer from last night. We threw everything in the taxi outside (the travel agent arrived with one for us) and it took only 18 minutes to get to the airport.
The airport procedures were tricky and a little bit annoying. You have a bunch of guys around you that want to “help” you and create more chaos and want money for it. If you tip them too little, they complain. And again, security procedures: before entering the airport, your ticket gets checked and all your bags have to be scanned. The big ones get a little sticker that they were checked.
Next: check-in counter. Ah you didn’t pay the departure tax? – so go get that stuff paid and return to the counter. After checking in, go to the passport control: first fill in disembarkment form and then proceed to the check; after that wait in the little souvenir area. (Bought a Sprite and Earl Grey tea here without last money); Then we proceeded to the next security check: all hand luggage gets scanned again while you walk through the detector gates. Even if it doesn’t beep, you get a body search. After that you cannot proceed until you get a certain stamp on your boarding card: the search-the-bag-by-hand-stamp. That means: queue again and wait until your bag gets searched through by hand, all the contents are pulled our of the bag and put on the table and the person is searching for something and I never understood what they are looking for. (Florian had a little pebble in this bag which “wasn’t allowed”. So he had to leave it behind. Ah, fossils by the way, seem to be allowed.)
After 5 minutes of search you get the stamp and can proceed to the waiting hall (which is probably quite full; and there are no proper gates that indicate which flight is boarding now. You have to listen to a guy screaming that who ever wants to fly to Delhi has to board now over there.). At the “gate” the check again the passport ad the ticket. A bus is waiting, and as soon as it is half full it brings you to the plane. Where, guess what, a team of 4 people is standing and checking again all the hand luggage and you get body searched again. Yes, right below the aeroplane. And believe me, it is incredible annoying and a half-hearted search for – nobody knew what they are looking for since the never pulled out any of my liquids or so.
The flight wasn’t fully booked and we could leave in time and therefore arrived in time in Delhi.
The always friendly and helpful Jet airways agents were waiting for the passengers at the exit and handed over the next boarding cards. They led us to a waiting area where we got a little snack box with sandwich, crisps, cake and a juice. Really nice. The Jet Airways agents are really busy and diligent. Now we had to fill in a bag tag for every bag we took with us in the cabin for the next security check: body search and bag scanning. Every bag tag got a stamp that it was checked. (Which again was quite important at the gate then). And then it was boarding – i.e. behind the gate – included 3 more checks of the passport and the ticket. I don’t know what they expect to happen in these 20 meters to the plane. It was utterly annoying.
We got on the plane, left in time, arrived in time. Watched a bunch of movies and got some nice food. Luckily we got through the border quickly, picked up the luggage and went home by tube.
That’s the end of our adventure. And I am so happy to have my own flushing toilet again.
