7 Days in Tibet - Days 5-8

Shigatse to Tingri to Mt. Everest
The past 3 days has been crazier than the trip from Gyantze to Shigatse. I don't think I was expecting this on my journey. From Shigatse we headed to Tingri. The hotels in Gyantze and Shigatse were very nice compared to Lhasa so it got our hopes up for Tingri. But when we got there...the Hotel wasn't very dingy. And they told us that it was by far better than the simple guest houses that we were suppose to stay at. The road trip from Shigatse to Tingri wasn't too bad. Just through mountains and farm land. Very scenic but it was a pretty smooth ride.

So the hotel was crap in Tingri. Sheets were gross, towels didn't smell too good, and the bathroom wasn't all that clean. We made do with it though. There wasn't much to do in Tingri as it was a poor country town with only mountains around.

We headed to Mt. Everest in the morning. The ride took 3-4 hours up, down, around, and through the mountains. Safe to say it was a bumpy and windy road. The roads were not complete which made it ridiculously bumpy. We stopped along the way to get views of Everest...I want to lie and say that it was great and amazing but I can't...it was off in the distance and clouds were blocking it. We saw the sister mountains surrounding Everest though! Anyway, we made it to the path to "base camp" and took a horse-drawn cart up to actual "base camp". The altitude was about 5300m (16,000ft). My cousin wasn't feeling too well at this point. My headache had faded a couple of days before so I was happy (I think threatening your body helps) but worried about my cousin. I began to get a dull ache but nothing I can't brush off. So back to base camp...after using the nastiest squatter toilet/hole I proceeded to hike a bit up a hill that looked out to Everest. It was the same scene as before...Everest was covered by a huge blanket of clouds and off in the distance. Needless to say we were quite disappointed.

After lunch in one of the tourist "guest house" tents, my cousin was writhing in pain and nausea, we headed back over, under, through, around the bumpy, wind-y, and muddy terrain to our awesome hotel in Tingri. With the bouncing and jostling of the Land Cruiser for 3.5 hours my cousin was feeling really sick. When we finally got back to the hotel in one piece things were better (the altitude of the hotel was about 4000+ meters). It was an adventure but was also worried about my cousin. I was just glad we got back safely.

Tingri to Zhang Mu

We were ecstatic to leave the hotel in Tingri the next morning. We were FINALLY heading down the mountain to the border of Tibet and Nepal. After 4 hours of driving along the cliff of the mountain, hugging turns so we don't go tumbling down, passing cars, avoiding goats and cows, we arrive in a town (forgot the name) for lunch. We could not leave this town before 7 pm because the roads were again under construction. So we tried to sneak out of the town while the officials were having lunch. We didn't make it. We tried to bribe our way out but no luck. All the tourists who we recognize from the other towns we've been to were also stuck. So we had to kill 4 hours in this little town in the rain. We found a store that sold poker cards and sat in a tea house drinking yak butter tea and played Chinese Poker with our Guide and Driver. After 3 hours everyone was able to get out...I think the guard went to the bathroom or something. The last 30km to Zhang Mu may have been the most scenic, muddy and dangerous at the same time. We just kept driving down the mountains...I was expecting the mountain to stop at some point but it just kept going down. After about 1.5 hours of 4-wheeling it down the muddy roads in the rain along with other Land Cruisers we come to a stop...dead stop on the mountain due to traffic. Trucks, cars, buses, were all trying to get through Zhang Mu to Nepal. The driver says "Ok, we're not too far, you guys can start walking to the hotel." I was totally confused. It was raining and muddy on the mountain and all the cars were stopped. Anyway, I started to gear up with my fake Lowe Alpine jacket and semi-waterproof pants that i bought in Shigatse. We head down in the rain, sliding in between cars and trucks for 20 min. We hail a teeny taxi when we finally reach a point where the cars could move. I was expecting a normal city. You know, pretty wide, open, stores, people, a normal city. But Zhang Mu, apparently, is a city literally on the mountain. It's one long narrow road with stores to either side. It probably goes for about 3 miles or so but there are always cars and trucks just blocking each other from going up or down the mountain because it's a single lane road. It was really strange.

We finally get to the hotel (on the side of the mountain) about 10 min later. After exchanging our moldy stinky hotel room to a nicer one we headed out to dinner to unwind a bit. All in all, it was a different experience.

Tibet