The gateway to hell ... 30km to move to another world

If we ever thought we did some adventurous off-road trips before our "roller coaster ride" to Kathmandu (e.g. the so-called most dangerous road of the world from La Paz down into the jungle...) we were DEFINITELY WRONG. During the 30km between Nayram (or as the Tibetans call it: "Gateway to hell") and Zhangmu (the Chinese border town) and the following 120km in Nepal we were probably closer to heaven than we wanted to be!!!!
For the road which goes from Tibet to Kathmandu dangerous is not the right adjective... it is as muddy and slippery as it can get, the width is a few cm more than one 4WD (with much road work going on on the Chinese side, and the poor workers sleeping there!!). It is taking you under waterfalls with no hard shoulder and through fast flowing rivers which go into nowhere ... always 10cm away from the border which drops a few 100m into the steep valley. Thanks god we didn't know that more than 30 people died on that road just a few days before, or we wouldn't have been so easy at driving down...

Besides that, the scenery was unbelievably beautiful with sudden deep green tropical forest (after weeks in deserts and high altitude areas a feast for our eyes!!) and humidity going up to 95%. Sleeping at the border was not what you call glamorous and we had to take a few beers (even went into a shabby discotheque to kill time!) before we dared to climb into our damp and dirty sheets.

Crossing the border to Nepal gave us straight away the feeling we were in a different world. The people (dark and colorfully dressed), the smell (spicy and sweet), the culture (Hindu, Buddhist), the chaos (dirty, noisy) and also the weather (monsoon every day a few hrs) - it couldn't be more different to Tibet.. The Indian influence is more than obvious. It exciting on a different way and not at last brings great dinners and relaxed traveling atmosphere.

The closest place to heaven - trekking to Qomolangma

Two days in Lhasa gave us time to catch up on mails and laundry as well as curing a toothache as Simone found herself loosing a filling. The local dentist had a airy clinic (it was more a shabby shop filled with Chinese getting hanging infusions and some deserted dentist chairs) by the road (it was literally ON the road!!), clients smoking inside and 20 Chinese trying to check what might be so wrong in the mouth of a European (they all stared into my open mouth!!!). With the help of Fabri's drawing skills we finally got around to explain we needed only a filling but the whole process kept both of us quite nervous.. in the end we got a good service and a tooth filling for only 5 Euros... not bad as a dentist rate !!!

Sipping our last coffee in the Summit cafe (the local Starbucks copy!!) was the last thing before getting into the 4WD to Kathmandu. The drive took us through some beautiful landscapes and we managed (again ;-) to visit fantastic Monasteries. In particular at Gyantse we took the picture of what we had seen only few months ago at Minimundus in Austria and got to understand better how the new Dalai Lama is selected at Shigatse. It's a pretty amazing process which involves identifying people with unique features...

The undoubted highlight of the trip was getting to Everest Base Camp (Qomolangma is its real Tibetan name..) . And YES!! We saw it in deep blue sky!!! (despite monsoon season). The drive was a proper off road trip with rivers to cross, muddy roads showing a deep valley on our side.. we were however very lucky to turn around the corner and get in front of us the majestic Mount Everest. The experience is really touching as you feel pretty small in comparison and the glaciers and surroundings make it a stunning view. Somehow it is difficult to explain, but once you see it, you want to get to the top and this is not something for everyone. We had an even colder night up there, but the day paid us back as we trekked on some off road paths to the Everest Base Camp (5.300m) to get a glimpse of the glacier at its bottom. Unfortunately the Chinese try to make everything difficult keeping people to the official path but we sneaked through the valley and got closer to the mountain - magic!!! (ok, we might be a bit H.Potter influenced these days ;-). On the last pass towards Kathmandu with another incredible view on the Himalaya range, we had time to tie some prayer flags to the pass and hopefully they will keep flying up there for a long time as one of the highlights of our trip...

Sky burials, steaming rivers and turquoise lakes ... exploring Tibets countryside

We enjoyed a couple of nice days out to Monasteries in the whereabouts of Lhasa and got better acclimatised with the altitude (3600m, now it even sounds low!). Somehow we managed to jump on a local bus to Ganden at 6am getting a seat in the corridor between all the pilgrims and even managing an hour sleep to arrive to a beautiful Monastery with a great Kora (the pilgrimage around the Monastery). Walking up a steep path (panting and struggling) we were rewarded with fantastic views over the valley. We even managed to join the monks for a cup of yak tea which serves them as lunch but is pretty difficult to drink for our taste (imagine salted brown water with butter mixed into it).

We then tried to organize few tours and even considered entering Potala... but both seemed a bit of a mission impossible. To enter what was the ex house of the Dalai Lama independent travelers have to give up a good night sleep to queue at 4am in order to get the permission to buy tickets for the following day. Not being early birds we opted for a walk around and taking (anyway the best) shots from outside and watching the monks at Sera monastery during their daily debating practise (it reminded us of our negotiation skills classes during the MBA ;-)

Eventually we met up with a nice (Mexican/Dutch) couple with whom we have been traveling since (Georgina and Vincent). We embarked on a nice trip around Lhasa to check few monasteries out off the beaten trek (as you would have got by now, a lot of sightseeing in Tibet revolves around Monasteries). On the occasion we got to witness a sky burial which is a unique way for the Tibetans to greet their loved ones for the last time.. Once they have been wrapped tight in sitting positions they are indeed carried on the shoulder of friends to get the last blessing and left to vultures and wild dogs.. very strange experience to even sleep near that site (we saw the prayers only which was more than enough for the girls..)

After a hot hot bath the next morning with some praying Tibetans in the local hot springs we headed towards Nam Tso (a bumpy but amazing 6hrs trip in our 4WD), the highest salt lake in the world. We spent freezing nights at 4800m and enjoyed fantastic views of the turquoise lake which you will see on flickr (click Tibet link). The night in between costed us wet clothes as our tend was not strong enough to keep the water outside and wild dogs tried to entertain us too long. It was anyway a great way to explore the areas around Lhasa on a 4WD and even challenge the locals on playing pool (loosing as you might guess, but the table was not what you might call a smooth surface!!)

Finally... arriving on the roof of the world!

On the morning of the 10th all the worries whether we would have entered Tibet cleared as we finally boarded the plane that would have taken to Lhasa. But what a plane ride... we got hit by a lightening (!!) and it felt as if the plane would touch the mountains ...
While landing we got a glimpse of the mountains growing over the clouds and we suddenly felt the altitude as breathing at 3600 metres can be hard. We got into Lhasa at the beginning of a week of festival and were welcomed by masses of pilgrims and monks wondering around the monasteries while praying. We checked into a nice hotel and nearly made it to the third floor, understanding we would need to acclimatise before heading on the sites. Walking along the Koras (the pilgrimage around the monastry) with the pilgrims and entering the monasteries during the festival somehow touched us quite deeply as people have such a strong belief in religion. We really enjoyed the sites and tried to get used to the (pretty strong) smell of the yak butter tea, which is rather dense (fat!!) and rather different (salty!) from our idea of tea.
We were lucky enough to attend a festival at Deprung monastery where a huge image of Buddha (Thanka) on a big cloth is revealed on a mountain while around 70 thousands people start throwing their white praying scarfs (and themselves) onto it.

As we walked to 4500m (with lungs and heads aching ...) to visit the monastries we got great views of the valleys and praying flags flying so high. Tibet is really an incredible country, althouth the Chinese would not quite agree with the latter definition, with very nice simple people which touch you deeply inside...
and the food finally is not chinese only giving us the opportunity to enjoy spaghetti bolognese and tasty nepalese food..

Starbucks, Pizza Hut and faked Nike .. we are in Chengdu

As we were trying to find out which was the best way to get into Tibet we decided on flying rather than other long bus/train journeys as our backs had started acking a bit too much (although it was really tough to let go our dream of entering Tibet with the famous new train!!).

Chengdu is in the middle of China and the entry port to Tibet. We weren't expecting anything special, but as soon as we landed we bumped into a Starbucks ... and suddenly realised our breakfasts would have improved greatly !!! We also got the latest copy of Harry Potter and this was enough for us to spend few hours enjoying what we have been missing from home. The city afterall had also a nice quarter where the old chinese buildings had been restored to create a nice pedestrian area where to enjoy few drinks in the evening. A couple of dinners at Pizza Hut and some hours spent at a massage place were what we needed to recharge our batteries before flying to Tibet.

50 hrs bus ride through the desert...

Kashgar was what we expected Central Asia to look like... an old city with an arabic flair, old markets with local people eating on the street and the smoke permeating the streets !!! It was really nice to get the Silk road feeling we missed in Central Asia and also get into China again. The country is really moving forward... 5yrs ago it would have been a mission impossible to get anyone speaking English in 4star hotels.. this time we were given directions in the street..

we then decided to go for the desert experience and decided on 50 hrs bus ride to Urumqi stopping in Hoitan on the way, which will probably remain in our memory for the place where we actually saw the only silk factory... the trip from Hoitan to Urumqi was quite relaxing and we were lucky enough to get there during a storm and one of the 8days during the year when it rains !!! anyway the only glampses we got were really fascinating and getting off the bus to repair a broken light with sand getting in our mouth was somehow adventorous. From Urumqi we headed directly to Turpan where we embarked on a nice trip across the flaming mountaints and cool viniards. Interesting enough the grapes tasted delicious but no wine wine production.. We will also remember the trip for the people sleeping on the street. Everyone was just bringing the couch outside next to the road and sleep there.. not sure if this was related to security or other but it was rather odd to drive early in the morning through people just stretching as the sun started to rise...

Across the Pamirs and into China

We spent few nice nights in Osh before heading into China. The trip was really beautiful across the mountains in a 4 wheel drive that required cooling every 10 kilometers and a good stretch for our legs. We were welcome a couple of times by locals on the way who ran our way to offer some food and water. On the night we invited ourselves into the house of a nice family... they had planned to spend a quite evening by themselves when some strange foreigners knocked on the door asking for a place to sleep .. and so we got a space in their garden. The next day we got to China crossing the border very early in the morning. A couple of truck drivers felt a bit sorry for the long walk we had to make into china and gave us a lift all the way !!!