From Shigatse we headed to Shegar.... along the way we stopped at Shakya Monestary which was interestingly dark and dreary, but not one of the monastery superlatives (we saw the oldest, the biggest, the highest, the most active... I would have to deem Shakya the most disappointing...)
We just stayed in the newer part of Shegar along the friendship highway... basicall 2 or 3 guesthouses on a dusty road. We actually had an amazingly pleasant evening looking for fossils (There are incredible shell fossils in this region), and then drinking tea and playing cards. This time the locals actually played with us.
Up from Shegar for the really long drive into Everest base camp, although I must say that the views were nothing less than shocking. From the first pass we hit, we saw 4 8000m peaks on the same horizon! The peaks were: Mt. Makalu (8464m), Mt Lhotse (8516m), Mt. Everest (8848m) and Mt Cho Oyu (8201m). The other astonishing thing was just how much better the view of Everest was from this side... from the Nepal side Lhotse is blocking most of Everest, from this side it's all Everest. Amazing.
That night we stayed in Rongphu monastery (or the guesthouse built by the monks) where we were able to sit in the assembly hall and listen to the monks chant. We even broke bread with them. Again, these monks were perhaps the most non-serious of the monks. Cracking smiles and talking in the ceremony, making faces as us. I guess when you live in the world's highest monastery, you get some liberties on your enlightenment.
After the ceremony we watched the sun set over Everest (Dan was actually right and there were colors, but I had already abandoned my camera in the room. And we called it a cold night with Everest peaking down on us through our window. In the night, there was lightening behind Everest in an otherwise crystal star-studded sky.
The next morning we got up and DROVE out to base camp to get even closer to Everest. From base camp we did at least walk for a couple of hours onto the glacier field and stumbled on some beautiful Turquoise lakes where we called an end to our hike and just started taking pictures. Both Jim and Dan and Carey had bought with them a prayer flag, and we hung them in view of Everest. Quite a morning... we hated to leave, but we had an 8 hour day of driving over the roughest terrain of our trip, so we had to go.
That night we slept in Tingri next to the tents of a group of nomadic pilgrims that were in town, but we were pretty beat and the night actually passed rather uneventfully except that we all slept very well (all that thick oxygen at 4300m!)
The next day was the final push. We had no idea what we were in store for. The drop into Nepal was incredible. We dropped from 5200m (another pass) down to about 1200m. The road was sketchy at best, but the views, if not the thick oxygen was more than worth it. In our final pass before driving through the Himalayas, we saw our last 8000m peak- Mt Xixapangma...
At the border crossing town we lost our guide and driver and had to find our own way down the 11km to the Friendship bridge which connects Nepal and China. Then we were back in Nepal and a mere 4 hour Taxi drive in the dark to Kathmandu... probably the roughest part of the trip just due to Nepali driving....
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