Mt. Everest

After a night at Old Tingri it was time to set off to Mt. Everest! For my part, this was one of the highlights of the journey. At least it was supposed to be.

We set off early in the morning, well prepared for the 160 km up to Base Camp. The road was steep and windy as we had to drive over another high-pass which was about 5200 meters above sealevel. Of course we broke down a couple of times on the way. We had lunch in a local village along the way, and at about 4 pm we reached the Rongbuk Monastery, which is the highest one in the world, located just 8 km from Base Camp. By that time it had started snowing, so I almost felt at home! We took a tour around the monastery before we set off to the final destination, the foot of Mount Everest.

There are two basecamps, one at 5200 meters and one at 5300. The one at 5300 is the one the climbers use, while the one at 5200 is the one the tourists use. It was so cloudy we couldn't even see Everest... And as it turned out, it didn't clear, so we never actually got to see it. Bummer! I'm really sad about that. And when there was a chance we could se it in the distance when we were driving somewhere it was always covered in clouds.

Anyways, the camp was nice, we stayed in "hotels" which were big canvas-tents with an oven in the middle and 5 beds around the side of the room. They functioned as sofas aswell, so when we arrived we were sat down and given tea. I shared a tent with Renate, the other Norwegian, Maeve, Matt and Jack. We just sat around and played cards until it was bedtime. The lady running the hotel was very nice, although she hardly spoke any English, and she even tucked us in when we were all snuggled up!

I didn't sleep very well, the altitude really kicks in when you're so high up, so it felt like I slept for an hour and was awake for an hour and I woke up in the morning with a massive headache. It got better after some food and water though. We had a tiny hope that the weather had cleared but it had snowed about 5 cm during the night and it was still snowing. So we gave up hope of seeing Everest, and we didn't even get to go to the other basecamp, because of the weather. There was a chance that we had to stay longer if it didn't stop snowing, but luckily a jeep managed to get over the high-pass, so we set off at about 1 pm. We broke down about 3 times along the way, but made it at last. One time it looked really bad, and we were afraid we might have to camp on the cold mountainside. But once over the high-pass it cleared up and we made it to Baipa where we spent the night, and next day we drove to Shigatze where we are at the moment.

Dragomans motto is "Not your everyday journey" and I can certainly say I agree so far! I'm really sad that we didn't get to see Everest, but I guess that's one of the things you can't do anything about. Better luck next time!!

By the way, I can't access the blog here in China so I'm updating it via my e-mail. Sorry to say I can't post any photos untill I get home, or read any comments, but don't let that stop you!

Happy camper!

After leaving Zhangmu we headed for more remote parts of China. We left in the evening because as I described in the last entry (I think), they do roadworks during the day and only open the roads at night. We spent a night in a simple and cold hotel in the middle of nowhere. I was sharing a room with Maeve, and just as we had snuggled up in bed our tourleader Tamara came and knocked on the door telling us we had to move because the hotel was fully booked. So there was nothing else to do than to get some clothes on, pack all our stuff and move up to Matt, Jack and Johns room. Didn't sleep all that well, as I was woken up in the middle of the night by someone throwing up outside our room, and later early in the morning by Indians singing...

After that we drove to a small village where we were to camp for a couple of nights. It was in the middle of a valley, and the wind was constantly blowing. Time to unpack thermals and down-jackets! We felt the altitude quite well, I was alright, but a couple of the others had massive headaches. We also felt it when we were doing stuff, just putting up the tent left me completly out of breath! We went for a walk through the village, and got to visit a local family to see how they lived. Very basic housing, but one room was turned into a combined bedroom/shrine, and the kitchen had a TV! We were also supposed to go see some caves and a monastery but they were both closed.

To get us acclimatized we had to go up to the highest altitude we were going to and then come back down, so at about 10.30 pm we set off to the first high-pass. It was about 2,5 hours drive, so we didn't se much when we got there. It was strange being at 5050 meters! The body doesn't really know what you're up to. I felt quite light-headed and one of the others actually threw up a couple of times. We stayed there for an hour before we turned back. The next day we had a long sleep-in and just sat around in the truck playing cards. Our truck is called Daphne, and she has a bad habit of breaking down quite often! Our driver, Ian, and Tamara did some work on her during the day and we took her for a test-drive afterwards, and of course she broke down. It turned out that the whole gearbox needed replacement, so Ian took her off to the nearest town in hope of finding a mechanic at 7.30 pm on a Saturday night... So, new plan! The other truck (there are two groups of us driving paralell for a few weeks) drove off to the next place after dinner, and was going to try to make it back before 6 am so we could make the roadwork-block which shut at 7. If not, we were going to get some local transport. So we all went to bed with our alarms set at 04.45 so we had time to pack up the tents and stuff. Just as we had gotten dressed and packed up our sleepingbag Tamara came along and said Daphne was almost fixed, but wouldn't make it in time for 7 am, and the other truck didn't stand a chance to come back in time, so we were to leave that night instead. Right. Pee-stop and stargazing before we unpacked our sleepingbag and got our pyjamas back on. Just as we were about to snuggle up Tamara came back and said Daphne was fixed and on the way! So quickly quickly, packed up and had dry cornflakes for breakfast before we finally set off.

It was a long day of driving! But the views were so amazing! We went back over the 5050 meter pass, the Lablungla. The nearby mountains were brown, and the Himalayas were streched out in the background with snowy caps. At the very top of the pass there were loads of prayer-flags, and the sky was so blue it looked unreal.

After a couple of break-downs and a nice lunch-stop we finally reached the town of Old Tingri at about 8 pm. The hotel was the nicest one we'd had so far, they even had sit-down toilets and hot showers! A nice change from not having looked in a mirror or had a wash for the last few days.

The Last Resort

So, after a couple of days in Kathmandu we set off to The Last Resort, which is a resort in the border-region towards China. It was so nice! Huge tents with beds and hot showers and a lovely garden where we relaxed. The first night we just chilled out and ate nice food and played Trivial Pursuit.

The next day however was a bit more exciting! We started off after breakfast, John and David from my group and a guy from the other group and me. We were going canyoning! The Last Resort was set in the mountainside, about 160 meters from the bottom of a beautiful gorge, with steep mountains on either side. We walked along untill we got to a waterfall where our first rapelling was. We started out with an easy one of 8 meters, and worked our way down the mountainside, absailing and sliding. The last waterfall was 45 meters! It was great fun. Walking back up the steep hillside wasn't that fun...

But then it was time for the highlight of the day, BUNGY!!! I wasn't going to do it when I first heard we had the option, because I thought it would probably be shorter than the one I did in New Zealand, but then we got there and it turned out to be 160 meters! So I just had to do it. It was great fun, I wasn't nervous untill I actually stepped out onto the platform, and then I thought "Heeelp, what the ***** am I doing???" But I didn't really have any choice, so the guy said "Ready? Three two one, bungy!" and I let myself fall... You know the rest! Adrenaline flows like mad and it's such a good feeling :)

So after walking back up from the bottom a second time I was nackered, and spent the rest of the day lying around reading my book and having a dip in the plunge pool.

The next morning we set off to cross the border into China. That was basically just a whole day of waiting... We waited for about 3 hours before we had a health-check, and then another hour before our bags were sprayed and then we went through customs and then a few more hours wait for the truck to pass. And we used about 40 minutes to get through and the truck used 2 minutes, so can't really say we were extremly happy about it all. But we got through and are currently in a town called Zhangmu. Last night we had cake because it was Jacks birthday. Today we're just hanging around. We were supposed to leave early but they are doing roadworks on the road we're going on, so they close the road during the day and it's open during the night... So hopefully at 9 pm we'll be off to the mountains... What a country!

Kathmandu

So, I made it to Kathmandu! The flight(s) went well, and it didn't take as long as I feared, even with the 6 hour stopover in Dehli. On the flight from Frankfurt I got the whole seatrow to myself, so that was great, I even got some decent sleep. In Dehli I met a couple of nice girls who were on the same flight as me to Kathmandu, so we hung out together while waiting.

Kathmandu is a bustling city, lots of people and lots of noise. It's got its beauty though, yesterday I was just walking around exploring by myself and thought "hmm, should I go any further down this street?" and then decided to go to the next junction before turning around. So I started walking and glanced down a sidestreet and there was this beautiful stupa (temple-thingy)! It was gorgeous, with lots and lots of prayerflags hanging off it. I found another one today, on top of a hill (sooo many steps going up!! But totally worth it.) and that to had loads of prayerflags all over the place. I love them, they are so pretty.

This morning I met the rest of the group, and they seem nice. We're 17 people plus a couple of crew. One other Norwegian girl, Irish, Americans, English and a girl from South Africa. I haven't gotten to talk to all of them yet, but we're going out for dinner tonight so hopefully we'll all get to know each other a little better then.

It's strange being here today as it's the 17th of May which is Norways national day, so Gratulerer med dagen all of you! :)

Leaving Kathmandu tomorrow and heading north. Don't quite know when I'll be able to update next or upload photos but we'll see. Bye for now!

Departure!

So, it's the evening before I'm off. Finally! I've been waiting for this for seven months! I can't believe how fast the last weeks have passed. 

My backpack is all stuffed with everything from a down-jacket and wooly underwear to flip-flops and sunglasses. I think I've remembered all the vital stuff anyways! 

The whole trip almost went down the drain, because the Indian embassy used such a long time to make my transit-visa, and Dragoman who I'm travelling with needed a copy of my passport to make the Chinese visa, and of course I didn't get my passport back until the very last day it was possible to fix the Chinese visa. But luckily it arrived and I e-mailed it off 30 mins before it was too late! I was quite stressed out so to say. So now I hope all my bad luck has been used up for the rest of the trip! 

Well, time for bed. I have to get up at 5.15 tomorrow... Good night!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!!

I've decided to write it in English, because all the Norwegians I know speak English but none of my foreign friends speak Norwegian...

This blog will probably be filled with bits and pieces about everything and anything, but in the next couple of months it will be a travelblog. Simply because next Friday, May 15th, I'm setting off on a 7 weeks adventure! It's a grouptrip organised by a company called Dragoman called The Pilgrims Trail. Basically it starts in Kathmandu, Nepal, and ends up in Beijing, China. In the mean time we're heading to Mt. Everest base camp, Tibet, Golmud, Xi'an, Mt. Kongtong, Yinchuan and Chengde. Amongst others. 

I'm quite excited about Mt. Everst base camp, it's at 5150 meters so I hope I'll be okey with the altitude. 5 years ago when my best friend Nora and I went backpacking we climbed Mt. Kinabalu which was 4100 meters and I was fine then so I hope I will be now aswell. I've got a sleepingbag that you can use in temperatures down to -30*C so at least I won't be cold!

I haven't started packing yet, but I've written a list! I've probably forgotten a lot, so let me know if you think there's something obvious I need to bring!

Well, that's all for now. I can't promise I'll be very good at keeping the blog updated given the nature of my trip, but I'll try my best! :)