Tingri to Zhongba

Well it's been a hellish 10 hours of driving (plus an hour break in Saga for lunch and the last check of the e-mail for a good 6-7 days). All of it has been off road, with the road of varying quality, mostly bad, often worse.

We woke up at 6:50 to loud chatter outside...wait, scratch that, we woke at 4:30 to a trip to the outhouse (literally) which can best be described as a "pit toilet" - a concrete slab with three 12" x 12" squares cut out of the floor and half walls (no doors) for modesty. And the description stops there because it gets worse (though, I must say, not nearly as bad as a few other places I've been...). So of course at 4:35 I couldn't get back to sleep for an hour or so. 6:50 rolls around and the loud chatter (in Chinese) starts, which I abruptly woke to and expressed my displeasure as I open the door, disheveled appearance and all. So they quiet down and the alarm goes off 10 minutes later but we slept till 7:20 before dragging ourselves up for a 20 minute walk up a hill to hopefully see Everest.

No dice, it was covered with clouds, but still a nice time of the morning - it was quite fresh though and I had 4 layers plus hat and gloves on (still freezing!). Because all of China is on Beijing time the sun rises at 7:30-8am out here...very polite, really. Kathmandu is 2 hours and 15 minutes behind even though it's directly south. (I'm sure the extra 15 minutes will account for all the jet lag).

We met out guide on the way back into the village and he suggested breakfast at a little hole in the wall (to be fair, most of the places we've been eating in since Lhasa could be described as that). So Heather & I tucked into steamed buns filled with yak and rice congee for breakfast, which was actually very nice, and only cost 10 kuai ($1.50) total.

On the road at 9:15 and not 10 minutes out of town the clouds over Everest had lifted and we could see it, albeit shaded by the angle of the sun. Whoops, looking at the wrong mountain before! And looks shorter than the others but I'm sure that's a depth perception issue - far be it from me to question the ability of the world's scientists to measure mountain height.

We drove on a dirt track for quite some time, as the Himalayas came in and out of view depending on the size of the foothills. Along the way we passed an overturned truck (turns out the accident killed 2 people and injured another - it looked like a huge mess), many herds of goats and sheep, nomad families taking down their tents, and a Tibetan hitch-hiker who we stopped for and had a smoke with (well some of us did). There was another holy lake - the turquoise colours of the lakes are incredible here - and the view of the Langtang region of the Himalayas over on the Nepal border. Then the hills changed to rocky mountains and the road got progressively worse.

After hours...and hours...and hours...we arrived at Saga, a fairly rough looking town, but hey it had internet. Our guide led us to a Tibetan restaurant despite the guidebook's promise that this was the last town where we would get a full, proper meal (e.g. not something that involves solely dough & yak). Yak dumplings it was then...and I chose to ignore the number of flies around the joint as it wasn't good. We had about 20 minutes after lunch to get some water and I checked e-mail (for free! Amazing given it's China). On the road again from Saga to Zhongba - where we were to stop for the night.

Hours...and hours...and hours...

We finally arrive at about 8:30pm into Zhongba - a full 10 hours of driving at an average of 30-40 kms per hour (so, about 25-30 mph?). We were all exhausted, our backs shattered from the bone-jarring trip (wait maybe that's just me). Zhongba is truly a one-horse town, most likely a yak or a donkey actually, and the 4 of us are sleeping in a room surrounding a yak dung stove. Variable electricity exists, though really it might as well not. I was hoping to get some laundry done tonight before heading out to Darchen but I'm not sure how that will go. We had tea and some yak dumpling soup (ooh a new twist on that concept) which was actually really good and hearty but...frankly...I think I will get sick of yak dumplings after the next week. Clearly the only vegetables that grow above 4200 meters are green capsicum and potato.

The happiest news about the joint is that the toilet is not only outside, it's across the road in another block and most likely surrounded by wild/stray dogs at 4:00 am. I know beggars can't be choosers but...I do look forward to a time when my queries of prospective accommodation return to 'does it have wifi' instead of 'how long is the electricity on, how far do I have to walk to get to the toilet, and past how many stray dogs?'

Tomorrow, more of the same to the town nearest Kailash to prepare for our trek. I keep telling myself "it's just a walk" as it's a bit nerve-wracking to walk 52kms over 3 days at extreme altitudes. The 2nd day is the hardest - 7 to 8 hours of walking with an ascent of 500 meters to the pass...which is at 5630 meters (18,410 feet). Here's hoping I don't pass out, as there's not exactly a great deal of emergency rescue facilities at my disposal...!