Week 13 (Tibet (No, that's not China. Not! You hear me?))

9/14

Congrats Moop, Eric, Henk and of course Mariya. 4 friends have their birthday on the 14th.
Rose at 6.45. Had to make breakfast with Tim (and Carlos, Matt and Jean from the other cookgroup) in the freezing cold. Hell! My hands almost froze off. OK, wanted to go to Tibet, there you are then. On the road again now.

Drove all day long. One police check after another. Arrived in Lhasa at 20.00h. Checked in the Tibet Grand Hotel. The name is more than the content. The lobby is impressive, the rooms smell. Anyway, better than the icecold bush camps for a while. Laterz. Want to get a glimpse of the city, before i go to sleep.
And check my mail on this unprotected wifi thing.

City is nice, but totally chinesed. Still need to find the original Tibet-like part of town. Well, got 2 days for that.


9/15

What a good night sleep in a luxury bed. Slept 8 hours solid. Woke up at 8, breakfast in the hotel was good. Tried to do some stuff on the net, but wifi is far too slow. Found a "they have it all" supermarket. Will go there again for some more necessities. Funny how happy you can be with little things when you're traveling. Laterz.

Yep, found the right razor blades. And a (too feminine) after shave. And good finally access my e-mail. Taking a nap now. Laterz.

Had diner and Went shopping once more in the evening and came back at 10(ish). Star trek episode finalized the day.


9/16

Woke up at 7.30, breakfast and visited a Tibetan monistary, together with Tim and Nam (our local tourguide here). Well, you know Tim and religion... poor Nam. It was interesting though, but... everything costs money. A bit contradictional to the buddhist principle of not being attached to materials, isn't it.

Getting some lunch now.

Afternoon: shopping, internetting, long strolls, Evening:: long stroll, shower, shave, long chat with Lenie (who?), star trek episode and a beer now. Tomorrow on the road again. The (hopefully) last series of cold bush camps.


9/17

Rose at 8.00, breakfast, packed and on the road again. It's raining, it's cold, Tim and I do cookgroup (probably in the dark). To go short: not the most enjoyable part of the trip. Want to go to the tropics again! Laterz.

The trip over the three passes (up to over 5K again) was stunning. One picture is not enough:

Arrived at bush camp lot too late (as to be expected), so (partly cooked in the dark. All went well though. Slept on the truck, which was a lucky choice, since it poored with rain. Poor Ozzie Alley and Greg flooded out of their tents and so they went sleeping on the truck as well. I had a good night sleep, despite the little moving space.


9/18

Rose at 6.30 (spontaneously), did breakfast with (a grumpy (and that IS grumpy)) Tim. Went well again. On the road again. Lots of things to do today. Gonna be a long day (if all goes according to plan (which never is the case...;-) )).

9:00 visted a monistary, that's to say, some did. Most of us seized the opportunity to dry their tents:

The people in the street were so friendly. They brought us coffee, while we used (unasked!) their territory to dry our tents. Now there's a way to treat foreigners, isn't it. Wilders eat your f*cking heart out.

14.00 Shopped in nice little Tibetian town. Heavy rain about to start...

Drove on till 19.30 or so. Late bushcamp. Slept at 9, coz have to rise early tomorrow (5 AM). Did sleep good though.


9/19

Rose at 5.15. No breakfast, coz... on the road, so the EBC (Everest Base Camp) people good be delivered at the agreed spot.
We arrived there at 10.30. Ik don't go to EBC, since the main road to there is blocked, due to construction. So u have to take a 4WD car, to get there, by a mud track and that costs... US$ 380,-. Im not crazy Henkie. Just for your face in a picture with Mount Everest in the back ground. So the rest of us have the afternoon to relax at the next bush camp spot. On our way to theree now.

Lovely, warm, sunny afternoon at the bush camp spot. Dried all the tents, little laundry, got sunburned, played guitar, had two beers, untill ... it got really chilly and it's probably going to rain heavily now. Updating blog in my tent now. Laterz.

The rain didn't come. The sun came back. At 18.30 the Everest group returned. Had diner, the sun disappeared, so it became cold. 5 of us (Brenda, James, Will, Matt and me) sat down in the front of the truck, passing the i-pod around, do everybody picked a favourite song of him/her and explained why. Meanwhile the sun set over the Himalaya's in the distance. A memorable moment.

Went to my tent at 10.30 or so, watched a star trek episode and slept like a log. Nice and warm, until 7.40.


9/20

Rose at 7.40, Ozzie breakfast (fried eggs, beaked beans on toast), packed and about to go on the road again. Towards the Nepalese border.
China, in all, wasn't that fantastic to me as i had hoped. The environment is great, but it's a totaliry system, a police state and that is noticable (check after check). Besides that... hygiene... you will not believe the toilets ... i mean.. India is bad, but not the worse... and sometimes people are so rude and filthy... i mean.. burbing, picking your nose, farting, spitting on the floor, every body does it every now and then... but NOT IN PUBLIC TRANSPORT. Tank you very dutch!. Well, back to today, If all goes according to plan we will be in Nepal in 2 days. Laterz.

Nice scenery along the friendship highway between Tibet and Nepal (sworn enemies untill the 1800's).

Then.. trucks, parked along the 5meter wide mountain road. So, Dennis, Carlos and I guided the truck along the edges of the road. It was terrifying, how close to the edges we came. It ook us hours before we got to the border, where we slept in the truck, so we could cross early the next morning.

You know, rain, snow, cold, arriving too late, being exhausted, I can handle it, but... there is a point, when i snap, I break. Too much to handle. It came when, in the middle of a long row of trucks that slowed us down tremendously, i saw this:

I cried for hours...


And what do you do when you have to wait... exactly, you drink beer. A lot, So i started the next day with a hangover, that still bothers me. But it was great fun. (Almost) everybody  joined in, Playing guitar was hardly doable (due to alcohol abuse), but good fun it was.

And Greg... he made a new friend....