The Muddy/Slippy/Washed away Roof of the World

Thursday, July 29, 2010 Katie and Taylor
Thursday 29th July

Well despite the altitude and the scary road up which as mysteriously enough called the “Friendship Highway” we made it to Mount Everest (Tourist) Base Camp, or as Tibet like to call it Mount Qomolangma. After a silly O’Clock start on Saturday and lots of switchback roads we got our first sighting of the highest point in the world at about 10am. A few clouds blocking the view but we could still see it. We arrived at the hotel section of base camp not long after and Pete was literally dragged from one “hotel” to the next getting us the best price. The hotels were literally big tents similar to Yurts with fires in the middle were they burnt Yak poo to keep us warm. They were family run so we had an entire family running after us topping up our tea (even if we’d only taken a sip) and cooking for us… some of the group were even tucked in at night!
 

As we watched and waited for the clouds to clear we met some travellers who had been at the hotel camp for over a week and this was their first sighting of Everest…. so we were feeling rather lucky as we only had a permit for 24 hours. It was a 3Km walk to what we hoped would be Trekker Base Camp but reached a sign saying “Tourists Cease Step” so we could go no further. With the clouds still persisting we wandered back to our hotel.




 

The afternoon brought us an almost clear sky that went on into the evening so got amazing views of the mountain. The next day Everest was covered in clouds and we couldn’t have even been able to tell there was even a mountain there so we were pretty lucky to have caught a glimpse the previous day. We packed up, almost got ripped off by our hotel and headed back down the mountain starting our long departure out of Tibet.

We hoped to be bushcamping for the next 5 nights but we have informed that the government are tracking our every move and want us to be in hotels every night (either that or our guide doesn’t want to bushcamp anymore) so that’s eating into our budget ever so slightly. We were lucky enough to be the only tourists to be granted permits for travelling the “road across the roof of the world”, which turned out to not be a positive thing. Whilst in search of a town to keep the police happy and check into a hotel we were faced with a road block. A truck managed to get stuck in a ditch on a road with only one lane way up into the mountains, there was nowhere to turn and no way Calypso could squeeze pass, without risking tipping over the edge so we se up camp (naughty) with the hope that it would clear by the morning.

The next morning there was no improvement and more trucks were queuing up to get passed so we had a bit of a lazy start with a cooked breakfast and set off up the mountain to see if we could lend a hand. The Tibetans were extremely stubborn but also not equipped for the situation so finally accepted they needed our help (and our sandmats, jack and people power). Other trucks failed to pull the truck out so a human tug of war was built which slowly edged the truck out and eventually the truck was freed after 7 hours (footage should be on youtube soon once we are out of China and can upload it). All should have been sorted but so many other muppets tried to skip the queue and invariably got stuck blocking the road further. It was then a bit of a war trying to stop stupid 4x4 cars pushing their way to the front but luckily Barry and Simon were on the case and built a human wall and allowed Calypso to finally move. The road was extremely muddy for the next few miles over near vertical switchbacks and Calypso was stuck for the first time in 101 days so the group got out and pushed her to safety! And finally we were on the road after almost 24 hours.
 
 


 



We then had to find a hotel to keep the authorities happy and somehow shake off the black car that’s been following us for the past week, our aim of getting to Nyingchi 250Km away was unreachable so planned to stop anywhere we could find a hotel. At 7pm we checked into a hotel in the middle of nowhere and headed out for a much deserved dinner. It was a case of pointing and hoping you ordered something edible. Maggs and Kay ended up with spicy offal, we ended up with extremely spicy mystery meat and veg whilst Lesley got a whole chicken in a broth… and by a whole chicken I mean head complete with beak and eyeballs and every other part you could think of. I was busy giving an anatomy lesson whilst Neill and Nick tasted the dish which ended up not being too bad if you didn’t mind your food looking at you.

We headed off the next day in sight of Nyingchi a smallish city where all hotels are apparently fully booked as the road ahead has been washed away, until we threatened to bushcamp on the outskirts and the government happened to find us somewhere to sleep.. and it wasn’t to shabby either! Just so happened to find a karaoke bar last night which was rather cringeworthy but after a few too many drinks most people had a go, even Kirsten joined us after hearing us all the way from the hotel, Taylor tried to serenade a certain member of the group who was unfortunately asleep whilst this was going on and Maggs and Dennis gave us their take on Everything I do, I do it for you.
 
  
We have been told the roads will be opened tomorrow but who knows, we may be here in the town with nothing to do for a while. We’re now shacking up with Kylie and Neill for the night as the hotel is supposedly fully booked.. even though all the room doors are open and there’s no other guests in sight… so we’re having a day of internet catch up and Chinese snack trying… exciting stuff! Bring on the chicken feet!!!!


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Pissing Like A Racehourse

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 Katie and Taylor
Now a “wee” lesson for some people back home, the highest point in Britain is Ben Nevis which stands at 1,344 metres! We are now on the Tibetan Plateau which is rarely below 4,000 metres and have passed over roads which are around 5,300 metres and the air pressure is around half that of at sea level. Due to this we are having to drink around 3-4 litres of water a day to ensure we are getting enough water in our systems and flushing out all the toxins etc……..this means a lot of peeing! The call from the truck every 30mins “STOP the truck I need a wee wee” and asap the truck is stopped and every ditch is in use and if no ditches are available its boys at the front of the truck and girls at the back, which I’m sure a few other drivers have had a shock coming round the corner. God it’s so much easier being a guy!

Anyway bodily functions aside…..as expected we had to reroute as the road we wanted to use was closed to tourists, so the long way round was used adding an extra 1,100km onto our journey. Long driving days basically and not much happened apart from some locals trying to extort us out of 1,000 yuan (£100) for camping on “their” grounds, that’s roughly the budget for us all staying in a hotel for a night. The local drunks then threatened to call more locals, so a quick packup and scooted off in the pissing rain to camp in a paddock of some sort. All good fun though when we look back!

Stopped off in Golmud which is basically a transit town on the route to Tibet and since the new railway was built a few years ago (the highest railway n the world) it seems every man, woman and yak has moved to Lhasa. We spent the night in a hotel with pot noodles for dinner and managed to download some new stuff to watch on the laptop…mainly flashforward! Breakfast the next morning consisted of Bread, Jam, Broccoli and cakes which was an experience, ever fancied broccoli on your cornflakes? I think not!

After Golmud we started our ascent to Tibet and hit various roadworks, mud tracks and bizarre speed checkpoints where I reckon the police had a wheel similar to the wheel of fortune to decide the speed limit e.g we were given about 2 hours to drive 96km then 30 mins to drive 36km. Plus it was our first exposure to the famous prayer flags of Tibet at various vistas along the way which made for some stunning photos.





Rolled into Lhasa eventually after a slight detour from Miss-Information and passed the Potala Palace (or the Potato Palace as it’s been renamed by our Tibetan guide) and checked into the “Yak Hotel” and scored ourselves a deluxe suite for the 4 nights we are here - very swish. Lhasa is amazing with such a different atmosphere around the place compared to where we have been before. Described as the spiritual centre of Tibet, many Tibetans follow pilgrimage around the province ending up here while prostrating (basically hands up, dive on the ground then stand up, walk forward 3 paces and repeat.) It can cover 100’s of kilometres and take months even years to complete.

The mains sites we have visited are the Jokhang Temple, Potala Palace which was the residence of the Dalai Lama until he had to go into exile and the Sera Monastery where we seen the debating monks. One thing which stands out about Lhasa is that it has been “Chinesified” as apart from the old town which maintains quaint little streets and stalls, the rest has been modernised which is a shame. Also almost every corner has soldiers placed to monitor what’s going on even snipers on the roofs making sure the Tibetans don’t step out of line. A real shame!




Next few days is going to be the next real highlight as we are heading to Mount Everest, lets hope the clouds clear as its currently supposed to be raining when we arrive but fingers crossed it clears for a while so we can glimpse the highest point in the world!
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Endless Chinese Roadworks

Monday, July 12, 2010 Katie and Taylor
Sunday 11th July

Our time in Kashgar was basically spent eating. We have finally left the carnivorous/cheesy-licious Central Asia, where Shashlik and lagman are sometimes the only thing on the menu, for the much anticipated food of China. Although Kashgar has Central Asian influences in their cuisine, the ability to order Kung Po Chicken and mysteriously enough “Love Juice” is a wonderful thing!
 


We said farewell to Mike and Alice in Kashgar who decided a trip to Beijing and Xian was in order. Also spent a ridiculous time in the post office with a clerk who couldn’t understand that Scotland was a country and not a city in England, and finally managed to get Taylor’s shoe fixed. Our time wasn’t all wasted on sorting stuff out, we spent some time in the old town and the funky Sunday market (stumbled across a stall where they sold scorpions, hedgehogs, spiders and kittens and as we gawped at the strange things the locals gawped at the strange tourists, gawping at the strange animals).

From Kashgar we headed for a few nights bushcamp through the Taklaman Desert on route to Turpan. The roads at this point had dramatically improved in some areas, even though the green barrier wouldn’t let us out, but large sections were roadwork’s and at times we only went 7Km in an hour! In fact as the Chinese army have nothing to do just now, they employ them as a construction army and the Xinjang province has been turned into the roadwork’s province. All tolled we bounced and swerved through around 1,500km of roadwork’s! Found one of the best bushcamps when we finally escaped the green barrier where we had a night under the stars (well we had our tent windows open).
 



Turpan – also known as “Fire City” is 154m below sea level in the middle of the desert (in other words its hot-upwards of 45 degrees). Sightseeing would have been impossible during the day so we waited until early evening and headed for the Ancient City of Jiaohe to look at what is left. Pete took us to a night market for dinner in the evening which has unfortunately diminished since he was last here but we still enjoyed a wonderful meal of noodles with spicy sauce all for 40 pence… we’ve almost mastered the art of eating with chopsticks too, plus beer is a measly 40p (Stella you should move here)!



Another bushcamp on route to Dunhuang, the home of the Magao Caves and the Mingsha Shan (Echoing-Sand) where we would spend 2 nights and welcome back Mike and Alice (has it really been a week??). Yesterday was my day to suffer a bit from heat stroke, and the roads weren’t on our side. Finally made it to Dunhuang and made a speedy recovery in our fully air-conditioned room! We also celebrated Ben’s birthday and headed out to a night market – unfortunately there was no MacDonalds here for him.

This morning we set off for the Mogao Caves, which are a set of sculptures inside caves which are high up in the desert, also known as the caves of a thousand Buddhas. The largest being 34.5m which had one massive Buddha statue in it. Unfortunately there were no photos allowed but the link will give you a better idea. Whist some of us are being lazy this afternoon others are planning on heading to the Echoing sand for some sand boarding and camel riding.
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogao_Caves


Tomorrow we start our assent into Tibet after a few more bushcamps, the road we are supposed to be taking is causing a few difficulties, Lilly (our local guide) says it’s closed whilst others say it’s open. If we can’t take it we have to add an extra 1000Km to the route.

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Mangled Goats and Cross Dressing

Monday, July 05, 2010 Katie and Taylor
Lake Song Kul, the 2nd highest alpine lake in the world at just over 3,000 metres was our last main stop in Kyrzgstan and the site for the most bizarre things we have ever seen (not just on this trip!). Camp was set up in the middle of nowhere next to the lake, the locals who live in yurts in the summer were close by and we had a lot of visitors over the next few days. Pete, Dennis and Erkin (our guide) set off to the nearest yurt and arranged a game of Goat Polo, which was unfortunate to Pete and Erkins’s stomach after having to drink some of the “kumys” or fermented horse milk…..mmm bubbly milk.



For those who are unfamiliar with the world of Goat Polo, basically a goat us beheaded and its legs chopped off and this is used as a ball I suppose. Each team consists of 2 horses and a carpet is placed somewhere on the ground and this is the goal, that’s about the extent of the rules. Wrestling, punching and biting are all part of the game, there are no boundaries so onlookers should be aware of the players running towards them who have no intention to stop! Dragoman, who we bumped into previously were nearby so they also popped along to watch the game.




Song Kul was also the venue for the “Bad Taste” fancy dress party, all names are put into a hat and it’s a top secret operation is put into place to find the worst costume you can. I was lucky enough to be given possibly the gayest outfit ever (lycra hot pants and a backless hoody vest) whereas Katie got off rather lightly with a long flowing crinkly skirt and a bright pink top. Ben however looked rather like a lady boy with his swimsuit dress and tights (thanks to Katie), Kylie and Heather went to some effort making a fetching super-woman costume and a bumble bee costume for their person.



We celebrated our anniversary on the 1st July by having an early start as we started winding our way towards the Torugart pass for our final Kyrgy bushcamp before our cross over into China. It was roughly a 12 hour border crossing the next day as the section of China we are heading through is well of the tourist route. We made it through fine though with only a few minor hiccups as the emergency supply of condensed milk, spam and fancy sausage was confiscated as they obviously posed a high risk to national security, but the peanut butter was saved!



Currently in Kashgar for 4 nights as the crew need driving tests and a Chinese MOT for the truck, so plenty of time to catch up on washing and internet while gorging on Chinese food!

Blogger and Facebook are blocked behind the “Great Chinese Firewall” so if you’re reading this it’s thanks to Douglas.

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