We left Kathmandu for Tibet on the 12th.
The 5 hour bus ride was the same apart from this time we had a private mini van type thing and there was less people than the allotted seats!
Along the way, Jamie handed me a wad of cash in an envelope. $5000 in USD and $3,000 in AUD. (The allowance for the border is $10,000 in USD, Jamie was carrying around $30k to pay Tibetan staff and any extras)
The border was interesting and it all became very serious. There was plain clothed police on the bridge that separates Tibet from Nepal as we walked our way through to Customs and Immigration.
They xrayed our bags and then each of us was ordered to put out bags on a large table as they were going to go through every single item.
Andrew was first, then Jamie. Who had done this before and knew what it was all about.
I was last, they started pulling out everything, all of my socks, clothes, they made me turn my laptop on and started going through photos, I have a book Lauren got me from Christmas, the Bear Grylls Autobiography – so they went through that looking at the photos.
They were looking for anything illegal firstly, but on top of their list was anything to do with the Delia Lama.
He went through the photos on my compact camera and during my trip, I had been to a Buddhist temple and taken a heap of photos. There was one particular photo in one of the monasteries that had a photo of the Delia Lama on the Lectern. The officer immediately made me zoom and when he realised what the photo was, his alarm bells went off and he made me delete that photo and went through all my gear with a fine tooth comb!
Andrew and Jamie were through the border screening within about 5 mins, me on the other hand, it took me about 30mins with everyone waiting for me on the outside!
A quick change into the 4x4s on the opposite side of the road and we were off again.
The first night we stayed at Zhangmu 2700m which is literally built on the side of a steep hill/cliff.
The second and third nights we stayed at Nyalam 3500m (we have to stay 2 nights here to acclimatise to the next altitude). This place was nice, but dangerous.
A member of a Swiss team was walking back to his hotel after eating dinner at the restaurant and slipped and fell down some stairs. Day 2- turning around and back to Kathmanduto get an ultrasound and Xray on his rib cage and internal organs. Apparently he hit the concrete stairs pretty hard.
We left Nyalam bound for Tingri and on the way Jamie calls out CHOMOLUNGMA!!!! (Tibetan for Everest) This was the first time I saw her, from around 150kms away. She’s massive to say the least!
The 4th and 5th nights we are staying at Tingri 4350 (2 nights here because of the big jump the following day to 5100m Basecamp.) Goodbye hard hotel beds, hello tents and blow up beds!)
Tingri is nice although we are in the heart of Buddhist territory (We can’t kill anything), and these people have a serious wild dog problem. These dogs are everywhere, all around the hotel, in the streets, in the paddocks, everywhere.
We have been warned not to go near them and to carry rocks in my pockets.
Usually I wouldn’t mind, but I told the doctors that I didn’t need the Rabies vaccination as there would be nothing on Everest to bite me! Silly lad!
Tomorrow we’re heading to Basecamp at 5100m, the internet connection should be way better there so I’ll report more.