On the road

Our Project Himalaya Everest expedition from Tibet has started, we are on the road now. Driving out of Kathmandu is a dirty affair, fumes, dust and noise, and while some sections of the road have been widened, it is still a game of dodgem’s around weaving  motorbikes, cows, rice threshing and potholes. Character, and that is what these photos are. The old Nepal of ancient Toyota Corollas with a hint of more recent artistry and bolder self-expression. (And by the way, the airport taxis are going to be replaced sometime next year, apparently).

 

Crossing to Zhangmu in China reinforces how much further Nepal is standing still, which in reality is falling behind. On the Nepal side we ate lunch 1km away while our border rep got the passports stamped for us. As we actually passed the immigration office, there was a truck we had to walk around; no compulsory pass through system. We didn’t even see the office, no official actually checked us against our passport. In contrast China starts from the middle of the friendship bridge, and that is where the first check is, passport against the paper visa, line up in the exact order as the visa is written, only then are we allowed further where we are watched to the immigration building entrance. This time there was no temperature check (for SARS) but our luggage was x-rayed and we had to empty out every personal bag. Tom was asked why he was carrying “The Female Brain” (my book) and even had a photo of a temple in Kathmandu deleted from his camera because there was a Dalai Lama photo vaguely visible. The official gave up looking through my 5000 photos on my laptop.

 

While China in the form of Zhangmu is definitely less dirty, it isn’t clean or sterile. The toilet in the hotel room doesn’t work, it didn’t last year in the same room either. The streets still have shop shacks but we didn’t get far enough up the road to see the seedy brothels and pigs trotter restaurants, it is raining. Mid-afternoon we looked back down valley to blue sky but it is now steady, feeling like it might not stop. Nothing alarming, but not just a shower.

 

It is going to take six days of leisurely driving to reach Everest Base Camp, with two nights at Nyalam and the same at Tingri so that we can acclimatize, arrive there without falling prey to altitude sickness (AMS – acute mountain sickness). The sherpa crew who are genetically adapted to altitude as the Tibetans are will go ahead and set up the base camp for our arrival. Luxury!

 

I have posted on Facebook too, however these are likely the last posts for a while as I will be switching to a China mobile sim, no fb, no blogging. Let's see if Instagram can post to Facebook though (the new Instagram for Android...) and I do have some ways around to test.

 

Jamie with Tom and the crew