Seven Days in Tibet

Finally after much reading, speculation and anticipation, we have arrived in Tibet. Tibet is intensely different from Nepal, or anywhere else - a unique land made fascinating by impenetrable Buddhism, Chinese occupation and the collision of the two.

Our entry into Tibet was not without incident. Mary and I hooked up with Ros and Paul in the Khumbu and after two days relaxing in Kathmandu, we crossed the border overland into the Tibet Autonomous Region, as it is called by the Chinese. The day of our departure from Nepal was marked by a Bund - a general strike called by Maoist insurgents. The Maoists have been waging a bloody campaign against the Nepali government and monarchy for many years, which has left over 10,000 Nepalis dead. Although they have been promised fresh elections this year the Maoists like to remind everyone who is really in charge by declaring a Bund and bringing everything in the country to a halt. The Maoists have never targeted tourists, since the main source of income in many of their rural strongholds is trekking. However, they are brutal to government forces and their favorite treatment of a captured Nepali policeman or soldier is skinning alive.

To avoid the makeshift Bund roadblocks we left at 3am but our driver still had to weave around a barricade of burning tyres and negotiate with local activists - often just kids. Once across the border our second day on the road started at 2am in order to traverse Chinese roadworks which are slowly turning the rocky, precipitous tracks though the mountainous border into paved highway. Our Land Cruiser had from only 2am until 4am to negotiate the tracks before work closed the road again.

Namhla was our Tibetan guide, a serene but earnest chap whose own story is a microcosm of Tibet itself. At the age of two Namhla was identified as the reincarnation of a high Lama in his home village and his parents risked everything to smuggle him across to the border to study with other exiles in Dharamsala, India (see our Dharamsala post). As an adult Namhla decided not to take his monastic vows and instead return to Tibet. He was immediately arrested by the Chinese and spent 12 months in solitary confinement in a Lhasa prison.

Tibet is a vast, high-altitude desert and scratching a living is a tough job. The desolate terrain reminds me of the American West and the land is just as dusty, lifeless and unforgiving. It's amazing that anyone can live here, much less build the fabulous monasteries and their great variety of beautiful religious artifacts. Everything - from buildings to religious icons - is literally made from dust and mud.

Difficult to describe, I'll leave it to our hotel in Shigatse to leave you with a lasting impression of Tibet:

"You come, letting you leave the fine recollection in snow the area plateau of the beauty".

'nuff said.


A Tibetan pilgrim with prayer wheel outside Sakya Monastery. Older Tibetans are never without their prayer wheels which they constantly rotate, sending heavenwards the printed prayers that are contained inside.


On Paul's advice we stopped at the *other* Everest Base Camp, on the northern side of the mountain in Tibet. The mountain looks very different and much more massive from here. Rongbuk monastery is in the foreground.


Welcome to downtown Tingri, our first overnight stop in Tibet. Towns got bigger as we neared the capital, Lhasa.


Although traditional Tibetan houses are rough-and-ready affairs, constructed of dried mud bricks, they are decorated beautifully.


Unlike Indians and Nepalis, Tibetans are very shy about having their photograph taken. Chinese border guards are even more reticent.


A gratuitous picture of Mary with a puppy! We stayed in a lovely house in the hills outside Kathmandu, owned by a friend of Paul where seven boisterous puppies occupied Mary and Ros' attention.

Mani Rimdu

Mani Rimdu is the highlight of the Buddhist calendar in the Khumbu. It's a festival celebrated at 2 monasteries (Gompas) at different times of the year. The Thami Gompa is favoured because of the abbots more liberal attitude to drinking and dancing in the evening. The second day of the festival coincided with a rest day we had on the way back from Gokyo (more in another post) and so I decided to go along.

A measure of our attitude to walking after 5 weeks of trekking is that although the festival was a five and a half hour round trip with some moderate climbs, this counted as only a 'medium' in our new trekking lives. So I decided to toddle along. I couldn't persuade Mary to join me. I suspect her vague interest in Tibetan Buddhism may have been offset by the 11 hours walking the previous 'big' day. No matter. Incomprehensible ritual and religion awaited and nothing could stop me!

The best way to describe Mani Rimdu was a cross between a dance festival, music recitation and pantomime act - complete with comedy sketches. The Gompa is populated with monks and lamas and it was the lamas who danced and performed for the excited Sherpa audience. Lamas are important spiritual leaders and set apart from the other monks by heaving been identified as the reincarnation as previous Lamas, so that the current Lamas are several generations removed from the 'original' Lama, while being exactly the same person. Hope you're following. I'll try and explain a little more about Tibetan Buddhism when we reach Tibet. Sherpas were Tibetans not so long ago incidentally, hence the practice.

I sat between two old Sherpa geezers during the performances who seemed to enjoy proceedings immensely, laughing and rolling around at all the best jokes. One of them took the trouble to explain to me the meaning of each dance and ritual in great detail. I'd pass on this wisdom as a detailed description to each picture, except that he was speaking in Nepali.

I stayed far too long at the festival which meant a moonlit walk home to Mary in Namche Bazaar. A moonlit walk alone though a Nepali forest is an interesting experience, but I've still managed to avoid becoming Yeti fodder!

On the horn - Mr Lama and the jazz man himself, Mr Lama!


On the triangle - Mr Lama!


Mani Rimdu celebrates the triumph of Buddhism over Bon, the ancient Tibetan religion. Confusingly, many of the Bon gods were 'converted' to Buddhism too. Throw in some Hindu influences and you have the most confusing array of gods, buddhas, bodhisattvas, demons, guardians and lamas. So this masked figure could be anyone. Sorry I can't be more help. I'm working on it.


This is definitely a bad guy, so probably a Buddhist demon or Bon chappy.

Gokyo

Gokyo was the second destination of our extended trek in the Khumbu. The Gokyo valley lies to the east of the Khumbu valley where Everest Base Camp is located. It is incredibly picturesque and home to 6 lakes which lie at increasing altitude above 4800m.

Gokyo Ri (5300m) was a local peak which we climbed for just stupendous views of Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyo - the works. The pictures are pale imitations of the view, but the best I can do until Google invents something better.

Mary at lake 4 (such a romantic name!) with a canine trekking companion we adopted for the day.


Mary and Cairn.


A mani stone and prayer flag (upon which both are inscribed the prayer "Um Mani Padme Hum") ascending the Gokyo valley.


From left to right: Matt, Mary, Everest (no. 1), Lhotse (4) and (in the distance) Makalu (5).


Mary descending from Gokyo Ri to lake 3. Gokyo 'village' is clustered on the bank of the lake. The Ngojumba Glacier, the largst in Nepal, stretches grey and rubble-strewn along the valley floor.

Everest Base Camp

Everest Base Camp was the turn-around point for the first half of our trek in the Khumbu. This is the end point for most trekkers - typically after more than a week of walking - but it's only the starting line for climbers. Mid-May is the traditional summit season and so there were many teams at BC and many climbers were on the mountain, including some who had just summited. Sadly, and inevitably, there were also deaths, including 2 Koreans killed attempting a new route. We watched a helicopter take their bodies away.

Base Camp is nothing more than a temporary village of tents setup on the Khumbu Glacier at the foot of Everest. We hadn't expected a warm reception since climbing expeditions don't generally welcome trekkers, who can bring germs into camp and scupper the most elaborate and expensive of summit attempts. However this year a *bakery* had opened and we snaked on delicious apple pie and almond shortbread and had the chance to talk to camp inhabitants as they dropped by for a bite.

Mary enjoys apple pie at the Everest Base Camp bakery.


The view approaching Base Camp. The Khumbu Glacier covers the valley floor. The Base Camp tents are the small collection of coloured dots at the far left in the middle of the picture. The climbing route and flank of Everest begin on the right as the glacier makes a turn and ascends the mountain as the Khumbu Ice Fall.


The Khumbu Ice Fall from Base Camp. This is the first obstacle climbers must traverse on the way to the summit. There are 4 camps above the Ice Fall and a typical acclimatization plan means spending several days at each before an attempt on the summit. This means many dangerous trips through the Ice Fall between Base Camp and the high camps before a summit attempt. The safest time to move through the Ice Fall is early in the day when the seracs of ice, some as big as houses, are cold and less likely to move or fall. The glacier is in constant motion and makes groaning, cracking and splitting sounds all the time.


An old Russian-built helicopter lands at Base Camp. We learned this pilot was not popular since he flew too close to the tents and made too many circles - ruffling many tent flaps and risking avalanches.


Everest from BC to summit. The Khumbu Glacier stretches along the valley floor and Base Camp is the small collection of dots at the outside of the right hand turn the glacier makes onto the flank of Everest. The Khumbu Ice Fall can be seen as the glacier climbs the mountain from left to right. The summit is extreme top right, shrouded in cloud.

Sherpas n' Yaks n' Yetis

We're on the last leg of our extended trek in the Khumbu region of Nepal. The Khumbu is home to some of the highest mountains on earth, including Everest (number 1!), Lhotse (4), Makalu (5), Cho Oyu (6) and Manaslu (8) - of which more in another post. The local people are Sherpas, world famous for their physical ability in the mountains and an essential part of every trekking and mountaineering expedition. Just like the Gurung people we met in Annapurna, the Sherpas are an industrious and fun-loving lot who run great 'teahouse' lodges under very difficult conditions - everything here must be transported on foot by Sherpa porters or by Yak.

Yaks are the other famous inhabitants of the Khumbu and also a big part of mountain expeditions. Mary and I found an abandoned little yak calf one afternoon, only a day or two old and with no sign of its mother. Wondering what to do, we eventually decided to carry the little chap to the nearest village hopeful that yak calves were sufficiently valuable to elicit help from the locals rather than laughter at the sentimental, impractical westerners. Feeling a little like Billy Crystal in City Slickers, we eventually came across a Yak herd and shepherdess. On seeing the calf, the yaks started calling to it and fixed me with a menacing stare. The calf called back to the big, shaggy beasts, which only seemed to agitate them further. Feeling like an accused yak-napper, I attempted to reunite the calf with its kind, but the other yaks were less than happy to accommodate the little chap. Eventually the shepherdess carried the calf herself. I couldn't help think about the little guy as I lay in my sleeping bag that night, listening to the wind outside, wondering if he was OK.

Yaks can carry more than Sherpas - but only just. Sherpas smell worse than Yaks - but only just. Actually, that's an injustice to Yaks and most Sherpas. It is specifically Sherpa porter's feet that smell worse than anything dead or alive and can strip the paint from the interior of a teahouse in the time it takes to remove a pair of fake Teva sandals and warm your feet by the stove.

Fortunately, we didn't meet any Yetis.

All aboard - the yak train. In the background is the Lhotse-Nuptse ridge and our first view of the Everest summit, peeking over the top.


This little sherpani was the center of attention at our lodge in Dingboche.


Sherpa porters carry building materials on the trail to Gokyo. Spare a thought for these guys next time you're loading up at Ikea or Home Depot.


Tengboche Monastery, the largest in Nepal.

Slowly, slowly walking! Little bit up, little down.

We hired a porter / guide for our first trek in Annapurna. Mr Lama is a knot of muscle and sinew who has spent his life carrying loads in the Himalaya. The mountains here are not great for a guy's machismo. The knotty Mr L could carry "eighty five kay gee, no problem!" usually in the traditional style - in a basket suspended from the top of his head by a rope. We saw porters carrying huge and diverse loads this way. There are no roads or motor vehicles in the mountains and so everything is carried by porter, from food to building materials to live chickens. We saw the lot.

Mr Lama had a comparatively easy time of it during his 2 weeks as our porter. The 15kgs of Mary's rucksack were small beer, despite her best efforts to defeat the knotty man with a great diversity of hair and skincare products. I packed each morning to ensure that my pack weighed as much as Mr Lama's. This effort of macho self esteem backfired as each day Mr L would try both packs and say "Same same! Very strong man!" which when you know that he can carry more than your own body weight using only his scalp, is a crushingly patronising thing to say. He meant well I'm sure.

I think we are a little fitter and stronger on our return, however. My calf muscles, once like knots in thread, might now possibly be described as knots in steel thread. We're going to pack a little lighter for our Everest trek and try and manage without a porter for the first couple of days to see how we go. Mary is dreading the packing process more than the prospect carrying a pack for 3 weeks. I'm confident she may change her tune.

Another of Mr Lama's favorite phrases was "Slowly, slowly walking! Little bit up, little down." He is certainly right about walking slowly. Good trekking would seem to be an exercise in avoiding injury, by a fall or sprain, or by repetitive strain, particularly on the downhills. His second statement was less accurate. It is very difficult to walk anywhere in the Himalaya without a *great deal* of up and down. On the way to and from Annapurna Base Camp we ascended and descended over 12,800 meters (over 42,000 feet) which is one-and-a-half times the height of Everest. Perhaps after our next trek I will have knotty Lama legs too!

The indefatigable Mr Lama.

Everything was carried by porter - although some foodstuffs are self propelled! This is a sobering thought as you tuck into your evening meal and know that everything before you has been carried on someones head - rather like knowing that all the atoms in your body were created in a supernova! (perhaps not)

Lodges on the trail at Landrung. At every stop the views were a million dollars and the room rates a little under a dollar-fifty.

A rare moment of sober contemplation by a young Nepali.

We saw a couple of people airlifted out of the area. One English chap who had collapsed was sedated by one of Mary's super-strong and slightly trippy (pico trippy!) codine tablets. Our little medical kit comes in handy again.

Annapurna Sanctuary

The Annapurna Sanctuary was the turnaround point for our trek. It is a valley in the middle of the Annapurna range surrounded on all sides by huge mountains, including Annapurna I, the tenth highest in the world.

We were blessed with 2 days of clear weather when we reached the Sanctuary. Previous days had seen cloud and rain roll in by early afternoon and this would have meant snow and zero visibility in the Sanctuary had it continued. Because of the enforced early finishes we started walking early in the morning and by lunchtime were sipping hot tea, eating Dahl Baht and settled in a lodge for the night. This meant lots of time for reading and backgammon! Current backgammon score: Mary 'doubles' Brett - 23, Matt 'luckless' Darby - 18.

Tip: click the grey play button in the center of the video to play it in this page (clicking outside the play button will take you to the youtube website and play the video there).

Annapurna, Nepal

Just when you feel you have begun to understand a little of India and your affair with her, you discover she has a more charming and beautiful sister! Nepal is that rarest of places, somewhere of which I had high expectations, all of which have been exceeded.

Mary and I just arrived back from 12 days walking through the Annapurna mountain range. We were 'teahouse trekking' - staying at small lodges in villages along the mountain trail. The scenery was amazing, slowly transforming from hot and humid rhododendron forests at lower altitudes to a cool, spartan, alpine landscape as we approached the base of the big mountains. Our turnaround point was the Annapurna Base Camp in the Annapurna Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is a gently sloping valley in the middle of the Annapurna range where one is surrounded on all sides by enormous peaks, of which more in another post.

The lodges were great - basic but comfortable - run by local Nepalis who we found to be friendly, open and fun-loving. At first glance the big difference between Nepal and India seems to be the attitude of the people. Each village we stayed at was spotless and each lodge carefully and charmingly built, particularly the slate terraces and patios on which each building perched. I can't help feeling that the landscape and villages would be tended very differently in India, and we saw evidence of this in the Kashmiri mountains. Indians seem to be infected with a slap-dash, make-do attitude and there seems little quality in anything that is built. In contrast their northern neighbors do a terrific job in more difficult circumstances: Nepal is much poorer than India, although at first glance the opposite seems true.

The Annapurna region is not typical of Nepal however, benefiting from the two largest sources of foreign income - trekkers and the British Gurkas, of whom many are drawn from the local villages. Still, our first impression is that the people here seem richer than in India, if not economically then in their outlook and character. Always smiling the Nepalis we met were an unusually happy people who enjoy life to the full in some of the most beautiful country imaginable.


Mary rests by one of hundreds of waterfalls that cascade into the deep valleys of the Annapurna. Many of these waterfalls might be the centerpiece of a European or US national park, but here in the big mountains, they're just a part of the amazing scenery.


Annapurna I, one of 14 mountains in the world over 8000 meters tall and the first of the 14 to be climbed. In the foreground is a monument to Anatoli Boukreev who died on Annapurna I in 1997. Boukreev is famous for the controversial role he played in the Everest disaster the previous year when 8 climbers were killed descending from the summit of Everest. The book "Into Thin Air" criticised Boukreev's actions, although he saved several lives in a solo rescue during the night of the deadly storm. "Into Thin Air" is a cracking read. I've just finished "Into The Wild" also by Jon Krakauer and also a ripping yarn.


Butterflies were our constant companions throughout the trek, particularly at lower altitudes and in the blooming rhododendron forests. There seemed to be many dozens of species, several as large as small birds. We saw a lot of other wildlife including a couple of snakes, one an 8 foot Python (Mary says 10 feet!). There were also many raptors and we watched one golden eagle from a ledge as he flew below us in the valley, then steadily climbed above us and the mountains, riding thermals without a single flap of his wings.


Nepalis are always laughing! Their lodges and houses, particularly the wonderful wood-fired kitchens, are always filled with non-stop chatter and laughter.


Your intrepid reporters in the Annapurna Sanctuary hiking down from Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) back to Machupuchare Base Camp (MBC). The peaks Annapurna South and Hiun Chuli are in the background.