The Travelling Life of Silvan Colani
November 2005 - Tibet (cont.)
By Thursday morning Mei was in a somewhat better shape and we decided to continue our journey west-wards towards Tingri, a small place promising great views of Everest, Cho Oyu and other Himalayan peaks. We head out of Shigatse on the Friendship Highway, which connects Katmandu with Lhasa. A few kilometers out of town the paved road gives way to a gravel track – perhaps an indication of the rocky relations between Nepal and China? For stretches at a time the highway is beautifully sealed, allowing good progress. But more often than not the road is still under construction and our trip turned into a long gravel and dust odyssey, reminiscent of the Dakar Rally.
Although we were at over 4000 meters, the landscape is more desert than mountainous. The further west we travel, the weirder the landscape: sand dunes followed by sharp, windswept rock formations; pyramid hills of chocolate powder and frozen rivers snaking through dry and arid valleys framed by endless hills. If it wasn’t for a bit of oxygen in the atmosphere and the occasional sheep or yak you’d be forgiven for thinking our Spaceship Pajero had landed on another planet.
From an earlier vantage point we also caught a glimpse of Lhotse (8511m) and Makalu (8481m), the fourth and fifth tallest mountains in the world.
Our abode for the night was the local prison cell block in Tingri – or at least that’s what it felt like: metal doors, concrete walls, iron bed, no heating whatsoever and ‘toilets’ outside. At least we could finally make good use of the two sleeping bags we brought all the way. Dinner was in the cozy restaurant which was nicely heated by the stove. However, the night in the cell block was icy cold and sleep was not easy at this altitude (4390m).
At 8am we awoke to a crisp clear morning – or as Mei would say: “SHIT, it’s freezing cold!!!” It was -15 degrees but the sunrise over the Himalayas was spectacular. Whether it was spectacular enough to justify a seven-hour return drive through the dust and sand and an uncomfortable night in sub-zero temperatures is a subjective view, but we certainly earned the view the hard way. Also, because of our additional sick day in Shigatse we did not have enough time to drive all the way to Everest Base Camp, thus this was the closest we would get to these Himalayan giants on this trip.
Now it was another seven-hour drive back through the Martian landscape, through high altitude deserts and over 5000m passes. On the Gyatso-la (5220m) I left the prayer flags that I still had from the base camp of my Ama Dablam expedition and various prayer scarves, which are normally presented as a greeting or farewell. Such items should always be left at a point of transition, such as a high pass or bridge.
Lots of dust and sand later we arrived back at the hotel in Shigatse where – to round off a rough day – the power did not work in our room.
From Shigatse it was an easy three-hour drive back to Lhasa on the beautifully sealed Northern Friendship Highway along the Brahmaputra River. The Chinese certainly know how to build good roads and I can well imagine that in a few years’ time you can cruise all the way to Everest on smooth asphalt. Closer to Lhasa the flip-side of Chinese liberation/occupation became plainly obvious as a convoy of military trucks rode into town to relieve a contingent of soldiers heading the other way (all of which we saw next morning in the departure hall of Lhasa airport!)
Back in Lhasa I made good use of our final afternoon to get an excellent Nepali haircut and shave that included an invigorating head and back massage – exactly what I needed after a week in the dusty wilderness!
Tibet is a wild place and any visit will be rough, no matter how comfortable your 4WD jeep. You must be prepared to brave a dry, dusty and oxygen-starved environment at 4000m-plus altitude, face often basic and simple accommodation and enjoy such delicacies as tsampa (barley flour dough and yak butter mixed with water) or greasy momos (dumplings). But in return you get to see a unique, other-worldly land fringed by the world’s highest mountains. You also get to visit some highly scenic and spiritual places. And you get to meet a curious, rough looking yet very friendly people that will shout “Halo!” at you wherever you venture…
Useful information:
Lonely Planet: Tibet – still the best guidebook by far. Contains plenty of useful information including sections on Tibetan culture, Buddhism in general and many excellent maps.
Package tours to Tibet offered in Hong Kong are very expensive, costing something like $15-20,000 HKD per person. You can do the whole trip much cheaper by contacting a Lhasa-based travel agent. Get in touch with our tour guide, Kedup, and see what he can arrange for you!
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