On the road towards Mt. Everest

Driving across the Tibetan plateau in a four by four Toyota Land Cruiser isn’t what I would think to be eventful or entertaining. We’ve had some long 10 hour drives to get from point A to B, and there have been days where the scenery has been stunning and others where every mountains and steppes look the same. By now, seeing a herd of antelopes, horses or donkeys have become regular, but we all get excited when we see a rabbit or fox crossing the road.

As I said, driving on the roads can be boring, but when you’re driving towards Mt. Everest Base Camp and the roads cannot be defined as roads anymore, things tend to get a lot more exciting. The “roads” now consist of rocky paths with major holes and dams. Of course a lot of these “roads” are correctly described as cliffhangers as well. It’s been quite a few times where we’ve held our breaths (not a good idea by the way, when in 5000 meters altitude), hoping that the road is wide enough or that the rocks that make out the outline of the road actually will hold. It’s safe to say that we all bare marks of the bumpy roads when these cars are not equipped with seat belts. We hold on as best as we can to the hand rails and to each other, but bruises on arms and legs that take the hardest blows are unavoidable. A couple of times we been just short of a couple of concussions as well. At one of our breaks, an Englishman expressed: “I feel like I’ve been in a blender!” He couldn’t have been more spot on!

As we entered the bumpiest part of the road, we all felt both shaken and stirred and almost dreading the final hours of the ride. To our amusement the driver suddenly put on a CD containing western music, but not any kind of music: romantic tunes. We’re talking Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Bette Midler, etc. What to do when losing your mind on a rocky road in Tibet? Sing along! We all agree that there’s nothing like some romance when crossing the plateau towards Everest on so called “roads”. I must hand it to them thou, the Toyotas and not to mention the drivers, they really do an amazing job. I’m absolutely shocked that these vehicles are still in one piece after the treatment the “roads” have given them.

Apart from music which the bumpy ride added an extra beat to, we would regularly pass by a few houses which outlined the village center. Even thou we passed the village with good clearance, it seemed as if the children had some sort of radar built in. They would come running down the hills, across the steppes and rocks to greet us, lining up waving, smiling and giving us the thumbs up, even thou they know we’re not stopping.

We eventually reached our final destination at Rombuk Guesthouse, with a view as spectacular words can hardly explain. Seeing the clear, blue sky framing the outline of Mt Everest’s 8848 meters with its snow kissed peaks and glaciers, is thrilling and spellbinding at the same time. After a visit to Everest Base Camp at 5200 meters above sea level, which was extremely windy and cold, we returned to the common room to have dinner (the standard selection: vegetable fried rice, egg fried rice or yak noodle stew). We all refilled our energy compartments and had ourselves a well deserved beer and defrosted in front of the fire kept alive by yak dug. We also learned the lesson – quite involuntarily – that if the dug isn’t dry enough then it produces enormous amounts of smoke. After being smoked out, I laid in my bed for the night, looking out the window and seeing the top of the world right in front of me; it’s beyond imagination and incomprehensive, thou I’m very aware of its reality.