The best advice

I’m not going to lie; I’m fairly tired after 10 days of hiking. We started of at 700 meters and reached out highest peak at 5416 meters when passing Thorung La. Having a couple of rest days I very much needed and handy. The scenery has been breathtaking at several points and 7- and 8000 meter mountains start to feel like everyday sights- not a big deal anymore. I hate to say it, but the autopilot has been turned on subconsciously…

Thankfully my dear cousin gave me the best advice I could ever get before I left: stop up every now and then, breath, look around and realize where you are! I keep having these “moments” fairly frequently where a big smile spreads across my face, my body starts to tingle and I feel as happy as I could possibly be.

Yet again I find myself in a jeep driving amongst or between the Himalayas. As I’m bouncing around in the jeep, driving past what’s left of a river I “come to life again” understanding how freaking lucky I am to be here in Nepal in the midst of the highest peaks of the world. As I’m looking down at the remains of the river, I see ppl walking along it looking for fossils which are being sold everywhere in the small villages in the mountain range. At this very moment I realize that I’m looking at one of the world’s highest points which millions of years ago used to be the sea floor.

We keep on driving off-road on similar Tibetan “roads” in a jeep pumping with popular Nepalese pop music with several Nepalese guys jigging to the beat and singing along. My grin gets wider as I’m humming and trying to follow the rhythm while the jeep keeps tossing my left and right.

I’m loving every single second of it. 

The Thorung La

3 am and the alarm clock goes off. Today is the day of the big climb thru Thorung La; 1000 meters of altitude gain from Thorung Phedi at 4450 meters. Breakfast is finished and we’re ready to leave by 4 am. It’s pitch black outside and those who have headlamps are “armed” and ready. The path is steep, rocky, zigzagging and full of cliffs. Not having had time to digest my breakfast the start is needless to say hard. After a while I find a steady pace without getting completely out of breath. As I am passing several ppl with headlamps, I suddenly find myself without light but the path is perfectly lit up. I turn my head towards the sky and spot the moon lighting up the entire valley from a cloud free night sky. I’ve never seen a moon shine so bright and I’m realizing that the ppl with headlamps are missing out on something truly wonderful. The rest of the sky is filled with twinkling stars which complements the glowing moon perfectly. All around me I see snow covered mountain ranges and peaks outlining the valley, making the sky darker and in a mystical way shedding light on the road up ahead.

The climb towards 5200 meters, where allegedly tea-break is, goes nice and steady. Due to the experience from the trek around Mt Kailash in Tibet, there are dos and don’ts to this sort of climb. Whatever you do, don’t stop, or at least stop as little as possible. The reason is that the energy it takes to get back on a comfortable pace is worth saving. Another factor is that your muscles are sore and tired fairly early on due to lack of oxygen, and therefore stiffen up terribly quickly. The most important reason; it’s fucking freezing (- 6 degrees). Another factor that will get you to and over the top is finding a steady pace that you can stick to without getting too much out of breath (I sound like a whale when walking in this altitude because I’m breathing heavily thru my mouth). Keeping this no matter what pace your group or the ppl in front or behind you keep can be alpha omega. Preserving energy is most likely the key to success and a way of doing so is taking long steps. This recipe has so far gotten me to the top of two passes above 5000 meters, so for me, it’s a winner.

After having a couple of cups of the at the tea stop at 5.30 am (the most expensive cup of tea I might add, 120 rupees – 12 kr) and chowing down chocolate and energy bars, we were frozen solid and the sun had not yet broken over the peaks stretching from 6-7000 meters surrounding us. Hopefully it wouldn’t be long thou, so we kept on walking to regain some body heat. After walking for about 20 minutes I felt a warm sensation at the back of my thighs. I stopped and felt how it spread to my hands, shoulders and head. The sun had finally awoken. With a new urge to keep on going, we reached the pass 40 minutes later. The glimpse of prayer flags made tears sting in my eyes due to complete exhaustion. My knees ached, my toes and fingers were none-responsive, my heart was racing and my breaths were weak and short. When 5416 meters officially was reached, all of the above went away and all that you could see were big smiles, hands stretched triumphantly into the air and exclamations of joy were expressed. I got to the top not far behind the first member of the lead group and was soon followed by the remaining two. There were more high fives, hugs and kisses and the 30 cold minutes we spent at the top were fun, crazy and memorable in every possible way thanks to three funtastic great guys!

Crossing borders

In the last two months I’ve crossed a few borders and every border crossing is the same yet different in many ways. The most fascinating so far is indeed the border between Tibet and Nepal. Leaving a country where every document is checked thoroughly as well as your bags (especially the Lonely Planet tends to get much attention from the Chinese customs) and you’re ticked off a list of Tibetan permit holders. From there on you cross “the friendship bridge” – the biggest oxymoron I’ve seen in my entire life. The bridge crosses a major rafting river and is the only connection between Nepal and Tibet for miles. You leave the archway on the Tibetan side and cross the 100 meter long bridge of friendship. On this short, but beautiful bridge you find around 15 Chinese soldiers armed with semi-automatic weapons – major symbols of friendship if you ask me. After spending a 100 meters in no-man’s-land you enter Nepal where there are no armed soldiers or soldiers in any sense and you literally have to go house hunting to find the immigration office. When you finally find this overcrowded little room, you fill out the forms, stand in line, pay the visa in USD, get a signature from the immigration officer (who is playing Tetris on the computer with his daughter) and of you go. Welcome to Nepal!

Entering Nepal coming from Tibet is an experience in itself due to the fact that the border is separating two worlds completely different from one another, and it seems to be keeping them separate as well. I’ve pointed out some opposites that came to my mind on the first few hours in the car on the way to Kathmandu. These are mere observations than facts, and in no way does it state that the one is better than the other. I thou feel that I visited the countries in the correct order, as it makes you appreciate the countries uniqueness more. You might find yourself getting disappointed arriving in dusty and brown Tibet after leaving green and tropical Nepal.

A swift comparison: Tibet and Nepal

Eating with chop sticks à eating with your right hand

Traditional clothing à more western clothing in addition to the saari

Yak à donkey/mule

Yak traffic jam à donkey/mule traffic jam

Begging children à playing children

Cold climate à humid climate

Straight faces à smiles

Brown landscape à trees

Stray ppl à ppl everywhere

Getting ripped of à more set prices

Desert à tropics

Tractors à Suzukis

Four-by-fours à motorcycles

Few English speakers à most ppl speak English

Cheap beer à expensive beer

Very good food à alright food

Hard and emotional haggling à easy and happy haggling

Guided tourists à “free” tourists

Flies à spiders

Pac of dogs à pac of chickens, hens and roosters

Monks à holy men

Clean streets (apart from the dust) à streets filled with garbage

Smell of yak butter à smell of sweat

Dirty, shitty, disgusting toilets à clean and inviting toilets

Off the top of my head. It seems like Tibet is getting dragged thru the mud, but it’s undeniable that it will always be an underdog to Nepal when crossing the border. The reason would be that after three weeks in the middle of nowhere in Tibet, civilization will always feel very welcoming and more homely. Then again, trying to explain what Tibet is like is in many ways the hardest thing I’ve done so far, because it truly is an experience and an adventure in a world that is closed off to the outside world and only open to those who walk the extra mile.

My advice is simple: make the effort 

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. 

5670 meters

I’m trekking the holy kora around Mt. Kailash in Tibet. The air is getting thinner by the minute. In the shade it’s freezing cold and the temperature is somewhere around minus 5 degreesm, and if you add the head wind it’s probably as bad as 10 degrees below freezing. Most of the trek is either false flat or gradually steep uphill. I see the hill rising in front of me. The last kilometer and the last 300 meters of altitude that stand between me and the top of the pass at 5670 meters. Thankfully the sun has managed to stretch above the tall mountains at 7000 meters. The icicles my fingers and toes have turned into slowly start to defrost and the numbness is at retreat. A last sip of water, thou most of it has froze, before the painful, yet exciting, ascent begins. All I see is stones, Tibetan signs and a stray prayer flag here and there; all which lets me know that the pass is within reach. One step at the time; one step a second. By this time I’ve gotten used to random yaks loaded up with trekkers gear running past whenever, with the yak guy right behind whistling his commands. Right after the yak has passed a Tibetan will come running (at least compared to what us westerners are doing) up the hill in his traditional outfit, chanting his prayers while spinning his or hers prayer wheel and counting of their prayers on the bead necklaces they hold in their hand. More and more payer flags are becoming visible and I can only hope the top is close by. I have to yield to a horse coming running down the path before I can continue the climb which has turned quite painful. Every breath contains far too little oxygen, every step makes my knees ache and the thirst which comes with the heat is grueling. Alas, I cannot stop because there is no energy left to jumpstart me if I give in to thirst. I’m starting to let my mind drift and at the moment I’m wondering what Harry Potter’s going to be up to next (I’m halfway thru book four). Now I finally see it, the major pass with prayer flags painting a colorful picture in the midst of the mountains and snow. As I’m using the last of my stored up energy I hear a few of the guys up front yelling “Only 50 meters to go, Kiki!” I feel a second wind coming as 50 meters turn into 40, 30, 20, 10. I made it! Adrenaline is flowing thru every inch of my body as I’m greeted with “high fives” and cheers.

 So what to do when at 5670 meters? Eat an Oreo, probably the best one I’ve ever had. Needless to say, it’s also a Kodak moment so we huddle up for a group picture, lay down our prayer flags and realize that we’re all fairly hungry. It’s time to start our descent towards the lunch tent which allegedly is an hour away (that is, if they haven’t packed up and left for the season). Our expectations are low as we know pot noodles is the hottest – and the only – edible thing on the menu. We reach the tent and we all sit down for lunch. If one was to peek in it looks like we’ve all been slaughtered and piled on top of each other. We skip the pot noodles and chew on whatever snacks we have available before we gear up and re-motivate us for another three hours of walking thru a long, beautiful valley to get to our destination for the night. After the three longest hours the most of us have ever experienced we reach the guesthouse, pop open a beer and realize that once again pot noodles are today’s main course. We finish our beer and noodles, open our sleeping bags and dive into them. Lights out at 9 pm.

It’s been a long day, but absolutely one of the best days of my life. It’s doubtless the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done, thou it felt good putting my perseverance and stubbornness to the ultimate test. I’m proud and pleased with myself as I lay tucked in between my sleeping bag and numerous layers to keep me warm thru the cold, cold night. I take a last look out the window where I see the stars twinkling like diamonds and the Milky Way bright and white. Life above 5000 meters is not half bad.