When we say we’ve been to Everest Base Camp you can see the look in people’s eyes. OK, it’s still a long way from the mountain itself and, unlike some people, we didn’t trek there but we did do it!
It was the highlight of our trip through Tibet and on to Nepal. We’d started in Beijing and an internal flight took us half way to Tibet and then we travelled overnight on the “Roof of the World” train across the remote Tibetan plateau to Lhasa. As the train travels higher and higher to Lhasa oxygen is pumped into the carriages to help you get accustomed to the altitude. The Tibetan people’s lives revolve around Buddhism and there are temples everywhere and prayer wheels along the streets. They are a gentle people – it’s such a shame that they are now being overrun by the Chinese who “liberated” them.
The Potala Palace in Lhasa is the home of the Dalai Lama, although he’s now in exile of course. One of our party was reprimanded by a Chinese soldier for kneeling to take a better photo – apparently it was interpreted as a protest. We visited this on our first day in Tibet and took a very long while to ascend the steps due to the altitude.
As we travelled though Tibet on the way to Everest as well as getting higher the roads became less surfaced and we changed from our minibus to 4×4 cars. The hotels became more basic and the facilities less reliable. To have electric and water at the same time became a luxury. If we were on upper floors we tended to take the stairs rather than the lift. I’d not thought it through – I was thinking that it would be uphill to Everest but we were going through the mountains and it was very up and down then up again. Just when you though we were really remote we passed a group of women workers mending the road.
This video of Susan was taken while we were resting ready for our trip to Everest the following day. You can hear in her voice the effect of the altitude. Whilst we weren’t impressed with the buffet at the hotel our drivers thought it was great to get back to basic Tibetan food. At altitude we found that we weren’t eating as much as usual and that, coupled with the local food in the remote areas, meant that this was one holiday that we hadn’t gained weight when we arrived home.
We know how lucky we are to be able to experience these outings and sights. That was brought home to us even more when our guide mentioned that those on his last trip didn’t see Everest at all – it was hidden in the clouds all day.
Base Camp in Tibet is at 16,900 ft altitude and we could certainly feel that. There were a group of tents in Base Camp getting ready for an expedition. There is a mound you can climb which overlooks the camp itself and we climbed it at a couple of steps every 3 or 4 minutes. You can’t prepare for or predict altitude sickness – we were lucky that all of our group were OK, if a little slow and puffing.
The blue sign alongside the Yaks says in (nearly) English “Core Area Qomologma Tourst Cease Step”. The Tibetan name is Chomolungma, which means “Mother Goddess of the World”. Even at the distance we were we felt honoured to be there.
Just back from Base Camp itself is a circle of tents offering souvenirs and services, including the world’s highest post office.
We took advantage of a tent offering a soup and bread and were pleased to warm up a little inside.
We’ve included a picture of our drivers who quite literally we trusted with our lives on those mountain roads.
