At the foot of Giants

This from my diary:

Tingri is a dirty little place where the locals demand money, the accomodations are rather filthy, and the food is bland. Yet, Tingri has one redeeming feature: it lies at the foot of the Great Himalaya Range. I am sitting at the top of a small hill, a 2km hike outside of town, and am gazing upon a panorama of Snow-Capped Giants. The North Face of Everest peeks (haha) over a 4500m foothill, while the 8100m massif of Cho Oyo looms over the valley. We have been blessed with blue skies, temperate weather, and a gorgeous vista of 23K ft high mountains. The only sounds are the birds chirping and the occasional curious cow. The valley is green with the recently flooded rice paddies and the irrigation streams twinkle in the sunlight.

We started the day on the wrong foot. At 5:30am, with only an hour to get to the checkpoint before the chinese closed the highway for 12hrs, we discovered a flat tire. Driver struggled heroically to change the tire in the dark (with help from my flashlight)... and succeeded. We arrived at the checkpoint with minutes to spare.

It took a bumpy and dusty 4hrs to reach Tingri, but we arrived to a beautiful view over Everest. It was with a bit of regret that I passed the turnoff to Everest Base Camp, but I knew it was the right decision: too many tourists end up sick from the altitude and end up disliking their visit. I knew my poor asthmatic lungs would be no match for the lack of oxygen at that altitude. The view from Tingri is quite worth the trip, despite the interesting accomodations. We checked out 4 equally grubby "hotels" and finally settled on the one Driver took us to. This one, Lhasa Hotel, was quite proud of its Hot Showers, which consisted of a barrel of water dutifully heated with Yak Dung and firewood. The toilets are in a drafty concrete outhouse with noxious fumes that waft up the the three slits and a distinct lack of privacy. The hotel does have its charm, though - the common room, with its electricity that comes and goes, is full of friendly locals playing cards, dice, and other Tibetan games. Driver was quite happy to lose a few yuan to his friends here.

I have been traveling with a delightful German Couple, both of whom are PhD candidates and are avid mountaineers. Tonight, for the fourth meal in a row, to my traveling companions' delight, I ordered something off the menu (Yak Meat with Potatoes) and was the only one to get something completely different (Pork with Greasy Fries). I was summoned into the kitchen to explain to the matriarch why I was sending back the meal. After a good laugh, I eventually got my Yak meat.