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......I'm alive....I'm alive!!!! The scariest night of my life! I have never been so close to death....ever !!!! So...it's 1am, we've been waiting in a queue of trucks for approx 6 hours....and finally the road opens and traffic is allowed through! The frienship highway from the china/Nepal border to the Tibetan Plateau is in the process of becoming a 'real' road! It's not at the moment! The road is only open totraffic during the hours of darkness. So after taking a walk along the road we were about to travel(big mistake),I settled down to try and have a kip! 5hours, no sleep, crashing scaffolding, raging rivers, manual widening of road by us, huge waterfalls, sheer cliffs and a climb of 3000m later....we arrived on a flat piece of road. I felt drunk, had a raging headache, struggling to breath(not helped by a nasty cold/chest inf) and was unable to sleep...thats what happens when you climb 3000m in 5 hours! So some drugs and a short drive on nice new, smooth, lovely tarmac road later we arrived in new Tingri! Perfect opportunity to try some delicious Yak butter tea! Never again! A very large flask arrives.....to be shared between 4 people....1 cup down...it's refilled...ok...i'll drink this to be polite. 1,2,3....mmmm!!!! Cup refilled! Oh no not more!......so another 3 cups later and I give up! Later to discover that in Tibet when you are finished you leave your cup full!
Found a lovely spot to bush camp which would be our base for the next 3 days. Got my first glimpse of the mighty Everest the next morning as we took a short drive to watch the sun rise....awesome(there's that word again)! After a lot of tooing and froing, we fianlly managed to arrang some 4 wheel drives to take us up towards The Tibetan Everest Base Camp. It started well as our....2 wheel drive got bogged not 5 minutes into the journey...I stepped out into sinking sand and the driver ran off! We found out half an hour later he ran to get help! The bumpy 4 hour ride was def worth it though! After the hardest 2km walk I've ever done(with a cold, a seriously dodgy tummy and at 5200m) I was elated to be standing at the foot of the worlds highest mountain...I nearly cried!!!
Off to Shigatse the following day. A strange little town, looks a bit like Las Vega's.....Tibet is truly in the hands of China now! Interesting place to wander though! Lots of neon signs and plastic thingsas well as an abundance of hairdressers....which under the cover of darkness become brothels. I did wonder why they were always so quiet! Ended up in a club that evening and I have never truly felt closer to being on Mars....bizarre!!
Next stop Lhasa....food....more food(appetite returning at last) and then 16 hours sleep later I was ready to wander the old town, visit Potala Palace(though not inside) and watch the pilgrims and monks wandering clockwise round the temples! Once again....Lhasa beer was the order of the night! Lhasa old town is lovely....spoiled only by the mini Chinese Las Vegas which now surrounds it....but it's better for the Tibetan people?!!!! Starting to get used to sitting in resturaunts and pointing to something on the menu then praying that a. there's not too much chilli and b. it's not an unrecognisable animal! Our master DJ Stu was the town celebrity as he Spun some tunes in downtown Lhasa on our last night......the place rocked....so good to hear some proper tunes too! We all consumed way too much vodka....and the following truck day was alittle uncomfortable....wasn't as bad as Polly though, who sat with a bucket on her knee for almost the whole day!
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