I hiked to Base Camp!! With a little luck and a little planning and perseverence three of us in our group had a great hike 8 km up to Everest Base Camp and had a great couple of days before and after. I took lots of photos and will upload a few of them on Thursday from Kathmandu. I'll write a short journal now and expand on it Thursday also. When I last talked to you I was in Lhatse I think, the night before we went to Everest. We woke up early on Sunday an...

Today was relaxing and very nice. In the morning we went to Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse (home of the Panchen Lama .. see yesterday's journal entry). The monastery was beautiful and we saw the largest gilded statue in the world, a 26 meter high gilded Budda with over 300kg of gold on it. It was built around 1914 and still looks beautiful and impressive. I ducked out of the monastery a little early (we've seen a lot of monasteries now...) and went back ...

Thursday we began our drive from Lhasa, Tibet, China to Kathmandu, Nepal. The eight of us on the tour, plus Gelu and Geishi (our guides) plus three drivers in three Land Rovers. We drove about 11 hours on Thursday to arrive in Gyantse. We stopped along the way to see some sights like the location favored by locals for sky burials (instead of cremation your body can be chopped up and left on a rock for birds to come and take away to the sky.. yeah...) and a ...

Wednesday was our last day in Lhasa. I got up early again and 'walked to school' with the kids again. My walk with the kids, some Dixie Chicks on my iPod, and then Pilates back in my room is a great way to start my day. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Our group headed out to Ganden Monastery today. We rented a private bus for the nearly 2 hour journey (only about 40 km outside Lhasa but road conditions make the journey time consuming). Along the way we saw s...

Tuesday was a long busy day. I woke up early and went for a walk. I happened down this street with three schools on it (two primary and one high school I think) and it was fun walking to school with all the kids. Watching the parents dropping off their kids, kids buying pencils or breakfast on the way to school. It was all very nice to see routines that cross cultures. Our group had tickets to see the Potala at 9:20am. We arrived just in time but then...