A Big Bang for my Head

From Lhasa the Friendship HIghway leads South through Gyantse, Shigatse, Shegar, Tingri, past Base Camp, getting higher and higher and finally drops to the border with Nepal. Taking in the sites of Yamdrok-Tso, from the Kamba La pass (4700m) was one of the early highlights. For Tibetans it is one of the four holy lakes, yet sadly the water level has been dropping for some years now since the Chinese, in their infinite wisdom, decided to dam it and create Tibet's largest hydro plant. It was supposeldy a "gift" tot he Tibetan people, but they were not best pleased. Not only was it religiously offensive, but the energy being generated has been directed to the ridiculous amount of military bases and Chinese communities around Lhasa. A note about the army - now I am out of China. There are huge numbers of Chinese soldiers all over Tibet. Lhasa is swarming with checkpoints and patrols. It is an occupied city. These are heavily armed troops that push through the pilgrims at the Johkang or stop people going about their day to day business. It does not seem right in the slightest.

Gyantse and Shigatse were not such impressive towns, rather they are home to the Tsechen Fort, Gyantse Kumbum and Tashilhunpo and Sakya Monasteries, which all made for impressive visits. Unfortunately my troubles started at the fort where I cracked my head on a very low door frame. Thankfully I was wearing a particularly thick and wooly hat which I think stopped me from cracking it right open. It was hard enough though, to knock me to the ground for a good 15 minutes or so! I felt pretty dozy for a good few hours but then recovered. Problem was two days later we were crossing 5000m passes and by the time we stopped for a night at Shegar (around 4200m) the mild headache had become chronic. I had explored the town (one street with a few building) with Jonah from Chicago and then ran into the lovely Spanish couple, both on the same route as my tour. By the time I had sat down in the bar, I realised that I was loosing it big time. I took oxygen and the guide came to get me to take me back to the hotel for some rest. The following day was up another 1000m to Base Camp Everest but it was decision time. Accute mountain sickness (AMS) can be fatal. I could barely walk and was only just able to think straight. My decision was to descend as soon as possible to the border. All this planning and no Base Camp for me. The following morning as the tour group drove off the next day I was so sad that I wouldn't be going but I knew it was the right decision.

Then there was waiting and more waiting. Finally another driver sent from the previous town turned up in Shegar and we began the slow but beautiful drive to the border town of Zhangmu. We passed the Base Canp turn off and caught glimpses of Everest int he distant clouds. I should have spent a night at the highest Monastery in the world, or a tent of my choosing. It was not to be.

We arrived in Zhangmu at 1am after a 3 hour military road block. No apparant reason. Just the Chinese being annoying as ususal. The town was an utter dump. Typical seedy border town, which thoroughly let down the rest of Tibet. I was not looking forward to the challenge of crossing the border the next day without the tour guide but I had a copy of my visitors permit so what could possibly go wrong? The Embassy and Tour company had assured me there would be no problem for me leaving 2 days earlier than planned. They were so wrong!

Two lovely Chilean girls and their guide gave me a lift to the border where another guide , sent by the tour agency, came looking for me to help me cross when the border opened at 10am. I made it through customs but then a sour faced customs woman started rabling something at the guide and wouldnt let me pass. The guide translated and said that I could not cross without my tour group. After explaining about 100 times to different officials that I needed to descend to a lower altitude and that my group was at Everest I had all but given up. For the first 2 hours I had no where even to sit, with nasty faced officials ushering me off of anything, including the ground, that I tried to sit on. Finally I went in to an office with an open door and asked a nicer looking man if I could sit on a big leather couch. He agreed. It was a room with 3 computers and no phone, and as it turns out a broken fax. He and another official seemed to be surfing the web, seemingly shopping for semi automatic weapons. Another couple of hours went by as the guide made phone call after phone call and kept telling me they were working on it. By lunchtime I had ascertained from the nice official that they needed a fax from someone telling them something about me being ill. No problem right? Well since their fax didnt work and they wouldnt accept the letter by email, the guide went off to find the nearest fax that given took him 2 hours must have been quite some way away. Meanwhile the official said I could goback outside the China side with the Nepali guide who had turned up to pick me up and get food. There was a very grubby looking "restaurant" which seemed to only have soup. Weighing up my options I decided another day without food was a a safer option. Thankfully the Chilean girls had given me a bar of chocolate!

With the guide back with the fax, he tried the officials who all ushered him away. In his absence I had also been knocking around the customs and immigration hall trying to make friends with any official who seemed to want to speak English. My favourite was Zak a customs intern studying in Shanghai but doing his practical here at the border. His mother was Tibetan and Father Chinese. There were also two women officers who could see how distraught I was getting, mostly after the realisation that the Embasssy had said there was little they could do, although offered me a translator by phone if I needed one. Since the guide was getting no where I started going round officials one by one with the new paperwork and one of the women took them and suddenly started smiling and chatting away as if there was never any problem. Five minutes later I was through into another country. Finally the five hour fax had worked and I was free of China!

Photos are at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125420&id=613391326&l=5e8761e8d1