Lost in China: Day 7

Today is the day. The day we step into wilderness, far away from modern civilization. The ultimate goal is to step foot on Everest Base Camp, but that will be 3 days later. According to itinerary, we will visit few places first, with altitude getting higher everyday.

Tibet's terrain is mountainous, and I believe the government spent quite a huge effort to link highways and train system to this area. Be it political driven or not, this infrastructure is good for the region.

Our destination for the night is Shigatse, Tibet second largest city. It is a 10-12 hours drive distance, just relax.

According to our tour guide, this is mustard farm. It can be seen throughout the whole journey. Ironically, we never see mustard sauce in Tibet, wonder what they do with it.

Mountain 1

Mountain 2

Mountain 3

Small temple with praying flags.

Weird ladders drawings on rocks.

Curvy road up the mountain, just like Initial D.

We took a break at Kampala Pass with altitude of 4797 meters, enjoying the scenery, minimum air, and photo with a Tibetan dog.

Tibetan Dog. It cost 10 RMB per person to take photos with him, but manage to get 15 RMB for two. Don't get cheated by his innocent look, he can eat you for dinner.

Tibetan has the best stone stacker in the world. They manage to stack up any kind of stones, anywhere, any shape.

The holy Yandrok Lake. From far it is unreal turquoise in color; while from near, it is crystal clear.

This weird phenomenon was formed on top of us, like a rainbow in a circle ring. That Chinese tourists who saw this shouted like saw an UFO.

Yamdrok Lake from near. 

Yamdrok Lake 2. Because it is too magnificent.

The pressure is getting weaker. This pack food is gonna burst any time.

Mountain Noijin Kangsang glacier.

Noijin Kangsang glacier 2, with the stupa and praying flags view.

Glacier 3 from another view.

It looks like a frozen river that flows toward us

Gyantse Dzong, a fortress built in 1930s, was referred as "Hero City", because of his responsible in defending British invasion around that time.

Pelkor Chode Monastery.

Finding a public toilet outside Lhasa is not a difficult task. Here is the photo of 1 standard toilet: you just pull down your pants, and start doing your stuff. No flushing required too! And, they have no door too. In fact, some tourist rather just do it in the bushes/wild.

If I drop my camera or phone, I would just buy a new one.

After around 12 hours journey, we arrived Shigatse. Altitude there is 3800 meter. Let's settle the night, get familiar with the pressure, before tomorrow higher altitude challenge.

This is the Tibetan curry rice that I missed in Lhasa, since appetite was recovered, I will have it all.

Tibetan dumpling.

Interior design of typical house or shop. Those photos are their past and current spiritual leaders.

What surprise me is, during the whole journey, even in rural area, my phone was mostly had full signal strength. Why can't we have this, even in city like KL?

Tomorrow will be heading to New Tingri, the last town before Everest.

Lost in China Day 4

Not a productivity day. We had missed the train to Lhasa, and not gonna miss this flight too. Still having the trauma from day 2. Got breakfast, walked around, and stayed at guest house till 3pm, before grabbed airport bus to catch flight at 7pm.

Electric bike that widely used in China.

No one put on helmet in Chengdu.

Say good bye to Sha sha

How I describe Chengdu? It feels mostly like Malaysia, things are still in order, taxi drivers are using meter, drivers are not very friendly. However, it is cheap to travel here, cheap food,  if you can take spicy, cheap accommodation, cheap transportation.

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Arrived Chengdu Shuangliu Airport at 5pm, waited till 7pm, but not seeing our plane. Airport announced that our flight was delayed, and distributed dinner boxes for us. 

At 9pm, another announcement came in: Flight to Lhasa will be delayed until next day, and arranged a bus to bring us to temporary hotel. God! This trip just can't be smoothed! 

We checked in the nearby hotel arranged by airline with 2 buses of passengers, when all of us turn on lights and aircond at the same moment, the hotel power safety switch was triggered. It came on and off throughout the night. Our only pass time is to play poker cards in dark.

A new announcement came at 11pm: flight to Lhasa will depart at 1am, and require us to check out and depart to airport immediately. It wasn't a convenient hour, but I am glad to depart as soon as possible.

It is finally here! A 5 hours delay.

The original plan was to enter Tibet by train, because it might help in acclimatization. Flight into Lhasa took 2 and half hours, once arrived, will immediately exposed to low oxygen and low pressure environment, thus easily trigger high altitude sickness. 

The plane arrived at Tibet Gonggar Airport at 3am, and greeted Tashi Dalek (Tibetan greeting) with silk scuff by our poor little tour guide who waited at outside airport since 9pm, with cold wind and 15 degree Celcius. There has no arrival hall for that small airport.

It was an hour drive from airport to Lhasa, our accommodation place. Sky was very dark, and stars are bright. That was something only available at 3500m above sea level. 

Checked in at our classic Tibetan hotel at 5am, very tired. But, we just made into Tibet, finally, the real adventure just began.