7 Days in Tibet

Alright, alright, so I cheated. I drove to Everest Base Camp. In a van. On a tour. But at least I say it how It is. And in my defence, I did still have to tackle many mountain passes and cope with the altitude (when I got out of the van to take some photos). At one point I even felt a little nauseous. So I actually had to work hard for the experience of Everest base camp... But not really. However, from the Tibetan side, trekking to Everest base camp is nigh on impossible, due to the political situation, especially when compared to the ease with which one can trek to Everest base camp from the Nepal side. Tibet, the province of China (or country in its own right if you want to be controversial) is notoriously difficult to get into. Let alone get through. Let alone do anything legitimately intrepid in. So I couldn't have walked to Everest base camp from Tibet, even though I really really wanted to. Instead, I just sat tight and did what I was told. I'm good at that. 

Now don't get lost in the depth of this next statement, but I wrote this when I saw Everest for the first time from a distance of about 150 km. To be honest, the mountain, the view, it made my (arm) hair stand on end.

"In China, the most populated country on earth, there is nobody here. Nobody lives here. Nobody wants to. It's just the mountains and the sky with nothing and no one in between.

I'd always assumed that Himalayas were high and that Everest would be just another indistinguishable peak among many. It's not. You can see Everest clearly from 150 km away. It is unrivalled. Undisputedly, Everest claims the title of Top of the World."

Thank goodness that's over. I wrote that when we were still a solid 4 hours drive away from base camp. But by the time we arrived at base camp however, Everest just looked like another mountain. Looking up, there was nothing to tell you that this mountain was a beast. It was not that high; didn't look that hard to climb. Not that anything. It was difficult to believe that we had arrived at the base of the Goddess of the Earth, as the Tibetans call her. So we talked, joked and laughed about how easy the climb looked. I even sneezed at the mountain - the altitude does that to you (makes you both Sneezy and slightly deluded). But on return to civilisation we watched the film Everest (2015 Hollywood edition) about the 1996 disaster. Needless to say, that shut us all up. Despite the mountain looking pint sized (or at least ordinary sized) from the bottom, the film definitely depicted, rather traumatically I might add, the hostility of the mountain. But I mean, surely if a 13 year old American kid can climb it, it can't be that challenging right?!?

On a different note entirely, I would also like to add that aside from my trip to Everest base camp, other adventures in Tibet include getting a little too close for comfort to a yak (named Jack) with large horns, being surrounded by, photographed by and laughed at by local Tibetans and no story is complete (or at least it shouldn't be) without befriending a puppy or too, which of course, I also did.