Everest Friendship Hotel Xigaze

... We almost break down and laugh &#8211; and don't feel<br>bad because the other monks are laughing at him too! We realized it<br>was time to go though when another wave of Chinese tourists entered<br>the hall and one lady's cell phone rang. To our horror she answered<br>the phone &#8211; instead of turning it off. As she's chatting the chief<br>Tibetan monk looked at her in disgust and started to make his way<br>towards her. We didn't want to be ...

... if we could see the monastery the next day. Feeling a bit pressured to get on with it (we were on a tour too!), we went inside with about 500 other people. Not quite the conditions in which one hopes to enjoy what is meant to be the peaceful abode of the holy. Each chapel was stuffed to the brim and any bell in sight was being rung with gusto by every member of the Tour Groups. Every single one of then had ...

... salir hasta que terminaron. Asi que chiel, caroline y yo nos fuimos a buscar el banco, y ella y yo andabamos detras de chiel, poruqe no podiamos ir mas ligeras, tuvimos que coger un cyclo rickshaw que no nos entendio nada para que nos llevara calle abajo hasta que encontramos a chiel . Despues de mucho andar encontramos el banco y por fin pudimos sacar dinerito. Chiel queria ir al mercado nocturno, pero Caroline y ...

... a random town in china proper. it was a bit dismaying. we did manage to find the old tibetan part of town (a tiny corner of shigatse is all that's left) and explore the beautiful tashilhunpo monastery, the traditional seat of the panchen lama (when he's not under indefinite house arrest in china). most of our time, however, was spent discovering (learning the hard way?) just how difficult it was going to be to get to the nepali border as independent travelers. we found some ...

... twenty years ago, visitors here would have been nearly cut off from the outside world; now, there are few places in China that you can go that aren't served by wireless. We stayed at a hotel which was nearly at the monastery gates. It was a pretty decent place and my only complaint would be that the builders - or at least the plumbers - seem to have never heard of the word chaulking; the shower stall was not sealed against the wall, so whenever either of us took a ...

Today we had a relatively short drive, with just one 5000 metre pass, Yulung-la, en route to Shigatse. We arrived before lunch, and in the afternoon checked out the Tashilhunpo monastery, the most famous site in the town and the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama (2nd in command to the Dalai Lama). Unfortunately, he's been under house arrest in Beijing since he was identified at the age of 6, and the monastery is pretty much dead. There's a few monks (most of whom ...

... si stanno dando da fare per ricostruire tutto (con tecniche e materiali cinesi, ovviamente...) per poi venire a visitare i vari posti con la famigliola e la guida che parla al microfono?? Io mi domando cosa gli raccontano a questi... Sicuramente che è tutto merito di Mao se è rimasto in piedi qualcosa... Bene, dopo questa tiritera pro Tibet, passiamo ai fatti della giornata. Oggi siamo capitati un pò per caso al ...

... ve clamped down, enforcing the Tibet Travel Permit rigorously and placing a guide in every Land Cruiser no matter how small the group or how short the itinerary. Though not spelled out directly by our travel agency it was plainly implied. There's a specific way that a group of five people can see Tibet by car, and that's the way our merry little gang of five saw it. That brings me to the remainder of our expedition. Sitting in the middle bench was Marco, a German ...

... even though he has a view of Everest outside, he cant enjoy it as he is cold and keeps waking up out of breath because of the altitude! Hmm, I cant wait! Actually, being at 4000 meters at the moment, I have more or less acclimatized. The monastery is just over 5000 meters. The following morning we will hike to base camp.....Whoo! Hoo! After Everest we will be staying in a couple of basic places, so it may be a few days till I next can update. C Ya!

On June 25 We hired a Toyota Land Cruiser from Khada Travel Agency near the Barkhor for our trip to Mount Everest base camp. We got a Tibetan driver with 25 years of experience; he had already been to the Everest base camp five times this year. We got on the road toward Shigatse in early morning, following the ...