Sunday 13 November 2011

Riding Everest – Tibetan Guide

13th Nov 2011 – Volume 3

In This Issue:
·        Got The Bikes… oops
·        Arrived in Lhasa
·        New Photo’s @ Riding Everest - (9th to 13th Nov)


Hi Folks

Got the Bikes:
We have picked our bikes up. As expected, not ideal as they are not allowed to import bikes and only have really old Jap bikes, but we will still endeavour to get as high as we can up Everest. 

Rode back to hotel in the dark with guide on the back - Craig nearly had a big one as a taxi pulled out and his brakes didn’t work - he nearly hit a poor old fruit seller!

Leaving at 9am tomorrow going over 3 big mountain passes - it’s going to be COLD!!!

We are currently at 3450m and have some signs of altitude sickness - i.e. not sleeping and headaches.  Boo

Arrived in Lhasa:
We arrived in Lhasa yesterday afternoon and were met by our Tibetan guide at the airport (all tourists have to have a guide in Tibet). What you notice straight away is the amount of military presence here.  Pretty much on every corner there is a box with 4 armed soldiers in (Young guys looking totally bored who stand there for hours just staring out). 

Walking through the town at night we saw loads troops marching through the markets. Our guide told us that they are there for protection but who are they protecting? 

The police in Lhasa - there are lots of the roof keeping an eye on the locals and us and a lot of regular patrols.

Apparently none of the Tibetans are allowed to talk about politics and he seemed reluctant to talk about the Chinese invasion and the fleeing of the Dali Lama in public. He also told us we shouldn’t photograph the military but we did anyway, in secret - lucky we didn’t get caught!

Today we went to the Polenta palace which is absolutely amazing and holds the tombs of many of the past Dali Lamas. It has over a thousand rooms and one of the oldest meditation caves in the world. 

Craig is turning Buddhist when he gets back!!

Picking up the bikes tonight - there has been talk of bad weather at Everest so fingers crossed it'll clear up. We are surrounded by the mountains of the Himalayas which are spectacular and many have snow on the top - which is probably what’s to come at Everest.

If we don't end up in jail first!!!

BTW: We were well overweight with our baggage and had to put boots on etc. It was a bit of a drama but we managed to negotiate a $400 excess luggage bill out to $30 bribe.

Tams & Craig x

Had to travel in my Boots !!!!!!

1 comment:

  1. Amazing stuff keep the photos coming. We just had volunteers come back from Tibet.

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