Tibet and a phone call

Day 107. Monday the 17/10-05

On the way out of Tibet, well before planned, I was thinking about the last three weeks in this "small" perl of a country.
They had given me great experiences and not least given me time to think about the previous progress and future of the expedition. For a while I hadn't been completely satisfied about my self, the journey and my lack of time to write the expedition journal. I shouldn't see how bad it really was untill I talked to a close friend that could tell me many a thing. Among other things she made me see how angry and bitter I had been in the journal the last couple of months. That made me read the part from Mongolia and China... after which I immediately began an extensive amount of corrections and censorship of a way too "colorful" language.
I realized immediate changes were necessary!

Small cosy stret by the Jokhang Temple

Everything started three weeks earlier when Ester, Dewey and I landed in Lhasa airport. We didn't exactly know what we wanted to do but Dewey and I did have an idea that we as a minimum wanted to take a high altitude trek. Ester had an idea that we as a minimum should see the Potala Palace.

From the left: Snake-Jane, Julie and True-Jane

The day before we left Chengdu I had written a mail to a hostel to make a reservation but now that we were standing in the reception they told us that there was no room and that they by the way didn't read any incoming emails. Of course it was annoying but later we heard that this hostel would close at the end of this month so perhaps it was a bit understandable anyways!?
Well, we walked to another hostel where we were able to get three beds in a gigantic dormitory having a staggering amount of 24 beds. It wasn't optimal, especially not because of the many chinese tourists this hostel had, but we still took it. This should show it self to be a super decision as the world obviously was small in Lhasa!!!
During the day and evening I slowly began to feel a bit sick from the altitude - it wasn't serious but I had a bit of a headache and was feeling slightly unwell in general. Furthermore it was difficult to fall asleep in the night and when I finally succeeded to do so it would not be for long...
Suddenly I woke up to somebody shaking my arm, I was confused and didn't exactly know what was going on so I turned around and was just about to tick off when I saw two happy faces. It was true-Jane and Julie!
The joy wouldn't come to an end so I got up and we all headed downstairs where Snake-Jane soon joined us. When we late in the night went to bed I couldn't fall asleep again but it was well worth it.

Take a stroll around the Potala Palace for a long a cosy path with lots of shops

The following days we all had fun and we even found a regular bar where we could watch DVDs. Of course that meant "Sex and the City" along with a couple of Deweys and my movies. One of them was "Team America". I had seen before in Beijing and was close to crack of laughing so that movie suited me fine... the girls laughed as well but us Danes were the only ones laughing!
Esther left during the movie and Dewey seemed pretty inimpressed. They obviously had no humour... or perhaps it was just a tad more refined! I mean, how can one not be amused of a sexscene between two dolls that crosses the border and ends up with them peeing and pooping in the faces of each other?

View of Lhasa from the Potala Palace

One of the days Ester, Dewey and I visited the Potala Palace for which I had gotten a necessary permit to buy tickets the previous day. To limit the amount of visitors to this sacred place they only let a certain amount of tourists enter it every day, which was controlled via these permits. To get this permit would show it self to be a crazy affair. You had to be at the ticket office at 17:00 where the permits in all gracious would be handed out.
When I got there an infinitely long line was already formed so I prepared my self mentally to be there for a long time... but after 20 minutes where I had moved a couple of meters of what could be the equivalent of half a days march a ticket salesman suddenly came and made me understand I should pass all the other waiting people!? With some pushing and a lot of shouting and discussing from his side I was suddenly standing in front of the counter. Here a new ticket salesman asked for my passport, which I naturally didn't bring. The crisis was avoided though because he apparently seemed to feel sorry for me and my particularly wellplayed dog eyes.
Shortly after I left the place, and the still long line, with a permit to buy three tickets the following day.

And here is the Potala Palace in all its glory

You weren't allowed to take pictures inside the Potala Palace but it certainly wasn't because there was nothing to show. It was super nice!

The Jokhang Temple and the square in front of it

After the Potala Palace we headed on to the Jokhang Temple, the spiritual stronghold in Tibet, which is located a couple of kilometers from Potala. It was equally fantastic to the Potale, not as spetacular, but you could feel the power from the place and the many people praying...

Praying rolls inside the Jokhang Temple

A couple of days later the three of us headed to the Nam-tso lake because the girls had been there and said it was fantastic. The surroundings should be incredibly beautiful and the lake have a special blue color... furthermore the sun should be pretty powerful - a couple of the girls most certainly had a special red color!
We rented a taxi for a day, which was the by far cheapest alternative if one didn't feel like taking a public bus with a following walk of 60 kilometers. It was a long trip - four hours each way but when we got there I understood what the girls had meant. It was incredibly beautiful!
Naturally we immediately found a nearby top, which we immediately decided to walk up on. It was tough... you could feel that we now were in the altitude of 4800 meters. When we got down (running!!) the taxi were waiting for us after which we drove back to Lhasa.

The Nam-tso lake

The girls had planned a nine days trip to basecamp on Mt. Everest in a jeep so yet another time we ended up saying goodbye. They were in the belief that Dewey and I would still be there when they got back but I didn't feel too convinced. I couldn't really see what we were to do in Lhasa for nine days more, excluding the trek we wanted to do...

The two famous rocks at the Nam-tso lake

We had to say goodbye to Ester that lived in Austalia as well because she suddenly had some problems with a working permit she was working on.

And yet another one of Nam-tso

Subsequently our preparations for the planned trek started. We had talked about possibly try a 6000 meter peak but nowhere in Lhasa were we able to find informations on a trek this high.
We ended up accepting a four days trek that reached 5285 meter as this was the highest and supposely the most beautiful in a sensible driving distance. It was high and I looked forward to seeing how I would cope with the altitude as this would be my highest point yet! (besides in an airplane of course).
We also bought the last things we needed to be fully equipped for an entire trekking expedition.

A little scenery from the car on the way back to Lhasa from Nam-tso

Throughout the entire China Dewey and I had worked on getting on a Basic Mountaineering Course via the Nepal Mountaineering Association but it was looking dark for us as the course of this year had already started and they required at least five participants for an extra.
Through an "emergency signal" on the Danish Mountainclub website that in general didn't give a lot I did recieve an email from someone telling me about a similar course through the Himalayan Mountaineering Association. We also looked into that possibility since they had a course a month ahead...
It should be written that all shopping in China and Lhasa primarily was with this course in mind.

The Trek from Gandan to Samya

Well, when the day came where we had planned to leave my alarm clock rang at 05:35... it was an inhumane time and I certainly wasn't worth a lot. Dewey had overheard his alarm so when I checked his room I had to wake him up as well.
Shortly after we were sitting in the bus towards Gandan, a small monastery town from where the trek should start. It was a gray and dull morning and when we got there it began to snow, which turned into more and more during the late morning.

...

For the trek it self I'd rather let the pictures talk for them selves... but I can give these details:
The trek was from Gandan to Samya, was 88 kilometers long and had two high passes on respectively 5285 and 5228 meters.
Furthermore it was obvious that above 5000 meters I began to have problems with the altitude. Later (and during) I still felt that with some days of acclimatisation a 6000 meters peak shouldn't be impossible!
And then the last, but absolutely not least, detail... our backpacks weighed on the wrong side of 20 kg.

Me on the highest pass, 5285 meters

When we three days later exhausted and tired reached Samya at 15:20 after a long day of, according to the map, 39 kilometers walk on a relatively flat and boring road I just wanted to go back to Lhasa - at almost any cost...
The public bus of the day had already left so that wasn't a valid option anymore. Instead I had heard about a small ferry a bit outside the town that would sail us across a wide river to a trafficked road from where we should be able to catch a ride.
After having asked around for a while we finally found someone that wanted to drive us to the ferry - it more or less started a chain reaction and five minutes later we were a truck full of people heading for this socalled ferry.
When we reached it the "ferry" turned out to be a flat river barge that was able to carry approximately 25-30 people across (probably 75 according to chinese standard, which luckely weren't put to the test though). During the sail a group of local people had a play with the water and somehow we fell into conversation with them. Shortly after we even had a cheap ride to Lhasa.
The two hour long drive should turn out to be a particularly bizarre experience. It turned out that we were sitting four people on the backseat; me, a man and two women. Dewey had the seat of honor in the front. Throughout the entire way the man tried to mate me with one or the other of the two women. Furthermore one of the women litterally tried to make me either grab her breasts or mate me with the other woman. I declined the... erhh... open offers after which the man dug in him self, discrete luckely!
When we reached our hotel the man tried one more time by inviting them selves up to our room... Dewey and I politely declined the offer.

Nice view right after the second pass

After having installed our selves in a room and hung all our wet stuff to dry all over the place we briefly walked out in Lhasa where we among other places walked by the local bar where we heard "Sex and the City" being shown... naturally it was the girls! The nine days had passed already anyways.

Around this lake I suffered a bit from altitude sickness...

The next days we all had a great time untill it once again was time to say goodbye. The girls was heading back to Hong Kong from where Jane and Jane were catching a flight to India. Julie was heading back home to Denmark.
The day before we said goodbye I had the, in the start of this chapter, mentioned conversation with a friend why I this time knew for sure we wouldn't meet again because of changed plans. Despite we had said goodbye several times before it was still a bit sad this time.

The river we crossed in a "wodden ferry"

The call hadn't just resulted in a censorship of the expedition journal but likewise made me think... think about the expedition in complete, me as a person and well as my wishes for this journey.
My original idea for the journey, as described in the prologue, had turned out not to go as planned. Why? I didn't know exactly but the path drawn in the sand in front of me didn't lead into solitude in the wilderness' of the world. I accepted it. I chose to embrace this new travel form that didn't go under my term, expedition I did it by sending 23 kg. equipment back to Denmark... with more to come when I got to a city with UPS, DHL or some other big private package delivery company where I would be able to insure my more valuable pieces.
I also realized that in order for me to get in a better mood again I had to travel alone. It had nothing to do with Dewey, he was fun to travel with, but I had to get back to my personal fundamental idea for this journey.

This sudden U-turn from Deweys and my plans naturally had its price. Especially all the equipment we had bought and I now had shipped home - so had Dewey. It wasn't really to any use; I knew I would be able to use mine later but as Dewey said then he had everything in advance.
I felt guilty but he seemed to understand me... or maybe just to take things easy. He was a good travelling companion and friend.

Earlier this day when I was sitting alone in the bus to the airport waiting for it to drive, Dewey suddenly came running. Incredibly enough he had been able to get a ticket to Chengdu from where he would head on to Bangkok. It was fun!