Today is 6th Sept. Today, I am going to try barley! One of the staple food in Tibet. Did you know the first time I tried barley in Tibet was the dinner we had in the Performance Theatre. It was such a weird taste! It felt cold, soft, and I didn't know what was in my mouth. That was scary because the Chinese eats anything. And that includes me! :-)
So, today morning, we had our breakfast in the hotel. And the must-try barley. In the photo is barley powder, cheese and sugar. Mix them all together. Barley powder is about 2 spoonfuls, one teaspoon of sugar and cheese each. Mix them together in butter tea. And ta-da, gets the barley dough. It looks like oat cookie dough, and tastes a bit like that. It is delicious the more I ate it, and not to forget, extremely filling!
The town is pretty quiet when we woke up.
Our destination for the day was towards Shegar. On the way to Shegar, I saw water being boiled out in the open. It takes 30 minutes to boil the water. Can you imagine the extreme heat in Tibet now?
My friend requested the guide for a brief stop to snap a photo with the flowers. Opposite the road where we stopped to snap photos of the flowers, there was a group of locals having a meal. They were drinking butter tea, wine and yak meatball noodles!
We were actually travelling on the longest highway in China. From Shanghai to Tibet. We have reached 5000km and was going to exit here to enter Shegar.
On the way, we stopped at Sakya Monastery (4,316m above sea level). It was 2.30pm. The entrance to Sakya Monastery. This Monastery is said to have the most beautiful murals. It is common for the monasteries to have murals, as during the Cultural Revolution, many of the books were destroyed. That day, we were lucky as a mask dance was starting. Each monastery has a courtyard for a mask dance.
The mask dance has started. The same movements and music was heard for the next 30 minutes. The monks were moving in circles with the same steps.
We stopped to have a late lunch at 4pm. The interior of the restaurant was so pretty with so many colours. I love colours! I ordered a plate of noodles and mix it with the local chilli paste and flakes. The chilli paste and flakes was not too hot. And clean too. I didn't have any problems eating the chilli paste. My stomach just felt hot only.
We finally reached the entrance to Qomolangma (pronounced as 'Cho-mo-lang-ma') Nature Reserve. Qomolangma is the Tibetan name for Everest. We stopped for a toilet break at this entrance. It was 5,248m above sea level.
Reached Shegar (4,012m above sea level) at about 7.50pm. We have reached our stay for the night. The time in China is the same everywhere in that country. I thought it was a bit funny because China is so huge! And at 7.50pm, it should be dark. It should have been 6pm instead. I figured that out because Tibet is next to Nepal. And in Nepal, it was 2 hours later than Tibet.
That night, I was very excited, because the next day, we are headed to see Mountain Everest!
It is 7th September. The excitement was growing! We are going to Everest Base Camp. It is actually not the real base camp. It is 8km away from the real Base Camp. The real Base Camp is the military base camp. But it doesn't matter. Because we are going to see Mount Everest today!
Today, I wore my thermal pants. It was really cold. I wore my long john top, a green dry-fit top, a blue dry fit sweater, and my blue fleece jacket. That is 4 layers. With a headscarf for my neck. And it was still cold.
Lovely carvings again. The architecture of Tibet is greatly influenced by Nepalese architecture as the 32nd King of Tibet married a Nepalese princess. This was as explained by the guide when I asked her why were there were so many colours and carvings in the buildings.
The town is quiet at 8am. No one on the streets. Well, who would want to roam the streets at such cold temperature?
Reached Qomolangma Nature Reserve Check Point. Here, the ticket is RMB180. The bus needs to pay a fee too. Each tyre is RMB60.
We reached a high altitude area where I saw snow! How excited I was. To see my first snow. The roads were very winding.
It was all cold white snow, until we passed through the opening in the below photo. After crossing the tunnel, we saw greenery and flowers!
Then, we stopped for a toilet break. We prefer toilets in the open area. It is a beautiful view while peeing.
Our lunch was in a small village. There were no cars at sight. Only motorcycles and horses. The most common form of transportation. My meal was a bowl of plain noodles and fried egg.
When I was in the town, there were kids lingering around restaurants, going to tourists asking for food or money. Outside the restaurant we ate, these 2 kids were called in to finish the food 2 locals could not finish. It was really sad. We waste food all the time, and the kids have difficulty in finding a meal to eat. One can never know the hardship unless these wasteful people either experience it or see it.
We have reached the final monastery for our Tibet trip. Rongbuk Monastery at 4,900m above sea level. The highest monastery in the world. This monastery has both monks and nuns. This is necessary for meditation. Recall the Tantrik form of meditation. We didn't go inside. This Monastery doesn't contain anything special except being able to have a perfect view of Mount Everest and the sunset.
Finally, we have reached! Behold, Everest Base Camp! Well, not the real one. If the weather is good, one can see Mount Everest right ahead, but the clouds have covered it. But it was alright. We have all evening and the whole day the next day to see Mount Everest!
We were told to inspect the tents before agreeing to pay and use. If I am not mistaken, it's RMB60 per person. Each tent can fit 5 people to sleep. In the tent, there were trinkets for sale. I was very surprised as I entered into the tents. They were surprisingly clean and neat!
The inside of the tent. We sleep on the makeshift sofa. There is a thin mattress on the sofa. Those folded cloth are sheep wool blankets. One person takes up 2 makeshift sofa. That night, I slept using 2 sheep wool blankets. One to layer the sofa. And another to cover myself.
After settling our stuff inside the tent, we walked around the Camp. I counted. There were about 62 tents. There is a post office at the camp too! I bought a postcard with a the stamps stamped for RMB5. Walking around the Camp was quite a struggle, as the air was thin. One must walk and not run. And to walk at a slow pace. I was huffing and puffing walking from one end of the camp to the other, which is actually about 100metres apart.
We were cold in the tent. And we were told that the tent owner will only start the fire when it gets dark. She is starting the fire now. Putting paper inside. Followed by dried cow dung. Then, she throws some lit matches inside.
For dinner, I ate crackers and a cup of chocolate drink. I was not very hungry anyway. Maybe it was because of the excitement. Or maybe because it was just too cold.
I walked outside hoping to see a view of the Mountains. But the clouds still covered it. We have to wait for the following day.
After dinner, we had nothing to do. So, we sat down, looked at each other, and talked and played cards. I lost count of the number of rounds we played!
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