PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW

We left camp at 8AM, some walking back to Bhimad and some riding with our two jeep loads of gear. Striking camp admittedly left a bit of an empty feeling in all of us. It has been our home for a week that seemed like a lifetime!

Many villagers came early to see us off, a nice touch that we appreciated. It was quite foggy, so a final picture was difficult. We did get a picture of the carpenters and roofers earlier.

We will have many more stories and pictures when we return home, soon.

WRAPPING UP

We are counting the remaining get-ups and trips to the potty trench now!
Stucco guys are working to finish the front of the first classroom, and we do our usual support job. Josh has become the go-to guy for transporting the 50kg (110lb) bags of cement, with no challengers surfacing amongst the Americans!

Work also continued on the ceiling supports and rooftop hold-downs. One thing that must be mentioned at this point is Mr Nirmal, our local slave driver. As he learned our names, we lived in fear of hearing him call us from across the school compound to get busy on whatever he thought we should be doing. He was unique among Nepalis for getting after us to keep pushing! Tom recognized him as premier Nepali team member with a Leatherman tool, and you should have seen Nirmal beam.

Kim and Nick organized games and hokey pokey fests. The students seemed to never get enough of this! In fact, a village woman and her family visited us in camp that night and hit the emotional high for the week. Saying nothing but holding Kim’s hands, she used a little sign language and very expressive eyes to convey their thanks and sadness for our leaving.
At the end of the school day, they had a farewell assembly in the compound. Speeches by them and us on the joy of working together and friendships made. Also deep appreciation for Namlo and our help with their school. Americans were awarded major tikas and flower garlands, easily eclipsing Aruna’s when we arrived. Also hats for men and shawls for women. Very touching.

Sarouj made a birthday cake for Aruna at dinner, with candles and balloons, which we pressed into service to cover Kim’s upcoming birthday as well.

ENGLISH

Started the day doing laundry, and attracted a leech for my trouble. These things are small but a menace!

Hooray – the one room’s walls are completely stuccoed today. The floor was also finished – the room looks like the inside of a concrete tank now. I’m sure that paint will improve on that.

Today was partly aimed at getting involved with the students in their classrooms. We visited 3 english classes to promote the value of education in reaching their dreams. Apparently, Nepalis do not raise their hands to speak. In fact, we’re not sure that they speak at all. We elicited lots of giggling and staring at the floor when we asked them what their life’s dreams were. Got lots of doctors, nurses, and teachers, but also actual ideas as drivers, midwives, police, pilots, social workers, animal husbandry, and scientists. Nick visited a class to see if the students would open up more for him. They remained very shy. After these classes, we delivered books w/cd versions made by the project team, a cd player, and some other Namlo educational materials sent by Magda. All were warmly received, and as a bonus the cd player could pick up radio stations!

Another trip to the sewing ladies netted nice aprons for presents – real Nepali design.

STUCCO AND MORE STUCCO

We decide to split into two teams today, since stucco is the critical path and we can support this work with a partial group. Villagers ad another stucco guy, so the work goes faster. Twice the progress, but still a long way to go. We are now calculating how far we’ll get before we leave, and one room stucco’ed will be “it”. Carpenters finish the roof with a little extra material that was delivered seemingly overnight. Looks like projects here take about as many trips to the local Home Depot as they do in Colorado, ie 3.5 on average. The difference is that material here comes up the dirt road in a trailer pulled by a large tractor. This rig will never sneak up on anyone, since the unsprung trailer clatters enough to be heard miles away!

Frustrated engineers in the group finally have their chance to contribute to the design, since the headmaster asked us how to put up a ceiling in these classrooms. He bought plywood but had no idea what to do next. Gene, Tom, and Dan came up with an idea and basically ground down the carpenter that was skeptical of its strength. Dan put it over the top by standing on the support member to prove it. So these guys were busy salvaging the material necessary to make their design from the misc woodpiles all over the school yard.

The rest of us knuckle-draggers had our fun moving about 1000 bricks and getting rocks and broken concrete to make roof hold-downs for the exterior. Whatever turns you on …

Our daily outreach consists of visiting the new medical post and the 100 year old home of the founder of the Sabhung school. The house was quite comfortable for local standards, and the post was very nice. But, no water or electricity and few medical materials mean that this facility will wait for power and water before being really used.




We learn that some teachers are not present, and I wonder if maybe community parents or elders could fill in as substitutes. Apparently not a concept in practice in Nepal.
* Nepalis know how to set up these festivals and holidays!

A BIG DAY TODAY

PS yesterday we had water buffalo and lemon merengue pie for dinner. Can you believe it?

Lots of local people come to help today – it is stucco day! We mix mortar volcano style on the rough concrete floor of the first room while the stucco guy wets the walls, throws mortar on them (!), and smoothes the finish. One of the four interior walls takes ALL DAY. We see this work stretching to infinity. A couple of us can keep him supplied with mortar, so the rest go on a walk to the next village. NAMASTEs all along the way, with kids adopting us to show their primary school, ending at a very nice temple deep in the jungle. Signs of a goat sacrifice during the Dashain Festival still in evidence. A local woman demonstrates millet grinding with her stone for video and gets a big boot out of seeing it played back!

We are energized by this walk and decide to lay the second room’s rough floor ourselves. The English teacher does the finish, and it works out fine.
Meanwhile after a day off, the carpenters return with a vengeance, finishing the roof structure and laying about ¾ of the metal. We are relieved to see this, since untimely rain would make a mess of concrete and stucco work going on.

At the end of the work day, we visit the Namlo weavers and seamstresses. Bought lots of great stuff!



Another trip to the community spring, dinner, and bed by about 8:30.

CAN WE KEEP THIS PACE UP?

Friday is a half day of school here, but we are up at 6 to report for duty at 9. Some grumbling from the rank-and-file is brutally quashed by the project lead.
We are curious about the age of our building, but we get a variety of opinions from local people. 15 – 30 years old. We can’t imagine that it could deteriorate so much in only 15 years, so we go with 30.

AM work is to scrape off mud in between rocks for the inside walls. It is seemingly endless and mind-numbing, but at least it is not carrying and breaking rocks in the hot sun. After the scraping, we are to wash the walls in preparation for stucco. Again, minor team insurrections are repressed. More villagers are coming around to help, and after the short school day the faculty pitches in as well. It is really rewarding to work alongside the local people, and our spirits soar!

In the PM, we get the OK on cleaning and begin the floor installation. We learn the Nepali way – build a concrete mix volcano on the ground and fill the center with water. Shovel, shovel, shovel, and you get concrete! We carry it into the building a potful at a time (ie a zillion potfulls) and the skilled concrete guy rough-finishes the first room floor. This plus an unscheduled job of building a walkway around the foundation (many opinions on width and depth) take the rest of the day.
We go back to camp tired (again) and filthy (again). You should see our cleanup facilities – a spring in the woods about 20 minutes’ walk from the camp. Local people get their water here, wash clothes, and bathe. Quite a beehive of activity there all day. We just dive right in and “wash” our nasty stuff a little bit. It will have to do …

TODAY WE WORK

Boy did we work! It is fair to say that we really didn’t know what we were getting into generally, but it was in spades on this day. The building was looking like a wreck when we arrived. Local skilled carpenters (paid) worked on the roof structure, while we were assigned to prep the floor. So, what is this you ask? First, we leveled the mud that had been scraped off the inside walls or been dug out to make adobe for the wall height raising. Next we stood rocks on end on top of the mud to take up about 6” of space between the mud level and eventual floor level. This was a butt-kicker, because rocks had to be brought from all parts of the school compound in quantity, broken into the right size pieces, and stood vertically on the mud to provide under-floor drainage. Seemingly endless, heavy lift-and-carry that left us exhausted. The one thing that kept us going was the 100 pound local guy that was busting up a concrete pile and large river rocks with a sledge hammer. Miraculously, we finished the floor prep in both rooms with local peoples’ help.

Notable also this day were the numerous opinions that came from local people on how to position the rocks properly. We were eager to please, so we did, then redid the work as various and sundry kibitzers passed through.

Carpenters worked all day but make little visible progress. We are all anxious to see the roof go up and expect to be involved in its construction.

Stickers are a hit with the kids, foretelling more interaction in the future with us.

SABHUNG, FINALLY

We laid on a bus for 11, which became 1, then 1:30 as we were to connect with Namlo folks coming from Kathmandu and their bus was delayed. We are now Nepali, so we went with the flow and got some ice cream.

We met as rescheduled in Bhimad, looking forward with trepidation to the off-highway trip from there. From the bus, we loaded most of our stuff onto two ancient jeeps with bald tires. Thinking we were fully loaded, we set out for Sabhung. Apparently not as loaded as we thought, 8 local people hopped on to the roof for a lift along the way. Good news – the road was not nearly as bad as we were expecting! Smoother and shorter than the trip to Ang’s village, so that trek retained the title of “Nastiest of the trip”.

As we approached the village, we needed to get up a side road to the school. Our jeeps couldn’t make it. This was the first time we had seen one of these drivers get stopped. He backed up part way, then the local kids (with gusto) and our group hauled luggage and equipment the last 100m.

After setting up camp on a point overlooking verdant valleys and the Annapurna Range (if the mist had lifted so we could see it), we made our way to the school yard for a big welcome. Little kids were clapping enthusiastically, and we each got tikas and flower garlands. Aruna’s were larger than ours – what’s with that?Next we had a meeting with the village project leader and school faculty. The headmaster laid out the schedule for the week, which was followed fully for the first hour of work the next day! Again, we went with the flow but did get a benefit of no more planning meetings.

Sarouj came up with dinner on short notice, and we retired at about 9PM.

FUN IN THE SUN

Today we extended our circle of experience in this region. Ang and I arose at 5:30 to see sunrise at the top of the local high point. There was a crowd there at 6, but most of the haze had not yet come in. Other than the 8000m peaks famous around the world, Fishtail is probably the Pokhara signature mountain and reminded me of the Matterhorn. Low clouds filled the drainages, looking like a white inland sea. We walked back to town, a 2000’ descent on thankfully dry rock and no slippery clay. On the way back to town, our path along the lake took us past the “fish market”, a group of ladies with small baskets of local fish, called silver carp. They appear to be more like perch than carp. Tasty – I had some for dinner.

Later in the day, Josh, Dan, and Tom went up the same hill to paraglide (buckled in with instructors) for an hour. They raved about it, and the scene from the valley floor was spectacular. The 30-40 multicolored parasails against blue sky and snow-capped mountains was fantastic! According to the flyers, it was even better in the air. They quickly rose several hundred meters above the top of Sarangkot on the constant the ridge wave. Josh and Dan took off about the same time and wheeled and soared around each other. It was the closest thing any of them had ever been to flying like a bird despite the fact that all three have pilots’ licenses. In fact there were several eagles soaring with them between the low laying clouds atop the ridges. Dan and Tom were so fired up they were talking about getting certified when they get back to Colorado.

Meanwhile, I went for a walk in the local neighborhoods. Kids are out of school, milking Dashain for yet another day off! Several groups of them wanted to talk to me, something we hadn’t seen much of before. Maybe they are more comfortable on their own turf. High fives all around and a walk through the nearby rice field finished that excursion. I did notice lots of language misspellings and malapropisms on storefront signs outside the main tourist area. I guess English is an approximation here, like so many other places.

Dinner precipitated a raging geopolitical discussion of the mid-east, with much gesturing and emphatic point-making. We had avoided politics for the trip until now, but when the dam broke it flooded. Good time had by all.

AROUND THE TOWN

After a quick breakfast, Ang arranged a boat ride across the lake and a hike to the Peace Pagoda on the top of the hill there. Built by Japanese Buddhists, the pagoda overlooks lake, town, Dhaulagiri, and Annapurnas. As our first hike, it was a lesson on how slick wet rock and clay could be. We would learn this more painfully later – but I’m getting ahead of the story. There were some Germans hiking up ahead of us, so when they came in view (of course) we picked up the pace to show them what we were made of. USA! USA! This behavior continued for the boat ride back, as Ang and Josh took over rowing from the boat people and more or less raced the two boats back to town. Remarkably, no one got wet or had to finish the trip swimming, but the boat people looked nervous!
NOTE: we are now at about 800m elevation, down from the last cycling pass at 5200m. That is a drop of about 14,500’. Pokhara is similar to Hawaii, with flowering trees, high humidity, and very comfortable nights. Tshirts, shorts, and sandals are the local tourist mode, rather than fleece, down sleeping bags, and getting no air when we “breathe”.
We spent the afternoon shopping, swimming, and making sure that the beer we found in Kathmandu was available here and not degraded by the trip.

ON TO POKHARA!

We imposed on Ang to allow us some extra sleep time in Kathmandu after our nighttime forced march. All the ride shirts we had made were completed (embroidered, no less), so we bade farewell to the city at about 11AM in a bus packed with all of our luggage, camp equipment, and a “staff” of 8 Nepalis. Oh, and I do mean PACKED! Nepalis included Ang, his cousin and camp manager Lakpa, camp helper Phurba, cook Sarouj, his daughter Joyti, Namlo staff Aruna and Sarada, and her sister Sumona.( The spellings of all these names are totally suspect!) Turns out that we had possibly the ideal KTM visit during the Dashain Festival – low traffic and pollution, with relatively uncrowded tour sites and restaurants. The bus ride to Pokhara was uneventful, except for the 7 hour duration. Upon arrival, those not already flying back to Kathmandu immediately changed their plans to do so. One note on bus travel – after two weeks’ cycling in Tibet, it felt really disconnected to be in a bus and unable to interact with people along the way. Didn’t like it …
Our Pokhara hotel was great; A/C, pool, good location, quiet, beer and food poolside. It was a slice of heaven, especially when we knew things would get quite a bit more ”basic” in a couple of days. As a result, most of us changed our plans so we could spend our last couple of nights in Pokhara rather than going back to Kathmandu before flying out of the country.

New Posts

I discovered some old draft posts for the blog and Gene just added one about our earlier adventures in Tibet. I couldn't figure out how to put them in sequence so here they are out of order. Have also added some photos to earlier posts if you're interested.

Today we head to Sahbung to start doing some real work, but will not have internet coverage (not to mention hotel, electricity or water) while there so the blog will be down for about a week. We'll try to update it when we get back to civilization.

Hope you are all well and have enjoyed our musings about the adventure.

Tom

Getting to Beijing

The trip to Beijing was uneventful. While the 6 AM departure from Denver
necessitated an early wakeup, I didn't sleep until the Japan Air flight from
Tokyo to Beijing.

The flight attendants on that flight bowed as I came aboard and called
me "Dr. Dan". By this point, I was tired enough to sleep for a couple of
hours.

The new Beijing airport is beautiful and was virtually deserted when we
arrived at around 8PM. After using an ATM, I caught a cab to the hotel;
paying twice what I should have.

Tom and Josh were just getting ready for bed when I arrived. I crashed
but woke up frequently.

9/18 - We all gave up bed at around 5 AM. Josh went for a run, Tom and I
for a walk. We were in search of Tai Chi but only found joggers.

We returned and after a quick breakfast, met out guide for the
day, "Selene". She is an outgoing 35 year old with a 5 year old son. She
majored in Chinese literature and had a good grasp of Chinese history
and culture and spoke English reasonably well. Selene seemed relatively
open and professed to being a Christian. She also said that this was not
the issue that it had been several years ago. We didn't see any churches in
our wanderings around Beijing; although I may not have recognized them.

Beijing itself was cleaner than I remembered - except for the fact that no
one cleans up after the dogs. The highways are in good shape but very
crowded with aggressive drivers. Given the drivers, there are surprisingly
few cars with damage. The number of higher end cars, Porsche,
Mercedes, Audi, etc) is surprising.

We visited two sites, the summer palace and the Temple of Heaven. In
the temple of Heaven, Selena explained that the round structures are
related to heaven while the square ones are related to earth. The summer
palace is on a very large artificial lake that has been dredged out by hand
over more than two thousand years. It was a warm, blue sky day which
made for a pleasant visit in spite of the large crowds.
Because this was a government subsidized tour, we were obliged to visit
a silk store and a pearl store. They showed how they take the cocoon and
make thread and comforter filling from it. The dead silk worms can be fried
up and eaten and theirs turds used for tea - yummy!

We had Selene drop us at a lake surrounded by restaurants and
shops. We gave her a 20% tip. Upon seeing this she snorted and tried
unsuccessfully to hide her disappointment. We wound up giving her
around 200 yuan to split with the driver- about $35 total.
We had a couple of beers and people watched while we waited for Peter
to return from his tour. We fortunately found him in the crowds and ate at
a BBQ that had no resemblance to BBQ'd food in the US. Very good food,
but different. The large meal cost around $12 each.

9/19 - We woke up early (not a problem due to jet lag) to catch our cabs
at 6AM. The traffic was light enough that the driver was shaving while he
drove. When we got to the airport, they could not find a record of my ticket.
The ticket agent and several others were most unhelpful. The United ticket
counter and office were closed. Finally, I called United in the states and
got the correct ticket number. I went to the sales agent who said everything
was in order but the ticket still couldn't get it done. Another trip to the sales
agent was required before we achieved success. This normally wouldn't
have been a big deal except Josh and I were on the same Tibetan travel
permit. Without it, they won't let you on the plane.
After getting through Chongqing with only a minor repeat of the Beijing
ticket issue, we were on our way. The plane arrived over Lhasa only to
divert to Chengdu.
Announcements were made but only in Chinese so Josh and I followed
the crowd. We were put up in a small hotel by giving the hotel desk our
boarding pass and a slip of paper that had been handed to us stating that
the flight was cancelled.
Josh and I then walked around until we found a restaurant. We ordered
by pointing to some plates of food on another table in this very small
establishment. The food was great. We had four or five plates and two
beers and the bill came to $12 total.

Our “Snow Day” Ride at Altitude – Mambuk to Nyalam

We left our camp near Mambuk around 08:30 in a light snow flurry. I was probably following Paul too closely when he fell at low speed in some loose gravel and I couldn’t avoid hitting his back wheel and “piled on” but other than a few scrapes we were both relatively uninjured and in good spirits and started the long climb up to Lalung La pass. The road was in good shape and slope modest so Larry, Paul and I made decent progress but the snow flurries intensified as we gained elevation. Peter, Josh, Dan and Jim were well ahead by midmorning though we could see them occasionally on the switchbacks above us. Sun periodically poked through the clouds tempting us to hope for clearing but we inevitably rode higher into another snow squall.
We crested LaLung pass (~16, 300’) in the cold withlight snow and windy conditions and Paul and Larry (the wisest among us) decided that that was enough and we all started to rack the bikes. Ang then offered that he’d like to ride on with me and started to get his bike down, so the two of us mounted up and headed over the high rolling road, now accumulating snow, towards Yakri Shong La pass (~16, 700’.) I’m sure we were a spectacle to car and truck traffic as we appeared out of the snow, hunkered over our bikes, faces covered to protect from frostbite, slogging upward. We crested Yakri Shong La pass within an hour and started the long descent in mixed snow, sleet and freezing rain though the road conditions got better quite quickly.
We caught up with the lead riders (Josh and Peter) at a tea house near Lasi where everyone was warming up around the stove and getting a hot lunch. Peter had suffered the most (with moderate hypothermia) and had already changed into dry clothes but Josh was keen to cycle on. My torso was warm enough but my shoes/socks were soaking wet and feet very cold so I decided the tough part had been achieved and no doubt disappointed Josh (who, with Peter, had ridden every mile to that point) by electing to continue to warm myfeet from the heater in the van as we descended to our destination for the night, Nyalam.
Our accommodations were “basic”to use one of Ang’sfavorite words (i.e. no showers or hot water and only squat toilets) but we had been in worse already and the crew set up a little hospitality bar with cookies and cold beer and, once we changed into dry, warmer clothes our attitudes improved noticeably. We even found an internet café to catch up on e-mails a little and we explored this somewhat gritty trucking town on foot. Saruj and his crew commandeered the next door restaurant and prepared a wonderful meal of chicken, rice, lentils and fresh raw vegetables and we had a brief appreciation event for our Tibetan drivers and guide (mostly consisting of Colorado caps and lavish praise, tips were handed out the next day) since they would be leaving us the next day near the border at Zhangmu. We were in bed by 8PM.
Gene

Adventures in Kathmandu

Well, the first half of the adventure has ended (with as much excitement as anywhere along the trip (which I’ll discuss later in this post)) and we have boarded a bus to Pokhara to begin the next phase of the adventure. Unfortunately, Paul and Sue, Larry, and Peter had to head home from Kathmandu but we have added Kim Palmer and her 13 year old son Nick to the merry group of vagabonds. The cook, Saruj, from the bike trip, has also rejoined us (much to our joy, as his culinary mastery has been more than remarkable for the whole first part of the trip) with his daughter, Joyti, who has never traveled further than Kathmandu. Joyti is a delightful 5th grader who speaks excellent english. Ang has also added 2 more helpers who will take care of our camp and help us haul water (which is very scarce in Sahbung) since he will have to leave us during much of this part of the trip to begin preparing for his next Trek in Nov. Ang also volunteered to bring in a 500 liter storage container for our camp and donate it to the village after we’re done. However, Namlo told us that thanks to many of your generous donations they would be able to procur the water storage container for the village. As I think we told you before our trip, Ang also generously donated the use of his tents and camp gear for our stay in Sahbung, reducing the total costs for both us and Namlo so we could use all the donated money for the construction.

Back to our visit to Kathmandu: We all arrived safely and excited about the trip (though some of us a little worse for the wear ;-) The Radisson is an Oasis in the middle of the chaos that is Kathmandu with spa, swimming pool, bar and air conditioning! Although many have written about the filth and squalor of Kathmandu, we arrived during the 15 day Dashain festival and although the city was as dirty as some other Third World countries some of us have visited, the pollution was not as bad as we were expecting (since so many people were out of the city back in their own villages) and the crowds were remarkably reduced. We of course visited the normal tourist attractions such as the major Hindu temple to Shiva, the god of Destruction, and its cremation pyres along the banks of the sacred river Vishnula, and the biggest Buddhist Stuba in Nepal (supposedly containing a relic of the first Buddha) and it's monastery which was much more ornate if only as a result of its state of repair compared to those in Tibet. Interestingly the Hindus and Buddhists seem to live in relative harmony in Nepal even being able to enter each other’s Temples although we were not allowed to enter the Hindu temples we visited. We also went to Bactapur a city originally built in the early 1400s, one of the 3 kingdoms that simultaneously inhabited the Kathmandu Valley. The preservation of the city, its architecture, wood carvings and temples, was remarkable (not to mention the erotic carvings reminiscent of India’s Kama Sutra). We all particularly enjoyed some western food like fries and hamburgers but quickly moved on to tasty Nepalese currys, dall bhat, and kebabs.
We met early to take a “three hour drive” to Ang's house. We rode in a Toyota pickup; 5 up front, 4 in the back in the covered, steel framed truck bed. In this vehicle, seat belts were a distant memory and our mothers never would have let us ride in the back ;-)

The road out of Kathmandu was bumpy and only partially paved. The road in the countryside surpassed many of Colorado's 4 wheel drive trails. The road was washed out in many areas and the drive was done in 4 wheel low for long distances. There was a more direct route which Ang can walk in about 2.5 hours in good conditions but it was washed out by the monsoons and is now longer usable by jeeps.

We felt like characters in an adventure movie. We missed other vehicles by inches, past cows and water buffalo being led down the street, women carrying loads twice as big as they are, and incredible scenery. Buses with people piled on top, vehicles stopped and stalled in random locations, and villages filled with people flowing into the street added to the adventure. It is a certainty that anything but the most minor of accidents would be very serious.

After six hours of being beat up by the road, picking up 6 of the driver's relatives (piling 10 of us into a space for less than 6) and helping pull a stuck truck out the mud, we arrived in Ang's village of Batsey, which means "windy". Ang's village, with most of them seemingly related to Ang in some way, met us in force. I believe both villagers and guests were thrilled with the visit.

The tour of Ang's house was fascinating. The kitchen area contained 3 chickens in cages, dried corn, and a cooking area with a small open wood fire. In order to maximize heating and to protect the wood against dry rot, there is no chimney. Smoke escapes though openings and windows in the second floor. Since we are fairly tall compared to the Nepalese, our heads were in the smoke and we found breathing uncomfortable. The smoke although helpful for the villagers in some respects unfortunately also leads to cataracts and respiratory problems. The second floor is used for grain storage and sleeping. The second floor porch is also used to dry corn and for additional sleeping. It is quite comfortable this time of year. Running water is available just outside the house.

The sitting area outside is very pleasant with incredible views. We had a wonderful lunch of fruits and vegetables, dall bhat, two freshly killed chickens, rice, and a fermented millet drink. Ang's family was very gracious and we were all grateful for the opportunity to visit.

Rather than endure the 6 hour drive back, we chose to take the Toyota as far as it would go on the unpassable, short route to Kathmandu and walk the remaining distance. We chose this in spite of the late hour. Despite the late hour, our driver still stopped numerous times to chat with relatives and friends along the way.

The Gods were conspiring against us. When the Toyota got to the top, but before we got to the trailhead, two of the front leaf springs broke. This resulted in much more walking than planned. The path through the forest was very pleasant. The temperature was perfect, the moon was out, and because we were in a rain forest preserve, very quiet. The path was rocky with slippery mud, hidden holes, and hidden drop offs. The tiny combination lighter/flashlights that Ang got for us provided just enough light to allow us to survive the 4 hour hike without a serious injury.

We were all tired at the end of the day but glad we had experienced the adventure.

Tom and Dan

The final ride down to Nepal from the Highlands of Tibet

Everest impresses you with its majesty. In contrast, the 25 mile ride from Nyelam to the border takes your breath away with it's beauty approaching perfection. Every turn reveals countless waterfalls, tall glacier covered peaks partially hidden by mist, and deep valleys cut by torrents of water. This is probably the most beautiful place that I have ever seen. The descent almost made every uphill pedal stroke worth it.

In a stretch of 35 miles, we have gone from alpine tundra to tropics due to a loss of around 8000 feet in elevation. At the end of the day, I was sitting next to a roaring river surrounded by bamboo, hibiscus, and bougainvillea.

The border crossing was uneventful and surprisingly efficient for all of us except Jim. His red, white, and blue cycling jersey emblazoned with stars apparently offended the Chinese who delayed him for several minutes. We were also not permitted to stop and read the sign telling about the Friendship Bridge as we crossed the border. We never saw an immigration official upon entering Nepal. Ang gathered up our passports and paperwork and everything was taken care of while we ate lunch.

The Achilles heal of the Chinese government is their love of bureaucracy. Forms seem to be required for the sake of having a form. People sit around idle either waiting for forms or filling out forms.

We continued riding for about 12 miles after crossing the border. Differences were immediately obvious. Driving on the left, a higher level of poverty, chickens everywhere, private satellite dishes, and an abundance of water. People were bathing and doing laundry on the sides of the street, trucks were parked at stream crossings to be washed, and terraced fields were growing rice.

It seemed a little surreal as we rode down the drive to the Borderlands Resort. The bicycle had become a part if our lives over the last two weeks and now would be set aside for the next phase of the trip. The first showers in several days felt wonderful.

We met some interesting travelers at the resort. Marcos, a German IT manager, was doing a several thousand mile self supported ride. He managed to cross Tibet without a travel permit. Also, we met a couple who had just moved to Katmandu. The were escaping the festival going on there now. He is a physician working for the WHO and they had spent 11 years living in Bangladesh. She spent her time there organizing activities for the expats.

Ride to very remote Monastery near Mambuk

The now well-into-weary riders left Tingri for Mambuk at about 10:15 after a stay in the Snow-Leopard Guest House. Our trip wound through a very remote area with only a few small villages and barley fields being harvested. Not much exception to report except the usual yells of “Hello” from the village children. We did see many old ruins of abandoned villages and some weathered down fortresses.
Gene, Paul, Tom and Larry joined up for most of the ride. It was a fairly easy ride, albeit slightly uphill most of the way and with a slight headwind now and then. Gene, Paul and Larry took turns leading our small pace-line (Tom is still recovering) and we made good progress. At one village, 4-5 kids lined up across the road with their jackets tied together and tried to impede us, all apparently in good nature of course but a bit disconcerting. We dodged around them successfully except one of them threw his jacket right at Gene’s chain ring. No harm done, but if it had hit either the front or rear wheel it would have been real trouble. We are not sure of their motivation.
We arrived at camp just a few miles uphill from Mambuk at about 3 PM at about 14,700 feet above sea level. Had a late lunch at camp with a really good pizza”baked” in a large pot by Sarug. We were soon joined by a pack of 7-8 dogs at the camp which the cook kept trying to run off by tossing stones at them. They would stay their distance for a few minutes but always reapproached.
A nice little creek ran through the campsite which was a welcome addition.
The camp was in a sheep meadow like many of the others and the odor was pervasive but not overwhelming.
We were told that there was an old monastery nearby but that it was not very interesting and that we could not go inside and I (Larry) decided to skip it.
Since there wasn’t much to do, I changed my mind about going to the monastery and, boy, am I glad I did. I joined Dan and Tom for the “1/4” mile walk. At about ½ mile, we caught up with Paul and Sue, had a small adventure crossing the creek, and continued the journey. At about ¾ of a mile we came to a stream crossing again where an older gentleman was washing clothes. He had come down from the monastery which was now in full view, about ¼ of a mile straight up hill. We continued on up with frequent stops to enjoy the view (code for “catch our breath”). As we approached, we noticed a wind-driven prayer wheel perched atop a rock precipice.
When we got to the entrance and courtyard, we were welcomed openly by one of the senior monks who was accompanied by a very elderly monk with bad eyes and a couple of younger men. The senior monk (not the abbott, who was absent at the time) then gave us a complete tour of all the sanctuaries and worship rooms. He toured us through the whole place with great energy and enthusiasm. At the entrance to the temple with a large Buddha statue (10 to 14 feet tall) there were tables full of 8 to 10 inch Buddha statuettes lined up in columns and rows.
In one prayer room, the monk offered us Tsampa (barley flower with bits of barley grain in it mixed with yak butter) which is a “holy” bread. Dan surreptitiously hid his and Paul ate a bit and accidently dropped the rest. The monk was right next to me, so I was obliged to eat it. It took a day or two to find out that there was no ill effects on my digestive track.
In two rooms, there were large prayers wheels which were about 10 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter. They had rope handles dangling down at short intervals which we grabbed and walked the prayer wheel around clockwise three times. Each time, a bell rang.
Dan and Larry made offerings to the large Buddha and after the tour of the inside, Larry donated Y100 ($16: which Paul later shared) to the monk.
Once outside, we circumnavigated the monastery, with the monk and us turning the prayer wheels that surrounded it while the monk repeatedly chanted a prayer which he encouraged us to repeat – ‘om mani padme hum’ meaning in english ‘Hail to the Jewel in the Lotus.’ We then went down to a small separate building that had a sandstone rock leaning against it with the shape of a footprint on it. There were many failed attempts by the monk to tell us what it was. He finally took a piece of shale off the side of the building, took his shoe off and stomped on it. That gave finally conveyed the “impression ” that it was a real footprint. (We found out later that it was a clay impression of the monk who founded this monastery 850 years ago.) The monk showed us how to bow to it and touch it with our foreheads which is an offering for a safe journey.
Upon leaving, we met Jim and Gene on their way up and let them know of our experience and gave them a heads up on what to expect. They got essentially the same tour plus were shown where they make the Buddha statuettes. They also managed to get a couple of photos of them and the senior monk plus one of the large prayer wheels which Gene will include.
After we went back to camp and let everyone know what we had experienced, Ang and Norbu went up in the jeep to check it out. Norbu gave us a more complete explanation of what we had seen. The monastery was built 850 years ago by the “footprint monk.” However, it was destroyed by the Chinese in the “Liberation of Tibet” in 1951. It is called the Nachung Monastery and was rebuilt in 1985. There are 18 monks living there now. The large Buddha we saw is the Lotus Buddha. The clay cast of the footprint is believed to protect the monastery from the mountain across the valley which they consider to be a ghost. It seems to be working because the monastery is in surprisingly shape given the small number of monks in residence.
Ang gave some antiseptic eye drops to the elderly monk who had gestured to us that he had eye problems and recommended the monk go to a clinic for cataract surgery.
It was a great walk up to the Monastery and all who went were thrilled with the experience.
The evening continued with our socialization waiting for dinner. There was a little doggie porn as part of the dog pack that caught our attention. Some of us tried to ignore it, others were mesmerized, some were critical (of the male dogs especially and those who were mesmerized by the activities).
Again, we had a great evening meal after which we retired for a cold, blustery night in our tents with a cacophony of dogs barking on-off through the night. All-in-all a great day!

Larry with Gene as “contributing editor”

Oct 1st from Paul & Sue at Everest Basecamp

Another spectacular day in Tibet, but before I begin with today I want to tell you about yesterday’s once in a lifetime event, our visit to the base camp at Mt. Everest.  We checked in at the check point, climbed a small hill, VERY SLOWLY, due to altitude and there she was in all her majesty. We celebrated our accomplishment with smiles and pictures.  A few of the guys brought their bikes up the hill and posed for a picture with the travel section of the Denver Post hoping the picture will eventually be printed.  Then we returned to our campsite which also gave us a clear view of Mt. Everest and was situated right next to a monastery.  We had another scrumptious dinner and all turned in for the night.  Several of us got very little sleep due to altitude symptoms and yaks traveling through our campsite.  This morning we awoke to a windy 26 degrees…definitely not our best night of camping.

This morning we left Rongbuk for Tingri.  The trip was all on rough gravel roads.  Four of the guys rode their bikes; four rode in cars and vans.  I rode in the fourth seat of the van all by myself and decided to stretch out.  A short way out of Rongbuk I  felt a cool breeze and thought to myself “ why would someone open the window when it’s 26 degrees outside” but finally realized the back door of the van had opened in transit and everything packed back there was gone.  We retraced our path and found all the items accept Ang’s pack which had his passport and cash for the rest of the trip.  Since there was no cell phone service we continued on till Ang and his staff could begin to make calls.  While we were parked alongside the road another tour guide pulled up and told Ang the bag was dropped off at the hotel back in Rongbuk.  While Ang returned to Rongbuk, the rest of us decided to hike up the road the cyclists had travelled.  This incident reminds me about the warmth of the Tibetan people.  Everywhere we’ve travelled we’ve been met with smiles, and the children are precious to behold.

We met up with the cyclists at lunch who looked none the worse for wear given the rough roads.  We followed their route in the van and travelled through miles of boulder fields spotting the top of Mt. Everest at one point.  Tonight we’re all tucked in to a hotel in Tingri, thankful for shelter with warm showers and warm beds.