There are many sacred, holy places in Tibet. No – very many. So it won’t come as a big surprise that after completing our kora-round-Kailash, not far from it is the next holy place – Lake Manasarovar, aka Mapam Yumtso, aka Manas Sarovar, a place of deference and worship for several religions, and around which are regularly performed (can you guess? Oh go on!…) koras! Oh – and the water in the lake: not to be touched!…
And next to this holy lake – another! Lake Rakshastal, aka Ravan Tal, aka Langa Tso.
And next to it – another holy place: another monastery – up on the hill:
After a sound, albeit short night’s sleep after two intense days on the road getting here, it was finally the morning of the day of the first leg of our kora around Mount Kailash. ~20 kilometers of trekking was on the menu for us this day, with a rise of ~350 meters in altitude (from ~4700 to 5000+). We were walking from dawn till dusk, which translates into around nine hours! Yes – more tourism until you drop: just as we like it ).
Our objective for the first day: to get a sighting of the northern slopes of Kailash from the direction of Dirapuk Monastery.
It was farewell Everest, and we were headed toward the sacred (in four religions!) Mount Kailash, which was to take us a full two (!) days. The route was as follows:
As you can see, we covered nearly 800 kilometers, which worked out at around 12 hours of driving. The views to be seen to both the left and the right along the full route were fantastic, but all the same, 12 hours – ouch! Read on:…
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After our xSP Summit in Rome, we had some business in other parts of central-northern Italy, during which I managed to get to a very famous place I’d been wishing to get to for, like, my whole life: the Leaning Tower of Pisa!
I was in Paris the other week and, though cold and wet and windy, our welcome was the warmest it could have been!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4w0CzfgVYo/
Why were we there? For the Paris Peace Forum, the annual event where folks from governments, business and other organizations come together to discuss and try and come up with ways to make the world better. And one of the hottest topics there, of course, was cybersecurity – and that’s why were extended a very enthusiastic invite. And since we support all kinds of initiatives throughout the world advocating international cooperation so as to create a digital world that’s secure against all cyber-badness, we sent our RSVP back practically tout de suite.
On our Tibetan adventure – onward; and today, our heads turned categorically – upward! Upward to one of my Top-100 Most Beautiful Places on the Planet, which happens to be the highest place on the planet: Sagarmartha, aka Chomolungma, aka Zhumulangma, aka Mount Everest! Oh my giant! Here she is, from the northern (Chinese) side, through a good long-distance lens (photos – DZ) ->
A little further, at dawn:
Further still – at sundown:
So, Everest is the tallest mountain in the world; everyone knows that, right? Thing is…
…It actually depends on how you calculate highest/tallest. Furthest above sea level? Furthest from the center of the earth? Or the highest peak of a mountain from its base? If we use ‘furthest from the center of the earth’, the highest point on the planet is Chimborazo in Ecuador. Its peak is a full 3.5km (!) further from the center of the earth than Everest. And if we take the ‘world’s highest mountain’ as the tallest mountain from its base to its peak, then the Hawaiian Mauna Kea wins: above sea level it clocks in at 4205 meters, but there are a further four to five kilometers of it under the ocean! That makes its total height some 10 kilometers! Locals in Hawaii even state it really is 17km high (!), since the weight of the volcano pushed the tectonic plate under it down by ~7km! More details – here.
But the true champ really is – as we all know – Mount Everest! It’s peak is the highest point in the world; the air pressure up there is the lowest on the planet; and from the center of the earth it is – after all – the highest mountain. It’s not a volcano ).
And that’s where we were headed – to Everest. Not up it – that is a feat requiring months of training; but at least to see it from down below. The first sign we were getting close to it was when we passed through these here gates – into Qomolangma National Nature Preserve (Qomolangma being the Tibetan name for Mount Everest).
That was the first gate; there’ll be more to come. Meanwhile we’re taking this here beaut-route:
Another gate; base camp – this way…
We had our documents checked (as we were used to by now), and then had a 90km drive ahead of us – to the protected territory, where we’d have to transfer to local busses to take us the last 20km to the base camp. Like this.
Here’s the mountain pass where we caught our first glimpse of none other than Mount Everest!
Hypnotic scenes…
Sunset!
The colors change every minute!
One thing stays lit up by the sun after everything else is already in the shade – Mount Everest, of course ).
Here some of DZ’s kit taking a time-lapse vid:
And here’s the resulting time-lapse:
Duly hypnotized, no one was there to wake us from our hypnotic state – we were well and truly entranced! Actually, eventually our guide did manage to bring us round – with his almost hysterical exhortations for us to get going as it would soon be dark…
Sundown shade from the mountains!
It’s getting brighter and brighter!…
I’ll hand the reins over to DZ for the photos of Everest…
boris_prok informs us that besides Everest there are another three 8000m+ mountains here! And here they all are ->
And if you have a lens powerful enough – you can get a pic of the fifth 8000er – Shishapangma (8027m):
We arrive. Er, and find out we’ll be staying the night in these here tents/huts ) ->
Actually, once inside – perfectly fine: cozy, warm, clean.
Though very tired after such a long day, we simply had to go walkabout up here – so much closer than usual to the stars…
We were up at the crack of dawn – and it was out with the cameras again for the extraordinarily beautiful daybreak…
Here’s us lot – waiting for the first rays of sun…
The eastern slopes, as can be expected – start to brighten…
Direct sunlight – yes!
Other mountaintops also light up!
Good morning Everest!
Time-lapse!
The view seizes you, and doesn’t let go!
The green bears love the morning view too!
But we need to get back to the camp and plan our day…
Thus, the second thing we were to see that day was Rongbuk Monastery – the highest (Buddhist) monastery in the world.
The monastery is small, so doesn’t take long to give a full inspection. There’s not much to say about the place either, but – you are allowed to take photos!…
At the entrance, in addition to fire extinguishers – oxygen apparatus!
This is where climbs to the stop start out. It’s eight kilometers to the south of Everest, at the foot of Rongbuk Glacier. I’d love to come back here and simply walk around for a day or two. But climbing Everest? No thank you; not for me. I’m a volcano man, don’t forget ).
Unsold trinkets, and oxygen cylinders – frozen to the table! ->
Today, a few words about Tibetan roads and what it’s like to drive on them.
The first thing I’ll say about them is that they’re of good quality. Mostly asphalted, in places concrete; main thing: no holes or cracks. The only problem: for some reason, whenever a road crosses a bridge – any bridge at all, be it over a river, a stream or even just some water pipes – there are always installed some speed bumps. And since there are a lot of bridges, you’re having to slow down to go over these speed bumps all too often. I’m all for safer – slower – driving, but out in the middle of nowhere? After a while we got used to them: before taking our next photo-masterpiece we’d look up ahead to check there were no upcoming bridges.
Apart from those pesky sleeping policemen, however – the road situation in the country: excellent; and that goes for minor roads as well as highways – even real remote minor roads 5000 meters above sea level well away from civilization.
Here’s the highway that runs from Lhasa to western Tibet:
En route from Lhasa to Shigatse, we dropped by two more Buddhist monasteries that were most worthy of our attention. The first: Pelkor Chode Monastery, aka Palcho Monastery, aka Shekar Gyantse, in the town of Gyantse (aka Jiangzi Zhen), whose spire is more than 4000 meters above sea level.!
As could be guessed, there are a great many Buddhist institutions and their respective buildings in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. And their caliber is world-class, too – also guessable. So, after our visit to the most famous of them all – Potala Palace – it was time for us to check out some of the others…
First up – Sera Monastery. And we were there at the perfect time – just after lunch, when an astonishing daily ritual takes place: student monks train their proficiency in… debating skills! Like this:
So its farewell Lhasa, and time to head out west toward Shigatse, Tibet’s second largest city. We were up at the crack of dawn so as to get as much sightseeing in as possible. We piled into a Ford Transit with all our bags and off we shot.
Now, on this Tibetan holiday we wanted to see a much of the country as possible – as per our usual modus operandi. However, there were three must-sees that we considered mandatory; anything else would have been a welcome bonus. The three must-sees were: (i) Lhasa (done); (ii) a view of Everest from the northern (Chinese) side; and (iii) Mount Kailash (including a trek around it). Those were the three main-course dishes we just had to eat; anything else would be bonus side dishes, which in the end turned out to be massive portions that really could have passed for a main course ). But more on those later. We’ll come to those when we come to them – in chronological order of how we encountered them.
Now a few words about the journey…
It wasn’t going to be a short one. It was around two thousand kilometers long! Still, at least the roads were of a good standard. They weren’t an autobahn by far, but still not bad. So we had several days ahead of 300-350km per day on the road, which took five to seven hours each day. Every day featured plenty of inspections of natural beauty plus the inevitable Buddhist temples and monasteries. But, oh, were the days looooong. Up every day at the crack, quick breakfast, cracking on along the roads all day, and reaching our hotel for the night late in the evening (sometimes too late for dinner). And like that every day. Oof!
Such a punishing daily schedule was real tough, but the surrounding scenery made up for it: see for yourself, in the following ‘small’ photo-video selection from the first days of our road trip:
