Tag Archives: must see

Hi folks!

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):

The serpentine road is almost as impressive! ->

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3dtGkNgkjU/?utm_source=ig_embed

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!

Modest inner square…

But with a view of Everest!

North Base Camp. This is where we stayed the night:

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! ->

And that’s all from Everest folks!

The rest of the photos from Tibet are here.

Tashi Delek (བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལགས།།) folks!

Well, I’ve given you an overview of our Tibetan expedition route. Oops, and I appear to have given you a few Tibet on-the-road daily reports too. So now let me back up a bit, and give you a few words – and a lot of pics – from our initial train ride into Tibet: from Xining to Lhasa.

We were, as it happened, not far from Tibet, so no plane needed: we took the train instead. Well why not? After all, Chinese railroads are among the most advanced – and fast – in the world. Also, we were to take the Qinghai–Tibet railway, which is the highest in the world that carries scheduled passenger trains. But we had to take it easy – slowly – since Tibet is one really high autonomous region: its main city is 3600m above sea level, while much of the rest of the region’s populated centers are about 4000 meters. Accordingly, we took it steady so as not to suffer from altitude sickness, which I’ve talked about before. Accordingly, the first day of our Tibetan was completely rail-based: hurray! Why hurray? You’ll see…)

Read on…

As many of you will know, I have a special list of what are to me the most beautiful – must-see – places on the planet. I call it my Top-100, and it’s updated regularly – here. I haven’t been to all of the places on the list, but I do add checks against some of them often – to put them into the ‘been, seen, snapped, etc.’ sub-category of the list. Just this year I’ve been, seen and snapped: the Galapagos Islands; Lake Baikal; the most beautiful volcanoes in the world (on the Kuril Islands); perhaps the clearest, bluest sky in the world (also – Kurils); the Gobi Desert (hmmm: not on the list, but will be soon after a touch of rearranging/editing:); Baalbek; and the stone miracles of Cappadocia. And just the other week – my newest check against an entry: Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet – both day and night, no less.

And here she is (“Oh – that palace!” I can hear many of you thinking:) ->

Read on…

Hi folks!

It seems a bit strange looking at some of my summer holiday photos and editing them, especially when they don’t even relate directly to the Kurils, even though they were taken on our Kurils-2019 adventure! But we’d gotten to the end of the Kurils, so there were no more of them in line for us to check out. The next island after Kunishir is Japan’s Hokkaido. So we took a right (westerly) turn, and headed toward the island of Sakhalin. I say toward, as we didn’t make it to that island. Instead we stopped at a micro-island just off one of its three southern capes – Tyuleny Island; which is appropriately named, as you’ll see in the vids and pics below: Tyuleny means Seals – Seal Island!

Read on…

Hi folks!

The next port of call on our Kurils-2019 adventure was… not one of the Kurils ). Nope, it was a next-door neighbor: the southernmost point of the island of Sakhalin – here – on the end of Cape Aniva, where there is a lighthouse of the same name. Very impressive it is too – check out the pics and drone-vid:

Дальше: разруха, запустение и чайки…

!folks مرحبا

Now, if ever you’re in Lebanon, whatever you do don’t miss out Jeita Grotto, which is just 15 minutes outside Beirut in a car. It’s title is in the singular, but the grotto actually refers to a ‘system’ of two separate (though interconnected) karstic limestone caves. The upper one is mostly dry and gigantic; the lower one features a river, is generally smaller in size, but it’s length is a full seven kilometers (!), which is five kilometers longer than the upper cave.

Here’s the upper cave:

Read on…

If you’ve heard of Cappadocia, you’ll probably know it for one of two things – or maybe both: its strange-shaped pyramid-columns, or (and) the many hot-air balloons that often fill the sky there. Well I’d heard of the place, but had never been, but wanted to for a very long time. The place even has a spot in my Top-100 Must-See Most-Beautiful Places in the World, so it was high time I made a visit seeing as though I was in the region recently…

Read on…

مرحبا (marhabaan) folks!

Baalbek, Lebanon: it’s likely you’ve heard of it; maybe you’ve been, maybe not. If not – here’s your primer. If been – as it’s such a special place, you’ll probably enjoy revisiting it, albeit virtually.

All righty. First things first – when planning a half-day (that should be sufficient) at Baalbek, make sure to take at least a liter of drinking water with you, slap on plenty of high-factor sun cream, and wear shorts and a t-shirt. Then get ready to take in a ton of information while strolling around this place. Ready? Right – off we go up these steps:

So, without further ado, let me tell you this. Actually, I’m simply paraphrasing what I was told by our guide, Olga (mostly confirmed by the internet).

Read on…

Lebanon: the photos – and a few videos – have been sifted, edited, spruced, and are ready. My tales from the country are ripe and also ready – to be blogged. But first – a photographic introduction: this post is made up of a few dozen pics of the country’s monumental historic places of interest.

While you view them, I recommend you update your knowledge of the geography and history of this part of the world; in particular of the following: Baalbek, Byblos, Phoenicia. There’s also the name Jeita Grotto, which may be new to you as it was for me (get ready to be astonished thereby). And, while you’re at it, you may as well refresh your memory of the modern history of Lebanon on the whole – Beirut in particular.

Ok. Now – the pics…

Read on…

Hi folks!

You didn’t think there’d be just one post on Ushishir, did you! )…

Of course not! Why limit probably the best volcano in the world to just one? No reason at all; accordingly, here we go – deeper. Literally! Into a cave here! For example – the one ringed red, here:

Read on…