I found a photo today of the Base Camp Hotel on the Tibet side of Mount Everest. Check out the image below posted on Webshots by davishongkong. I didn’t realise there was this kind of thing on the Tibet side of Everest.

The last picture I saw of Tibet’s Everest Base Camp, it was all tin shacks and rubble. I have to confess that I have a blind spot for the Northern side of Everest, tending just to think about the South Face side of things. I should remember that Mallory is still up there on the Tibet side, and that Sir Ranulph tried (unsuccessfully) to climb it a few years back.

But I’m wondering if my bias is unjustified. This image of Tibet just doesn’t have the romance I associate with the Everest Base Camp. Politics aside, which looks like the better experience to you: the paved road with a 4×4 and a hotel, or the culmination of Everest Base Camp Trek on the Nepal side with the tents, the rugged carpet of the Khumbu glacier, and the satisfaction of arriving there by foot?

Here’s a photo I think makes my point, an image of Everest Base Camp by ilkerender on Creative Commons.

But perhaps I can find a few better pics of the Tibet approach. I’ll get back to you on that.

Gareth

Sweating and tired, we heaved our belongings off the roof of the bus and schlepped to the boarder to meet the tour company. We had our passports and visas checked both at the Indian side, and over the road in Nepal. It was surreal walking from one country to the next, momentarily crossing ‘no man’s land’.

We piled on to the next coach and headed off to Kathmandu. We were given pale yellow, silk scarves called dhauni with Tibetan good luck symbols and writing, and were told that it’s the Nepali custom to hand these out whenever there was a special occasion i.e. a wedding/birthday or in our case, a trek to Everest Base Camp.

We soon found out that the journey was over seven hours long. I had never smelt so bad or felt so disgusting before. We hadn’t washed for nearly three days, had been literally sweating solidly the entire time, wearing the same clothes, covered in dust and dirt, sleep deprived and very hungry!  But ironically, because everyone was in the same boat it didn’t matter – we saw it as training for the trek!

When we finally reached Kathmandu at 4am we walked down to the hotel and we were met by a magnificent sight too good to be true. The hotel was beautiful, with wooden carvings on the walls and ceiling and gold leaf along the pillars. It was like a dream! Within 10 minutes we had our room keys and could finally get some sleep.

We found out later on that flying from Delhi to Kathmandu takes just 2 hours! – two members of our group who had been unable to get Indian visas had done this and were bragging about their good fortune in comparison to ours. However, I would not have changed our journey from India to Nepal. The experience was tough but so rewarding, and it made everything in Nepal so much sweeter.

Gala Bingo Employees are raising money for the Sue Ryder charity with their trek to Everest Base Camp. They should be setting off today from Lukla, and when they get to the other end they aim to play Bingo on Mount Everest. Shameless publicity stunt? Perhaps, but they’re still putting the effort in for a good cause.

Happy hiking guys,

Gareth

Arriving at Everest Base Camp tomorrow is a charity expedition aiming to raise money for
the support of people with severe learning disablities by cooking.

Yes, that wasn’t a mis-type: a chef is currently moving along the Everest Base Camp Trek
armed with the ingredients of a meal she intends to prepare for her team at an altitude of
5,360 metres, with a glacier below and the mighty Everest towering above.

Sounds like the perfect setting for a breakfast, and were not talking about milk & cereal;
the trekking chef aims to make a posh salmon and caviar breakfast on the mountain.
Suddenly I’m feeling hungry.

Two more pictures from the train. To read about this journey, check out my last Everest trek post. Cheers, R 

We went to Delhi train station to catch a train to Gorakhpur. We were
told to keep watch of our belongings as anything hanging loose from any pocket would be pinched. In the station, chains were being sold along the platform as it is not uncommon for bags to ‘wonder off’ while you’re sleeping.

The station was crazy. The platform was rammed full off people and the stench of human waste was pungent. The train was 2 hours delayed, and when it came we all squeezed on, trying to find our seats. The train was packed, so much so that people were lying on the floor and in the doorways. It said on the side of the train that our coach would be air conditioned, but what that really meant was that there were three fans strapped to the ceiling of the compartments wafting the hot air and stench around the train. The journey was overnight, and was meant to last 11 hours. Therefore, the seats of the train folded down in to 3 tiered bunk beds. It was a very uncomfortable journey, not only because all my bags were on the bed with me, leaving me very little room to sleep, but also because a number of men were staring intensely at the girls in our group.

Read the rest of this entry »