We last left you heading off in to the sunset. Turns out this is not the best time to drive in Tibet. About 10 minutes after our driver assured us it was safe to drive at that time of night, he turns to us and says "we should be through the pass while it is still light, after dark very dangerous." Excuse me Chiggs? Dangerous? What ever do you mean? He replies, calmly, "oh there are many robbers on this road, but no problem." He went on to explain that after dark, this stretch of road is prime hunting ground for Khampas (Tibetan nomadic robbers) because it is so dark and isolated. Khampas often gather in groups of 10-20, and cover a stretch of road with broken beer bottles or large rocks. This forces drivers to stop and get out to move them before driving on. When this happens the Khampas will come out of their hiding places, rob the drivers and any passengers...at gunpoint. Unfortunately they often kill the drivers as well. Their main targets are Chinese trucks carrying goods, but they have been known to target pretty much anything that passes, including tourist laden Land Cruisers. When we asked Chiggs what would happen if we came across robbers, he said "don't worrry, I won't stop. I'll just run them over." We then further inquired as to the consequences of such a tactic, to which he replied, "if a robber, then no problem, if not a robber, then I will have to pay." Pay? What do you mean Pay Chiggs? "Oh maybe 50 or 60,000 yuan. One time I run over a goat and sheep. I pay nothing for goat and about 500yuan for sheep. But I got to take sheep for food for my family." Thanks Chiggs...thanks for clearing all that up for us. Will you get to eat the robbers too?
Well, not 30 mins later did we pass a group of Nomad tents, and then two men in the road trying to flag us down. As promised, the Chiggles drove straight at them, narrowly missing his target as they jumped out of the way. These guys defintiely looked a little suspect. They moved to block the road as we came upon them, and never took their right hands out of their Chupas (Tibetan sheep wool coat-probably made from the one Chiggs ran over) likely concealing their guns. They also had their faces covered.
After the fact, Chiggles said he thought they probably were robbers on their way to their nightly post, and figured if they could flag us down, we'd just be a bonus. (Don't worry about us Mom, and Dad, we're fine!)
Ok, no problem, that's over, now on to Shegar....no more craziness right? Wrong!
Well, no more robbers at least. We made it through the pass, and onto the final stretch. Oh but we didn't make it to town before dark, and roads in Western Tibet aren't exactly paved. They are really not even roads. According to Chiggles, the roads near Shegar are particularly bad because 5 years ago, the CHinese came to build roads, then they found something and abandoned the road building to mine the area. They never came back to finish the roads. Fine during the day, not so much at night. After a hair raising hour of driving down some tracks only to find out they were the wrong ones, turning around and going down another set of tracks, we came across 'the road'. Chiggles hit the gas, and we were off to Shegar. Ahead of us on the road however, something didn't look right. All four of us simultaneously yelled, "Whoa! Stop!", and Chiggs slammed on the breaks. We stopped a mere six inches from the edge of a drop off the Chinese road builders had left, due to a unfinished bridge. At the risk of sounding dramatic, none of us are sure how that car stopped before tumbling into the 20 foot drop. We'd just like to thank those of you praying for us back home, and whatever force stopped that car. Cause it was not just the breaks...they didn't work so hot to be honest.
Anyway, all was fine and dandy, we backed up the car, found te road, and headed on the final 3 km to Shegar. It was a couple minutes after this near catastrophe that we all noticed The Chiggles praying to his Buddhist Gods, and rubbing his good luck charm...I don't know if we were more scared or relieved.
So into the hostel, eat some instant noodles, go to bed. Done.
Next day, off to Mt. Everest.
We arrived at Rongphu, a monestary with a small guest house with little trouble the next day. We decided to check into the hostel, and hike to the Base Camp the next morning. This was the first time we had a real clear view of Everest...absolutely amazing. Everyone should see it at some point in their lives...it's just incredible.
Anyway, so anoter meal of instant noodles (oreo's and pringles for Jen) then on to bed in our comfy, cosy hostel. Turns out the charm of this little place is that it is lit by candles at night, as they have no elecrticity. Which was a surprise considering there are lights hanging from the cieling in every room. And for those of you who are unaware, it's F-ing cold near Everest...and no electricity means no heat, except for the fire, which they don't keep up at night. Oh and there happens to be a ridiculously strong wind that blows down from Everest into the valley below. Guess where our guest house is...that's right! Right in the path of this aforementioned wind. Lucky for us, our windows also happened to be cracked! So although we had a great view of the mountain from our room, we also felt the brunt of this wind...awesome.
Anyway after a virtually sleepless night it was up at sunrise for anoter amazing view of Everest...except a huge snowstorm had blown in over the peak, blocking our view for almost the whole day. We pressed onward anyway.
We arrived at the Base Camp after a 7km, 3.5 hour hike into the wind, and a bottle of oxygen.
The base camp is comprised of a small group of maybe 30 tents, all advertising warmth, food, and shelter for those planning to spend the night.
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