The Tibetan Plateau

We all piled 5-to-a-jeep early Friday morning happy to leave the Dollarama capital of the world that is Zheng Mu. Simon, Geordie, Chris and I sat in the jeep as our driver winked knowingly at us and tightened the nuts on the wheels of our old and dusty (circ 1990s) Toyota Land Cruiser. Given it had taken me about 2 months to recover from the psychological scars from last years journey up to Nylam I was not amused to see that there wasn’t a seatbelt in sight. I suppose that if the jeep were to career off one of the hundreds of steep switchbacks leading up to Nylam a seatbelt wouldn’t do much to save your life.

I was slightly apprehensive about the route today because it would be a physically demanding one, as we would be climbing from about 2800m to Base Camp at 5182m. A very significant altitude gain which would have been impossible had we not pre-acclimatised last week on the south side of the mountain. It would be a true test to see whether my red blood cells had done their job and multiplied as they should have…!!

The road leading up to Nylam from Zheng Mu will (I’m sure) soon appear in an episode of Top Gear (watch this space!!). The road is a feat of road-building engineering genius and can easily put many of the roads we find in the ‘western world’ to shame. Not a pothole in sight over the 15kms of switchbacks that are cut into the steep rock face. Last year the road was far from complete with water, cement mixers, pic-axes, and people spread chaotically along a muddy dirt track. A short 12 months later I’m astounded to se a fully completed road of engineering craftsmanship. A journey that once took 5 hours by car now takes 45 minutes…

We stopped briefly in Nylam, which was less 'built up' than Zheng Mu and had a rather bizarre 'feel' to it. Cows and dogs grazed together along the side of the dusty road, eating cardboard boxes and whatever garbage they could find while the local people went about their morning routines - rolling up their shop windows, washing their hair, dusting off their front steps whilst eating their dry chapattis ready for another day of business. All the streetscape lacked was a roll of tumbleweed bouncing down into the Himalayan panorama to make the 'wild west' image complete.

The journey continued to be absolutely beautiful as we travelled through the dry, dusty Tibetan plateau, reaching an altitude of 5000m on a pass marked by thousands of prayer flags flapping in the breeze under a clear blue sky. Views on both sides of the jeep were stunning and it was difficult to take everything in at once. Farmers, in traditional Tibetan dress, led their cows into the fields, the perimeters of which were marked by rocks and narrow shallow ditches. Women dressed in bright red scarves, long black skirts, adorned with feathers and decorated stones carried their children on their backs in brightly coloured bags as they travelled by foot from one small village to the next. The villages we passed were all 'gated' by a 5-foot wall, a wooden door and marked by flag-posts which seemed to sprout from each of the buildings, adorned by a red, blue, yellow and white flag. Our jeep shared the road with small diesel-powered three-wheeled tractors pulling a small wagon filled with children or yak dung which, when heated, is used to heat the homes.

As we followed a final series of switchbacks up over the 5000m pass, I felt as though I was now finally, 'on the roof of the world'.

We were here offered the first sight of Everest standing solitary and grand like a beacon above the rest of the Himalayan panorama. Next to it was Cho Oyu, looking equally impressive and ominous with spindrift swirling from its peak. Everest looked close enough to touch even though it was still 80 kilometers away. 5000m Pass

Our next destination is Tingri…A town which since the days of Mallory and Irvine in the 1920s has been renowned for its filth and disease.

The road leading to Tingri is however absolutely fascinating in terms of contrasts, particularly now that I can compare it to approaching Everest from the south.South approach

Lush, green, fragrant Khumbu valley

Yaks, friendly dogs and array of birds as wildlife

Smiling, friendly locals and hundreds of trekkers

Rainbows and sunshine

Everest, Ama Dablam, Makalu

North approach

Dry, arid, dusty Tibetan plateau

Rabid dogs, crows, thin cows as ‘wildlife’

Stone-faced locals and nervous looking climbers

Dust devils and clouds

Everest, Cho Oyu, Shisapagma

View across Tibetan Plateau

Tingri

For those who followed/were part of the journey last year, the name ‘Tingri’ will send shudders up and down the spine. For those unfamiliar with Tingri, or have not had the opportunity to visit this little gem of a ‘tourist trap’ on the Everest North route, let me attempt to paint a picture for you. It is a grim little town in the middle of the Tibetan plateau. One gets the sense that Tingri hasn’t changed much over the past one hundred years apart from the addition of a China Telecom shop to its central business district. A fine silty dust covers the town, which consists primarily of one long flat road. Lining the road on either side are a series of sparsely stocked shops (I bought a chocolate bar with a 2008 expiry date!), market stalls, and single room homes with dirt floors and plastic bags recycled to serve as windows. Buildings are all made of sun-baked clay crumbling into dust. Some buildings have been decorated with blue, red and yellow trim, which have since faded over years of weathering.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about Tingri however is the number of sick animals - particularly mangy flea-bitten dogs, which roam the streets. I gripped my trekking pole in one hand and my yen in another and shuffled as unobtrusively as a blond, brightly dressed, down-clad, Oakley-wearing female could in the middle of a town of locals all dressed in blacks and browns. To the left and to the right mangy, flea bitten dogs eyed me conspicuously with saliva dripping from their jaws. A small tractor made its way down the road as one of the dogs dragged its lame and infected hind limbs over the road to avoid its path. A puppy ran through the raw sewage that lies in the ditch alongside a dirt sidewalk. Dust from the dry Tibetan plateau blew through the streets kicking up dust devils and leaving a trail of rubbish in its wake. I tried to remember the exact date of my last rabies shot. Locals went about their daily business, sitting outside their shops and catching up on the latest Tingiri gossip. As I entered the local supermarket I breathed a sigh of relief to have made it unscathed and paid for my chocolate bar with a 2008 expiration date.

Tingri is an extremely dismal place and I am grateful that we only had to spend an hour eating a ‘rice extravaganza’ this time round!