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Gyantse - Day 1 - Off to claim Mnt Everest for EnglandOct 9, 2005
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First stop on the Expedition Lake Yamdrok
Lake Yamdrok
One of the kids that was after my sour Skittles, they werent...
Up for the early start of the 5 day expedition to Everest Base Camp, hjumped into the crappy 1980's Land cruiser, with our driver Sani, Matt from the UK, Mike form Aus and old Dongi. The thing had heating which was much more than I expected.
We slowly made our way up a long winding road up to a pass of 4990 metres, we stopped as the view was amazing, looking over Lake Yamdrok, the colour of it would change as the sun shined on different patches, it was lush. we got attacked by Yak and dog boys wanting money for photos, I eventually gave into one old Tibetan dude. I was munching on these really sour skittles, and all the kids wanted to try some so I dished a couple out, you can see the results, they hated them at first until one kid realised it went after ten seconds and then i was mobbed. I must of had about 10 kids round me all demanding some Skittles, they still made some great sour faces.
We then dropped down and past this Yak fight, kids were standing there pinging rocks at them the thud of them hitting the side of the beasts was savage. The Yaks were going all guns so we left them in the middle of a stand off and hit some town for lunch. Got screwed at lunch, it was meant to be a buffet but the bloke saw how much I got on my first trip he wouldnt let me go back for more, tight hey.
On the next leg we had a couple of scares as Sani lost steaming down some hill, we started sliding out to the edge, took some quick turning by Sani to correct it, he was cracking up, you could tell old Sani liked going downhill, didnt hold back at all. We stopped at this massive Glacier, got mobbed by the money for photo girls, while Sani poped the hood again, this old beast wants to last the distance.
Pulled into Gyantse with awesome castle sitting on top of this hill, we checked into the hotel and then went down to the Monastery and to see this giant Stupa like thing called the Kunbun. On the way back I stopped to play some footie with the locals I was loving it been way to long. Walking back past this kid chasing a rat down the street, he must of followed it for about 5 mins until he finally caught up with and stamped on it, you can see the results. It became a real crowd drawer one bloke tried to get his dog to eat it, the dog was havingnone of it, dont blame him.
That night headed down for a shower and bumped into old Mauricio who I had left about two weeks ago in Chengdu, crazy.
