Tibet, Everest, and a little Maoist rioting for good measure.

The last weeks have been ones full of angry pilgrims, beautiful scenery, intense cold, high altitude, and finally, INDIA!

I left off last time with a planned trip to Ganden Monastery. I realize I have an underlying theme of cold in these posts, but shit - it was cold. We got there before sunrise and had the bus been immediately going back to Lhasa, me and my whiny ass would've been on it without a second thought. Thankfully I had no choice, so we began walking the kora. Like the rest of Tibet, it was absolutely beautiful. We watched the sunrise (heat! yay!) over the mountains and had some yak butter tea with the locals. Unfortunately yak butter tea tastes as it sounds: yak, butter, hot. It's not good. What's worse is they re-fill your cup every time you take a sip. It's the calorie-laden, vomit-like gift that just keeps on giving! We really had no way to talk to our fellow drinkers, so we all sat there and giggled at eachother for a while before boarding the bus back to Lhasa. The ride home from Ganden was one of the funniest and most bizarre I've had to date. For reasons I will never come to understand, I pissed off a pilgrim and was nearly dragged out of my seat. Rather than fight a pilgrim, I accepted my relegation to the bus floor and relinquished my seat. The next morning we began our long trip of unpaved roads and off-roading to the Nepali border, through Gyantse, Shigatse, Old Tingri and Everest Base Camp. I'm sure all of those mean nothing to any of you, but all that matters is that they're in Tibet. We did the trek with 3 awesome guys: Ed the Aussie, Adam the Canadian, and Harry Potter himself. Our first stop, Gyantse, was again one of extreme cold in our unheated room, but the fun we had playing in a 14th century fort on a mountain more than made up for this. The 5 of us had the place to ourselves and we acted accordingly: like little kids. The next day we made our way to Shigatse, but not before I got my offer for school in September. Forgetting I was at over 4000m, I broke into a frenzied sprint back to the hotel. This completely defeated the purpose since I was too out of breath to tell anyone the good news upon arrival. After some rushed packing, we set off for our shortest day of driving: 2 hours to Shigatse. We did little more than eat, wander and relish in our one and only heated room on the way out of Tibet. It was also St. Patty's day, so we did Ireland proud and indulged in beer and drinking games.

Shigatse was the end of ease and comfort. We started our 8 hour drive to Everest, through what is likely the most amazing scenery I'll ever see. I can't possibly get across how unbelievably stunning Tibet is. I don't think there's an ugly inch of space in the entire country, and if there is, it certainly isn't on the way to Everest. We arrived at Rongfu Monastery, our home for the night, a bit before dusk. All confident and gung-ho, we set off for the 7km hike in and 7km hike out of Everest to see the sunset. This didn't last long. At 5600m, the altitude swiftly quashed not only our trekking plans, but also our will to live. We barely made it 4km before realizing we'd never make it back if we finished the trek in. We walked a total of less than 8km and arrived back at the monastery dizzy, nauseous, exhausted and frigid. I was so miserable for the last 2km that I managed only 4 words: "I f#$%!#$ hate this". Altitude kicks your ass like nothing else. I felt like I'd run 3 consecutive marathons, not walked 8k on flat ground. The following night was without question the worst I've ever had. It was -10, the monastery had no heat, running water or bathroom, we shared a twin bed and had 2 sleep talkers and 1 violent snorer in our room. Steph and I solidified our couple status that night in our fruitless attempts at keeping warm by spooning. In the end we both stayed awake all night, waiting for the sun to rise and bring a bit of heat. All that being said, Everest was incredible. The trek made me feel like a crotchety old lady, but nothing can take away from the realization that you're watching the sunset over Everest. The discomfort was worth it a million times over for one night of amazing scenery at the highest inhabitable point on the planet (we think). Yes, I complained, but I didn't for a second take any of it for granted.

Everest was our final stop before we arrived at the Tibet-Nepal border. We off-roaded for 8 hours to get there and arrived in desperate need of good food and ass transplants, so we stayed the night and crossed the next day. The road was so bad that it took half an hour to drive the 8km to a hilariously insecure border. The guard turned his back for a second and a couple of guys actually ran like hell, rushed the gate, and successfully broke into Nepal. Definitely a highlight. We walked across the border and boarded our bus for Kathmandu. It was amazing how quickly the scenery changed from cleared out avalanches and ice to lush mountains, waterfalls and rice terraces. Despite their proximity, Tibet and Nepal are physically and culturally very different. Nepal proved to be something of an adventure. In a stroke of genius timing, we showed up in Nepal on the exact day of the largest upsurge in Maoist violence since last year's ceasefire. We came across a couple of reasonably peaceful protests during the day and didn't think much of it...until dinner. While thoroughly enjoying our $1 meals, heaps of people started running past us full tilt. We weren't sure why until we saw the baton swinging police in pursuit. The restaurant gate was slammed shut and locked. We all got in the back, occasionally moving to peak out a window. 20 feet from us was a mob of soldiers, cops and Maoist rebels beating the hell out of eachother. It calmed down after about 15 minutes. We returned to our hotel and stayed there the rest of the night.

Aside from shopping and being in close proximity to rebels and riots, we spent some time at an amazing little orphanage in Kathmandu. The woman running it is 26, has devoted her life to charity, and basically makes the rest of look useless. We spent the day there playing with the kids, and instead of leaving saddened as you would expect after visiting an orphanage, we left happy. She's doing an amazing thing and has built an amazing home for these kids. Here's the web address should you feel inclined to take a look or make a donation.

http://www.muktinepal.org/

Nepal's a beautiful country. I can only imagine how amazing the trekking would be and I would love to come back , but for now it's India...intense India...which deserves a post all on it's own.