May 20, 2007
Rest Day: Mount Everest Base Camp
With our sleeping bags, blankets and comforters, we are fairly warm during the night...but of course at 2:30am we have to go to the bathroom. The good thing about that is to see the stars! Patrick is short of breath and not feeling well, most likely due to the altitude.
We take our coffee to the restaurant and have pancakes. At 8:30, we set out on our bikes to Mt. Everest Basecamp (MEBC). First, we stop by Jorg & Tine's tent to say goodbye, they leave today, and we hope to see them again in Kathmandu.
The road to MEBC continues to be bad and climbing. We get a great view of the mountain higher up.... a fog comes into the valley when we first set off. After about 3km we reach the point where cars cannot pass. There are rows of tents on each side of the road advertising as "hotels". In front of each tent is a table with souvenirs. At the end of the tents there is a chain across the road to stop vehicles. Beyond the chain are pony carts for rides for people who don't want/or can't walk.
On one side are cliffs, the other side the road follows a stream. Then a section of steep switchbacks; The Mountain in view almost the whole way. We reach the basecamp are see heaps of Northface tents pitched and a Chinese military camp with the Chinese flag flying. We lock our bikes and climb a small hill with prayer flags. This hill overlooks a flat valley with many camps, right below the hill is an Australian camp. To go further to the advance base camp would cost 300USD and requires a guide. The warning of being fined is written on the toilet block in very bad English.
At the top of this hill, we leave a small set of prayer flags for Dan. On the white flag we have written "Dan Fox Missoula MT, husband to Laura, Father to Alan, Mountain climber of Mt Pumori.
The Kiwis start showing up. We have been here long enough, got our pictures taken with the bikes in front of the mountain, so we head back. On the way back, Rachel stops at "the highest Post Office," to see about sending two postcards. The cost for 2 postcards, two stamps to US and the stamp saying "Mt Everest" would be 315 yuan! Rachel asks about just stamping our passports, that would be 50 yuan (each). We are getting very tired of the money grabbing schemes of the Chinese. Though, guess this is everywhere.
Patrick is still not feeling well, after lunch we get in the sleeping bags and read until dinnertime. We check out the Government Hotel restaurant but decide not to pursue after ordering and being asked to pay before we got the food and we return to our hotel.
As we finish a bowl of noodle soup, egg fried rice, and pancake, Vickie (Kiwi RN) arrives and we have a beer and chat for awhile. The wind is strong and not good for pictures. There are many more land cruisers in the parking lot, we hope we don't get roommates. There is also an Italian group on a supported cycle trip.
Tomorrow we head out again and over the "trail" to Old Dingri.
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