To Rongbuk Monastery: Beautiful views of Mt. Everest

May 19, 2007

The small streams have swollen a little over night and it is a very cold crossing this morning. We push back onto the road and continue the awful corrugated road, full of large gravel and loose sand. On some sections we can avoid the "new" road by branching off onto the "old" one that doesn't have the washboard surface as the new one, but does have a few steep climbs and patches of deep loose sand.

We struggle on occasionally having to deal with young children spurred on by their mothers to beg for money. Older kids run after us, no way we can lose them on this kind of surface, but Patrick keeps them at bay with the same technique with the tire pump to fend off dogs. Sounds harsh, but necessary. We also have run ins with land cruiser people, some will come speeding up from behind, loudly honking for us to move over. The road is narrow, if we pull off on the soft shoulder (outside the two tracks worn in by car tires) too soon they speed by without reducing speed leaving us in a cloud of dust. So we develop a strategy where we don't move from our own course, letting the land cruiser horns blare until the car has to slow down behind us. Then we move over. Later we hear that the Kiwis only a couple of hours ahead of us, had similar confrontations and strategies.

About 15km before the monastery, the road climbs steeply for a while, then resumes its steady climb to near 500m, but the road surface gets so bad and we are tired, we walk a ways. We pass a yak caravan and stop to reheat the leftover fried rice with vegetable from yesterday. With 5 km, we are pushing our bikes through loose sand and it begins to hail/snow. The arrival at Rongbuk is a memorable one. Rongbuk monastery lies near the base of the north side of Mount Everest at 5,009 meters (16,434 ft) above sea level, at the end of the Dzakar Chu valley.

The Guesthouse we've read about isn't the cleanliness and doesn't look like much at first sight. The only other option though is camping, we see the kiwi's camp, and see Jorg and Tine's tent amongst several others. Patrick checks out rooms, we really want to be out of the weather, and we secure a 4 bedroom for 40 yuan each. If it gets busy it is possible we will have room mates. The room is fairly clean, lots of blankets and comforters. The toilets are out back and fairly disgusting. An added shock to the toilets, separated in men's and women's, no doors, two holes for men and three holes for women. It's a social affair. Many people can't aim since there is a four foot square area around the hole you do not want to step in.

After moving gear into the room, we go visit with the Germans and the Kiwis. Mt. Everest is sometimes visible through the clouds that have built up this afternoon. In the evening things clear up and we have great views of the mountain. Patrick climbs a hill behind the monastery for some great pictures. We meet up with Tine and Jorg for dinner in the guesthouse restaurant. They have three dishes: fried rice with egg, pancakes and noodle soup. All are good and can be mixed.

Patrick interrupted the meal several times to run out for pictures of Everest as the sun sinks lower and the light on the mountain changes.