The Journey Through Tibet

11^th June - Kathmandu - Zhangmu - Nyalam

Two buses were ready for us early in the morning. Our duffle bags were loaded by the porters on top of the buses and we started off after tea with a packed breakfast (which was bread, biscuits and some fruits). The tour manager had instructed us to carry a sweater, a monkey cap, a muffler, etc in our backpacks as we would need them at Nyalam which would be 12500 feet, Kathmandu being at 4500 feet. This later turned out to be one of the most important instructions given by him, and some people had ignored it at their own peril.

The road was winding and very scenic, but at places extremely dangerous and narrow. We sang bhajans and stotrams. The bus stopped for us to eat the packed breakfast at a dhaba. There were large quantities of meat being chopped and cooked right in front of the dhaba, and the few jains amongst us found it nauseating.

We proceeded on to Liping Bazar at Kodari border and had a good lunch at a Nepali restaurant. At a height of about 10000 feet, the border between Nepal and China at this point consists of the river Bhote Kosi which flows as a milky white raging torrent through a deep gorge. The Nepal side is called Kodari, while the Chinese side is called Zhangmu. Photography at this point is banned by the Chinese (as for all Chinese check posts en-route) and the ban is strictly enforced. There is a friendship bridge built over this gorge and we were supposed to cross this on foot. But we had to wait for nearly 2 hours for our passports to arrive after stamping at Kodari. After queuing up and clearing the immigration formalities, we proceeded out on the Zhangmu side where we had our Land Cruisers waiting for us. These would be our mode of transport for the rest of the journey.

The Toyota Land Cruisers are 4500cc 4 X 4 vehicles with high ground clearance and real good suspension, capable of off-roading on any terrain. We were destined to witness the real capabilities of these vehicles after another two days.

Towards Nyalam

In Tibet there is nothing called bad road. Either you have extremely good all weather roads which rival the best roads anywhere in the world, or you have no roads at all. The drive from Zhangmu to Nyalam is on goods roads, very scenic and lush green initially. As we gain height and cross the tree line the vegetation thins out. When you get to Nyalam 3 hours later, you are well above the tree line with patches of grass and a few shrubs. You see vast open spaces, with high snow covered mountains in the distance and some bare mountains around you. Your vision spreads all the way to the horizon in every direction. An icy wind chills you to the bone.  A wonderful silence engulfs you as you feel so free and yet realize how small and insignificant you are in the midst of the infinitude of nature.  It reminds me of Tagore – “Mahavishwe, Mahakaashe, Mahakaal Majhe; Ami Manab ekaaki Bhromi biswaye, bhromi biswaye”.  Welcome to the glorious landscape of Tibet!

Lodge at Nyalam

We were put up in mud houses, which wasn’t what many people had expected. Surprisingly, the interior of the rooms were warm, even though there are no heating arrangements. Some of us, most notably Tibrewal ji were already having breathing problems in the thin air of Nyalam. A few others had vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea – all symptoms of high altitude sickness. These were the people who had not taken (or rather could not take) diamox – the high altitude drug which prevents these problems. Per our tour manager, “ye dawa nahin dua hai”. Unfortunately, this being a sulpha drug, people with sulpha drug allergies cannot afford to take it; and these were the people suffering the most.

The big news was broken to us soon – the trucks with our duffle bags were stuck at customs at Zhangmu and wouldn’t arrive until late next evening. This meant that we would have to handle the freezing cold at Nyalam with whatever woolens we carried in our backpacks. This obviously was no match to the icy winds blowing over Tibet. We were asked to stay indoors as much as possible, with the Sherpa staff serving us hot soup and meals in the rooms in pitch dark with the help of torchlight.

Most of us had sleeping problems that night, either not getting sleep at all or getting out of sleep with a jerk after feeling choked.  Again, these are standard high altitude problems which go away with acclimatization and diamox, nothing to worry about.

12^th June – Nyalam – 12300 ft.

We woke up to a bright cold morning and witnessed a glorious sunrise. The landscape was beautiful. Surrounded by sky high mountains, there was a deep gorge a few meters in front of our row of rooms. A milky white torrential stream gushed through the gorge. The mountains were mostly bare, with some grass and a few bushes in the lower reaches. A couple of snow caps added variety in the background. A few yaks grazing, a couple of thick haired wolf like dogs formed the fauna of the place.

All the appreciation for the beauty of the place vanished when it was time to go to the toilet. Our towels, toilet kit and personal accessories where all stuck in the duffle bag at China border. And then to our shock we found that there were no sanitary toilets as we know it. All that was there was a pair of stones with a drain flowing between them, slum dog style. And to add to our woes, the doors had no bolts. Sharma ji found it more hygienic to go out in the open behind a rock. For the rest of us, it took a couple of days to bring ourselves to it.

We were to have the day free for high altitude acclimatization. Due to complaints from several people, we were shifted from the mud house to a concrete hotel across the road – but that hardly was any different. However, this shifting brought together the “Rangad coach” – the group of stags in the team, and this “Rangad coach” stayed together through thick and thin for the entire journey. This consisted of Kohli ji, Chibbar ji, Tripathi ji, Srihari Rao ji, JP Sharma ji, myself and Mohan Rao ji.
The staff at this "She Sha Bang Ma" Hotel were a funny lot. There were just two young ladies performing all tasks about the Hotel. After we were allotted the room, we found it locked and approached one of the ladies for the key. To my amazement, she broke into a bout of break dance and then went away. Bemused, Chibbar ji approached the other lady for the keys. She too did a little jig and disappeared into the hotel. We kept staring at each other in bewilderment. After about 10 mins, the first lady reappeared, this time with a large bunch of keys. She went into a full table scan mode and started trying out all the keys against the lock. After cajoling for another 10 mins, the lock decided to oblige and she let out a big 'hooray' ! We hoorayed back to congratulate her even as we were left wondering why they do not put some kind of markings on the keys.
Btw, this was our last encounter with lock and key in Tibet. From here on,  none of the doors we saw had a bolt. You use a stone to block the door to prevent the icy wind from caressing you while you sleep at night. None of us perceived any security issues though.

We were supposed to be taken for a hike after the shifting, but seeing no signs of it, myself, Kohli ji, Chibbar ji, Tripathi ji and Rao ji set out to see the Nyalam town and also to shop for some accessories for the trek.

Everything that is available at a shop in Nyalam is open for bargaining, including international call rates! Somebody told us that the trick is to start bargaining at a third of the price initially quoted by the shop keeper. You would settle the deal at about 50% of the initial quote. The shopkeepers and locals speak only Tibetan, no English or Hindi. The bargaining happens by typing the figures on the calculator!

Post lunch and after some rest, myself and Srihari Rao ji went for a trek up a nearby hill with the guidance of a Sherpa. We gave up after climbing about a third of it.

At tea, the tour manager made another breaking revelation – we would not be headed to Saga the next day as planned. Instead we would rest the next day in Nyalam and head directly to Paryang on 14^th. The reason given was that all the hotels in Saga town were taken over by the Chinese army for some meeting.

13^th June – Nyalam

Starting the acclimatization trek

Grudgingly, all of us had to accept the fact that we had no say in the schedule once we have bought in to the tour operator. On 13^th morning, after breakfast we were taken for a hike to see a nearby lake.  After trudging along for about 3 hours, the group decided to give up and turn back. However two of us – Tripathi ji and Naresh Kumar ji had gone far ahead of the rest of the group and could not hear our calls to turn back. Sending a Sherpa after them, we returned to the hotel and had lunch at around 2:30 pm. 

A stream on the trekking route

The tired group

When we woke up after a nap at around 5 pm, there was still no news about Tripathi ji, Naresh Kumar ji and the Sherpa. With the weather fast turning inclement and light beginning to fade out, this was serious business. These tracts are largely uninhabited, there would be no help at hand, and no place to take shelter in case of bad weather. The hills are dangerous – it doesn’t take much time for a little fun to turn into tragedy.  Naresh Kumar ji’s wife had started weeping profusely.

They made tea for us, but no cups to drink!

After another hour or so, the three trooped in to a hero’s welcome. It had so happened that they had gone quite far by the time the Sherpa caught up with them. Sensing that they were near the lake that we had set out to see, they decided to go for it. This entailed trekking for another hour before they finally saw the lake. This was mostly frozen but very beautiful. They took some photographs and then returned. In the process they established themselves as the trek leaders amongst us.

14^th June – Paryang – 15100 ft

Our Vehicle for the journey

We started off early in the morning at 8 am Chinese time (5:30 am IST) after breakfast. We were soon pleasantly cruising along the beautifully built Tibetan roads through vast open spaces and the gently undulating Tibetan plateau. The road rose up to 17000 ft at Lalungla pass which is the highest point of driving on this route. Our vehicles stopped at that scenic location for us to take pictures. We could see that a lot of mountain tops were actually lower than us. The rugged Tibetan plateau looked like a giant piece of crumpled paper. We were on the roof of the world and there were snow peaks all around us. A strong icy wind blows here – I took off the gloves to take pictures, and in less than 5 minutes my hand became numb.

At Lalung La pass

Near Lalung La

Lalung La

Soon after Lalungla pass, the vehicles left the black top road to head towards Saga. It was time for our 4 X 4 4500 cc vehicles to show their off-roading capabilities and they took to the terrain like a fish to water.  We drove by the huge Paigu-Tso Lake which was a beautiful sight. The vehicles effortlessly drove over sand, gravel, steep uphill, steep downhill, boulders, across small streams, kicking up a huge cloud of dust in the process. Windows had to be kept tightly shut to prevent the dust coming in; the interior became hot, stuffy and suffocating soon. Tibrewal ji was already suffering from breathlessness, and we had to open the window at times. This triggered a dust allergy in me, and in spite of all medicines and dust masks, by the time we reached Paryang in the night I was running a high fever with throat infection.

We stopped on the roadside en-route at Saga to have the lunch that was being carried with us. We were back to the black topped road from Saga to Paryang, so this leg of the journey was much smoother. We reached Paryang in the afternoon at around 6 pm, covering about 460 km in 10 hours. We took to the bed as soon as we were allotted the rooms in the mud house; none of us had any energy left.

Dusty road towards Saga

Lake Paigu Tso

Back to Black Top after Saga - Road or Runway ?

Later, we learnt about a major bungling by our tour operator. Apparently, nobody checked whether all the 17 vehicles had left Nyalam, and for one of the vehicles the driver did not turn up. Three people allocated to that vehicle – Kohli ji, Chhibber ji and Srihari Rao ji were left stranded even as the hotel became empty. They called up the tour guide using the telephone at the hotel, but did not get much of a response. Kohli ji and Chiibberji had the presence of mind to find out the nearest police station. Then they figured out the phone number of the head of the travel organization by calling up some contacts at Delhi. They called him up and threatened to lodge an FIR against operator with the Chinese authorities on the grounds that they were foreign nationals left stranded by the tour operator and they wanted to get back home.

Yaks

This threat worked and the tour operator swung into action. Soon after, Kohli ji received a phone call at the hotel number stating that a vehicle for them had been dispatched from Lhasa. The tour operator also called up the hotel manager asking him to arrange proper lunch and snacks for the three people. The vehicle finally arrived at Nyalam at 2:30 pm and they reached Paryang at 1 am that night.


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