1997 World Seven Summits Canadian Expedition
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Saturday, August 30, 1997 (Trekking to Everest Base Camp) On 26th of August our team went to Buddhist monastery to see LAMA to get blessing for the trip and the climb. Before we went to see him we bough 12 praying Tibetan flags and Buddhist scarf so the lama can bless it. Of course when we were in his quarters each member give him scarf and 500 rupees in it . The LAMA blest the scarf, took the money and put the scarf around our neck saying a prayer. Then he blessed our praying flags ask us where we were from and ceremony was over. His assistant-MONK- came forward with basket of fruit and we supposed choose to take -apple, orange or banana. This ceremony is very important to Buddhist followers and all the expeditions follow this unique tradition. The next day, on the 27th, we left Kathmandu at 8:30am. Last several days the weather in Kathmandu was very HOT in 90's and very humid. It rained during the nights. From the city to the boarder is only 122 km, but with max. speed of 40km/h and exceptionally busy Kathmandu traffic it took us 6 hours to get to the Nepali border. We hired mini bus (8-seater) and that give us lot of room to load all of our luggage and a seats for each member of Expedition. Traveling by bus in Nepal is a MUST for every traveler in this region. It give the tourists the opportunity to see the unique way of life of Nepali people outside the big city. The bus travel is very slow , most of the time 30 km/h and that gave every one the chance to see the villages and daily life. The speed can not be any faster due to narrow roads and even 30km is sometimes too fast for continues close calls of accidents from passing traffic from opposite direction, playing children on the side and on the road, people crossing the road like if the bus or big truck were not moving — totally ignoring it and somehow they always get away virtually in millimeters of miss. With animals it is the same. It is normal to see sleeping dog right on the road, one has the feeling that they were run over, but as the traffic passes the just look innocently and do not move. With cow is the same story. Cow is a HOLY animal and you swear she know it, so if she decides to cross she cross if she decides to lay down in middle of the road she does as she pleases, and the traffic has to move around her. I travel by bus every time I visit Nepal, and I find it very fascinating — every time I see something different. The most fascinating time is to travel early morning, between 6-8 and you see the most activity throughout the villages. Most fascinating for me is to see people washing themselves in water fountains/taps/ built on the side of the road every 200-300meters through the villages. It must be a social gathering for washing their hair, teeth, half naked bodies and washing their clothes and getting water for their home. You see very happy faces. We arrived at the Nepali border at 2pm. It did not take us long to clear the Customs and Immigration, we very again very lucky, because sometimes it takes Expeditions to clear 2-4 hours. It was raining, and I had the feeling the Custom official did not want to get wet. At this point we had to transfer all our luggage to a Nepali truck which drove our stuff up the steep hill to village of ZANGMU. We can see the village hanging on the side of the hill at 9500', Nepali village of KODHARY is at 7500'. The road was in very bad shape with many small slides, cleared just enough for the truck to get by. Nepali authority will not allowed our mini bus to go pass the border. I try to reason with them, but no chance. The cost to use the mini bus from Kathmandu was $100US for 122km. The cost of the truck from the border up the hill for 45 minutes was $50 US. One thing you have to remember when traveling anywhere in ASIA, the price you have been quoted it is not final it is always + + +. We reach the village of ZANGMU (at 9500') at 4:30pm and the Chinese authorities in bright green uniforms were greeting us with the demand of our passports, which follow the filing of three sets of documents. Again we were lucky because they did not want to see our luggage, which is very unusual. It was still raining, and this time I was 99% sure they did not want to get wet and dirty to climb into muddy truck. Representative from TMA met us right away and did all the translation. When I was told we have to go to the hotel I could not believe that we were through, because few days earlier I met with a member of Colombian Expedition who just return from ABC of EVEREST and she told us the problems they encounter with Chinese Customs. In their case, they wanted total list of contents in each barrel and bags. They spot check several of them they want to see the radios, Sat. PHONE computers and butter. They could not find the barrel with the butter so they make them open every barrel. They spent 3.5 hour looking for the BUTTER. They never find it and Chinese got tired and let them go. Village of ZANGMU is impressive from the distance with the location of it but when you in the village it is another story. It is dirty and many buildings are neglected. You immediately notice the Chinese dominance and influence. Buildings taken over or built for Government are very noticeable. The buildings where Tibetan people live are run down. First thing you encounter in Tibet is the begging of children and women. It is much more prevalent then in Nepal and ANNAPURNA region got much worse in last two years. The Tibetan kids are very aggressive when they beg to the point that you have to take a strong stand that they get your message. Adult man are crazy have a photo taken to the point that the virtually stick there head right in the camera and some of them want to hold the cameras to the point that I had to rescue my cinematographer several times. The situation was so bad that I had to make one sherpa a body guard. The women are the opposite, the moment they see the camera they hide and turn their bags toward you. One think I notice here, the kids are very dirty with running noses and nobody cares. You don't see that in Nepal. We slept in one of the hotels TMA arranged for us. From outside it looked good, but inside it was opposite. Here you don't expect five-star but it was different — very, very damp and smelly. The sheets on the bed were so damp that when you sit on the bed for few seconds you could feel it. The next morning 28th we had breakfast the only thing good was the coffee. Tibetan porridge is made of rice and served in washing bowl, it looks like a washing rinse water and does not have any taste. Egg omelet was so greasy that you knew if you eat it, you will have the runs. What else can I say. Thanks for the supply of BALANCE BARS from BIO FOODS, that we did not go hungry. After the breakfast, four of us got into 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser and hit the road. Our sherpas were riding in the big truck with the luggage. We new that 15km from ZANGMU was waiting for us big land slide at 10,500'. I heard so much about it that I was on the impression that 1/2 the mountain came down. When we go to it, turn out to be 100meter wide but it collapsed from the bottom so the road has to be rebuild — blasted out into the solid rock and for Chinese standard that is 2-3 month job. In mean time every vehicle has to be unloaded and every thing has to be ported over the land slide to the other side where other truck were waiting. Right now is a busy time in this region, because all the Expeditions heading to Tibetan Himalayas have to pass on the only road from Nepal. Expeditions are not the only traffic — many commercial truck traveling on this road, like sugar from Nepal is exported to China, and every bag has to be carried over by Tibetan porter. It is very busy place and very disorganized. The biggest problem we were facing was to keep the track on our luggage from being stolen by the Tibetan porters while transferring them from one side to the other. We counted and numbered our luggage, and the porters were instructed to wait when every one was loaded, and they all went in one pack. That was the only way not to lose something. Many Tibetan tents and shacks were erected on the side of the narrow road before and after the slide. These tents were temporary camps for the porters and their families. Our transfer went smooth, and we did not lose nothing. French team lost one pair of climbing boots and that is a big loss. Poor guy was asking every team if they had spare boots. From the slide it was 18km ride to the village of NYLAM located at 12,350'. We spend two nights here for acclimatization. Tomorrow we will drive to next village of BEGAN at 14500'. Bye. — George Tumpach 
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