To Lhasa

Apart from Gordon, everyone arrived and now we are in Lhasa, and a few are travelling overland.

2 Sept Aug - Kathmandu 1350m

James and Ursula were the last to arrive, their 1 Sept arrival was a day late. We are flying to Lhasa a day early, the 3rd instead of the 4th as with some late bookings we couldn't get everyone onto the flight. So most people had very little time to unpack, instead just dumped their pre-sorted gear into a blue plastic drum and that was it. Ursula managed to buy some Millet Everest boots in under an hour, and Janet has a very nice an inexpensive down suit from Kathmandu.

The sherpas and myself have been preparing and packing for the last two weeks. We have several truck loads of blue barrels. Why take gear from a strong kitbag and put it in a barrel? The trucks bounce and drive under a real waterfall, gear just gets completely trashed, almost no matter what it is in, only the barrels can handle it...

3 Sept - fly Lhasa 3650m

Even I was completely packed yesterday so no last minute rush. We didn't see any mountains on flight to Lhasa but did arrive smoothly.

So far everyone is feeling OK with the altitude. On the advice of myself and Doctor Jen we have all been taking Diamox to speed up our natural acclimatization process, and this is more effective the bigger jump in altitude you are taking. Flying to Lhasa, around 3600m, is a rather big jump. Normal advice is to go up 300m a day from 3000m, and perhaps this should even be from 2700m.

One wing of the hotel has internet in the room, the other wing has a view of the Potala, an easy choice for some, a compromise for others, such as myself and Alan. I have met my photographic match, Alan actually takes more pictures than I do! We are sharing a room with no views but full time internet, at least once my small computer actually hooked up.

4 Sept - Lhasa

It is amazing how quickly barriers are broken, and how quickly toilet humour becomes de rigueur. Diamox has a bit of an effect, as many of you are aware of. Anne also knows too, having peed seven times during the night. James had vivid dreams, bizarrely about being commander of a Tibetan tank shooting up German tanks (he is a Brit)! There isn't a German in sight here, at least so far, and he tells us he doesn't play computer games. And it is amazing how quickly this news can be on the internet!

4 Sept - the overlanders start

The trucks of expedition gear with four sherpas left yesterday and today only a bus left with the other six of the sherpa team and Mark H, Francis SP, Tristan B, and Paul A and his family, who have flown to Nepal to see him off. We will only meet them at Base Camp.

5 Sept - Gordon is in the air

We are missing you, well at least I know what we are missing, by not having Gord with us. He is still going to fly from Bangkok to Kathmandu on the phantom Nepal Airlines plane though. At least even if this last leg is delayed, it can be delayed for two days before it starts to cause problems. I have already advised we don't want to deal with any Bangkok diseases!

Trouble in Kathmandu?

Currently the political parties are gearing up for the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, scheduled for 22 November. However there are many people who don't want the elections to go ahead, eg the Maoists as they might not get many votes, other political parties who will do badly, and as the people to write the new constitution (which is what they will do) are only from political parties, many disaffected groups such as the people from the Tarai. In Kathmandu there were three (five?) bomb blasts that killed several people. A previously unknown Tarai group claimed responsibility, along with another small Tarai group, so if it really was them and not the Maoists under cover, then they are bringing their troubles to Kathmandu. Lets see if there is any more trouble, ie is it a sign of things to come or just an aberration?