Seven Days in Tibet Expedition Dispatch

November 5, 2012 – Shegar to Zhangmu

We were up early and on the road. We are all feeling that our time here is ending and we are eager to get to the border. Just outside Shegar, we stop at the last major checkpoint and we all have to get out and have our passports and group visa checked again. Because we are early, there is no lineup. Then we are on the road.

The views along the road contiune to be spectacular.

We are traveling in a wonderful, big van that makes it feel like we are in a travelogue. As we crest Lalung La pass, the Himalayan range is displayed before us. We have to stop the van and take pictures and soak in the beauty. We saw Everest earlier in the morning, but this sight is spectacular (I am using that word a lot on this trip).

Then we are going down. And down. And down. We hit the tree line. We have not seen trees since we left Lhasa a week ago.

We spend part of the morning traveling down a beautiful gorge with a tumbling river at the bottom. We can see the road snaking along hundreds of feet below us. No matter how far down we go, the river stays hundreds of feet below us. There are waterfalls all along the gorge, some of them falling down beside the road. The road twists and turns, hugging the hill, and then, suddenly, we are in Zhangmu only 9 kilometers from the Nepal Border.

Our hotel is pretty typical, the mattress is like a board, but we are told we will have hot water from 7 to 10 tonight. So a shower will feel great before we cross the border and return to Kathmandu and our flights home.

Mr. Pingtso La takes us to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. We all have chopped pork and noodles. This is a very small restaurant and you might not eat in it at home, but it is the best meal we have had outside of the St. Regis in Lhasa. We also have plates of stir fried cabbage with ginger and bok choy with garlic. The noodles are redolent with sesame oil and chili oil. We eat our fill for $12.00 total.