The Realms of the Unreal: August 2005

17 August, 2005

Mt. Kailash

As soon as we arrived at Mt. Kailash, Timon and I threw on our packs immediately and hired some lovely porters to help carry our oversized Tibetan camping gear (in our defense, the drive to Kailash continually climbs in elevation, so even though we were adjusted to altitude in Lhasa, we were another 3,000 feet higher out here, and in no shape to carry 50 pound packs). The snowy peak in the distance is Mt. Kailash, and it took us 4 days to trek around it. Tibetan Buddhist and Bon pilgrims do it in one.

For more info on Mt. Kailash, click here.

Our campsite on the first night.

A passing herd of yaks across the stream from us.

Beauty

The trip only got more spectacular the further west we drove. This is the Bramhaputra River, which we followed all the way to its source, Mt. Kailash.

To give some sense of the scale, there is a telephone poll in between these two nomad tents, each probably the size of a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Several people might sleep, eat and live in these tents during the summer months, as they move their herds of yaks and pashmina goats across the Tibetan plateau. Far beyond these tents are ever-present mountains, capped with snow.

Our driver stops to wash his hankerchief in the stream.

Another campsite along the Bramhaputra River. Here we discovered the joys of popcorn and a bottle of cheap Chinese wine, after ferocious declarations that I was done eating chemical soup (but oh, I wasn't done). It also started getting much colder in the evenings and we needed to fortify ourselves with liquor, naturally.

Sunrise. And yes, that is toilet paper hanging out of my pocket.

Breakdown #2

It didn't take long before the truck stalled again, this time very far away from anything resembling a town. But at least we weren't alone, a few truckers had some troubles too.

You can take the boy out of Indiana, but you can't take Indiana out of the boy.

But it was a beautiful day, so there were no complaints.

Breakdown #1

While we waited for our truck to be fixed, we met all 7 of the local kids, who happily helped us practice our Chinese and Tibetan.

We hoped that the truck would be fixed before nightfall, when we might have to stay in this hotel.

our first night camping on the kailesh trip

This was not the first cup of Chemical Soup - I mean cup of noodles - and most unfortunately, it would not be even close to the last. In fact, this was the start of two solid weeks of noodles, noodles, and the occasional respite of a dinner of popcorn and red wine.

We're still relatively clean in this picture.

Like a white stallion waiting patiently in the mist, our trusty truck. Sort of. At least it would be trusty for one more day.

the drive across tibet

We've spent the last two weeks driving, camping and hiking across western Tibet, and after lots of talking about how to describe it to other people, we've concluded that its indescribable, in a strange strange way. Its very beautiful, grasslands and sand dunes and snowy mountain peaks all right next to each other. But the main thing that is incomprehensible is the size. Its so huge that your mind kind of blitzes out to fill in the space and then there is just massive massive calm. My mind has never thought that large before. I think it must be akin to going to outer space, where you suddenly get a glimpse of how gigantic the universe really might be. Western Tibet makes Lhasa and even the drive to Everest seem like a city. The mountains, plains and sky just get exponentially larger and more spread out.