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The actual immigration / customs inspection point is further up the road, about 10 km, in Zhangmu.  The Zhangmu Hotel was quite all right.  The lobby had been re-floored in marble and the room carpeting was fairly new and only lightly stained!  Furniture was all somewhat new and similar to what one would expect at a Comfort Inn type accommodation in the U.S.  The American Standard toilet and sink did not let me down.  I flushed the toilet and nothing happened but, with my degree in "3rd world toilets", I had the tank cover off and things operating within seconds.  The brand was truly American Standard, but the installation was definitely local!

Dinner was greasy Chinese, but all right, though with far too many dishes of food.  The noise emanating from the kitchen sounded like an American Legion convention - loud!  RMB 9  (85 US cents)  bought me a can of beer with my dinner, the new very popular "Budweiser" brewed under license in Guangzhou.  It's one long truck ride from Guangzhou to this town on the border with Nepal, but there is an abundant supply of Budweiser, which seems to be the beer of choice for the moment.

I took an after dinner stroll, but the city was dark and there are no street lights, so I did not stray far.  I wandered back to the hotel and, upon washing my hands, discovered there was hot water!  Seems this luxury is available from about 7pm to 9pm each evening.  The TV had 15 satellite channels, all Chinese stations, but I found a variety show on one of them, so had something to entertain me for the evening.  The bathroom electric socket was dead, but one in the room operated my 120/220 volt electric Braun razor perfectly. 

Imagine a country approximately as wide as the U.S. operating on one time zone, Beijing time.  A nearly geographic 2 hour time difference exists between Beijing and Zhangmu, where I was, so I was a bit surprised at an announced 7am breakfast and 8am departure.  I left the room just at 7 am into pitch black hallways and a tightly closed dining room.  I stepped outside and looked up to a starry sky with the moon directly overhead.  Who cares if the staff overslept and breakfast would be late?  It was time to get the priorities right - it was going to be a beautiful day!  The air was crisp and cold, maybe in the lower 40'sF, but I knew it would warm up to shirt sleeve comfort as soon as the sun came up.  What I wouldn't know would be the temperatures to be expected as we climbed the passes on that day and the ones ahead.

I have very few notes of the trip from Zhangmu to Xegar where we overnighted.  The landcruiser bounced and bounded its way, climbing endlessly up the mountain road literally carved into the mountainsides.  The views were spectacular, but I spent most of my time concentrating on holding on for dear life as we jerked and were thrown around trying to navigate the road.  The edges dropped thousands of feet and the other side of the road was right against the mountain.  Fortunately, in Tibet, they drive American-style, on the right side of the road. and as we climbed upward, in the worst places we were driving on the right side of the road against the mountain side, letting the oncoming vehicles worry about the dramatic drop off the side of the road!  Not only was each turn a hairpin turn, but the road climbed steeply, even and especially on each turn.  We seemed to be extremely lucky to meet oncoming traffic mostly on the few short straight sections of the road and luckily portions in rather good repair.  Great landslides were constantly evident as we crossed sections that had been bulldozed open again. Water from natural springs, creeks and smaller waterfalls cascaded across the road, creating ruts and mud that were difficult to navigate the landcruiser through. 

It was 3:00pm before we stopped for fuel and a chance to have lunch.  I followed the driver and guide to a local restaurant along the road and enjoyed a bowl of white rice and curried boiled potatoes for 45 jiao or about 40 cents. 

We arrived at Zegar at 4:30pm and I checked into the Qomolangma Hotel where I was to be the only guest.  The guide and driver stayed in another hostel nearby.    Dinner was to be served at 7pm, so I asked the guide what was recommended to see in the meantime.  "Don't walk much", was the reply.  Before I could decide if this was Chinese security, he followed, "We are at 4,281 meters (14,268 feet) elevation.  Don't walk around too much.  Tomorrow, we will be in Xigatse at 3,900 meters (12,792 feet), which is lower and the next day lower yet in Lhasa, at only 3,600 meters (11,808 feet).  I went to my room and decided the guide was right, so decided to rest and perhaps nap a bit, as it was still 2 1/2 hours to dinner.  I struggled, but could sleep for only a few minutes at a time due to wild dreams.  This seemed to be caused by the high altitude, as I had had the experience on a previous visit to Lhasa.  At 6pm, I decided I'd best get up and take my second Diamox pill of the day.  I did all right filling the glass from the purified water bottle, put the tablet in my mouth and felt myself passing out!  Fortunately, I was only a couple of steps from the foot of the bed, so toppled onto it and in a few minutes was feeling normal again.  I rested a bit and then went to dinner.  I ordered fried rice and tomato soup (cut-up tomatoes in hot water).  I felt better, but realized that, at an altitude of over 14,000 feet, one has to use extreme caution during any physical activity.  After all, the hotel was at an altitude similar to the top of Mt. Rainier.  It turned out to be one of the longest nights of my life.  The room was illuminated with a bulb that gave off about the same light as a match, but only from 8-10pm!  There was no heat, but the bed was clean and comfortable and, for those who forgot their own, even a small supply of toilet paper was provided.  No way could I read and no way could I sleep, so I lay in bed the entire night watching the clock move ever so slowly.  Morning seemed a life-time away!  I felt all right, but it seems the high altitude tells the body not to drop into the sleep mode. 

In packing for this trip, one would be quite proper putting in the full American football uniform, minus the jersey.  The driver's head hit the roof of the landcruiser a couple of times!  Don't forget the shoulder pads and shin pads, as well as the helmet!

The morning dawned bitterly cold and we could see there had been snow during the night.  At 10:30am we reached La Lung Lem pass at 5,000 meters (16,400 ft.) and shortly thereafter we pulled over to see Makalu, Lhotse and Shishapanga mountains all in one panoramic view.  It was 1:16pm when, not only was Everest at 8,848 meters (29,028 feet) standing boldly in front of me, but Chooyu, also.  I had clearly seen in the matter of a couple of hours, five of the world's tallest mountains.  All of the summits reach more than 8,000 meters (26,240ft) into the sky.  For the entire day the weather was cloudless, crystal clear and warm enough to drive with the windows down and be comfortable in a long-sleeved cotton shirt.  As the sun drops, so does the temperature.  The road we traveled was a one-car-wide path of semi-frozen mud, snow and ice.  The path had been exposed through a foot or more of snow by the trucks; the snow had been then packed into a dirt brown icy mess.  We not only slid around a lot, but still some of the ruts were frozen hard, so we bumped along, and when another vehicle appeared, one had to get out of the rutty mess and drive in the foot deep snow.  You could not stop the vehicle, or it was impossible to get going again in the snow and mud.  It was pure luck that we made it through the day without getting stuck.  By mid-afternoon, the snow was gone and the road turned to gravel, making conditions still strenuous, but much better than the morning drive.

After our wondrous views of the morning and early afternoon, we descended into the valley where views were blocked by lower mountains all around us.  The fall months had turned the lush, grassy slopes into frost-killed, brown grass and light snow powdered the upper and shadowed portions.  Winter was around the corner. The road stays open all winter, but delays of several days may be expected due to snow blockage.  With no snow removal equipment the truck drivers simply wait for it to melt a bit and ram their way through.  That must make for some spectacular accidents!

The bleak valley seemed not to sustain much more than terraces of wheat, barley and buckwheat, grass for grazing a special breed of cow, goats and a few horses.  There were no yaks at this altitude.  Here on the Tibetan plateau conditions are desert-like and there is not enough rainfall or snow to sustain farming.  Where there are rivers, irrigation is being initiated to allow the planting of a few hardy trees, such as willow, to hold the soil from the strong winds, and some light farming.  This area is far above the natural tree-line, but a hardy breed of willow will grow.  Walnut and peach trees are also being introduced.  Golden-leafed poplars also lined the road at times.  Housing is mostly in small villages of 15-20 units of gray brick, one story, one room, family units, with piles of dried cow dung stacked alongside to be burned for cooking and minimal heat.

Transport is on horseback (they do use a saddle) or with the horse harnessed to two-wheel carts.  The Tibetan horse is more what we would refer to as a large pony.  All along the road in the valley, every few miles, a youngster of probably 10-12yrs. sat watching over his herd of sheep as they foraged for food in the no longer green pasture land.

Again, it was mid-afternoon and we had had no lunch.  We passed a group of nearly 40 farmers thrashing wheat.  This was done first by taking a large armful of wheat and beating the grain heavy end on the ground.  Later, horses were driven around over the straw to release the rest of the grain. 

We came to an intersection and the guide pointed out the road to the left that lead to Kashgar and on to Pakistan, over the Sino-Pakistan highway.  It would be a six or seven day drive to Kashgar and, with virtually no accommodation along the way, camp would be set up each evening and meals cooked over a fire.  We finally took a break to fuel the vehicle and have a bit of lunch.  I joined the driver and guide in a dirt floored typical Tibetan restaurant for a bowl of hot noodles in broth and then continued our drive on to Shigatse.  The road had improved greatly and there was even a few miles that were paved, but at least now it was a proper two lane gravel road.

In the late afternoon, we pulled up to the Shigatse Hotel and I was quite impressed by a huge banner out front that announced the award of its being one of the leading hotels of the year.  It was soon to be obvious that the panel making the award had never stayed in a hotel outside of Tibet!  The positive point was that the room came with electricity of sorts, an electric radiator to melt the frost that might form in the room during the night, and hot water.  Well, almost all of those things, but the electric power in the hotel failed 3 times during the first hour, the toilet never did flush properly, and the hot water was limited to a couple of hours in the evening.  I was desperate to cash a traveler's cheque, but the hotel had no exchange facility at all, and neither would any other in the city.  The bank was closed and I was close to panic as credit cards were not accepted anywhere either.  As it turned out, not to worry, there was absolutely not a thing I wanted to buy.

The new road, well paved, makes the trip from Shigatse to Lhasa a mere five hours compared with the 8 hours on the former route, now referred to as the southern route.  The southern route is the more scenic, so most tourists travel the southern route for a two-night stay in Shigatse, then the faster route back to Lhasa.  The southern route is gravel and the ride a bumpy one, but the scenic panoramic Himalayan views make it worthwhile.  I had had enough of typical Tibetan roads, so chose the newer route.  Though originally nicely paved, constant landslides means the rocks have to be bulldozed and with that, the dozer blade takes some of the surface asphalt with it, making some areas just gravel again. But after my past days of driving, this was a relatively pleasant and comfortable journey.  Approaching Lhasa, the road turns into a beautiful highway.  I was astounded to see the city with its new, wide, tree-lined boulevards and gleaming, modern, new stores.  This was in contrast to my visit in April 1985, when the mood was more medieval and the city a destination for  devout Buddhist pilgrims making their, at least once-in-a-life-time, pilgrimage to Jokhang  (Tsuglagkhang in Tibetan), the most revered religious monument in Tibet. 

Want to know something unbelievable?  Even at 14,000 feet there are birds, a few, but you should see them flying - quite a struggle!

I have not included any details of the Lhasa visit as it is included in detail in my book, East is West.