October 6th – 8th, 2016

Days 191 – 193: Trekking to Samye

We spent the next three days trekking through the Tibetan wilderness on one of the most popular routes – from Ganden Monastery to Samye Monastery. Our hike took us across two mountain passes, each over 5,000m high (the same altitude as Everest Base Camp!) – luckily we had two yaks carrying our bags, as well as all the cooking & camping gear.

Lindsay suffered the worst from altitude sickness, with a near-constant headache and nausea for two days, and even Igor started to feel the effects after a while. We chugged our weird Chinese medicine twice a day, but it didn’t seem to help – we just had to “keep on swimming” until we reached lower altitudes at the end of each day.

Even though the hike was the most challenging we have ever faced, the scenery was GORGEOUS. The snow-capped mountain peaks and solitude were everything Igor could have wished for! Even though the weather is just as warm and clear as Nepal (which is just going into its high season for trekking – we doubt we will have *any* solitude in the next two weeks), in Tibet the trek is empty of fellow tourists – we’re guessing trekking just isn’t that big in China!

 

As the sun rises over the mountains, Lindsay wakes up to find she has a splitting headache from the altitude and sleeping on a hard surface. She takes another dose of the Chinese medicine but it doesn’t help

 

As soon as breakfast is over, the yaks are packed up and take off into the distance

 

The headache and nausea make it a rough day of trekking for Lindsay – she constantly had to sit (or lay) down and take a break

 

Ascending to 5,000+m (over 16,400ft!) over the Tseb-La mountain pass

 

A couple of boots reach the snowline of the Tseb-La Pass!

The mountain peak at Tseb-La Pass

First view of the Gampa-La Valley – we will be camping at the bottom, near the lake in the distance

 

The rest of the day’s trekking is easier, as we are going downhill all the way to our camp

Once we reached camp, both Lindsay & Igor immediately crawled into our tent and passed out for a good 2hrs – Lindsay had been feeling horrible all day and Igor finally started to feel the effects of altitude sickness as well (oddly, not until we started to descend). Our cook, Tserine, woke us up around 6PM, asking if we wanted dinner. Unfortunately, we both felt so queasy we didn’t want to eat a thing, but we felt rude staying in our tent all night. We grabbed our deck of cards and joined Samdup, Tserine and Yak Man in the kitchen tent, where Tserine had laid out an AMAZING spread of potatoes, mushrooms, yak meat, egg & tomato soup and stir-fired vegetables! Our hearts were broken, looking at and smelling all this delicious food, and having to pass! We weakly took a small serving of plain rice, and asked for some slices of ginger to put in our hot water (which actually helped A LOT!). Once dinner was over, Igor & Lindsay tried to make up for our poor manners by showing off Igor’s magic trick and playing a dozen rounds of Pairs.

While the ginger tea helped our nausea the night before, Lindsay woke up feeling awful again! She tried her best to shove down Tserine’s tasty pancakes and eggs (REAL pancakes too! So not fair!), but all she really wanted was more ginger tea. Igor, on the other hand, LOVED Tserine’s pancakes, causing him to make them every morning for the rest of the trek. We guzzled our tea, and filled our water bottle with the remaining slices of ginger for the day’s trek. Luckily for us, our trek today would end at a *much* lower elevation (around 12,000ft – similar to Lhasa), so we started to feel better once we crossed the last mountain pass.

 

GINGER! The only thing that seemed to help our altitude sickness.

 

The strong and sturdy yaks are ready to take off with all our stuff!

 

It’s a beautiful morning, hiking through the Gampa-La Valley

 

The Gampa-La Pass – nearly as high as our ascent the day before, but the gradient is much more gradual. Our mantra for the day is, “Slowly, slowly.”

Mountain peak at the Gampa-La Pass

 

Igor & Samdup lead the charge over the pass, where we get our first view of the alpine lake, tucked within the pass

 

Fed solely by rain and snow melt, the lake is a stunning, turquoise blue

The alpine lake is beautiful, and *big* – it takes us a good hour to walk around its rocky shore

 

As soon as we clear the lake, we begin our descent into the valley

 

The lower we go in altitude, the better Lindsay starts to feel! She no longer has a headache and she’s actually starting to feel hungry!

 

When we reach the valley floor, we start to pass by several nomad settlements

 

As we cross the river, we see some nomads herding their horses, each carrying a load of logs

 

Down on the valley floor, our path takes us along the river and through a shurb forest – the sun is shining and we finally start to feel *warm,* and start shedding our jackets and thermals

After we *finally* reach our camp, Lindsay and Igor hike to the river for some much needed washing (bodies & clothes!) – the water is ice cold, so we can only splash the essential areas

 

Our final camp of the trek – it’s warm and we finally have an appetite to enjoy Tserine’s dinner (yak-noddle soup!) – we are very tempted to feed a few bits of yak meat to a shy puppy that is hanging around our tent, but decide that would be rude, so we secretly toss him a few leftover bits of bread from our lunch instead

 

Tserine & Yak Man load up the yaks on our final morning of the trek – these animals have been amazing – not only do they carry SO MUCH, but they are so sweet tempered!

 

Igor following the path out of the mountain valley

 

We finally reach the end of our wilderness trek and start walking through Tibetan villages on our way to Samye – even though the houses are very basic construction, it appears Tibetans really like ornate doors! Each one is colorful and unique

 

As we pass through town, we see a man slapping pats of yak dung on the wall! Just like the nomads in Langmusi, these villagers use the dried yak dung as fuel for their fires, and plastering them to the wall helps them dry out faster

 

Baby horses and baby donkeys! Feeling a little jealous of the villagers’ collection of pets!

 

Samdup points high up into the mountain, and we barely make out a collection of buildings – a small monastery is hidden in the cliffside! There is a long, meandering stairwell up the mountain for people who want to visit, as well as some picnic tents set up at the bottom (I guess they figure any pilgrim who visits this temple deserves a break!)

 

Before leaving the village, we are invited inside one of the homes for a cup of butter tea. We say farewell to Yak Man (who will be walking back by himself to his village at the start of our trek!), then continue on our way to Samye

 

Tserine and Samdup hop in the minivan and head for the village, but Igor and Lindsay ask if they can walk the rest of the way to town – it’s only 10AM at this point, and we were looking forward to a full day of trekking! The road to town is pretty straight (we make sure to select the biggest road at each intersection) and the minivan makes sure to wait at each fork just to make sure we walk the right way. We cover the final 18KM by 2PM, stopping for to eat our packed lunch along the way

 

We are so relieved to finally reach our hotel! Hot water showers, soft pillows and sit-down toilets seem like the ultimate luxury!

When we meet Samdup downstairs for dinner, we are surprised and super excited to find out that Tserine would be cooking us another dinner! He had set-up his propane stove in the guardhouse in the hotel’s courtyard and whipped up a Tibetan feast!