Days 199 – 200: Return to Lhasa
Not gonna lie – it was a bit of a rough night at Everest Base Camp, but not for the reasons we were expecting. We were dealing with the altitude just fine, and – thanks to the agency’s down sleeping bags plus the tent’s comforters – the cold didn’t bother us either. However, since our “hotel tent” was nearest to the outhouse, people kept walking by all night long – and look, I don’t begrudge anyone the need to relieve themselves in the middle of the night, but do you *have* to have a conversation with your friend as you walk to the loo at 1 o’clock in the morning? God forbid you keep your fucking voice down. Oh, and while you’re up, *do* smoke a cigarette right next to our tent door and let the putrid fumes drift inside, that’s just great – enjoy your deathstick you inconsiderate asshat.
/rant
Somehow, Igor was able to wake up early and drag himself out of bed for some sunrise shots of Everest. Samdup had warned us that sunrise is not as spectacular as sunset – perhaps that’s true, but the cloudless sky and frozen river were still pretty special.
Igor can sleep when he gets back to New York – he gets up early to stage a sunrise selfie at Everest Camp
Sunrise at EBC – it’s so cold that the river has frozen overnight!
After a simple pancake breakfast, we jumped back into the van and started our long journey back – the next two days on the itinerary were both driving days without any sight-seeing so the majority of the time was spent reading the Kindle (Lindsay) or playing chess (Igor). After an 8-hour drive, we arrived in Shigatse, where we would be staying a second night in the Geser Hotel.
Final view of Everest and Cho Oyu from the Pang-la Pass as we return to Shigatse
The Geser Hotel in Shigatse is so cute – not only are the rooms and hallways elaborately painted with Tibetan designs, but they actually go to the trouble of changing their elevator carpets *everyday* to correspond to the day of the week! We tested to be sure – the first picture was from our first stay, three days ago.
After our disappointing dinner the first time we stayed in Shigatse, we tried to visit the top rated restaurant on TripAdvisor only to find out that their menu is only available in Chinese. We walked all the way back to the “pedestrian street” and decided to give the C-rated Indian place a try – it was actually *delicious*! Such a shame they ended up with a “C” – looks like their business was hurting because of it (first time we’ve visited a LonelyPlant recommended restaurant without a single Westerner)
On our last full day in China, we drove about 5hrs back to Lhasa. During the drive, we noticed our driver and Samdup laughing at a mechanical Chinese voice – we had heard it several times before during our trip but just assumed it was one of their cell phones. “What is that voice?” Igor asked.
“It is the speed camera – it is telling driver to slow down,” Samdup said with a grin. Then he took off his baseball cap and placed it over one of two dashcams.
About 10 minutes later, the driver’s cell phone rings. He puts in his Bluetooth headset and answers, then motions toward the dashcam. Samdup removes his baseball cap as the driver hangs up.
“Wait, are they *watching* us?” Igor asked, incredulous.
“Yes,” Samdup replied. Lindsay and Igor looked at each other, surprised.
“That’s means…they must have a Wifi signal in order to transmit the video feed – how else could they be watching us in real time?” We pulled out Igor’s cell phone and checked for a Wifi network – sure enough, there was one, strong, password-protected signal travelling with us in the car. So, not only does the Chinese Govt. require that all foreigners have a separate permit and a guide with them to visit Tibet, but there also has to be monitored surveillance in their car?
Actually, it could be worse – turns out all those bus groups have to have a Chinese solider riding in the bus with them during their entire trip. As we continued on our way to Lhasa, Lindsay and Igor decided to roll with it, waved at the camera and started making out in the backseat.
Turns out our car has Wifi – so Big Brother can watch us! Too bad Samdup didn’t know the password…
A faux police officer & car with a real speed camera hidden inside! Killing time before the next asinine speed check with another thorough car wash.
Stopping for a roadside lunch of Tibetan noodle soup with yak meat
We rolled into Lhasa around 3:00PM in the afternoon, which was great as we had a few last-minute chores to take care of before our flight to Nepal the next morning. First, and most important, was to visit the central Bank of China – we needed to pay the balance of the cost for our Nepal tour plus the on-arrival travel visa as soon as we landed in Kathmandu so we had been hitting up ATMs frequently during our trip. We had once again found ourselves carrying a couple thousand dollars in Chinese Yuan and needed to exchange it to USD. Of course, there is *no currency exchange* at the Lhasa Airport (that would be far too convenient) – the ONLY place to exchange money in Tibet is at the central Bank of China. When we told Samdup about our errand, he quickly suggested that we stop at the bank together before going to the hotel. Since the task would obviously go faster if we had a translator with us, we agreed.
THANK GOD Samdup was with us! Turns out, foreigners are only allowed to exchange a MAXIMUM of USD $500 per person. Sure, we would have been fine, as the Kathmandu Airport *does* have currency exchange in the arrivals terminal (which makes sense, right?). But luckily for us, Samdup volunteered to us his ID card to exchange the entire amount for us. The whole process (which should have taken 10min) ended up taking us about an hour. Guys…it really doesn’t have to be this difficult.
After we were dropped off at the hotel, we headed out on our second errand – to mail our remaining three postcards to friends and family in the USA. We walked to the main China Post branch and waited in line at the “Postal Integrated Services” counter. When we finally got to the front and showed the agent our postcards, pointing to the “USA” in the address and the stamp in the corner, she waved us away, pointing down to the end of the room where a young guy was selling postcards behind a glass counter.
OK, no problem – we could go to a different counter to buy an international stamp. So we walked over, and made the same gestures to the guy. He starts shaking his head and says, “No.” No? What do you mean, “No”? Is this a post office or not? Surely, as the “Postcard-Selling-Guy” at the *main post office* in a MAJOR CITY, this is a request he must get ALL THE TIME, right? Even though it should be *painfully obvious* what we want, we typed our request into Google Translate: “Do you sell stamp to USA?”
Again, the guy shakes his head, waves his hands and says, “No.”
Seriously? How is it *this hard* to send a postcard? We finally turned to the Express Mail counter, and tried to ask the agent there how much it would cost to mail a postcard with her – we were even willing to buy an envelope and stick the postcards inside. She was obviously very confused with our request, and tried to wave us over to the useless postcard guy. We used Google Translate to tell her: “They won’t sell us stamp. How much to mail this with you?” She frowned, and walked over to postcard guy and started to have a back and forth with him in Chinese. Finally, she pulled out her own phone and used Baidu Translate to tell us, “Stamps sold out.”
GUYS, YOU HAVE ONE JOB. Not for nuthin – the US Postal Service may be in the shitter, but at least we manage to keep the fucking stamps in stock.
We finally gave up. We would be meeting up with Samdup one more time tomorrow morning for our drive to the airport – we decided to give him twice the cost of the stamps with our leftover Yuan and cross our fingers that he would mail the postcards for us after we left. We ordered a BIG bottle of beer at dinner and consoled ourselves with the reassuring fact that we would be returning to the “Normal World” first thing in the morning.
Sorry bother you with my request to buy some international stamps for my postcards, I thought this was a GODDAMN POST OFFICE. “Reaching Everyone Everywhere”? THAT’S A LIE. Try, “Reaching No One Outside China Because We Can’t Keep Stamps In Stock.”
Walking by the Potala Place at night – this is our LAST NIGHT IN CHINA and we are SOOO happy
We get back to our hotel to find SEVEN TOUR BUSES parked in front – sure enough, obnoxiously loud tourists walk up and down our hallway late into the night. We keep reminding ourselves we only have about 12 hours left so we turn up the volume on the TV (which is playing yet another anti-Japanese WWII movie) and wear earplugs as we go to sleep.