A fairly long day today, about 8 hours in the bus. We headed off onto the Friendship Highway which China has built between Beijing and the Nepal border, a pretty decent road considering the terrain it's built over. During the day we climbed over 3 different passes above 5000m on our way to Gyantse, a nice provincial town.
We stopped multiple times to look out over the valleys and lakes, and at the last stop, a glacier which is rapidly receding. Unfortunately we were pestered by Tibetan nomads who actually walked into your photo and stood there, then demanded payment for taking their picture. However, the scenery is certainly spectacular.
Despite being only 100km or so from Everest, and around 5000m up, I've yet to put on a jumper, but that may change tomorrow.
We are staying at the only decent hotel in town - a rambling old style hotel reminiscent of Vietnam. No internet, but an English TV channel. Tenseng Norgay's grandson Tashi is leading another group at the hotel, and it was cool to meet him.
Our two guides are Norris, a Nepalese guide who will take us all the way to Kathmandu, and Tensing, a Tibetan guide who is doing all the local arranging, and will take us as far as the border. Like most Tibetans, his passport was seized after the 2008 uprising so he can't leave Tibet.
After tea whilst writing up the blog, we suffered a mild earthquake which had everybody in the corridor but no local damage.
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