Nepal and Tibet

We are up and off early today because we have a very long drive to the Everest base camp. We can hardly believe that the day has finally come. This is the inclusion in the tour that was the deciding factor for us. We leave Shigatse on a bitumen road. This does not last for long however and we are soon back to the bumps and shakes we have come to expect. For a long time we continue to travel through the same valley we travelled on yesterday so we remained on relatively flat land for quite a long time. We see families travelling along the road in their carts. Some are pulled by dainty, little donkeys whose strength defies their appearance. Others are pulled by the home-built tractors that had taken my brother, Greg's interest last year when we visited China with him and his wife, Debbie. These must belong to the more well-to-do families. We see what appears to be the "school bus". Quite a large cart, pulled by a horse is filled with children, dressed in uniform and carrying their school bags.

We pass through more little villages and are surprised to see children running around naked. These people are usually very modest and even in the heat are rugged up in long sleeves, long pants or skirts, with heads always covered in either hats or scarves. We decide that they probably have only one set of clothes so, if it is hot and the children want to play in the irrigation ditches as we have seen them doing along the way, they have to take off their clothes. I am sure they have not been removed because it is washing day. I don't think they have washing days. Some of the clothes we have seen are thick with grease and dirt and smell strongly of smoke. They would be able to stand up by themselves. We have a very quick stop this morning at a school. We are allowed into one classroom, which is a sparse room with a cement floor. There is a picture of Chairman Mao on the back wall. I bet they hate that. The children sit at individual desks, in straight rows, all facing the front. About thirty children are in the class. They are dressed in uniform. All over Tibet, we notice that the children seem to wear tracksuits as their uniform, and usually teal in colour. Most of them were very dirty. How different from my children at St Stephen's at home. It is a fleeting visit and I wish we could have more time but we have a long way to travel today and we would like to arrive before dark.

We drive throughout the morning and do not stop until we come to a very pretty little picnic spot beside the road. We have come to love these stops because we find that the cars have an insulating effect. It's good to hear the birds and the wind and to feel the grass under our feet. Again we have a stream, wildflowers and onlookers. A group of women arrive and sit not far from us, with their baskets and spades. Their children are with them and it is they who are so curious that they come and peer at what we are eating. ON of our guides is spreading vegemite on a cracker and they gaze in horror at it. They are obviously waiting to be given food but we leave it until the last minute. Once we give them something, we find, they demand more!

I do bring out the bubbles again here. There are quite a few little girls with their mothers so I pull out the bubble wand and began blowing bubbles again. Just as before, they are in awe at first but soon they begin to giggle and try to catch them. One of the mothers come to watch too so I, eventually, give her the remaining detergent and wand. She gives them to the children and they go off by themselves to play with it. I am really pleased that I have brought the bubbles from home because in this country where the day's essentials are light on, the children would not have any toys. This is a good way to see their faces light up in wonder. It is getting to the stage in Australia, where children have so many toys and other material goods, that the look of wonder and awe is seldom seen on their faces.

Later in the day, we drive over another mountain pass. Here we decide to erect the prayer flags that we bought in Lhasa. On either side of the road, which has been cut out of the mountainside, is a pole, which someone else has erected to suspend prayer flags on so they can be strung across the road. Our drivers offer to scale up the poles to tie them at the top. We have great fun tying them together to make them long enough to reach across the distance.
Here we decide to have another group photo, up on the roof of the world. Earlier we had passed a westerner, peddling his bicycle up a steep incline. We thought "Better him than us!" He eventually arrives puffing and panting to the summit. He is American and he and his companion, whom we saw earlier as well, are cycling to Rongbuk Monastery. I really do not understand some people! Also at this stop, we see drivers of the big blue trucks that we believe to be government trucks, flinging out handfuls of tiny prayer cards as they pass. Tibetan drivers saying a quick prayer or three!