Kathmandu, January 3

Rongbuk (or Rongphu) is a memorable place. At 4970 m, it is the world's highest monastery. It is situated beneath the world's highest mountain, which attracts thousands of tourists every summer. To meet their needs, the monks at Rongbuk have opened the world´s highest guesthouse.

A couple of days ago, it was also the location of my most restless night. It is strange what altitude can do to you. Though I didn´t feel any major pains, the lack of oxygen does affect the brain. Concentration is impossible. I found I couldn´t write two comprehensive sentences after another, even when I tried hard. There is a continuous feeling of restless, tired discomfort and a desire to go down to lower altitudes as soon as possible. At night sleep is uneasy, haunted with strange, otherworldly dreams that are close to hallucinations. Waking seems a blessing untill you take out your watch and discover it is only 3 ´o clock. It is followed by long cold hours of waiting for the sun to rise.

The sun rose, but didn´t provide any warmness. Even at noon, the few remaining people at Rongbuk huddle closely together in the only room that contains a heater. It burns on yak dung. At that time, our small two person tour group drove up to Everest Base Camp at 5200 m. There was nothing to see there but prayer flags blowing in hard wind, since the camp is totally deserted during the winter. No wonder, cause it was -20 there!

The Tibet tour was an experience of a life time and I suppose Rongbuk/Everest Base Camp was the highlight of our tour. Yet I still have difficulty comprehending what we did and appreciating it. The nights we spend above 4000 m, with no running water, electricity or heating, trying to catch some sleep under huge piles of blankets, were just so extremely uncomfortable.

Even though we haven't been checked many times along the road, Tibet feels like a police state. In cities like Lhasa and Shigatse, police and military can be found literally at every street corner. Like a childish, spoiled brat, the Communist Party of China tries to hold on to its colonies with a mixture of brutal force, propaganda and forceful change of the situation on the ground. It will probably never succeed to make Chinese out of Tibetans though. I found Tibetan culture and religion more alive than I expected and there seems to be nothing the Chinese party can do about it but import Chinese settlers to gradually replace the Tibetan population. They still go on telling everyone how happy all their citizens are, and how Tibet is an indiscriminate part of China. I wonder how people can be so deluded.

My camera was thoroughly checked at the border. I had to delete all pictures with police or army personel in it. Since these are so omnipresent everywhere, that meant deleting many pictures. What the border guards didn't know was that I already copied all my pictures to the hard-drive in my backpack.

It was very strange to cross the Nepali border and suddenly see trees again. The temperature rose from -20 to 20, and our warm jackets began to look more and more ridiculous. At last we drove through banana trees and other tropical vegetation while wearing scarfs, gloves, etc. When we finally entered the Kathmandu Valley, we had a good view of the city below with the snowy white peaks of the Himalaya in the background. It was really interesting to arrive here again, since my memories of this city are so fond. Chris and I stayed in the house of a friend of his, a girl called Issu, who's going through her exams right now. She couldn't spend a lot of time with us. Sadly, there is no warm water and the electricity only works at certain hours. I felt dirty and cold so today I moved to a small guesthouse. Unfortunately, there is no warm water here either and Kathmandu isn't blessed with a tropical climate at all!

Although it isn't celebrated here, people know there is a new year in the Gregorian calender. Nepali newyear will have to wait a little, but happy 2012 everyone back home!