We did it! Yesterday our group managed the last, very easy, stage into Kathmandu, and we are finally having a good bed and a hot shower again in the Shangri-La hotel. And finally access to the internet again, although the connection is too slow to be able to get in my emails and even to open my own weblog (I hope to find a better connection later to post this). Also my mobile phone does not work in Nepal, so I am not able to make any calls or send or receive an SMS. Strange enough incoming calls get through sometimes, no clue how that is possible. On Thursday we will fly to Hong Kong and from there to Shanghai, I look forward to being in the office again on Friday and to be back ‘on the grid’.

The last week was not as difficult as the week before, but it certainly wasn’t easy. The day after my last post from Tingri we thought we would have an easy day over paved roads to the foot of the Lalung La. But as usual during this trip things were not as easy as they sounded. Already 5 km outside of Tingri the paved road suddenly stopped, and we found ourselves on a dirt road once again. The dirt road went slightly up for most of the 80 km that we rode it, making it a bit more difficult as well. But when after lunch suddenly a heavy storm (windforce 9) hit us right in the head, my dad and I were close to giving up again. We had to walk against the storm sometimes, because we could not bike against it. When we still had more than 20 km to go, a sandstorm came up and filled our clothes and mouth with fine pieces of sand. Shortly after that it also started to snow a bit, and we seriously started to doubt whether we could make this stage. But we went on and on and on, and finally around 7 pm we arrived in our camp, totally exhausted. We thought Gary and Jay were still riding, but it turned out that the wind had been too much for them, and one of the support vehicles had picked them up around 4:30 pm. The camp was in a beautiful location, on a piece of grassland next to a river, surrounded by huge mountains, but we were too tired to really enjoy it, and it also became dark quickly after we arrived. We had a bit of food and dropped into our sleeping bags right after.

The next morning we got up very early, because in the morning there is always less wind in the Himalaya. Around 7:30 we were having breakfast in the freezing cold, and before the sun had reached our valley camp ground (at 4600 meter altitude) we were already on our bikes. My hands and feet felt like they were from ice, but after 15 minutes we suddenly rode in the sun, and it got warm quite quickly. This day we had to climb two passes over 5000 meters, the first 13 km from our camp and the second 26 km, meaning that we started to climb almost immediately. The good news was that these would be the last two major passes of the trip, if we would make the second one we would have a 150 km downhill into Nepal right after it. We were still very tired from the day before, and already had to walk part of the first pass. We made it around 11, and had several Snicker bars and a can of Red Bull to get some calories and energy in. The second mountain pass was really hard, and I walked at least 3 km with my bike in my hand. Walking is actually more difficult due to the lack of oxygen, but changing from biking to walking sometimes can motivate you not to give up. Around 1 pm my dad and I managed to reach the top of the second pass at about 5200 meters. Our guide was there with hot noodles, but we were too tired to eat and decided to first descend to a lower altitude. After doing that we sat in the support vehicle for almost an hour to regain our strength, but our spirits were high: we conquered all the Tibetan mountain passes! Two hours later Gary and Sean also managed to reach the top, and when we heard that news we were very happy.

After the last mountain my dad and I started the descent and rode in the direction of Nyalam, the last city on the Tibetan plateau. However, the headwind got much worse once again, and we were thinking of camping and continuing the next day. Then we heard from our guide that the road ahead would be under construction for 50 kilometers (until Zhangmu / Dram, the Chinese bordertown), and most of it would be very difficult to navigate by bike. We decided to take the car and ride back to Gary to discuss what to do. We found him on the mountain, and after a short discussion we decided to take the car to Zhangmu. That was a good decision, because the road was in a terrible condition and even in the Land Cruiser it seemed like a dangerous undertaking. Basically the road from Nyalam to Zhangmu was a 2-3 meter ridge on the side of the mountain, with a 1 km deep gorge right next to it. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in nature, but not something to ride on bicycle when road crews are building it. We even encountered a small landslide right in front of us (we had to wait 30 minutes before the road was cleared), and at one point we rode right through a glacier with ice towering above the car on both sides. Even by car the 50 km took us over 4 hours, by bike this would have been much longer, even though it was all downhill.

Zhanghmu turned out to be subtropical city, at an altitude of only 2300 meters. We had a not-so-very-clean hotel right on the border with Nepal, where we had a good night of sleep anyway. The next morning we went through all border formalities, first on the Chinese side, then a steep 8 km dirt road down (over 1000 altitude meters down) to the Nepali town of Kodari, where we crossed the Friendship bridge and had to go through Nepal customs. This took us several hours, but there were no big problems. The sight and sounds changed within these 8 km, and we were suddenly in a different world. The people not only spoke a different language, but even looked different, and we were suddenly in a tropical third-world country. New smells in the air from all the spices that were used to cook, and a warm wind because of the lower altitude and different climate. We even had to ride on the other side of the road, which we only figured out after several hundred meters in Nepal. It felt like a new adventure!

From Kodari we rode about 20 km to a great place called The Last Resort. A small resort consisting of relatively luxurious tents, set on the side of a mountain overlooking the valley below it. You had to cross a 100 meter hanging bridge to get there, giving it an even more special feeling. We spent the afternoon relaxing in the gardens and in the bar. For the first time in weeks we allowed ourselves a couple of beers, and we talked the whole afternoon and night about our experiences of the trip and ideas about the future. Gary, my dad and I developed a new business concept as well in a few hours, for a likely very successful new venture. Gary and I won’t have time to work on this, so we will only be involved in the fund raising and using our Chinese network to make it happen. If the idea still sounds good in a few weeks you will likely read about it on this blog. A memorable day for all of us I think.

The next morning at breakfast we decided to take it easy and instead of riding the 70 km along the river to Bhaktapur, to take the car and do some sightseeing along the way. Jay went bungy jumping after breakfast, and although he tried hard to convince all of us to join, none of us thought this was a good idea. If I ever go bungy jumping I prefer not to do it in a place where the closest hospital is a 3-hour bumpy ride away! The car ride to Bhaktapur was very nice, and we made several stops along the way. We had lunch in a mountain resort, before the final descent into the valley where Bhaktapur and Kathmandu are located. Bhaktapur turned out to be a medieval city, that had hardly changed over the past hundreds of years. During daytime there were some tourists from Kathmandu, but at night they all went back, so we seemed to be the only foreigners here. We had a hotel right on the main city square, with great views over the market and the temples around it. The only bad sid
e was that people started worshipping around 4:30 AM and they did so by ringing a big bell in front of the temple. So we decided to get up, and by 6 AM we were strolling around the old town. An unforgettable experience!

A few hours later we had breakfast and then started our last stage from Bhaktapur to Kathmandu. That turned out to be an easy ride, although the heavy trafffic slowed us down a lot. When we arrived in Kathmandu we had the bad luck to end up in a demonstration, and people had closed the road. My dad decided to talk to the mob, and they eventually agreed to let us through. Our Nepali guide, however, was scared, and he wanted us to take a different route. We had to follow him, which was a pity because now we were back on congested streets again. Later we found out that there are several demonstrations per day, because Nepal the struggle against the Maoist rebels left the country virtually bankrupt. It is strongly advised to stay away from these demonstrations, because they easily turn violent. I guess we were lucky!

In the Shangri-La hotel my wife and Gary’s girlfriend were waiting for us (they had flown in the night before), and it was very nice to see them again. They had been a bit worried, something I did not realize while bike riding. I did not really see it as a dangerous undertaking, more as a test for myself how far I could go and as a good way to look at my current life from a different perspective. The trip is too fresh in my mind to be able to really grasp what we did, but it feels like I made the right decision to do this bike ride. It was good to go back to nature, to feel its force and to live a less luxurious life for a few weeks. It makes you appreciate your normal life a lot more. And at the very least I lost about 5 kilos, which is also not too bad. Although I am afraid that the kilos might be back after a few days in Kathmandu: we are all eating twice as much as we used to!

Note: I made hundreds of pictures during the trip, some of which I will start uploading this weekend to http://www.flickr.com/photos/chijs. I had planned to do that here already, but the Nepalese Internet turns out to be about 10 years behind the rest of the world, so I have given up on that idea.

I was not able to update my blog for a while because we have been camping far away from civilization for the past couple of days. I once tried to post a message through my mobile from my tent, but it was so cold that my computer’s battery suddenly stopped working. But now we are in a guesthouse in the small town of Tingri (30 houses in the middle of a huge prairie), where we have electricity for the next 2-3 hours or so. At least, that is what the owners told us, they put on a generator for us so we can recharge our mobiles, laptops, camera’s etc. It seems the modern world has not reached this part of Tibet yet, and that actually has its charm.

I won’t go in too much detail about what we have done over the past days, because then this will become a book: so much has happened. Just some hightlights so you get an idea. Generally, it is even more difficult than I had expected. A few times I have come close to giving up, but each time I pushed myself to continue. I have encountered my physical limits a few times, but also learned that if you are mentally strong you can always push those limits a bit further. But in case you wonder, I also like the trip a lot. Most of it is a lot of fun, but you have to hurt a bit sometimes to enjoy it even more. Like my track & field coach in high school told us every day: no pain, no gain.

The first stage after Shigatse we drove for about 90 km, slightly uphill. We camped at a small stream at 4250 meters, just before a high pass. My dad and I arrived at 3:30 PM already, so we some time to read and relax. The night was not very relaxing though. First I woke up because a yak was trying to eat my tent (I did not dare to go out, but shining with my light made him go away quickly). Shortly after that I heard wild dogs barking, and they started chasing around our camp site. Not the nicest thing when you need to get some sleep. But I put in my earplugs and managed to get a few hours rest anyway. The next morning Sean (one of the camera men) told us that the dogs attacked his tent! Nothing happened in the end, but he was scared to death. He actually tried to call all of us for help, but we had all turned off our phones…

The next day turned out to be a very difficult one. It started with a 4700 meter pass right after we started, and that was still OK. At the top some people took pictures of me and my dad (we were getting used to it already), and then we did a fast downhill. 10 minutes later we were at about 4000 meters and had to drive another 20 km before lunch in a small town. After that the fun really started: a 36 km uphill ride to a 5275 meter mountain pass. We were tired already from the first mountain, and this one turned out to be almost too much for us. At first temperatures were still OK, but later in the afternoon it became colder. Also the wind started to blow, which slowed us further down. It was extremely tiring, also because of the lack of oxygen, but we finally managed to reach the top around 8 PM. From there it was a 12 km downhill (against the blowing wind, we still had to pedal just to move forward) to our campsite at 4900 meter altitude. Jay (camera man) also wanted to finish this mountain, even though he was far behind us. He managed eventually, and pulled into our camp at 10:45 PM. He was just as exhausted as us, and also half frozen. He was the hero of the day!

The next morning the inside and outside of my tent was completely frozen, because it had been so cold during the night. I wear thermal underwear, socks, gloves and a hat in my special low-temperature sleeping bag to keep warm, but it is still quite cold. I kept a small bottle of mineral water next to my sleeping bag, and it was filled with ice! So I put on some warm clothes, had a quick breakfast (outside….) and jumped on my bike to warm up again. After about 25 km we caught our first glimpse of Mount Everest, still more than 100 km away. It looked fantastic in the sunshine, without any clouds around it. About 25 km later we left the highway, and entered an unpaved road that leads to Everest (101 km to the base camp, with signs at every kilometer). After about 3 km we had to climb 22 kilometers uphill to a 5200 meter mountain pass. Once again extremely difficult, not only because of the altitude but also because of the dirt road. Climbing a mountain on a paved road is doable, because you come into a certain ‘swing’ (left-right left-right at a certain speed), but on a dirt road that’s impossible. But once again we managed, and we looked forward to the 10 km downhill to the camp. But that turned out to be even more difficult, because here the dirt road was in an even worse condition. Also the 10 km that the guide told us, were in reality 25 km. It took us almost 2 hours to get from the top to the camp, and my dad and I were once again exhausted. Gary also made it to the top of the mountain (congrats Gary, this was a really difficult one), but because he arrived around 8:30 PM at the top and it was getting dark he had to take the 4WD to the camp.

Yesterday we thought we had an easy ride, about 50 km uphill to Rongbuk (the entrance to Mount Everest Base Camp). But the road was so bad, that both Gary and the camera man gave up after a couple of kilometers already. My dad and I were not sure what to do, because this was hardly biking anymore. I am not sure how to describe it, but the road was in such a bad condition that even the Land Cruiser drivers complained about it. Walking was often the easiest or only way, and that’s what we did for some parts. If anybody plans to ride up to the Mount Everest Base Camp I would advise them not to do it. If I had known this in advance I would have given up. But because we had started we wanted to finish. And that’s what we did, but don’t ask me how. I was completely dizzy and could hardly eat or drink anymore. I had to lay down in my tent, but even that did not help much. The high altitude (our camp was at over 5000 meters) also did not make it easier, and I went to bed at 8 PM. Also here wild dogs around our tent, but I did not care anymore, I was just too tired to even think about it.

This morning I woke up and opened my tent, to find that it was snowing heavily. While opening the tent some snow had fallen on my sleeping bag and into my backpack, so the day did not start good. I was still tired from the day before, and I still had a headache. But I pushed myself to put on my clothes and get going. Not easy, but an hour later we were on our bikes again for the last few kilometers to Mount Everest Base Camp. It was snowing hard and I felt terrible, but we all made it to the top. The Base Camp was nice to experience once, but there is not much to do. Interestingly there was a big group of Chinese climbers ready to bring the Olympic torch to the top of Mount Everest. It should arrive tomorrow I think, so you might read about it elsewhere as well. Afterwards we rode back to Rongbuk, had lunch and then drove back by car to the Friendship Highway (the base camp excursion was an addition to the Lhasa-Kathmandu trip, it’s not on the way). And now we are in a small guesthouse in Tingri, from where I have a view on Mount Everest from my room. But that’s about the only positive thing I can say about it, I just realize they don’t even have heating. Anyway, I’d better post this quickly before they turn off the generator!

Today is a resting day in Shigatse, Tibet’s second biggest town. We were all very happy that we did not have to ride today, because we are all tired and suddenly everybody is getting injuries (mainly knee injuries: the joints in my knees cause me a lot of pain, but once you’re on the bike you try to forget about it). We have covered about 350 km so far, and we are getting close to 1/3 of the trip.

Yesterday we rode from Gyantse to Shigatse, a distance of about 95 kilometer at an average altitude of 3950 meters. Compared to some of the other stages this was an easy one. Even the altitude is not a real issue anymore, if you don’t ride too fast you don’t even notice it anymore. The next days we will be camping between 4500 and 5000 meters, and I hope that also there we won’t have any altitude related problems anymore. The ride yesterday was basically one straight road through a valley with high mountains on both sides. This is a fertile part of Tibet, and everywhere farmers were busy ploughing their land with yaks or horses. We stopped a couple of times to look at what they were doing, and sometimes they then also came to look at what we were doing. Communication was impossible, they did not speak any Mandarin only Tibetan. But all of them screamed ‘hello’ at us, followed by a big smile. My opinion is that Tibetans are extremely friendly people, at least in the part of Tibet that we have driven through so far.

The nature in Tibet is so beautiful: most of the time it is like you are riding on the moon, because there is hardly any vegetation at this altitude, and you are surrounded by snow covered mountains. It is very quiet, and you really feel the power of nature. Especially when it becomes windy or when the temperature suddenly drops 10-15 degrees (this can happen in a matter of minutes). The part we have ridden so far was very quiet, with hardly any people or cars.

And we have not seen any other bike riders so far, we seem to be the only ones who do this long-distance high-altitude ride on a bike. This is understandable of course, but actually the people who do this in a 4×4 miss out on a lot of interesting things that happen along the road or that can be seen along the route. I am really happy that I have chosen to see Tibet this way. And I am happy that I am still managing it, it is certainly not an easy ride.

Shigatse, the town where we are now, is quite nice. It has an old Tibetan part, where people live their lives like they have been doing for the past hundreds of years. Not much has changed, except for the fact that they now have electricity (water they still don’t have). Shigatse, like Gyantse, has a Dzong (fort) overlooking the city. This one was destroyed in 1959 during a Tibetan uprising, but is now being rebuilt. We took a look at the Dzong today (officially not allowed, but we just walked up the mountain and into the fort), and only the outside is finished so far. After that we went to the monastery, which is about a kilometer away from the Dzong. This is the official residence of the Panchen Lama, and all the former Panchen Lama’s are buried here as well. There were hardly any other tourists (amazing, considering that this is one of the main sights in Tibet and it is May Holiday now here), so we could take a good look without being rushed around. This monastery was the nicest one we have seen so far, especially because most of it was saved during the Cultural Revolution. It is almost like a town within a town, and there are hundreds (or maybe thousands?) of monks still living here.

Today my wife and Gary’s girlfriend left, they are off to Lhasa and then fly back to Shanghai. Someone has to earn money 🙂 They will pick us up in Kathmandu in about 2 weeks from now. It’s probably better that they are going back, because from now on the trip will be getting really difficult. No more hotels, and probably some really cold nights (and snow) high up in the mountains. I think it’s better we face these hardships alone, instead of letting them ‘suffer’ with us.

I am sitting in an internet cafe in the city of Gyantse, which is supposed to be the third biggest city in Tibet but is actually smaller than an average village in Holland. It’s noisy around me with kids playing online games and watching video’s, and people are looking over my shoulder all the time to figure out what this strange foreigner is doing.

Yesterday we had our third riding day, from the shores of lake Yamdrok-Tso over the Karo-La pass to the foot of the Simi-La. The ride started off quite well, it was about 12 degrees, sunny and there was hardly any wind. But after about 20 km the road became a dirt road, just at the point that the climb to Karo-La started. The road would get worse and worse (luckily we did not know that in advance), until in the end it was so bad that even Toyota Landcruisers had difficulties to ride it. For us on our bikes it was even more difficult of course, but the scenery compensated this. We were surrounded by 7000+ meter mountains, and there was a huge glacier close to the road. Around 12:30 our guide passed my dad and me (we always ride together) in his Landcruiser and asked if we wanted to have lunch. We asked how far it still was to the top of the mountain, and he told us about 3 km. We decided therefore to continue, because that would take us maximum 20-30 minutes. However, it turned out the guide was once again wrong: the 3 km turned out to be at least 10 km of uphill dirt road ride and at 14:00 we finally managed to reach the top (at 5050 meters, not 5500 as the guide had told us – this mistake was something I did not mind).

My dad and I were exhausted because of the long climb and the high altitude, and we could hardly eat anything although we were hungry. It was windy and cold, and we did not feel very comfortable at this extreme height. Right at that moment the second Landcruiser reached the top of the mountain, with in it both Gary and the camera man. The altitude and the bad road conditions were too much for them, and they had to take the car up for the last kilometers. Gary had already had lunch, so he put on additional clothes and jumped on his bike for the long downhill. We followed about 10 minutes later, but after a few minutes later we saw Gary already: he had fallen pretty badly. Luckily he wore a helmet, because that saved him. His helmet was completely bumped, and could not be used anymore. His bike was also not usable anymore, because his gear system was in a mess and his front brake had completely broken off. Gary himself was quite OK, he had some scratches but did not feel to bad. The riding day for him was over.

My dad and I continued, but were very careful. The dirt road was very bad, with lose stones and many holes, and we did not want to end up like Gary. After about 70 km we expected to see the guide with his car at a camping place, but we rode on and on and still did not see him. After about 80 km we were really exhausted (mentally it is very difficult to continue when you are prepared to stop at 70 km) and finally saw his white Landcruiser with the game.com.cn flag on it. When we arrived at his car, however, he told us that he could not find a good camping place and we would have to ride another 3-4 km. Great…. But we had not choice, so we continued on. After about 5 km we saw him again and it turned out there was still no good camping place there. At this point I got really angry. I was totally exhausted and had been riding for 9 straight hours, and I told him that I was fed up with him. A good tour guide should prepare things in advance, which he clearly had not done. I was also angry because he never told us the correct distance, making our rides even more difficult. I know that was not smart, because he was losing face big time (which in Tibetan culture may even be worse than in Chinese culture), but I totally had it with him. We talked it out today (he gave me a good guidebook with distances and altitudes), but I am sure this will be an interesting part of the documentary (yes, everything is being filmed).

The guide drove on to find a camping spot, and me and my dad followed. The problem was, there was still no camping spot. All good spots were demolished because a new road was being built. It was getting later already and we were more and more tired, so finally it was decided to give up the search and drive to the next town, Gyantse. This would have been the town we would ride to today. The idea was to go there and stay in a hotel, and drive us back to the original place in the morning, so we could ride ourselves to Gyantse. However, on the remaining 35 km drive to Gyantse (we rode some of the planned itineray already while searching for a camping spot), we found that there was no road anymore… The old road over the Sima-La had disappeared, and road crews were building a new one. However, this was not finished yet, and our Landcruiser had to cross through mud streams and drive along riverbanks full of boulders. It was totally impossible to ride a mountain bike here, we would probably have to carry it on our backs in order to get through. So finally the decision was made to cancel today’s remaining 35 km because of force majeure, and we would make it up by riding around town today.

That was a good decision, because now Gary could get his bike repaired, and also our bikes could be maintained (unbelievable what 250 km in Tibet can do to your bike, many screws had to be tightened and most gear systems were not working well anymore). After repairing the bikes we did some sightseeing, and we found that Gyantse is a very nice old town. A fairy-tale like fort overlooked the town, and right behind it was a huge, 700 year old, monastery. We spent a few hours there exploring the sights and the old part of town, and it was amazing. Actually, we were glad we have seen, this is something you don’t want to miss while touring Tibet.

Tomorrow we are off to Shigatse (a 95 km ride), where the Panchen Lama has his residence, and where we will stay in a hotel. The day after that we have our first rest day planned, so we will probably do some sightseeing there as well. My wife and Gary’s girlfriend will go back from Shigatse to Lhasa, and fly back to Shanghai from there. After Shigatse it will be a 7 day ride to Mount Everest base camp for us, while camping every night along the road. The first days are behind us, but there are still two weeks of riding ahead of us. I am still very excited!

Saturday morning at 8:30 AM we will start our biking expedition. The plan is to leave from the square in front of the Potala Palace, taking some pictures and then starting the first stage of the tour. Tomorrow will be a 85 km ride, with only one mountain pass to climb (at 3950 meters). We will camp 10 kilometers past the summit, to get used to the higher altitude. The second day looks to be much tougher, when we will go over a 4700 meter mountain pass and later over one of 4400 meters, but the distance will be much shorter. We wil camp at Yamdroktso lake at night, which is supposed to be beautiful. Hopefully there will not be too much snow there. On Monday we will really go into high altitude, when we go among others over a 5500 meter high mountain pass. Luckily we have a descent to 4200 meters right after that, so we should be not too tired when arriving at our next camp location. I am ready to go. Sitting around in Lhasa to do preparations and to get acclimatized is nice, but we are here to bike so that’s what I want to do now. I look forward to the challenge!

As mentioned in a previous post, acclimatization was a bit tougher than expected. If you should ever go to Lhasa to visit, and you travel by plane, be prepared to feel a bit sick the first days. You can take Diamox (not available in China, so also not in Lhasa) to feel better, but you have to watch out because if you have AMS (acute mountain sickness) you may not see the signs on time. In Lhasa this is normally not a problem, but higher up in the mountains this can be very serious (AMS can be fatal).

My first night was not too good with a splitting headache, and the second was even worse. I did not sleep much because of my headaches, but at least the second night it was a bit easier to breathe. Strange enough I felt quite OK during daytime. The reason is probably dehydration. You have to drink a lot more because of the high altitude, and during the daytime I keep on drinking the whole time (4 liters of water on average). But the second night before going to bed I did not drink much, I figured I drank enough already during the day. This may have been the reason, because last night I decided to drink two bottles of water during dinner, and now I felt fine. No headache at all. I still woke up a few times because I did not get any air, but then you just take a few deep breaths and you are fine again.

Today is the third full day in Lhasa, and I feel we are all used to the altitude now. This morning we rode about 10 kilometer on our bikes, and none of us was out of breath. My heartbeat was a bit higher than normal, but nothing to worry about. It seems we are ready for the trip!

The strangest thing about Lhasa is the weather, probably because the city is located so high in the mountains. It can change completely within an hour, and that has happened a few times in the past days. Yesterday is a good example, when we woke up it was cloudy but dry. Soon after it started to rain a bit, and that turned into light snow around 10 AM. Within 20 minutes the snow actually became quite heavy, and it was freezing cold outside. Then at around 12, when we just finished our finished our visit to the Potala, the snow stopped and the clouds started to break. Within an hour the temperature had risen to over 20 degrees! Later in the afternoon it became even warmer and we had drinks at a rooftop bar in the old town. At night after dinner when we wanted to take a taxi back to the hotel, it suddenly was very cold again and it started raining. The whole day there was hardly any wind, but while waiting for the taxi the wind suddenly picked up. Today it’s sunny again, but windy, and about 13 degrees. But the weather forecast that we received this morning said it would snow again. Strange weather.

Today is my last day in Shanghai before we are off to Tibet. Sean, one of our camera men, is now interviewing some of the Spill Group and Zlong staff for the documentary that they will make about the trip. It will be a surprise for me what they will say about my trip, I will find out when the documentary is finished.

Today is extremely busy in the office, so I don’t have much time to think about what we will be facing in Tibet. On the one hand I really look forward to it, but on the other hand it is a bit scary. Yesterday an experienced biker told us that we don’t have enough time in Lhasa to acclimatize, so likely we will get quite sick. He did not think we would make it. Well, that motivates me to show that we can do it.

My biggest fear right now is the altitude. I have never been so high up in the mountains, and I don’t know how my body will cope with that. I feel I am in a good shape, but that can change very rapidly if the lack of oxygen kicks in. Altitude is something you cannot prepare for, so we will find out soon what will happen.

The next post will likely be from Tibet. In case I don’t have an internet connection it might even be from Kathmandu or worst case when we are back in China around May 17th. Tibet, here we come!