We left Lhasa on a cold dark morning. In the Landcruiser were myself, 2 British guys and a British girl, plus a guide AND a driver. The Chinese Government certainly have this deal sorted out. They make it illegal to use any tour agency other than the Government run FIT travel (zippy name huh?), so they can charge as much as they want. What a cunning scheme! And what's more, the travel agents all double as government inspectors with the power to fine unauthorised drivers!

So, having had our wallets comprehensively raped courtesy of the Chinese Government (oh, and accomodation, food, yaks, and permits for everest are not included), we put on our tired, fixed grins, and off we went, headed for the border with Nepal.

The first stop was Gyantse, an ancient fortress town. This time we could stop harping on about the Chinese messing up tibet, because this time it was the BRITISH who attacked this fortress. Yes, Sir Francis Younghusband led an expedition in 1904 to establish links with Lhasa. He used rather brutal techniques at times (the battles were a bloodbath because only one side had guns) but all the British wanted was to establish a buffer zone between British India and the two northern powers of Russia and China. The expedition even laid a telegraph line all the way from India, across the Himalayas, as they went. Apparently it was still there when the Chinese invaded!

The fortress was in fairly decent shape considering. 2 of us decided that we had had enough of paying extortionate site entrance fees (all the money goes to Beijing) and so began an elaborate cat and mouse game as we tried to sneak into the fortress, thus re-enacting the British invasion of a hundred years ago...

Another day's driving later (accompanied, bizarrely, by Michael Jackson, very definitely our driver's favourite artist) and we were in Shigatse. Dominating the town is the ruins of the palace that once stood there. Like a smaller version of the Potala, this grand building was destroyed by, you guessed it, the Chinese. See a photo of it in Return to Tibet. This town also has a massive walled monastery, almost a town within a town. Here is the seat of the Panchen Lama, whom the Chinese backed for many years, educating him in China, and supporting him as the rightful leader of Tibet. Shigatse is one monastery which is in surprisingly good nick. Funny that.

Our last evening in civilisation was spent in Tingri. I use the term "civilisation" quite loosely here; we are talking about a restaurant where they cook the food on a fire of dried yak's dung, where they have oxygen on the menu, and people wander in and out carrying skinned goat's carcasses.

For 4 days we trekked through the mountains, seeing not a single westerner and only a handful of people en route. Our companions were the guide and horse driver, the occasional villager, plus quite a few marmots, mouse hares and gazelles. When we finally caught sight of Everest, it really took our breath away. 30 km distant, it seems a lot closer due to the sheer size of the thing, and stays illuminated by the evening sun long after the valley is in darkness.

Camping at base camp is quite an experience. Aside from the biting cold at night, and the icy wind, there is the altitude. We were pretty well acclimatized having been at 4 - 5000 m for 2 weeks, but up there you get out of breath just getting dressed. Even drinking a glass of water leaves you gasping for breath!

We were quite glad then to lose altitude. The next day's driving took us from 5250m to just 2000m at the Nepali border. The winding road down the canyon would have been great on a mountain bike - the worlds' longest downhill apparently!

After China, nepal seems like the promised land. Shops.......................