ASIANOVERLAND.NET SYDNEY TO LONDON DAY 87: MOUNT EVEREST, TIBET, TO NYALAM TOWN, CHINA/NEPAL BORDER

After an overnight stay and army breakfast at the Chinese PLA camp in 1985, we drove past Mount Everest and then crossed from north to south along the western side of Mount Everest down to Nepal. The mountain passes are steep, but the downhill stretches were more dangerous than the uphill drives, as our bus slides along glacial ice downhill in neutral freefall with no lower gears used to slow down or control the bus.

We crossed around numerous landslides until we reached the first impassable landslide, so we left the bus somewhere in Tibet and started one of numerous treks with full backpacks across Himalayan landslides down to the next part of drivable “road”. We would not have bought all those Chinese and Tibetan souvenirs if we had known we would carry them across the Himalayas, but it's a hard life on the road. Some treks were about 10 kilometers, but others were shorter as we hiked along an undrivable “road” to the next part of drivable “road”, where we would hitchhike onto any “roadworthy” vehicle, usually the back of a truck.

It was a fantastic series of walks with great views of the Himalayas, especially after sunset when only the peak of Mount Everest had any sunlight on it.

Nyalam is a small town in and the county seat of Nyalam County in the Shigatse Prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region, only 35 kilometers from the Nepal border. A town of stone buildings and tin roofs, Nyalam was known as Tsongdu and was part of the historical Tsang Province of Tibet. Nepalese trans-himalayan traders called it Kuti and 'The Gate of Hell' because the old trail down to the Nepalese border was very treacherous. We can vouch for 'The Gate of Hell' part. But it was also tantric, with heaven and hell two sides of the same coin (or thangka).

We even managed to find accommodation one night in a slaughterhouse, where our wooden plank “beds” were separated from the slaughtered yaks by a blanket hanging between the “beds” and the hanging meat carcases. Luxury!!

The next day after the slaughterhouse "hotel", we would trek then catch a lift in the back of a truck; then trek again; then catch another lift in the back of a truck; then take a photo ….

South of Nyalam the “road” drops abruptly through the gorge of the Matsang Tsangpo (Bhotekoshi River), which is the main upper tributary of the Sun Kosi in Nepal. 

Nyalam is 3,750 metres above sea level, so we started to breathe a little easier, the closer we walked downhill towards the Nepal border. Only a short series of treks to the Nepal border for 35 kilometers with our full backpacks on, and the good news is that most of it was downhill!!

Finally, we saw a town with a red flag flying over it, the China/Nepal border, at Zhangmu town in Nyalam county, Shigatse Prefecture, the point of entry to Nepal.

Our elation quickly turned to dismay at Chinese Immigration, when Corrie and I were told in no uncertain terms that we would have to return to Beijing to receive an ENTRY stamp in our passports.

When we first entered China in Beijing in 1985 five weeks earlier, looking forward to travelling through Tibet across the Himalayas to Nepal, unguided tours of individuals instead of groups were relatively unknown in China, so we mistakenly entered China without receiving an Immigration ENTRY stamp in our passports.

This omission became a major issue at Chinese Immigration on the Tibet/Nepal border, when the Chinese Immigration official insisted that the only way to rectify the omission was to return over the Himalayas (with winter setting in) and return to Beijing to receive our ENTRY stamp. The Chinese Immigration Officer said we could only depart from China after receiving the ENTRY stamp at the port of Entry, Beijing. And he didn't even believe we had entered China at Beijing - it seems that no-one else had travelled to the Tibet/Nepal border from Beijing!!

During this extremely tense Mexican (Chinese) standoff, I started to stall for time, looking for inspiration from Buddha or someone else, so I opened my backpack at the Immigration counter and started taking out my dirty laundry/clothes, as if I was looking for my missing ENTRY Stamp or divine inspiration. At the bottom of my backpack, I found a bottle of Scotch Whisky I had purchased duty-free before entering China, which miraculously was still in my backpack, unopened and forgotten during our 5 week treks through China and Tibet.

I put the bottle of Scotch Whisky on the side of the Immigration counter. The Chinese Immigration officer looked at the bottle, looked at me, and then quickly stamped our passports with his DEPARTED stamp. I grabbed our passports, didn't look at the Immigration officer or the bottle (what bottle?) and quickly left the Chinese Immigration building. Corrie and I DEPARTED from China in 1985, without ever receiving the China ENTRY stamp to prove we had entered China.

The timing turned out to be extremely fortunate, as the Himalayan weather changes quickly with winter setting in, and the next bus after ours a few days later, was stuck high in the Himalayas for three cold days and colder nights in freezing conditions, before the Himalayas were passable again.

Once across the China/Tibet border into Nepal, we found some hot natural thermal springs, where we were able to bathe for the first time in 10 days. Heaven!!

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