EASTBOUND: Cruising the Friendship Highway

The 865km stretch of road between Lhasa and Kathmandu is known as the Friendship highway. The journey is spectacular! Starting at an altitude of 3450m, the road climbs, drops, climbs and drops crossing many passes (Kamba-la (4700m), Simu-la (4280m), Tropu-la (4500m), Gyatso-la (5100m), Pang-la (5050m), Lamna-la (5050m), La Lung-la (4845m) and Tong-la (4950m)....and yes, "la" means pass), you come across holy deep turquoise lake Yamdrok-tso, numerous monasteries of the different orders, small villages and Chinese checkpoints. Along the way you see bikers, cows, eagles, cyclists, prostrating monks, little old ladies walking with heavy loads on their heads, Tibetan farmers and some but not that many Westerners. No matter the altitude, the landscape is dotted with yaks (black) and sheep (white). Even in the most isolated places you encounter nomads with their cattle and tents. The summits of the mountains are decorated with prayerflags, most of them torn by the wind and bleached by the sun. Every Tibetan bus, car or motorcycle that reaches a summit throws colourful little papers with prayers in the air. The landscape is at its best in the Everest region. When the sky is clear, you see the full Himalayan range with 14 peaks over 8000m (ok not sure whether you can see them all, but many..) Everest and Cho Oyu stand out. About 30km from border town Zhangmu, Tibet seems to kick you off the Tibetan platform. The road drops like a stone and after the dry landscape of Tibet you find yourself in a fairytale like lush deepgorge of evergreen forest, with dozens of waterfalls that drop over 200, maybe 300m. The road is submerged in a sea of cloud...luckily the driver cannot go fast as the road is full of goats (also on their way to the border). And then, accross the Friendship bridge, there lies Nepal. Bye bye Tibet.

Memorable "on the road" experiences:

- Gyantse: hot showers, yak butter tea for breakfast (yammie, pure liquid butter) being stared at as never before, "hip" youngsters and last but not least restaurant of Zhuang Yuan (you'll find yourself in the hutongs of Beijing again, delicious Chinese food - especially the chicken flambee)

- Shigatse: big fight with guide over pretty much everything (not leaving in time, dirty hotel room etc.), 42 yuan (around 4 euro) lattes and best kora (pilgrim circuit around monastery) of Tibet.

- Lhatse: one ugly deserted street so wrong call (should have stayed in Sakya), (once again cold showers, but some quality time with bottle of Great Wall and great, but sad book about conflict between China and Tibet (read: Murder in the Himalaya)

- Basecamp: DIRTY toilets (OMG), no showers, fun Swedish and British couple, after long hike at 5200m stopped by Chinese soldiers cause guide did not join and sooooooo many stars - the milky way is amazing.

- Tingri: never make stop here!

- Zhangmu: one big traffic jam (guys, if the road is so narrow, do not allow trucks to park there!), overpriced fun on Great Wall wine in the local disco with the guide (who appeared to smoke marihuana all the time (Chinese police officers do not know what it is) and (used to) be a member of a Nepalese much feared gang...) and again no shower...

- surviving on Chocolate pie, lots of 600ml bottles of Lhasa beer and last resort sweet Chinese Great Wall wine...

- fun markets selling blenders to mix the buttertea and waterproof watches (they sell them out of a bucket of water to prove this)...

- the smell of yakyakyakyak (both the dead meat as the butter)! Hope my backpack will lose it...

- and last, sadly enough, the Chinese oppression of the Tibetans. The Tibetans are very careful what to tell or not to tell as there are Chinese spies everwhere. Still you get to know quite some stories. Also from Westerners whose Lonely Planet was confiscated because of the preface by the 14th Dalai Lama. You can see that the Chinese authorities, guides and tourists disrespect the Tibetans ( and vice versa). Once you start reading about and researching the topic, you are amazed what has been and is going on since the "liberation" in 1951. Despite heavy Chinese propaganda, the West knows what is happening but hardly acts. Once back, feel obliged to buy a Marc Jacobs' "Free Tibet" t-shirt...