Zhãngmù border with Nepal

Sadly we had to leave the special place of Mount Everest. Our route took us over more stunning mountain scenery with several more stops for breaks and photos along the way. Again we were playing leapfrog with the people we knew in the other cars on the dirt-track mountain roads and it was nice to meet up with them again when we stopped. This then took us over the Gyatso-la pass, some 5,050 metres high with beautiful views of the Himalayas and a spectacular view of Mt Shishapangma (8012m) in the distance. Our heads started to become sore again as anything over 4,600 metres seems to start the head aches off again. We were glad when we started off again heading south and going down. And down we went...! Eventually we came to a town where we stopped for lunch and the road became tarmac again. There were more stunning views on the road down the mountain side as the road weaved through the gorges with a river running wild in the valley. We finally reached a small town of Nyalam, crossing a bridge we saw two ladies, who appeared to be rubbish collecting ladies. But the two ladies were emptying their rubbish bin directly over the side of the bridge and all the rubbish was going directly in to the river below, OMG what are they doing? From the town of Nyalam the roads climbed around the edge of the george with drops down the side reaching so far down you could not see the bottom. We estimate at least 1,000 ft! To make it worse, all along the road in some places the crash barriers were broken where some vehicle had gone over the side it was not nice to think about. We stopped by a bridge covered in flags and could see the old road, a gravel thin road much more dangerous than the one we were on. Our driver decided to drink some red bull, okay this means he’ll be more alert or was it that he was feeling tired. As we got lower the clouds came in too and the effect was as if it was raining in heavy fog; all we could think about was please driver slow down. Oh buggers, our 4x4 had tyres that needed serious attention as a number of them where bald. Bald tyres are okay when it is dry but as soon as it becomes wet they are like ice skates and being on the side of a mountain with a drop so large it ran wild thoughts through our head. By now the driver was heading further down the valley, using not only his side of the road but the other side too, we could see more barriers broken, and in places just no barriers what so ever. The red bull had started to kick in and the driver was getting faster and faster, the rain was getting harder and to roads even more treacherous. We both started to get more frightened as the time went on and finally we could stand it no more and asked our guide to tell the driver to slow down. He laughed and said to us he is a very skilful driver and we should not worry. We weren’t taking that so we insisted again, this time he did. The road then changed to a more cobbled road and no barriers. This time more lorries appeared to be parked on the side of the road and before long we entered in to Zhãngmù a town perched on the side of the mountain with drops you just don’t want to think about. We arrived at our hotel and although our guide said the room would cost 220 Yuan (£22), we managed to get a room for 70 Yuan. No shower and a shared toilet, but it was only for one night. I think this is now night 3 without a shower! The next morning a 15 minute drive further down the valley we arrived at the border crossing. The Chinese border crossing opened at 10am, so a little wait outside and at 10am the doors opened and we entered the customs hall. Permits checked, again, this must have been the 20th time since we had entered Tibet, then luggage inspection. The guards were only looking for paper work and books, funny we thought, but we found out later that they were looking for any material on the Dali Lama and removing anything they found as they wanted nothing that promoted him leaving the country. Our passports stamped and on to the friendship bridge, at last out of the Chinese rule and in to what we would soon find out to be a much different country. We couldn’t wait! Sherpa Hotel Room rating: 2/10 bed not comfortable, room not clean Location: ?/10 - who cares? it was just a stop over Staff: 3/10 - ok Value for Money: 4/10 - £3.50 per night each Other comments: would never have stayed if given a choice Stay again? never Overall area experience: 2/10 indifferent really - it was just a stopover, we never saw any of the town.