BC - A Cultural Injection

I never thought I’d have the opportunity to model a Chinese military jacket in a Tibetan teahouse at the foot of Mount Everest but that’s just what I found myself doing today as I stood in the centre of the cosy and well-insulated teahouse aptly named, “Sunrise Hotel”.

Matt D, Max, Brendan and I decided on a change of scenery for the day and joined Dan Mazur, the MD of ‘Summit Climb’ as well as ‘Big Gav’, our 6'8" 'subtle' Australian coal-miner, for the 4km stroll down to the tea houses. The tea houses are a small ‘village’ of small yak-huts set up to sell their wares to tourists (fossils and precious stones from the mountain) and also to provide a source of entertainment to the Sherpas.

What had originally started as a quick stroll down to the teahouses soon evolved into a full-day outing as we lounged and relaxed in the comfort of the teahouse. The ‘café’ is actually a large tent made of strips of yak wool. It could comfortably house about 40 people but we had it practically to ourselves today. The inside perimeter of the tent is lined by log benches covered in elaborately colored and woven Tibetan rugs and pillows with a mountain of duvets stretching from floor to ceiling in the corner of the room. It was extremely comfortable and warm. The change of scenery from life at Basecamp was a very welcome treat. It was also fascinating to hear Dan Mazur’s insights and experience as he’s been travelling around Tibet, Nepal and Everest region for years and runs a successful mountaineering company.

Our hosts for the day were two Tibetan girls who spoke very little English. Fortunately Dan is well versed in Chinese and was able to order lunch and several rounds of drinks as the large cast-iron stove occupying centre of the room was stuffed full of sheep dung and juniper. The room quickly warmed up and I struggled to stay awake…

Mid-way through the afternoon one of Dan’s sherpas came in and started modelling a gorgeous wool Chinese military jacket. It took little persuasion for Max and I to try on the other two jackets and soon a fashion show and photo-shoot was underway. We dined on super-spicy undercooked potatoes (served as fries) and a ‘hot pot’ of ramen noodles. It was an extremely enjoyable and relaxing afternoon and I found it difficult to tear myself from the comfort of the fire.

On the walk back to camp Gav gave us a cultural injection - a tour of the old Rombok monastery. The run-down looking stone building, resembling an old red-brick fortress built into the rock, was a bit of a hike up and left me huffing and puffing. It was well worth the hike up and well worth the effort. We were met by the lama who gave us a quick tour of the ancient looking building and rather sparse surroundings. It was very basic with a few shelves built out of rock depicting photos of lamas of years gone by and some offerings of money left by other passing guests. Even the stones were polished with age and with wear… The lama put his finger to his lips and led us to a trap door in the floor. This was where lamas used to hide from the Chinese during the initial invasion of Tibet when patrols came through. We slipped through the trap door and found ourselves in a small room with a low ceiling - almost cave-like - also full of Buddhist images and photos of past lamas and offerings.

I’m not sure how long the lamas stayed hidden in the cave but I found myself getting claustrophobic after a few minutes and was happy to be out and in the wind again as we continued our walk back up to Basecamp. I can tell that my body still isn’t’ 100% as I really struggled with the walk back to Camp. It was blowing a gale and was such a relief to roll into base camp at 5pm.