Everest from the Air - click for HUGE image

Potala Palace Lhasa, Tibet

Fly Ktm – Lhasa
2 April 2005    GPS-pos: °' | °' | Alt: 0 M
Spectacular views of Everest from the window of the China Air flight which took us between the Summits of Everest and Makalu. Everest stands out above the dry plains and lesser peaks as not just a high peak but an enormous massif dominating the Himalayan range.
Our group of 35 westerners requires 2 buses and 3 jeeps to transport us to the city some 2 hours away. The time it takes to move 35 people from the terminal into the vehicles and then into rooms can be a little frustrating but it is also fun with a such a big group to descend on a restaurant for lunch or dinner.
Arriving into Lhasa to fresh snow on the mountains and a definite chill in the thin air was a stark contrast to the warmth of the lower Kathmandu. The Han Chinese influence noticeably stronger still since my last visit, the old Tibetan streets dirty and dusty being overpowered by the clean well organised concrete of the Chinese. Our hotel was actually the CTMA (Chinese Tibet Mountaineering Association) training school and was way out the back, new, clean and with a huge 40-50m high climbing wall in the grounds. Mind you no one could manage two steps at a time, let alone a overhanging climbing wall in the rarefied atmosphere. We rested the remainder of the day, drinking water and lying down.