After much discussion, we still decided to go for the Base Camp. We first had to leave Lhasa and drive to the second largest city Tibetan Shigatse first. Shigatse is at 3950m. And the night we arrived in Shigatse, Alex had a huge headache. We were not sure if it was caused by his migrant or altitude sickness. So we ran to a local Chinese medical clinic looking for help. After carefully examining Alex, the doctor said he needs some acupuncture treatment! Oh my god, I had to watch the doctor putting 4 huge needles onto Alex's head! Alex was clam about it, but I was quite freaked out. Also at the clinic, we equipped us with medicine and oxygen tanks to be fully equipped for the next day.After one night of rest, Alex was feeling better, so we left Marco behind, and went with our guide to the base camp. The drive was long, and after several hours, the paved road disappeared and we were driving on the dirt road, making huge S turns to climb up and down the mountains. We were worried because our driver had to drive for 16 hours continuously that day!
When we finally approached the base camp, it looked quite cloudy and we were warned that we should be prepared not being able to see Mount Everest. Just when we were getting discouraged, suddenly a hole in the cloud showed up, and through the hole, we were able to see the peak of Mount Everest very clearly, for about 10 minutes! We were excited, and stepped outside of the car to take pictures of this rare view!
When we finally reached the base camp, the cloud closed up, and we were never able to see Mount Everest again.
The base camp was very simply set up. A few tanks were around to provide food and lodging for all the mountain climbs. And occasionally, you can see local Tibetans coming up and down the camp in truck to provide suppliers. While we stayed at the camp, I had a headache, and used the oxygen tank to help breathing. We stayed in the camp briefly for lunch, and left to return to Shigatse in the afternoon.
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