We began the next day with a tour of the Tashilimbo Monastery in Shigatse, home of the Panchen Lama, who is in Beijing. The many temples and stupas occupied me for an hour or so. Our guide, who up to this point had done no guiding, merely identifying mountains, telling elevations and pushing us along, claiming there is no time, had agreed to help a fellow guide by taking an abandoned French girl to the monastery. He was telling her stories, explaining and pointing out idols, and giving history lessons. I wondered why he didn't do this for us.
The highlight was a towering statue of the Buddha, looking as if it could come alive and squash a tourist at any time, if the Buddha would actually do such a thing. The monastery regulated photography by charging up to $30 to take a picture! I was content with the memories. The rest of the day was dedicated to driving. The scenery was beautiful, yet repetitive, kind of like Wyoming. At some point, the driver pulled us over and the guide pointed to the horizon. A long line of snow white peaks stood before us, my first glimpse of the great Himalayas. The guide then directed our eyes to one of the many triangles in front of me.
"Mt. Everest!" he said.
"It doesn't looks so big," I responded.
We stayed in New Tingri/Shegar. Evan, Wen, Jackie and I climbed up a nearby peak to see if we could see Everest from a closer point. We couldn't, but the views were still great. I felt good despite being at 4300m. I had a wicked headache earlier that afternoon, but I was fine after the hike. The next day was the true test, Everest Base Camp.
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