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Attitude Sickness - Part 2

THE CAR'S THE STAR

For some days Double Dutch had made it plain that they intended to leave Tibet for Kathmandhu as soon as possible. The difficulty was that there was no established transport to Nepal and so the only way forward was hiring a car. But at anywhere between 2000-5000 kwai for a vehicle it was prohibitive unless a full compliment of passengers made the trip.

Although, unhappy to spend so much money when there was another option (which admittedly was rather risky as it was hitching) my health was suffering and I was less than enamoured by Lhasa's sino-thetic facade.

So we managed to tag a car for 700 kwai each until the guide informed us a day before our departure that the price had just gone up 300 kwai each. Remembering the time I had been too soft in Koh Phi Phi and been burned for it I chose to be defiant! I told Double Dutch that I would not pay anymore as I could not afford it - which was the truth. Furthermore, I now had the extension to my visa so I could wait for another car with more passengers and a lower price or even hitch.

I didn't really have any conviction in what I was saying as I was desperate to leave the cause of my ill health - but that didn't matter. Double Dutch knew that if I didn't come along then they would have pay my share, as the car was booked, and so they agreed to pay my portion of the increased fare.

Then in a stroke of luck we met 2 Cameroonian guys who also needed a ride to Nepal. Although one of them in the end had to stay behind to sort out some finances we were still able to lower the individual cost a little with an extra passenger.

Finally we set off and the jubilant feeling of liberation and relief was plainly evident in the 4WD. We drove for perhaps 5-6 hours whilst I slept continually with only a pause to show our passports at a provincial checkpoint.

I stepped out to urinate and was just about to when the driver shouted at me not to (having returned from showing our passports). I looked down and realised that at my feet were 3 Tibetans sleeping out in the deadly chill under blankets the colour of the anaemic dirt on which they lay. Ooops!

On we ploughed over rock and road, mountain and miles passing without interest as I still dozed. The one thing I did notice was that the further we went the better I started to feel as we descended from the roof of the world.

We stopped for lunch around 2-3pm in Shigatse and then to the disbelief of all we went to an hostel. It was the middle of the afternoon and we had only driven for about 6 hours and now we were going to stop for the day!!! We were extremely anxious and concerned to say the least. Apart from the fact that I needed to gain an entry visa at the border it was very likely that if we stopped this far from the border it may well be very late in the day when we got there.

Noone wanted to spend a night at the border...

An argument began to bubble away as we put the facts to the driver and he at first lamented over how tired he was and then suddenly could not understand English anymore. I made him phone the guide and all I reaped from that conversation was a chuckled response that if the driver was tired... well, what could be done!??!

This was starting to go very wrong. This farce in the small enclosed courtyard of the hostel was being played out because it was plain that the driver would profit with a kickback if we stayed there. Double Dutch and Sama (the Cameroonian guy) were of no help as they kept looking at me and complaining and voicing their dissent.

It was up to me. I was an actor (purportedly) and so I had to act - and fast as we had already been there for 40 minutes in this Tibetan standoff. First point I made was this - there was absolutely no way we would stay in the hostel as there was still so much of the day left to drive.

But this was old hat and the driver was disinterested.

I had to up the ante... Dammit! I was/am an actor aren't I? I am meant to be charismatic, persuasive and have a flair for the dramatic and...

Bingo!

In true De Niro Method style I repeated exactly what I had just said about not staying in the hostel but much more slowly and with as much gravitas as I could engender. The driver was still unmoved. But then came the master stroke...

ME: (looking deliberately around at each person in turn and finally staring at the driver) If we have to stay here we will sleep in the...

(with an emphatic theatrical thud against the side of the vehicle)

Car!

We paid for it. So it is ours to do what we want.

I smiled and waited. 5 seconds later the driver jumped up and told us to get in. He threw our bags in with barely concealed anger and proceeded to drive like a maniac in an attempt to hopefully give us all hernias.

But when we got to the next town and hostel, in Gyatse, 4 hours later I was still smiling.

The next morning I wasn't. I had had a tortuous night with heightened (excuse the pun) altitude sickness, diarrhoea, desperate insomnia and bitter, bitter cold. I forced my best friend, the driver, to leave earlier than we had planned. We were all exhausted and drained as we felt our way slowly back into the 4WD. It was still dark and very cold. But I didn't care I just wanted to leave this climatic prison.

Again we drove for around 6 hours but this time the scenery rapidly changed as we came ever closer to Nepal. Dust and barren rock gave way to lush foliage and verdant slopes occasionally gashed by a vigorous waterfall or fast flowing stream.

Then finally we were at the line where Tibet ended and Nepal began. As we crossed I hoped that my traumatic visit to the roof of the world would become just another anecdote to bore the grandkids with. That soon enough the shudder I felt now thinking of my time there would soon just be a distant memory.

A very distant memory.

Photos / videos of "Attitude Sickness - Part 2":