Back in Nepal

Tuesday 28th May 2013 – having rested in Zangmu (China) overnight we were driven down to Friendship Bridge this morning. We walked the final bit down the road to the bridge and border crossing.

As we walked down we saw our expedition equipment and luggage being off-loaded from the trucks and being given over to locals for being portered through customs and across the bridge to Nepal. Once portered across the border all of the expedition equipment and our luggage had to be loaded into Nepalese trucks.

We entered the Chinese border control building at Friendship Bridge only to escape at the other end (about 50m away being processed in a linear manner) some 2 hours later. There were queues for the passport and visa checks, then they x-rayed the bags we had on us and then there was a final passport check before leaving the building. We had almost got through within 90 minutes but there was a power failure and the Chinese officials wouldn’t process us manually so we had to wait for power to be restored before leaving the country and crossing the bridge into Nepal.

Things were much simpler in Nepal. We walked across the line on the bridge designating the border and we went into a tea room in Nepal. Here we had some refreshment and filled in our paperwork for entry to the country. One of our Sherpas then took $25, our passport, a passport photo and our paperwork from each of us and he sorted out our entry into Nepal with the immigration officials.

It was strange getting an entry permit to a country when you are already in it drinking some Coca Cola. When the Sherpa returned we left the tea room and walked to a Nepalese bus that was waiting for us. We walked past a truck being loaded with our expedition equipment and luggage. Hopefully I’ll see my kit again at some point.

We started the bus journey and immediately two major differences were apparent. In Nepal they drive on the correct side of the road (left) and the quality of the roads were significantly worse. In China we had been driven rapidly along high quality tarmac roads which had been carved into the mountainsides. In Nepal the speed of driving was significantly reduced and felt quite leisurely/relaxed.

We proceeded along the dirt track roads and as we got closer to Kathmandu the roads improved. We stopped only for lunch and the multiple police/military checkpoints.

We are now back in Kathmandu. The journey back from Everest Base Camp has gone more smoothly than expected – I have heard of people having delays of more than a week doing the same journey due to landslides closing the road, however we have got back before the monsoon season has started.

It is strange being back in a busy noisy city with lots of traffic and pollution, but it is all part of the journey home. The adventure is not over till I get home – keep following the adventure.