2 miles from the big E! 12/30

Up for breakfast at 8, Chinese buffet style! We (mostly Andy) had seaweed, picked cabbage, bok choy, boiled eggs, pork buns, and peanuts. I tried the Tibetan porridge which consists of dried barley, dried cheese, sugar, and yak butter tea. It wasn't bad but I just had a little due to the yak butter tea fiasco. We left by 8:45. We needed to get past two towns before 9:30 so we wouldn't have to pick up the speeding papers or the drive would have taken 9 hours. F that. 

We drove down a bit of the Friendship Highway that connects Tibet to Nepal. A sniper will pick any Tibetans off who try to flee. It's a 10 day walk from there to the Nepal border. That's how X got across when he was 9. The other way to escape is over the galcier which is a 1.5 month hike to the border. 

The drive mostly consisted of plains, hills, really cool rock formations, villages, herds of sheep, and then views of the tops of the Himalaya. We stopped at the highest monastery in the world, Rong Pu, which had the sweetest little grey kitty who Andy immediately friended and carried her around. The monastery has a cave for meditation and apparently the cats toilet (oh no don't poop on the peace scarf offerings!). There was an amazing view of Everest. Unfortunately the monastery where we were going to stay was closed since it was so windy and cold. 

Finally we made it to Everest Base Camp (Tibetan side of course)! It was amazing to be only 2 miles from the glorious mountain. It was after 3 and it was cold! From this angle is had an appearance of perfect triangular peak. The top of Everest has a constant cloud that forms from the peak and blows east when the rest of the sky is clear. X said its like an incense burner. True dat. 

We headed back and had to stop again at the military outpost. Why in the hell is there one all the way out here? A tourist put the Tibetan flag at base camp which caused shit to go down. I saw a huge armed military vehicle hidden behind the gate. Jesus. 

Back to our guest house by 7. They have the most adorable puppies! It's good to see the Tibetans treating animals well (better than Nepal). We had an amazing dinner of hand-pulled noodle soup and 2 thermoses of sweet milk tea. X asked if we wanted yak butter tea. Maybe tomorrow for lunch when we only have a couple hours back to the hotel and I can have a safe haven at the hotel the rest of the evening. Local were at the same guesthouse. The babies here have holes in their pants so they can squat and use the bathroom whenever without a diaper. The child near us took a big duce while we were eating. The mother cleaned it. Rock on. There's a huge camera in the sitting room and in the hallways. So weird you don't feel comfortable saying anything. Tonight we have heating blankets under our sheets. Boy howdy!!