Saturday, June 05, 2004

great nothingness, vast insomnia

up here, everything is so vast and empty... this is the most beautiful place i've ever been. it's disorientating. up here there is no sense of perspective. mountains that seem an hour's walk turn out to be days away...



it's not hard to see why buddhism caught on up here: that great emptiness is all around you. just being here is humbling, intoxicating. endless mountains, grasslands, not even snow, it takes your breath away.... or maybe it's just the altitude sickness...



up from katmandu over the chinese border and through the high passes into tibet must be one of the most rapid climbs in the world: almost 3000m in a day. at least a little altitude sickness is a given. i drink about 5 litres of water a day, and still seem to be urinating even more than that. just walking up a flight of stairs is enough to knock the wind out of you, and even lying in bed at night, sleepless at this height, my breathing is laboured and uncomfortable.

this vast nothingness. in the middle of the night, walking to the toilet one breath at a time. who am i? dont know.....

Posted by Andrew Wallace @ 3:42 PM  0 comments links to this post  

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Friendship

I'm sure the angry guard on the 'Friendship Bridge' who charged at me screaming 'NO PHOTO! NO PHOTO!' had no idea of the irony of what he was doing.



Crossing the Friendship Bridge from Nepal into Tibet, you can feel the atmosphere change straight away: the tension just hangs in the air. Our Tibetan guide looks edgy as he herds us into our convey of 4WDs and takes us up to the immigration office perched precariously and rather authoritatively up on the mountain-side above the crossing.

Posted by Andrew Wallace @ 6:48 PM  0 comments links to this post