This is our last night in Lhasa and the 1st and last opportunity prior to hitting the road to Xigatse tomorrow for me to get a dispatch off. So here's the news so far.

27/3
An uneventful 20hr journey to Kathmandu via Bangkok was only notable for an excellent Cafe Latte in Thai International Airport whilst watching missile strikes in Iraq but to a sound track of Robbie Williams "I will entertain you"! Its a weird world.

28/3
Meeting up with Russ (our expedition leader) was great and together with Mark Whettu (a high altitude cameraman) we reminisced about the last time we climbed together which was on Mt Everest in 2000 when as many of you will recall we got our butts kicked in extreme weather. Needless to say much of the memories needed to be jogged with copies applications of Nepali beer.

29/3
Most of the rest of the team arrived today.

Gernot - German and judging from the camera gear destined to become the teams photographer.

Zeddy - Kuwaiti and if you can imagine an arabian Eddie Murphy you'd be spot on.

Sue - Aussie - A professional trekking leader from Sydney - hard as nails.

Hermann - German - our expedition leader and experienced on technical mountains all over europe and some of the worlds largest peaks.

Trynt (Trent) - American - (the other girl on the team in case you were wondering) - a professional fire fighter and para-medic.

Chung - Hong Kong - a quiet eastern gentlemen who I climbed with in 2000

Matt - American - but based in Angola running an oil business.

We are also joined by supporting members: Andy and Laura and another Tony. Later on in the expedition there will be other trekkers coming through Base Camp and also a few that will attempt to go as far as the North Col.

30/3 - 31/3
The next couple of days will be spent unpacking personal gear and repacking it for overland transport in two 5 tonne 4x4's whilst the team flies up to Lhasa to begin our approach and acclimatisation.
In addition to sorting out the 11 or so tonnes of equipment there is time to take a look around Kathmandu and check out the colours, smells, sights and sounds that make up the extraordinary Nepali culture.
Buddhist temples side by side with internet cafes and lingering images of 60's hippies is a heady cocktail. We witness the sacrificing of a buffalo in Durbar Square. It gets dragged up three floors of a temple whilst trussed on its back and making its displeasure known before having its head chopped off and being dragged down again with somewhat less fuss ready to be barbequed (there's probably a religous term for it but it looked like a barbie to me).

1/4 - 2/4 - 3/4
The team transfer to Lhasa and good weather gives us a glimpse of Mount Everest as we fly past at roughly summit height and some 50kms to the east. She's looking fine and more to the point Black, ie. little snow cover. Unlikely it will stay that way but at least what ever drops will not be on a consolidated base.
Arrival in Lhasa is our first step in acclimatisation and immediately brings home the serious impact and requirement to do it slowly. Resting pulse rates have jumped to 95 and breath rates are up by 1.5. Lhasa is at 3600m and given our end objective of 8850m is a significant slice of altitude. In fact recommended rates of height gain would be of the order of 300m a day and so this jump is uncomfortable. Most folk suffer head aches and some will be nauseous. A couple at least require Diamox treatment. But we've got a couple of days here to settle before heading for Xigatse.
With little to do but let our bodies settle down, its a chance for the team to get to know each other better and share the horror stories of immediate on set of travellers tummies (and it gets most of us).

On Wednesday we visit the Potala - the spiritual centre of Tibet - a monastery on a hilltop in the centre of Lhasa. The former winter palace of the Dalai Lhama and built in the 7th century by the 5th Dalai Lhama its a spectacular "wedding cake" of a monasatery with layers stacked a couple of hundred feet up.

On Thursday a visit was arranged to Sera. One of the largest working monasteries in the world. Although we will get silk tara's (scalf) and red strings blessed by the Rimpoche of Rongbuk monastery we think an extra blessing will not go amiss and so this is arranged and we all are given knotted red strings to wear that have been blessed. We were also fortunate enough to be there while the monks were practising their debating and preaching skills. This involves an open air gathering of several hundred burgundy and saffron robed monks having heated philosphical debates in pairs whilst wildly gesticulating all the more to emphasise the point being made.

Ok, thats about it. On the whole the team's in good shape. Most are improving on the bad heads of altitude sickness and those that have had Delhi bellie have exploded small nuclear devices in their guts to anihilate the bugs. But its going to hurt again in 24hrs because Xigatse is at 4500m another 1000m height gain. We'll stay their a couple of days before moving on to Tingri.
In Tingri we'll meet up with the 5 Tonners which have come in from the west and after a couple of days there acclimatising at 4800m, we'll head in to Base Camp.
Base Camp will be the next time I get to dispatch and once established there the output should be slightly less bulky and hopfully a little more frequent.

Regards
Tony Kelly
Lhasa, Tibet
03/04/03