On the edge of Eurasia. From Novosibirsk to Malaysia on SUVs. Part V/2. China. From Ali to Lhasa

Part 5/2. China. Ali To Lhasa.
The Mystical Kailash. At the foot of Everest. In the capital of Tibet. We have problems again.
Part I. Kazakhstan
Part II.Uzbekistan
Part III.Tajikistan
Part IV.Kyrgyzstan
Part V/1. China
Our documents do arrive by plane. Now, this is daddy, which was a lot of problems. We are all charged with a total positive. Today we're going to the Mecca of the esoteric, to mount Kailash.
Mysterious mountain is seen at a great distance. Majestic, incredible, with snow top.

How many times have I imagined, and here you see her in person. A few years ago kaylas partially be able to get around by car. But since then a lot has changed. The Chinese understand that the pilgrims going to make a Kora around Kailash is a wonderful source of earnings. Near the village of Darchen, located at the foot of the mountain and sell tickets. Without them access to kaylas not. By purchasing tickets we can only get to Darchen. Then a small bus until the beginning of the journey around the mountain.
Darchen is a typical beggar Chinese village.
The stores are full of bright names in English. Everyone is trying to do business on the tourists. The hotels are also more like a guesthouse. On the mountain we get closer to the evening. Amazing place, amazing strength.
It is a pity that we have little time. And the Chinese government turned the Kailash in Disneyland. However, you can accumulate large piles of debris that no one cleans. So it turns out that each of us disperses his way. We all go in different directions. We rise from the Bones to the monastery. He was close, but you have to go uphill. A colorful inhabitant of Tibet poses us with great pleasure. Little Tibetan grabs my finger and never wants to let go.

It's a small world. This rule is confirmed again. During our trip "Roads of BAM" in 2011, circling the lake Baikal we find Latvians, that really make the feat. From Latvia to lake Baikal and drive two SUVs. One of the SUVs is a Russian UAZ, which in itself sounds like a threat. Meet, swap t-shirts and later are in social networks. This winter, when the travel preparations were in full swing, I see the "tweet" one of the familiar inhabitants of Latvia about the expedition "Asia 2013". Read and understand: our 60 days is not so much. Team of Latvians and Petrograd plans its Asian ring duration is 120 days. A large-scale.

What is very important part of the route, in particular the Kashgar-Lhasa we have a match.
The only difference is that the guys moving from the East to the West, and we from West to East. Pre-arrange to meet somewhere along the way. After daily adjustments already during the trip our plans coincide: occur at the foot of Kailash to Darchen.
The guys meet after Kailas. Can you talk endlessly, not every day it happens. We only interrupts the disabling of diesel generator in 24-00. The next morning we meet the teams at full strength.
Guys, of course, came the monsters. Particularly impressive is the Dodge RAM, just a tank on wheels.

Make a picture of the iron horses.

It was very pleasant to talk to and we'd love to stay for a few days, but because of the lost weeks need to hurry.
Joint Breakfast in the cafe was fun. Suddenly discovered that the menu has a ...Russian language. Looks like the guys translating the menu, very fun, calling one of the dishes "a Pesticide with the untranslatable title" ;-)
By the way today, July 31. A beautiful Sunny day. No wonder I was born today. We have another live airing. It turns out a spectacular combination: we are at the foot of Kailas, the day of my birth, I live in Novosibirsk radio. I congratulated the presenter and even puts a song on my desire. Here's globalization. We're making a congratulations video here in Darchen, and at the same time in the Studio of radio "KP" we are shooting a presenter. I will try this time to insert in our film.
We heard about the lake Manasarovar. This sacred lake is located almost opposite Kailas.
However there entry fee. This finally brings us out of balance, and we are fundamentally looking for free the road. Being dodged several miles through the bushes and sand dunes, we reached the shore of the lake. Sorry, of course that the first tens of meters of not very clean water. The soft rock on the shore, it erodes and water, as a consequence, it becomes cloudy. The lake looks impressive.

In General, it's a beautiful day! Bright blue sky, fluffy clouds that stretch to the ground.
Blue and blue lakes sparkle in the sun and darken when above them the dark clouds.
Yaks, goats, animals whose names we did not know. There are real sand dunes.

It is unclear how they got here, but we rush on him, like little children.

Suddenly the highway ends. It seems the builders are not until the end did the right thing.

Happy and successful day ends in the village of Saga. The locals were willing to "photo contact".

Tomorrow is no less important goal: the foot of the highest peaks in the world, mount Everest.
The road from Saga to Everest rich. Meet jars: women of age, wearing plastic water containers behind.Finally imbued with the spirit and traditions of Tibet, stopping in a small village.

Traditionally, we call the interest of local residents.

The road to Everest is the quintessence of Chinese typical of today's mentality: the important thing is to take the money, and it does not matter. Collect the last yuan, pay for entrance to the road leading to the Everest

And we pay not enough. Honey is a good trial: terrain, deep puddles, sometimes clay, barely alive, bridges, bumpy gravel.

Meet young local girls, they have something to gain in the basket. Camera-shy, hiding his face and eyes. A few hours later, we see the peaks of the Himalayan range .
And...Everest.

As it's called again, Chomolungma or Sagarmatha. Majestic sight. Freeze and review... Overcome a few tough hours of gravel fall to the bottom. It's dark, we stay in a regular hotel. Very, very cold. The outside temperature barely above zero, the heating in the hotel there. We are at an altitude of about 5000 m.
Photographing Everest need in the early morning. At 7 o'clock a few dozen Chinese tourists armed with off the mountain.
After a couple of hours it will begin to cling to the clouds and clean beautiful pictures will not work. We managed to enjoy shining in the sun top.
From the hotel to the place of contemplation of the mountains with a bus. After 10 minutes we are on the lookout now. From the mound has a beautiful view of the mountain. I thought we might stand there forever.
The head does not fit: I'm on my car made it to Everest?

In this part of Tibet road no one seems repaired.

Move very, very slowly. Ahead of the pass. The lift it lasted half an hour. Drop more than a kilometer. An endless winding ribbon of road.

Looks like we're between heaven and earth. Right at the cloud level.
We also went down for about an hour. We go to the capital of Tibet, Lhasa.
Toyota starts to behave weird: it works intermittently, the exhaust is white, then black. Trying to figure out what it is. In the area of Shigatse, about midnight the car finally gets up. Not working even on idle. An hour later, after analysis of the fuel system make the decision to exclude a separator, as there is a suspicion that through it is the air leak. The way it is, the crack in the flask separator gave such a problem. The "unnecessary" part is thrown out and we quickly rushing to the capital of Tibet Autonomous region.
We definitely need to be there today. Four participants have already arrived in Lhasa. Our team needs to disconnect the two and fly back to Novosibirsk. Arrive in Lhasa at 6 am.
After a three-hour sleep, going to the center. Today the inspection of the Potala. This former residence of the Dalai Lama. Very large building on a hill in the city centre.

It is a pity that the Chinese and the place turned into Disneyland. It is seen that the place is still very highly esteemed by believers. Many go fiddling with prayer wheels and rosary beads.
What is organized inside is really reminiscent of attraction. Need to go in order to stay for a long time and not even have the limit at a time. Allowed only on passports. Fortunately, we all look the same and are a couple of people to hold foreign passports. Seen is impressive.
Taking pictures inside is impossible, but I do manage to take some pictures. Everywhere there are surveillance cameras, so the camera has to hide at the time of photography.
To visit this place.
Finally after watching the beauty, you can relax and sleep. Fatigue accumulated a decent. Mobile phones turned off. Silence. It seems that it was the most heavenly moment after two weeks of hard adventure. Now I close my eyes and nothing won't bother me... the Next week and a half will be a relaxed, leisurely drive through the tropical province of Yunnan. No deserts, dizzying heights, sleeping in one-star hotels. Beautiful nature and civilization. With these pleasant thoughts I fall into a deep, long awaited sleep...
If everything was so easy as I imagined it, then according to the chosen route would flow streams of the campers. But this is China, everything is unpredictable here. And we are not looking for easy ways. After an hour, I awaken to the trill of the hotel phone. On a wire, Ali, to whom I indignantly explained that he had asked you not to disturb me. "But Alex, we got a problem" timidly begins Ali. Finally, and already a few days passed, and still no problems. 10 minutes later I, being half asleep, looking at a map of China and try to assess the gravity of the situation. It turns out that two days ago, on highway G-214 runs through the Yunnan mudslide washes away the bridge. The movement on this site is completely stopped. And this is the route that was agreed with the authorities. We can increase our route a few hundred miles and go round the other way. Because this detour through the territory of Tibet, it will require the consent of the authorities of Tibet, and given the fact that tomorrow is weekend and holidays, may take a week. The result is not guaranteed. There is another option: we head North to the town of Golmud and then big hook round Tibet, via the Sichuan fall into Yunnan. The advantages of this solution is that we leave Tibet and we don't need to agree on the route. The downside is that this hook gives us a 2000 km journey. Looks like we have no special. Stop the idea with a big hook. We have a cool journey, and we don't need the best, we need to saucats.
But today we are in Lhasa we will enjoy this town.

In my view Lhasa was supposed to be a small, historic town, awash with harsh and suspicious police. Foreigners are treated with suspicion and at any moment can be arrested. In reality all a little differently. Lhasa is big enough (population one and a half million), the most beautiful and modern city on our way. Very colorful, rich. Just don't want to leave. It's so real Tibetan, beautiful, interesting. Large wide streets, shopping malls, supermarkets, luxury hotels, harmonious architecture, restaurants, with numerous cultural monuments and monasteries.

In General, the dream of the traveler. The next day the male part of the busy maintenance iron horses, they are, after all, ran for 10000 km. All that can be replaced, cleaned, podvarennoe. We are ready for another spurt. Loved the restaurant "Dunya" where we could try local culinary delights made in the European manner. The restaurant is owned by a Dutch family. The best impressions of this city. I hope we will be back here.
And we start moving on unknown roads. It will be very, very hard. We're coming around.
To be continued...

The third series of the film "the end of Eurasia 2013". China: Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan.