Zhangmu, Tibet

We headed out for a walk this morning to enjoy the mountain one last time… the sky was still clear for an amazing sunrise.

After tipping out some tea for our Homies we packed up and headed out. From EBC (5250m) we headed down the mountain through New Tingri on our way to the Zhangmuzhen/Kodari (China/Nepal) border (2300m). The newly opened shortcut was still a bit of a rough road and just as were thinking about how we were in the middle of nowhere, we came upon stuck tourist jeep. After piling rocks under there wheel and giving the jeep a good push we were off and watching the jeep drivers racing each other for no apparent reason other than there really wasn’t much of a clear road.

The border towns are divided by a really pretty river and waterfall which made for a great view, but that is about all. The next morning, we headed to the border where our guide Tashi showed us how to jump queue Asian style and scored us a spot right in front of the line. We are not sure if this was just his great service, or his desire to get on the road for his long drive back to Lhasa. The border crossing was a little nerve racking when a Chinese guard unpacked everything from Robin’s backpack and went through all her clothes asking her questions about where she had been! We eventually made it through without any issue and walked across a beautiful bridge into Nepal.

The Nepal side of the border scores our ‘most confusing border crossing’ award because there are no signs or anything about how to immigrate… all of a sudden we were simply walking through town. If we weren’t so cautious about getting an entry stamp we would have walked right past the place where we were supposed to pay for our tourist visa and stamp. We met up with the girls whose jeep got stuck yesterday and shared a jeep taxi (one that carried 7 passengers!) from the border to Kathmandu.