Accommodation Old Tingri - The Snow Leopard

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Snow Leopard Hotel, Old Tingri

It took us a little while to find someone who spoke English at the Snow Leopard but eventually we succeeded. We were shown two twin rooms that were side by side. Sure enough they had toilets, a sink and a bath. There was also a TV and the rooms were much warmer than the ice box down the road. We instantly decided we would move to this hotel. They wanted 530 Yuan for the two rooms. We were happy enough as we couldn’t bear the thought of staying at the Amdo Guest House. We walked all the way back to Amdo, found our guide, Tiki, and told her we wanted to move to the Snow Leopard Hotel. She and the driver helped us shift our gear over there. Later, Tiki refunded us 130 Yuan for the triple room down the road. We felt the 400 Yuan difference was worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is no heating at the Snow Leopard Hotel plus we were told the shower would not be working. The power comes on at 7 p.m. The staff supplied us with huge thermoses of hot water so we could make ourselves cups of tea.

Later on as it turns out, the water in the sink was not even hot enough to wash in so we were quite glad to have thermos water to freshen ourselves up with - remember we had not been able to shower the night before!

The room was exceedingly basic but even so, it was way more comfortable than the Amdo Guest House. We couldn’t imagine why anyone would be given accommodation at Amdo when the Snow Leopard was much better. Little did we know but a trick had been played on us…..

 

Added later:  A couple of days after leaving Old Tingri we happened to look at our itinerary given to us weeks ago by Birendra. We discovered we were booked into the Snow Leopard Hotel all along, from way back. What silly fool had decided we should be fobbed off with the Amdo Guest House? No doubt we had been billed up front for the price for the "superior accommodation" at Snow Leopard too. We thought there was no point talking to Tiki about this as her English was not good at all. We would contact Birendra when we got home to ask him to take up the issue with the Chinese company who organized the tour.

 

The end of a very cold day

An icy wind started to pick up and the sky was clear blue. We really wished we had brought a thermometer with us. It was 7:30 p.m. and broad daylight. We feel we have all caught the sun today. We must remember to wear sunscreen tomorrow. It is very easy to get burned in these high altitudes. None of us was hungry but we thought we had better go and check out the restaurant and try to eat something.

 

Restaurant at the Snow Leopard Hotel

The Snow Leopard Restaurant is very decorative inside, as are most restaurants in Tibet. In the centre of the room was a row of bain maries but the heating wasn’t on underneath them. In hindsight I think they would be used only when big groups were booked in for a meal. We were ushered to a table and shown a menu. We all had pleasant enough meals but none of us finished our food. We were exceedingly cold even in the restaurant.

 

Time for bed

Back in our rooms we tried out the TV but couldn’t get it to work. We found a bowl in the bathroom and used it to soak our feet in some warm water from the thermos but it didn’t make much difference to us - we were still freezing cold. Ian and I had now come down with Jeremy’s cold so we doubted we would sleep well.

 

Added later:

We've since learned from a Trip Advisor member that there is a reasonable place to stay at New Tingri (also called Baber). It is called the Sunrise Hotel. The email address is: pyoungdue@hotmail.com and the phone number is: 13989922770. Apparently the rooms at the front are quite decent and have an en suite.

 

Next page - The journey to Mount Everest

 

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