Heading to Everest Base Camp in Tibet

Diamox – a helper or a hindrance?

We all slept poorly. We think Diamox might be part of the problem plus our beds were very hard and our colds made it all the worse. Plus, I still had constant nausea which I felt was being caused by the Diamox. I took that morning’s dose but decided I wasn’t going to take any more of it after that, seeing as by the evening we would then be beyond Everest Base Camp.

Breakfast at the Snow Leopard Hotel

We opened our bedroom doors and found it was icy cold outside. The night before, Ian had put a partially filled water bottle outside our bedroom door as an experiment to see if it was frozen by morning and it sure was. It was almost as cold inside the restaurant when we had breakfast. Jeremy said he couldn’t handle breakfast. Ian and I were each served a pancake with a hard-boiled egg plus some bread and jam. I couldn’t handle the pancake or the boiled egg but Ian ate his.

An icy cold car

That morning when we climbed into the car Jeremy had about 10 centimetres of water in his water bottle. He was holding the bottle between his knees. After a while he noticed the bottle had iced over at the top. No wonder we always feel so cold in the car – it’s below zero in the car as well as outdoors. There doesn’t seem to be any heating in the vehicle. We wonder if this is normal practice in Tibet. The three of us fitted neatly along the back seat, sitting shoulder to shoulder. I guess we kept each other warmer than if we were sitting alone.