As our Land Cruiser chugged down the unpaved road leaving a trail of dust, we slowly made our ascend to the world highest plateau. We work our way across Nyalam Pass which was about 3,800 meters above sea level and we steadily climb up Lalung-la Pass which stood above 5,050 meters. Officially, we were on top of a plateau that is 1,000 meters taller than the highest peak in Malaysia. So, is there any chance in hell that maybe I could get one of them certificate that mountaineers get after that have conquer Mt. Kinabalu? Hell, I’m Malaysian and I stood taller than your highest peak? No? Pffffftttttt…
You know unlike Malaysian highways, here you don’t really have to worry about going to the rest room at a pit stop. Because it is everywhere, I am not kidding you. Whenever you feel like doing number 1 or even number 2, there are no worries about holding back till the next stop. Seriously, you don’t have to because there aren’t going to be any pit stop en route. Just look around you, the nature is your fucking toilet; behind some bushes or a huge rock or trees or maybe a cave if you are lucky enough. People here live and shit freely as they wish; they do not need a designated place for them to aim their penises or squat down, and that my friend is the free spirit of Tibet. (iThink…)
Anyway, it was the same old clear blue sky with white cotton candy clouds, the gray unpaved road and the typical Tibetan landscape filled with the view of the Himalayan ranges. And it was just a little outside of the town of Tingris, the Braille of our facial expression let out in unison the meaning of awe and adoration, as we caught the first glimpse of Mt. Everest - the mother goddess of all the mountains. I was looking straight at the roof of the world. Its funny how just by recalling that moment, I get goose bumps all over. But it went down rather differently there. Just like a pack of excited wild baboon, we pull our vehicle aside and started doing crazy pose and ugly facial expression as we jump around and take turns to snap pictures of ourselves with the north face of Mt Everest. Are we just being disrespectful for not respecting the moment or are we just humans? I really cannot imagine if god were to come down and we all started to react to the same manner as we did today; but I guess it would have been a great “Remember the time I camwhore with god” story. Fucking A?
And so we did what we have to do, and after we have kill and rape the revered vibe of that moment and place, our excitement finally died down and we were on our way to our next stop for the day – Shegar.