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bicycle portraits

Paulicus said:
What a fantastic story teller this is!
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This was on what is now known as the Friendship Highway, somewhere west of Xigaze, in 1990. In those days the road from Nyalam (on the Nepal border) to Lhasa was a 1,000km dirt track. Now a modern highway. We didn't see any other tourists the entire route, that took a week to drive. You had to travel with 2 official Chinese "guides", who didn't speak a word of English and were basically spies. One of our group died of altitude sickness, during which one of the "guides" was in bed with one of our group, language barrier obviously not an issue, he took fright never to be seen again and our group visa was invalidated as all 10 people had to be present and one was in a morgue. The new highway is now swamped with coaches and the old life is gone.

The location is at an altitude over over 5,000m.
 
I bumped into one of my friends recently who'd just come back from Everest base camp. He's as fit as a fiddle, you could stick him in a flute and still hear the tune, he's that slim. But he looked dreadful, like someone suffering a terminal illness. He reckoned he simply underestimated how difficult it would be at altitude. Two of his group were sent back down before reaching base camp, and one person died in their sleep whilst suffering the effects of altitude sickness.
 
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Paulicus said:
I bumped into one of my friends recently who'd just come back from Everest base camp. He's as fit as a fiddle, you could stick him in a flute and still hear the tune, he's that slim. But he looked dreadful, like someone suffering a terminal illness. He reckoned he simply underestimated how difficult it would be at altitude. Two of his group were sent back down before reaching base camp, and one person died in their sleep whilst suffering the effects of altitude sickness.
Click to expand...

If anyone does the Trans-China Highway starting from the Nepalese border, the first bit is murder as in a matter of yours you go from 1,750m to just under 5,000m. Your interest in photography diminishes as your head explodes, even though that part of the road goes past Sisipangma, a very impressive 8,000m+ peak. The casualty on our trip as, curiously, on the way back. Trekking at that altitude is easier as the body adapts better with the activity.
 


Incidentally, the title of this picture is: "Chinaman with Unicycle in his Mouth Juggles whislt being Observed by Shameless Pre-teen in Pink Fatsuit".
 
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