The beauty of life, the need to live…  Tibet, oct. 2005

The rib cage crushed by altitude, short of breath, we just crossed one more col at an altitude of 5200 kilometers. Locals, on the other hand, do not seem to have any problems, letting their crops wonder on the hills where even the most advanced climber would not dare going without all its gear…

 The road is harsh. Thousands of people, children to old Tibetan women, work on theses roads for almost nothing, in terrible conditions. Despite all this, nothing stops them from smiling to us, even from inviting us for tea! On the other side, we can feel the effects of tourism: many ask us for clothes, money, food or pens, seeing our bags prior to the smiles we want to offer them. It is hard to create true friendships in those conditions.  

We are starting to go down to a more comfortable altitude when we see, far at the horizon, a village perched in the last rays of sun. It is a mystical vision: no roads to go there, there is at least two rivers to cross, but we feel we have to try our luck...

This is how we ended up spending the night on the porch of the house of a welcoming family. Because it is the harvest season, Olivier helps the men to load the donkey’s backs, while Mel helps the women with house choirs. Momo (yak meat in a thick pastry), butter tea, and bâc (cereal puree) are also part of our stay… 

It is sometimes hard to try your luck, here or abroad, but it is often what allows us to learn, grow, and share...

  The hill of a lifetime… Going down!!! 

Our last col! What a feeling! We started our last hill; our last pedal pushes in the Himalayas... It is hard to describe the feeling… Since we started our journey in Mongolia, we have not seen any forests, trees and suddenly, we go down from an altitude of 5200 meters to 1000 meters, making our way in the dense jungle of Nepal, disconcerted by the presence of "culture en terrasse", women in saris, and Hindi temples. We missed life and nature so much… and slowly, we learned to talk with people again, to interpret body language…

Welcome to Nepal!!!

*** We wanted to respect people from Tibet. Since many years, they have been invaded by masses of tourists armed with their cameras. Therefore, we have only a few photos to show the culture of this region, but we do have many stories to tell!All our Tibetan adventures are published in a book which we hope will be translated in english!