About 8km down from EBC, at 5200m elevation, there are two hotels across from Rongpu Monastery, the highest monastery in the world (those monks are a hardy lot!).
First we checked the Tibetan Guesthouse. Rooms all w/o bath and power were basic and had heavy bedsize pads to weigh you down and keep you warm. There was a full view of Everest from each room, but I was frightened of the wind that whistled in thru the windows and blew the curtains around. The rate was 25Y/person.
Next we checked a new 3-storey Chinese hotel which employed Tibetans. Room all w/o bath had carpet, heavy bedsize pads with nice bedspreads, high ceilings and desk with mirror. There was a full view of Everest from each room and the windows seemed to have a better seal. We asked the rate…. 200Y/person!!! I was outraged!! Especially because I had heard about the toilets. I forced the receptionist up the stairs with me to look at the toilets. I pointed to the shit piled high in each of the new porcelain squat toilets. The staff explained that there was no water. Do you have a shovel, I asked. Then a male staff pushed me aside and locked the door to the room, thereby keeping everyone from the toilets!
The other foreigners staying at the hotel seemed fine with the situation. I wasn't. I sat in the reception area and struggled. My need for feelings of warmth and comfort eventually overruled my outrage at being held hostage. And fortunately, somewhere during all this the price came down to 100Y/person. I gave in.
We checked in. The room had a TV, but the electric socket was on the other side of the room. The carpets had never been vacuumed. The bedside console controlling the lights and TV was not connected to the lights or TV. The only heat in this building at the base of Everest was on the second floor in the common area – it came from a wood stove fuelled by goat pellets, around which all the Tibetans sat, leaving no room for the hotel guests.
As for the toilet, you could go outside into the biting wind or you could rig something in the room. We discovered the next morning that the trash pail had a leak – oh well.
We woke up the next morning to thick clouds, so there were no views of Everest. We got out of bed, put our clothes on over our bed clothes and got back under the covers, where we stayed until one of us was brave enough to go out and find our driver to tell him that we wanted to leave sooner rather than later.
Hotel: Zhu Feng View and Admire Floor
Rating: Worst hotel in the world
3 comments:
You go girl - You have gone farther and seen more than most of us can even dream or imagine - Every day I admire what you do!
of course this was meant entirely tongue in cheek, hence the smiley. in hindsight, being potentially viewed on your blog, not so funny. as usual, me not thinking.
all apologies.
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