Hm.
From high in the sky on a brilliant morning, Nepal looks idyllic.
But on the ground things are different.
In these foothills, communist insurgents inspired by Chairman Mao
are waging a campaign against the government
that has lasted eight years and cost nearly 8,000 lives.
As I'm to find out, things in Nepal are not always the way they look.
In the western foothills, far off the tourist track,
I'm with a party on their way to Lekhani
to witness a recruiting ceremony for perhaps Nepal's best-known export -
the legendary Gurkha soldiers.
- (PALIN) But you can't get to it by road? - No.
With me are senior Gurkha officers led by Lieutenant Colonel Adrian Griffith,
an Englishman who's lived here for 15 years and speaks the language fluently.
His interest in the tough fighting men of these hills goes way back.
When I was eight, I took the "Victor" and it had "Johnny Gurkha" in it.
That, and I saw the Gurkhas at the Royal Tournament.
They fired my imagination as a small boy.
At Sandhurst I was lucky enough to get into the brigade
and I was commissioned into the Sixth Gurkhas in 1979, 25 years ago.
(PALIN) And it's never been in any way a let-down?
I always say, "I wanted to be an engine driver and I enjoy being an engine driver."
Do you try and confine your selection to these groups?
Traditionally, we've recruited from the Gurungs and the Magars.
The Gurungs are east of the Kali Gandaki river and the Magars are in this area.
This is the area of the Pun Magar.
The Nepalese government allow us to recruit.
There's an agreement with them, but they ask that we maintain a low profile.
It's embedded in history. Nearly 200 years it's been going on one way or another.
But they like it to be kept as low-key as possible.
It's this lugging of loads up and down hills that really toughens people up
and one of the reasons why they make such ideal soldiers.
I'm feeling toughened up myself by the time we reach Lekhani,
where Adrian addresses the hopefuls.
(SPEAKS NEPALl)
All the recruits are given numbers.
0f the 251 applicants here, only a fraction will go on to the next stage of testing.
(ADRIAN) We recruit once a year. It's in three phases and this is the first phase.
This is the opportunity for any young man to get in.
Clearly, there are more men who want to join than we have places for.
Last year, across the whole of Nepal,
somewhere in the region of 24,000 were chasing 331 places.
- Really? - So it is very important.
The numbers that will get through today... I think the Galla has an allocation of 100.
- Tell me who the Galla is exactly. - The Galla is our recruiter.
He is a retired Gurkha soldier - in this case, a retired sergeant major.
He's resident in the area that he works in
and he is charged with bringing the raw material in.
- (PALIN) So he's pretty vital. - He's fundamental.
In the British Army, recruits will get paid ten times more than in the Nepalese Army,
which makes a Gurkha a very attractive proposition.
As dawn breaks, the village looks the same,
seems to be enjoying itself in the same way, but feels very different.
Despite the sunshine, there's a chill in the air.
Late yesterday, the Galla came to our tent
and said he'd been approached by the local Maoists
who wanted to talk to him, to one of us and also the Gurkhas who we were with.
A meeting was held
at the end of which the Maoists decided to take the Galla and Adrian
and the two other senior Gurkhas off into the forest to meet the hierarchy.
There was nothing we could do. They were taken off yesterday evening into the forest.
This morning they haven't returned.
As far as we know there's no real danger, but they're not back yet.
So it looks as though the recruiting is now off
and all the work that was done yesterday will be a waste.
It looks also as though we will have to get out of here as quickly as possible.
There's no obvious threat, but knowing we're in Maoist territory changes the atmosphere.
From being a charming rustic backwater,
Lekhani now seems more like a trap and friendly locals potential kidnappers.
As we head out, we pass the would-be Gurkhas looking as confused as ourselves.
We're two hours' walk from the nearest road and only when we're there will we feel safe.
48 hours later, news that Adrian has been released safe and well
reaches us in the lakeside town of Pokhara.
Adrian tells me what happened when he was abducted.
I was then introduced to Comrade Mahesh,
who was obviously a senior member of the Baglung Maoist Party,
and I had a discussion with him on the Maoist cause.
He said that his aim was - in taking me, particularly -
to get more publicity for their cause outside Nepal.
They then at 12 o'clock walked us down to the road which we'd driven up,
and they'd arranged a vehicle for us there.
They then said we must have a final cup of tea together, so we had a cup of tea!
Then they made a small speech to the assembled villagers
and at 1.30 we got in, drove off down the hill, and that was the end of it.
What sort of people were your abductors? Presumably you could make some judgment.
They were very normal Nepalis.
They were a mix of different castes.
They were all very well informed in terms of their own cause.
They were unremarkable except for being focused on what they were trying to achieve.
Now it's time to tackle the mountains.
We'll be trekking up to the 13,500-foot base camp of Annapurna,
whose summit dominates the horizon
along with the beautiful peak of Machhapuchhare - "Fishtail".
The idea is to see a bit of the country and get acclimatised to high altitude
before we take on Everest and the Tibetan Plateau.
Followed by our Sherpa guides, Wongchu and Nawang, I set a less than blistering pace.
- Hi. - Namasté.
Where have you come from?
- We have come from Bamboo. - Bamboo?
- Yeah. All the way. - That's where we're going.
- Amazing. - How is it up there?
Amazing. 360 degrees. Just mountains. Gorgeous.
- Weather good? - Very nice.
- Where are you all from? - Israel.
- Oh, wow. - And you?
Where am I from? England. That's right!
We've only just started our climb. We're a bit vague on details.
- Is this part of a long holiday? - It's a vacation from school.
- Any problems along the way? - We had a problem on our second day.
We actually slept here in Chhomrong and we met some Maoists.
- What did they say? "We're Maoists"? - Yeah. There were three.
One of them spoke. One with a gun was standing behind him.
They were just telling us, "Hello, we are Maoists."
- "We are communists." - Not really. And they started talking.
They said that each one of us had to pay 1,000 rupees.
We paid 1,000, they give us a receipt
and there's not going to be any problem on the way
because they say that they are the mountain people and this is their area.
You weren't frightened? Did they point the gun at you as they asked for the rupees?
No, they didn't point the gun. We tried to negotiate with them.
We said we were students, this is the beginning of our trip,
but we had to pay them eventually.
- We got a receipt. Do you want to see? - Yes.
If you're going home, you can give me the receipt!
But it's in Nepali, so you won't understand what's written.
It does say that we paid 1,500 and my names...
I read Nepali and it says, "Arrest these three on arrival."
I suggest that you learn Nepali, I think.
- Your name, sorry? - Leat. And you are?
- I'm Michael. Leat and? - Agnes.
- Bas. - Bas. OK.
- It was nice meeting you. - Yes. And you.
It's all downhill from here, so good luck.
- Thanks for the hints on the way. - No problem. Enjoy.
- Bye-bye. - Bye.
I'm already feeling breathless. Notices warn that things can only get worse.
"Mountain sickness."
Wongchu has been up Everest twice.
When do we get the height where you get mountain sickness? Are we there yet?
Yes, you'll get mountain sickness and you must drink a lot of water.
Then you must use the soup, anything, and go slow.
- Walk slower. - That's easy.
When you get headache, you must move down in a low place.
(PALIN) "Early symptoms - headache, loss of appetite, dizziness, fatigue."
I've got a bit of that. "What to do: Get in touch with your nearest Sherpa.
"Descend, descend, descend."
Well, that's pretty clear. It's not a cakewalk, is it?
Namasté.
We set off next morning with high hopes - encouraged by the locals.
So far, so good. Much of the trek seems either downhill or along the valley floor.
Wongchu puts up with this
but doesn't really start to enjoy himself till it gets steep.
- Lunch here, Wongchu? - No. Up the hill.
Swine.
- Up the hill. - Not grass again. I need a decent meal.
The porters, carrying our equipment in bamboo baskets,
positively scamper up the mountain.
Wongchu follows them like a man who's late for work.
Wongchu, it's not the Olympic 100 metres.
(INDISTINCT REPLY)
The view is spectacular.
You can clearly see why Machhapuchhare is called "Fishtail".
Mercifully, Wongchu has allowed us a stop at one of the guesthouses on the route
offering rare Nepalese dishes.
Thank you very much. Boiled potato.
- Is this from your garden? - Yep.
- Good. That's very nice. - Looks very good.
Is this your lodge?
- Do you run it or do you just work here? - Yep.
You have all nationalities up here. Many countries. You speak English.
Do you have to speak other languages? What other languages to you speak?
Only a little bit English, and Gurung and Nepali.
- That's all. - And you live up here?
- Yep. - All year round?
- No. - What happens in the winter?
- Go to Chhomrong. - Right. You have family in Chhomrong?
- Do you carry things up here? - Yep. Sometimes.
- Five to ten kilos. - Five to ten kilos?
You're strong.
I'm very impressed. I don't speak anything.
After lunch, the path becomes a bit of a roller-coaster -
out of one valley and down into the next.
Blimey. Wongchu sets a fast pace. Mind you, he has been up Everest twice.
It's the afternoon now. I think walking this morning was easier.
We stopped for lunch and it's hard to get started again.
Every step suddenly seems like 12.
The stairs, the steps, aren't regular, so you're going a different speed.
Anyway, stop moaning, Palin. On you go. You're enjoying the Himalaya.
(MICHAEL GROANS)
Oh, wow. We're getting higher up now.
I'm beginning to feel it. Are we above 3,000 metres?
- Yes. This is a nice place. - It is. It's cool and shady. What is it?
- This is Hinko cave. - Hindu cave?
- Hinko. - Sorry. What's a Hinko?
Hinko means some Hindu god and some Himalaya god living here.
That's what they call it. Also the yeti lives here.
- Yeti lives here? Go on! Really? - Yes.
- You believe in the yeti? - I saw some yeti in the mountain.
- What did it look like? - It looked like a monkey and like people.
- A big monkey? How big? How tall? - Same like us.
- Really? It wasn't some climber a bit lost? - No climber. Yeti.
- Did it make a noise? - Sometimes they say, "Eee!" like this.
So you'd know there was a yeti coming.
That is the most wonderful sight. And if there's a yeti there...
- Let's go and have tea with the yeti. - Yes. The yeti make the tea.
Yeti make the tea very nice.
- Oh, dear. If I can get down. - Be careful.
0ur dream home for the night is typical of the lodges
that have sprouted up to cater for the trekkers.
The problem with these wonderful Himalayan viewpoints is that we can't see a thing.
Deorali looked so wonderfully inviting with the sun shining on it.
Then the clouds came down and now we can't see a thing.
It's also getting very cold.
On top of that, I'm not feeling great.
It might just be a cold, but it might well be to do with the effects of altitude.
Who knows? I feel quite weary.
And I know I'll have to take the path to Annapurna again soon,
but for now I'll keep taking the trekking honey.
Rub it on, you'll feel a lot better.
Halfway through the trek, and for the first time some doubts are creeping into my mind.
(HOARSELY) Oh, dear. I don't know how I'll go on today.
Last night was pretty awful. I've got a throat like sandpaper.
And altitudes are unforgiving, from what I hear - things don't get any better as you go up.
There's nowhere else to go. Nothing for it.
I hope I'll prove them wrong - that climbing does make you feel better.
We're entering the avalanche area.
When it snows, these sheer rock-faces are lethal.
Wongchu treats it with great respect. He's seen people killed here.
I have my own private avalanches to deal with.
Waves of fatigue sweep over me, requiring increasingly regular breathers.
Ah, well, that's the camp. That's Machhapuchhare.
Named after the glorious mountain up there - Fishtail Mountain. A sacred mountain.
So sacred that they don't kill animals here. They have an entirely vegetarian diet.
Anyway, it's sublime and wonderful scenery to be totally and completely knackered in.
The last few thousand feet have taken it out of me.
I don't know if it's just this cold or the altitude.
This is partly acclimatising to much higher areas we're gonna be going into.
We're going up to Everest and that's much higher, so I hope it's not altitude sickness.
I'm knackered to a standstill. I had to give my pack to somebody.
I've become like a patient being carried up the hill...
(COUGHS)
Cut to scenery.
It takes me another hour to reach Machhapuchhare base camp
where everyone seems infuriatingly happy.
Wongchu, thank you. I couldn't have done it without you.
- Excuse me, sir. This is your tent. - I just want to collapse somewhere.
- This is your tent. Please. - Yes. Lovely.
I haven't the energy to get in at the moment. I'm so pleased we're here.
- Look at that. Fantastic. - Please.
Mmm. Almost worth it.
- Thank you. Very good. - Would you like more?
No, no. I'll just take this.
My lungs are telling me we're high.
We're over 12,000 feet, and the view of the Annapurna Sanctuary is a revelation.
Nine of these summits are above 23,000 feet.
(GUIDE) On the left it's Hiunchuli - our trekking peak.
Trekking peak? You could walk up to that?
Individual people can climb it with the Sherpas.
- Looks terrifying to me. - It takes a couple of days to climb.
(PALIN) There's huge snowfields up there on the rim.
Tomorrow when we get to the Annapurna BC, we can see all the glacier up there.
Sensational. I feel we're in the Himalayas now. I haven't felt it quite yet.
We've been in the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush, but this is it.
Coughing fit again in the Himalaya.
Can I have a lie-down, please?
Sometime in the night, my cold turns a corner.
By the time Mingmar shakes my tent to see if I'm still in it,
I'm up and about and meeting with my fellow mountaineers.
- Is your friend climbing Annapurna? - Yeah. He is the leader of the expedition.
- It is the last 8,000-metre mountain. Last one. - Have they got up?
The Annapurna south face is the last 8,000-metre in Nepal, in the world.
And has he summited it? He's got to the top?
- I hope. - We don't know.
- Tomorrow. - So it's an exciting day for you.
- Yeah. Big party. - Fantastic.
- I hope he made it. - OK. See you.
Good climbing. I hope your friends do well.
- Thank you. - OK. See you.
They're proper climbers. I'm just a terrible fraud, really, but there you go.
The sun may be bright on Annapurna but it's bitterly cold.
0ur porters are dressed for the plains
and they're carrying loads of anything up to 40 kilos.
Here we go. Oh! I can just about lift that.
Thank you. Oh, my God.
Unbelievable. Superhuman. I don't see how a body can cope with all that.
I suppose once it's up there, you're OK. A smile. OK.
Well, good on you. Respect.
And there's me not even carrying my toothbrush.
I can't quite believe it. The end is in sight. Annapurna base camp.
I'm so glad, despite the near collapse yesterday, that I made it,
because it's just a stunning place and I would have missed all this.
The Annapurnas One, Two, Three and Four - very unimaginative.
Look at them. Isn't that stunning? I think I'm going to get there.
I just have a feeling I'm going to make it.
Aagh!
I suppose this symbolises our achievement over the last five days.
This is the summit of Annapurna,
and it's just breathtaking, extraordinary, powerful scenery.
Despite everything, Annapurna has prepared me well.
At least I know what to expect, as we head for Kathmandu, Everest and beyond.
After the emptiness of the mountains, Kathmandu comes as quite a shock.
Almost a million live in Nepal's capital, built on the widest valley in the Himalaya.
(TRAFFIC NOISE)
Kathmandu must be used to crowds.
It's the meeting place for traders between India and Tibet.
When Nepal opened up to the world in the 1960s,
the spirit of tolerance that drew the hippies sparked a tourist invasion.
For me, the dazzling surprise is the beauty of the old buildings.
These are the work of the Newar people.
They invented the pagoda and took it to China.
In Durbar Square in the old city of Patan,
local newspaper editor Kundar Dixit explains this rich heritage.
The mixture in Kathmandu valley, which is what's unique,
is the mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism
that gave rise to this almost tantric art.
It's a living place still? People do come here to offer prayers and all that?
It's not a museum. They used to say there are more temples in Kathmandu than houses
and more gods than people.
That has changed now, but it's still a living place. People go off to pray.
They live right around here.
(PALIN) So commerce goes on as well...
Nepal's love affair with tourism is obvious, but there are clouds on the horizon.
- As you can see, business is down. - Is it? I can't tell.
But I've heard that it's suffered because of the Maoist problems.
(KUNDAR) That too, but also internationally since 9/11, tourism is down.
The security nightmare is that the Maoists will bring their fight into the city.
- Will there have to be a compromise? - Absolutely. There is no military solution.
In fact, both sides have said there is no military solution.
This is a very messy war in the world's most difficult terrain.
No one's going to win. It's just going to take the country down.
It must be quite exciting for you as a newspaper man.
Do you feel that you're able to take quite an important part in the debate?
We started our paper four years ago, just when the country started going to the dogs.
So maybe we're partly responsible for this!
I think it's a tremendously exciting time to be here.
Nepal's press has never been freer, in a sense.
There used to be curbs on reporting, for example, on the monarchy, on the military.
There's none of that any more. So there's a paradox.
There's an insurgency going on, but the press is totally free.
The prime minister has been sacked, parliament is in limbo, but the press is free.
So I think the challenge is to use that freedom to bring about change -
social, political change - and spread consciousness about people's rights.
(DRUMS AND BELLS)
We've been tipped off that the King is attending a ceremony tonight.
Security is tight.
King Gyanendra came to the throne less than three years ago
after nine members of the royal family were murdered by the Crown Prince.
The threat of assassination is on everyone's mind.
This ceremony, in which the King accepts the blessings of the goddess Bhadrakali,
is seen as a vital endorsement for the beleaguered monarchy.
Judging by the queues outside the Royal Palace next morning,
the monarchy still has its supporters.
Along with Pratima Pande, a cousin of the King, I queued to receive his blessing
at the important Hindu festival of Dasain.
(BAGPIPES PLAY)
Looking a bit like a hotel receptionist,
the King plants one tika after another on the foreheads of his people.
The tika - a mix of curd, rice and vermilion powder -
is applied in strictly hierarchical order.
Ministers, politicians, politicians' wives, army generals
and, to the King's surprise, English television presenters.
(SPEAKS NEPALl) Michael Palin... BBC...
- Your Majesty. - How do you do?
And I get a handshake as well.
- I hope you're enjoying our festival. - Absolutely.
We intend to enjoy the rest of Nepal. Thank you.
- (EXCITED SHOUTING) - One, two, three...
Apart from the bestowing of blessings,
Dasain is the only time Nepalis are allowed to gamble.
- How do you count up what he's got? - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
- Eight is divisible by four, so eight. - Right.
So he wins everybody's money now.
Cowry shells are shaken like dice and bets taken on how they fall.
1, 2, 3... 5, 6!
The trouble is only one man ever seems to win.
He's won again?
Why?
I think... Pratima, I think I've been set up.
You've invited me here. You've set me up.
Your husband's a banker. You're trying to get British investment into the country.
I don't know.
Next morning, Pratima takes me to the more sober temple at Pashupatinath.
90% of Nepalese are Hindu and this is considered the holiest Hindu site outside India.
Across the river are the "ghats" where cremations take place in public.
The complex also includes an enclosure where holy men,
dedicated to the Shiva, live in well-publicised seclusion.
What is this? This is like an ashram for the holy men.
- Yes. - Sadhus.
Yes. These are men who have renounced all their worldly possessions and belongings.
- And dedicated their lives to this temple? - And to Lord Shiva.
They are dressed like Lord Shiva. Their appearances are like that.
Lord Shiva smears himself with ash.
(CHANTING)
- How old are you, sir? - I am 56 years.
- 56 years. And you've been 20 years here? - Yes.
And were you a sadhu before that?
- Sadhu... 35 years. - 35 years?
- 86. - 86? Wow. Great respect.
And 66 years all this hair.
- 86 years without a razor. - (PRATIMA) Amazing. Look at this.
He's very thin. He's very thin.
Is he? Are you strong? Is he strong?
- Yes, yes. He do yoga position. - He does yoga.
(PALIN) A yoga position. I don't want him to if he doesn't want to.
I only hope I can get a leg over at 86.
At the ghats business is brisk,
as funeral pyres and their attendants work flat out to cope with demand.
Every Hindu, every religious person, wants to come to Pashupatinath.
It is the place to be cremated.
Sons carry the body and walk barefeet and bring the body to Pashupatinath.
(PALIN) They walk through the town and bring the body here?
There's no burial in the Hindu religions? It's always cremation.
(PRATIMA) They shave their heads also.
As a sign of mourning, you shave your heads - the men.
When the royal family all died,
were they all cremated about the same time?
(PRATIMA) Five of them were cremated on the same day here.
It was very sad and unbelievable.
Everyone was traumatised, put it that way. The whole Nepali nation was traumatised.
What I see here is at first quite shocking.
Where I come from, death is in the hands of the professionals.
We send our loved ones away hidden in a box into a hidden fire.
Here, the reality of death is on full view,
but their grief is the more moving because we all share it.
This morning there can be no more beating about the bush.
We can no longer put off the toughest part of the journey.
The time has come to cross the Himalaya.
We shall drive north across the border
from the land of Maoists to the land of Mao,
turning off the road to Lhasa and making for base camp at the north face of Everest.
The mountains close in and as we round one of the last corners in Nepal,
there at the end of the valley is my first glimpse of Tibet.
But now it's the red flag of China that flies over its frontier.
Well, this is a very special place.
This is Friendship Bridge behind me, which connects Nepal and China.
It's one of only two crossing points in the Himalaya region -
the other is the Khunjerab Pass on the Karakoram Highway, which was blocked.
So this is the only way of getting through the Himalayas on a major route.
Quite why we attempt a rear entry into China I'll never know.
It's all part of the usual border confusion.
Though I may not know where I'm going, I do know what I'm leaving behind.
- Thank you so much. - You're welcome.
Thank you for getting me up there. What happens now?
Wongchu, say goodbye. Don't leave me here! Don't leave me here.
How will I survive without you? What's your last message to me? "Eat food. Always eat."
- Eat and drink. - OK. But no alcohol.
No alcohol in the mountain.
0nce across the border we climb quickly out of the verdant valleys
and on to the treeless lunar landscape of the Tibetan Plateau.
They call this the "roof of the world"
and for the next few weeks I won't drop below 13,000 feet.
The prayer flags that mark the high passes show that,
despite efforts by the Chinese in the 1960s and '70s, religion still exists here.
What no longer exists is a country called Tibet.
We are now in what is officially the "Tibet Autonomous Region" -
a part of the People's Republic of China.
Whatever you call it, it's a land of superlatives.
Wow!
Look at that. (LAUGHS)
Wow!
Well, great moment - my first view of Everest,
apart from photos in restaurants and things like that.
And just the most glorious, mighty view.
It's the very heart of the Himalayas out there.
Giant mountains - four or five of them over 8,000 metres.
And Everest there just slightly touched by the cloud.
But absolutely epic. It really does make it all worthwhile.
It's also the highest I've ever been in my life.
I'm at about 5,300 metres now, which is over 17,000 feet.
So a big first.
And the sun's shining! Unbelievable.
Now all we've got to do is get there.
Everything is abruptly different up here.
From the buildings - whitewashed in Buddhist style -
to the look of the people - Mongolian rather than Indian.
(HAPPY SINGING)
In one village a festival has just begun.
My Tibetan guide, Migmar, tells me they can go on for days.
So we have to hire some yaks from local people.
- Some yaks? - Yes.
It's been difficult to get permission to film in Tibet
and everything we do will be monitored,
but as Migmar explains our plans, this only adds to the sense of adventure.
Between Everest base camp and the monastery there are eight kilometres,
so we need to hire some yaks from that monastery
to carry our equipment to Everest base camp.
The yaks don't mind the height?
They can survive in very cold, high altitude.
- Yak normally like high altitude. - Yeah. They do.
If they go down, they feeling not so good.
(VEHICLE APPROACHES)
A road takes us close to Everest base camp.
It was built by the Chinese to support their successful ascent of the north face in 1960.
Rongbuk consists of a monastery, half a street, a guesthouse
and an almost unbelievable view of the highest point on the planet.
This is the highest monastery in the world.
It's just been rebuilt to replace a much older one destroyed,
along with thousands of others in Tibet, during the Cultural Revolution.
The monastery is home to 30 monks and 30 nuns.
(LOW CHANTING)
It's hard to imagine what degree of devotion
enables them to survive the bitter cold and isolation up here.
(PALIN) It's a cold, cold place. I've brought you this.
The gift I present to the abbot seems to offer a clue.
It's a Thangka - a painted scroll from Kathmandu.
It depicts the Buddha - the Enlightened 0ne.
They look at it with real affection.
The harder their life, the closer it brings them to an understanding of him.
What Buddha would have made of the guesthouse I don't know.
Run by the monks, it's spartan, to say the least.
The consolation is having Everest as my neighbour.
The weather looks good enough for a climb up to base camp tomorrow - Sunday.
The good news is our transport's arrived.
(FAINT BELLS)
The only problem with being so close to Everest
is that you're very high up and there's very little oxygen
and you have to breathe very hard.
When you're dozing off, suddenly you wake up gasping for breath,
trying to get that oxygen in.
So it's actually bloody uncomfortable at night.
I know Everest is out the window,
but I'd exchange it for something two foot off the ground
if it had showers and a flushing toilet.
Conditions next morning are perfect.
Prayers for our safety have been hung up to be carried with the wind up to the gods.
I find walking quite an effort at this height,
but as we head towards Everest, I've a feeling that adrenaline will overcome altitude.
I don't know if it's the yaks or the Everest effect
or the fact that I don't have a cold, but I'm rather enjoying this.
We're higher than at Annapurna and I'm feeling good.
So I think I'll go a little further up Everest, as they say. See you.
Hang on!
(GUIDES CALL AND WHISTLE AT YAKS)
Sunday lunch is taken at a little over 17,000 feet.
(MIGMAR) This is what we call black tea.
And sampa and butter.
They are leading very simple life.
In countryside or here it's same like this.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner almost all we have is sampa.
- What's sampa? Oh, barley. - Barley.
Does that make a drink or to eat?
- To eat. Here's black tea. - Thank you.
- Would you like some yak butter? - Yak butter in it? Yes.
I'll have a bit of yak butter.
Does it make it taste better or taste worse?
Thank you.
Cheers to you all. Thanks, guys, very much,
for getting us up this far.
I don't think much further for me.
- Mmm. - Nice?
Yes, it's good, actually. It's salty. Salty tea.
Do these guys have anything other than tea that warms them up on the way?
They have some chang here. Barley beer.
- Barley beer. - Chang.
Is it good? The tea was good.
- Would you like to try? - Yeah.
A rather attractive bottle.
So this is made of barley? Fermented barley.
Right. Lovely. A bit of chang. OK. Cheers.
Down the hatch. Bottoms up, as they say in the Sahara.
Wow.
Oh... Mmm.
It's very cold. Cold and strong and quite appley.
What do you think I am, an alcoholic?
- Usually we do this. - (PALIN) What do you do?
First, this is for Buddha.
Second for God. Third one for heaven. Then you can...
- Three times. - OK.
- The first one for Qomolangma. - I should take my gloves off.
First one for Qomolangma, which is what the Tibetans call Everest.
Qomolangma. OK?
- Next one for Buddha? - Yeah.
- For Buddha, the great Buddha. - Third one for humans.
For humans? Third one for human beings.
Right. And then drink.
Ah. That's great. It's like a sort of appley ginger beer.
- It doesn't feel strong. Is it strong? - Very strong.
One of the great events of my childhood was the conquest of Everest in 1953,
but I can remember being even more fascinated by the idea
that Everest might have been climbed 30 years before.
In 1924, a guy called George Mallory
made base camp here for an attempt on the north face of Everest.
A few weeks later, he and his partner, Andrew Irvine, were observed
disappearing into a cloud a few hundred yards from the summit.
Neither of them were ever seen again.
It's one of the great mysteries - did they climb Everest in 1924?
I'm not going to attempt anything like that.
I think I'll call it quits here at Everest base camp.
But the yak herders are such lovely people that we might just tag along for a bit.
Much has been written of the lure of Everest
and though I don't have the energy to dance,
I do feel a quickening of the heart the closer we come to the mountain.
It's easier if we forget that Everest was named after a Victorian map-maker
and call this mighty mountain by her Tibetan name.
Qomolangma - Goddess Mother of the Earth.
Next time on "Himalaya", I cross the Tibetan Plateau.
See inside great monasteries.
Land up in Lhasa, a forbidden city.
Watch kung fu debating and spinning prayer wheels.
Attempt a builder's line dance.
Icy pilgrims.
Holy lakes on the roof of the world.
Tibet's equivalent of the Eurovision Song Contest. And all the fun of the horse fair.
"Himalaya" - entertainment at the highest level.