okay, and my big trip is over. the last part was probably the best, i'd say, though every section of the trip was awesome in its own way. so after spending a few days chilling in chengdu, hanging out with my new danish friends, i flew to lhasa and met up with my friend phil, who i studied abroad with, and 3 of his friends. we spent a few days in lhasa, seeing the sights, shopping, and getting used to the altitude, before heading off in a toyota landcruiser on a five-day trip to everest base camp. the trip didn't start off so well- on the first day, when we reached the travel agency at 830 in the morning, ready to head off, we were told that instead of the 11-person bus we'd paid for, we would be in a 7-person car. the agency guy told us that the 11-seater was too big for the roads around everest, so we'd been downgraded. this we agreed was fair (although actually it turns out that it was a lie as we saw many large buses heading to base camp), but we thought we deserved some money back as we had been told we were paying for the bigger bus. the agency did not agree, and a fight ensued. actually, mostly i was the one fighting. everyone agreed that we'd been ripped off, but since we'd already paid the money they didn't think there was anything we could do. having travelled for 16 days with a chinese person, however, i had learned that nothing in china is fixed if you just shout about it enough. so after about 45 minutes of fighting, the agency guy agreed that they would pay our vehicle entrance fee to base camp, saving us 400 kuai. sweet! we then headed off in our vehicle, along with our driver, who spoke no english, and our tibetan guide Ishi (or Ishmi or something like that, we were never exactly sure). the first day they took us to Yamdrok Lake, an amazingly beautiful sparkling blue lake, and then on an off-road ride through the desert. the second day we went to a monastery in the town of Gyantse, which was probably my favorite of the whole trip, which is saying a lot as i probably saw like a million monasteries in the course of my trip. the third day we went to another monastery in the city of shigatse, which was the home to the panchen lama (second to the dalai lama, and currently held by the chinese government at an undisclosed location in china), and at night reached base camp, where we spent a cold night sleeping in a tent with an amazing view of everest. i was worried about the altitude, as we had jumped over 1000 meters in a single day, but we were all fine. we were woken at about four in the morning when two random tibetan guys came into our tent to joke around with the owner. annoying, and kind of scary at first, but this gave us the opportunity to check out the night sky, which was unquestionably the most beautiful i have ever seen. the next day we walked from "new base camp," which is the name given the row of tents utilized by day visitors like us, to "old base camp," where the people who are actually planning on climbing everest stay. it was crazy exciting to see such hardcore people, and we even talked to a sherpa who had just summited. before we left, the boys gave him a frisbee from their school, and in exchange he gave us a bunch of crackers that were left over from the last trip. meaning, those babies have been up on everest. yeah, i'm saving them. on the last day, although ishi and the driver seemed extremely eager to get back, we wanted to get our money's worth so we had them stop along the road so spinks, the new zealander in our group, could get his chance to go swimming. the river was beautiful and clear, although so cold that the rest of us just dipped a foot in, and the sand beside it was equally inviting. getting back to lhasa at around five, we stumbled on what turned out to be an incredibly lucky find, a hostel not listed in lonely planet but way better than any of the lonely planet accomodations. this hostel did not have mouse droppings on the bed like the first place we stayed, was reasonably priced, and had a courtyard with several dive bars which had just what we were looking for. after two days, i headed on the 48-hour train back to bj, which i took by myself. the scenery was amazing, and the two chinese women i shared the berth with were very nice, although they did force me to eat a lot of food i had no interest in and kept telling me i had a cold. and now i have just gotten back, and after finishing this post i am going to take a long nap. hallelujah!