After all that, our driver who had it rough but had professional work ethic would drive us all the way to Rombu monastery where it is 8kil away from Everest Camp if we so wanted and we did because the weather was good and we weren’t sure if it would last.
As our vehicle started to work properly two young female European hitch hikers wanted to hitch hike with us. They came all the way here and refuses to pay for the public bus fare or shared hired trekking vehicle price. It didn’t make sense to any of us on the car. They begged us and we decided if they were to come on they would have to pay. They didn’t want to and continued to hitch hike. What a dangerous thing to do in the wilderness of Tibet where if you disappear, no one could track you down easily or even notice.
We stopped at Sa’gya for dinner. At this Tibetan Guest house, we met 4 foreigners from Germany. They were unhappy with their driver. They prepaid for accommodation and everything in a package, bad idea. They were stuck with whatever they were given and had no choice. The problem was they really didn’t know what they were agreeing to when they made the agreements on the contract. On top of that, their driver kept talking us into staying there and not proceeding onward with our itinerary. I didn't like the look of the driver and told our group not to listen to him. As it turns out after dinner, his group complained to us about their bad driver who changed their itinerary and schedule and did whatever he wanted instead. He had the car and he was in power and they were stuck because they paid the money already. He did not go where the contracted agreed to and x-ed off days and places on his own. They sat around a lot. They paid for first class lodging and didn’t even get hot water, they got terrible dorm rooms. Boy, were we glad we didn't get him. I heard such things can be common. We all walked out of there in so much more appreciation for our driver and for each other.
