The next day runs pretty smoothly. Border crossing and drive are both ok and we are in the hotel for mid afternoon.
 |
| Border town of Zhangmu |
 |
| Zhangmu with its mountain backdrop |
 |
| Trees and greenery - a real sight for sore eyes! |
 |
| At the border |
We find some scales and I am down to 79kg - a weight I have not been since I was in my mid teens! I am still feeling pretty ropey and so next morning I head off to hospital to find out what is wrong with me - to convince the others that I have not become a hypochondriac and that my travails on the mountain were justified. It takes a while to go through all the procedures and my Everest story makes me something of a celebrity with a number of senior doctors coming to see me which only adds to the overall disturbance in A&E - there is probably an element of them wanting to get time onto my bill as well I presume. But, eventually I get the news that I have two broken ribs and a lung infection. I feel oddly pleased about this as I can now understand the problems that I had and hopefully justify them to others.
I am still feeling pretty weak and tired; the terrible air quality in Kathmandu can't be helping either. So I get my flights changed and head off a couple of uneventful days later.
However, I still feel pretty weak when I get back to London and, instead of celebrating, have a relapse in the refrigerated section at Sainsburys (a supermarket) and then end up in the majors section of A&E in hospital. It turns out that my lung infection is in fact pneumonia and I had better start taking it seriously!
