The first leg of the journey from Kathmandu in Nepal to Everest base camp on the north side of the world's highest mountain involves flying to Lhasa, the so-called Forbidden City, in Tibet.
The airport is two hours outside the city itself, with a sensational drive across the high Tibetan plateau. The sweeping brown vastness of the plateau is apparently deserted until sudden clusters of the classic low Tibetan dwellings appear, rubbing shoulders with hideous three and four-storey modern concrete and glass Chinese edifices.
Building is going on at an impressive rate, even out on the plateau, where both sexes engage in hard labour. Men and women work side by side, quarrying and chiselling out the rock, or making bricks that are left out in serried ranks to dry in the sun. It's a constant hive of activity, both in the field and on the building sites. But the Tibetans do the manual labour. The bosses are Chinese.
Lhasa is a continuation of the Tibetan versus Chinese theme. The white and ochre Potala Palace towers over the city, but it is 20th and 21st century China that prevails on the streets. The Chinese now vastly outnumber the native Tibetans among the 150,000 residents of Lhasa, and the Tibetan quarter makes up only 4 per cent of the city.
The original Potala Palace was built in the 7th century by Songtsen Gampo, at the same time as the equally famous Jokang Temple, which now forms the spiritual centre of Lhasa. The present Potala Palace was built in the 17th century for the fifth Dalai Lama. The residence is deserted - today's Tibetan spiritual leader is exiled in India - although it is far from empty, as hundreds of pilgrims and tourists flock to it daily.
With Everest as our target, acclimatisation was the main goal during our three-night stopover in Lhasa, but the Drepung monastery, the Potala and Jokang provided cultural and spiritual balm for our souls while our bodies adjusted to the change in altitude.
We joined the pilgrims in their circumambulation of the Jokang, getting caught up in the street theatre of the raucously noisy market selling everything from Tibetan wedding hats to carpets, from yak meat to gaudy copies of expensive watches.
We stood and watched in awe as hundreds of the Buddhist faithful prostrated themselves round the base of the Potala Palace. Wooden blocks tied to the hands protected their palms as they flung themselves face down on the pavement. Chanting, rubbing of prayer beads and deft whirling of prayer flags were part of the ritual for those pilgrims not given to prostration.
Prayer scarves and yak butter for the butter lamps inside the monasteries and the palace can all be bought from the Tibetan hawkers outside and, whatever your religion, it is hard not to be swept along with the spiritual side of Lhasa. Inside the monasteries you are surrounded by statues depicting the Buddha of boundless life, the Buddhas of the past, the present and the future, as well as the Buddha of Infinite Light. The Dalai Lama, in all his incarnations, is omnipresent.
Brown-garbed pilgrims - and several Everest devotees - crawl under the cases containing the books of philosophy, in the hope that wisdom will be imparted via some strange form of osmosis.
The maroon and saffron robed monks chant inside while, outside, the street children offer their own version - with palm held aloft in a pleading gesture - in the hope of earning a few yuan. So we shelled out for bags of yak butter, complete with spoons, and for white prayer scarves to be draped on one of the multitude of altars in the hope that some deity would accede to our wishes for a safe and successful expedition.
And we ate. Endlessly. For the Lhasa interlude hasn't just been about temples and monasteries. We are aiming to build up our strength and build up a team spirit, forging important bonds that could mean the difference between life and death over the next couple of months.
Team building will continue as we drive to Xigatse today and on to Tingri tomorrow, arriving at our first major goal - the 5,200 metre base camp - on Friday.
The Grania Willis Everest Challenge 2005, supported by The North Face, SORD Data Systems, Peak Centre Ireland and Great Outdoors, is in aid of the Irish Hospice Foundation and the Friends of St Luke's Hospital. Donations to the fund can be made to the Permanent TSB, Blackrock, Co Dublin, account number 86877341, sort code 99-06-44. Visa card donations to 01-2303009.