If all goes according to plan I'll finally be moving on from Nepal tomorrow - on a 6 a.m. bus for the border with Tibet and then transferring to a Landcruiser for the rest of the 5 day journey across the Tibetan plateau to Lhasa - stopping for the first overnight at the village of Nyalam. This is an organised tour for a group of 6 - 8 people - because this is just about the only way to travel in Tibet. When we get to Lhasa the package includes a couple of days sightseeing there.
Lhasa is at 3700 metres and the route is pretty high all the way, going up over 5000 metres at some points. It will be interesting to see how the body acclimatises simply by driving to these altitudes. But I'm sure that the scenery will compensate for any little difficulties on that front.
Of course I have some mixed feelings in moving on. There are many things I like a lot about Nepal and the Nepalese people, and I have made some good friends here. I'm not going to make a long list of pros and cons here, but I won't be sorry to leave the Kathmandu traffic and power cuts behind!
When entering Tibet you also need to have an exit plan (and booking). In my case I've gone for a flight to Chengdu in Sichuan province. After that the plans are still pretty vague, but will almost certainly involve some rail travel for a change, probably taking in Kunming or Naning in the south before heading into northern VietNam. I have no idea what the internet access will be like in the remote parts of Tibet. Probably pretty poor I suspect, but I will post an update when I get the chance.
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Safe journey, Alan. It all sounds so interesting! Looking forward to the next episode.
ReplyDeleteHey, your forthcoming trip to Tibet and onwards sounds incredibly exciting. I hope you really enjoy the scenery and experience and the travel goes smoothly. Look forward to whatever news you can send back. Nicola is off to Tanzanier shortly, for a month and Janice Clyne and I are off to Arran tomorrow for the weekend to mark the year since Dad passed away .. take care. Elaine & Chloe xx
ReplyDeleteHey!
ReplyDeleteBeen reading some of your posts now instead of studying for my exam tomorrow. Seems like you´ve had a great time in Nepal this time as well! I´m also happy to hear that you´re going to Tibet. It´s problably very interesting!
I´m definitly going back some day as well. Starting to feel the urge to move out again, been in Sweden for a year now. That´s a long time after one´s been moving from city to city/ country to country for a while.
Hope all is well and that you´ll discover more garlic soup in Lhasa. // Björn (swe)