Travel Stories - China

The visa for Tibet was unfortunaely only valid for 15 days. Since you are not allowed to travel this region of China - refugee or occupied province of China - on your own, I booked a 5 day trip from Kathmandu in Nepal to the capital of Tibet - Lhasa. During this compulsory trip I found a group of compatriots with whom we rented a jeep for the days after. With a jeep including driver, we have put together a homemade trip around Lhasa for three days. After a few more days in the capital, it was time to leave Tibet again. After having placed some prizes and possibilities side by side, I decide to travel back to Nepal with the two Dutch ladies with whom I have been traveling for days. We find another Dutch couple and an Israeli boy willing to jointly bear the costs.

After two hours of waiting in vain for the jeep at our hostel, in the end it comes to our relief. We put our stuff into the jeep, meet the driver and tear Lhasa out - we have to cover a gigantic land surface in three days. In Sigatse we have lunch and arrive late in the evening in the town of Latse where we dine and sleep tonight. Because we want to visit "Mount Everest Basecamp" during our return trip to Nepal, we get up early again the next day. On the way we stop to stretch our legs at a pass where immediately a dozen local people come to us and ask for money and try to sell us some stuff we don’t need. One has come here by horse and cart and we only see what bales are on his cart. We drive until far into the afternoon with the last stretch being a road with snow and mud. Finally we arrive at the base camp "Qomolangma" where climbers get ready to face the highest mountain in the world. It is of course strange that we are at 5180 meters altitude and actually not climbed at all coming from the Tibetan plateau. From the plateau we drove to the Tibetan-Nepalese border and there we park the jeep.

There is a lot of wind here and we see a number of colored tents criss-cross on a rocky terrain. Further on are some larger tents where people apparently eat and are during the day. The people who camp here will stay here for a few days on average to acclimatize. Get used to the harsh conditions, the altitude and a plan to climb the 8850 meter high mountain. The highest in the world. We walk to the monument that is here to prove that we have actually been here and then quickly fled back to the jeep again.  

After an hour we drive back to the main road because we can not cross the border here (unfortunately). We drive that day to the city of Tingri where we also have dinner. Day three starts early again and after a quick breakfast we are already in the jeep at eight o'clock. It is after lunchtime and we leave the bare dusty plateau after almost two weeks and enter the green valley. There we recognize the bridge that forms the border between Tibet and Nepal. A little later we get another stamp for Nepal and drive towards Kathmandu. We’re back.