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Hi I am interesting in training from Xi-an to Lhasa. I hope to hang around Lhasa for a few days, looking around the city, get used the to altitude, that sort of thing. Then I want to head up on a tour of some of the sites in the region, 4-5 days, eventually ending at the Nepal border where I would catch a bus to Khatmandu. Seems simple enough right? Questions: 1. Is it difficult to get a train ticket from Xi-an to Lhasa? (someone mentioned on another thread that it was) 2. I want to avoid paying for a tour guide while in Lhasa city to help cut the costs of the whole experience, is this possible? Is it advisable? 3. What will the cost of the 4-5 days tour/vehicle and driver cost to the Nepal border? And should I just book this VIA the message boards in Lhasa? 4. Is the trip from the Nepal border to Khatmandu a viable option?
1. You realize of course that you will need a special visa to visit Tibet. 2. Xi'an is in the middle of no where. So is Tibet. We took a train from Xi'an to Beijing a number of years ago - this was ~ 24 hour journey. We took a "first class" sleeper car. We still refer to the train journey as our "adventure in grime". First (and last time) I had stir-fried liver for breakfast in the train dining car. We flew to Lhasa from Chengdu when we went. 3. No guide - you can probably get to the Potala Palace and Sera, but most of the other key sites are out of town. Unless you are a seasoned traveller in that part of the world, I would highly recommend getting a Tibetan (rather than Chinese) guide. Our guide got us into places we could not have even dreamed of getting into. Fun stuff too - got blessed by the Horse-headed Buddha after hours and got blessed by a Tibetan nun at a monastery with a view of Mt Everest. 4. You may be overly optimistic on how fast you can travel. No paved roads past Lhasa. Vehicle of choice is a Toyota Land Cruiser and someone else to drive it. 5. You will be at 4000 - 5000+ metres on your trip. You will find that you can only do things about 1/3 as fast as you would normally expect too. If you are unlucky, like we were, you will have a splitting headache during your entire stay in Tibet (which was 2 weeks for us). 6. We ran into some folks that had taken the bus from Nepal to Tibet, so I imagine they have to run the other way as well. 7. Getting into the Mt Everest region was an additional visa (and yes they check). The start of my video shows the first check point and they were building a second one further up the road 5 years ago, so I would assume it is done by now. "Trip to Mt Everest Base Camp" - Tibet Video by GrumpyDiver 8. Remember - 3 visas - one for China, one for Tibet and one for Everest Region. 9. Can't tell you the prices. We (2 of us) did not book a tour per se, but came up with an itinerary and hired a guide and driver from home (used a Chinese travel agent in Canada to make the arrangements). It was not cheap, but was considerably less expensive than group tours.
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1) Yes, especially if you're not arranging this in advance. You'll need to sign up with a tour to get the TTB permit along with the train ticket. 2) Not possible AFAIK. 4) Bus to Kathmandu? I don't think there's a public bus.
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1 advise booking in advance 2 as a foreigner, you need a travel agent 3 rent a car or take a bus from Lhasa via Shigatse to Zhangmu,a border city next to Nepal
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If you check in the Tibet forum, I think you will find that the answer is no. From all reports, Chinese officials are... more
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