Return to Tibet


Departing Kathmandu airport

My first trip to Tibet was in 2006. We went by 4 wheel drive from Kathmandu to Kodari, the border crossing into Tibet, stayed in Zhangmu at 2300 metres and climbed the next day to Nyalam, over 5000m passes to Tingri.

Kodari is now closed and has been since the 2015 earthquake. Zhangmu is now a badly damaged ghost town as it has no traffic. Flying to Lhasa is now the best option.

An hour flight over the Himalayas
By road was not the best way to access Tibet as it required fast acclimatization to altitude and caused AMS for many people. It is less than an hour flight from Kathmandu, Nepal.

Local Lhasa market


Lhasa main road
I had already planned a culture tour to Bhutan and some of the participants said why don't we go to Tibet while we are in that part of the world. So I set out to organize this group to Kathmandu for the required 3 days to submit to the Chinese Embassy our Visa application, passports, group travel permits and route permits for travel to Tibet. With expert guidance from our local travel agent, we secured all necessary permits and a flight to Lhasa in China, Tibet! Flying to Lhasa and spending the first 3 days acclimatizing to the 3600m altitude is now the recommended route, unless one is accessing Tibet from China (Chengdu, Guangzhou, etc).

Brahmaputra River
When one flies into Lhasa, the international airport is actually located 50km outside Lhasa in Gangtok requiring a 1 hour bus ride into town. You get a great feeling of the immensity of the Tibet landscape as well as good views of the Brahmaputra (Tsangpo) and Lhasa rivers.


What did I see?

I  was amazed at the progress the Chinese have made in Lhasa roads and building as well as all the road construction we experienced in 2006, especially paving the Friendship Highway, has mostly been complete. Signage in Lhasa, once all Chinese is now in both Tibetan and Chinese, with a little English here and there for foreign tourists!

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