http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Tibet , Friendship Highway en-us Sun, 19 May 2013 14:45:21 +0000 Sun, 19 May 2013 14:45:21 +0000 We got up early again packed had some breakfast and then drove towards the boarder. We were in the car most of the day apart from stopping for the countless checkpoints the loo and occasional picture opportunity. We saw more of Tibetan lifestyle wildlife amazing views and drove on some exceptionally high passes including Gyatsola pass 5100m We saw lots of the snow covered Himalayan range http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-762603.html Yamdrok Lake is one of the three largest sacred lakes in Tibet . It is over 72 km 45 mi long. The lake is surrounded by many snowcapped mountains and is fed by numerous small streams. The lake does have an outlet stream at its far western end.Around 90 km to the west of the lake lies the Tibetan town of Gyantse and Lhasa is a hundred km to the northeast. According to local mythology Yamdrok Yu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-726951.html Hi EverybodyIn this blog I am going to let the photos tell the story. I am starting with the train from Ulan Bator. The landscape changed many times as we traveled across the Gobi Desert to Beijing.Walt thought that it would be better if I published the blogs for Beijing and Tibet after leaving China. The Communist government blocks many internet sites including Facebook Firefox newspaper s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-657536.html So nach etwas lngerer Internetpause hier wieder ein neuer Eintrag mit dem ersten Teil der etwas verspteten Tibet Fotos. TIBET IST DAS DACH DER WELT Und nach Tibet gehen die Drachen zum schlafen zumindest hatte es den Anschein wenn ich mir die Bergformationen immer betrachtet habe. Eine unglaublich schne Landschaft breitete sich aus ab dem Zeitpunkt wo man den Friendship Highway von Kath http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-657375.html On my first day in Nepal I was seriously disorientated and didn39t have a clue where I was when I woke up. I had to go down and fill in some forms to sort out my visa for Tibet. As I was still half asleep my poor tour leader only got grunts out of me.He told me there was going to be an optional tour at 9am if I wanted to go where we39d go to an important Buddhist temple and then a Hindu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-619237.html Chinese formalities dressed in pink pigtails...I miss China she was lovelyI wait patiently whilst formalities take place inside her head she looks at my passport for an uncomfortable amount of time without blinking or showing any signs of emotion. Flicking back and forward through the pages looking for her favorite part. the bit that was missing so that she could execute her next line of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-554818.html With tibetian prayers fresh in my heart I left to enter the world of buses and bus tickets once again and to head to the border of Nepal in anticipation to explore the heart of the Himalayas the roof of the world....Sagamartha yes I am coming.I would like a bus ticket pleeeeeaseInside the familiar cold grey walls of the bus ticket office I walked confidently up to the ticket booth I go Nepa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-554817.html The decision to go to Tibet was a difficult one. On one hand we really wanted to see the culture and environment before it is completely changed on the other hand we weren't too keen on being forced onto a prearranged guided tour and given a carefully selected view of the country courtesy of the Chinese Government.In the end our desire to see the country won and we signed up for a very typical http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-541627.html 992010 Thursday Today was a very blue sky kind of day. The crystal blue sky just added to the beautiful scenery we saw on our drive from Tingri to Zhangmu which is the border town with Nepal.We thought it would be a hohum drive and boy were we surprised. The BEST scenery yet We drove about an hour out of Tingri and then had a very clear view of Mt. Everest. We pulled over and took http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-532606.html Went up to 5100 metres to aclimatise...felt alright when we began the truck up to the pass.... but once I had gotten off the truck I was so sick that I couldnt see straight. My mind would not work. I was trying to focus on how you say hello in Nepalese Namaste but i couldnt work it out...I kept thinking hgow do I spell Namaste. nutter.Had a crazy headache and spewed in 2 bags on the truck a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-525541.html People along the way are so friendly.As we pass through the vilages in our big orange truck all the locals are so excited and waving.Hmmm big orange trucks with whiteys mustnt pass through here oftenStopped in the truck at NepalTibetan border. Headed for Zhangmu. The roads here are crazy narrow muddy and rocky with no sides.Crossed the border took awhile. Dan and I looked after the bags and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-525539.html We through getting up onto the Tibetan plateau was going to be the difficult part of the journey. Obviously riding across the plateau on gravel roads at 4500m was never going to be a walk in the park but we anticipated it being straightforward. What we didn't anticipate was 300 miles of road works. Back home they'd work on one small stretch complete it and move onto the next stretch. Not here http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-520185.html On the way to EverestSunday 11th July 2010We set off on the Friendship Highway and it wasnt long before we stopped to see the biggest river in Tibet and then the dam and then the Kharola Glacier 5560m. Its a pity the sky was so grey as there was no contrast between the sky and the glacier which made it hard to photograph. It was very impressive though and Eoin decided to dip his head http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-515405.html Shishapangma is one of the lovely mountain of Tibet which lies in its Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China. Only very few people in the world have an idea about the Shishapangma before Chinese opened Tibet to the western summiteers in 1978 A.D. The Tibetans regard it as the holy mountain. It is the youngest among fourteen mountains above 8000m. That lies in high Himalayan ranges. Th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-498030.html The Nangpa La is the key to an historic trading route still used illicitly today to bring wood from the Khumbu forests of Nepal to build houses on the barren plains of Tibet. Mountaineers driving south from Tingri toward this pass en route ChoOyu or in more recent years the Rongshar Chu and the challenge of menlungtse 7181m will be taken by the scale of this deep divide in the Himalayan. Tingr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-498024.html Ok for the lucky ones who read this I deliberately published this entry silently just our of compassion for my parents. I think they wouldn't like reading certain parts too much....Tibet the uncensored sequel...In March 2008 there were huge riots in the streets in Lhasa. Since these riots guides and drivers are once more required. The military Chinese presence on the streets in Tibet is very cl http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-463888.html Riding the highest railway of the world Yes China is first in this one too not only with its population size.... It was a pretty interesting thing to get our train tickets from Xining to Lhasa. Apparently foreigners are not allowed to purchase train tickets at the train station to Tibet this can be only done via travel agents with a 60 commission charge... nice monopolistic situation... B http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-463672.html They have a saying in China that the only men who travel alone are pilgrims or madmen. Disagree if you will but I must be on some sort of pilgrimage then. Or perhaps I am a borderline maniac. By that I mean I am a maniac of borderlines. I can't get enough of fabled frontiers the wilder the better. Borders are the places where cultures clash and connect. Where clans go eyeball to eyeball breath http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-456500.html Thng Nm nm 2006 gia ma h nhng ni y vn c tuyt ri vn phi mc o khoc dy v c bnh xy th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-448048.html Travels through Tibet http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Friendship-Highway/blog-432270.html