Our cursed Tibetan road trip

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July 17th 2006

Published: July 19th 2006

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yaron and hagit

Everest

rarely is a week at home and going to work better then a week of

travel. at some points this week we had a feeling this was one of

those rare weeks....

to travel in Tibet outside Lhasa and the surrounding areas a western

traveler cannot just hop on a local bus like in the rest of China. one

reason being that the public transportation is not so good and doesn't

go to most touristy places but the main reason is the fact that to get

to most places one needs special permits that can be obtained only

with the help of travel agencies.

so we put up signs in the major backpacker hotels to look for 2 more

people to share a 7 day jeep tour with us. while putting up the 9th

sign we came across a nice English couple and we immediately

decided to go with them.

problem #1: driver doesn't want to go with us

we set an itinerary and a price with an agency for departure the next

day and they told

Tibet

kids on the road

us to come 2000 to meet the driver. he finally came

at 2200 saw us and the itinerary and walked out saying he doesn't

want to go for that price. he wanted 150USD more and because there

was a shortage in drives this week due to a pilgrimage from India he

thought he could get it. the agency told us "no problem" and that by

10AM there will be a driver. surprisingly there was one although the

agency told us all day that their driver was the only one available in

town.

problem #2: car breaks down after 2hr

This is probably the most expected problem. we don't think there is a

tour in Tibet that doesn't get into car troubles - but 2hr into the trip is

maybe a record! the car just stopped. the driver fiddled around with

the engine for an hour: poking, inserting, taking things apart and then

back to their places, taking spare parts out of the glove compartment

and very surprisingly it did the trick and we were back on the road

Tibet

every now and then we needed to stop due to sheep and goats on the road

problem #3: House arrest!!!!!!!!

we arrived to our first stop - Samya. we were happily surprised there

was a festival there and we immediately left the car to look around.

15min later a policeman met us and asked where our guide was. we

pointed to the empty car we left minutes before. we asked to see our

permits and we told him it was with the driver and that we got there

through and agency that took care of all the necessary paperwork.

while waiting for the driver to return he practiced his English and even

gave us a privet tour of the temple that was closed for that day. when

the driver failed to show after and hour he invited s for tea in the

restaurant next door and we waited.

2hr we waited. meanwhile the policeman was joined by his

commander and they both told us how bad it is if we were there

without a permit. how we would be breaking Chinese law and that we

would need to pay 600USD fine!

finally the driver

Samya

man walking and lighting weeds in the Kora

showed and to our surprise (and the police) he had

no permit. also, it appears we also needed an English speaking guide

to go to that place - which we didn't have. the whole group then went

to the commander of this 3 man force who was sleeping in a hotel

room. he again explained how bad it the situation was but after

talking to us for an hour and checking our passports we were told

that it was not our fault this happened and it was the agencies fault.

it seems we had been given a trail on the spot and we were found

innocent!

the commander sent us to find a hotel and told us not to talk to

anyone, not to take pictures and not leave the room! we were in

house arrest! what was worse was the fact we had no information of

what was happening except from talking to the police since we had no

cellular reception and the driver did not speak English

we were stuck in the hotel till morning not knowing what will happen

Lhasa

the sign we put up to look for anouther couple to travel with us.

to us. during the night a girl from the agency came from Lhasa (4hr

drive) and managed to bargain the fine down to 50USD. in the

morning the police came and told us we were free to go.

why we left only 10hr later is still a mystery. first, the driver was

detained. then we needed to take photocopies of our passports in the

next town (1hr away). then t was lunch time and we couldn't find the

policemen. we finally left at 1600 a day late on our schedule and

without seeing much of Samya

problem #4: making up for lost time.

we then had BIG argument with the agency how to continue the trip

that was 1 day behind. we wanted them to add an extra day and they

said no and that if we wanted we could return to Lhasa and pay only

for the 2 days we already did!!

also, they advised us not to go to Sakya - a place our book highly

recommends - because that way we could make up

Lhasa

selling yak butter on the street

the time lost. we

understood they did not arrange the proper permits for Sakya and

after much frustration we took their "advice". we still needed to ride 9

hr that day to make up for the lost time. since we started at 1600 we

couldn't and we ended up driving till 2100 and then crashing to sleep

in a restaurant on the way!

problem #5: road closed

still 1/2 a day behind schedule after giving up on visiting Sakya we

continued on our way. but in midday of the 4th day we came across a

road block. the road was being repaired is will be closed till 1930! we

would loose yet another day!

we couldn't afford that so the driver took to the car a small boy 4-5

years old. he acted as a guide in the mountains and rivers of the area.

the driver followed him for 30min using his 4 wheel drive for the first

time on the trip to bypass the road block. we ended up 400m behind

the road block and continued on our way.

breakdown

after 2hr the car stopped!

we saw road work but it did

not interfere with our driving.

problem #6: Ajanta gets sick

Ajanta, the girl we were traveling with, felt bad from the 2nd day of

the tour. but at the end of the 4th day, before we were to go up to

Everest-base-camp, she decided she needed to stay another day

without travel before going on. we respected that decision. only

problem was that she decided to do the day of rest in a one-street,

dusty, boring, dirty town . we could NOT stay in that place 1hr more

without being crazy! we decided we had to leave the next day. we

befriended 2 french girls traveling on there own with a driver and a

guide. they had 1 place in the jeep and we pleaded them to let us on.

they really wanted to say "no" but we left them no option of that and

they accepted. their driver wanted us to pay 25USD "insurance

against the police" and we accepted since it would have given us an

extra night at Everest. Hagit sat

On the way to Samya

the views

in the empty chair and Yaron the the

trunk with the bags and we are off to Everest,,,,

problem #7: EVACUATION!!!

the moment we arrived to base-camp Hagit started to feel ill. first she

went to sleep in the room we got, then she had to go to the toilet

constantly and finally she started to vomit. although we were 99%!<(MISSING)br>
sure it was "only" food poisoning we also considered a 1%!c(MISSING)hange it

was due to the height at the camp (5000m). if that was the case then

it could have been very dangerous to sty in the height. after 4hr her

situation went from bad to worse we decided we cannot risk it and we

needed to get off the mountain! but we had no driver. Yaron looked

around for a driver and they all saw our situation and asked for

100USD for the 1hr ride! finally we found a driver that was leaving

anyway and he wanted only 50USD and we went with him

problem #8 Stuck with no money.

after

Samya Festival

these are the photos we took befor the police caught us..

1hr of riding we were back down to under 4000m in a town that

is so primitive that if you imaging the most remote place you ever saw

on TV it is still better then where we were. the houses were no better

then pig-holes. the children ran naked in the street with green stuff

out of their noses. the toilets were breading grounds for new

diseases and the room we found was so dusty, dirty and rundown

that it was probably better to sleep in the street if not for the large

groups of dogs that were terrorizing the town. not a place to recover

from being sick!

what was worse was that we did not calculate correctly how much

money we had and after paying the 50USD for the drive to get off

Everest we were left with less then 10USD of local currency in our

pockets. (dollars are NOT legal tended in places like this - i think

beads are better then dollars!)

we set up with our group to meet us at Everest the next day and our

Samya Festival

monk dressed up as a demond guarding the buddha

only way out was to wait for the car to pass through the city and stop

it on the way. so at 8AM we were on the road waiting for our car to

pass (Hagit was better - but we were not sure whether we could go

back to Everest so soon)

luckily the driver that took us off the mountain told our driver where

we were and he also looked for us and we met our group.

with both Hagit and Ajanta still a bit sick we decided to go back to

Everest but that we will go down the moment someone felt bad....

problem #9: Clouds!

We think all that would have been worthwhile if we just saw the

mountains. but we were in Everest-base-camp of 2 days and all that

time the mountain was full of clouds. the rest of the trip for 2 more

days near the Himalaya mountains was also cloudy and we did not

see 1 peak in the whole trip 😞

All this said...we still had

Samya Festival

toothless man enjoying the festival

an excellent time. we got to see how

Tibetans really live. we got to see how the Chinese police works in

Tibet. we had the challenge of overcoming these problems and still we

saw allot of Tibet as the pictures attached can show. it was probably

not a regular "Tibetan tour" experience but it was so unique that only

is we were on the road we could have experienced it.

so we guess we still rather be on the road then being in the office !

Tips for orgenizing a trip in Tibet

1. know that the police presence and hard inforcment meens you

cannot be spontanious

2. know that since you will need to rent a car to everywhere you go

this trip will be very expensive especially if you have an emergency

3. do not go to the F.I.T travel agency in the Banak Shol Hostel

Additional photos below

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