Blogs from Friendship Highway, Tibet, China, Asia

Today was only a 30 km drive but a slow 3 hrs down to the Tibet/Nepal border town of Zhangmu (previously known as Dram). For the second day we continued down the Sun Kosi Gorge dropping a further 1300 mths for a combined 2800 mtrs over 95kms of winding road and continuous hairpin turns and dramatic dropaways. Today I had the co-drivers seat which was the best seat in the house although some of the dropaways were hold on to the seat of your pants stuff and evidence of broken barrier guards where some vehicles didnt make it. The outlook changes from frozen, barren, desolate Tibetan Plateau to a humid sub-tropical, dense, evergreen forest filled with waterfalls & a fast running river running through the gorge. The similarity of the rapid change reminded me of the ... read more

Weather is very stable at present with another cloudless deep blue sky on offer before some light cloud rolling in as usual in the afternoons. Today was another slow but interesting 7.5 hr 240 km drive to Shegar inside the Everest Nature Reserve. The route initially passed through small farming villages but quickly turned to barren rocky hills on either side of the road all the while gently climbing first to a peak of 4500 mtrs before dropping down again only to climb an even higher pass of 5200 mtrs. A 1000 mtr climb for the day. While the outlook was still rugged & remote the scene was changing as we rose the 2nd peak. Large patches of icy snow lay in sheltered areas and covered most of the rocky river bed with a tiny but ... read more

So, nach etwas längerer Internetpause hier wieder ein neuer Eintrag mit dem ersten Teil der etwas verspäteten 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 schöne Landschaft breitete sich aus ab dem Zeitpunkt wo man den Friendship Highway von Kathmandu (Nepal) befährt. Alle paar Kilometer verändert sich das Bild dieses Landes. Zuerst ging es mit dem Jeep bis zur Grenze, die Landschaft gesäumt mit bewaldeten Bergen und Wasserfällen. Dann zu Fuss über die Grenze an der es nach chinesischem Gesetz verboten ist Fotos zu machen. Die Strassen sind teilweise echt holprig gewesen da durch die Regenzeit immer wieder Erdrutsche stattfinden und teilweise rutschen da wirklich riesige Brocken durch die Gegend. Zum Glück blieben ... read more

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 pre-arranged 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 seven day budget tour of Tibet taking in Lhasa, Yamdrok-Tso Lake and Everest Base Camp before heading on down The Friendship Highway to the Tibet / Nepal border. As if we hadn't had enough of trains, we opted for the 48 hour train ride from Chengdu to Lhasa, sharing our sleeper cabin with a lovely French girl and shy German man. ... read more

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, and more when we got back. I was a bit better when we went down again, and up for dinner by that time. Although i was sick, the pass was beauitful, drapped in prayer flags and nobody around but a few random monks. The dogs are alot cuter up here compared to Kathmandu. Been here ... read more