Blogs from Friendship Highway, Tibet, China, Asia - page 2

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 often! Stopped in the truck at Nepal-Tibetan 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 played cards while we were waiting for the otheers to have lunch.Then we had mixed noodles - so yum. Tibetan Prayer flags drapped all across the gorge. Its so cool. Makes everything so beauiful and colourful....and just cool. Going higher and higher. Went for walk in the afternoon in Zhangmu. Rooms are quite nice, but into squat toilet territory now....ones that dont ... read more

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, here they work on the whole 300 miles in one go which means 290 miles of diversions and 10 miles on the road in 10 yard stretches - I am not exaggerating!!! The road appears to need drainage channels across it at 100 yard intervals (=100 meter intervals for the metric thinkers). So every 100 yards there is an enormous ditch across the road ... read more

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... But we were lucky again as we met a group of Japanese trekkers in our youth hostel and one of them spoke OK Chinese. So he could pretend at the counter that he is Chinese, with a kinda immigrant accent. And he did this for us free of charge! So the guys went with him to the Xining station and came back with our tickets! Yuhhheee! Travellers ... read more

Travels through Tibet... read more

Known as the "Roof of the World", Tibet is one of the most beguiling and exotic travel destinations on earth. For the traveler looking for a world untouched by time, Tibet will stun and amaze you with its diversity and WILD beauty. Heinrich Harrer—portrayed by Brad Pitt in Seven Years in Tibet tells us in his classic book about the spectacular experience he had among this people. Since World War II and the invasion and occupation of Tibet, you would assume the Tibetans he described would be no more, but amazingly these determined folks persevere, holding dear to their traditions, religious beliefs and customs. Come to WILD Tibet before it fades into the overwhelmingly Chinese influence, meet these astounding people who have inhabited this magnificent land mass for thousands of years. Surrounded by vast mountain ranges ... read more