Sri Lanka- India -Nepal -Tibet- China

Hi all,

I was just considering how exciting the following trip would be:

Fly to Sri Lanka and travel around for a while. Fly to Trivandrum in south India and travel around for a while. Cross the border into Nepal. Cross into Tibet and end up flying home from Shanghai, Beijing or Hong Kong.

My questions are these-

Can you cross the border from Nepal into Tibet and then cross from Tibet into Western China? Do you still have to be on an organised tour to obtain visas for Tibet?

I realise it is a hard trip once you reach the Nepal-Tibet-China part but crikey wouldn't it be exciting?

If anyone has any advice on the border crossings between Nepal, Tibet and China please let me know.

I was considering a 6 month trip to Latin America but this itinerary sounds much more exciting to me now - isn't travel a funny thing?

Joey

or vice versa if its easier to travel from China into Tibet and then cross into Nepal.

I know there are trains into Tibet on that crazy new railway - has anyone done this? I would have serious concerns about altitude sickness

Joey
The train from Beijing to tibet is oxygen assisted else there would be a train filled with very sick people. The altitude reaches about 5500 metres at its highest, but you will be pretty oblivious to this and very safe.

best to go from Chengdu (China) to tibet, rather than Nepal and into Tibet and check out the visa situation there. there will always be exceptions to the rule, but generally accepted u still need a tour.

Me

yeah I read about the train and its oxygen assistance etc.. but you still get out in tibet and are therefore rather high up. Do you not put yourself at risk of altitude sickness upon departing the train? You have not had much of a chance to acclimatise.

Joey

Even before I read your thread I thought that sounds like one amazing trip! A real trip of a lifetime, Maybe oneday I may just give that ago, just maybe...

I am planning virtually the same route for next year. We will start in India though and from China travel down into vietnam and onwards from there. As far as I know from the research I have done you do need to be on an organised tour. You can book a budget tour but these are still apparently quite pricey comparatively. There used to be a cheap bus, perhaps, hopefully this will start up again before we get there, fingers crossed. In the end I think we will have to just pay for a tour, but we will see when we get to Nepal. Good luck with your planning and if you come across any usefull information I would be very interested.

this definitely look awesome. i love to do the same in near future. good luck with your trip
Google

to travel tibet, it's very important to get a tibet permit according to the local law, whether go from Nepal, or from china.

altitude sickness is not very common happens ,and for the train has air conditioner which controls condition of air in the train, it has just a little help for altitude sickness.

strongpoint for travelling by train is that you can see some good view near the railway, it may be an excellent experience beside tibet.

for tibet is a part of china now, get to tibet from china is more easier then nepal . people usually fly from nepal to chengdu(in china, sichuan province), and then go from chengdu to tibet ,either by train or by air. it's a easy and comfortable way, chengdu is also loved by many travellers for its environment and culture, if you have one free time here, you even can go to see the pandas, chengdu has the world's most pandas, those cute animals are so lovely like angels!!!

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I'm thinking of that same route... India, Nepal, Tibet through to Beijing before maybe a flight to Seoul and Tokyo.

But whats the deal with travel from India > Nepal > Tibet, Its all buses Im guessing? What are the official crossings?

dear Pancho-Mat
pleased U have interest in tibet, there is flight from Katmandu to lhasa every tuesday, thursday and saturday . for the official crossings, our website has description about that. but links can't appears here according to the rules, i will attach the detailed descriptions on my blog , sorry for troubles