China Travel Forum

[Carver]

hi there:

I’ve been reading this forum for a while now in anticipation for my own trip. A friend and me (both Canadian) will be flying into Hong Kong in mid-February and flying out at the end of April. Our initial plan was to fly immediately from HK to Mumbai/Bombay and begin doing India in February, with a tentative plan to fly to Kathmandu from Delhi in mid-March (doing Goa, Mangalore, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Maduri, Puducherry, Chennai, Delhi, Jaipur and Agra in between).

From Kathmandu we planned to fly to Lhasa and start doing Tibet and the rest of China at the end of March.

After reading here about the difficulties of entering Tibet from Nepal, however (and the relative ease of doing it from within China), we have been thinking of reversing our trip and going from HK to Beijing, taking the train to Lhasa, flying to Kathmandu, flying to Delhi and then making our way to Mumbai.

It also appears that one-way plane tickets from Mumbai to HK in April are cheaper than HK to Mumbai in February (and we wouldn't have to deal with any questions about our one-way ticket). I think the main advantage of our initial plan was the weather: being in India in February-March is probably better than being in China at this time and the same can be said about being in China in March-April rather than India

What do more experienced travellers think? Are there other considerations we haven't thought of yet? Thank you in advance.

[Joseph Kong]

You've got a pretty good understanding of the situation. It will be easier and cheaper to start in China and then go to Nepal and India. The only down side is the weather. But as I see it, you don't really have a choice; you have to do China first.

[gloria]

hi carver,

I think 2 1/2 months are a good basis for your trip, of course the longer the better, but one is always restricted right?! Hong Kong is a great place to start, a wonderful city.
I would advise you to spend as much time as you can in India. I have been there myself and really loved the country. Luckily I have a friend there whose father owns a India property agency and so I didn't need to pay for any hotels, but accommodation is generally pretty cheap in India.

Delhi to Kathmandu should also be no problem and you should easily be able to proceed from there. I think your plan so far is good, but don't be tempted to fit in as much as you can, otherwise you will be in a rush all through your vacation.