China Travel Forum

[Jim]

Hello Everyone.

I've been thinking about planning a trip to Mt Kailash in Tibet to do a bit of soul searching and get away from everything for a while and I'd like some advice from those of you who may have made the trip already. Key things I'd be interested in hearing your experiences on are:
* what time of year you went what you thought the good and bads points were;
* how you got there (flights and connections in to Lhasa or overland?);
* what you brought you wished you hadn't and what you wish you had;
* did you go on your own or with a group; and
* how you went about sorting out the plethora of permits that seem necessary for Mt Kailash.
For various reasons (work, family, weather, avoiding crowds, etc.) I was planning on travelling in late April which, I thought, should strike a decent balance; has anyone else made the trip around this time of year? I'd be interested in your views on the weather, how it impacted (or not) your trip, general experiences and so on. Also the focus of this trip is really about trying to get away from everything and absorb some of the culture/atmosphere at Mt Kailash. Consequently, I'm not as interested in side tracking around other parts of Tibet or Nepal.
One area I'd really appreciate some of your experiences on would be actually getting there. LP Tibet makes it seem like a bit of a trial in and of itself. I'm in the UK so I'm looking at flights from London. Shanghai seems like the best bet (around £400) as it's the cheapest gateway I've found (e.g. Delhi - £500, Singapore - £600, Hong Kong - £700). The one exception has been Kathmandu which I found for £400 with Gulf Air, but given the recent dissolution of the government there this week I'm less inclined to go via Nepal if I have to travel overland to Tibet. Another issues seems to be the costs of flights with China, they're all coming up at £200! So, that's another £400 for a flights Shanghi-Chengdu-Lhasa-Chengdu-Shanghi...
Any and all advice or comments are welcome; either here or via email.

Thanks in advance,

[Herbert]

You have to arrange all the Tibet stuff once you're in China anyway, so take whatever cheap flight you find, get to Chengdu, and you'll see it is easy enough to get to Tibet. Once there in Lhasa, you will visit the travel agency and put up notices at the guesthouses, and put together a group to share the trip to Kailish! Have fun

[Guest]

You can contact tibetfit@gmail.com to arrange valid tibet permit for you, flight from Chengdu to Tibet, accomodation and transport for you, even tour.