Some last thoughts on travel to the Tibet autonous region China

Tibet recommendation - Go Now!

If you are interested in seeing the wonderful Tibetan culture you need to get there as soon as possible. It is changing quickly with the new railroad into the area which will be extended across the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). The Chinese government pays for 10,000 Chinese tourists to come to Tibet in hopes of relocating some of them into the area. Chinese armed police posts and riot squad teams ( 6 armed men on a team) occupy every street corner in the old town including the roof top areas in some places. It is of course sensible not to try to photograph any of this and just try to stay out of their way when they are marching down the street. You will also see police in other cities of the TIbet but not as dense or significantly armed as in the old city. Lhasa is a very unique and interesting city as we have noted throughout the blog. Spend a few days in the city as it is well worth seeing. The country side is lovely and the people friendly. The lovely architectural features of the Tibetan homes continues all the way to the border with Nepal. You notice you are no longer in Tibet just by looking at the houses. We had been thinking of doing a hike and if we had we were looking at the Ganden to Sayme route. After all we saw and our guide Sonam pointing out the other popular hiking valleys we think this would have been the best.

Trip Preparation:
Be prepared for the altitude issues and come with medication from your home country as not all medications can be found in TAR. The homeopathic medication alone might not be enough for most of us. Read the center for disease control and guidebooks for advice and print it out and carry it with you along with the medication to treat the moderate to severe AMS. Carry some canisters of oxygen with you, they are reasonably priced and can make a difference. Assume you will get a cold because of the close quarters with many people at all the sights, pilgrims and tourists, and changing temperatures, wind, etc. Take vitamin C, our Dr. gave us 1000 mg capsules to take everyday. The air is very dry so bring nasal decongestant (so you are not taking more pills than necessary) and also nasal saline solution, moisturizer and sunscreen, body lotion and hair conditioner. As your throat gets dry, throat lozengers and gum are helpful. I had read an excellent commentary on trip advisor by a woman who had just made a trip to TAR. She advised carrying Maxi feminine products in order to deal with lack of bathrooms, diarrhea and needing to travel. This was good advice and we are now prepared in such a way. We also had bought medical evacuation insurance for this entire trip to provide us with some peace of mind and would definitely recommend this additional insurance.

The upside of the dry environment is that your laundry will dry very quickly if you have enough airspace between your garments. We used an elastic line with clips and also 2 spare hiking boot shoe laces tied together and either clips or safety pins to hang the clothes on this line.

There are no elevators but many steep stairs and few with handrails, so life is all up and down. You need to be steady on your feet and fairly fit to manage this environment. Hiking poles and walking canes can be purchased in Lhasa. Pedestrian areas have fairly good walking areas. In the monasteries the stairs and hand rails can be slippery because of spilt yak butter and yak butter on hands that have used the hand rails. When we went to the Potala Palace, on our first day in Lhasa we used a walking stick each and were very happy to have with us. Our guide Sonam advised that was no reason to have done the Potala on the first day and advised that had the guide been more experienced he would have known that. After all sight seeing use your hand sanitizer to remove germs and yak butter from handrails. We also carried a hiking stick when we went to Ganden Monastery, and we used both poles crossing the muddy rocky landslide.

Best kind of suitcase - with wheels or not- a backpack with wheels would be the best option.
Clothing: We carried a heavy gortex jacket with inner fleece lining. We needed the full jacket at Lake Nam-tso and also at EBC. In Lhasa we wore the jacket shell alone in the mornings and evenings. We borrowed umbrellas from the hotel but we had brought our own. We used our fleece hats only at EBC, but could have made do with just a handkerchief in our head. The object was to stop your head from getting damp. Light weight gloves and long underwear were good choices. The long underwear could double as pajamas. We carried outer weather pants but they were not necessary. An inflatable neck pillow was wonderful for in the car and a savior in that bumpy decent from ECB!

Technology: Put on a VPN to iPad etc before leaving USA so that you can access Facebook and blog if you are so inclined. Skype and FaceTime worked but noted that conversations were being recorded. We added $10 to our account so that we could send text messages and call to let family know to turn on their Skype so we could talk. As stated on many websites, assume all emails, Skype etc are monitored. If you are planning on doing a blog set it up to allow for email posts as this is the only way you can post while in China. We were able to post video clips from the hotel in Lhasa, we see now that they have posted. However the ones we posted after Lhasa we can not see. Will have to get feedback from family and friends in other parts of the world if they can see them from their locations. There are no t-mobile data agreements here now in Nepal or going forward into Bhutan, which is disappointing.

The Tibetan Autonomous Region is well worth seeing so don't wait too long and go while you are healthy.