Tibet

[nev]

Has anyone been?

Any recommendations for a hotel, places not to miss, travel agent, method of travel are welcome.

I heard it's better to go by train on the way up, so the risk of altitude sickness is minimized. Has anyone taken the train to Lhasa?

Thanks in advance

[Tas]

Pretty sure colleagues (Aus&his wife, & separately a Kiwi dutchman) have done that train trip whilst based in mainland China, isn't that line pretty new? They did on their retirement leg, so not able to ask directly now, but pretty sure I hadn't heard anything bad per se. There is a comment about the touristy nature of the end point, for a chinese tourist target market.

[nev]

Thanks Tas! I'm worried that the train ride will be boring and (maybe) dangerous. I've been on trains in Malaysia and Indonesia where pickpockets are everywhere, and if you fall asleep you'll most likely get robbed. I'm hoping that's not the case with China. Any thoughts? Have you been on a train in China?

Also, you've been to China so often you'd probably be able to tell me what I should pack I've never been to China so I'm planning to pack like I would when I travel to third-world countries. Is there anything I must bring myself, like lots of pocket tissues (because a lot of third-world countries don't provide any in their toilets).

[Tas]

I've probably got a few thoughts if you don't mind waiting for a relaxed moment. China is shockingly advance new world in some areas, and then 3rd World Developing in others, so a little research worth it. But start with the tissue packs for sure, and wet wipes!

Last time I did a really big train journey was in 1994, 36hrs and 24 hrs, and smaller 6hrs went in both ordinary class and so called first class - I infinitely preferred the ordinary class at the time, but was in a large group so we slept in groups of 6. The pickpocket thing will be true of any of that sort of travel, irrespective of your location in the world (I recall going back to check something in the cabin after we'd left as a group, and it was like a group of ants had swarmed the bedding areas looking for lost goodies, but we're talking 17yrs ago now). Now you can travel on the fantastic fast trains. I did one from Shanghai to Wuxi with a consultant earlier in the year, and it was an extremely civilised way to travel with a little table between us, my lovely consultant friend who was texting to his wife constantly how fast we were going, poor wifey. I've got to say I've next to no trouble with a sense of safety in +6yrs of travel in the region (and I do terrible things like leaving my handbag on the floor on planes while going to the loo) - caveat being I do get a decent amount of company driver transport to help with that. There are a set of self preservation rules that if you haven't learnt about travelling on your own yet, then you're unteachable

How many hours are you travelling, and what are the travel times?

[nev]

Yup take your time, I'm still doing some research about it, and won't go until later this year or early next year (although going there in winter is probably not a very smart thing to do). I'll be waiting for your thoughts.

I'll probably be traveling with some close friends, so we'll take turns to sleep and keep watch if necessary

I read up about the train journey; it's a new line called the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the world's highest railway line, with oxygen pump into the cabin. The ride is 14 hours from Goldmud in Qinghai to Lhasa in Tibet. It looks a bit of a runaround because I'll have to fly from Singapore to Xi'an, then Xi'an to Golmud, then take the train to Lhasa.

If I go by plane, it looks less complicated: Singapore-Chengdu-Lhasa. It'll probably shave off half a day or something too, but I'm worried about altitude sickness.

I'm also looking at doing Bhutan back to back, but I'll have to fly Lhasa-Kathmandu-Paro. I'll be spending 30% of my holiday flying all over the place!!

[Morrolan]

high speed trains in China... China slows down bullet trains because they are unsafe...