Planning

Guide Books and maps -- The Lonely Planet Tibet 4th (published March 1999) was excellent. Lonely Planet also maintains a website with current information about visas, etc. We bought a map of the Friendship Highway in Lhasa that provided a little more detail than the guide book maps, but a better map would have been very useful. The Tibet Travel Adventure Guide by Michael Buckley was poorly indexed and not helpful. A great book to learn about Tibetan culture before the Chinese "liberated" the Tibetans is Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer. The book is much better than the movie.

Do-it-yourself vs. a commercial tour -- Several commercial travel agencies offer this trip. KE Adventure seems to be the largest, taking several groups each year. We based our itinerary largely on KE's, adding two or three additional days to eliminate KE's killer days. The commercial trips are a nice way to go if you don't mind parting with a good bit of cash. The agency deals with the considerable hassles associated with vehicles, permits, cooking, navigation, group dynamics, etc. Rumors have it that KE even delivers hot coffee to your tent at 7 am. each morning. Although more effort, I prefer the adventure of doing it yourself.

Is a guide necessary? -- A guide is useful for dealing with the permits and communicating with the crew, but probably won't do much guiding. Our guide was useless. The Chinese may insist that you have one, but this can depend upon which Chinese official you are talking with. We met one other private cycling party on the trip. They were two Americans riding without a guide, support vehicle or Tibet Tourism Permit. They were caught riding without a permit and the police at Shigattse told them they were not allowed to ride bicycles on the Friendship Highway. However, the police fined them (US$50??) then allowed them to continue their trip.

Getting There -- We flew to Chengdu in southern China where we purchased a "tour" at a travel agency located at the Traffic Hotel. The next day we flew to Lhasa where we spent five days acclimating and touring local temples and monasteries. Although it have been easier to fly to Lhasa from Kathmandu, there are only two flights a week and the Tibetan Travel Permits are supposed to be considerably more difficult to obtain there (according to Lonely Planet). 

The Chinese -- The Chinese are like the Borg: "Self-determination is irrelevant, resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." The produces of Startrek probably created the Borg based upon the Chinese occupation of Tibet.  Unfortunately, very little of the Tibetan culture has survived forty years of Chinese occupation, and the Cultural Revolution didn't help. The major monasteries have been reduced to museums. We were told that all the monks remaining in the Potala had to sign declarations denouncing the Dali Lama. Those monks that refused had to leave.  Every city and town has at least one large Chinese military base. Chinese industrial plants in the Lhasa valley pump out massive quantities of smoke. The Chinese have rebuilt some of the monasteries and temples that they destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, but overall, the cultural experience of visiting Tibet is disappointing.

Picture: Chinese bring "civilization" to Lhasa. Located near the Potala. This building is probably under construction, but it is often difficult to tell. 

Buying a bike in Lhasa -- One adventurous rider joined our group in Lhasa and purchased the best bike he could find in Lhasa, a $100 Chinese mountain bike. It required major retrofitting to hold his 6'4" Dutch frame and was a never-ending source of breakdowns and frustration. Bring a bike with you. Full suspension helps smooth out the many miles of rocks and washboard.

Food -- Originally we had planned to do our own cooking, but when we found we could get a cook for US$11 per day who came with his own propane stove, pots and pressure cooker (for cooking rice at high altitude), we couldn't say no. He also helped with the food shopping in Lhasa. How was his cooking? Everyone lost weight (I lost 15 lbs., Thomas lost 20 lbs.) but we didn't have any major sickness.

Medical -- We put together a fairly extensive first aid kit, following the recommendations from Lonely Planet and our local travel nurses.

Dangers -- Children throwing rocks was the greatest danger. They weren't being malicious, just naughty, but a rock in the right place could cause a serious injury. Three or four of us were hit by small rocks. Altitude sickness is also a major concern, although we didn't have any problems in our party.

Toilets -- The following is a quote from the Lonely Plant Tibet: Chinese toilets might be fairly dismal, but Tibetan toilets make them look like little bowls of heaven. The standard model is a deep hole in the ground that bubbles and gives off noxious vapors. Many people (including women with long skirts) urinate and defecate in the street. On the plus side, Tibetans seem to like doing their business in high places, and there are some fabulous 'toilets with a view' in Tibet.

Picture: Toilet with a view, a double holer at The Potala. Built on the edge of a huge cliff -- just don't slip (or sniff). The view out the window was spectacular.

Traffic -- Not too bad, a few vehicles per hour. They do make a lot of dust.

Cost -- The "tour" from Chengdu to Lhasa cost about US$400 per person. This included a bus ride to the airport, a one-way air ticket, the all-important Tibetan Travel Permit and three days of sightseeing in Lhasa. The truck, driver, guide and cook came to 13,800 yuan (US$1,680), which we divided by seven people.

Travel Agency -- We booked the truck, etc. from Norbu at the Tibet International Nature Travel in the Banakshol Hotel in Lhasa. Norbu was very easy to work with and offered us a great price. However, the guide he provided, Jigme, was terrible and caused us a lot of problems throughout the trip. We originally interviewed a different guide who seemed excellent, but the day before departure Norbu told us that the original guide couldn't go and that Jigme was our new guide. We weren't too happy about the change but it would be difficult to do anything about it on such short notice. Unfortunately, Jigme was a constant source of misinformation and could not be trusted. Our cook, Sonam, was fine, as was our driver, Tsewang. Sonam worked very hard, getting up in the dark every morning to start heating water and cooking breakfast and working late at night cleaning the pots and pans. We tipped him more than 50% of his pay.

Overall -- A great adventure! I would be interested to hear about the experiences of other cyclists'.