Wednesday 17 October 2018. Tibet Photos
Highlights: Nepal / Tibet Mountains

It was an early morning after very little sleep last night on the short hard bed at my homestay. It sometimes amazes me how different things are between the soft West and the rest of the World but I guess I’m a member of the soft.

We had a farewell breakfast and we down the the community centre so we could leave by 7.30 am. Some emotional farewells and it was bus time. While our flight wasn’t until 11.30 we weren’t taking any chances after the traffic yesterday. It turned out we got to the airport way earlier before 9.00 am. Our passports and group visa weren’t even ready but later we found out we were all going to Tibet, success!

I’ll review the Tribhuvan International Airport (Kathmandu Airport), Sichuan Airlines flight and Lhasa Gonggar Airport separately. It was however amazing to witness the mountains that make up the Nepal and Tibet region. The plane trip did however have a bit of turbulence which made you look and see how close these very tall mountains were.

On arrival it was very obvious how much thinner the air is. Lhasa is at 3,647 metres above sea level. The air is also very dry. The other obvious thing is how Chinese this area is, the Chinese flags are everywhere. I was later told that this mandated by the Chinese Government. We also got a glimpse of the The Qinghai–Tibet railway or Qingzang railway, which is a high-elevation railway that connects Xining, Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The length of the railway is 1,956 km and the final section opened in 2006. The purpose of the train is to bring Tibet closer into the arms of China.

Our bus took almost 45 minutes to get to Lhasa itself on an impressive highway that cuts though the mountains. You could also see lots of Chinese investment around the city.

After check in and dinner next door we headed to the Barkhor Square which we will be seeing more of tomorrow.