Tibet Travel Photos: March 2005 Archives

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March 29, 2005

Have A Break

After about half an hour of driving, thank you very much. A rock roughly the size of a small car decided to park his bottom further up the road. Everybody had to wait until Chinese soldiers cleared the way. The so called Friendship Highway, the only road between Lhasa and Nepal was closed for a few hours. Those buses by the way were four wheel drive vehicles. No heating though which was a bit of bummer to say the least. Maximum speed of approximately thirty miles per hour. More than enough, I can assure you.

Posted by Konstantin at 06:25 PM | Comments (0)

March 28, 2005

Trying To Get Somewhere

Officially tourists were only allowed to travel by bus. This was complete nonsense, but with so many Chinese army people around I had no choice but to take a bus, which turned out to be a problem. To find out how my body would cope with the altitude I only wanted to go to Nyalam, which is the first town on the Tibetan Plateau enroute to Lhasa. The ticket office staff were not happy because they were eager to sell tickets for longer trips. But somehow I managed to persuade them and there I was, forced to wait for the damn thing to move. Eventually it did move though. With a happy German inside.

Posted by Konstantin at 02:27 PM | Comments (0)

Zhangmu

The Chinese border. I believe some 90 miles away from Kathmandu. Four to six hours on the bus depending on the road conditions. The bus took me to Kodari, which is the border town in Nepal. Then I had to walk for a mile or so to Zhangmu to deal with the Chinese immigration, stayed overnight and woke up early in the morning, excited, feeling like a little kid.

Posted by Konstantin at 02:14 PM | Comments (4)

About Tibet Travel Photos

In February 1987 I applied for a visa at the Chinese Embassy in Hamburg. During the mid eighties I used to travel to Asia quite frequently, mainly to Nepal. In 1986 while I was in Kathmandu I met travelers coming back from Tibet. The Chinese government decided to open the borders for tourists traveling on their own. The stories that I heard about that secret region behind the Himalayas were fascinating and I knew I had to try it.

But I simply ran out of money and I wasn't equipped well enough. "Take enough clothes, drink plenty of water and take tons of head ache pills", is what one guy was saying. Well water and pills were obviously not a problem but I didn't have any warm clothes at all. I came back to Kathmandu half a year later, with a stamp in my passport, thick down jackets and trousers and a Lonely Planet guide to Tibet, first edition 1986.

This is the story of a trip that changed my life nearly twenty years ago. All these years the pictures of Tibet have been sitting in a box. The photos were taken with a SLR camera that a friend of mine gave me. I can't even remember the brand, to be honest. Six days of scanning and here we are.

This weblog will be updated frequently, once or twice a week I guess depending on my time and mood. Feel free to leave comments and feel free to contact me. But please don't ask me any questions about travelling to Tibet. Things have changed since 1987 I would guess, and I have not been there since.

If you want to know more about me, check out my other blog London Leben which is about living in London. Some of the posts and all the pictures are in English.

This website is dedicated to the people of Tibet.

Konstantin

Posted by Konstantin at 02:00 PM | Comments (5)