Lhasa is the beginning, not the trip

Nearly every foreign visitor to Tibet flies into Lhasa, spends four or five days around the Jokhang and the Potala, and flies out. That is a fine introduction. It is also the equivalent of visiting Italy and never leaving Rome.

The road west, along the Friendship Highway toward Gyantse and Shigatse, is where the landscape stops being a backdrop and becomes the thing you came for. It is also where the altitude, the driving and the permits all need a bit of thought.

First, the paperwork

Foreign travellers cannot travel in Tibet independently. You need a Tibet Travel Permit, arranged through a licensed agency, and for Shigatse prefecture you also need an Alien's Travel Permit, which is usually processed in Lhasa once you are there.

• Apply at least three to four weeks ahead, longer for peak season
• You must have a Chinese visa first in most cases
• Permits are checked at checkpoints along the highway; your guide handles this
• Nationalities are treated differently by the authorities, and some are refused. Ask before you book flights.

The practical upshot: you travel with a guide and a driver, in a vehicle, on a fixed route. Accept that and the trip is excellent. Fight it and you will have a bad time.

The drive to Gyantse

The classic route leaves Lhasa and crosses two high passes, Kamba La and Karo La, on the way to Yamdrok Lake. Yamdrok is the one everyone photographs: a turquoise lake at 4,400 metres with a snow peak behind it, and a viewing area with yaks dressed in coloured blankets that you can pay to sit on.

Two honest notes. The passes are above 5,000 metres and the wind is brutal, so do not linger. And the drive takes most of a day with stops, which is a long time at altitude on day three or four of your trip. It is better to do this after you have acclimatised in Lhasa rather than straight off the plane.

Karo La has a glacier visible from the road. Most groups stop for fifteen minutes. Ask your driver to give you half an hour if the weather is clear; it is one of the few places you can see a glacier without a trek.

Gyantse: the one people remember

Gyantse is a small town and the highlight is Pelkor Chode Monastery, which contains the Kumbum, a nine-tiered stupa with around a hundred and eight chapels arranged in a spiral. You climb it from the inside, chapel by chapel, and each one has its own murals and its own smell of butter lamps.

Give it two hours at least. Shoes off in most chapels, small donation expected, no photography inside. The light comes in low from the side in the late afternoon and the whole building glows.

The old fort on the hill above town takes another hour to walk up if you have the legs for it. The view over the valley and the monastery roofs is the best in the region.

Shigatse, and Tashilhunpo

Shigatse is Tibet's second city, about five hours further west, and it is a working town rather than a tourist one. Its monastery, Tashilhunpo, is the seat of the Panchen Lama and is enormous. The main assembly hall holds thousands of monks, and there is a nine-metre statue of the future Buddha that you view from a walkway that brings you level with its face.

The kora, the pilgrims' circumambulation route around the monastery, takes about an hour and is worth doing in the late afternoon. Pilgrims prostrate along the walls, old women spin prayer wheels, and the whole thing is far less staged than anything in Lhasa.

Altitude, sleep and food on the road

• Gyantse sits around 3,900 metres, Shigatse around 3,850. Lhasa is 3,650. The difference matters more than the numbers suggest.
• Sleep badly for the first two nights and expect it. Do not take sleeping pills at altitude.
• Drink more water than you want to. Two to three litres a day is not excessive here.
• Food on the highway is simple: noodle soups, momos, yak meat, and a lot of tea. Vegetarians can eat well on vegetables and rice but should say so clearly.
• Do not exercise hard on arrival day, even if you feel fine. Altitude sickness is unpredictable.

How many days

The standard loop, Lhasa to Gyantse to Shigatse and back, needs five to six days on top of your Lhasa days. Rushing it in three means eight hours a day in a vehicle and no time at the monasteries, which defeats the purpose. If you have ten days in Tibet total, this route fits comfortably. If you have six, choose one side trip and do it slowly.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.