Friendships highway

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience in cycling the Lhasa-to-Katmandu Friendships highway in the months november-december. We start in june a trip from belgium to katmandu and want to end with cycling the friendships highway.
weather conditions? road conditions?

Greetings, Hilde

I also would like to go there but I have found no realistic solution how to get a Visa for Tibet. You can only get one for a group accompanied by "secret service" from China. So I prefer to fly to Kathmandu and buy a three week tour offered by several nepalese agencys from Lhasa to Kathmandu.
So long, Edgar

Hello,

I travelled this road in April 1986 as one of the first western cyclists. Be prepared to cycle on a bumby and dirty road, climbing passes more than 5.000 metres. Passes are not steep but really long. On daytime it was sunny and dry, at night really cold. I guess in November it`s about the same but nights much more colder. But it can happen that you will encounter headwind, which can be very frustrating. I think you will have no problems with the weather-conditions but with the altitude. It took me nearly one month to cycle from Kathamdu to Lhasa, which ist about 1.000 km in distance.

If you apply wheresoever for a visa for china, do not mention that you are on a bike. It is not forbidden to cycle inside china but to mention it on applicationform is not a good idea, because it can lead to a refusal. Normally it should be no problem the cross the nepalese/chinese border on a bike. But keep in mind that you will cycled the most of the time in "closed areas", so it may be happen that someone will talk to you.

If you need more information about cycling in Tibet you can contact me via e-mail!

Velomade

Hi there,

I'm also to organise a bicycle trip trough Tibet. I will start in Munich (Germany) end of feb 2005 and will cycle throug Iran... Kirgisatan, Tibet Nepal. So I will come from the other side, which is much more better to do what I read in the german forum here. I heard , that you won't get a visa for China coming from Katmandu as an indivdual traveler. Only in a group with tour guide. And f you would start cycling after passing the border withe the group, there are several control posts from the police, which would send you back instandly, if they get you. Perhaps you could pass them by night but there was also one who was cautght on the road.
So Kashgar to Katmandu is fine, what I heard, but not Katmandu - Lasha Kunming or Chengdu.
for more infos you could try to ask Benni. He was cycling through last year.

Cheers
Achim

Hello,

it looks like that the visa-situation for china did not chnage the last 20 years. When I came to Kathmandu in spring 1986 I got the information from the chinese embassy that they do not issue visa for individual travellers, for groups only and I should join a guided tour to China. But nevertheless I managed to cross the border with a friend, because we had the possibility to get our visa from Hongkong! ( This is a special story abou the how ) What I want to say is, that you should have the visa for China before you come to Nepal! So you can apply anywhereelse and again do not mentioned that you are travelling on a bike and that you will go to Tibet! And normally with this kind of visa it should be no problem going to China via Nepal! You will not have these problems when you enter China from Pakistan via the Karakoroum-Highway. Because of the weather-conditions the border is open starting from May.

Please keep in mind when you cycle in Tibet that most of the time you are in restriceted areas, which means, that there is a slight possibility to get stopped by the police. This happens in general not at daytime but at night when you stay overnight in a small local guesthouse. Whether you will be stopped by the police or not depends on the local authority (police). It was my impression at the time I was in China, that is was really unlikely to get caught, because if the police stops a foreigner they would have work with them - and they do not like to have work. Only if the policeman is ambitious and wants to make career in his job, only then it may be happen to get stopped. Then you have to look a litle bit stupid and tell him ( in case he speaks a little english), that this areas you cycle through is not restricted for foreigners but the administration in Beijing decided some weeks (months) ago that Tibet is now free accessible for tourists. He cannot check it! And if it happens really you have to take the bus to the next open city and maybe to pay a fine.

Velomade