A lifelong dream of mine has been to travel the highlands of Tibet and view the extraordinary landscapes and rugged lifestyles of the peoples there.
Lhasa and its surrounding area has long been viewed as the Shangri-La of sorts with its grassy plataeu (only in summer mind) and tribal peoples who have lived of the land for centuries. However there has been trouble in Shangri -La and the Han Chinese invaded five decades ago the Deli Lama fled his own sanctuary and left for India never to return home.
For many years Lhasa was closed to foreigners but in 2006 the Qinghai-Tibet railway opened on July 1st and many have been flocking ever since, including myself.
The experience of travelling for two days and nights accross China and up onto the Tibetan Plataeu is an amazing one and the landscape changes dramatically from Chinese peasant life and farming communities to rugged inclines and an icy glazier that trangresses the plataeu in front of the many famous mountains including Everest past the enormous Blue lake and through the original source of the four famous rivers of Asia.
The altitude sickness is addressed through oxygen pumping into the train which by day two is a complete mess and the toilets are not for the faint hearted. We pull into Lhasa to the sound of piped Tibetan Music and the Adventure continues.
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