Ben Green's Story

PACE NOTES FOR THE FRIENDSHIP HIGHWAY
(LHASA -> KATHMANDU)

From Ben Green, London
September-October 1998
PERMITS
Didn't need any to catch the bus from Lhasa to Shigatse. There were no obvious checkpoints either. We met a German guy who got through on a bike w/o any permit (he actually cycled Golmud > Lhasa w/o one).
For the rest of the journey it's not clear whether you need any permits. There was only one checkpoint at Shegar (also called New Tingri). We had no hassle there but we got permits in Shigatse. In Shigatse the PSB will issue you with a permit for as many places as you want for Y50 per person. We just listed all the places in between Shigatse and Zhangmu (plus Sakya - we didn't go in the end). The permit says that you will travel by car - but that didn't seem to bother the guys at the checkpoint. I figure for Y100 you might as well get the piece of paper.
We didn't try for base camp but the German guy who had no permits at all made it there by bike according to people we met in KMD who saw him there. I guess there's no harm getting the guys in Shigatse to add it to your list.

CAMPING
Most of the time it was difficult to get out of sight of the road so we had to settle for getting as high above it as possible as close to sunset as possible (involved some thigh burning climbs carrying the kit). We didn't get any serious hassle - just a few interested locals who went away when they realized we weren't going to give them any food or pens.

BEGGING
About 200-300 children every day. A few adults also. The situation improved after Tingri. We now have some fairly strong views on the subject! Every child has a strong conviction that you will give something. They actually get angry sometimes when you don't. Beware stone throwing kids (after a refusal) - throwing a stone at the ground near them always scared them off. Also be very careful of children grabbing you or your bike as you go through. We adopted a slow approach then sprint through the danger area tactic. Even so, a kid managed to push Sarah off her bike in front of a Land Cruiser in KMD.
We hope that the less foreigners give, the less expectation the kids will have. Nepal is MUCH better on this front!

STONES
Carry a couple where you can get at them in a hurry for scaring kids and dogs. We only got chased by dogs a couple of times but one of them could run at 30km/h. If you are being chased I recommend braking really hard suddenly and then start throwing stones.

LHASA > SHIGATSE (we took the bus but thought it would take 3 days to cycle)
Sarah was ill so we got the bus from Lhasa to Shigatse. The road sounded terrible (but wasn't) - the bits I can remember from the bus are as follows.
The road to the bridge over the river at the airport turn is good (by later standards it's heavenly). You probably remember this section from your trip from the airport.
After that the road deteriorates and there were several fairly bad landslides. You should have no problem pushing over even the worst of them. There was one bridge down which would require a wade.
If the river is still very high (by high I mean that your bus from the airport got its feet wet crossing flooded sections of the road on the way to Lhasa) you will probably have to wade in a couple more places.

SHIGATSE 3900m Although the Tenzin Hotel is hardly "quaint" or whatever the Lonely Planet says, it seemed to us to be the best place to stay. We stayed one night first at the Chinese style (smarter) hotel down the road but power cuts and incredible rudeness made us move!
Depending on how you feel, it's probably a good idea to spend a day in Shigatse doing some more acclimatization (walking around the perimeter of the monastery is a good hike) - besides the monastery takes a little while to look around.

SHIGATSE > LHATSE (3 days)

Day 1 - 68KM
Take the road past the monastery headed east. This isn't the main road but joins it a couple of clicks down. The road rises to 4000m pretty quickly and then you have fairly gentle ups and downs most of the day. The road is a dirt track but isn't in bad condition (a few muddy landslides here and there).
Day 2 - 42KM to the foot of the first pass.
Same comments for the road - but a section of maybe 5km of pavement was sent by the gods of asphalt. There were also two or three fairly major road problems on this section (two bridges down) and you will have to wade a knee deep river at one point. We camped at about 4200m on the little bit of flat land above the road overlooking the first switchback.
We had a late start (after 11am) because of the biggest rain storm that we've ever camped in (poured with rain for 12 hours) - so the short distance on this day does not indicate that the trail was particularly bad.
Day 3 - 41KM to Lhatse
The pass isn't as high as the Lonely Planet says (altimeter said about 4650m). The road isn't bad - a fairly smooth dirt road. However, the pass totally blew me up because I went much too quick at the start... Go slow (slow for me is about 5km/h) and I'm sure that you'll be fine.
We thought that it was further to Lhatse and in hindsight we should have cycled further. The next day is really hard (over the 5250m pass) and we highly recommend that you try to get up to about 4500m and strike camp there (maybe 15-20km beyond Lhatse).
However, if you do stay in Lhatse the Lhatse Hotel is probably the best bet. There appear to be 2 of them - the one we recommend is the first one you come to (and is not the one we stayed in!). It's on the right-hand side of the road and has a restaurant called Tashi 2 on the ground floor.
Day 4 - 52KM over the pass
Just out of Lhatse (5km?) the road forks and you take the left turn (right is to West Tibet). From Lhatse to the top of the pass took about 8 hours with no more than 10 minute breaks on the way up. Take it really easy - we cycled at 5km/h or less all the way and still had to stop for a couple of minutes every 50m or 100m of altitude gain. The road is pretty shitty in places and (unless they've been out with a Caterpillar to flatten it out since we were there. You will have to get your shoes and socks off four or five times to wade streams.
If it's raining aim to get over the top really early. It was really cold up there and a storm was just blowing in - we got out FAST!
Only Sarah had some altitude problems and that was only on the final 100m of vertical gain.
Another reason for getting close to the pass the night before is that on the other side the road is terrible and doesn't descend very quickly. At the top the altimeter said 5350m. 20km later it said 4850m. That was the higher than we wanted to camp but it was getting dark and we had probably pushed about 10km of the 20. Really bad.
However, as we discovered the next morning the road improves shortly after that and you have a fairly rapid descent to 4500m - a much better altitude at which to camp. We had a terrible night's sleep at 4800m.
Day 5 - 90.5km to Tingri
You can probably see now why it would be a good idea to do more on day 3!!! We figured that it wouldn't be worth stopping short of Tingri so we pushed on. The first 20km or so were a breeze - really fast downhill. After that the road winds up and down and gets fairly sandy and harder work. Also we encountered a nice strong headwind after lunch!
The checkpoint is accompanied by about 10km of pavement (thank those gods of asphalt again). No trouble at the checkpoint with our permits.
After the checkpoint the pavement disappears again and the road gets pretty shitty and sandy - hard work. Finally, the asphalt reappears just before Tingri.
The turn for Everest Base Camp is somewhere between the checkpoint and town. It's clearly signposted if you're interested in going (if we had the time, I think we would have tried it).
Guesthouses and restaurants are spread along the main road through Tingri (the Lonely Planet is on a different planet when it says that everything is off the road somewhere). We stayed at the Amdo Guesthouse - a compound on the right hand side of the road toward the end of town. We wouldn't recommend it - they were very unfriendly. There were lots of other places with multiple Land Cruisers outside - try one of them.
The best restaurant was a Chinese place on the right at the start of town (just after the bridge). It was a little pricey and they didn't have most of the stuff on the menu but it was a lot better than the other places! Thinking back, I can't believe how bad (and expensive) the food was in Tibet!
Day 6 - Tingri
I had a bad chest infection so we rested a day in Tingri. There's no other reason to stay there!
Day 7 - 69km Tingri > approach to the double pass (La Lung La).
Nothing sticks in my mind about this day - although I suspect that the road probably wasn't great. We tried to get as close to the pass as possible after our mistake on day 3. We camped at about 4600m just before the road started the real climb up the pass. Until that point there was quite a lot of human settlement = constant hassle camping anywhere near them.
Day 8 - 54km over La Lung La
It's a long grind to the top of the first pass (about 5100m). There was a big headwind all the way up. It's then a hair raising descent back to 4800m before a climb to the second pass (about 5200m). The road seems to be built to face directly into the wind and has been "fixed" by the Tibetan road building crews so that it's a sand-covered nightmare. A bit soul destroying!
In total it was about 15km between the two passes, so this is a long day. The wind and sand didn't let up down the other side of the pass so it was tough. After the first set of switchbacks which take you down a few hundred meters, the road flattens out and only descends gently. We collapsed and camped right by the road in the only bit of shelter we could find.
Day 9 - 64km to Zhangmu
It's mostly downhill to Zhangmu but there are a few killer climbs. Nyalam is a dump and nobody we know would recommend staying there. Really spectacular scenery on the descent - especially when you hit the steep stuff after Nyalam - dense woodland, hundreds of waterfalls (you have to go through a couple!). Lots of wading rivers here unfortunately and the road is fairly tough on your hands/wrists. There were a couple of landslides with one stopping all the trucks, but nothing you couldn't just wheel the bike past.
Why the Lonely Planet suggests you might spend a couple of days in Zhangmu, God only knows. Another dump! We think that the place that the LP recommends to stay is long gone and stayed in the friendly but pretty grim Friendship Guesthouse (Y30 each I think) - it's right on the main road on the right hand side. The border checkpoint is only a couple of hairpins below and the Zhangmu Hotel is right there. It seems to be the place that the Land Cruiser parties stay, but we didn't check it out.
It might seem worthwhile to carry on to Nepal the same day but Kodari is another dump (possibly slightly less so than Zhangmu and I'm sure it's much cheaper) - but the stretch of no-man's land is a real killer. I think it took us about 45mins or more to descend the 8km to the bridge.
Day 10 - 65km (approx. - I forgot to write this one down at the time) Zhangmu > Dolalgat
The border doesn't open until 9.30am but arrive early to avoid the crowds - the checkpoint people took about 10mins per person (fill out your departure card before you go if you want to save time).
No man's land is more switchbacks, river-crossings and a steeper shittier road than the stretch the day before.
Once you cross the border you will hit the real landslides (Nepal doesn't mess around with these things).
The first is a few KM (8?) out of Kodari and involved a 30 minute scramble over a temporary bridge, rocks etc. This was the only time that we had to unload the luggage from the bikes. You can employ some guys to help you - we did it ourselves.
3km later comes the mother of all landslides. We didn't have to unload the bikes but it was really tough! It took about an hour to negotiate and I think it must have been about 1 km long.
Then there's a final, smaller landslide right before Berebise. This one was no problem.
From Berebise I think it's about 35km to Dolalgat (altimeter 830m). Mostly downhill until a final, long ascent followed by a streaming descent to a bridge over the river.
BUT IT'S ALL PAVEMENT FROM BEREBISE TO KMD !
We stayed at a guesthouse in the middle of the row of shops facing you after you cross the bridge (RP120 for a double = US2!!!). The restaurant next door does all you can eat dahl bat (rice and curry) for RP20 (get the feeling China is expensive?).
Day 11 - 51km Dolalgat > Kathmandu
Be prepared! We weren't. From Dolalgat the road starts going up and doesn't stop until Dhulikhel (altimeter 1750m). In short, a tough morning. From Dhulikhel it's mostly downhill into increasing traffic until you reach KMD.
The trucks etc. are very dangerous - be careful, they seem determined to force you off the road. After a child pulled Sarah off her bike in front of a Land Cruiser we jumped in the back of a pick up truck for the last 5km into town (RP200 after bargaining). This is highly recommended - if you ask for the Kathmandu Guesthouse in Thamel (pronounced Tamil) everyone will know where you want to go. KMD Guesthouse is in the middle of everything but is expensive (about US$12 plus tax per night for a double with a shower). We stayed for one night out of sheer exhaustion/shock.
Our guesthouse "Hotel Lily" (tough negotiating, walking away a couple of times and staying for 6 nights got them down to RP275 including tax for a double with shower - they started at RP400). There are several other places on the same street in the same price range - if they know you are checking out all the places, their prices come down dramatically!.
Also at the KMD (in the courtyard) is From Dawn Til Dusk - the coolest MTB outfit in town. The guys are really friendly and will be genuinely interested in your adventures to date. You can get spare parts, advice and borrow (for free) their copy of the biking guide and map for Nepal. Ask for Sonam (Nepal's only pro mountain biker).
Finally, if you do any cycle routes out of KMD (we went to Baktupur and Changu Nara Yan temple - really worthwhile and a joy without panniers!!) beware of the backwoods route around the airport - there's a lot of difficult singletrack. The rest of the route was fine.
Well, I think that's it! I hope that it's useful and that you have a safe journey.
Remember - when it's hell on the trail in Tibet, you'll soon be in KMD!!!