Himalayan Kingdoms

Trip Start Jun 29, 2008

Trip End Nov 27, 2008

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Where I stayed

Shangri-La Kathmandu

(Kathmandu hotels)

Flag of Nepal Kathmandu, Nepal
Sunday, October 26, 2008

Final stop on our around the world trip is the Himalayas, with a cultural tour with Peregrine of Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. Our tour group of nine consists of 5 Aussies, 2 South Africans, 1 American and 1 Canadian, and is a fun and interesting group to travel with. The order of our trip here has been reorganised at the last minute in order to successfully gain entry into Tibet, which in this Olympic year became closed to all foreigners with crack-downs in Lhasa due to anti-Chinese demonstrations due to China's policy of diluting Tibetan culture and not allowing autonomous rule in the way they do in Hong Kong (no, I would not have posted this before I went - I'm not sure I would have been allowed in). The Chinese have been in Tibet since the 50's and this has resulted in significant changes there (to come!). The major result of the change in the order of our tour was that we did not have time in Kathmandu immediately prior to going to Lhasa, which usually happens to allow acclimatisation to the altitude we will experience on the 'Roof of the World' (there is more to come on this too!).

Nepal is a country of around 25 million people, Tibet around 2.5-3 million, and Bhutan around 700,000, meaning you are in for a different experience purely by weight of the numbers and thus scale of things. The next difference is in topography. Nepal has an incredibly wide range given the small size of the country, with a tropical zone in the South (down at 100-200m altitude) and a sub-tropical mid-zone, reaching arctic conditions in the Himalayas up North (with 10 of the 14 highest peaks in the world; those over 8000m). Tibet, being the 'roof of the world' is all about altitude. Bhutan lies between the Tibetan plateau in the North and the plains of India in the South. Nepal is easy to gain entry to, Tibet difficult and variable in the current climate, and Bhutan only possible on an organised tour. Welcome to the region known as the Himalayas..