An overland journey in late 2014, from Beijing to Xi'an by overnight train (then a short hop by air) and from Xining (Qinghai province) overnight to Lhasa, Tibet on the recently-completed Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The journey then continues southwest to Gyantse, then west through Shigatse, Everest Base Camp and down to the Nepalese border and so to Kathmandu.

Enthralled from an early age by Heinrich Harrer's epic narrative of his Seven Years in Tibet, I skirted around the Chinese-occupied Tibetan heartland in my own earlier travels, visiting Nepal, Ladakh (India), Bhutan, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces (China). In 2014 I was offered an opportunity to experience the 'real thing'; Tibet at present is not accessible for spontaneous, individual travel. Read more.

2018: Exploring eastern Tibet, as well as returning to Lhasa and other places visited in 2014. Since then, the access road to Qomolangma (Mt Everest) Base Camp has been rerouted and tar-sealed, and the road border with Nepal shifted to the Kyirong Valley, well to the west - so we witnessed many new and unfamiliar sights. Read more