Thorn Tree travel forum

Overland from Nepal

I've been to Tibet several times but each time I was with a group so I had my Tibet permit taken care of for me. I am going to Kathmandu with one other person and ideally we would like to get to Lhasa from Nepal. However, according to what I've heard our Chinese visas will be cancelled and we will be issued a "group" permit to Tibet. Is it possible to get a group permit, go overland to Lhasa and then be on our own? Or do we have to stay with a tour group the whole time. We will be in Tibet for a month and definitely don't want to be locked in to a tour group. Is it easier to just backtrack to Chengdu so that we can get individual permits? Once in Lhasa would it matter if we were on a group/individual permit? I know that a lot of these questions have already been asked but having been to Tibet before I know that rules can change on a daily basis so I'm looking for people who have been there recently and might know of some sort of "loop-holes". It seems like such a shame to fly all the way to Chengdu just to make sure we can be on our own in Tibet but it might be worth it for peace of mind. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!