Tibet by feet

Hi folks,
first of all thanks to every body, because I found already quite a lote of answers by reading all the questions and answers available.

However, i would like to ask something as well: I will be travelling in Tibet in November (most probably the hole month). My plans are to go to lhasa and organised everything from there (Day trip around and then to Katmandu with the friendship highway).
Well...the more i read about tibet, the more i would like to do the most possible by feet...walking from village to village and taking a bus when ever there isnt a village near enough.
Thought about coming in Tibet from Kham Region, then Lhasa and then who knows ;-)

Could someone tell me if he/she did visit Tibet by walking from village to village. Is it possible ? or just a dream ? am a female alone....i guess this isnt really a problem in Tibet...is it ?
Please, share your experience, advice, comments, tips with me...i would be greatfull.
Thanks in advance

cheers
nathalie

Have you read the book Sky Burial by Xinran? I was quite impressed with the read.
Cheers!

theoretically possible. though the distance between villages in tibet can be quite (incredibly) large.. :-)

and walking in tibet away from the big cities lhasa and shigatse often means serious trekking requiring all the equipment.

if that sounds all right, a great opportunity to get an impression of the fascination of tibet is to go from lhasa to drigung til monastery with its sky burial site by bus, then to ganden monastery, hike south across the mountains passing traditional villages, nomad camps and even forest to samye monastery and continue by bus or hitching and funky ferry to dorje drak monastery on yarlung river. schedule at least one week for this trip.

and by the way - solo male travellers are far more 'threatened' in remote monasteries than women.. ;-))

Hmmm... I think it would be hard to finish everything by foot only unless you have equipped yourself with enough food and camping stuff, then that could be too heavy to walk around. Imagine you can walk around 30 - 50km a day, you may still find yourself in the middle of nowhere. We did the route from Bangkok to Lhasa by bicycle, I think it's totally possible to walk around Thailand or Yunnan, but we always found ourselves away from the villages in Tibet, we planned to camp around though.

Perhaps you should think about riding a bicycle, it's as enjoyable as walking around but it's easier and more feasible than walking.

hmmmm................. based on my experiences and on experiences of female friends (and my wife) I would have to disagree with the statement "solo male travellers are far more 'threatened' in remote monasteries than women.. ;-))" I wouldn't discouarge travelling as a solo female in remote areas here but I would offer a word of caution. My wife and a female friend were blantantly robbed by rural villagers near Yamdrok Tso while carefully camping away from villages. (They were both very Tibet savvy and both spoke Tibetan!?) I also had a female friend "felt up" by a high lama that we had given a lift!? While violent crime or specific crime against women is rare in Tibet, but it is still something to consider and I would encourage using caution when travelleing solo.

Travelling as a solo male is not really that much better.....At the Shoton festival a friend of mine was deliberately elbowed in the head by a young Tibetan throwing a kata onto the huge Thangka......the Tibetan guy then held my friends hands above his head while 3 or 4 other Tibetans removed the contents of his pockets along wiith his wallet. They then proceeded to laugh and dissapear into the crowd....... I thought Shoton was a "holy" day for buddhists!! .........go figure??

This kinda of thing is rare but does seem to be increasing in the last few months.

CJ

just to clarify.. the sentence "solo male travellers are far more 'threatened' in remote monasteries than women.. ;-))" was just a joke regarding the prejudice of homosexuality among some monks ;-)

Tibet by feet in november and solo is not recommended. The weather can change from sunny weather to fierce rain or even snow in a short timespan. You should come prepared with everything including a 4 season tent and sleepingbag.

Yes, the weather can change in an instant. I was hitch-hiking on the back of farmers' tractors, and sometimes a hailstorm would come out of nowhere.

Also you need to beware of large dogs.

Hi Gwailo,

One day we were cycling in Tibet and we saw a heavy hailstorm, but wait, it was sunshine right in front of us, just 1km away!!!! So we cycled really fast and we actually saw ourselves leaving the hailstorm and enjoyed the sunlight!