Theme 1: Hiccups of the Trip

The hardest part of the trip was to plan the entire thing. It ranged from getting the people, looking out for quotation/getting a travel agency, reading about the place we were heading, visas, insurance, checking for airlines/connecting flights, getting med etc etc etc.

I started planning for the trip even before I went Beijing in late June. It was a chore, seriously. Thankfully Kelly managed to get Mavis and Kate to join the gang. I read up on books (both in English and Traditional Chinese) about Tibet.

While asking my pals who have been to Tibet, I gotten hold of this Nepalese travel agent. Finally got in touch with Shital with regards to quotation and itineary. We firmed the arrangements after sending emails to and forth. It wasn't easy to reach Nepal due to bad telephone connections, in additional to that, the connection wasn't too good.

We wanted to take the rail from Chengdu, so that we could witness the scenery along the way, as well as allow our bodies to climatise. Everything seemed to be properly in place, including foreigners visas for both Kelly and me.

1 day before we departed, we gotten news that the Chengdu runner for the railtickets ran away. Indeed the runner became a 'runner'. I was irritated, pissed off to a certain point. I was on sick day as well. After receiving the email, I calmed myself down and informed the ladies. It wasn't an ideal situation, and we seriously were not prepared for it.

Instead of bitching and screw the agent, we came up with alternatives. We found ways to obtain alternatives to get to Lhasa.

We came to a certain stage that we accepted the fact that obtaining railtickets were really difficult. Finally got ourselves to Chengdu at 9ish pm. Just as I reached the airport, I received email from my angry client. It totally spoilt my mood. That's major hiccup nos 2 for me.

What's hiccup nos 3?
When we got to the hotel which Shital told me his Chengdu counterpart has booked, they couldn't find our booking. It didn't help when the receptionists had really bad altitude, and they couldn' read much English. They couldn't check for us, and insisted we needed the Chengdu agent's name.

This was the first time I blew my top. Finally managed to get through to the Tibetan and Nepalese agents after calling a couple of times. It was pretty scary that we couldn't reach any of them. I was so mad and frustrated at the entire situation. Was it a scam?

I felt really bad for the team. Seriously. I was the one who coordinated the entire thing and we had such great trust on the agent and the entire arrangement. Sadly, they had to disappoint us badly. Finally got hold of one of the Tibetan agent and he told me we were at the wrong hotel. Finally we moved to the 'right' hotel, our names were not there. The point was the Tibetan side did not know we arrive in Chengdu. I called the lady Tibetan agent and seriously sounded so fierce. I demanded her to act on her mistake and get us 2 rooms. I blamed her for the entire mistake and wanted her to be ready to receive us in Tibet the following day.

She was shocked and scared. She stuttered throughout the phonecall, and spoke so fast in her Tibetan accent. I maintained a harsh voice, used my so-called-decent Mandarin and seek for a resolution.

We got our rooms, they weren't nice but beggars can't be choosers. I thank the crew for showing great patience and tolerance. Seriously. Thanks ladies. I can't express how irritated/frustrated/xxoo i felt at that point in time.

The following day, the Chengdu agent got us our plane tickets. We paid the little runner the tickets and they got us a taxi to the airport. The Chengdu agent was nice enough to get his friend who worked in the airport to receive us and send us off. We were really afraid that the TTB (Tibet Tourist Visas) would not be able to get through the customs. Our worries were unnecessary.

In the end, 3 major hiccups. a) The runner ran away with our rail tickets. We did not get a chance to travel via rail to admire the scenery, and to go through the experience of taking a train for 48 hours. b) The Chengdu leg was screwed up.

Finally we managed to get up to Lhasa. Upon reaching the airport in Tibet, we were stunned by the scenery that awaited us. It was amazing to watch our plane land on the little lane that was surrounded by the mountain ranges.

OMG. That's the first reaction when we were about to land.

In short,
1) It's better to ensure your tickets are purchased from places/agents which you have better control off. For e.g you can consider getting rail tickets from Guangzhou yourself. If not , go to a bigger agent and get your Chengdu tickets booked. The shortfall of going to a bigger agent means that you need to join their package which isn't so personal.

2) Be agressive while in China and Tibet. You have to fend for yourself. Being Bilingual is really useful in such situations.