View back down into the Kyi-chu valley

View back down into the Kyi-chu valley
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

To get to the Nepalese border, you can hire a Land Cruiser from a travel agency in Lhasa. They tend to run about 3500 RMB for a five-day trip to the border, stopping at Everest Base Camp. This includes the driver, car, and fuel, but doesn't include entrance fees for monasteries, national park fees, food, or accommodations. I teamed together with some Brits and an Israeli for the five-day trek (700 RMB each).
Day one, five of us set out of Lhasa at 9 am, bundled in our fleece, thermals, hats, and gloves in a Toyota Land Cruiser. We headed west toward the airport (about an hour away), until we started to climb out of the valley. The road was remarkably new and pothole free. We kept climbing and climbing, and it soon became very warm in the car and we had to shed some of our layers of clothing.