On the bus to Lhasa

On the bus to Lhasa
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

So this is how you get to Lhasa on a bus without paying the 1700 to CITS...
The buses to Lhasa leave from in front of the train station in Golmud every hour from 10 am to 2 pm. There are two sets of buses: one is across the street from the train station and is crawling with PSB officers and the other group (blue-gray) is on the same side of the street as the train station. Go to the blue-gray buses and ask the bus driver or ticket sellers for transport ot Lhasa. I arranged transport for me and five Western tourist for 700 RMB a piece, payment on arrival in Lhasa. This last part is key. The Chinese can get on for 130 RMB. The bus trip takes 18 hours.
I was told that this fee was to pay for the bribes to get past the two checkpoints on the way to Lhasa, but apparently not that day. The bus drivers packed us into taxi's and took us somewhere else. I was told that they didn't want us getting on board the buses as it was too conspicuous. The taxi's took us to the Muslim quarter where we waited for transport past the checkpoints. After a few phone calls, the bus driver said he couldn't find anyone to take us past the checkpoints (about 30 minutes away). Instead, we could ride in the trunk of the bus. Hmm...
Sure enough, we piled into the back, with our luggage, and one of their mobile phones to call in case we were fainting from the fumes, and sat there for about an hour. The first checkpoint was quick, but the second one was a bit slower. Lucky for us, no one checked the trunk for stowaways.
An hour after getting in, we were let out into the brilliant sunlight with a sandy moonscape and beautiful snowcapped mountains in the background.
The road was very bumpy (I hit my head on the ceiling and my elbow against the window a couple times), but it was nice and warm in the sunlight.