Despite all the garbage Tibetans put up with from China, the people of Tibet are amazingly warm and friendly to outsiders. They will stare at you but just out of curiosity and when you look back at them, they will give you a big genuine smile. They are very poor but also very happy and very religious and seem to take all the unfairness of life in stride. How could you not be happy when you live in such an astonishingly beautiful country!

But being a poor country under the rule of China has also somewhat negatively impacted our Tibet experience. They freely trash the stunning environment because of a lack of sanitation infrastructure, the Chinese make getting into Tibet a huge mess and obscenely costly, and lastly because of the mess created by expensive permits and tours, the companies (several are owned by the Chinese government) take full advantage of the tourist putting a damper on the whole experience.

Special thanks to Ram and Inbar for being awesome travel mates and for sharing their coffee!

(Don’t forget to check out the Tibet Photo Gallery here)

Favorite moments:

• Seeing all of Mount Everest in front of a beautiful sunrise
• Beautiful brilliant blue skies
• The landscape of the entire country!
• Noodles
• Herds of yaks and Tibetan antelope running beside our jeep
• Company of our travel mates

Not so great:

• Restricted travel
• Cost
• Old Tingri
• Driver and guide
• Yak meat

Total Money Spent Per Person: $601.58

Average Per Day Costs Per Person:

• Lodging: $3.63
• Food: $4.27
• Transportation: $15.50 (including train ticket to Lhasa)
• Misc: (entrance fees, tour package, beer, Everest Base Camp, postcards etc.) $62.54

Total Average Per Day, Per Person: $85.94

Number of Days: 7