Travel: Tibet, Lhasa, Everest Base Camp

To fly into Tibet you need to arrange a permit and a flight. I used Mix Backpacker's Hostel in Chengdu. Flight and permit were 1900RMB. Our 1 hour ride from the airport to Lhasa was also arranged by the guesthouse.

You can arrange a Land Cruiser from Kunming or Zhongdian in Yunnan province for 5000RMB per person. Journey takes a few days. From Golmud in Qinghai province to the north of Tibet you can take a bus to Lhasa. For foreigners this costs well over 1000RMB, takes a few days, and is an "interesting" trip, according to Jason and Jeff. The same ride from Lhasa to Golmud costs considerably less since there are no permits involved.

In Lhasa we were dropped off on a tourist street with some places to stay, but we walked to DongCuo International Youth Hostel. 25RMB per bed.

For Everest Base Camp, one must rent a Land Cruiser. Maybe you can take local transportation but the farther you go from Lhasa, the less Mandarin is spoken. Good luck. 4 passenger Land Cruiser's were bargained to 3200 RMB for a 5 day trip. This covered the car and driver's expenses. We found a 7 passenger LC for 4500, a better deal vs 2 4 person LC's. To find this deal, call 891-6320200 and ask where their store is. It is a Tibet FIT Travel store on the tourist street. Their email is ttbfitsonam@hotmail.com or ttbcq@163.com
Other expenses include sleeping each night, 25 RMB per bed, food, monastery entrance fees (45-55RMB), 405 RMB per vehicle, and 65 RMB per person to enter the Everest(Qomolangma) national park. Depending on which company you use, you may or may not have to pay 150 RMB per person for the permit to travel outside of Lhasa. We didn't pay because the boss said you don't need it if you say you are going to Nepal.