After all the uncertainty and stress we had finally made it to the Tibet/Nepal border. We woke up that morning excited and a bit nervous about the border security and process. It was another 20 minutes of bumpy driving from Tatopani to the border where we met two lovely girls who were joining our tour, Edda and Tekla. They had just finished a meditation retreat in Kathmandu and had to get a separate jeep to drive them to the border that morning. Coincidentally they were also on an overland journey from Germany to Japan (here is their amazing instagram account, make sure you give them a follow). We were all very excited to share our stories from the magic of overland travel and have some like-minded friends on the tour, but first we had to get through the border into Tibet!

We had heard the border security was very strict with full bag searches, checking messages on phones and inspecting laptops. But the reality was much more relaxed, there were some half hearted bag searches and nobody had their devices checked. The technology in the Tibet/China side of the border crossing was very advanced, and it felt like an airport. There were passport scanning gates and fingerprint scanners with cameras everywhere. But we all made it through smoothly where we met our guide for the next seven days, a lovely Tibetan man called Yeshi and our friendly driver Wang Len who spoke no English but always had a handshake and a smile to offer. We had made it to Tibet!

The road immediately after the border crossing was a little precarious as many parts of it were under construction. We got our first glimpse of Chinese infrastructure, which is extensive, ever present and world-leading. There was major work being done to carve a motorway into the side of the mountains, and reinforce the landslide prone hillside. It wasn’t long until we made it through the roadworks and on to the best road we have seen this entire trip. The road twisted and turned its way 2000m up the valley and had barriers the entire way, we passed through tunnels and underneath waterfalls, and the driving was so smooth. It was such a contrast compared to the treacherous Nepalese roads and we quickly climbed up the valley towards the incredible Tibetan Plateau.

We reached our first destination of the Tibetan tour at 3750m, a town called Nyalam. After we had settled into our room, a very lush hotel that we would never normally stay at, we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring this remote Tibetan town. China covers almost five different geographic timezones while only using one official timezone, China Standard Time (CST). This means that the Western parts of China have very strange daylight hours, and we immediately noticed this as sunset was around 9pm (feels like NZ during summer). Seeing as we were still close to the Nepali border, it also didn’t get light until around 7:30 AM which felt a bit strange. 

We were unsure what the free time would look like on the tour given the restrictions of the area, so we were very pleased when we were told we could basically explore the local town independently for the afternoon, and were left to our own devices for lunch and dinner. As soon as we left the hotel to explore, Alice and I had one thing in mind. A fat bowl of noodles. We went into a place Alice had spotted from the bus that seemed popular with the locals and had a menu with no English. The owner was so friendly and excited to see foreigners and started speaking to us rapidly in Mandarin. Alice put some of her Duolingo lessons to use and tried some basic Mandarin conversation, but after we got through the basics of where we were from, we resorted to translation apps and pointing at pictures on the menu to order. The food quickly arrived and it was the most delicious noodles with egg and tomato for me, and wonton soup for Alice. The friendly owner was super stoked when I asked for chilli oil in Mandarin! After lunch we found a great coffee and spent some time wandering through the town. We were definitely getting a lot of attention, and quickly remembered that foreigners really didn’t usually come this way, it was a total one off with the border switch! 

We had started feeling very comfortable in South Asia. The amount of English on menus, products, transportation and apps, as well as in conversation, made it pretty easy to navigate life. The culture shock here was immediate for us. There are hardly any English signs. Supermarkets have no English anywhere and most of the products are unrecognisable to us. Google Maps doesn’t work in China as all Google products are blocked, so we were trying to use a Chinese map app. And lastly, hardly anybody speaks even basic English. It felt like a completely different world to the previous day in Nepal, which was only a few hours drive away. It was scary, confusing, and so insanely exciting. We were both fizzing with excitement as we explored the town that afternoon and couldn’t wait for the days to come. Tomorrow we would be driving all the way up to Mount Everest base camp at 5,100m where we would be staying the night, stay tuned for this adventure and more exciting moments from our week in Tibet!