Planning Vacations, or Expeditions

By popagandhi | Published: 11 March, 2007

_All true!_

# Look at map.
# Stare hard enough until I feel a ‘tug’ when looking at a certain place/region.
# Repeat this 3 times to choose the place/region which does this most.
# Confirm that it is India/China/Tibet/wherever.
# Look at neighbouring countries.
# Google for land border crossings with these neighbouring countries.
# Locate most complicated border crossing that will involve the longest distances by rail or bus or boat. Work out itinerary involving a combination of countries, the harder to get home from, the better.
# Now that complexity of border crossings, insane distances, existence of rubbish transportation, and unavailability of flights within 1000 km radius has been established — this makes me really want to go now. Bonus points awarded when there are: high altitude mountain passes, crazy rocket boat rides, and fun 50 hour train routes.
# Briefly contemplate looking for travel companion. Decide within 2 seconds that I hate people. Decide again in next 2 seconds that I need someone to look after my equipment when I go to the toilet in the train. Look for someone who likes trains as much as I do. There is no such person (other than Paul Theroux, but then again I am who I am because of him).
# Buy one way ticket (failing which: will go to Bangkok to buy it).
# Have something like $200 of life savings in pocket.
# Not think about how or when to come home until parents nag hard enough over the phone.
# Disconnect phone before leaving, stay uncontactable unless I choose to make contact.
# Get on plane, miss someone impossibly and spend as much on calling her as on my travel expenses, despite swearing I’m not a loser, but I just can’t help it.
# Think about next next next next next trip on the second day of travelling, repeat step 1.

I’m beginning to think it’s pointless to visit travel agents (I’ve never been to one in Singapore). I tried to give one a chance the other day and he floundered over my questions about flying to Chengdu, and flying back from Kathmandu or Delhi — I ended up describing epic mountain passes by train and bus and jeep from China to Tibet to Nepal to India (all in the same epic trip), and how I was going to do that for under the cost of the ridiculous one way ticket prices from Singapore (a combination of the China-Tibet train, public buses or yaks in Tibet, long bus rides on roofs of buses in Nepal to the Indian border).

I wish I was motivated to graduate earlier by something else other than “grad trip”, like, uh, my GPA, or the sad excuse for one.

possibly related

Train to Lhasa / Walking to China / On To Phnom Penh and Siem Reap / Left and Leaving / Some Tips on Indian Visas /
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  • Yi-Ling
    I don't know if this is too late (as you can tell I'm catching up with your entries now) but I did try going from Beijing to Tibet overland when I lived there in 2003. There are a few driving clubs in Beijing where drivers of SUVs would get together in a convoy to drive somewhere - sometimes that somewhere would be Tibet. We were talking to a few people about paying for some expenses, which would work out cheaper to joining one of the packaged jeep tours.

    In addition, my friends and I were investigating the option of buying our own SUV and driving to Tibet, then selling it once we're there. An SUV was about $1000, and if you can get a couple friends to come with you the cost will go down markedly - plus you can recoup some of the money when/if you sell the car.
  • yes, air tickets to india haven't been the same since jetstar pulled out, but you can check out Air India Express (google for them -- they fly to bangalore and mumbai at much lower prices than SQ, air india or thai). the general rule is that it's the cheapest to fly to and from delhi, about 625 return. the air courier thing is real cool if you can pull it off but i think you gotta sign up as a member, and you are also limited to just one carryon luggage (no check in at all). ;P good luck and let me know if the air courier thing works, i might try that myself!
  • sugarhigh
    heheh thanks for the information about the train tickets, i figured out half of those so far but the big one remains the air ticket to india. which is gonna cost more than my entire stay there!

    now that i found some air couriers organisations, i'm inclined to jet around the world for cheap for two months after graduation and not care where i go since the tickets are dirt cheap if not free.
  • You can buy the indian railways tickets online at http://www.irctc.co.in/. Search for a train from Sealdah (SDAH) to New Jalpaiguri (NJP) then jeep it from NJP to Darjeeling or Sikkim for Rs 100.

    Ticket deliveries only to indian addresses, so all you need to do is confirm your calcutta accomm and let them know that they will be receiving a train ticket by mail. Unfortunately last minute tickets will never be cheap(er) - in quite high demand, actually. The waitlists go quite long and there're always >100 people in line for your seat, so prices can only get higher, not lower.

    There're these things called 'Tatkal' or last minute tickets, only open for booking 5 days before the train departs but at a higher fee. You can also rely on the Foreign Tourist quota to get a last min ticket. Since you are going to Darjeeling you will be departing from the Sealdah station - you can show up there with your passport and US dollars (or rupees, but make sure you have an ATM bank receipt to show you withdrew money from there). They might have last min tickets in sleeper class, 3AC, and 2AC, but not many (and not cheaper either).

    The cheapest way would be sleeper class. That only costs 263 INR (S$9!!). You get a berth to sleep in, and that's my absolute favourite way to travel India — sleeper class is great value for money plus it's quite safe, and you get to meet and talk to a lot of locals. If you're travelling alone you might like to 'upgrade' to 3AC, which is exactly like sleeper class, but with AC and sheets provided (think it's just 700 rupees, S$24). If you have any questions about ANYTHING about Indian trains, just ask... you might have guessed that I'm a huge indian train aficionado.
  • sugarhigh
    well believe it or not i'm having the exact same dilemma as you. loving train rides but not liking people enough to ask them to come with me but still needing someone to look after my bags when i go to wee.

    all that, and finding a cheap ticket to calcutta to get to darjeeling and then to nepal. i hope they have courier tickets. like last minute tickets that i can get for dirt cheap. heheh

    have fun!
  • Exactly what it says, Night. A turkish girl, maybe? :)

    barry and goondu: Thanks! I can't wait!
  • goondu
    you probably have all your infor, just to add on,
    I have done the following in 2004, I paid approx usd200 (excluding tibet visa) for a 5D/4N 4 Wheel Drive Trip from Kathmandu to Lhasa. And from Lhasa, I flew to Chendu because I could not endure another "character building" ride. Heading south, I took a 19 hour train ride to Kunming, which is nothing to you after all your rides on trains in India. From Kunming, I hop on an overnight sleeper bus to He Kou and cross the border to Sapa, Vietnam. The reverse is valid I guess :D
  • Night
    I'm such a loser I don't think I could not see her for >1 month. erm..who? hehe :p
  • The route in from Singapore to Chengdu is fairly straight-forward these days - I did Singapore to Hanoi via Luang Prabang (from where I went all the way down to Ho Chi Minh City and up again) over the summer, and looked wistfully at the trains heading towards China (from Hanoi) and the buses from Luang Prabang. Alas, time did not permit, but I'm thinking next time. And within a few years, it is going to get easier still, when the train route through Cambodia is created. Joy!

    I probably like trains as much as you (who else would fly ex new Zealand to Mumbai, just to get on a train to Calcutta, and then bus back through Nepal to catch a train to Diu?) but don't like people enough to want to travel with them.
  • cin
    i wish i am half the "risk-taker" you are with a quarter less worries at home to take on the world.

    despite what you may think, yours is still a kind of privilege of a (somewhat supported) student that few are being accorded.
  • no prob at all! if you do pass by cambodia. i must highly recommend something really random. a mango shake at this guest house called takeo in siem reap. i had it everyday when i was there. hahah.

    and yes found another email of a reporter in lhasa. ziyi2005_18@hotmail.com or tibetchina@yahoo.com.cn who stayed at the same house as dahai. we used to call her mickey mouse. i dun actually remember her real name. she is quite a nice person who doubled up as our guide and brought us about the cool pubs in tibet [ i know . it sounds weird. but the pubs there are quite nice ] when we were in lhasa.
  • haha. you read my mind. i\'ve been thinking about getting to chengdu by land via vietnam since this morning, or bus it from luang prabang or vientiane to kunming, after the \'fairly standard\' overland route from singapore to thailand. :) thanks for the info!
  • travelingarmchair
    i think the jeep hire with driver was about 2800 yuan altogether two years ago. it was split between 4 of us who were traveling together. it's not the cheapest way to get into lhasa, considering you can get a ride in from golmud for 200 yuan a person. but it is seriously well worth the effort.

    tibet is kindof more amazing when you have to go through some hardship to get into. it took us 7 days coz our jeep broke down multiple times coz some silly fool sold us petrol mixed with water. at some points we were walking along the trail while e driver was driving behind us at like 2 m / 10 mins...i can't find the contact details of e driver who drove us into lhasa, but this is his friend's email whom we stayed with in tibet.[ not in the central though. it's really his house, it was cheaper i think ], you can try to send him an email. hopefully you can type in chinese. i dun think his english is all that good. 大海：xingguanghai2002@yahoo.com.cn hope this helps.

    you should really try to get to tibet from singapore by land. it is AMAZING! our route was. singapore- malaysia-thailand-cambodia-vietnam-china [yunnan-chengdu-tibet-golmud-dunhuang-xinjiang-chengdu-guangzhou-hongkong] then back to singapore. we only took one flight to come home. or at least i did. while my travel buddies split up as and when we had differing opinions on where to go. the entire trip cost me about 3500 sing for 3 + months. [ not including expenses in hk. that's a separate matter..hahah.] hope you have great fun and meet loads of cool people on your trip! how exciting can....
  • I admire you because you have guts! All the best in finding & enjoying the next destination(s)!
  • travellingarmchair: ooh, a part of the reason why i posted this was to get more info from people who'd done tibet and were from my part of the world (so much info available online is about paying US$1000 and targeted at westernerns only..) — i was certainly thinking of doing what you'd described. how much did the jeep hire cost you?
  • ping
    oh! i love train rides!
  • travelingarmchair
    you should try to hire a jeep to get into tibet from the sichuan side. there's 5 routes into tibet but the one most frequent is the qing-zhang route. but the one with the best and most varied views is the chuan-zhang route. took us about 7 days to get into lhasa. but well worth the ride! but this route is not open to tourists. but as you look chinese. i think you can get by the guards at the state borders without the documents. which is what we did 2 years back! i'm excited for you!
  • Mongolia with moi to visit my dad? :)
  • biking_nomad
    haha! Love the planning! Just how I plan my rides up North but yours is a lot more extreme. Maybe I'll be in your league if I can get away and ride RTW!

    Been ages since I took a train ride in India. Wonder if its still the same after a decade?
  • Tony
    I wish I had parents who gave you so much freedom like yours.
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