Tibet

[BlasR]

What part of Tibet are you planning to go?  Remember Tibet is = China mean you going to need to go to China first, one week is look like no enouth time...you can look my website BMRWorldPhotos.com....Tibet will be there....I spend 30 days there that includes Mount Everest.



BlasR

[Concorde-SST]

Ah - Tibet...

I´ve been there in 2001. I can give you some tips.

First - don´t pack too much into your camera bag - its a
high altitude destination and no  matter how fit or how
old you are - its quite common to get altitude sickness.

A polarizer is a must! Bring lots of cleaning tissues / lens
cleaning equipment since its very dusty out there!

About weather - it can be very cold to hot (but I´ve been
there in July - so I have no such experience in this part
of year) - so waterproof clothes would be a must.

NEVER talk about the Dalai Lama or anything else politics
there - the "offical" guys there are quite deportation-happy
for such tourists.

so if I can help you with additional informations, just let me
know.

happy travelling!

Andreas Suchert
Nuernberg
Germany.

[jani]

Sorry for not responding earlier, I must have missed my subscription on new posts reminders for this thread.

Thanks for your responses!

It looks like I may be going as high as 5 000 m, so I've dug around a bit, and found the following information from the CEWEC Clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal:

http://www.ciwec-clinic.com/altitude/index.html

It's well worth reading for anyone considering traveling above 3 000 m (10 000 ft).

There are also a bunch of vaccines that I'll need to take, and I've scheduled an appointment with a clinic for this Friday.

We're also aiming to use professional guides to take us around the country, that is probably one of the smartest moves we can make.

If the guides don't carry oxygen, a gamow bag and/or Diamox, we'll try to acquire that.

On the equipment list, I've added an Epson P-2000 or similar device (perhaps an iPaq with GPS and CF card reader is a good alternative). I was about to add the Digital Camera Battery or a competing product to the list, but I think I'll go with a car charger for my batteries instead.

[jani]

Some additional information to others who may considering Tibet:

In addition to a Chinese visa, you'll need to get a permission for entering Tibet. It is possible to pay for a rush job on the visa, but not for the Tibet permit. Usually, a travel company takes care of the Tibet permit after you've sent them your passport and visa information.

For Americans: Currently, American citizens are not permitted to travel between the Yunnan province and Tibet. It is also not recommended for American citizens to travel into Nepal.

When it comes to diseases, Tibet is relatively safe. As with most of southern Asia, you usually shouldn't eat raw fruit or vegetables (there are exceptions, see travel information for each destination).

Since I'm also going into Nepal and possibly Laos, I've taken a number of vaccination shots, and gotten a vaccine against Cholera and diarrhea to take two weeks before entering Laos or Nepal. Diarrhea is not on the list of fun things to acquire when you also need to acclimatize at 3600 meters or higher.

[jani]

Looks like I'm having one of those one-chance-in-a-lifetime trips, so I'm soliciting advise about both photography, the wheres and the hows.

I'll be visiting a friend in Singapore who's also an amateur photographer, and he invited me along to a trip to Tibet.

Now we're wondering about what's smart and not so smart, and also about the weather in different locations in Tibet.

One destination is set, and that is the Ringha Tibetan Village, opening this October.

We'll have approximately one week at our disposal, but where to go and which part of mid-October to early November would be better for the weather? (I'm inclined to think that the weather could be significant ...)

I've seen the average temperatures for Tibet in October and November, and they seem similar to November and December in my part of Norway, so it's not particularly scary. But averages are averages, and the plateau is roughly 3000m above sea level.

Equipment-wise, I'm of course bringing along my 20D, a couple of lenses, my Kata rain cover and a light tripod, if I can lay my hands on that in time. Luckily, my friend is also a Canonite, so I might not have to bring all that much.

[jani]

What part of Tibet are you planning to go?

Location of Ringha Tibetan Village

So it's not quite central Tibet, but rather a part of Greater Tibet. (See how familiar I am with the area, couldn't even get that exactly right ...)

Remember Tibet is = China mean you going to need to go to China first,

Well, that's not a problem, except for flight time.

Ringha is close to Diqing airport (half an hour's drive away, according to the resort), so the trip is basically Singapore->Kunming->Diqing, staying within the same province (Yunnan) in China.

one week is look like no enouth time...you can look my website BMRWorldPhotos.com....Tibet will be there....I spend 30 days there that includes Mount Everest.

Oh, I certainly can imagine that. Unfortunately, we can't spend anything near that amount of time, but maybe we can stretch it to two weeks. It depends on several other factors.

Thanks for the link, BTW. It doesn't reduce my hopes for exciting photography.

[Anon E. Mouse]

3.200 meters is not dangerous, but take asprin or another painkiller for headaches which can come from altitude. Also you will dehydrate faster at that altitude. Take a few snacks that are easy for you to eat and contain some moisture as altitude sickness will curb your appetite, at least at the beginning. You will not be able to eat dry food.

The sun can be strong during the day, which means sunscreen and water. Nights are cold. The weather should be dry, but be prepared for local weather patterns that could bring rain or snow. Your travel agent should know about that.

[Bobtrips]

At 10,000 feet altitude you are pushing the limits for a hard drive storage device.  Hard drive heads 'fly' on a cushion of air and at altitude the air is thin.

You might want to consider a portable CD/DVD burner instead.

If you do decide to use a portable hard drive above 9k then place it on a stable surface and try not to jar it while it is writing.  

Once the heads are parked there is no problem with altitude.

[Lisa Nikodym]

Jan, I'd love to see some of your images of Tibet after you return.  It's one of those places I occasionally think about visiting.  Please send us a link sometime after you get some images processed!

Lisa

[jani]

Jan, I'd love to see some of your images of Tibet after you return.  It's one of those places I occasionally think about visiting.  Please send us a link sometime after you get some images processed!

Lisa, thanks for the interest, I'll be sure to do that!

Taking pictures in that environment will be a great learning experience for me.

Maybe I can even be smart enough to take a few days off from work to process the images, too, so that it won't be February before it's done.

[jani]

Back from Tibet! (And other places)

), and a few that could possible be portfolio-grade.


In brief:

The best vacation ever, amazing scenery and a photographic success for me.


Important lesson learned:

Don't trust travel agencies to arrange everything they're supposed to arrange, and make arrangements for a few extra days in the itinerary. We lost one and a half day due to incompetence in a Nepali travel agency, and that really hurt our photographic opportunities in Tibet.


PS: The EOS 5D is really good. I now know the quality difference between the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L and the EF-S 10-22mm, and can safely say that I'd go for a full frame camera should I really need to shoot wide angle often.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Back from Tibet! (And other places)

Thanks for sharing that amazing trip with us, Jan. Looks a little like Norway, no?    

Well, not exactly.

Eric

[Lisa Nikodym]

Thanks for sharing your images from the trip, Jan.  It's an amazingly barren landscape, and clearly a very alien culture to those of us from the West.  Maybe a little too adventurous of a trip for me...  

Lisa

[jani]

Eric, Lisa, yes it was an amazing trip, and the only thing that really reminded me of Norway was the temperatures.


There was one photo I particularly wanted to share with Jonathan Wienke, though, because of a comment made in an old thread about digital manipulation. I believe his words were along the lines about putting a glacier in a desert ...

Solution: go to Tibet, no manipulation necessary.  



Of course, being barren doesn't stop people from making a small market place out of a mountain pass. The kids had some entertainment in kicking that cardboard box around, too.

[John Swearingen]

I'm a little late on this thread, but here's my experience from a trip I took last year to Eastern Tibet (Kham).

*The roads are hard and bumpy and tough.  Bring good equipment and pack it well.
*Electricity was not always available in convenitent form, if at all, so plenty of batteries and provisions for digital storage are important.
*The sky is very blue, and the grass (in Kham) is green.  Polarizing filters are great, and lens hoods.
*Indoors tends to be pretty dark, so fast lenses and film are good to carry.
*Equipment gets really heavy when the air is scarce--weight matters a whole lot.
*Hard drives sometimes don't work at altitude because they ride on a cushion of air.
*We forded several flooding rivers in SUV's up to the floor boards, and could have gotten stuck, and it's common to walk through a river.  Waterproof bags are good.

It's a vast and wonderful country.  It's difficult to capture with even the widest lens.  More important, the essence of Tibet is in the people..be sure to look inside.

I'm going back this summer!    

John

[miketelemark]

Location of Ringha Tibetan Village

So it's not quite central Tibet, but rather a part of Greater Tibet. (See how familiar I am with the area, couldn't even get that exactly right ...)
Well, that's not a problem, except for flight time.

Ringha is close to Diqing airport (half an hour's drive away, according to the resort), so the trip is basically Singapore->Kunming->Diqing, staying within the same province (Yunnan) in China.
Oh, I certainly can imagine that. Unfortunately, we can't spend anything near that amount of time, but maybe we can stretch it to two weeks. It depends on several other factors.

Thanks for the link, BTW. It doesn't reduce my hopes for exciting photography.
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Jani,

I was in that area this past October (2006).  You couldn't have better timing.  The weather is perfect and the larch trees will be starting to turn gold.  The area around Rhinga looks a lot like Colorado.  It is very different from the classic high dry Tibetan landscape.  It is much more similar to parts of British Columbia or the San Juans in Colorado.  You will need to do a lot of driving to see the great photo ops there.  The most spectacular site I saw was sunrise over Kawa Karpo (the Meili Snow Mountain).  It is a 6 hour drive on a slightly nerve wracking road from Ringha.   There are great photo ops in the nearby Tiger Leaping Gorge area as well.  I would definitely do some research on the web before you go if you want to make the best of this once in a lifetime opportunity.  The cultural experiences and the photos of Tibetan life will blow you away.  I also thought the town of Lijiang and nearby Jade Dragon Mountain was worth a stay.  Make sure you stay in the old town.  The River Bend Inn is the local westerner's hangout but very basic.  One week is not even close to enough time for this vast area.  I would pull whatever strings you can to stretch it out.

[Ray]

The fascination of Tibet is due in part to its isolation and its tradition of Buddhist mysticism. It tends to fire the imagination. As a young man, I was particularly impressed by the novel by James Hilton, 'Lost Horizons', which painted a picture of an idealised Utopia (called Shangri-la) where people never seemed to age. A place in some hidden and inaccessible valley in Tibet. The novel is sheer romanticism at its best.

Another book which inspired me was by the Austrian author, Heinrich Harrer, 'Seven Years in Tibet'. I actually met Heinrich whilst trekking in Nepal in 1964. A purely chance encounter when he was there filming for German television, in the middle of ... the trekking route that I happened to be on.

I would advise anyone thinking of visiting such places, that the accommodation standards are greatly lacking. When I was trekking in Nepal in 1964, with my newly acquired Pentax Spotmatic, I had no guide, no porter, and slept in no hotels. It was pure adventure.