Reuthers
Tibet / Asia
Guided Motorcycle Expedition

Welcome to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. A Reuthers will take you from the airport to your hotel. We will then apply for your Tibet Travel Permit and our Chinese Group Visa. In the evening all tour participants and the tour guide get together for a Welcome Drink, Welcome Dinner and briefing in order to get to know each other.

Right after breakfast, we pick up our Royal Enfield motorcycles and take a ride to Lumbini, the birth place of Buddha. There is also the Puskarini, or Holy Pond, where Buddha's mother took the ritual dip prior to his birth and where Buddha himself took his first bath...

We ride towards Chitwan National Park for a Wildlife Safari, where we will especially see Bengal Tigers and one horned rhinos.

After navigating through the busy streets of Thamel, we come back to Kathmandu for picking up the visa we applied for upon arrival in Kathmandu.

Today our Tibet motorcycle tour adventure starts. From Kathmandu we are riding the Pasang Lhamu Highway towards the Nepal-China border. The altitude will rise from 1,300 meters to 1,750 meters in Syapru Besi.

We cross the Nepal-China border at the Friendship Bridge and after finishing the documents process, our destination for today is Gyirong in Tibet. We will see the green gorges at the edge of the Himalaya mountain and have a stunning view of snow mountains and the deep gorges of the Gyirong Valley.

From Gyirong we are riding to the real Tibet Plateau and cross the Kuntanglhamo Pass (5,236 meters), one the highest points on this trip. Along our way, you will have a close view of Mount Shixiabangma (8,102 meters) and Pekutso Lake. We spend the night in Old Tingri with great views of the Himalayas in the south including Mount Everest.

In the morning, right after breakfast, we are riding to the Mount Everest Base Camp. Along the way, we will pass Gyawula Pass (5,190 meters) and from here you can see the best panorama view of Himalaya Range and five mountains with altitude of more than 8,000 meters. After visiting Rongpuk monastery, the highest monastery in the world, we are riding to Shegar (New Tingri).

On our way to Xigaze, we visit the Sa'gya monastery of Sa'gya Sect. Sa'gya monastery has a colossal collection of highly valuable art pieces. Sa'gya collection of treasures also contains 3,000 pieces of sutras with thousands of years history. The mural in Sa'gya Monastery is quite different from Dunhuang that has already become relic. Here the mural is still passed on from generation to generation. We then countinue our ride to Xigaze, the second largest city of Tibet.

First thing in the morning we must apply for our motorcycle drivers licence in China! In the afternoon, we visit the famous Tashi Lhunpo Monastery where you can see the well preserved largest statue of Jampa (future god) in the world. The main hall is the highest building of the monastery with a golden roof. The monastery has many festivals and Buddhist ceremonies. If we are lucky, we can see the monks with tall yellow hats praying and dancing in the assembly hall or at the big yard.

Nagcarze is a small town, overlooking the stunning Yamdrok Tso Lake. The snow covered mountain of Nojin Kangtsang can be viewed across the lake with its towering 7,000 meters (23 thousand feet).

Today we will be crossing the high pass of Karo La at 5,050 meters and continue our ride to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Besides the traditional and historical parts, you will find that Lhasa is now also a modern Chinese city.

This morning we will visit the Potala, UNESCO World Heritage site and former palace of the Dalai Lama - spiritual and political head of Tibet. The Potala symbolizes the Tibetan Buddhism and its central role in the traditional administration. The first sight of the Potala will be an awesome moment in your life and you will always remember. It takes hours to see the rooms, halls and chapels. In the afternoon, we will visit the Jokhang Temple, the spiritual center of Tibet and nearby Barkhor Street that is a symbol of Lhasa, it is a very ancient round street going around the Jokhang Temple. The street is filled with pilgrims and street vendors, selling traditional Tibetan items such as prayer wheels and jewelry.

Two Gelugpa Monasteries are scheduled for today. Drepung is the largest of all Tibetan monasteries and is located on the Gambo Utse Mountain. Once Drepung even was the world's largest monastery with about 10,000 monks. The other monastery is Sera with its famous Buddhism Scriptures Debating. After dropping off our Royal Enfield motorcycles, we will get together for our traditional Farewell Dinner and reminisce about our Tibet Motorcycle Expedition.