Tibet – The Roof of the World
Snow-capped mountains, shimmering blue sacred lakes, fluttering colourful prayer flags, and ancient monasteries. Tibet, a place I’ve always longed to visit.
In 2025, that dream finally came true. Truly blessed for this once-in-a-lifetime and unforgettable journey.
Back Story
I first wanted to visit Tibet back in 2015, but visa processing will take at least 1 month to process so I ended up going to Bhutan (visa processing took only about 2 weeks).
10 years later, I planned a Tibet trip again – this time with my mum and her group of travel mates in April 2025. However, unfortunately mum got diagnosed with cancer and we had to pull out from the trip.
Fast forward to September. Hubby suggested we go for a trip and we were looking around for a destination – Bangkok, Vietnam, China etc – and then he said:
“Why don’t we go Tibet??”
I guess that was all it took.
Choosing the Tibet itinerary
As usual, I headed straight to my default go-to travel agency, Chan Brothers, and found this 13 Days Enchanting Tibet: Nyingchi + Qinghai–Tibet Railway + Mt Everest itinerary.
It ticked all the boxes on my wish list: Qinghai-Tibet Railway and Mount Everest Base Camp
Fun Fact:
There are 2 ways of reaching Mt Everest base camp.
- Nepal side: Trekking from Kathmandu
- Tibet side: Drive all the way up
Back in poly, I missed a chance to join an adventure school trip trekking to Everest Base Camp via Nepal. To this day, I still have the slightest bit of regret on why I didn’t do it then.
So visiting Everest from the Tibet side felt like closing a long-standing loop which in comparison is much easily achievable.
As for the Qinghai Tibet railway, it is one of the most hyped rail journeys in the world and with Tibet being a one-off destination, if you don’t do it together, it is unlikely you will go back again just to experience it. Might as well tick all the boxes at once, right?
Booking the trip
We contacted Huangshan, the tour leader from our previous Beijing trip and enquired about departure dates and availability. And – hoorah – there was a group departing on 29 October!
We met up with Huangshan at a Chan Brothers travel fair at Marina Square (the kids were happy to see him again). Before making payment and confirming the tour, he was very nice to arrange for one of his colleagues who have extensive experience leading Tibet tours to explain to us more about Tibet, how to prepare for Tibet and answer any concerns we have. We were more or less set on Tibet anyway, so we paid the deposit and confirmed the trip.
I mentioned in my previous blog posts, that’s the brilliant thing about booking a tour package: you choose the itinerary, the price is right – book it and you’re done.All that was left to do was wait.
Following a tradition started by my son, this is the master post outlining our full itinerary, with individual daily posts linked separately.
Our 13-Day Tibet Itinerary
Note: The actual sequence differed slightly from the website due to local arrangements.
| Day | Itinerary | Key Attractions | Accommodation |
| DAY 1: | SINGAPORE – CHENGDU | – | Tianfu Joyhub Cheer Hotel |
| DAY 2: | CHENGDU – NYINGCHI | Lamaling Monastery | Linzhi Chomura Zong Urcove Hotel |
| DAY 3 | NYINGCHI | Nyingchi King of Cypress | Giant Cypress Nature Reserve | Sejila Scenic Area | Namcha Barwa | Lulang Forest | Niyang River Valley | Yani National Wetlands Park | Linzhi Chomura Zong Urcove Hotel |
| DAY 4 | NYINGCHI – LHASA | Basong Lake | Mila Mountain | Lhasa Shangri-La Hotel |
| DAY 5 | LHASA | Barkhor Street | Jokhang Temple | Potala Palace | Inscriptions on Precipices of Chakpori hill + the Observation deck of Chakpori hill | Shigatse Chomura Zong Urcove Hotel |
| DAY 6 | LHASA – NAMTSO LAKE – LHASA | Namtso Lake | Lhasa Shangri-La Hotel |
| DAY 7 | LHASA – YAMDROK TSO LAKE – SHIGATSE | Kanola Glacier | Yamdrok Tso Lake | Shigatse Chomura Zong Urcove Hotel |
| DAY 8 | SHIGATSE – EVEREST TOWN – EVEREST BASE CAMP | Rongbuk Monastery | Gyawu La Pass | Everest Base Camp | Vienna International Hotel Tingri |
| DAY 9 | EVEREST TOWN – SHIGATSE | Tashilhunpo Monastery | Shigatse Chomura Zong Urcove Hotel |
| DAY 10 | SHIGATSE – LHASA | Yarlung Tsangpo River | Potala Palace Square night tour | Shigatse Chomura Zong Urcove Hotel |
| DAY 11 | LHASA – QINGHAI-TIBET RAILWAY | Cuona Lake | Kekexili | Changjiangyuan | Changtang Grassland | Overnight on train |
| DAY 12 | QINGHAI-TIBET RAILWAY – XINING – CHENGDU | Chunxi Road | Taikoo Li | Daci Temple | Chengdu Taihe International Hotel |
| DAY 13 | CHENGDU – SINGAPORE | – | Home Sweet Home |
Tibet Travel Tips & Essentials
- Mobile Payment: You don’t need to change RMB if you’re comfortable with mobile payments. Both WeChat Pay and Alipay work almost everywhere -you can use WeChat or Alipay to pay for anything and everything. International cards will incur a 3% fee for payments above 200 Chinese Yuan (RMB). Singaporeans can also try Changi Pay and use it at Alipay merchants with no fees, though I personally had some hiccups with ChangiPay – tried to use it twice and it didn’t work and ended up using WeChat instead. My tip: set up both apps in case one fails.
- Hygiene Supplies: Bring hand sanitizer, wet wipes, and dry soap. This is especially important for the ladies as some of the washrooms ain’t the best in class. Some of the washrooms didn’t even have running water, so ensure you have sufficient hygiene products. In rural areas such as Shigatse or Everest Base Camp, the toilets are basic – many are traditional hàn cè (旱厕) which is Chinese for “dry toilet”, essentially a pit or drain with no flushing, sometimes without doors, just a partition in the middle. Yes, if the person before you did a big one, it is still there in all glory.
Our guide will pre-warn us in advance and advised wearing a mask for those rather sensitive to smell. In all fairness, tourist toilets are slowly improving, but it will take time and $$ so for now, 入乡随俗 – follow local customs.
- Power Banks: Ensure they are 3C (CCC) certified. As of 28 June 2025, power banks without a clear 3C (CCC) certification label, or those that are vague or recalled, are now strictly banned on China domestic flights. They are very strict about it.
- High-Altitude Medication: Visit a GP/doctor beforehand and get high altitude medications. Acetazolamide (Diamox) is a prescription-only medication but effective for altitude sickness prevention and treatment. Note – it is a prescription only medication. Can’t just get it off the shelf. One of my tour group mates got a prescription and brought theirs at Guardian/Watson and apparently it is cheaper. I got mine at the polyclinic and it wasn’t too expensive either.
It is much better and works faster than Hong Jing Tian (红景天) which you will need to start taking at least 2 weeks to a month before travel. For Diamix, you just have to start taking it 1 or 2 days before traveling to high altitudes and continue until you reached the max elevation. I started taking it on the 2nd day at Lingzhi (was contemplating still whether to let my body naturally acclimatize or take the medication but decided no harm – don’t risk) and continue until I reached Everest base camp which was the max elevation at 5000m.
- Standby nasal sprays, hand creams/moisturizers and lip balms. The air is extremely dry at high altitudes, which can cause nosebleeds, dry lips, and brittle nails. Most of us have slight nose bleeds (don’t worry not the active bleeding and overflowing type). Just blood stains most likely due to small blood vessels in the nose cracking/rapturing. Some of the hotels provide humidifiers that we have it on throughout the night and it did help a little. A couple of us started having brittle fingernails, dry skin and lips.
- Be well prepared for the cold. For those who are seasoned travelers and have been to cold places like Harbin, Iceland or any countries during winter/snow, nothing to fear. For us, this is our first time going to a country with negative temperatures so we were a bit under-prepared thinking it was autumn but actually they have gone into early winter. Ultra warm heattech base layers, windproof water resistant fleeced lined pants, down jacket, beanie, windproof gloves (mobile / touchscreen friendly that allows you to use your phone camera without having to take it off) and scarf is a must.
A few mistakes we made : Our jackets were polylester and not down (even though it looks like down). Definitely not enough to weather the wind and cold at Mt Everest. I only brought 1 beanie so we ended up buying 1 more from one of the roadside stalls at one of the rest stops. Same with gloves, our gloves were not windproof so we ended up buying ski gloves at Shigatze. Good thing is all the shops were selling winter wear and the locals know best on how and what to wear.
- I would suggest packing your toiletries and/or facial products either in travel containers or sealed, waterproof bags to prevent them from bursting or leaking. I have never thought what high altitude can do to my toiletries – it expands like a balloon (due to the expanded air pressure inside) and the minute you opened it, it pushed the product out and leaked all over the place. I think I lost half of my BB cream because of that. =(
Relax, have fun, enjoy and don’t overthink
My guide in Yunnan and my guide in Tibet both said the same. It is normal for tourists like us who are not used to high altitudes to feel some discomfort – loss of appetite, headache, insomnia, breathlessness etc. Once the body get used to it, you will be fine. Relax, slow down and take it easy.
Main thing – don’t overthink and stress out over mild symptoms and let your body slowly adjust and acclimatize. Sometimes it is a mental issue – mind over body is what my sports coach used to say. If you keep telling yourself that you are suffering from high altitude illness, you can’t continue anymore if not you are endangering yourself, you don’t give your body time to acclimatize, then you give up then and then and your trip is over.