I’ve been playing with the idea of walking to Tibet or somesuch for a year or so now. I’ve just finished my first semester at the university, so it won’t be for a few years at the very least, but I might as well start researching a bit.
There’s all sorts of questions, of course… other destinations might be more interesting than Tibet, there’s a ton of different routes, are there any good books about similar adventures, what languages should I know, it’s been suggested that crossing some borders between Europe and Asia could be a problem, and most of all: how difficult, or even dangerous, would such a trip be?
As I said, I’m still just playing with the idea, but at the very least, it’s an interesting topic to research, so any ideas whatsoever would be greatly appreciated.
It’s fiction, but you might enjoy Walking Davis
It’s not easy. Every year here in the US, a lot of people hike the Appalachian Trail, which is 2160 miles. It’s VERY hard, and takes about 5-7 months to do, with proper planning, food drops, etc. Now, you would presumably go through towns, which would give you the chance to stop at hotels and such, but there would likely be very large stretches where you had no shelter or food, so you’d have to have planned food drops or carry a tremendous amount of weight to make it through those stretches.
Now, since Tibet is a heck of a lot further from Norway than the AT is, it would likely take you a year or two to complete it.
You might want to consider riding a bicycle instead. Besides you being able to carry more stuff, there are lots of planned routes for various countries, and destinations.
Here is a link to Adventure Cycling who has route maps and all kinds of info for tours in the US. You can also do a group (supported) tour to get your feet wet the first time.
Good luck, and let us know what you decide.
Food drops? Google seems only to be interrested in large-scale food drops for the poor, and I hope that’s not something I’ll have to exploit.
Rick: Sure, if I ever decide to really go through with this, there’ll be a lot of boasting, and lies and tall tales when I get back 
I’ve trekked in China and Nepal, and it ain’t easy, even when there are places around that cater to trekkers.
I suspect food drops might be a trifle ambitious. I think you’d have to plan to go from town/village to town along the way, allowing maybe 15-20 miles a day, and take a lot of dried provisions for those times when you have to camp out. There are mountains and forests and deserts in the way, so a lot of the time it will be dangerous, arduous, and isolated.
Getting to Tibet would be tough. You’d have to do it illegally, from the Gobi desert, from Nepal, or from China proper (I suspect the Pakistani side might be a bit scary). I met a Scottish guy in Lhasa who’d cycled from Sichuan, and he’d been arrested countless times on the way.
I met a [del]lunatic[/del] follower of a strange east German religious sect, like the Amish or something, who walked from Germany to Hong Kong. He had a card with words explaining who he was and what he was doing, written in every language available. He appeared to have relied on people’s goodwill to get him there. (He also wore a really old-fashioned hat and suit with huge buttons made out of a thick brown felt.) I seem to recall it took him considerably more than a year.
For an idea of the difficulties of such a voyage, even on motorcycles with a backup crew, I cannot recommend Long Way Round highly enough - Ewan McGregor and friend Charlie Boorman ride from London to NYC overland.
In the companions wanted page of adventure cycling there are several people looking for someone to ride with on international treks.
Besides the logistics of food provisions along the way, you must give a lot of thought to water. High and dry areas will cause dehydration more quickly and it is vital to keep hydrated.
Water everywhere nowadays should be considered unsafe to drink. Not only bacterial polution, but nasty parasites of all sorts thrive in most water you’ll find.
There are good filter pumps (see REI) but they are heavy and take time to use. Many backpackers just use iodine tablets to purify the water. You drop in a couple, wait 20 minutes and you have water the color of urine. It does not taste much better, but it will be safe. What will clear it up quickly is to drop in a couple of Vitamin C tablets. That improves the color and the taste and gives you an extra shot of Vit C.
Check out the inoculations you will have to get country by country and talk to a doctor about what to get and when.
Mountaineering and backpacking retail stores can usually provide you with a lot of good information about clothing, equipment and supplies you will need. Very important to get fitted for a good backpack.
Good luck, I wish I could go with you!
According to Steven Wright everywhere is walking distance… if you have the time.
Good luck.
well, if you really want to do this in Tibet, then do it the right way like this guy going from Lhasa to Mongolia or these women doing laps around a monastary.
Here’s an interview with a monk who is prostrating himself to Lhasa. He calculates that he performs 500 prostrations for each kilometer. The total journey is 2000 km, for a total of one million prostrations. Not only that, but even during his month of “rest” in Litang, he is still performing 2500-3000 stationary prostrations every day. Sometimes illness or hunger or exhaustion compels him to pause for a few days at places along his route, or he stops to pay respects to a sacred temple, lake, or mountain.
You can read the definitive guide to Sacred Mount Kailash by Lama Govinda. He did the trip in the late 1940’s. That should give you a target. Here’s one link about the sacred Mount Kailash.
That said, if you don’t speak Tibetan or Chinese, don’t even try. tibet is a huge area, and about as harsh an inhabited environment as you will find anywhere.
I saw a guy at the Barkhor who had clearly done one of those massive prostration pilgrimages. He had a callous on his forehead like the heel of a foot. It was quite disgusting. However, the knowledge that the guy was on the last leg of a possible million-prostration march was very moving.
I did a short video/slideshow of the trip, that includes a clip of him doing his kora around the temple, from afar.
BTW, I spent a couple of months hiking in Kham, or the easter part of tibet in the 1980’s.
BTW, by food drops I didn’t mean airborne packages floating from the sky, but organized shipments of food to specific destinations, custom made for your light travel. In small towns, you will probably not be able to find dehydrated foods, which would be essential to carry enough food to sustain you for the times that you have several days without proper shelter / food.
Interesting. I was looking at the map and I’d take the northern route around the Black Sea and Kazakhstan. That way you’d just need visas and language courses for Russia & China.
Also I’d get inoculated for everything not just the advised ones.
Check. I would *highly * suggest a rabies shot. that will give you a window of time to get back to civilization in case you get bit by anything suspect.
Thanks a lot for all the answers! As suspected, this is really starting to look like a difficult mission. Perhaps Nepal would be a good substitute. Thankfully, I’ve got years to prepare, should I decide to do it. But if I get the time next summer, I’ll probably try warming up with a trip in continental Europe.
Steven M. Newman walked solo around the world.
That sounds like a substantially better idea than going through some of the more dangerous central Asian territory, to me. Language barriers would be real tough out there, and settlements are much further apart.
True, but as someone who has taken first year French sank times and gotten a D every time and who has visited France many times, though as an indentured bilge rat, if sign language is good enough for the Americans, real Americans, then it’s good enough for you.
You can always tell Americans, not the real Americans, overseas by the way they speak loudly whilst gesturing wildly.
Plennie Wingo walked from Santa Monica to Istanbul–backwards!
Not so sure on how he walked across The Big Pond.