Hi all,

I am currently sitting in a smokey wanba (internet cafe) in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China. In about a month I will reach the outskirts of the Tibeten Platue and need to figure out a route to Lasah.

I have read in my Lonely Planet that the souther and norther routes in Sichuan are crawling with PSB that could bust me for being there illegally. That leaves me three other options.

One is the rotue through Yunnan which is both tough and a ways out of my way. I don't think my visa has enough time for me to get to this route. Although, I have a guide book that covers it extensively so it might be worth it. I could also pop into Thailand and buy a new Chinese visa to extend.

Option two is the one I am leaning towards at the moment, which is through south eastern Qingha province. Actually I am not sure if thats the right spelling of the province but its the one jsut west of Gansu and the route follows the G214. This seems like it would drop me in a fairly remote regoin with out as many PSB but also not be too far out of the way for my current location. Does anyone know if this is accurate?

Third option is to take a long detour through Qingha to Golmond, where the railway to Lasah starts, and go south from there. I think I could fit this in my visa time frame but I am not sure. It also goes through some no-mans lands that I am iffy about. I am not sure if this route would be very heavy with PSB or light because of the train. Any thoughts? This route would also minimize the amount of total time I would have to spend in any restricted areas before reaching Lasah.

I am open to any ideas or thoughts. I have a book about cycling the Himnalyas but its from 2009 so is probably out of date and doesnt cover most of my route options.

You can read about my ride so far here: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/thecyclingvagabond