It’s a lot of work to get to Tibet.  Visas, money, paperwork, photographs, travel documents – all of these things are required with a lot of advance notice.  Not to mention the most expensive 45-minute flight I’ve ever purchased.

Once you get there, it’s queues and inspections and queues and waiting and more paperwork. Hopefully your guide is waiting for you when you try to leave the airport or you may have an even longer wait.

But I’d do it all again just for the flight.  Flying from Kathmandu to Lhasa has to be one of the most gorgeous flights in the world.  I swear I felt the plane tilt as everyone ran over to the left side of the plane to see Mt. Everest as we sailed by.  It’s a spectacular sight.  On the other side of the plane, views were just as unbelievable, with gorgeous turquoise lakes surrounded by rolling brown hills everywhere.

It’s too short of a flight to actually be able to take it all in, but thankfully we had return tickets and another chance to see it all over again.