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Hier findet ihr Updates von Reisenden für Reisende und auch unser Autor und das Webteam posten hier, wenn sie Aktuelles und Wissenswertes erfahren. Habt ihr Fragen, etwa zum Buch oder eurer Reiseplanung, dann stellt sie im Forum. Gern gesehen sind dort auch Kenner des Landes, denn je mehr Antworten und Erfahrungen geteilt werden, desto besser für alle.
Wir haben eben eine Tibet Reise absolviert (ihr Reiseführer ist neben dem Lonely Planet der absolut Beste). Ganz tolle Reise, leider haben bei CITS Chengdu/Lhasa eine Reihe von Dingen nicht funktioniert. Wir wollen daher anderen Reisenden einige Tipps mit auf den Weg geben.
Thomas Plesser
Austria
Note:
This is based on a 1o day trip to Tibet (train from Xining - Lhasa - Gyantse - Shigatse - Mt Everest Base Camp - Namtso Lake - Lhasa) taken by a European, 3 person family in July 2009. Since Foreign Tavel Permits can only be obtained if you book through a travel agency, the trip (hotels, guide, 4WD with driver) was booked through the Chengdu office of CITS, the largest Chinese travel agency (which in turn used a local Tibet agent).
Tipps:
1. Travel contract:
Don't ever pay the full contract amount in advance.
If the agency insists, look for another one. Retain at least 30 perc., else you will be condemned to begging and pleading if services are not as they ought to be (and be sure that will happen).
Be very detailed in your contract. Almost every unclear provision will be used against you, for example:
Train tickets: even if you spoke about soft sleeper (first class) tickets before signing the contract, the contract may then speak of "mid rate comfortable independent berths", and what you get is for sure the cheaper hard sleeper (2nd class) tickets (in open 6 bed compartments) and an explanation that soft sleeper tickets were not GUARANTEED. Also include the time of the train in the contract (not just in the correspondence), or you may end up with a less popular night train (argument again: not GUARANTEED!).
Another example: If you book the car the basis of RMB/km, make sure that you check the km's yourself (best by using a GPS). In our case about 6oo km more were in the contract (and the contract amount calculated on that basis), and when we wanted a partial refund , the argument was that the reference to the km's was just for illustration purposes (if the contract amount is fully paid, they will just not react to a refund request, and hope that you will give up once you are back home).
2. Hotel bookings:
There are numerous ways a travel agency can make money off of you: they can send you to a different/cheaper hotel - and pretend the booked hotel (was it ever booked?) is full ("government agencies booked it all"), or simply assign you cheaper rooms in the booked hotel (every hotel has a variety of rooms, and the price differences are substantial): insist, argue, talk with the front desk manager yourself, call the agent's director, etc. Don't give up. It will cost you some nerves - but its worth it if your bathroom is smelly, or the only window is into a dark inner court.
Also doublecheck regularily if hotel reservations were actually made. Local agents may try to do some last minute shopping around for hotel rooms to make some extra fringe money, and therefore may hold back firm bookings.
3. Programm changes:
The Chinese agency proposed itinerary will not always be viewed favourably by the local Tibet agent, so be prepared and flexible to accept local programm changes, but be alert that the service level is - through these changes - not reduced too much.
4. Local tour guide:
The local tourguide which is necessary may turn out pretty useless. Their knowledge of history is often minimal. If they smell too much (in Tibet the tradition seems to be that driver/tourguide do not change clothes for up to a week), don't be shy to ask the guide to sit in the last row of the landcruiser.
5. Shopping:
Guide/driver try to take you shopping, but they do not insist too much if you firmly refuse, although they may not be too happy (commission).
6. Car:
Make sure you agree the exact make, age, number of seats, etc of the car, whether A/C or not, etc. (otherwise you may get a 3o+ year old car where absolutely nothing but the engine works). Reject the car and take on the hazzle to let them get you another one. Fight it out, they will try hard though to avoid the expense.
Another phenomenon: The driver (who are often paid small wages; note that cars are often owned by separate entrepreneurs) may try to save petrol (note: which is generally a good thing except if it is for the personal benefit of the driver who argues that he is on a fixed petrol budget) and go very slowly, or refuse to turn on the A/C (pretending he is too cold). Insist, discuss and if need be clarify with the travel agency. This is indeed a problem if you pay a high amount for the car, most of which is eaten up by the (2two) travel agencies.
Make sure you also talk before about where the guide sits otherwise the best seat in the front will be taken by him. This may sound silly, but can be a big point during a longer trip.
7. Value of booking through a Chinese (here: Chengdu) travel agency rather than directly through a local Tibet agency:
While the Chinese agency's sales dept is often strong (good English), which is an advantage when you book from overseas, the execution part may be weak and not worth the mark up they take (e.g., CITS Chengdu charged RMB 3.8/km for the landcruiser where their own local agent charged RMB 2.8/km for exactly the same car to another party, i. e. roughly a 3o perc mark up on a car rental where the extra input is practically nill!). The fact that sometimes you have to deal with the local Tibet agent, and sometimes with the Chinese agency, and sometimes with both, plus having to deal with the obvious Chinese - Tibeti issues where on part blames the other adds additional complexity.
In summary, there are no benefits of using a Chengdu tour agent (as opposed to using a local Tibet agent) which would in any way justify the substantial mark ups involved.
by Thomas Plesser, Nanjing/Vienna
Die chinesischen Behörden haben am 30. März offiziell bestätigt, dass die Einreise nach Tibet ab dem 6. April für Ausländer wieder möglich ist. Ab sofort können die dazu benötigten Genehmigungen in China wieder beantragt werden. Ebenfalls wurde mitgeteilt, dass nun auch alle Klöster wieder für Besichtigungen freigegeben sind.
Die chinesischen Behörden haben kurzfristig für März 2009 ein erneutes Einreiseverbot für die Autonome Region Tibet (TAR) ausgesprochen. Gründe für diese Maßnahme wurden nicht genannt. Beobachter sehen diese jedoch in Zusammenhang mit dem Jahrestag der mehrtägigen Unruhen, die im März 2008 anlässlich des 49. Jahrestages der Flucht des Dalai Lama aus Tibet in mehreren Städten ausgebrochen waren.
In seinem Sicherheitshinweis von Ende Februar informiert auch das Auswärtige Amt über das Einreiseverbot und schreibt, dass für den gesamten März 2009 erneut eine Reisesperre für Tibet besteht. Bis Ende März werden entsprechend keine Permits ausgestellt.
Ab April soll man dann wieder ganz normal einreisen können.
