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date of departure. The original permit is never handed over

to the visitor and one gets the photocopy of it which can be
kept by the visitor as a keepsake. It stays with the police

authorities. There were severe restrictions imposed on us as
to what topics can be discussed during our stay in Tibet. No

talk of the Dalai Lama in the public even though the Dalai
Lama is worshipped as a god in every Tibetan home. Foreign

print and electronic media is still banned from travelling to
this part of the world. One interesting thing that we

experienced was the broad smile that the local Tibetans
would give once they discovered that we were Indians. Out

of curiosity I asked our guide Danzeng why this behaviour
and he said they are grateful to Indians for giving a safe

home to the present Dalai Lama. They would touch us as if
that would give them some blessing. All this gave us a feeling

of being special in a mystic land.

Our journey to this mystic land began by reaching the

starting point of this epic train journey at Xining the capital

of Qinghai region. We boarded the train with lots of
apprehensions as we knew we would have to tackle the great

altitudes of the Tibetan Plateau and also AMS (Acute
Mountain Sickness) along with it. Our journey started from

Xining at 2.30 p.m. and soon our train tickets were checked
and taken away by the train authorities and were given an

alternate plastic ticket for the duration of the train journey
(They return the original tickets before the train arrives at

Lhasa).

The Qinghai Tibet train at Golmund Station The Rail Route Map