[UPDATED - see later posts]

Just updating our planning for a trip to China in 2014, we are still looking for others to share the cost of the obligatory tour guide in China.

[UPDATE- not considering this option now]
Currently we are looking at crossing from Mongolia to Laos as a group with another two (or more) vehicles.

We don't particularly want to stay in SE Asia so we would then leave the group with a view to travelling from Laos back through China/Tibet to Lhasa and either on into Nepal > India > Pakistan > China > Kyrgyzstan, or going straight back across China to Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan.
[end UPDATE]

An alternative to any of the above, if we could find anyone else to join us, would be Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan > China > Mongolia or the reverse. We might also consider Mongolia > China > Tibet > Nepal > India > Pakistan > China > Kyrgyzstan

We will have a 4x4 camper and would be looking for others with similar vehicles to join us.

Timing is relatively flexible, we would hope to be entering China around May/June 2014 and spend a month or so there.

Lots of options - Contact if interested in any of the above!

Andy

Hi Andy


My wife and I are planning to drive our 4x4 Mercedes Sprinter camper / pannel van to Sydney from Ireland next year. This would be via Istanbul, the Stans. Mongolia, China and Malaysia. I have been looking at the costs and China is expensive to get a vehicle into. If we could join a group, this would make it a lot cheaper.

The timeing would idealy be to leave Ireland around March and be in Mongolia June 2014.

Trevor

Hi Trevor, I see you have already posted in this thread

We had considered joining with the group but the logistics/cost of getting back to Europe from Laos have pretty much ruled it out for us unfortunately. However I'm sure the remaining two would be pleased to have you along.

We have pretty much decided to look for other travellers that want to cross from Mongolia to Nepal, or just do the loop through China from Kyrgyzstan or Kazakhstan to Mongolia (or the reverse).

We are open to all options at the moment and would also consider crossing from Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan (KKH), travelling in India for a while followed by a return from Nepal to Kyrgystan. Or the reverse route, crossing from Kyrgyzstan to Nepal and then returning from Pakistan (KKH) to Kyrgyzstan.

When would you look at making the Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan crossing?

Pretty flexible really - a lot depends on whether we can find anyone to share a return across China from Nepal to Kyrgyzstan.

I guess some time after the monsoon season, so end of September onwards?

Andy

Hi there
we (Jen & Peter & a Unimog 435) will definitely drive from Nepal through Tibet and China into Mongolia. (more about us on facebook under "Glaarkshouse")

The trip will start some time after April 2014 as "Winter" and "Himalaya" is a bit of a tricky combination! As we already are in India right now, we will certainly do exactly that trip. Of course the detailed route will be aligned amongst those who join in. The costs for this tour would be shared accordingly.

I already requested quotes from tour operators to organize plates, drivers licence, all other paper work and the obligatory tour guide.
It will be approximately 33 days in Tibet and China and certainly a once in a lifetime experience.

If you are interested, let us know.
Cheers
Peter

Hi Peter,

We would have been very interested but unfortunately we will not be leaving the UK until April 2014. Do you have an idea of when you would want to cross from Nepal into Tibet?

Andy

Hi Andy
we are flexible to some degree. So May/June (maybe July) we would like to cross from Nepal into Tibet. Which allows July/August for Mongolia and some late summer in Russia.
Where do you want to go exactly? And waht are your time constraints?
Take care
Peter

Hi Peter,

Our aim has been to cross China, how we do it is relatively flexible but we won't be ready to leave the UK until some time in April.

North to south (Mongolia > China > Tibet > Nepal) is a preference as it would get us to northern India for the cooler winter season.

If we were to cross from Nepal into Tibet in June or July we would need be crossing the Khunjirap pass into Pakistan some time in May or June. This is really too tight a schedule I'm afraid, as well as putting us in India in the hottest season.

Andy

Hi Andy, fully agree! good luck with your trip!
If you would change something, let us know!
cheers
peter

Hi Andy,

We got in touch on lonelyplanet.com. We are looking for co-travelers in order to reduce the costs for the Chinese guide and all that official stuff. We lready contacted a lot of Chinese travel agencies, so we got an idea of how the prices are. Initially our plan was to cross Pakistan, go on with India and Nepal and finally arrive in South East Asia. On account of the current situation in Pakistan we decided to change our plans and head for the ride through China. Actually we would like to go from the border Mongolia/China to Nepal but unfortunately we have only found some options for the trip to Laos so far. There is a couple (VW camper from Switzerland) we are in contact with and we found two other cars (2 Landcruiser from Australia and the Netherlands) through a Chinese travel agency which sent us an offer already. By the way this option is the cheapest we got so far (around 1500€/person).

So to sum up, we would really like to go to Nepal, but until now it looks like we only find enough people for the trip to Laos, so we deal with it. What's about you? Have you already found people who would join a tour to Nepal or some other options? If you want, just contact us and you are very welcome to join our group (4 cars so far). We would start around September, 20th at the border Mongolia/China.

Cheers, Jonas & Ellen

Hi Jonas & Ellen, welcome to the HUBB!

We don't want to end up in SE Asia and have decided that difficulties with timings mean that the Nepal/India/Pakistan route is not practical for us in 2014.

We've been having a close look at our options and have now decided to go for a route from the Torugart Pass on the Kyrgyzstan/China border to Erenhot on the China/Mongolia border.

We are in the process of agreeing details with a tour agency, the plan is to cross into China in the first week of July and spend up to 30 days there before exiting to Mongolia.

We do need others to join us to help with the China guide costs, so if anyone's interested please get in touch!

Andy

Hey there:

Sent you a PM - your route, and dates look very appealing !

I sent you a PM

UPDATE

We are still looking for others to travel with us on the route from Kyrgyzstan across China to Mongolia (or the reverse route).

We are in the process of agreeing details with a tour agency, the plan is to cross into China in the first week of July and spend around 30 days there before exiting to Mongolia.

We have a 4x4 camper and would prefer to travel with similar vehicles. We do need others to join us to help with the China guide costs, so if anyone's interested please get in touch!