h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Great article! Some questions for you though:

How long did it take you to complete the trip? Would you say that is an 'average' amount of time? What kind of food did you bring? Baked beans and ovaltine? How much did the whole trip cost? Can you break that down to flights/bikes etc?

Cheers!

It took us three weeks exactly to do the whole lot, including Sakya Monastery, Everest Base Camp and the final bit in Nepal. It could have been done in less, if we'd got going a bit earlier in the morning (we were occasionally finally moving in the afternoon). However, the other stops we made for breakages and illness I would class as inevitable.

If you were planning to do this trip straight off I would advise bringing as much food as humanely possible from home. The food we got in Tibet was definately insubstantial but we had to make do. We ate in the truck stop/restaurant whenever we found one. If you are coming from home try to get dehydrated army-style rations, they're the biz. When we were at Everest we ran across the British summit expedition who gave us all the ones they hadn't used and they probably saved us from more nastiness. Amazing guys, and the food was actually quite nice.

As to what the whole trip cost? Probably a couple of hundred pounds, roughly. That includes the bike (£20), food, spares (possibly the lion's share), accomodation, permits, etc. However, add onto that the obligatory cheapest tour group to get into Tibet from China, which is £200 for the one-way flight, permits (bribes) and accomodation for two nights in Lhasa - no tour. To be honest taking a LandCruiser tour across from Lhasa to Kathmandu costs about the same, but can't be as much fun!

Let me know if there's anything else.