Our friends at KE Adventure Travel tell us the borders to Tibet have been closed since the riots in March this year, despite the fact that the Chinese say the borders are open!

After the Olympic torch was carefully paraded through the streets of Lhasa (lined with military) last month, the Chinese authorities announced that Tibet was once more open to foreign visitors.

After consulting with their local agents in Nepal, KE was told by the Chinese Mountaineering Association in Lhasa that they should start sending names for visas to be issued. On that basis, KE happily announced that they would be running Tibetan holidays again from September.

In reality however, only a handful of tourists have been granted visas and sources have informed KE that visas will not be issued to organised groups, nor to anyone travelling from Nepal.

On trying to contact the same officials at the Chinese Mountaineering Association in Lhasa, there is now no reply. The Chinese do not like losing face it would appear!

The borders may open at the end of September once the Para Olympics have passed but KE is not relying on it.

Since all KE groups enter Tibet via Nepal the company has sadly cancelled all their autumn departures for this year. What is bad news for Tibet though seems to have benefited Nepal and Bhutan as most clients seem to be transferring their holidays to these Himalayan countries.