yeah!

ok... sooooo FINALLY... i'm boooooookeed... i got a kooky itinerary but it's biz class baby! (ok... all the way to hong kong... i'm ECON after that... )... so... here goes...

leaving mid-day monday, may 26th (memorial day)... lax to tokyo... tokyo to hong kong... a 12-hour layover in HK (but will kick it the airport's kick-butt traveler's lounges... $80 for a bed, shower and buffet breakfast... WAY better then trying to find a hotel in the city)... then onto chengdu the morning of the 28th...

i'll cool my heels at sim's cozy garden hostel in chengdu for a few days to get my tibetan travel permit... sim's is a pretty funky place... but i like that kinda thing.. and it gets great reviews... last, at $14/night for a single room with bath, it officially rocks!

while there, i'm hoping to check out wenshu monastery... a beautiful buddhist temple in the north part of the city... also home of a popular tea garden and great veggie restaurant (yay!)....

the panda research center, where pretty much all the world's pandas come from these days ... on one hand, animals in captivity make me sad (like sad panda?)... but it's also hopeful... as this center is keeping these beautiful creatures from extinction.. (and, damn, if these aren't about the cutest things on earth, i don't know what is... i just wanna hug em!)...


...the leshan giant buddha (i wanted to see this on the '06 trip, but just couldn't work it in... ). the leshan buddha is the tallest stone buddha in the world. it's carved out of a cliff face and, from what i've heard, is simply amazing! (lookie at all the itsy people!)...






oh... and i plan to eat as much ma po dofu (sans critters, of course) i can humanly stand... (mmmmm... spicy!)


more details to come...

argh, part deux!

still calling, dagnabit! they haven't even released any coach seats!

agggrrrhhhh!

breathing....

:)

argh!

So, after charging my AA credit card like crazy (and paying off each month, of course) so I could get enough miles to fly like a rock star in biz class (never done that before and would be most welcome, as I'm flying from Lhasa, to Chengdu, to Hong Kong and home all in one day... ugh), AA tells me there are no frequent flier seats available...

Sigh, I guess I'll just keep calling and asking until they give in...

or...

poop.

Goin' Back, Baby!

Well, not like I have another blog that I'm not so great at keeping up to date, but what the heck? This is a whole new (and, eventually, limiting) topic... Besides, ya'll can keep up with my adventures while I'm gone.

Sooooooo... yes, I've spent the last 15 months dreaming of the day I can return to Tibet... and it looks like things are getting set in stone! Wooo hoooo! Here's the nitty-gritty...

I'm leaving @ 1:50 a.m. (ouch!) Tuesday, May 27 and will return Saturday, June 21.

After a few days in Chengdu, I will get my Tibetan Travel Permit and proceed to Lhasa on May 31. From June 2-13, I will be volunteering at the Jatson Chumig Welfare Special School, helping to teach Tibetan orphans to speak English. (If you're up for being generous, check out the Amazon.com wish list I've got going... I'm planning on shipping out a box of all this stuff Mid-April... All items are needed and most appreciated! :)

I'm really excited about seeing this school and meeting the children. I've heard some wonderful things from other volunteers about their time at Jatson (and, yes, I've promised Keith I will NOT bring home any children... sigh...)

I will be teaching Monday -Friday for two weeks and will spend the weekend of June 7, tooling around and doing some daytrips out of Lhasa.

In the middle of my second week, my father will be flying to Lhasa and will do a few days of sightseeing in the area while I'm finishing up my volunteer work. Then, on Saturday, June 14, my dad and I hit the road for nine days touring Tibet. Assuming one of us doesn't kill the other (wink!), we're going to do much of the tour Keith and I did in Sept. 06 (Gyantse, Shigatse, Tsetang)... but with one *huge* addition... a trip to Everest Base Camp... yeeeeeaaahhhhhaaaaawwww!!!!

I can't believe it's still six months away... oh well, I'll babble on about the joys of planning such an adventure in the meantime!