Tibet or bust...

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I have found a way to Tibet!!! Although I had already been told it was a no go on my timescale by several agents, yesterday everything changed, mainly my luck! I had resigned myself to not doing it and was researching ways to get round Tibet from China. It was looking like getting myself across to the south east of China by hideous train route to Hong Kong and flying into Kathmandu from there. I realised that Nepal is still a wonderful place to be my backup choice and that I should stop being a spoilt brat and stop sulking. And then I could pick up my original route from there over to the Indian border. But deep down I was really gutted. If anything this trip was about going through Tibet, as the longer time goes on the more the place is being irrevocably changed by the Chinese occupation.

So there I was, surfing the net looking for cheap flights to Kathmandu, when someone came into the hostel looking to do a Tibet trip as soon as possible, arriving in Nepal by the 17 October. The timing was perfect. But I didn't let myself think it was going to happen as so many things could still get in the way. I went downstairs to meet them, a jewish couple from NYC, and as we got talking it was apparent we had the same itineraries in mind. We both wanted to get the train into Lhasa, not fly, and both of us planned to head to the Nepali border, and bizarrely onto Delhi. It was fate intervening, I like to think! The other good news is that we can leave on 8 October, unlike the 12th, which is what I was originally given as the earliest that my Tibet Travel Permit could be issued.

So it does mean hanging around til 8 October, which was slightly annoying, but the trade-off of getting to Tibet means I am more than happy to do it. I am nervous about my budget now so will try and lie low, do lots of reading, hang out in tea houses and avoid beer for the next 5 days. There are definitely worse places than Chengdu to kill a few days. I am going to rent a bike, check out some temples, and try and get in with the old people doing tai chi and playing mah jong in the park. They ooze coolness.

My 30th birthday (6 October) is also on hold til I get to Lhasa. I will arrive there on the 10th I think so it's going to be shifted back 4 days. It's good as I haven't really celebrated my birthday massively for most of my 20s as I didn't really feel like it. This is a nice way to get the ball rolling for the next decade and get back into it!! And no I don't feel old. It's only 30. Come back and ask me that when I'm 90. Everyone asking me if I feel old needs to get a grip. To an 80 year old I am barely out of the womb. Let go of your age-ist hangups and you will be free, like me! (Also get some good moisturiser to help the cause)...

But 5 days doing nothing is a long time, so I am going to make the trip to Emei Shan and stay here at the Teddy Bear Hotel on sunday night in order to wake up above the clouds on my actual birthday, give thanks to the mountains, and also to mum for squeezing me out all those years ago, despite the linen strike at Derby hospital (I was born into a paper bag, after being pulled out by pincers - hence the paperclip marks on my cheeks that involved me being asked on a daily basis at school if I have been sleeping on a paperclip). And also visit the giant buddha at Leshan, whose fingernails are the size of a man. That is probably the best birthday setting I will have had yet. And then official celebrations when I get to Lhasa!!!