Spring Break

This week for me is midterms (aka: no fun week), and while that stinks it does mean that spring break is just around the corner at the end of April. I have ten days to go just about anywhere in Asia that I want to (although they encourage us to stay in Mainland China). Some people are going to Thailand, a lot are going to Hainan, the Hawaii of China with lots of beaches, but I am going to Tibet.

Now if you don't know why going to Tibet is so significant, just google it and I'm sure you'll find plenty. The idea of going to Tibet arose when I first found out that we were going to have a free week to travel and it sounded awesome, but It's also about as far away from Shanghai as you can get (50 hour train ride one way), you need all sorts of special permits, you have to go with a tour group and it's expensive.

In fact when some of my friends talked to me about going they had found a tour that was reasonably priced, but it was also only for four days and we spent a total of 24 hours driving from one spot to the next, not what I wanted to do. I actually talked two of the three who were committed to going to Tibet into going to Sichuan instead which is where the earthquake was last year and also the home of the Panda. We were all settled on this idea, go do some earthquake relief, see pandas, eat really spicy food etc.... and then I told our other friend who REALLY wants to go to Tibet about this change of plans, and she, being much, much smarter and craftier than I talked me back into going. She made the valid argument that I've already come this far and that I shouldn't let $200 come between me and this opportunity. She also used three words: Everest Base Camp. I don't know the details of our trip but I do know that we spend one night at Mount Everest base camp, I don't care what we do before or after that is what I'm most looking forward to.

So we spent all day yesterday figuring out 1) what was the cheapest way to get there, 2) what was the fastest way to get there and 3) what we wanted to do when we got there. This process lasted for quite some time and involved dragging in Chinese students because apparently you can get better airfare deals if you book in Chinese as opposed to English. Turns out to fly from Shanghai to Lhasa (Tibet) was going to cost an arm and a leg, but we didn't want to waste four days traveling, so we were going to fly from Shanghai to Xi'an and then take a train for like 30 hours to Tibet and repeat on the way home which would've saved us about a day and was within everyones price range.

Turns out this was moot point because the best way to plan a trip to Tibet is to have someone else do it for you. So going with the recommendation of a travel agency a few kids who are doing a whole year used last semester we started getting quotes for what it would cost for four of us to go to Tibet including getting there, back and everything in between. With only four of us it was going to cost too much and it seemed that hope for Tibet was fading fast, and then we started recruiting.

With only four people it was going to cost a fortune, but with seven or eight people it only costs a small fortune. So what started out at four people quickly ballooned into as many as ten (not sure what the final count is).

So yeah, going to Tibet, pretty excited about it and I'll let you know more when we get closer and finalize everything.

-AL