heading to tibet

...now there's a place i really never thought i would go, but then again, every where in asia i've been so far i never imagined visiting, so what the heck! we've had to acquire special visas to cross into the province and most chinese tell us it's a 'dangerous' place to go due to the news their fed, but actually i'm excited to be back in the high desert. the train alone should be a trip. our host in xining, emily--a friend of christy's from ann arbor who's living here, took the train and wound up puking in the bathroom due to such high altitude. it crosses a couple 16,000 ft passes en route to the 12,000 ft capital, lhasa. it'll take us 27 hours by train and apparently it's a shorter train due to the weight restrictions on the permafrost and demands on the engine. tickets are tough to get this time of year because many chinese students are traveling as it's their summer break and it's tibet's high season. i just can't imagine there will be as many people there as there have been in other chinese cities...packed every where you turn! i've added a 'link of interest' on the train and it's easy to research, but it's the highest train and goes through the highest tunnel in the world. it was an architectural wonder just to build the thing in such extreme conditions and isn't open all year round. since the olympics they've opened a 5 star, luxury train as well. ...we won't be taking that one! : ) we will be up there for 20 days though and covering a lot of ground despite the long sounding length of our trip...i think we'll be in the car a lot again, but thanks to the chinese and unlike the russians in mongolia, the roads are paved...whew! we've come to xining because christy's friend emily is here and to help acclimatize slowly. it will be the highest either one of us has ever been and we expect to feel some symptoms of altitude sickness but are doing the best we can to prep ourselves with homeopathic herbs, water and time. emily has lived here for a year and loves it. she's working with a ministry organization trying to help prostitute tibetan women rehabilitate into other professions. she wants to open a half way house and do many other wonderfully loving things. she has the heart of mount everest and has always been drawn to the tibetan culture and people. she's now studying chinese. last night we went out for a traditional hot pot meal, which is a big cauldron of oil divided in two: spicy and non, where you add veggies and meats to cook and then scoop it out with chopsticks being careful not to scald anyone at the table with flying drops of oil. good stuff. we leave for the train station in about a half hour and hopefully will be there by 2 or 3 pm tomorrow (thurs). i have lots of stories to tell, but so little time! another place we'll be seeing and attempting to circumambulate, is mt. kailash. it's another nice place to research...the history and spirituality is unprecedented. i wish all of you well and hope to have a good trip. Be in touch...i'll be back blogging from bangkok early the second week of september. love, j p.s. my sister vickie's getting married on the 28th! congratulations to her and mike! ...and sorry i won't be there.