On a completely separate issue, I will be heading to Chengdu (in the Sichuan province) this Wednesday to pet Pandas, visit the World's largest Buddha, and perhaps climb more mountains. The journey will be the longest of my entire life thus far, and will surely hold some interesting experiences. Just under 39 hours on a train with only a hard seat should prove to be a true test of endurance, hopefully including sleep! The roads beyond this get narrow and windy, as tourists need a permit to enter Tibet and also need to lay down an exorbitant amount of Benjamin Franklins - not happening. Instead I plan to travel in the Western Sichuan region to get an equally, if not more authentic experience of Tibetan Buddhism. The details on this will follow once I establish a home base in Chengdu. I can't bore you with too much to read at once can I? Well, I sort of did that with my last post...sorry about that :)
Random Observations: The Chinese do not wait to let the people off of the subway before getting on. They find it more useful to mindlessly plow through the masses...why I am still trying to figure this out.