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March - October 2005

Intrepid Season 2005 - China, Tibet, & Nepal (part III)

Brett Voegele
2005-11-19 14:41:04

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August 11, 2005

Well, that was certainly an interesting trip - to say the least! I was supposed to have a full group, 12 passengers, but one passenger cancelled before I ever met him as he wasn't able to secure his necessary visas. Down to 11. Then, one minute before my group meeting was to begin I met another passenger. He was on crutches and couldn't bend his leg. We both decided that he couldn't make the trip in that condition. Down to 10. While still in Kunming I was having all sorts of issues trying to get the necessary train tickets for my group, as it's the busy season. Luckily they ended up adding an extra carriage to the train, and so we were able to get those berths. Lucky. There were several other issues along the way, such as the hoops I had to jump through to get refunds on already-purchased flight tickets to Lhasa for my cancelled passengers. However, little did I know that it was just about to get interesting.

We flew into Lhasa and had a few days seeing the normal sites. Then, on day three, one of my passengers bought a dog - allegedly to save it from being eaten by a Chinese soldier, though I have my doubts. There was no way a dog was coming with us on a 9-day Landcruiser trip across Tibet, and everyone seemed to realize that - including the woman who bought the dog. Therefore, I ended up talking to a local friend of mine who has several dogs, and he agreed to keep the dog. There were many anxious moments as the woman waffled back-and-forth about what she was going to do, but in the end the rest of the group and I 'convinced' her that leaving the dog was in everyone's best interest. Five minutes before we were to leave Lhasa she approached me one last time to understand the repercussions of her staying behind with her dog. I let her know that we were all on the same permit and that she'd be screwing up everyone elses trip if she were to stay. That seemed ...