March, 5th 2006
How did I end up in Tibet?
The San Francisco Connection
Plans change all the time. Just some days ago I thought I will meet my parents in Hong Kong for my birthday but now I am on an airplane headed for to Tibet. The last two weeks in Thailand were special in many respects. First I met Antler with his friends in Burma heading the same way as I –crossing the border into Thailand. We spend some amazing days in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai and before I could realize it I was holding a flight ticket to Lhasa in my hands joining Antler on his “Bells and Gongs” – trip to Tibet. It didn’t take him long to persuade me to come along. Going to Tibet and Lhasa was always a dream of mine. Antler’s mission for this trip was to purchase bells and gongs among other things all over Asia before returning home to California by the end of April. When we met I helped him carrying over a massive gong as well as bags full of stone carved Buddhas. For a couple of days we split up. Antler is heading to Laos to buy some more treasures and he will meet me again in China after a couple of days. In the meantime I will go to Pai, a small village up northern Thailand to trek and explore the surrounding waterfalls, national parks and caves.