February 25, 2007
Rest Day Luang Prabang: researching option for China and Tibet
First breakfast at the Scandinavian Bakery then a hike up Phu Si and visit the temple on top. Some local women are selling tiny grass reed birdcages with small birds inside. Letting them go is suppose to bring good luck and of course also supports a local business of catching these small birds. They release the birds and destroy the cages, then catch the birds again.
In the afternoon we spent more time on the internet. As it stands now, we see several options for the China portion of our trip:
1. Enter China as late as possible (3/17/07); ride to Chengdu in +/- 5 weeks and join the Bike China tour and have 17 days to get from Lhasa to the Nepal border; the minus is we'd have to hurry a lot, the plus is we don't have to extend our visas.
2. Enter China earlier (3/10/07): ride to Chengdu, fly to Hong Kong for a new visa, join Bike China tour have plenty of time for Lhasa to Nepal; or ride to Dege, join Bike China, try to get extension from Lhasa.
3. Ride to Dali, take the Yunnan Road to Lhasa and onto Nepal, all in the 90 days we have either legally (if we can get a Tibet Travel Permit, TTP, in Dali) or illegally across Eastern Tibet.
4. Ride to Chengdu, fly to Hong Kong or Bangkok for a new visa, ride Chengdu to Lhasa as independent either legal if possible or illegally.
It's a confusing situation and the answer we are getting returned on our email queries are not making the decision any easier. Sounds like in China things are not quite black and white, they are a lot of "grey" rules.
We have a big, late lunch and skip dinner.
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