Dianne Agaki's TALES FROM TIBET
Letter #1 June

Hi Folks-
Greetings from the other side of the world. I really miss you-please come and save me from myself.

It took days to get the 12 Tibetan tents in our own hands--because the tent guy who made them didn't think we were strong enough to put them up and he didn't have enough people to help (how many damn people could it take? and he said they were too heavy for us --being girls and all--to lift, etc., etc.) Turns out the tents weigh about 40 lbs or less--a one-handed lift from my world. Anyway, that was exasperating, threw off the whole schedule by days and now we can't find a truck to take everything to Gansi (last offer was a bus for $1,200 for the 18 hour trip, which as I watch the money drain out of my pocket seems like a bad move). Also had a 3 day holiday thrown in for good measure, which was explained to me as an idea the Chinese Government came up with to help people relax because everyone is so nervous about the economy.

Before that we had two vehicles lined up that both cancelled (hours of torturous conversations went into lining them up). I was awake at midnight last night mulling over my life while doing Sudoku, so went to town to bar I had seen where there were some English speaking people. Dave, the Chinese owner (I assume Dave is his own recent nom de plume) said he would drive us and the stuff in his own 4 wheel drive for $450 and we would leave this morning at 1:00. I came back to the hotel, reshuffled all of the stuff (food, camping chairs, clothes, books, etc--you can imagine how much stuff we have packed in the hotel room-they think we're nuts), repacked the tents and went to sleep. By 3:00 Dave from the bar was calling to say that he had called his friend who is a policeman in Gansi (where we are going) and he said the area is still closed to foreigners and we would not be able to get in. He could go, but not us.

And then there is Choegyal who speaks perfect English and could be very helpful, but has a few character/family lineage defects, one being he is the nephew of a lama who is a spy. I wrote to my friend Norbu to see if I could rely on him--get "permission" so to speak to have him negotiate for trucks. Haven't heard from Norbu. Then I had Choegyal call Norbu's uncle to see if Norbu's family can help with the truck, and got a call back (imagine this all coming down in Tibetan over the phone) with great concern about me talking to the Chinese spy family. I opened an account at Bank of China, so at some point will be able to just start using that. That was a bright idea, as we were carrying around thousands of dollars in cash which we need in Tibet--if we ever get there, of course.
Strain of it all has been broken periodically by foot massages, head massages and 100 wild Tibetans arriving at the hotel to stay while they participate in the Chengdu Intangible Cultural Arts Festival. They practiced dancing--leaping and twirling in the parking lot while the drum beat on wearing lion, tiger, bull and assorted other head gear--a good look with jeans, t-shirts and monks' robes, since it was a practice--and that was a lift.

And I had some spaghetti with meat balls last night at Peter's Tex-Mex Resturant that also had great carrot cake, so that was a boost. Anyway, now we are off to talk to travel agencies again to see if someone can confirm that Gansi is open-which everyone has said it is--but we need another round of confirmation (As Dave the bar guy says--it doesn't really matter what the tour groups say, my friend the policeman knows what the policy is) to go ahead. At 2:00, we go back to the hotel to meet with another trucking company--with a translator of course since this guy only speaks Chinese. This happened as I decided we should buy tickets to the cultural festival (everything else being rather intangible, we would fit right in with the Intangible events) and the first thing out of my mouth when we started to discuss the tickets was to ask the hotel manager/ticket guy if he knew of anyone with a truck that would drive to Gansi. Turned out to be a good question, as maybe he does. More later-I hope.

We may go to nap in the WenShu Park which is 4,000 years old, but is mostly known in my book for the place where I once paid someone to stick long, thin metal feathery things into my ears and twirl them for a scary ear cleaning, while I drank green tea.

Love, Di

May all beings be happy May we all dedicate our lives to make it so