Back to the travel adventure of “Wok the Dog,” shall we?
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Nov 29, 2007
We had originally made travel plans with a Tibetan company, they were gonna take us from Lhasa to Everest Base Camp and back. However, we have been unable to get a hold of them since we have been here in China. They usually respond to emails but it takes them a few days. Although I’d much rather spent the money on a Tibetan company, we didn’t have much of a choice but to find another travel agency.
Permits, permits, permits. A permit to get into Tibet, a permit to travel to certain providence of Tibet and another to enter the national park that Everest Base Camp is part of. Of course we never actually saw any of these permits but we did purchase them.
We found this man, Mr Chen, he is listed in the Lonely Planet Guide and the guide said that Mr Chen’s sales pitch was better than his tours. Well, what a sales pitch it was. He is tall and skinny, with fancy rimmed glasses, an orange North Face fleece (most likely a knock off), black slacks and dress shoes. He has a “gold plated” cell phone that just cracks me up. He talks really fast and as soon as he realized that I speak Chinese, he tried to revise his sales pitch so that I would think he was giving us a deal because I am Chinese. He talks in this tone of voice that is meant for you to think that he is being straight forward and giving you the bottom line, but some how I am not convinced.
On the day we got back to Kumming from Dali City, we stopped by Mr Chen’s office so that we can get our plane tickets to Lhasa for the next day and also make sure that all is well. Mr Chen was either on a date, or interviewing a girl for a job. Its hard to tell. Don and I think that he probably talks the same way to his dates as he does to his clients. His office is inside the Camellia Hostel and I think he lives in his office, which is actually not unusual. A lot of the Chinese business live and work all within the same space. Even if its just a cot that they pull out at night and sleep inside of their shop.
All in all, Mr Chen did what he said he would do, the tour guide, the driver, the 4WD were great and we were not left on the side of the road to die at any point in time. Despite how Mr Chen might claim that he was giving me a discount, I paid exactly what I expect it would cost. His dapperness and his mannerism were amusing and he certainly was a character.
To the Roof Top of the World we go!
