I finally got booked in Tibet and I leave in a few days. I’ve already been warned by half a dozen people to watch out for the dramatic change in altitude, which is known to cause various health problems like chronic headaches and breathing difficulty. I can’t wait to check it out; it sounds like a tremendous adventure. The promoter is having us (Kim and Maria are dancing, Dave is doing his fire dance) arrive a few days before we even start performing to adjust to the conditions. I expect nothing short of a total blast.

My Mama called me tonight and when I told her the news she immediately told me what I must take the time to see while I’m there. Anyone else have a mother that starts telling you what you should see when you tell her you’re visiting Tibet? I can’t believe that she’s beaten me to places like Tibet when it’s so close to where I live. I don’t travel the world like she does (she’s going to Nicaragua next month), but I would mistakenly figure at least the whole of Western China to be my area of expertise. I am so proud.

Very shortly after returning from Lhasa for the trio of gigs I return to Chengdu to quickly make plans to go to Vietnam before returning to America for a month. Brendan and Julia are living and working in Hanoi – I heard that the position they’ve assumed at some travel agency is to post complimentary tidbits about their employer on travel forums all over the internet. Either way I have little doubt that it’ll be less than an eyeful of a country that I’ve never seen before in a very short period of time. It’ll be tricky arranging the timetable under the circumstances of having to return to western China by the 19th in a country where I can’t speak any of the language, but that’s no small part of the draw. After being in China for nearly 6 months since returning from my SE Asia trek, I’m ready to throw myself back onto the tourist trail.

Yesterday I found a fantastic song that I’ve been looking all over for. It sounds like it should be 40 years old, but actually it’s less than a year old. It’ll go on a special mix cd.

I’ve been eating a lot of melon seeds recently. My favorite are the green tea seeds introduced to me by Yaya. I’m collecting neat things to take back to USA with me.