Shanghai'd

Yesterday was an emotionally draining and stressful day, full of decision-tree flowcharts and risk assessments of our options (hey, we are engineers here). It was so draining, in fact, that when it was announced at 6:45 last night that the group visas were being approved and we would be going to Lhasa and continuing with the original, planned itinerary that we all signed up for months ago, there was hardly a resounding cheer.

Was this for real? Where are the visas? Show me the visa! I think we are still at a 99.9% confidence rate.

The guide went on to explain about the workings of the flight today and the whole trip. We sat and asked questions about the next thing on our to-be-stressed-about list: riding our bikes in Tibet! More on that later :)

Tim and I are still screwed and may be going back to (non-Tibet) China today for a stamp to get back into Lhasa, but we will first go to Lhasa with the group and try to finagle our way out of the airport, with our bikes. We'll see how it goes. This little breach of immigration is definitely the next thing on our to-be-stressed-about list. On a good note, things are working out as best as they possibly can, given the situation we were in yesterday. Something definitely to be thankful for!