Barkham morning

Hi all,
Here I am in the Jiarong Hotel in Barkham. It is officially China, but in historical Tibet. The 10 hour bus ride was nice (other than something I ate that put a little activity into my stomach), beautiful actually. I am finally back in the mountains where the air is clearer, the temperature cooler, and the trees can be seen.

The ride up took me through miles and miles of river valley. These rivers were Class 3-5 and very runnable (from a river running stand point) and there had to be at least a dozen dams that I saw along the way. The Chinese are definitely partly fueling their economy with hydropower.

I was walking along the street of Barkham and this guy calls out "HellO." He is a merchant at one of the stores and I was tempted to pass on since it could be just another come on. (There is a site that shows some pictures of Barkham, but you'll have to find it yourself. I can't read any of the commands in Chinese so it is hard to search the web for links.) But it turned out one of his friends in the store knew someone in town who knew English. She just returned from studying in Vancouver B.C., that led to her brother being the cousin of the family I was looking forward.... which led to a how slew of other connections and travel oppotunities. It doesn't take much time to make connections in this world.

I have to go. Be well and I wonder what kind of new connections you are willing to be open to today? What type of conversation are you willing to have with someone who you thought was "just a merchant trying to get you to buy something."

Don't know when I'll be able to write next... but be well.