Day 114. Kyle & Leanne joint blog.

Most travel days are kind of dull which we don’t mind as it means we successfully avoided some sort of travel drama or fiasco. Pack, leave hotel, get on some form of transportation, eat somewhat edible prepackaged food, and transfer to your new accommodations. Not today. 

Today we awake on the border town of Kyerong after only getting to sleep at 4 am. There was music thumping all night long. Leanne thought it was a Tibetan festival but it turned out to be a hopping nightclub right next to our hotel room that kept us tossing and turning all night long.  It was Sunday night no less which Bemba says is not unusual.  

During breakfast, we learn from John that our driver Kazan was apparently at the nightclub until 4am. Bemba and Kazan share a room next door to the boys. Upon returning to the hotel room, Kazan apparently forgot his hotel key card and starts knocking on the door.  Bemba is a little guy but apparently a monster heavy sleeper as Kazan’s knocks turn to pounding on the door to kicks and fists that threaten to splinter the door into pieces.  Kazan adds in shouting to his mix of fists and kicks.  Kazan is doing his best Night King from Game of Thrones impression as he is doing his best to wake the dead but alas Bemba is apparently immune to the Night King’s power and continues to sleep through the ordeal.  Finally, as the sun is getting ready to rise, Bemba answers the door and a heated exchange occurs.  The door slams shut and John is left wondering what the state of Kazan’s driving ability will be in two hours when we have to leave.

At breakfast, we ask Bemba where Kazan is and he mumbles something about still washing up clearly not happy with his dance clubbing roommate.  Kazan finally shows up at the end of the breakfast looking a little rough-shod.  We joke with Kazan that we only have 30 kilometers to the border so it’s totally ok for him to go slow and take as much time as we needs.

The short ride to the border introduced us to Tibet’s lush green tree-covered mountains that would continue all day.  The China-Nepal border rested in a stunning valley on a river. Unfortunately, We bid farewell to our beloved Tibetan guide Bemba and our driver Kazan who both spent a full week taking care of us, translating, finding medication, taking us oxygen-deprived sea level folk to the hospital and even praying for us. 

At the border, the Chinese patrol pulled Ashley’s and Leanne’s bag aside for inspection as they were most interested in our books.  Another local guide shares they are most concerned about us leaving with old maps, building plans, photos of government buildings or anything else that might suggest we were sympathizing with the Tibetan people and helping them plan their revolution from afar.  We didn’t have any of such items but they can’t take away our hearts for the Tibetan plight and oppression we witnessed firsthand. 

As they dig into Ashley’s bags piece by piece, they find her Monga drawing books and her personal drawings. They look at most of the pages to ensure she hasn’t drawn anything sensitive.  Five minutes later, they finally deem that Ashley is not the mastermind 12-year-old revolutionary that will finally take down the Chinese government as they had first suspected. 

Then they get to Leanne’s bags.  Kyle jokes that it might delay the border crossing by a couple hours if they actually go through everything in her bag.  Leanne is a little worried after numerous little relatively harmless jokes in the van all week and the bumbling inappropriate photo taking here and there.  Because we are homeschooling, Leanne has several magazines like National Geographic.  The guards are all over the magazines flipping through them faster than a customer at Supercuts.  After each magazine, they look at each other and tentatively if not disapprovingly pass. Then Leanne shares four China Daily News newspapers that seem unimpressed by them but the guards seem to be a bit suspicious still for some reason. Leanne says, “for teaching children.” The longer they look into her bag, the more anxious Leanne is that she’s not getting out of 🇨🇳 China anytime soon. 

But then the guards find Leanne’s Panda postcard.  They look at each other and smile “pandas!” as if they were saying, “pizza!” at a Super Bowl party coming just shy of a high-five.  The guards quickly pack up Leanne’s bag and she plops on her panda Mickey-Mouse-like ears as she approaches passport control with a huge smile that only a panda could generate!  She gets her stamp out of China free and clear. That might be the first time in history a panda saved an American without even being present. 

However, John does not fare so well.  When the dust from the security commotion clears, we look over and John is sitting in a security room with a Chinese guard interrogating him.  Leanne’s face drops and Kyle tries to inject some levity in the situation, “I bet the guy inside is saying, ‘there is no way you 17 years old.’”  Leanne goes tearing over to Bemba to see how we can extricate John but by time we get over there, they are already releasing him.  Relief floods Leanne’s face.  John says they said something about his data not matching but it worked out in the end.

Before we walk across the bridge we all give Bemba one last hug.  

More adventure awaits. We need to now walk across the Tibet - Nepal border on a bridge and hopefully find our Nepalese guide awaiting our arrival.  We saunter across one by one.  The taste of freedom flows over us like the river running under our feet.  No government warning as we enter Nepal (instead we get a smile from the unarmed policeman).  No video or audio recordings warnings.  No stay in your hotel room or else.  No don’t drink the water warnings either.  And we can now finally check Apple News, Google & Facebook without the Great Firewall of China blocking us from our free press.  Ah, freedom. Freedom in Nepal. 

As usual, Leanne is the last to cross the border bridge. She glances back just to see if Bemba is still there. He is there watching us cross like a mother watching her kid go to kindergarten for the first time.  Leanne starts to tear-up at this beautiful act of kindness.  He could have easily left by now as it has been a full ten minutes. He could have been on the road heading back to his home.  Bemba we learned probably will never be able to leave Tibet in his lifetime and he sent his only son to Shanghai to be educated.  In his twenties, he self-taught himself English using text books.  In order to learn the proper pronunciation, he would go to international hotel lobbies and sit and listen to English speaking businessmen.  He is an extraordinarily gifted religious and family man and here he is worried about our family as if it was his own. We will never forget him and his teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to us.  Peace to Tibet.