Since the earthquake that struck Jyekundo on April 14th, my family and I have been quite busy working to help the people of Yushu in any way possible. Well over 125 children were transferred from Jyekundo to the Qinghai provincial capital city of Xining. Many of these children were seriously injured and some are now orphans. Along with other Tibetans and expats in the community, we have delivered items to nearly every child and their accompanying family member who are in the Children's Hospital recovering. Clothes, food, toys and toiletry items have been delivered every week since the earthquake. We have gotten to know these earthquake victims quite well over the past 3 weeks and these families are always excited to see us when we walk through the door.
Yushu prefecture remains closed to all foreign travelers. There is no telling when this region will open up again. With 90% of the buildings destroyed and everyone living in tents, I expect it will be a very long time before this area opens up again to tourism.
My family I will be traveling through SE Asia for the next few weeks. After going through a very traumatic experience with our two young boys, my wife and I could use a little rest, relaxation and family time. After SE Asia, we are going to travel to some Kham Tibetan regions of western Sichuan for a a few weeks before deciding what we will do next. We hope to travel between 10 and 12 weeks through the more remote regions of the Tibetan Plateau over the next 6 months or so. For the next month, I will probably not have time to post anything new on this site or contribute any travel advice on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree travel forum. I will try and get to my emails, but it will probably take me longer than usual to answer them.
We appreciate all of the emails and comments asking how my family and I are doing. I look forward to resuming posting new information about regions of the Tibetan Plateau in about a month or so. If you have any questions regarding travel in Tibet, feel free to send me an email at: [email protected]
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