After that first day of minimal activity-- laundry and a shower (neither of which had been accomplished during the week's ride through Tibet), we decided to buy the guidebook to tell us what we should see. Durbar Square in Kathmandu was the first stop which houses several temples and museums of Old Nepali architecture (the 3 largest towns in the valley- Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktipur all have their own Durbar Squares). We biked the second day to the one in Patan. Biking here is even worse than in China-- it's just as disorderly, but here they don't slow down. Then we [View Full Entry]

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The only thing I knew about Nepal before coming here is that they invented that less-than-clever combination of vanilla/chocolate/strawberry ice cream. Or is that NEA-politan? Well now I know one thing for certain about Nepal-- it has the most gorgeous scenic drives I've ever been on. I'm not saying it has the best scenery (though it could easily contend) but it simply has the best scenery from just the highways-- passing along hillsides overlooking steep, lush valleys, with fantastic shades of green and yellow foliage and white sandy beaches and emerald streams Our Tibetan driver left u [View Full Entry]

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We've been complaining mightily about the weather. It's -6C (around 23F), which, yes is cold, but not deathly. Besides, after catching up on the Yankee front, we've noticed NY is getting hit with a flurry of winter effects itself. The only difference is there, there are refuges for heat-- at the office, in the store, at home (well, except in the case for Bill and li'l sis Nancy, who are subletting our apt and whom we forgot to tell doesn't have heat for the first few wintry weeks-- we'll owe you a dinner when we get back- and perhaps some Theraflu). [View Full Entry]

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Tibet in December. We should be war generals, the way we strategized this one. Spent the birthday in Lhasa where at -6C, the man parts at age 29 are as nonexistent as they were at birth. Beyond the freezing weather, we were also afraid of the altitude sickness (much of the Tibetan plateau sits at 4000m or above). However, before that even hit, I got a bit ill from the plane. Carolee says I rely too much on potty-humour so I'll refrain from using any weights and distances but I will say that Bugles corn chips are now forever ruined for [View Full Entry]

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We wanted to get away from the mayhem of New York, just for a little while on this trip, but somehow flashes of it continue to appear. Is it the harrowing traffic or the guy taking a dump on the street? (I've SEEN it under the Willliamsburg bridge). No, it's the rat-bastard who preys on naive marks like us who swipes your personal property the minute you turn your head. In the 24 cities we've covered in China, we've rented bikes in nearly all of them- the Sanford & Son class, rusty chain, springs piercing through the seat, stop with your [View Full Entry]

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It's a bad sign when you get on board a bus and hear someone vomiting profusely in the back. So began our journey from Dali to Lijiang. Lijiang is only 200km north of Dali through the mountains. It's a routine ride-- only 3 hours. We've endured much longer and much bumpier (Mongolia). But this ride was cursed from the start. The violent heaving and gurgling from the lady in back was just the opening. The bus only sat a dozen, and we were numbers 11 and 12, so had to climb past the 30 lb bags of rice and oversized travel [View Full Entry]

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This is the first time on the trip we've actually scratched a destination from our itinerary. We're traveling in the southern part of China now which becomes very mountainous the more you go west and much of the attraction lies in the natural landscape. The one drawback to traversing the country like this is that you travel within geographic pockets and in one region, much of the terrain appears the same throughout. It would be like taking one big scenic trip through the vastlands of North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming, all in succession. If it was your first stop, you'd be [View Full Entry]

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Yangshuo is the unofficial convergence site of backpacker China. There's this pedestrian-only street, Xi Jie ("West Street") that is 3 blocks long, full of cafes, bars, clubs and trinket stalls to cater strictly to ole Whitey. You'll hear James Blunt in the cafes and Maroon 5 in the bars, and have your pick of pancakes, hash browns, pizza and burgers to remind you of home. More likely than not, you will run into someone you may have met earlier in your travels here. Our first night out, we ran into a Finnish girl (whom we first met while in Mongolia over [View Full Entry]

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We finally made it to a beach-- on the SE coast of China, in Xiamen. Lazing out on the sand, sipping cocktails, taking a dip to get the old heart going again (or to take a thinly-veiled piss break). That's what we pictured before we got here. But the first sight we arrived to on the beach were 3 guys in Dockers and dress shoes posing for pictures on the shore. There's no laying around or building sandcastles here. Beachfront is valued only as a photo backdrop. So it was a bit of a letdown as far as beach activity goes. [View Full Entry]

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When I was a kid I used to have this inexplicable urge, whenever I saw someone holding a newspaper out in front of them, to swat it out of their hands while they were intently reading. It wasn't anything menacing, I just thought it was funny-- kinda like scaring someone from behind a closed door. But no one ever really saw the same humour in it that I did. I did it to my Dad all the time, whereupon he would promptly imprint his Dexters into my ass. Well I haven't had the urge to do that in many years now....that [View Full Entry]

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