http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Dylan22/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Dylan22 en-us Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:28:06 +0000 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:28:06 +0000 I havnt really posted much this trip becuase it has been hard to find a computer that will upload pictures in a resonable amount of time. So I am just writing to remember everything I have done really then put the pictures up when I can. So today we have done pretty much nothing. Not really by choice but by force. It all started with the great analogy ...Its like jumping off a high dive you http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/La-Paz/blog-409960.html It has been nine days of just nonstop traveling for Randy and myself. Every day we were either waking up on a bus or setting an alarm after only a couple hours of sleep. And the best part is that I am not complaining I have enjoy it very much. It all started back in Vicua the lovely town set in the Pisco Valley surrounded by grape vines and wanttobe moutains. We spent our time there seeing http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Chuquisaca-Department/Sucre/blog-407879.html We have been heading northward from our days in the Lake District I already miss it and we have made an overnight stop in Santiago and then in Valparaso. A city build on the sea and on hills. Our hostel was on the hill above the main seaport and the hills are quite steep they have mainy venicular lifts to get people up and down all though I think they are just for novelty and tourism now http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Vina-del-Mar/blog-404384.html I think a great way to sum up where we are is that I can not compare it to anything I have ever seen before. It's not really that different its just a conglomeration of other things like what I would imagine big Southern Plantations looking like if they were located in Northern Oregon near the coast that produced immensely dense SubTropic rain forest or something. I mean really it is crazy stuff http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Los-Lagos/Puerto-Varas/blog-402853.html Well we almost got robbed today. Haha but seriously. We are sitting in the main Plaza here in Mendoza talking to a girl from Norway that we but more randy had met the night before and just happend to run into her again. They were sitting on one bench and I was sitting on one directly across about twenty feet away we were throwing a ball back and forth. A man aproached Randy and the Norweigen h http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Mendoza/Mendoza/blog-401773.html Haha seriously. I have a funny picture and it is the only reason I remembered my birthday was today. Im sure I would have figured it out once I got to the computer but I guess otherwise... my mind must be in other places. We are here in Rosario a popular tourist destination well not now but usually its a beautiful city with nice pedestrain walkways and bolevards. We just came from Sante Feand http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Fe/Rosario/blog-400615.html Ok. So ya. Sorry about the wait on the post just been a busy couple of days. Right now I am a couple miles away from the most amazing water falls I could ever imagine. We are here in the town of Puerto Iguazu a small dirty town that now that it is in the off season we can tell just gets ransacked by tourist in their summer and then they leave and the people are just trying to live normal lives http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Misiones/Puerto-Iguaz-/blog-399971.html Well here we are again about to take off from life and dive into a world unknown to us. This time the roles are a little reversed. Last time we traveled Randy had the serious girlfriend and every reason not to take off for the summer. Now I have a serious girlfriend and Randy is single. So it should be pretty interesting to see how that unfolds. We will be headed for South America hoping to do a http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Utah/Salt-Lake-City/blog-397882.html It's sad but I think I have become tired of traveling. It's not that I don't enjoy seeing all of these amazing things I love that It's the actual traveling part that gets me. I am tired of dealing with people just trying to take my money just trying to get me to take their taxi or come to their hotel. I hate it. It gets more frustrating everyday. But I think we have come to a solution. We http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/National-Capital-Territory/New-Delhi/blog-182167.html And that's what we did. We ran and didn't look back. We were nine kilometers away with an expired Chinese Visa. What else could we do We had some great experiences in the 41 days we spent in China. Our first Visa was cut short when we entered Hong Kong and our second Visa ran out before we could get to the boarder of Nepal. It's too bad that a country that insists on bureaucratic permits gu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Kathmandu/blog-179568.html There is a quote that I said to Randy one day that I think sums up what my goals were for this trip it goes as such 091When Randy was showing me a picture that didn't turn out that well093 It looks like your trying to cram 2000 words into a picture that can only hold 1000. My point being I wanted to see all of Asia in a three month trip that is just too much beauty for such a small s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/blog-176289.html Whoohoo I know I made it to Tibet. For some reason I never really thought I would make it here I don't know why. Maybe it's the fact that it's halfway around the world 11400 feet above sealevel and is a police state controlled by a overwhelming Communist force that imposes harsh bureaucratic 'permits' to get here. Those could be some of the reasons but I don't really know. It is very ni http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/blog-175834.html That should be just enough time to get ready for our day. We are getting really tired of this big city. It's good we get a break almost exactly halfway through our trip but I want to Get Out Of CHINA I know Tibet is still China but getting there will mean I am one step closer to getting out of this country. We should have our permits tomrrow night. Then we can book a flight to Lhasa f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-174491.html We have been in Beijing since the 22nd that is five days in a large smoggy city. And when I say 'large' I mean really really large. I have been to many big cities but this is just unreal. Randy and I have walked Rome Paris New York Manhattan but this city I find too much to walk. It is really flat and the air is hard to breath and makes the sun more unbearable than any I have come across http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-174054.html I understand the responsibility I took when I started this site the same responsibility that a journalist has giving the people the whole story in a timely fashion. Lately I have not been doing this. I want you all to know that I am trying but the past few days have been quite stressful aggravating and the overall sense of a complete letdown by a few major sites in China. I don't like ha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-172410.html Well we are back in Kun Ming just waiting to get on a 16 hour night train to Chendu. I don't know if there is anything of intrest in the city itself but I readhear there are a couple good places a day trip away from it. But I don't know if we will stay there that long comming out to Dali wasted a lot of our time. I think 'wasted' is a bit harsh but really I didn't think much of the place. T http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Kunming/blog-170165.html I am writing from a town I didn't really think I would ever go just something I had read about back in the states and circled it on our map of China. Now we are here and it is really nice. I had read it was a nice laidback city with beautiful senery. But when we arrived after a four hour bus ride my ideas shattered. It turns out that their is a New Dali and an Old Town Dali. New Dali is wher http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-169669.html Lets make it official For as long as I can remember I have wanted to see these moutain formations in southern China ride through little villages on a bike and eat some crazy Chinese food. I can now say I and Randy have done these things. I don't have my camera card on me or I would put up all the amazing pictures we took. I still can't believe we have done all this. Today we met up with a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-167974.html Well we have finnally made it to as the title says the 'Picturesque' China I had hoped for. With weird green moutain formations little villages and lots and lots and lots of tourist information centers almost none speak english and they are all selling the same thing 'Boat cruise down the Li River...' its too bad that when we really need them they turn out to be this way. But it ok I t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangxi/Guilin/blog-167349.html We are really enjoying our time here in Hong Kong and that is precisely why we have stayed so long three nights in one city is a long time for us the only other cities we did that in is Paris and Amsterdam.... That and we needed to get a new visa to get back into China... But I'd like to think we would have stayed this long anyway. We have spent the last couple days seeing the city and the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/blog-166716.html