Beijing. Polluted. Forbidden City. Crowded. Great Wall. Breathtaking. Blah, blah, blah. I don't have it in me to go on and on about what I saw and experienced in Beijing or what Steve-o and I did or didn't do til 9 in the morning outside a 7-11. I just have to say that as I sit here at home in the US, all I can think about is getting back to China. I've never been to a place that is so addictive, that evokes such passion from its visitors, that fosters such a deep love-hate relationship as this Sleeping Giant of [View Full Entry]

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While I'd love to tell you about the spaceships on top of skyscrapers, weird people on the Bund and the most futuristic skyline I've ever seen, Shanghai was really just about grippin' it and rippin' it. After 2 days on the train from Tibet and the week long detox there, the thick, choking smog, the hoards of people and nuclear reactor heat and humidity ripped me back into the realities of China. Finally! After planning for months and slowly working my way here, I was able to meet up with Steve-o and Coley, who (aside from Nick in Chiang Mai) have [View Full Entry]

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From the moment you step off the plane in Lhasa - the 2-Mile High City - and gaze out across the barren mountainous landscape and the smoke from incense and burning yak butter fills your lungs (way more than the oxygen does), the altitude just FLOORS you. Of course, it was probably my fault for ripping it with Goodman the night before in Chengdu. Anyway, after spending the first day in bed, I was beginning to feel that I might not see any of Tibet. But while you never really get used to the altitude, you do get used to [View Full Entry]

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Chengdu is much more than a place to sit and wait for communist red tape to be cut (more on that later...). While the city is unimpressive in sights and grandeur - minus the obligatory stop to the Sexual Harassment Panda Breeding Center - it more than makes up for it in local flavor, random hilarity and being a microcosm of modern China. With roughly 1.4 gajillion people (in a city that strangely, never feels crowded by the way) it's fast becoming one of the "it" cities in China. Sichuan is renowned throughout the world (and when I say "world", I [View Full Entry]

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The suspiciously eying you down stare. The stare of wide wonder The look at me and say 'hello' stare. The 'I don't believe it! They do exist!' stare. The stare quickly and avert your eyes. The gaze into your soul stare. The blank stare. The slight nod of approval stare. The hint of recognition stare. The double-take. The voyeurism from afar. The 'the very idea of you makes me giggle like a school girl' stare. The 'Hey, man, I'm hip to the West' stare. The 'I want to flirt but don't have the slightest idea what to say' girl stare. and [View Full Entry]

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From the moment you cross over into Mainland China, the enormous gravity of the feat you about to undertake becomes perfectly clear. T.I.C. This. Is. China. You quickly learn that there is traveling, and then there is traveling in China, where nothing is as it seems, simple tasks become day-long chores, everything is a shitload harder and when I say nobody speaks English, I mean - Nobody. Speaks. English. Not a word. And the catch-22 is (coinciding with the fact that I'm reading Catch-22 right now) is that you can never really trust the ones who do, in a tourist town [View Full Entry]

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Believe it or not, I actually felt quite at home landing in Hong Kong. All the Chinese and Western businessmen, annoying Indian guys trying to sell you fake watches and buzzing city reminded me of one big Manhattan Chinatown. While it's suprisingly relatively small size can never match New York's sheer "Wow!" factor, it makes up for it by being just circusly pretty. And it's incredibly Western in feel, since basically everybody speaks English and is very used to foreigners (much, MUCH more on that later). But in pure Asian style, Hong Kong stands apart with it's neon-overload, nightly Pink [View Full Entry]

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It's hard to fathom a place more isolated, otherworldly and disorganized than Thailand, but that place is Laos. Laos is what you get when you take primative, isolated hillbillies, drop a shit ton of bombs on them, slap a communist regime and then - just to confuse the hell outta them - start waving in the western falang tourists. The rapid exposure to the west has left the people confused as to what the tourists want and dumbfounded as to why we might want it. You get the feeling that there's absolutely no way a country filled with people this [View Full Entry]

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Chiang Mai is famous for its hillside trekking. Over 2 days, I trekked about 20 k's across a beautiful countryside, complete with activities for around zero dollars a day. Just kidding, but it was still pretty damn cheap. As you trek from village to village, checking out the primative and isolated hill tribes of Northern Thailand, sleeping in the villages, riding elephants and cruising down a river on a bamboo raft, one thing simply overwhelms your senses - mud. I have never seen so much mud in my life. The rivers are brown, the rain is brown, the streets are muddy [View Full Entry]

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Unless you're looking for ping-pong shows and overall dodginess, Chiang Mai is superior to Bangkok in every way. It's a brilliant little hangout, nestled in the northern hills, where I decided to curl up for a couple of weeks (hence, no blog in a while). As the center of Thai culture and learning, the city pulses to a vibrant, yet relaxed beat and I could definitely see myself chilling out for a couple years there. With so much to do, my days were full - from "adventure-style" Thai cooking (where I met Tyler's friends - Tyler, you're a muppet) to [View Full Entry]

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