First, i am alive and safely at my hotel and on the ground in delhi. It's 10:30pm on september 7. And the journey begins. So i was super bummed that i didn't have a window seat for the nearly 15 hour flight across the world. i had more or less accepted that fact when the airline called my name over the speakers. Trembling, i thought they had caught me sneaking my water bottle in my bag or the illegal xanex in my money belt. When i got to the counter however, the kind woman informed me that she switched my seat [View Full Entry]

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We are back in civilization.....Lijang in fact. It's a cute little town with traditional chinese rooftops and cobble stone streets.....really touristy but nice. There's your movie set red lanterns and little bridges with koi swimming under them and every corner you turn there's a different color flag and a tour group wearing red hats following it like a guiding star. Another traveller we met correctly dubbed it, "ethnic Disney Land. Tiger leaping gorge: The drive into the starting village was a bit annoying since i was bombarded with the habitual beginning- to- bitter- [View Full Entry]

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my disclaimer: this will be long and there will be a rather colorful description of gross things so if you don't feel like diving into a novel or reading about poop then do not proceed or proceed with extreme caution. We just returned from a 6 day everest adventure. Most of that time was spent in a landcruiser bumping our way through the backroads of tibet. We stopped at some monastaries and small towns on the way to everest....but i've seen enough monastaries for now so i can't exactly say that was a highlight. tibetan toilets are probably some of the [View Full Entry]

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After our trek, we decided to spend some down time in Lhasa. We did a lot of eating, sleeping, and showering.....you know, all the creature comforts. These 3 days of relaxing gave me time to walk around and snap photos, to seek out the details that make Tibet what it is. There are so many subtleties here. The low murmur of pilgrims making koras around the Jokhang, the sometimes suffocating smoke of burning juniper (i guess it's not THAT subtle), the smell of yak butter, the dirty hands of pilgrims or children asking for money, the almost inaudible squeak of spinning [View Full Entry]

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Here's a great idea: Take two people with no extensive camping/trekking experience, set them loose in the highest mountain range in the world and see how they do. Yes, i admit- i am an idiot. So, monday we spent at ganden monastary. It was a very quiet day of rest and relaxation before the big hike. Tuesday: Eric and Corrina (our irish trekking buddies) show up to the monastary with our guide early in the morning. The guide is talking with the yak man and working out last minute details. After a minute or two of talking with the guide, we [View Full Entry]

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mountains. he he he he he he. I think today is a wonderful day. i saw one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen-----the himilayas. i always knew that they would be big, but i don't think that there is any conceivable way to understand their enormity until you see them from an airplane (and it wasn't a small one---thank heavens!). We flew out of Chengdu at 7:30 this morning. It was nice to see Chengdu from the air also, since we flew in at night last time. It's a huge, sprawling tumor. Anyway, outside of Chengdu, the land [View Full Entry]

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it's 3 in the morning here and i'm wide awake. It's my own fault...i haven't been able to stay up past 7 since we got here. we leave for the airport in about 4 hours.....off to lhasa woo hoo. Chengdu isn't exactly the most beautiful city in the whole world, but it's not the worst i've seen either. it's kind of stuck in mediocrity. There are lots of people, lots of tall buildings.....so original for a city. For some reason the really young kids here have slits in their pants. we saw a little boy being carried around on a chair [View Full Entry]

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