Ten of my favorite places on the trip

It was pretty hard to come up with this kind of list but I managed to squeeze it into my busy schedule.  There were definitely other wonderful places (Mae Salong-Thailand, Meung Ngoi-Laos, LiJiang-China) that just barely missed out on the list.

How many years would it have taken to discover all these places if we hadn’t went traveling for so long?

Here they are in chronological order (with a corresponding picture or two):

Koh Jam (Jum), Thailand-This island near Krabi doesn’t have full time electricity and is better off without it.  Great food and an amazing stretch of beach…think ‘quiet time’.

Hongsa, Laos-It takes a while to get to dusty Hongsa and there isn’t a lot to do when you get there.  However, it is incredibly peaceful and you can ride an elephant along trails.

Luang Prabang, Laos-Former colonial town that is a lot of fun to hang out in. Everyone in E Asia passes through Laos eventually.

Kalaw, Myanmar-Off the beaten track in Burma where you can do hiking or just relax in the hill country.  One of the best bars in Asia (Hi Snack and Drink).  Great Nepali food.

Hong Kong, China-Absolutely beautiful yet gritty.  Incredible food and excellent shopping.  One of my top 5 cities in the world. 

Songpan, China–One of the few small towns in China.  Horse trek in the gorgeous Sichuan Province and rest up afterwards at the fun tea houses.

Wolong, China–Freaking Pandas man!  Everyone loves Pandas! 

Outside of Lhasa, Tibet-Definitely in the running for most stunningly beautiful place on earth. 

Gili Trawangan (Lombok), Indonesia-Incredible atmosphere with no cars on the small, beautiful island.  Incredible snorkeling right off the beach and a vibrant nightlife.

Kaikoura, New Zealand–The beautiful coast and unbelievable plush hills were actually remarkable topped off with a small town and lots of seafood.  Seals, whales, dolphins and sheep–oh my!

Francie’s last set of photos

Francie just got her last set of photos developed and I think they are really fantastic (but maybe I am biased).  It includes pictures from Tibet, Bangkok, Indonesia, and New Zealand.  Below is a subset of the pictures or click here to see all of them. 

Boy in Tibet. He brought the horses on Francie’s horse trek.

I like to call this one ‘Baby with tin can’. Tibet

This woman was trying out the binoculars. Unfortunately, we think she was trying to focus on the rock a few feet away from her (at the right of the pic).

Man prostrating himself in the Barkhor in Tibet.

Kids taking care of business in Lhasa.

We think this munchkin was in Bangkok. Francie loves the dogs and they love her.

Three year old elephant in Ayutthaya, Thailand. While you may not love the fact that he is being taught tricks, keep in mind that his previous job was/would have been in the lumber industry (Thailand ‘freed’ all the elephants from doing manual labor). Regardless, it is a pretty damn cute picture.

Gili Islands (Lombok), Indonesia

This is definitely the best picture we have of Rinjani. We are standing on the volcano’s outer cone looking down on the inner volcanic cone.

Francie and I at the Rinjani Volcano.

These two pictures are of the large Dusky Dolphin pod (at least 200 dolphins) that showed up when we were whale watching.

We still have a few Burma and China videos to post.  Does anyone know some good software that rotates MOV videos (I was holding the camera sideways).

More trip photos!

Francie uploaded some more of her pictures to Flickr and I wanted to post some here.  These are from the batch she got developed in Bangkok.  You can see all of them here.

Greg and the one year old Pandas.

Camping in Tibet.

5,300 meters up at a glacier in Tibet.

Me jumping for joy that the hike is over!

Kids playing in a park in XiÁn.

Signs in Hong Kong.

View of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon as we walk down from ‘The Peak’.

Francie at the main square in Macau.

Francie screwing around while on the clock at Wolong Panda Research Center.

Cute Panda pic

Dried fruits and nuts for sale in the Muslim Quarter–XiÁn, China. I found out that you can only eat so much dried pineapple.

Two little girls at the Great Mosque in XiÁn, China.

Slide no workie.

Figures unearthed from a Tomb in XiÁn, China.

What this Panda really wants is a Thomas the Train. Balls are boring. 😉

Suggest your own caption

Goats in Tibet

I think I need a thicker coat!

Ok.  Maybe we will post from Fiji!  Maybe we will just work on that tan!

New Photos

Some of my new photos are now up on Flickr.  I still have loads still to upload so stay tuned.  Here are a few favorites:

A Tibetan nomad:

A serious Lhasa gang:

Bruno!!!

Young yak wearing earrings:

Crocodile Dundee returns:

Tibetan Nomad kids at Lake Nam-tso:

Tibetan woman with her horse and foal:

At Ganden Monastery, prayer flags and solar panels:

Tomorrow… BALI!

Avalanche in Tibet

We have a little time here in Bangkok to try and upload some of our videos so we can post them.

This is our Avalanche in Tibet video.  But first, here is a group photo from our trekker friends.  Thank you Ester for the photo and video.  See their web site link on our blogroll.

Click here for Avalanche video

 Or not.

5 Things I Loved and Hated about China

We have been in China for 4 months and 1 day. Wow, that is pretty amazing espeically becuase it is about half of the total time on our trip so far! However, I am really glad we have spent so much time in the different regions and cities of China. It has been very fulfilling.

For the record we hit the Yunnan Province (Jinghong, Dali, LiJiang), Sichuan Province (Songpan, Wolong, Chengdu) and Tibet (Lhasa and hiking around) as well as these cities: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Xi’An, Chengdu.

I decided to do a 5 things I Loved and Hated about China.

Here are the five things I loved:

1. The People. The Chinese were incredible and blew away any stereotypes or things I had heard about them. They were incredibily friendly and lively (even if a bit loud). We made a number of friends with people thoughout the country and a number of people bought as dinner and hung out and talked with us. We learned a lot about their own opinions about China and abroad. Isn’t that most of what traveling is all about?

2. The Historical Sites. Wow. China obviously has a lot to offer here from LiJiang and other preserved Chinese towns to The Great Wall and the Teracotta Warriors. Almost every region has some kind of fabulous historical structure. I was truly awed even though we had to miss many places we wanted to go (Pingyao, Hangzhou).

3. The Food. Dim Sum and Buns were expected but some of the spicy Sichuan dishes were pretty incredible and some of the most hot dishes that I have ever had that were still edible. The most unexpected but wonderful food I found was in the Muslim Quarter of Xi’An (showed to us by a local who bought us dinner there). My mouth is watering again…

4. The Geography. The Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces are definitely high on my list to hit again. I really recommend to people thinking of coming to China to take a close look at the Sichuan province (especially north and west Sichuan) while planning your trip. We learned too much too late but it is really beautiful and much more accessible (and cheap) than Tibet–no permits. They have glaciers, mountains, forests and, of course, Pandas. Regardless, there were many other places that we didn’t make it to that we want to see such as Guilan (and regions around it).

5. The cities. Ok. Let’s just say it–Hong Kong. HK was pretty amazing and I am glad we spent 20+ days there. I have always had a super-strong desire to go there and I wasn’t disappointed. The hills, the water and the food. A wonderful combination. Beijing was also very interesting and the French Concession area of Shanghai was quite cool. Chengdu was a great, green little city that is quite livable.

5a. The Chinglish or funky use of English by the Chinese 🙂

Ok. Fair is fair and here are 5 Things I Hated about China:

1. Censorship of the Media. I know, I know, an American bitching about no freedom of the press in China. What a surprise? However, during our four months here I really internalized what a big deal this is…I mean, the Chinese government tries so hard to curb all information its citizens see and this has some terrible consequences. All newspapers, newscasts, websites, blog sites (including this one or Ways that Are Dark) are limited, modified or are blocked. Of course, they seem to do this out of fear that there will be some kind of backlash (e.g. T. Square) but the resulting consequence is that people don’t have enough information to react against say, the air pollution problem in Beijing or the child slave labor scandal where kids were making bricks, and beaten for it, while their parents looked for them. This really limits the people’s power to solve some problems for its government. For example, take the Mothers Against Drunk Driving grassroot effort that has done the U.S. government’s job there about addressing drunk driving. Or, the activists role in improving the environment in the U.S. or E.U. Hey, China government–throw yourself a bone!

2. Air Pollution. Oh my god–it is bad. Worse than even Athens on a hot day. It is so bad in Beijing and other places that it has completely affected my views about the environment. If more Chinese people were allowed to travel to the U.S. you would think it would raise some questions for them to be in New York and wonder why the air pollution isn’t worse than it is. No real curbs on air quality are happening here and what will the Chinese people do when it begins to kill millions of people a year (and not just the hundreds of thousands it kills now). All travelers to China wonder about this train wreck and many of us predict that this is the biggest world threat to it’s sovereignty.

(That’s not a cool evening mist she is playing around in!)

3. Queueing. Ok. Maybe a little less important than air pollution but I cannot possibily express how much this drives me crazy so I will refer you to Francie’s post on the subject. I do want to say that, while I like the monthly practice Queue day that Beijing is having for the Olympics, I have to say it’s not going to work. Hate to be a naysayer but what I have learned is that all hope of queueing goes out the window when a Chinese person really really wants something. The second that one person gets out of the queue–everyone is going to get out of the queue. But it does leave us for that delicious moment when we read the Olympic news story about U.K./German’s reactions and incidents. Yum and fun.

4. Chinese Tour Groups. My eyes turn red with anger while just typing those words. Imagine some of the most rude people you have ever encountered. But, as one person pointed out to me, it is probably not that they are just in a tour group but that they are more of an upper class sort of people. Well, you can take that little flag you walk around with and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine while speeding down the road on your tour bus. Nuff said. The Chinese tour groups were especially offensive in The Jokhang–a religious site for the Tibetans…and while we are on this subject…

5. Treatment of the Tibetans. I was going to say something about this but instead I will just tell this little story. I was at a travel agency, in Lhasa, trying to write with a pen and the ink dried up. So, I grabbed a second pen and tried to use that one. I laughed and looked at the travel agent (who was Tibetan) and he looked at me at laughed and said “Sorry, made in China”.

Ok, that is it. We are about to get on a Bangkok Airways flight to Thailand and I am going crazy with excitement!

Lhasa, Tibet Travel Info

Here is some travel information for Lhasa, Tibet for anyone looking for tips…

Aug. 25th – Sept. 11th, 2007

We stayed at Dongcuo Youth Hostel (on Beijing Donglu, a block and a half past the Kirey Hotel). Double with bathroom = 160Y
This place was recommended to us by someone we met in Chengdu. It was great – the staff is really friendly, they clean the rooms everyday, & they store bags for free.

The Kirey hotel is the best place we found for doing internet (5Y/hour). It’s a nice atmosphere, friendly staff, and faster than other places we tried.

Lhasa has some great food. Here are some of our favorite restaurants:
Tashi 2 (at the Kirey Hotel) – the Bobis (their specialty) are really delicious.
Mandala Restaurant (near Barkhor square, just south of the Jokhang) – the Indian food here is very very good, and they have seating on the roof with a great view of Barkhor square.
Dunya (at the Yak hotel on Beijing Donglu) – it’s a little more expensive than other places but the food here is really really good. The vegetarian lasagna is better than just about any I’ve had in Seattle. They also have a swell bar!
Summit Cafe (off Barkhor square at the Pentoc guesthouse) – This could be a coffee shop in Seattle. They have great coffee, real chocolate chip cookies & brownies, something Greg & I had been lacking for a long time.

I highly recommend the FIT office at Dongcuo Hostel. We booked a trip with them and had to cancel (due to health reasons) the day we were supposed to leave. They were really nice about it and gave us almost all our money back, even though they had already gotten the permits for us and booked the guide and driver.

We went on a trek with Windhorse Adventure (just off Barkhor square near the Pentoc Guesthouse). It was the best thing we did while in Tibet. They are super nice, very professional, have great guides, & take care of just about everything for you. They’ve scoped out some really spectacular places for hiking and camping; very remote, and with no other tourists.

A Nomad Stole My Watch

Right before we left on the trip our good friend Ed Kranick gave us Swiss Army watches as going away presents. This was a great gift because I didn’t have a watch and these are turned out to be excellent travel watches.

Well, the nomads on our last trek were awfully helpful. Apparently a little too helpful. Besides standing around observing everything they (ok, one of them) had rather light fingers. Every time we tore down camp they would want to help–especially with the tents (I guess because the tents are of a very different design than nomad tents). Well, when we were packing up camp on the last day I was in the latrine and several nomads helped Francie a little TOO much–if you know what I mean.

When I told Michiel this the other day (one of the other hikers) he covered his ears and said he didnt want to hear it because everyone liked the nice nomads. But one other thing was missing when we packed up camp on the last day–the shovel that we used to dig the latrine. Soooo, somebody out there was ‘collecting’ useful items!

Francie and I have been very, very lucky on this trip (so far!) not to be robbed, mugged, etc. so this really isn’t a big deal other than the watch being a gift from Ed.

Once, a long time ago my mother and I had our house robbed and she said “well, I hope they needed it more than we did”. Well, I hope the shovel and watch are very useful to their new owner(s).

Fruit of the Loom

Francie and I were in the Muslim Quarter of Lhasa and we saw this woman…looming? I actually have no idea whatsoever what she was doing because I buy my clothing at Banana Republic but it was fabric related and really cool.

Interestingly, we walked by her shop because we were on our way to Dropenling to look at Tibetan handicrafts made by Tibetans. We bought a very, very cool Tibetan rug and some gifts. Don’t worry Ed and Olivier–we aren’t shipping it through customs and we won’t be totally bogus and ask you to pick up the shippment mere days before your wedding. 🙂

Namtso Nunnery

During one of the days we were on the trek we went to Namtso lake.

One side of the lake has two huge hills that provide two different koras (pilgrimage trails). We did the smaller kora because it was raining and there happened to be a very basic nunnery along the path. We were allowed to explore the nunnery but couldnt find out much other information.

Check out how basic this place is–

Here is the entrance

Here is their make-shift prayer wheel which is made out of fabric and no wood.

Here are two pictures of the alter room.

There was one other room which was a sleeping chamber that also had a small alter. I was pretty amazed at how basic it all was.