It's been a really GOOD week...

In short (for those of you who don't have time for the detail), the three of us drove through Tibet, hiked to Everest Base Camp, took the train back to Beijing and slept on the Great Wall this week. Crazy.

For my loyal fans, here goes the rest of the story:
First I want to write a second take on Tibet. When we arrived in Lhasa, I prematurely characterized all of Tibet into this one city. Once we had a chance to drive through the countryside, and see some authentic Tibetan culture, I felt much more at home in my fantasy of the place. The land is full of nomads, farmers, and merchants who each represent a very distinct population of Tibet. The diversity is sweet, and I was so relieved to get out of the busy city. We drove over some of the highest roads in the world, and saw dozens of unique villages, mountain ranges, lakes, weird contraptions people drive in/on. It is truly one amazing place.

I can best compare the drive out to Base Camp to a surf mission south of the Boarder. The setup of the main highway in Tibet is very similar to Hwy 1 in Mexico- one lane each direction, raised up on a mound, and perilously lacking any form of shoulder or guard rails. The road will go straight for hours, and then suddenly turn into a series of 20 switchbacks up one side of a mountain, and then the same pattern down the other side. Just like Hwy 1, we had to pass laughably top-heavy semi trucks packed with people, animals, crops, etc., but in addition there are the herds of sheep, yak, horses, cows, and mountain goats darting across the road at any unpredictable moment. Pedestrians use the highway as well, and even large groups of school children wandered for miles along the narrow road. If that's not enough, there are horse-drawn rickshaws and weird tractors thrown into the mix that really make the speed of the highway vary. I'm so bummed I never got any pictures of all this (I was too busy using my hands to hold onto the "holy crap" bars inside our "new" 1993 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser). The coolest part about this drive is the same as on the Mexican highway- that is, turning off the road at some completely non-descript point to venture off and find the secret spot. Our car held up to some serious off roading en-route to the small towns and monasteries where we slept along the way.

My favorite stop along the way was at this castle in Gyantse after our first half-day drive from Lhasa. We literally stumbled up the hillside, starving for oxygen since we had all yet to acclimate. The castle turned out to be one giant big-kids playground with the lack of glass casing, and caution tape we had encountered at all of the other major sights so far. The three of us crawled through little cracks, found "secret" rooms and doorways, climbed up the sides of the walls, and took turns scaring the crap out of each other since the only light we had was the meter light from our little cameras. Maybe you had to be there, but it was so sweet!

OK, on to base camp. The air just kept getting colder and thinner as we approached the base of the mountain range. I never took the time to acclimate properly in Lhasa, and I ended up paying for it when I found myself at 15,600 feet less than a week after months at sea level. But, base camp is what we spent a week of travel to get to, so I had to keep going. When we arrived at Rongpu Monastery in the middle of the afternoon, our driver pointed to the sign that said, "no vehicles beyond this point", which meant that we had to hike the 16km roundtrip to base camp. I was already throwing up and seeing blue spots from altitude sickness at this point, but I needed to see the EBC! The other two guys were really patient with my swaying/ hiking up the trail. Almost to the top of our trek, a car whizzes past us with a group of westerners who were smart enough to "tip" their driver to bypass the sign. Doh!

Base camp was really something special. It was the launching point of the first British expedition led by the famous Sir Edmund Hillary. Although many have used this spot since then, the camp showed no signs of life when we arrived since no mountaineering groups are climbing this late in the season. So, we were able to enjoy the up-close and personal views of the beast (in between raids of thick fog) all to ourselves for a half hour before dragging ourselves down the trail as the sun began to set. It was all really fast paced, but the journey was one that I will never forget!

We booked it back to Lhasa in order to get on the next morning train to Beijing. I started feeling alot better once we backed down a couple hundred feet; I am, without a doubt, a beach kid at heart... The same train let us off at Beijing 48 hours later, where we continued our crazy pace all afternoon taking subways, buses, and cab rides out to the Great Wall. Arriving at night, we were following a vaguely sketched map from a guy we met in our Beijing hostel. Somehow, it led us through dark alley streets and up little driveway hills to a trailhead basically in someones side-yard. Because all the signs said that it was illegal to proceed, we thought it wise to make friends with the property owners. We ate a great feast for a late dinner, and bought a couple beers for the inevitable celebrating, and some canned coffee for the morning, costing each of us a staggering.....$3US. Already a good night. So, we made our way through the side-yard and up the hill, hoping the great wall would find its way into our vision at some point soon. After a 15-20 min easy hike, we found the wall just as a security guard found our party. To our surprise, he led us to the easiest place to scale the wall, and showed us a place to sleep next to his make-shift campsite inside on of the watch towers. We toasted that night with our $0.50 beers and stared at the first stars we had seen all trip. My 40-degree bag hardly cut it that night, but I was so giddy with the thought of where I was and what I was doing, that I hardly cared about the cold.


As I explain in the video page, we really did wake up to M80 blasts at 530ish, and proceeded to hike through the section of the wall that is currently undergoing restoration (aka, closed to tourists). We didn't see a single other person, except for some of the workers when we first woke up. It was epic running up and down the wall taking poser pictures and climbing up parts of the wall/ watchtowers.

So, I knocked two more things off my list, and am now off to Hanoi, Vietnam where I am looking forward to some serious beach time, massage, and tropical drinks in pineapples... It's been a really GOOD week!!

Two weeks in Tibet

Tibet has been everything BUT what I have expected. It is entirely my fault as I fantasized about a mountainous town filled with nomadic tribes, and a few hard-core backpackers. I was crushed when the first advertisements we saw as we stepped off the bus into town were a dozen neon signs for Coors light! I thought maybe it was the altitude, and gave it another chance the next day. The three of us walked through the main street which reminded us all of a small European street. New stone streets ran between big modern buildings. Department stores, banks, high fashion, you name it... it is already in Lhasa. I came expecting to hang out with monks in the hills, but instead we encounter monks everyday walking the streets, talking on their cell phones and shopping just like the rest of the city. The juxtaposition of ancient culture and modernization is really shocking to see in person! Besides the monks, the other western tourists are more abundant than I had expected. Although the city is different than I had anticipated, we are still finding ways to avoid the tourist traps, and explore some of the hidden parts of the city.

The best part of Tibet so far has been the people. Everything about the Tibetan culture is colorful... the way they dress, their buildings, their accessories, their smiles... it is all beautiful. Despite loosing their uphill battle to keep Chinese influence out of their region, they are some of the most genuine and friendly people I think I have ever met. Their faces and smiles are warming, and we have been lucky enough to socialize with a few off the beaten path. Interestingly, I think we have encountered more English speaking locals here than in Beijing. The new train we took is flooding the region with tourists, and the town seems to be anticipating it well... for now. It will be an interesting thing to watch as the tourism industry begins to explode in Tibet.

We have spent the last two days acclimating to the capitol city almost 10,000 feet above sea level. Tomorrow, we depart on a five day tour up to Everest Base Camp. More details to follow when we return...;)

Andrew dancing near Forbidden City

We stumbled upon this crazy dancing festival after skipping through the Forbidden City... I guess Andrew couldnt resist making us stick out like a sore thumb ;)

I havent seen the sun in three days

Beijing, China. First stop on the world tour. The city is enormous, constantly in motion with the masses in the streets and various modes of transportation shooting down alley ways and dodging busses. There is a surprising amount of english spoken here, but also a surprising lack of western tourists. There are so many cars, smokers, incense burners, etc here which leaves a perpetual thick smog over the city. There is a "glow" 24 hours a day, either from the sun behind the smog, or the neon lights reflecting it at night.

I have successfully connected with my traveling buddies for the next few months- Carson and Andrew. We had plenty of time to swap stories yesterday, and they definitely have some incredible ones on their journey from Barcelona to Beijing... see the links section on this page to read their tales.

We jumped right into sight-seeing mode yesterday as the three of us walked from our hostel throught the Tiananmen square. It almost looks like a part of Disneyland with Beijing 2008 olympics signs everywhere, and replicas of famous sites in China scattered along the sides of the square. We kept walking north towards the famous entrance of the Forbidden City. It looked big from the outside, but once we stepped inside the walls, it was absolutely overwhelming. It covers 1.2 million square feet, with hundreds of separate buildings, and thousands of rooms filled with artifacts from each of the past dynasties. Way to much to see, even if you had a week to explore it. We walked the length of the City, and kept heading North to the hill beyond the city walls. There we climbed the man made hill to see the entire city (or what was visible throught the smog). Curiousity carried us farther north as we heard Chinese singing in the park below. Festive dance and song was all over the park with hundreds of participants. It was to much to resist, so we waltzed all around the square together with the locals.

Our adventure looks like it should continue on schedule, as we were able to book tickets into Lhasa, Tibet on the new train. We leave tuesday night; I'm soo stoked for this one!! Cant wait to get out of the city and do some hiking in the Himalayas.

First official post

After careful thought and painful deliberation, I have decided (with the aid of DK and my computer wiz lil' bro) that this is the blog format through which I will relay my travel escapades.

Thank you all for tuning in, I hope you enjoy a little glimpse into my travels over the next few months!