| Dave's 2004 68-day Asia Trip | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Here is the much anticipated story of
my recent trip to Asia! I'm glad you've come to visit. This
site is to share pictures and stories with my family and friends
(including the new ones I made on this trip!) I went to 5 countries
(not counting Taiwan, where I only spent 1 night for a connection).
I started out in Thailand, then went to Cambodia, then China, then Nepal,
then Tibet, then back through Nepal and Thailand again.
All my pictures are
here, but
the really good ones are on this page, interwoven with the story.
The pictures have the annoying green thing in the corner, dear readers,
because I didn't want to spend $80 to unlock Media Resizer Pro, the
software I used to make the images web-ready. :) Clicking on the
thumbnails will take you to larger pictures - for the wallpaper-worthy
shots, you'll get full size images, for the rest, they're 800x600. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Thailand First, Thailand. I had only a few days here, which I planned to spend in Bangkok. However, a nice Israeli girl on the plane convinced me I would be much better off visiting Koh Pangan with her. Having visited Koh Phuket in 2000 (thanks to Alteon, who paid for me to go there so I could speak at their user conference...), I soon realized her wisdom in choosing the islands over Bangkok's polluted skies. So upon arriving in Bangkok, I bought a ticket to go to Koh Samui, from whence I would take a  ferry
to Koh Pangan. Koh Pangan is a beautiful, tranquil island which is
jarred monthly by a "Full Moon" party which consists of many, many young
people getting drunk simultaneously as beachfront bars compete to play the
loudest American music. In order to make it to Cambodia on time, I
had to leave the morning of the Full Moon party, so I missed the big
party. The pre-party was wild enough! The Thai food was great
and hotels on the island went for about $5/night. I could get used
to this, if it wasn't for the stultifying heat - around 100 degrees F!
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Cambodia Back in Bangkok, I met with my friend and classmate Lydia to fly to Siam Reap, Cambodia, home of Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is one of the 7 wonders of the world (I think the others are, in no particular order, the Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the towering stupidity of people who voted for Bush) Angkor was built about 1100 years ago when the Khmer people of Cambodia ran most of Southeast Asia. It's hard to express how large and ornate the ruins are - they are on par with Versailles (but not as well preserved). So Lydia and I checked into our hotel rooms and started immediately with a driver, an air conditioned VW Santana, and a tour guide. Cambodia was hotter than Thailand, but it was great to cool off in the car between ruins. 4 days isn't enough to see everything, so we woke up early and stayed out late to fit everything in. Highlights included Angkor Wat, a butterfly sanctuary, the floating village, and excellent Cambodian food. My favorite was the fresh frog's legs sautéed with fresh green peppercorns. Our guide kept promising to find a restaurant that served fresh spider, but he never did. :(
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Shanghai After Cambodia, it was time to fly to Shanghai to visit Jane, my crazy friend who flew to San Francisco every 2 weeks for 2 years in order to attend Wharton. Jane is crazy, smart, and passionate too - it was nice to visit her and her husband Eric, along with about a dozen other friends from school. We converged on Jane's house like an army of locusts, which was no problem, because Jane's housekeeper was able to feed everyone, and Jane organized amazing city tours for us. Having dinner at one of the city's finest restaurants overlooking the river was wonderful. We also visited executives from a few of China's leading companies, including the CEO of Michelin China. It was so nice to get to spend quality time with so many close friends from Wharton.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Beijing From Shanghai, the same group of friends flew to Beijing, where we had the most wonderful Peking Duck at a 400 year old restaurant - the best in the city. Peking Duck is a religion to people in Beijing, and you can only get it in Beijing - anywhere else is a pale shadow of real Peking Duck, and even trying to imitate it is sacrilegious. The actual process is somewhat secret, but I hear it involves boiling, roasting, inflating, stuffing, and otherwise mangling a duck carcass until it is red and crispy and gooooood. Then you take pieces of mangled duck and wrap them in thin tortilla-like things, add plum sauce and sliced onions, and luxuriate in it's spicy goodness. Of course we did the obligatory Tiananmen Square tour, the Summer Palace, The Great Wall, and the Forbidden City - all of which were on an epic scale.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Xian After all this, Lydia and I made a quick 2 day trip to Xian to see the Terracotta warriors. I love the story behind them - an emporer who was afraid he would be unprotected in the afterlife enslaved about 100,000 people and made them create a life size clay warrior army, complete with metal weapons. The poverty and strife he created in this action caused the peasants to revolt after the emperor died - they broke in to the area where the warriors were buried, smashed all the warriors, and used the weapons to overthrow the government. The delicious irony of it all! In Xian, I also had a "chop" (carved stone stamp) made for me by a famous chop carver.
Later, after I said goodbye to my Wharton friends, I had one more night in Beijing before flying to Kathmandu. I managed to see the Underground City. It's a large network of tunnels under the city - complete with movie theater and hospital - that were built in case of nuclear war. Some sections are still sealed off by the military. I also wandered some of the Hutongs - small, twisting areas of town where people have lived for hundreds of years. That evening, a local school teacher offered to show me an acrobatic show. We went to a theater near Tiananmen Square and sat down to watch an extremely strong woman balance a 200 lb steel barrel on her feet as she stood on her head, then spin it around. Before I knew it, there was a spotlight on me, and I was asked to go on stage. So I did (and I forgot my camera, damnit!). First they had me try to lift the barrel (possible but heavy), then they asked me to get in, so I did. Four men helped lift the barrel (with me in it) onto this woman's feet, and she spun me around for the audience to see. She was STRONG! The next morning, I caught a flight to Kathmandu.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Kathmandu On the plane, I met a really nice Israeli couple named Raz and Neta on their honeymoon, and considered trekking with them. However, Kopan Monastery was having a 10 day meditation/Buddhism course that seemed interesting to me, so I decided to attend that instead, with a plan to do the Annapurna Circuit with Raz and Neta later. Since my hair was getting long, I decided to get a haircut - so I just had my head shaved. What a *weird* feeling! I love not having to carry shampoo anymore.
I did a quick city tour, and saw the toothache shrine, where the Hindus nail a coin if they have a toothache. The guide swears it works! I also hung out with a sadhu, a holy guy. When the tourists were pouring in, this guy got $20 for a picture, but since the Maoist problem and all those countries telling their citizens to stay away, he's much more negotiable - he got 30 rupees (about $.50)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kopan Monastery Kopan was great - I found that I already believe about 80% of what Tibetan Buddhists believe, but the other 20% I found hard to swallow. I can say that spending 10 days eating vegetarian food was strenuous, but it wasn't too hard to follow the other 5 monastery rules: No killing, no lying, no sex, no drugs, no stealing. Every day, we woke early, had tea, meditated for an hour, ate breakfast, heard some lectures, had lunch, had some lectures, had tea, meditated, had dinner, and repeated the next day. We were silent from lights out until lunchtime. I now understand Buddhist meditation but prefer the style I already do, which is very Western - I use technology to reach advanced meditative states quickly and reliably. The Buddhist way is too much work and seems goal-less compared to other techniques I know. But it was enlightening! I also made a lot of friends, like my English roommate Mike, Mauricio from Italy (who speaks about 10 languages and can kick your ass), Harald from Amsterdam, and Dania from LA. Imogen, a girl from Australia, expressed interest in going to Tibet to see Mt. Kailash, and I agreed to go, as I wanted to see it, but didn't think I could fit it in to my schedule.
Did you know the Buddhists have a hell called "The Cold Hell of Brrs and Achus?" Neither did I! My favorite hell was called "The Cold Hell of Oozing Blisters." Yikes! The basic belief system is that there are 6 levels of existence, collectively called Samsara, and we are trapped in a cycle of reincarnating uncontrollably based on our karma, and the only way out is to become a Buddha by being fully enlightened and seeking enlightenment for all other creatures, from amoebas and bacteria on up to humans and gods, but not including vegetation. Enlightenment entails a lot of meditation about existence and the fact that you really do not exist as a self. It's all quite interesting, and matches what I already think to a certain extent, but not completely. The incredible obsession with prayer wheels and flags is, in a word, bizarre - the prayer wheel at Kopan had a plaque that said if you turn the wheel once, you accumulate merit greater than saying the holy mantra "om mane padme hum" (hail to the jewel in the lotus) ONE BILLION times. What!?!?!?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Annapurna Region  Harald
and I agreed to go trekking near Annapurna base camp. I met him in
Pokhara, the city near Annapurna. After a day or two of preparation,
we took off from Phedi, along with 2 new friends, Moran and Merav, both
from Israel and recently out of the Army. (It's traditional for
Israelis to travel when they get out of the Army - you see Hebrew
advertisements all over the place in Asia) We planned to do the Poon
Hill circuit, which takes 5-6 days, but we wanted to do it in 4 so Harald
could catch a flight. The first day was very slow going as some
people adjusted to the altitude. At lunch, I removed my glove, only to find a leech had fallen out of a tree onto my wrist, and was hungrily sucking a major vein. Thinking quickly, I took a picture, then poured salt on it. Leeches are gross, but at least they don't make you itch like mosquitoes! That was the only bite I got, but we were plagued by leeches trying to climb our shoes for most of the trek. A minor problem really...    We stayed at a guest house about 3 miles in, and enjoyed a meal of Tibetan fried bread, omelets, and (strangely enough) pizza. Although ketchup doesn't belong on pizza...nobody had told the chef. I discovered I forgot my warm hat, and although it's hot during the day, the nights are chilly, so I bought one of two hats in the village - mine was pink and blue and had only a few holes in it. But it was warm! The next day, we left early and went all day. At lunch, we sat near some pot plants that were about 25 feet tall, with trunks (not stems) about twice as big as my wrist.
At around 3pm, the girls decided to stay at one place, but Harald and I wanted to make it to the next set of guesthouses - about 800 meters (2600 feet) higher and 3 hours walk at a fast pace. So we said goodbye to the girls and went up the hill. Near the top, a donkey knocked me off the trail (I really should have stood somewhere else, but I was tired) and I cut my leg. We made it to the next guesthouse after dark, tired, and bleeding. I ate 4 meals and felt much better (altitude is great - you can eat all you want and still lose weight!). Some Nepali porters sang some impromptu traditional songs and danced while we dined, and we woke to crystal clear views of Annapurna.
We walked most of the day to the next town, where we had heard there were Maoists. Maoists rebels control most of the countryside in Nepal, but they don't do anything to tourists except ask them for donations, about $15. They are violent towards their countrymen but so far, it's been safe. We arrived to a town which had very nice guesthouses, but no electricity, as the Maoists had blown up the generator. Dinner was wonderful, and the next morning we woke to climb Poon Hill to get a great view of the mountains surrounding us. Unfortunately, Poon Hill was fogged in, but fortunately, the Maoists who wait by Poon Hill to get money had left, and we never even saw a Maoist. After Poon Hill, it was time for a double omelet breakfast, and we left. We needed to descent 2200 meters (about 7200 feet) that day in about 8 hours. Despite the trekking poles, by the time I made it out, my knees were thrashed (cartilage damage in the left one I think). But it was an incredible journey.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Bus to Lhasa The day after I returned to Kathmandu, Imogen and I left on a 5 day bus ride from Kathmandu, to Lhasa, Tibet. It goes via the Friendship Highway. Yeah right - it's a dirt road. But it winds up through waterfall-covered rainforest up to the Tibetan Plateau at 15,000+ feet. Scenery I'll never forget. Riding on the bus was quite jarring, but it was more than made up for by the chance to meet a lot of other tourists. It turns out that Heather, one of the passengers, was married to the owner of the tour company who set up the tour! There were Australians, Dutch, Austrian, and other passengers aboard - about 15 in all. It was great getting to know so many of them while watching the scenery roll by. We saw yaks, and a couple people got carsick and yacked too. :) Along the way, a sheepherder offered to let me use his stone sling to try to throw a rock - notice in the picture that the rock I'm slinging is actually behind me on the road...apparently I need some more practice. :)
We stopped at a couple famous monasteries along the way. We also discovered "Al Quaeda" brand rice - it comes in a bag with a picture of the twin towers and an airplane circling overhead. I took a photo because it was so hard to believe! Later, we toured a Tibetan home and saw yak dung stuck to the wall outside the door - they burn it as fuel to stay warm and to cook with. We also go to sample fresh chong - barley beer brewed in a clay pot.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Lhasa In Lhasa, Imogen and I visited Pothala Palace, an awe-inspiring monastery. Sadly, like all monasteries in Tibet, most of the monks were missing (ie they were being tortured or were already dead) and some of the "monks" remaining were Chinese government spies. We heard that the Chinese government had stepped up the terror campaign against Tibetans in the last couple years, despite opening the area for tourism. There was a climate of fear everywhere in Tibet. The Tibetan culture will be gone in another 5 years, replaced by Chinese. Soon, a new railroad line will open the floodgates to Chinese immigrants, exacerbating the demise of the Tibetans. It's too bad Tibet doesn't have any oil, or maybe we would have invaded them instead of Iraq, to "save" the Tibetans. Oh wait, nobody from Tibet tried to kill Bush's daddy. It took 2 days to get the required permits and hire a Land Cruiser to take us to Mt. Kailash, in remote Western Tibet. Imogen and I needed to recruit 2 more passengers to make the trip affordable, which we did with hand made signs in local hotels. We hooked up with Jerry from Beijing, and Claudia from Austria, who had been traveling for 4.5 years.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Road to Kailash The trip to Mt. Kailash took 4 days of solid off-road driving - 6-10 hours per day. And there is not a lot of food in Western Tibet - just instant noodles and a few shreds of yak meat. Good thing we brought a lot of food with us! The guide we hired (as required by Chinese law) was a complete bonehead. He got drunk the first night of the trip and left his bag behind, with our permits in it. Our poor driver had to drive him back at night - he was driving for about 30 hours straight. It wasn't that safe but they wouldn't let me drive. :( Along the way, I became closely acquainted with yaks myself, as I came down with AMS (altitude sickness) that made me vomit every hour, on the hour, for one night. There is nothing more gross than having frozen barf stuck to your bare feet. Well, maybe having someone else's frozen barf stuck to your bare feet, but I didn't get to try that one. The next morning, I was mostly recovered and we continued our journey.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kailash - Day 1 Mt Kailash is the holiest mountain in the world - it is worshipped by Hindus, Buddhists, Bon-ists (I hear it's not polite to refer to followers of the Bon religion as "Boners" so I'll try not to...), and Taoists. They believe gods reside at the top. The mountain has never been climbed because the two climbers who tried both turned around when local protests convinced them it was sacrilegious. To properly see the mountain (or to worship it) you do the kora - a 3 day walk around the mountain in a clockwise direction (unless you're a Boner, in which case you do it counter-clockwise). The path around is arduous - it includes a 5,660 M pass (about 18,500 feet, taller than anything in North America) and we were very late in the season so it was dusted with snow, icy, and cold. But it was breathtakingly beautiful. The first day was easy going.
We stayed at a guesthouse with the most beautiful view of Kailash, and drank yak butter tea with the locals. Yak butter tea is tea blended with yak butter. It's the only thing that keeps you going at altitude, and the locals drink up to 40 glasses a day! In the evening, we spent hours taking pictures of the locals and showing them the pictures on the digital screens. A 10 year old named Chote learned to use my camera and ran out to take pictures of me, his sisters, and everything else. What friendly, happy people!
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kailash - Day 2 The second morning, we split into 2 groups - Claudia (and experienced trekker) went with Jerry (a virgin), and I went with Imogen (also a trekking virgin). It was so cold in the morning (probably -15 F) that our water bottles froze. We got off to a slow start, as the altitude was affecting Imogen. She pushed through it, and we soon made it through the pass - the highest point I've ever crossed! I felt great - I was even hungry (which is rare at altitude). Imogen had brought no sunglasses and was staring to get snow blindness, so I gave her my sunglasses and wore a prayer flag over my eyes. Prayer flags are thin cotton flags with mantras printed on them; the locals hang them in windy areas so they will spread prayers on the wind. I used a bandanna to hold down my impromptu sunglasses - a strange look, but it worked. Imogen and I were behind schedule though, and it was a 10 hour walking day. We kept going and I re-injured my knee on an icy part of the descent. We had 4 hours of walking left, and barely that much light. The trail was faint, I was injured, and Imogen couldn't see that well. I was seriously considering whether we would have to spend the night outside with no sleeping bags (since the porter had those) Fortunately, we found our porter (who carried up to 50 lbs for 3 days for $30 total) who was carrying my elastic bandages for my knees. We took off down the valley and walked up a frozen river for a time. The porter was wearing only a thin leather jacket and a sweater, jeans, and tennis shoes, but we had 60mph winds and it was in a shady part of a canyon. I offered him a spare jacket, and he thought I meant for him to carry it - he laughed when he understand I thought he might be cold. What a stud! He ended up taking Imogen's day pack too, and we all went as fast as possible to make it to the guesthouse right at dusk. The porter saved our butts, so we tipped him and gave him a Snicker's bar as thanks.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kailash - Day 3 The next day was a gentle walk down to town. I have to admit I was sad to leave such rugged, barren country - it was awe-inspiring to be there. For dinner that night, I bought 2 lbs of cabbage and asked the local restaurant to cook it with yak. They did, and I loved it! 5 days with no veggies is bad news. I shared it with my friends and another group, who kindly shared some vodka back.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Lake Manasarovar The day after Kailash, we went to lake Manasarovar, the most holy lake in the world. It's thought to be the headwaters for 4 of the world's largest rivers, including the Ganges, but in reality it's only the headwaters for 2 of them, with the other two being nearby. I dipped my head in the freezing water and the guides filled up bottles of the holy water to take home. The lake is am amazing color of turquoise blue that seems like it couldn't possibly be natural. We ran across some of the biggest crows imaginable - especially for the altitude. Our guide told us that they are big because most Tibetans choose a sky burial - upon death, the body is chopped into pieces and fed to the birds, skeleton and all! After spending a day at the lake (and the nearby hotsprings for a shower - the first in 12 days) we left for the Kathmandu border. 3 days later we were there.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The End In my final 3 days in Kathmandu, I met up with a group who had been returning from Kailash as I was approaching it. I had helped the group get a ride with my driver as he was back-tracking to pick up our permits. We went to dinner at the Lhasa Restaurant, which has the best fried yak momos in town. (Momos are basically dumplings, like wonton perhaps) Peter was from Slovakia, and Danka was from the Czech Republic. Danka and I both were celebrating our last night in Kathmandu, so we split a bottle of vodka (what the hell were we thinking? It was a one liter bottle!) and attempted to stumble back to our respective hotels. Along the way, we somehow walked into a bar to get a beer to dilute the vodka, only to find it was a Nepali strip club, so we got our beer and sat outside. I'm happy to say that we found her hotel and got her safely to bed where her roommate could take care of her (poor guy), and I made it safely back to my room. I saw her roommate at the airport the next morning, and he tells me she did catch her bus. Ah, youth. (she's a 25 year old energy attorney) I wasn't even hung over! I flew to Bangkok, where I spent the night, which happened to be Halloween. I figured there would be no celebration because it's an American holiday, but I went to the Qbar, the coolest bar in Bangkok according to a guy I met on a plane, and they were having a Halloween party, complete with rubber rats and snakes on the walls, and even a few people dressed for Halloween. The DJ was from New York! There was an Estonian girl wearing a maid's outfit, and a lot of guys dressed as pimps. I think those were costumes anyway! :) I stayed out late partying with a couple French guys and some local Thai girls who worked for a marketing firm, and caught my flight back home the next day. I have to say I was sad to go - there was so much more to do and see in Nepal and Tibet. In the next 2 years, I plan to fly to Lhasa with my mountain bike, and spend 2 weeks riding from Lhasa to Kathmandu, and I'd also like to do the Annapurna circuit trek, which takes 21 days. All I have to do is find a job with enough vacation to do it! I'm relaxed, happy, and ready to do something else fun. This was definitely the best vacation of my life, but I think I can top it with the next one! The funny thing is that it only cost about $40/day including airfare, hotels, food, and the like (not counting the pricey Wharton China stuff of course). This kind of travel is cheaper than staying in a Motel 6 in the US! If you're planning to go to any of the countries I visited, drop me a line and maybe I can help you plan! --Dave
|
