October 13-16, 2009 – Day 292-295 – Delhi-Rishikesh, India

Well, we were just counting ourselves lucky in thus far not having any dreaded travelers’ illnesses from India and wouldn’t you know, Lin woke up to yak her guts out? Saben was feeling pretty weird too and Lin was going downhill fast. As it always seems to happen, if we are going to get sick, it is always on a travel day. No refunding tickets or sleeping it off in the hotel room. No, we were destined to spend the day wandering around Delhi until our night train to Rishikesh. The day was terribly unpleasant, the train was unpleasant but we made it to Hardiwar…

Besides our room this is all we saw

September 17, 2009 – Day 266 – Pokhara, Nepal

It is best not to make many (or any, in fact) future plans if you intend to travel by bus in Nepal. Actually, it is probably best not to really think of anything besides trying to survive and holding very tightly to the seat handle, if you are lucky enough to have one on your bus. Even on such a short journey of 6 hours can prove to be a life threatening endeavor.

Just another day in the life

September 14, 2009 – 263 – Kathmandu, Nepal

It’s like waking up to find that you have just been punched in the nose and now your face is gushing blood and you feel like drowning, throwing up, and just maybe dying too. That’s how I would describe walking through the streets of Kathmandu, not just Thamel but the outside districts where tourists are discouraged from staying.

Kathmandu in action

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September 13, 2009 – 262 – Kathmandu, Nepal

Not a great start to an already, universally bad kind of day: border crossing day. Our guide overslept by half an hour and our driver had hired a local taxi driver to take us down to the border because he didn’t want to. In the questionable taxi down the mountain that suffered from horn abuse, goat collision, and overheating brakes that were, thoughtfully no doubt, cooled by pouring rainwater collected from the road directly onto the brake pads.

Plays 5 musical notes at ear bursting levels

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September 12, 2009 – Day 261 – Tibet

Woke up smelling like a smoked yak. Compliments of the incompetent woman who can only seem to produce smoke instead of fire and her endless piles of unwashed yak scented blankets. Every time the fire would start to get going she would douse it with a health heep of sheep shit until we finally had to tell her to stop and just let it be. It was better to be cold than to die of smoke inhalation.

Everest in the Morning, Tibet

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September 10, 2009 – 259 – Shigatse, Tibet

Spectacular (but dangerous) driving today. Our driver is absolutely insane and drives a minimum of 100 kph around gravel covered hairpin mountain curves with the back tires skidding (and sometimes squealing) behind. We have had our share of crazy drivers but this one seems the most ridiculous of all. At any rate, we were able to see some beautiful views of Tibet as we drove toward our home for the night, a little town called Shigatse.

Yak at Yamdrok Lake

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July 26-27, 2009 – Day 213-214 – Guilin, China

This was a very bad day because we had to leave today and forgot to book ahead of time for our night train to Kunming. The 18 hours it was scheduled to last turned into 25 hours due to a landslide in this rather unpleasant seasonal weather (humid, hot, rainy, and generally shitty summer).

Yeah...thats ramen soup

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Day 108: Arequipa, Peru

Lin woke up sweating, feeling like there was an angry house cat clawing it`s way out of her stomach. Ugh…Now she was struggling to stay warm. Could it have been the food from last night? Or was it the water in a grungy looking white bucket we saw being carried into the restaurant in Copacabana from whence her hot chocolate had sprung? Maybe it was just the reputedly horrid water in Peru. The flu even? Whatever it was, Lin was absolutely sure she was dying and couldn`t have welcomed it more. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 94: Potosi, Bolivia

Would you really trust a man who puts lit dynamite in his mouth and screams wildly through the wad of coca leaves in his cheek? Well, we did and we even paid him! In Potosi, mining is the way of life, the business grandfathers pass to fathers who pass it to their sons and who will continue the tradition with their sons. Many go to work as early as 13 years old even though, technically, Bolivia has anti child labor laws. But when a family is hungry and has many mouths to feed, no law enforcement prevents children from being put to work.

Us in our miner gear

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Day 93: Potosi, Bolivia

Lin awoke in total darkness, gasping for air. She heard Saben cough. He`s awake too, she thought. With an aching, throbbing head, Lin was just sure her head would explode and/or she would suffocate beneath the weight of 30 pounds (no joke! they were so heavy and thick we could barely lift them off!) of blankets if she went back to sleep. When daylight finally broke after an agonizing night of repeatedly waking up gasping for air, we shared our worries that we would suffocate in our sleep from being in such high altitude under a pile of llama fur blankets.

After a day of struggled breathing and climbing up and down the hill (it`s probably more appropriate to call it what is really is, a mountain!), we hopped a taxi to–the circus! Lin never having been to a proper circus (i.e. not the county fair or Wal-mart), we went all out and even dared to eat some various carny foods. We began with a course of candied apples followed by homemade (who`s home, I never want to find out) potato chips and finished off with the worst hot dogs ever! The circus far exceeded our expectations and was complete with crossdressing, midgets, dancing girls in tiny clothes, and a car running over a man. We had a blast!! Video to come soon.

Circo! Fun for all ages...

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