Chinese Etiquette

The Chinese government, in preparation for the coming Olympic games, has been trying to improve the behavior of its population. During this past National Day holiday (the first week in October), some tourists visiting Tian'anmen Square during the holiday received a text message on their mobile phones from the administration committee of the Tian'anmen region to remind them to protect the environment of the square. However, on October 1 alone, around 600 sanitation workers collected 39.8 tons of garbage from the square." At the Old Summer Palace some tourists were found drawing on the relics. However the government is trying and we should give them credit for that. "Education in manners and etiquette has been strengthened in some kindergartens and primary schools in China. But experts believe it may take several generations to nurture civilized behavior and form a positive image of Chinese tourists."

I know from my experience in China that some places are worse than others. I found Dalian and Xiamen to be very clean and, in some areas, very Western. My worst experience was in the Inner Mongolia capital of Huhehaote (also known as Hu Shi). Perhaps I visited it on the wrong day (it was May 7, 2005), but it was extremely windy and trash and dirt were blowing everywhere. To be fair to China, I also encountered trash on the street in some areas of Detroit when I lived in Michigan. Of all my travels, the city with the most trash on the street was Gaya (India) near the tourist destination Bodhgaya. That was just awful.

Via Kyoto & Colorado Springs

Well, I'm back in America. After 55 hours of travel and 5 flights (Beijing-Osaka-Los Angeles-Colorado Springs-Denver-Nashville), I finally made it back to Kentucky!

I left Tianjin around 10am on Friday morning to go to the Beijing airport. Fortunately, I was accompanied by 4 wonderful friends of mine. After an emotional goodbye, I checked 2 very large bags each weighing exactly 30 kgs (66 lbs), and continue on with my 2 carryons (one of which weighed 35 kgs (77 lbs)! I then boarded a short international flight to Osaka, where Japan Airlines put me up in a hotel for free because there were no connecting flights leaving until the next day. This was no accident - I intentionally purchased my tickets in this manner to take advantage of a free hotel and a free trip to Japan. This was the first time in Japan, making it the 46th country I've been to. The closest I came before was when I changed planes in the Tokyo-Narita airport in 1998 after my first transoceanic flight. While in Japan, I only had time to see part of Osaka and Kyoto, of Kyoto Protocol fame. On Saturday evening, I continued on to Los Angeles, arriving on Saturday afternoon due to the Interntaional Date Line. This was only my 2nd time to fly across the Pacific in a eastward direction. (I've flown in a westward direction 4 times.)

At LAX, I had to grab my bags and go through customs and then recheck them. I then boarded my flight for Denver. The captain told us we would arrive in Denver early. Great! However, due to a serious thunderstorm in Denver, we just circled over central Colorado waiting for it to go away. After circling for some time, the pilot announced that we would run out of gas soon so we were forced to be diverted to Colorado Springs. Of course, by now I'd missed my connection in Denver to Nashville unless it was delayed because of the storm. Fortunately for me, the Nashville flight was delayed until after midnight, which mmade it about 4 hours late! I arrived in Nashville at 2am, where a different (and much older) set of 4 friends met me. We didn't get back to Murray until 4.

What travel! It hasn't sunk in yet, but my life is really going to be different now that I'm no longer living in China!

Calcutta to Delhi: Intriguing India

I am now in Delhi. Here's a quck summary of recent events...

FEB 14. I visited the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Theresa and saw her grave. Kolkata also has man-powered rickshaws (a man runs pulling a cart with one or two people sitting on it). I didn't ride in one, but I convinced the rickshaw man to let me pull him! What looks we received - to see a foreigner pulling a rickshaw man down the street for about 3 minutes!

FEB 15. I saw the tree in Bodhgaya (Bihar state) where Siddhartha Gautama sat under 2,550 years ago and became enlightened ("Buddha").

FEB 16. I visited Varanasi and saw the holy Ganges river (holy to Hindus). Also visited Sarnath, a village nearby where Buddha gave his first sermon (at Deer Park).

FEB 17. Came to Delhi and saw the Red Fort and Jama Masjid (biggest mosque in India can hold 25,000 in the courtyard). Also saw the ghats where Indira, Rajiv, and Mahatma Ghandi were cremated.

FEB 18. Today I visited Mathura and Vrindivan and saw the place where Krishna was supposedly born. (Krishna - Hindu religion). Also visited Agra and saw its Red Fort and the Taj Mahal. Very spectacular building! Took night train back to Delhi tonight. Tomorrow I will fly back to China.

Dhaka to Calcutta (& a hartal in Chittagong)

Happy Valentines Day from Calcutta!

FEB 12. I arrived in Chittagong in the morning after taking a night train from Dhaka. In Chittagong, I had planned to visit the Hill Tract area or the beach on the Bay of Bengal (or maybe both). However, when I arrived I was informed that there was a hartal (labor strike) and so no buses were operating today or the following day and possibly more after that! So it was impossible to visit the hill tract area. I still went to the north bus station to try (being the persistent guy that I am) but it was to no avail. No buses. So I walked around Chittagong and had fun watching local life there. I came across a restaurant there called "Kentucky." :) I didn't eat there but I did take some photos. I saw some interesting mosques (one almost looked like St. Basil's in Moscow). I also finally found a post office that was open in Bangladesh - on Thursday I was travelling in the countryside, on Friday it is the Muslim holy day so everything is closed, and Saturday was a holiday. So the first day I could mail post cards was on a Sunday. Afterwards, I went to Patenga Beach on the Bay of Bengal (just south of Chittagong). At night, I took a night bus back to Dhaka. I would have liked to have spent more time in Chittagong and southeast Bangladesh, but I have only one week to make it to Deli to catch my flight back to China!

FEB 13. I arrived in Dhaka at 5am and got out of the bus on the side of the road and started walking using my map. I got back to the hotel where I had stayed on the night of the 10th and picked up my backpack and then found a bus to go the bus station. There I took a bus to Jessore. I fell asleep because I did not sleep so well on the night bus. All of a sudden, the bus stopped and everyone picked up all of their bags and got off. So I followed them. We walked down a dirt path and then got on a boat to cross the river. There is no bridge so this is how we travel in Bangladesh! After a 25 minute ride downstream, we got off the boat, walked up another dirt path and to another bus which took me to Jessore. I got to the border around 3:30pm and crossed over. A man (on the Indian side) there kept picking up my bag (I fought him for it and he would not let go) and grabbing my passport and giving it to the officials. Then he told me I had to pay him a tip! No, sorry. I got a 4 mile bike rickshaw ride for 20 rupees (0.50) to the train station and then a 2.5 hour train ride to Calcutta for 16 rupees. It felt good to be back in India. When I was in India before, I really missed China a lot. This time I appreiciate India more -- less staring, cleaner, more modern. Still a developing country - but improvement over Bangladesh. Train came into Sealdah train station and I walked to a hotel near Sutter Street - Hotel Palace.

Darjeeling to Dhaka: Bangladeshi Hospitality

Hello from Dhaka Bangladesh!

FEB 6. On February 5, I walked all over the city (Darjeeling)- maybe more than 15 km (9 miles)! Not sure the exact amount, but I was tired at the end of the day. On February 6, I wanted to get up early to see the sunrise over the Himalaya mountains (common tourist attraction). The jeeps (which people share rides in) leave at 4:30 to go to Tiger Hill - the tallest peak in the area. I don't have an alarm clock - only a wrist watch with a very quiet alarm that goes off after 1 minute. So I didn't sleep well - I can't waking up in anticipation! I woke up at 1am, 3am, 3:30am, 3:50am (my alarm was set for 4). Then I fell asleep and woke up at 4:30. I hurried out of the hotel quickly (I had prepared the night before) and wandered around in the dark in a strange city but found several jeeps waiting. After some time, our jeep left and we got to Tiger Hill around 5:20. More and more jeeps came later. At the top there was one jeep playing Eminem (American rap music) very loudly. So we all watched the sunrise over Darjeeling (the city) and the tallest mountains in India (K...) and China (Everest) to a beat! Very beautiful view. Afterwards, the jeeps took us back. I got out of the jeep in the city of Ghoom (8 km south of Darjeeling) and visited some monastaries and other sites and then walked back to Darjeeling.

The next mision for the day - get a permit to visit the Indian state of Sikkim. Sikkim is the land north of the Indian state of West Bengal, east of Bhutan, south of Tibet, and west of Nepal. Most people in India are Hindu, but in Sikkim there are many Buddhists. Also, some of the people there look more Chinese than Indian. India claims this land but China has never recognized India's right to own Sikkim. I'm not sure about a lot of the history, but I do know that in the past the government in Tibet (maybe in the 1800s?) invaded Sikkim to control the government there. So perhaps Tibet has some old claim to it and through that China claims Sikkim? Anyway, China and India have a not so friendly relationship due to land border issues (another dispute is the Tibet border with the Indian state of Kashmir). This is why China and India fought a war in 1962. Because of this, China and India have no border crossings between the two countries and Air China does not fly to India and Air India does not fly to China. To cross by land, one must go through either Pakistan or Nepal. However, I've heard that both countries are trying to repair the relationship and solve the issues. Anyway, because of the political situation of Sikkim, India requires that all foreigners get a permit to travel there. That permit only gives one permission to reach Gangtok (the capital) and the surrounding area. Once there, you need additional permits (and sometimes supervision) if you want to go further - especially near the Tibet/Sikkim border. India has military posts along the border.

So my next step was to get a permit to go to Sikkim. In Darjeeling, it is free to get one - but it takes some work. The office is open from Monday - Friday but the previous Friday was a holiday in India so the office was closed. It did not affect me directly, but there were more foreigners applying on Monday because of the Friday closure. I met some girls from the UK and France who had been waiting since Friday because of the holiday. Anyway, you have to go to one office (2 km north of town at the bottom of the mountain) and get a form. You have to take the completed form to another office - in the center of town on top of the mountain to get it stamped. Then you have to take the stamped form back to the first office (2 km north of town)! Afterwards, I went back to my hotel (1 km south of town on top of the mountain) to get my bags and then to the jeep station (1 km north of town at the bottom of the mountain). So I went up and down the mountain several times! It took about 2 hours to complete everything. Then I took a jeep to Gangtok. In the jeep, all were Indians (who need no permit) except me and a woman from Switzerland. The Indian man (in his 50s) sitting next to me had an MBA and wanted to discuss my teaching in China - the 4P's of marketing, management, inflation, net present value, etc. Upon arrival, I got a hotel room (on top of the mountain -- that's where the budget ones are located!).

FEB 7. I walked around Gangtok in the morning and climbed a big hill to visit Enchey Monastary. Interesting place, but not a good view of the Himalaya.Actually, I could never really see them so well while I was there because it was so cloudy. Around 11, I walked to find a share jeep to go to Rumtek monastary - the most famous one in Sikkim. I walked down the mountain and down the hill down the road to Rumtek and tried to flag down a jeep or taxi headed there but the only ones that would stop were empty and expensive. So I had to walk back up the mountain into town and finally found the share jeep parking lot (after asking several people). It was well hidden - but it is 20 times cheaper than going alone because they stick 20 people in there! Along the way to Rumtek, the driver stopped the jeep two times and got out to chat with local people. Then after 5 minutes or so he would come back to the jeep and we would go again! Not very fast - it took more than 1 hour to go 26 km (16 miles). At the monastary, I met the Indian guy with the MBA and his wife. After seeing the monastary, I went back to Gangtok, climbed the mountain, got my bag, and then got a share jeep for Siliguri. After 4 hours, we reached Siliguri (arriving at 8:30pm). Once there, I was able to find a night bus headed to the Bangladesh border (leaving at 9pm - arriving at 6am). Great - I am short on time so I took it. The bus cost 140 rupees (Y26 or $3.26) - and it was a pretty nice bus for India! (My hotel costs had been 125 in Siliguri, 150 in Gangtok, 100 in Darjeeling -- so this was about the same as a hotel).

FEB 8. We arrived at the Hili border of India/Bangladesh around 6:30am. Almost everyone on the bus got off in the city just before the border - only a few of us were going to the border. Once arriving in the border village, I was informed by the border guard that the border doesn't open until 8am. So we waited for 1.5 hours with the misquitos. Hope they don't have dengue or malaria! At 8, the border guard called me into his "office" - a small dirty room with a table. He looked through my passport several times and then started staring at my Chinese visa from last year. After looking at it for a while, he asked what country are you a citizen of? Oh my - it seems he doesn't know what a passport is! I showed him the front of the passport, which clearly states USA. "Oh" he said. He kept staring and flippling through the passport for a while and then started copying everything he could out of it. I guess they never (or rarely) have anyone cross the border here other than Indians and Bangladeshis. He copied all of my passport information, my Nepal visa information (because I entered India from Nepal), my Indian visa information, my Bangladesh visa information, my home address and telephone number, the itinerary of what I would do in Bangladesh, the hotel and phone number of where I would stay in Bangladesh, and much more! This guy did not work for Bangladesh immigration - only for India. He obviously had never dealt with this situation before and so was nervous and wanted to write everything down! After telling him my favorite color and my great grandma's name and birthday, he finally stamped my passport and let me go! Next up - India customs! Similar routine there. They were dumbfounded. Instead of dealing with me, they put my passport down and worked with the other people first. Then they flipped through my passport and found my visa to Cambodia (last year). They asked me "Are you a citizen of Cambodia?" Oh, no - not again. So I kindly showed them the front of my passport and the first page with my photo that both say citizen of USA. Finally, we took care of everything. Next up - India guards/army. They were slow too but not too bad. Now I had permission to cross into Bangladesh! Next - Bangladesh immigration! Actually, they were pretty quick and reasonable. Afterwards, I went to Bangladesh customs where they wrote down my passport number and visa information and let me go without asking any questions. Aren't they supposed to ask me if I'm carrying valuables, weapons, drugs, etc? I guess I look nice and my backpack is pretty small. Anyway, after almost 2 hours I was free to move about Bangladesh. It was now 10am!

I got a rickshaw ride to the bus station and then a bus to Dinjapur. After a slow ride (the bus slows down every 10 feet to pick up people but doesn't stop completely - they have to jump on!) , we arrived. Then I got another bus to Kantanagar to visit a famous temple. After 30 minutes, they told me to get off the bus. I was in a small village with stands and a dirt path. I followed the path for a while and came to boy holding a stick across the path. "Toll" he said! So I had to pay a toll to walk down the path. Actually, the path led to a shaky wooden bridge which I wasn't sure would hold me! But I guess it is pretty strong - there were tire tracks on the other side! After the bridge, I was walking across a field of sand. It appeared I was in the desert! After 2 or 3 minutes, I climbed a small hill and was back on a dirt path again. Everything is agriculturally focused here. Around me - corn, banana trees, chili peppers, rice, etc.? May different things. After about 15 minutes since I left the bus on the main road, I reached the temple. Wow. It had amazing carvings all over it. What was amazing was that it was located in the middle of nowhere. Literally!

I met lots of people who liked to stare, chat, follow me, etc. I should talk about this a little bit. Sometimes foreigners complain in China that they are stared at. That is nothing compared to Bangladesh. Because Bangladesh is not so famous, is more remote, has no famous sites (like terracotta soldiers, great wall, Hong Kong, etc), is predominantly Muslim, and extremely poor, no tourists come here. In China, it is common to see other foreigners from time to time. Here, I've seen only 3 in the 4 days I 've been here. And those were only in Dhaka - not in the countryside. In comparison to Bangladesh, China is extremely wealthy. I had to search for 1.5 hours to find a net bar. 85% of the population makes less than 80 taka (11Y or $1.38) per day so they have so little. I feel guilty to spend even a small amount on bottled water (20 taka for a 2 liter). So tourists simply do not come here. Foreigners are so rare that everyone stares. It is not a stare like we get in China. As my travel book states - and after being here 4 days I completely agree - you would not get worse stares if you dressed in drag and danced in the street howling at the moon. Some people stare like you are really crazy. If you try to engage them conversation, most will stop and actually talk back and are nice. However, some are just crazy! They follow you around continuing to stare awkwardly! Usually, they engage me in conversation before I reach them. In China, most people do not speak English, so all I get is "Hello!" And those who do speak English are usually nice students who are not rude. Here, most people do not speak English either. However, here I think all who know it try to speak to you! Usually the conversation begins with them yelling "Hello brother" and then they either block your path or follow beside you and then say "What country?" "What is your name?" "Are you student, journalist, or working on a project?" The concept of tourist is totally foreign - there are very few. They just assume either you are studying here, you are a reporter, or you are working for some charitable organization. One guy started the conversation with me like this -- What country? (America, I said). Are you a graduate student working on your thesis project? (this was actually his second question!) For those who don't speak any English (and I know very little Bengali) - usually they just follow behind me. Anytime I turn around there is a crowd. It is sort of like being a celebrity I guess! They are so fascinated by my digital camera. Children (and even some adults) run down streets to meet me and say please take my photo! Those who don't ask for a photo can always be found behind me watching the process! It makes it very difficult for me to get photos with no people in them. I usually have to do tricky things like aim the camera in one direction and then everyone runs and jumps in front of the camera and then I quickly point the camera towards my target (church, mosque, temple, monument, etc) and take it before they can run back! So it requires a lot of patience! Some of the people are annoying, but most are extremely friendly and nice. Very generous - giving me food, etc. A few more facts about Bangladesh - it is 54 times smaller than Australia, but it has 7 times more people! It is the densest (most people per area) country in the world. Bangladesh is the 7th largest country in the world based on population (140 million). In comparison, the US has about 300 million. Based on current statistics, Bangladesh's population is estimated to grow from 140 to 180 million in the next 20 years and Dhaka (the capital city) is expected to be the world's most populated cityin 40 years. Lots of people here!

Afterwards, I rode the bus to the town of Jaipurhat. There is no information at all in my travel book about this town so I asked a man on the bus and he told the driver and they pushed me off the bus and pointed at a hotel there. Signs are not in English - so I could not tell it was a hotel! I went in and the man behind the desk spoke English and I got a room.

FEB 9. The reason I came to Jaipurhat was to visit the ruins of an ancient Buddhist monastary from the 6th/7th century in a nearby village called Paharpur. I waited for 30 minutes for a bus and finally it came. The bus went for about 5 minutes and then thd driver and everyone got off. The driver went into a restaurant and ordered food! I had not paid yet, so I took my bag and started walking. The driver said -- time, time, maybe 30 minutes! So I told him - I will walk and you pick me up later when you decide to leave! I walked and walked. I passed a World Vision school/work center as well as a number of other charitable organizations and a church. After an hour (maybe I had walked for 6 km (3.5 miles?), the bus finally caught up with me! So I got back on. I had hoped to go see the ruins and then get out of there and on a bus by 9am and so this slow bus really frustrated me. But that is life in Bangladesh - you have to learn to deal with the things you can't change. I got to the ruins and they were amazingly still intact to be so old. There was absolutely no transportation back to Jaipurhat! So I started walking back. After 10 minutes, a man riding a 3 wheeler (here 3 wheelers are bicycles!) with a cart behind him came by. So I rode on the back of his cart for a while (he offered to do it for free!) until he turned off to go to his village. So I started to walk again! The "road" we are going down is dirt and rock and very bumpy. Along the road were fields of banans/rice/other with water buffalo being used to plow. All farming. Soon a truck came by. Trucks do not stop to pick up people here but since I am a foreigner they stopped and let me climb into the cab. That was nice too. See, I told you Bangladesh people are very nice/friendly! :) By the time I reached Jaipurhat it was after 11am! I had hoped to be back before 9.

I got a bus and was on my way to Mahasthangarh - the remains of the oldest city in Bangladesh - from the 3rd century BC. Same situation - another road - more farming - more interesting transportation - more friendly people following me around and asking me "which country" etc. One interesting encounter I had - While walking across a field of ruins, I met what appeared to be a class of college students and a professor (man appeared to be about age 55). After I passed them, I heard shouting "Hello, come here!" I turned around and the man was yelling at me. I went back and, sure enough, he was a college professor. We talked a little bit and then he said to me, "Thank you thank you thank you for visiting our country. We have so many interesting and beautiful sites and people don't come here because they think we Muslims are terrorists. We are not. People in your country have the idea that we are hate you or do not like you, but that is not true at all. We are very friendly and we welcome you to come and stay in our country. Thank you for coming. I really really appreciate your coming to my country."

Afterwards I went to Bogra and then got a bus to Tangail. I have no map of Tangail but do have information on 2 hotels there. The bus let me and several other people out on the side of the road in the dark around 7pm. There was no city in view! Another bus came by and we all got on and after 2 minutes we were at the Tangail bus station - which is on the edge of town. After arriving, I started walking. I walked and walked looking and asking for hotels. It is really a disadvantage not being able to read Bengali script (similar to India - it looks more like Arabic than Chinese). Finally, I found the street with the hotel I have information about. My travel book says rooms should be 100 taka. I went in and they said we have 1 room left - it is 600 taka ($10.5 or Y84). This is a good price for China and a very cheap price for the US - but I stayed in Jaipurhat for 70 taka ($1.2 or Y9.5) - a room with a private bathroom attached. Not the nicest room but at least it came with a misquito net. So I left and found another hotel - 400 taka! I asked to see the room. It was pretty nice (much nicer than the ones I had stayed in before - couch, TV, etc). I told the guy I would think about it but look for a cheaper room. Finally, I found the Sagar Hotel which had a descent room for 120.

FEB 10. I had come to Tangail with the hope to see a famous mosque (Attia) which, according to my travel book, is 4 km south of town. I had hoped to see it early and then take the bus to Dhaka and get there early. I found there is no public transportation to the mosque, that the road there is narrow, dirt, and difficult to travel down, and that it is a lot further than 4km! I took a bicycle rickshaw there - I usually like to walk but since I was not sure of how to get there I had to take one. I took more than one hour to get there! Once there, I met a man - who like 83% of the people of Bangladesh is Muslim. Like many Muslim men, he was wearing a white robe with a white hat. He was probably about 50. He watched me take photos of the mosque for a while and then asked the normal questions - country, name, etc. Then he invited me to his home! So I went with him down a dirt path into the forest and to a small house. There I met his wife and kids (and maybe other people too - not sure if they are related) and had some cookies and an orange. Very friendly. The kids knew some English, the wife knew none, but he knew quite a bit. After the rickshaw ride back, I got back to Tangail at 10am. After the bus to Dhaka, I arrived a little after noon. I walked around and took photos. One boy (about age 20) followed me around for a while asking annoying questions. I felt bad to tell him to go away so I did not. He asked, I can help you right? I was annoyed, so I replied, "How? I have a map." He didn't get the hint. He kept following me. Later he said "You are a very handsome man. We are great friends." I asked him, why do you follow me and not that (I pointed to someone else) man? He said - well you are a very "well man". I said that man over there is "well" you can follow him! He kept asking me to stop and buy him food but more annoyingly - asking stupid questions. When he was asking for money, a Bangladeshi man who works at the US embassy happened to be walking by and overheard the conversation. He asked me - do you know this guy? And I said, well I just met him on the street and he is following me around. Then the embassy guy got rid of him and shooed him away. I felt bad that the boy got sent away like that but afterward the embassy man told me to be careful because there are many pickpockets in the city. Anyway, I walked around some more and took photos (always attracting crowds - and questions - country, name, academic qualification, etc). What I found is that the more devout Muslims (those in costume - robe/hat, etc) do not stare as awkwardly, are more friendly, and ask intelligent questions (as opposed to supid ones). Those wearing regular clothes (but who are probably also Muslim since 83% of the country is) are usually more annoying to me. Anyway, I met a young Muslim guy (robe/hat) at a mosque who was really helpful and friendly. Later, that evening, I met a boy (age 25) wearing nice clothes (looked professional) who is an MBA student studying marketing. He was very helpful and gave me a tour of Dhaka University. Finally I found a hotel and went to bed.

FEB 11. I got up this morning and walked around Dhaka all day. Saw many interesting places. Lots of questions, lots of people wanting photos, lots of nice helpful people, and a few annoying ones too. Now I'm in an internet cafe. It took me 1.5 hours to find one - there really is not much "upscale" here. Not even McDonalds. I found it by walking to the nearest expensive ($100 USD per night) and asking them. They pointed me down the street and I found it. It is interesting because the owner appears to be a Christian - which is very rare in Bangladesh. 83% are Muslim, 16% Hindu, and 1% are other. He has a big sign about Jesus in the net bar and was watching the Jesus film on his computer when I came in. Anyway, now I plan to leave here and catch a night train to Chittagong. So I need to leave the net bar now.

Kashinagar to Darjeeling: Via Pheuntsholing

Greetings from Darjeeling - in the northern part of India's West Bengal province. The stories are not so exciting this time, sorry. More frustrations than excitement.

FEB 2. Something strange about this small town (Kashinagar - where I last wrote) that was freaky. As of about 6pm, there was almost no lights in the village. By 10pm when I left the net bar, the street was completely dark. No lights at all - only from the moon - which gave me enough light to wander back to the monastary (1 km or 1/2 mile away). The wierd thing was that there was very loud music playing with some wierd voices. So here I am walking down
one of the only streets in the village listening to music which sounds like it should be played in a haunted house. I awoke from the Tibetan Buddhist monastary early due to the morning exercises outside. Actually, where I stayed look just like a hotel - a single room with two beds and a table inside. But there was no toilet, no heat, and lots of misquitoes. In the morning I walked around the very small village and looked at all of the monastaries/temples set up by different countries to honor the place where Buddha died. I also saw his cremation stupa (where his remains lie). Afterwards, I walked out to the main road to wait for a passing bus to take me to Gorakpour (the nearest train station). After a few minutes, a jeep came by. I had read that many people use shared jeeps like buses here - so I got in. This jeep is made to hold 7 people comfortably. When I got in there were only 7. By the time we reached Gorakpour there were 21 of us in there!

Back in town, I went to the train station and used a computerized terminal to look at train schedules (wow - china needs this). I found there was no train to Darjeeling - where I wanted to go, but I quickly figured out that I can take a train to Hajipur (across the river from the Bihar provincial capital Patna) and then another train from there to New Jalpaiguri (Siliguri) - the closest train station to Darjeeling. I went to the counter and waited in line to buy the train ticket (similar to buying tickets in China). I asked for a ticket to Hajipur and got it - only 67 rupees (12.5Y or $1.5). Cheap. But then I noticed something - there was no train number or time or seat on the ticket. Hajipur is 240 km away (150 miles) yet the train will take 7 hours to get there! So although India does have the largest railway system in the world with the most stations - and they do have computerized terminals - some of the trains are really really slow. I tried to find someone in charge but there appeared to be nobody! In China, you have a train number/time and then go line up based on signs. You are not allowed to go out to the train platform until time to board your train. India is completely different. Everyone can go to any platform anytime they want and get on any train that comes by. Nobody is checking tickets. There were no electronic / temporary signs. Only some signs painted in Hindi (common language of north India - looks more like Arabic than English) lying against a wall. I went to the computer terminal but found no trains coming anytime soon! Finally, I found 2 different people and asked. They both told me it was train 3020. One said it was at noon on platform 2. The other at 12:30 on platform 2. I went back to the computer terminal to look up train 3020 and get info. According to the computer, train 3020 arrives in Hajipur at 7:20pm but it does not show Gorakpour (where I was) as a stop to get on the train - so I am still not sure of the official time it should arrive!

So I went to find platform 2. Platform 1 is the one right next to the train station. So I walked up a ramp and over a bridge to the next platform. It was platform 3! Where is #2? It turned out that #1 and #2 were both right next to the train station - #2 was down about 100 meters. Efficient system, I guess - but confusing. There were no signs. I went there and at 12:30 there was an old train with no lights on. Again - no signs anywhere. Was this my train? I asked a few people and someone said - no the train is late - just wait. Then I met the "Moment Control" Colonel Army Officer stationed at the train station. He invited me to his office to have tea and cookies and had one of his soldiers watch for my train. Very friendly guy. Warned me a lot about the trickiness of India vendors etc. He said several times - do not eat/drink any food that anyone gives you - it is very common that people drug foreigners and then steal their bags. I inquired about my train ticket and why there was no information on it. The man said it was because I had bought my ticket at the lowest class "unreserved" ticket office. "Reserved" (higher classes) have information and reserved seats/beds. China has 4 classes (hard seat/standing, soft seat, hard sleeper, soft sleeper). Not too dificult to understand. India has something like 7 classes! Confusing. When the train arrived at 1pm (supposed to arrive at 12:40 and arrive in Hajipur at 7:20), I saw the lowest class - very very crowded and dirty - more than in China! The army officer took me to the next highest class "sleeper class" where people sit on what looks like hard beds in China. He told me to stay there - so I did. Nobody ever came to check tickets - so I guess I could have ridden for free! However, signs on the train say you will be fined 1000 rupees for travelling without a ticket. The train arrived in Hajipur around 10pm - only 3 hours late! I went to inquire about the train to New Jalpaiguri. I was told it left at 5am but since the "reserved" ticket counter was closed and you can only buy "unreserved" tickets for the day of departure - I could not buy a ticket until midnight.

I considered a hotel - but I thought I might oversleep the train. So I decided to stay in the train station area. I walked down the street - it looked like small shacks and really poor. There was really really loud music playing. I walked towards it - there was a Hindu shrine there and a couple of people dancing in front of it. Very wierd. Very loud! I found a restaurant on that street furtherest from the music and it was still very loud. I went in and sat at a table. In India (and also Nepal) people eat rice and curry with their right hand. Very messy and strange looking to a foreigner. So people are in there sticking their hand in their mouth and I am just waiting waiting. The owner serves several Indians but ignores me for about 20 minutes. Then he comes over and says "Where From" and I say USA. I've learned that when I say America - people understand 1/2 the time. If I say USA, they usually get it. It is very difficult speaking English to Indians. Chinese speak English much better, I think. Indians speak with a very strange accent - I can barely understand anything. There is no menu - but I am able to order chicken and rice (sort of like curry). Soon, he brings me like 5 plates of food - rice, curry sauce, vegetables, chicken, etc. All the Indians eating there had just 1 or 2. Now I'm worried - since there is no menu - he can charge me whatever he wants! I ate a lot and it was good - and very spicy. After finishing, I sit there and read my travel book. Or I try - the owner comes over and tries to talk. He says something. I say What? He says Yes that's right. I say I don't understand. He says Good. I have no idea what we were talking about! Who knows what he thinks I told him. I did understand a few things. And he was very nice and friendly.

Then he gets out some hard liquor and starts drinking and gets really drunk. Now he is just annoying. He goes to his "sweet" cabinet (he also has a bakery and Indian sweets are very sweet - rich even by American standards). He gets three or four pieces and tells me to eat them. I wasn't hungry after such a big meal and didn't want to eat sweets at night. And who knows what this will do to the bill! Then he said - no money - just eat! So to humor him i took a small bite from all three and said they were good - but didn't finish them because I didn't want him to give me seconds! Well, he got up and got three or four more different treats and said eat! some of them were really good, but I just wasn't hungry. Then he went and got thirds and fourths, etc! Finally, I said no - I'm not hungry and refused to eat. He then picked up one of the sweets and pushed it (and his fingers) into my mouth! Soon after, I tried to leave and go to the train station. My meal cost 90rupees ($2.1 or 17Y) which isn't bad for all the food - but an average meal should be about 30 rupees. When I tried to leave, he grabbed my arm and leaned on me and would not let go. So I had to come back to the restaurant to get rid of him. The other employees (maybe sons?) were laughing. I distracted him by pointing at one of his sweets and when he turned his head I got away.

FEB 3. It is now 3am and I am at the train station buying a ticket. 125 rupees (23.5Y) for unreserved ticket - more than 500 km. The train (#5010) should leave at 5:20 from platform 3 and arrive at 6:30pm. I found a quiet place with storage bags and tried to rest (there was another Indian guy doing the same thing right next to me). I didn't sleep well. About 4:20, I awoke as a train left from platform 3. Couldn't be my train, right? At 5am, I walked over to platform 3. There was an old cargo train there. At 5:20 it moved away. At 5:30 a train pulled up. This had to be my train, right? I got on in the sleeper class - found an upper bed and went to sleep. I awoke at 8am when the ticket man came and checked my ticket. He made a strange face, then nodded, and gave the ticket back. That concerned me. So I went down to talk to some people around me just to make sure this is the right train. I told them I was going to New Jalpaiguri. They said this train (1030) does not go there. They said you need to get off at the next stop (Somisipa?) and take the Assam Express - which goes there. The train stopped 2 min later and I got off the train. I ran around the station and asked a man when will the next train to New Jalpaiguri come. He said it has already come. Then he said no wait - the train is late. So it will come in 30 minutes. It was train #5010 - the train I had been waiting for before. While there, I met some nice guys about my age. They just stared at me for about 15 minutes and then started talking. You from where? I told them I came from China and they didn't believe me. They kept asking which airport you flew into? No - I came by bus. Yeah right funny man. Frustrating. Then they asked me what is your qualification? I said what? A passport and train ticket? He said no - i mean education. I told him I have a masters degree in finance and he said wow - that is my major i will graduate this spring with that major. Then he asked me do you have paper? Can you draw a sketch of me right now? I thought, that is a wierd thing to say. Then he said I really like sculpture. Are you good at it? I said no. Then I realized that "finance" sounds like "fine arts". He thinks I have a masters in art! I never corrected them and so they still think I am an art expert. My train arrived finally and I confirmed several times. Nothing eventful for the train arrived. Yes, it was late - I arrived at 8:30pm - 2 hours late. Went up the road 5km to Siliguri and got a hotel for 125 rupees (23.5Y, $2.9) across the street from the bus station. Lots of misquitoes.

FEB 4. Got up early to catch a bus to Bhutan (a nearby country that borders India and China and is in the Himalayas). I bought the ticket at 7am - bus left at 7:30 - directly from the country Bhutan ticket booth. Now to take care of another problem - my pants are really dirty and I don't often have places to wash (and dry them) so I decided to buy a new pair. I found a store and bought some quickly. Probably could have negotiated more - he asked 400 and I got them for 200. Back to the bus station - it is now 7:25. All the buses are green and say West Bengal (the state I in India), except one bus - it is white and says BHUTAN all over it. Surely this is my bus, right? I got on the bus. We left. It is good that I like maps and directions. I thought we should be headed north and west but the bus was going east. Maybe we will turn soon I thought. Yes, we did. We turned and started going south. I asked around and quickly found this was the wrong bus. I told the driver and they stopped and let me out on the side of the road by a farm. I quickly found a small jeep/van going to Bagdogra (back towars Siliguri) and then from there another back to Siliguri. I got another ticket - this one run by India to Jaigon (the city on the border of Bhutan) leaving at 8:45am. The buses sure are slow. The whole time some guy has his head stuck out the window yelling trying to get other people to get on. Not just in town - the whole way. 169 km (105 miles) took more than 4 hours. At times we drove fast, but we stopped so much it really slowed us down. I got to Jaigon and walked to the border. Previously, foreigners were allowed to cross the border to the border city of Pheuntsholing for the day but this was stopped in 2004. Before leaving China, I read on the web that several people had tried to go since then and had been turned away - but one guy had been able to sweet talk the immigration officer into letting him go across. So this was my goal.

Indians can go across with no visa. When I approached with a big crowd of Indians they stopped me. They asked to see my passport and asked to see my visa. I told them I have no visa but I really want to see your country and eat your national food. They told me you can see from here and you can eat similar food in Jaigon (the Indian border town). There were actually 3 guards there. I think if there was only 1 maybe it would be easier - but none of the 3 want to look weak to the others. I showed them in my India travel book (written in 2003) that foreigners could cross. They said that was never the case - even in 2003. Only Indians. After sweet talking them for a while, they went to get their supervisor. He said no - impossible. Then after talking to him for a while he went to talk to his supervisor. He came back (i've been at the border 30 minutes now) and said No it is impossible. I kept talking to him and after another 5 minutes he decided to let me go! :) But limited me to eating in the nearest restaurant and said he would accompany me. All of the other guards looked Indian (brown skin) but this guy looked more like a Chinese in facial features. We went in (he hid me in the back and kept saying he could get in big trouble for doing this) and he helped me order some traditional Bhutan dishes. Good and spicy. Very friendly guy - told me about his family, religion (Buddhist) etc. Then he told me "I'm having financial troubles." I thought - oh now he wants a bribe or something. But actually, I asked him if he wanted money and he said no. I paid for his meal (it was a very nice restaurant but only about 28Y or $3.5 for both of us to eat). He asked for my email address and said he wanted to be friends! Afterwards he let me walk around Bhutan a little (just in that area) and take some photos. He also wanted some Chinese money so I gave him some. Then I went back and caught a bus back to Siliguri. This bus was even slower - 4.5 hours! I was really frustrated with how slow it was. I had planned to get back early enough to get transportation to Darjeeling, but because the bus was so slow I had to stay in Siliguri again. Stayed in the same hotel in Siliguri again. They were surprised to see me again.

FEB 5. This morning I got up early and got a 5:50 am jeep to Darjeeling. Arrived at 8:20. (Just so everyone knows - when it is noon in China, it is 10am in Bangladesh, 9:45am in Nepal, and 9:30am in India). Darjeeling is cooler (I've been burning up during the daytime because I'm still wearing a winter coat - it doesn't fit in my bag very well!) and in the Himalaya mountains. So the coat is more handy here. Walked all over the town. Beautiful mountains. Nice city. Tonight I'm at the Aliment Hotel on a mountain in Darjeeling. No heat and it's cold - so I'll sleep in my coat! They have Internet access in the lobby.

Kathmandu to Kashinagar: Bombs & Elephants

Namaste! (That is hello in Nepali and also in Hindi, language of Northern India) Happy Groundhog's Day to you too! (February 2 is Ground Hog's Day in America.) Hope you had a good Chinese New Year and a good time with your family. I am in the India in the province of Uttar Pradesh in the small village of Kushinagar. I am alive, fine, and doing well. Wow, alot has happened since I last wrote!

JAN 28. I rented a bike and rode all over the Kathmandu valley. I saw Kathamandu (the capital), went to an old city Bhaktapur, and then to another old city nearby (Patan). My legs were really sore from riding up and down hills on the highway. It was a long ride but good exercise and I got to see a lot of old Nepal architecture. Very amazing. I got back to the hotel around 4:30 and asked for my laundry. The hotel claims to have a 1 day laundry service - give them the laundry one day and it will be finished the next. I gave them some laundry around 8am on Thursday morning. When I left Friday morning, they told me it will be ready at 11am. When I got back Friday night, they said it would be ready by 11am on Saturday. When I asked at 4:30pm on Saturday (Jan 28), they said it will be ready tomorrow at 11am! I told them I am leaving in 1.5 hours. They said well you can get it when you come back to Kathmandu to fly out. I told them I am not flying out - I am going to Pokhara in 1.5 hours. They did not believe me - the guy said "I think you are making a joke on me. There are no night buses to Pokhara." According to my travel book and my inquiries in Kathmandu, the nice buses for tourists leave only in the morning and run during the day but there are cheaper poorer local buses that run at night. But I did not know for sure if there was a Pokhara bus or not. I told him that I planned to take a local bus and he said I don't believe you - there are no night buses. I said, well I am leaving here anyway - get me my clothes ASAP. He said he would get my clothes as soon as possible but that they were at somebody's house and that person was out of town so he would have to call someone to go pick them up. Just so you know, this was not just one shirt - this was all of my shirts except the one on my back, so if I did not get my clothes back I would be wearing the same shirt for the next 4 weeks. He said he would get them by 5:30. He didn't, but he did make it by 6 so I was a little late leaving. I wanted to arrive at the bus station by 6. When I arrived at 6:45, they told me the bus to Pokhara had just left but that I could take another bus. The friendly guy gave me a ticket and I got on a bus. I was so tired from cycling that I fell asleep immediately. I woke up around 8:30 when someone told me I had to get off this bus and get on another bus. So I did. Once on the other bus, someone told me that my ticket was a fake - the guy had made a fake ticket. The man who gave it to me had just walked up and had a ticket book so I assumed that was the way to buy tickets. However, actually I was supposed to go to some hidden window in the back side of the wall to buy the tickets. (These are not really "stations" - more like bus parking lots with small food stands all around. - There is no obvious station or ticket window) Anyway, I had to buy another ticket but it was still cheaper than taking the tourist bus. Around 11pm, the bus I was on stopped on the side of the road and turned off the engine. I was told that we stopped because of the Maoist uprising (rebels in Nepal who blow up bridges, towers, buses, etc. They call themselves Maoist after the teaching of Mao Zedong -- the current government is a kingdom with a dominant all powerful king. They demand democratic freedom and more fair representation for the people.) Because of the Maoists, the king (government) implemented a curfew of 11pm so that no vehicles can move from then until 4am. So our bus sat on the side of the road and we tried to sleep (in bus seats - not a sleeper bus) until 4. At 3:40 the bus started moving again....

JAN 29. I didn't sleep so well - so I was still really tired from cycling and little sleep. Anyway, I arrived in Pokhara (northwestern Nepal near the Himalaya mountains) around 6am. I fought of the hotel touts and went and had breakfast. Then I decided to climb up to Sarangkot - a peak from where you can see many other nearby Himalaya mountains (Anapurna). I got a ride to the beginning of the way there by a man on a motorcycle. He was very friendly - but then mentioned that he sells tours and told me where to find his shop. What I found is that most Nepal people are friendly - but they also want something from you. Along the way I must have met 50 children (not all together - a few here and a few there). Some were friendly and said hello. Some didn't. All of them asked for money. Some would say things like USA is a rich country - Nepal is a poor country. Give me 5 rupees (Nepal money; 1 dollar = 8 Chinese Yuan = 70 rupees). Some would not say hello - they would just come up and grab your leg or grab your bag and not let go and say give me money. Some kids squashed my bananas in my bag. Others squashed my bread by squeezing my bag. I was not happy with those kids! Finally after much walking I made it to the top. There I met two girls from Korea who had taken the boat from Incheon to Tanggu and then traveled to Beijing - Xian - Tibet and then Nepal (similar to me). They were happy that I could say Anyang Haseo (hello in Korean). In fact, in october, I had travelled to their hometown - Andong - in eastern Korea. I said goodbye and then started racing down the hill, passing some Chinese tourists. (I met several people from China in Nepal). I had a small conversation with them in Chinese and they too were happy to meet someone in Nepal who knew a little bit of their language. As I went down the mountain, two small boys came up and asked for money. I then spent five minutes teaching them the words "please" and "thank you" and how not to grab and squeeze foreigners. Actually they knew no english other than "give me a chocolate" and "give me 5 rupees". I don't know if they knew what it meant, but they started saying it so maybe at least now there can be polite beggars in Nepal. At the bottom of the mountain I ate lunch in a restaurant by the lake Phew Tal (the second biggest lake in Nepal) and met a guy from England. Then I went to pick up my bag - I left it at the restaurant where I had eaten breakfast. When I got there, I told the guy I was leaving Pokhara. He said no you are not. I said I am taking a night bus to Tadi Bazar to go to Royal Chitawan National Park. He said no you are not - there are no night buses. I said ok, but I am leaving. I got a taxi to take me to the bus station. He refused to turn on his meter. I had heard that the fair price is 70 rupees for the distance (maybe 3 km or 1.5 miles). I asked how much and he said 200. I said 60 or I will get out of the cab. He said ok 100 and started driving. I opened the door and started to get out. He said ok 70. I said no 60. Then he agreed to 60. I think it is illegal for him to drive without the meter and with the meter 70 is the fair price. I think without the meter, he gets to pocket more money. Anyway, he told me there is no night bus to Tadi. When we arrived, I gave him 70 to be nice. This time I decided to look for a ticket window. There was a big window saying bus tickets - I went inside and the guy said there are no night buses - only day buses. I said thanks and kept looking. A few feet away there was an old small window - the real bus ticket window. The man I had asked had been a travel agent trying to sell tourist buses. The real bus ticket man sold me a ticket to Tadi for 160 rupees ($2.22 or 18 kuai.) The bus was sitting right there and was leaving in 10 minutes. Persistence is important - don't always believe what you are told the first time! We left around 5pm. Then at 9pm we stopped at a place with many food stands to eat supper. The man said that we would not start the bus again today - we would sleep on the bus again because of curfew. So we did.

JAN 30. Around 4am the bus started moving. Around 5am they told me we had arrived in Tadi. I realized the nice thing about curfew - if it weren't for curfew, we would have arrived in a small village in the dark at 10pm and I would have to pay for a hotel. Because of the curfew I saved money by sleeping on the bus for free. Of course it was not so comfortable, but I did feel safe on the bus. I made friends with those around me and guarded my few belongings closely. So now it is dark and 5am in a small village. Royal Chitawan National Park is in Sauraha (6 km or 4 miles south of there). I felt like walking but finally agreed to a bicycle rickshaw from an old man who really wanted to take me. I did it more for him - he looked pretty desparate and at least he was wan't begging for me to give him money - he actually went and unlocked his garage to get out his rickshaw when he saw me just to make some money. It was good too - there were many turns - I would have gotten lost if I had walked. I got to the city around 6am. It was still dark and very foggy. Nothing was open - very few lights. The park office was supposed to open at 6am and elephant rides are held at 730am and 330pm. Why elephant rides? Because jeeps can scare away the rinoceroses and tigers and if you go on foot the rinoceroses and tigers will kill you. Elephants are the best way. But the office was closed. I waited until 7 am with the sun rising - everything was still closed! It was like the whole city had been killed and I was the only one there. Around 7:05am I saw 5 elephants riding off into the forest and so I was angry. Finally I found the park man opening the park office at 7:10. I asked him does this office open at 6am? He said yes. I was angry. I said the elephants just went into the jungle and I have been here since 6 but since you were not here I could not buy a ticket or know where to go. He said those elephants were army men going to the jungle to shoot/kill poachers who come to the jungle and shoot the tigers and rinoceroses. I asked if I could get an elephant ride later and he said (his english was poor) there are no elephant rides today. I said - " no rides anywhere in the whole world?" and he said yes no elephant rides. I said "there are no rides in Thailand, America, anywhwere?" And he said "yes no rides. Tomorrow. Tomorrow" I was not happy. Finally, I met a guy from a hotel who spoke good english who was coming to register some guests at the hotel with the park. I found out there were elephant rides in the park at 3:30 in the afternoon today. Also he helped me arrange an elephant ride at 8am in the morning - so that is what I did. It was a little expensive - 1000 rupees ($14 or 110 kuai), but the ride lasts for 1 hour and 45 min and you get to see wildlife up close. I got to see two rinoceroses really close - they are not scared of the elephants. Also saw some rare birds and deer close. No tigers though - they are nocturnal and do not stick around long when they hear any noise. The guy told me that in January and February it is the dry season (from May to October is the monsoon season when it rains a lot). During the dry season, the rinoceroses will often leave the park and come into the town to eat the farmers crops. He said every year, several villagers are killed by the rinoceroses in the middle of the night when it is dark and foggy. Fortunately, when I arrived at 6am I didn't meet any rinoceroses! In the afternoon I took a canoe trip down the river boundry of the park and saw crocodiles close by and some more birds. Then me and two guides walked throgh the park on foot. Once we got inside the park, they told me it was very dangerous. (Thanks, why didn't they tell me that before I decided to go!) Actually I was already aware of the danger a little. They gave me tips on what to do if we met rinoceroses, sloth bears, tigers, wild elephants, pythons, cobras, etc. For rinoceroses, you should climb up 6 feet above them - they can't climb. If no tree, run in big long zig-zag shape - they can't see well - only smell and hear. If getting close, throw things - your camera, your hat, anything. If you throw something, they will stop to smell. For tigers, sloth bears - get in a big group with the others and make a lot of noise. Do not run - they will chase. Do not climb - they will climb. For tigers - they always attack from behind - not when being watched. So if you see one, always stare at it, never turn your back. And then turn around and move slowly away. If you see a wild elephant - good luck. You will probably die! The wild ones are very fast, very smart. They always attack, can knock down any tree, and almost always get you. Fortunately, we were in a part of the park where there are no wild elephants. They said a local Nepal man was killed by a wild elephant 15 days ago. For cobras, if they bite, you are dead in 30 minutes. So don't get bit! They said don't be afraid - often on the jungle walk they dont even see a bird. We saw 4 crocodiles, many wild monkeys, some birds, rinoceros and tiger dung (so they had been there recently). Actually, one of the guides thinks he saw a tiger but wasn't sure. Tigers usually are not aggressive in the day unless scared - usually they eat/attack at night. Nothing so scary or exciting. But exciting to think that all of those animals were nearby and I was walking through their neighborhood. The guides said they do this walk everyday and see a rinoceroses 30% of the time and a tiger 5% of the time. They kept trying to get me to go on a 5 day camping tour with them - of course they want me to pay money for that! I asked them if they ever saw anyone die - they said yes - many people - last year a guide died by a rinoceros. They said they knew of no tourists dying though. Guides are trained to save the tourists. They said the worst thing they ever heard for a tourist was a broken leg from a rinoceros. The man in the Suraha (the city) told me there is no night bus. I said I will take a night bus to Lumbini. He said no you won't. Anyway, I got the guide from the jungle walk to drive me on his motorbike back to Tadi, where I caught a minibus at 5pm to Barahpur by 5:30pm. Around 6pm, I found a bus to Butwal (it is pronounced like boot - not butt :-) ), which is close to Lumbini. I got on it. The man said we would arrive in Butwal at 8pm. Oh my, I thought - my night bus is too fast! I will have to get a hotel then! Actually, that sounded good. I was tired of sleeping on buses and wanted to stretch out my legs. Around 7pm, the traffic came to a stop and we heard gunfire! Then a man got off our bus and checked things out. He came back and said something and everyone got off the bus. What? I asked? He said the Maoist rebels had put a bomb on the bridge ahead. We cannot turn the bus around and we cannot go ahead. We will be stuck there until the day after tomorrow! What? I got off the bus and found many truck drivers and other buses. The local village (between Naranygat and Butwal) was turned into a refugee camp! Scary, interesting, and exciting at the same time. I went to some local people's house and fell asleep on their bed. Oh, a bed - felt great! Around 11:30 someone on my bus woke me up and we went back to the bus - to sleep....

JAN 31. I actually slept well. I was tired from the past few days. I woke up at 7am and went out to get food, use bathroom, etc. The rumor/theory was that the Maoists had placed a bomb on the bridge. When I passed by in the morning, I did see the pile of rocks on the bridge with some electric wires underneath, but they almost looked like plastic toys. I walked around with some guys on the bus. One guy said he is 22 and likes all girls except Nepali ones. He asked me to take his photo and take it with me to US and China and ask girls to contact him. He said many people in Nepal get married when the boys are 20 and the girls are 15. He said he was upset about not having a girl. He was a little strange. Then I met the bus driver and another guy. They told me I should go back to the bus because the Maoist rebels may want to kidnap me because the US fights terrorists and they may not like Americans. I went back with them but believed them to be wrong because I read a lot about Maoists before I left and they said they like tourists and foreigners and their fight was only with the governement and they have never harmed foreigners - only the governement. In the past 9 years, about 10,000 people have been killed in the fight between Maoists and government - but all are targeted towards each other. I went back out in the city and walked around and met some local town people. They said I was in no danger. They said the Maoists did the same thing previously. The reason they do this is to show everyone how weak and slow the governement is to come in and clean things up. Several people were present when the Maoists came. Apparently, it was a group of 80 people - mostly females about age 17! Many had guns and pointed them at people - but they shot nobody. Then they put the rocks on the bridge and forced some big trucks to block the bridge. The local people took this seriously - they said for nobody to move the rocks or trucks for one day or else the Maoists would come and cause trouble. Also the Maoist had blow the roofs off several governement buildings - but they evacuated the buildings first so nobody would be hurt. So we were stuck for a day. I met a lot of local people - I ate in several restaurants, when wading in the river with local people, hung out with the men and talked about politics, played with the children in the street. I was the only foreigner stuck there - everyone else on all the buses were Nepali.

One family invited me to their home and we had tea and he showed me his mill. It was very exciting. I had a good time there. After hanging out with local villagers, I walked back by the bridge around 3pm. There were no wires and the rocks had been moved slightly. I inquired what happened. I was told that the village had a kid go take the "bomb" and throw them into the river. Supposedly, there were two of them. However, I question rather it was really a bomb or just a pretend threat. Anyway, the kid threw them both in the river and nothing blew up or anything. Perhaps there was no bomb at all. Later a local boy - about 15 let me sleep at his house (the bus driver had told me we would be there an indefinite period of time). Oh great! Finally a bed! Right when I layed down even though there was another bed, he layed down next to me in the same one. Then he put his arm around me. It was really wierd. Then at that time we heard yelling in the street (about 9:30). We thought the Maoists may have come back. I took the opportunity to leave! Out in the street the local town people were pushing the trucks and rocks out of the way. I guess 24 hours had passed so it was ok to move them. I went and helped them. We had to push away abuot 6 big trucks (Maoists had blown out the tires). I helped with 2 of them. So about 9:50pm - 1 hour before curfew, the town was set to move again. I estimate there were more than 1000 large buses and large trucks stuck there up and down the highway - in addition to other cars and motorbikes. We started driving and we drove all night - I don't think we stopped for curfew. It was slow going - we passed the last truck parked in the rode due to the bomb about 3am - 5 hours after we had left. We got to Butwal around 5am....

FEB 1. I got a bus to Bhairawa and then to Lumbini (birthplace of Buddha) and arrived there about 8am. Not very interesting location - but interesting in history I guess. There are lots of temples built by different countries. China's looks like a miniature Forbidden City. Different architectures for different countries. Then I took a bus to the border city in Nepal and India. I walked across the border from Nepal to India and left Nepal. Once in India I asked the man for the money exchange, and he said that it was located in Nepal! He said - sure it is fine just walk back over! So I did - nervously. I went back into Nepal and changed my money to Indian Rupees and then walked back into India. No problem.

Then I took a bus to Gorkapour arriving around 3:30. I planned to take another bus to Kushinagar to see the site of Buddha's death and then another bus back to Gorkapour (in Uttar Pradesh) to catch a night train. However, I met a man on the bus from Kashinagar who said I live there and I want you to come stay at my house tonight. He seemed really nice and professional, but he was really pushy. I considered it for a long time and then told him no. He then told the bus driver that I was going home to his house. I told him no again. He said ok. No problem - I will tell you where to get off to see the temple where Buddha is buried. I said thanks. We entered a small town called Kashinagar he said the temple is up ahead - don't worry I will tell you when to get off. Then we drove and drove. It was now 5:30 and getting dark. I then figured it out - he lied to me and was taking me to his house and said we could go to see the temples together the next day. That really made me mad. I told the bus driver and then I found out that the man had told the bus driver that I wasn't getting off in Kashingar - that is why the bus driver hadn't told me to get off! So I was really mad. I told the bus driver to stop the bus and so I got off right there on the side of the road. I didn't want to keep going any further from Kashinagar - I did not want to go to the man's house now! So I got off. Almost immediately a man on a motorbike came by and I flagged him down and got a ride into town. He was extremely nice, extremely smart, and the president of the local bar association (a lawyer). He gave me a ride to town and then asked me to give him something to remember me by - he said not money and nothing valuable just something small. So I gave him a Curves pen (the fitness center where mom works). At least the lawyer on the motorbike showed me where the Buddha temple was. But I had no idea about a hotel. After he left, within 5 minutes, I met a kid (probably 12 years old) who is a Buddhist monk - rare in India because everyone is Hindu. But this is the town where Buddha died. Anyway, this boy was really smart and really nice. He gave me lots of useful info about the town and got me to a hotel that is run by Tibetan monks - free but they ask for donations. So I am glad I met those two - the lawyer and the monk really helped me a lot. Now I am writing this email. Tomorrow morning I will go see where Buddha died. So I have survived lots of people who said "there is no night bus" - but there was! And I survived the tigers and rinoceroses and cobras and pythons! And I survived the Maoist rebels. And I survived the tricky man on the bus and getting left on the side of the road (with no map and no directions - the sun had gone down - I wasn't even sure which way was north/south/east/west). God has taken care of me and protected me during my travel. It is an interesting world that He has made.

Kathmandu: Hello Cheap Price for You!

Jan 26. Or wants to go to India but has no visa. (I already got Indian and Bangaladeshi visas in Beijing in December). He really does not want to sightsee in Nepal. He is just coming here because it is cheaper than flying to India. So he hopes to get in and out of Nepal as soon as possible. However, it takes 7-10 days to get an Indian visa! So this morning (Jan 26) Or went to the Indian embassy. I went out to see the city. I walked a lot - all over the city. I visited the Royal Palace (outside only), Asan Tole, Durbar Square, the river, and lots of other places. As I was leaving the hotel, the guy at the desk told me there are no taxis or buses today - but walking is free. As I got out on the street, I saw what he meant. 90% of the businesses at 10am were closed. There were no taxis or buses. Lots of people walking. But more impressively - there were soldiers everywhere! Everywhere - on sidewalks, on top of buldings, in businesses, in trucks - everywhere. It looked like a war zone. I found out later that Nepal will have elections soon. The king chose which parties can participate and which cannot participate - but he only chose parties which support him - none that have different ideas than him. Many people were upset about their lack of political freedom and the king's unwillingness to allow others to have different political opinions. So they decided to protest - by striking. That is why there were very few businesses open and no buses and taxis. The police/army soldiers were all over the city to prevent violent protest and riots. As far as I know, there were no incidents to speak of.

Another thing about Nepal - it seems more than half of the people speak English (unlike China where only a small percentage knows English). While this is helpful for buying things and getting directions, it enables vendors to say more than "Hello cheap price for you" (which is normally what foreigners hear in China). Actually, it is very annoying. These vendors walk up to you carrying lots of merchandise and they don't say "buy". They say, "Hi, what is your name?" And you feel rude and mean to not reply. So you tell them. And then they say, "My name is ____. What country are you from? Oh, that is a very good country." And they follow you around for the next 20 minutes talking to you and then try to get you to buy things. It is annoying. After 20 minutes maybe you can convince one to leave you alone. Then another appears and follows you. It is tiring. The worst is near the historical sites when "guides" come up and start telling you things about where you are. These guides are not official people. After talking and walking with you for 5 minutes, they ask for money. When you refuse, they say I did work for you - I was your guide. You should pay me money. Very annoying. Kathmandu is more wetern in ways (Thamel is westernized (although the streets there are sometimes gravel/dirt/unpaved and people speak English), but in other ways it is similar to other Asian countries with persistent people bothering foreigners trying to sell them things. It is difficult to say no - some of them look really poor and desperate. At the same time, I hate to buy something - it only encourages them to use the same tactics on the next person. Actually, Nepali people are very friendly. I met several people who just wanted to talk to me -- and not sell me anything. They just wanted to learn more about foreigners - what do we think of Nepal, how long will I stay here, what do you like/not like about Nepal, etc. After a long day of walking around the city, I went back to the hotel and met Or. He said that the Indian embassy was closed so he would try again the next day.

Jan 27 I left early and rented a bike. Or planned to go back to the Indian embassy. I rode out into the countryside and up and down mountains outside of Kathmandu. Very interesting and beautiful scenes. Had lunch in a small village - had buff chow mein (buffalo fried noodles). It seems since Nepal is so close to India there are a lot of Hindus here. And so beef is rare here. Instead most restaurants serve buff (which Or and I believe to be buffalo instead of cow). However, at the restaurant they served me a glass of cold water. Maybe I should not have drank it (almost all restaurants in Asia serve hot water so you know the water has been boiled to kill the bacteria). I was thirsty and sweaty after riding the bike so far. I hope I won't get sick. Anyway, I came back to return the bike tonight at 6pm and told the guy I wanted it again tomorrow so he let me keep the bike. So I plan to leave early tomorrow to bike to Patan and Bhaktapur (two close cities with interesting sites).

Lhasa to Kathmandu: Frozen Every Night

Greetings from Kathmandu! Happy Chinese New Year! Chun Jie Kuai Le! Today (January 25) I travelled from Tibet to Kathmandu, capital of Nepal.

Jan 21. A little about our group - Chris likes to use the F word for every third word he says. He is very extraverted guy who likes to be the center of attention. He is nice and spoke to Yuya a lot in japanese. Chris spoke Chinese very well too - he's studied it for 2 years (including currently intensive training in Beijing). Yuya had been in China 1 month - his english is poor but understandable. He has a large expensive camera and gets paid US $30-50 for every set of photos he takes. Very friendly guy, but he does like to smoke a lot - in the car, in the hotel room, etc. Finally, Or is a 27 year old Isreali. He joined the Isreali army at age 18 and served for 9 years. During that time he visited many countries. He says he's been to more than 100 countries! For part of that time, he was stationed in the US because the Isreali army did joint exercises with the US army. He's lived in Delaware and Idaho among other places in the US. He left the army about a year ago. Since September he's been travelling the world - Cancun, Wales, China, etc. He entered China at the beginning of November and will stay 3 months - until he leaves Tibet for Nepal. He has a flight in May from Bangkok back to Israel. He will begin his undergraduate degree as a 28 year old freshman in September. He is a very caring, thoughtful, intelligent person. He does describe himself as a left-wing socialist though.

We left at 8am and headed out for Yamdrok Lake. It was a beautiful lake with a big snow capped mountain behind it. Next we went to a small town to eat lunch. Everything on the menu was expensive. I picked out a dish for 6 kuai but believed it to be rice because the last character was mi (rice). I also knew the character before it sheng (born/life) but did not know what it had to do with food. Or decided to get the same thing as me. Chris and Yuya had dumplings (jiaozi) and their food looked good. Then we received our dish -- peanuts. That's all it was - a plate full of peanuts. We had a good laugh and then ordered a bowl of rice to go with our 6 kuai peanuts. We mixed the peanuts, rice, la jiao (spicy pepper sauce) together and had an interesting dish. Not bad. However, we could not finish - we were both sick of peanuts after eating 1/2 to 3/4 of them. Or then had some reaction - his nose started bleeding badly. He was ok, but a lot of blood came out of his nose. I was ok - no problem. Back in the landcruiser... We arrived in Gyantse in early afternoon and chose a hotel - the Wutze Hotel. We got dorm beds for 20Y each. However there was no running water or heat. It did have electricity at least - something I would later learn that not all Tibet hotels have!

After checking into our hotel, we went out to the Dzong (or city fortress). As we walked down the city streets, we saw no other foreigners. Our hotel had no other guests. It seems we were the only 4 outsiders in this city today. When we reached the Dzong, it was locked up but a group of women and a man ran across the street with a key to let us enter. They unlocked the Dzong, charged us 10 kuai a person, and showed us around a little bit. There were a lot of stairs -- the fortress is on top of a hill in the middle of the city. Then they left and let us roam the fortress by ourselves. It was really windy! We climbed to the top and the wind was very strong there - almost impossible to climb down the stairs. Then we started our descent to leave the dzong. As we were exiting, one of the women that had been with us earlier came out of the ticket office building and waved us in. We went inside. The 4 women and the man were all inside sitting on couches and eating food. They shared some tradititional Tibet food with us - almost identical to the food I ate in Mongolia. Tibet really does have much in common with Mongolia. The drink - Suk de cai (in Mongolian) and Yak butter milk tea (Tibet) tasted the same. The food - dried yak milk treats were the same as what they served guests in Mongolia. Two things were different -- one of the women had a big bottle of Pepsi and shared it with everyone. (Pepsi seems to have a huge market share advantage on Coke in Tibet - I rarely saw Coke available -- almost always Pepsi.) The second thing is that one of the women had a plastic bag with a bone sticing out. She pulled out the bone and it was a raw/uncooked leg of lamb - still with fur on it. She then took a knife and cut off several small pieces and gave it to everyone to eat. The Tibetans all ate it. Chris and Yuya ate it. Or and I looked at each other and then realized there was a lot of room in our pockets! But we reailzed they were staring at us and that they were watching us and kept telling us to eat. I ate a litte - but only part that seemed dried nd tough - not the wet juicy fatty parts. After eating a small bit, the rest found its way to my pocket. Of the 4 Tibetan women, the youngest was 21. She kept joking that she would marry me. An old 40 year old woman then joked she would marry Chris (who is 21). We think they were joking but then we were never quite sure. Who knows, maybe they were serious! :-) We stayed and ate Tibetan snacks and drank yak butter milk tea with them for 1.5 hours. Then we left and went back to the hotel and had dinner in a Muslim (Qingzhen) restaurant. Good food but a little pricey. It seems every place in Tibet outside Lhasa where there is a lot of competition has high prices. Then we went back to the hotel and tried to sleepin our cold beds. There was no toilet in the rooms - it was outside across a courtyard. And it was cold at night. But I was still able to sleep.

Jan 22. We left Gyantse in the morning and went to Shigatse (known as Rikaze in Mandarin Chinese based on sound). We did not want to pay to go into the monastary (it was free for Tibetans), so we walked around the pilgrim path around the outside of the monastary and then walked over to the Dzong (fortress). The Dzong was initially destroyed in the 18th century, but was completely destroyed during the 1950s. There is really little to see. Actually, it was under construction - lots of scaffolding in place - so maybe there are plans to rebuild it. The other guys left, but I walked around the construction zone to get a better view of it. After getting up to the top of the Dzong, a construction worker saw me and told me I had to leave (or at least that is my guess). I walked back and met the other guys. Chris was on the toilet with stomach problems. He guesses it was from the raw lamb meat from Gyantse. I ended up going into the monastary to take some photos and look around, the other guys didn't want to pay.

We left Shigatse on our way to a small town called Sakya - home of a monastary. We stopped for lunch in a small city between the two, and this time we ordered jiaozi (dumplings) and chow mian (fried noodles) - no hua sheng mi (peanuts). Chris was not feeling well - we all wondered who would be next! We found that most of the friendship highway (the road from Lhasa to the Nepal border) is not paved -- mostly dirt and gravel. Not much of a "highway" but we were able to go 50-80 km/hour (30-50 mi/hr) on it - so not bad. When we reached Sakya, our driver (a 50 year old Tibetan named Kika who spoke Tibetan, Chinese, and only a few words of English) took us to the Sakya hotel. It was the only building that resembled a hotel. We went inside and the man told us 35 kuai per person. However, again there is no heat and no running water! We argued for 20 and he would not budge. So we went outside and Yuya and I found another "hotel" -- it was a run down poor looking place. They offered 25 kuai per person. The room was a little dirty but not too bad. I told the man - no, we want 30 kuai for all 4 people. He went and asked his boss and his boss said ok. So that gives you some idea - they were willing to rent a room with 5 beds to 4 people for 30 kuai ($3.75). However, Or had been able to negotiate the other hotel down to 25 kuai a person by the time I got back. Chris was sick and wanted a nicer looking hotel than the cheap dirty one. I came into the hotel and was able to get them down to 20 Y each - the same as I paid in Lhasa and the same as we paid in Gyantse.

Chris decided to lay down and get rest because he felt sick. The 3 of us (Yuya, Or, and I) went out to look at the city. There are actually 2 monastaries in Sakya - one north of the river that was destroyed and lays in ruins and one south of the river (in the village) where you must pay 45 kuai to enter. We walked around and took lots of photos. The village kids came up to us and posed for photos and then asked for money. We gave them 17 fen ($0.02) in coins and they were happy. One thing to note about Tibet - nobody accepts Chinese coins here as money. So all of our 1 kuai, wu mao, 1 jiao, etc coins were not usable. After coming down off the mountain we went checked on Chris and then the 3 of us asked the hotel manager where to eat. He took us to the Dezin Family Restaurant - a small room with a stove in the middle. Around wooden pieces of furniture (used as tables) were couches. All the local Tibetan people stared at us. Yuya did not say much during the meal, but Or and I talked about US and Isreali politics. Or described Isreali left-wingers (peace at all cost) versus right-wing (fight the Palestinian terrorists and punish them for what they have done). Also described the religious makeup of Isreal, saying about 65% of the population is not religious - only Jewish by religious culture (people observe customs but are not religious) or simply by heritage. Also about race in Israel - 45% are white, 45% brown/MiddleEastern (but these two groups intermarry and act as one), and then about 5% are black (mostly Jews from ethiopia). He also said of the 6 million people in Israel - 5 million of Isreali citizens are Jews and 1 million of Isreali citizens are Muslim. The biggest conflict Israel has is with the Palestinian Muslims who live in the West Bank. Anyway, after supper we went back to the hotel. The hotel decided to have a karaoke party in the room near us so there was loud music playing late at night. And it was cold. And the bathrooms smelled because the hotel has no running water in the winter. (And this is by far the nicest hotel in
Sakya).

Jan 23 The next morning we decided to leave at 11:30 in order to let Chris rest and also so we could see the monastary. The monastary was not very big but did have some interesting things - but mostly just Buddhas. Our nickname for Tibet - A land without heat and water but full of mountains and Buddhas. Another way to describe Tibet - Africa meets the North Pole. Actually, during the day time the temperature was warm enough to walk outside in a jacket and feel comfortable. The problem was at night when lows were usually close to -10C (14F) and there was no heat in the hotels. We left at 1130 and ate lunch in Lhatse. All four of us felt fine now. After lunch, we saw where a truck had driven off a cliff and smashed on the ground below. It was near a bend on the mountain road so maybe it met a car and veered to far over and went over the side. There were probably more than 100 Tibetans on the mountain side picking up all the things that had fallen off the truck.

Around 4 pm we arrived in Shekar (Shigar) also known as New Tingri. The first hotel we went inside we met the 2 british guys (still wearing blue) and the Australian guy named Kieren. They had not seen as much as we had seen along the way and had gone to Everest that day. (We would go the next day). However that hotel was cold and expensive so we walked down the street and found another one. That one was cheaper 20Y but had no water, heat or electricity. Actually none of the hotels in that town had electricity! The one we chose had a generator which ran from 7-1130pm so we had electricity for 4.5 hours at night. Also, our hotel did have electric blankets - but they were not very powerful and did not work after 1130pm. We went back to the first hotel - which had a warm restaurant and met another group of people who had come from Lhasa headed to Everest the next day. It was 2 guys and 2 girls. One of the guys was 35 and kept talking about how he is in the Her Royal Majesty's Navy in Australia and that he is a navigator. Sort of annoying. The other guy seemed friendly but we aren't really sure. He was from somewhere in the UK and is teaching english in China but we could only understand 1 out of every 5 words he said. Strong accent and used strange/different words than we were familiar with. Went to bed and enjoyed the electric blanket until 11:30.

Jan 24 We left at 8am to go to Everest. An SUV behind us carried "the Navigator" and his friends. Chris was really annoyed by him and kept makeing jokes about "the navigator." After 3 hours of winding up and around and down mountains, we made it to Everest (Quomolonga in Tibetan) base camp - the start of expeditions to climb Everest and the point up to which you can go by car. After base camp, you hike up to camp 1 then camp 2, etc. The summit of Everest is 8844m (about 29,000 ft). Base camp is at 5,200m (or about 17,000 ft). In comparison, the top of Pikes Peak is 14,000ft. So it climbers must hike an additional 3644 meters up the mountain. It was very cold and windy but almost no clouds in the perfectly blue sky. Very exciting to be looking at the tallest point on earth. The Canadian biker had told me about a new sign which is a good place to take a photo - and so we walked over there (about 5-10 min walk). It was cold and windy! However, I took off my coat and hat to take the photo (see attached photo). We walked back to the Landcruiser and our driver. When we got back, "the Navigator's" landcruiser pulled up. We told them about the sign, but they just took a photo from there and left in less than 2 minutes at Everest. We probably stayed close to 30 minutes. Well, there were a lot of navigator jokes in our car after that. We stopped in a small town between Everest and the Friendship highway and then guess who joined us - the navigator and his 3 friends. Actually, I don't think the guy is so bad. But Chris almost spit his food out when the Navigator started saying "one time i was navigating..."

After lunch, we drove to Tingri to spend the night. Tingri had electricity all the time, but no outlets to charge batteries/cell phones, etc. That probably didn't matter a lot about cellphones - because most of the time in Tibet there were no cell phone towers. The next day, Or and I would go to the border of China and Nepal but Yuya and Chris would take the bus back to Lhasa. Chris inquired about the bus and the hotel told us there was no bus! So it looked like they would have to hitchhike (common in Tibet because there is little public transportation). But then another guy in the hotel said there was a bus but it does not come regularly. Or and I decided to leave the hotel at 7am so we could get to the Nepal border early enough to catch a bus to Kathmandu.

Jan 25. This morning we awoke around 630am and it was cold! Probably the coldest we had encountered in Tibet. It was difficult to get out of bed. We had a room with 5 beds in it for 20y each (which is what I paid for all 8 nights I stayed in Tibet). None of the hotels I stayed at (including Lhasa) had heat. Only the Lhasa hotel had running water and hot showers. The Tingri hotel had a shower - but it was only cold water (and outside) and you had to pay to take one. So we passed up on that. The driver tried to start the landcruiser, but it would not start. After working on it (using a burning torch to try to unfreeze the gas lines) for 45 minutes, he got it started. We said goodbye to Chris and Yuya who were planning to take the bus later that day. Poor Chris - this was his plan - Jan 25 take bus from Tingri (near Everest) to Lhasa. Jan 26 take bus from Lhasa to Golmud. Jan 27-29 take train from Golmud (Ge-er-mu) to Jinan where his friend lives. Three problems - 1 the money in his Bank of China account in Beijing was unaccessible so he had little money left - 2 he had to travel directly from one end of China to the other - and 3 he was travelling during Chinese New Year which makes it difficult to travel. I have not heard from him, but I did get an email from Yuya saying they reached Lhasa on January 25th.

Or and I left the hotel around 745am and got to the border around 1230pm China time (1015 am Nepal time). That's right - Nepal is 2:15 behind China. Why the :15? Because India is 2:30 behind China and Nepal wants to show they are different from India! Between Tingri and the border we passed some great views of snow covered mountains (the Himalayas). At the Nepal border we got Nepal visas on the spot by filling out a form and paying US $30 (240 Y). Interestingly, my cell phone had connection from a tower in China when I was just over the border but lost power as soon as we left. Instead of taking a 9 hour bus for 150 rupees (1 nepal rupee = 9 chinese yuan = 70 USD), Or prefered to take a taxi that would take only 3 hours and cost 750 rupees or about US$10. So that is what we did. Along the way we passed the world's tallest bungy jump - from a bridge above a canyon/river. We did not do that. We arrived in Kathmandu around 4pm. Our top choice - Kathmandu Guest House in Kathmandu's Thamel (do not pronounce the h) district had no cheap rooms available. So we went next door and rented a room at the Hotel Star for 200 rupees per night (100 rupees each which is 11 kuai or $1.4 per person). Warm room with 2 beds and private shower/bath with warm water. Not the nicest room but it is cheap. Nepal is poor like other Asian countries but much more developed than Tibet. Much do to the elevation. Lhasa is at 3700m, Base Camp 5200m, Shigar 4500m. From Tingri to the border and on to Kathmandu it was mostly downhill. Kathmandu's elevation is 1300m. The lower elevation makes it warmer and easier to breathe (more oxygen in the air). Thamel district in Kathmandu has a target market of Western tourists. Lots of businesses offering pizza, hamburgers, ice cream, internet cafe, etc. Seems like Gatlinburg or Branson meets Chinatown or Las Vegas meets Europe. Lots of touristy businesses crammed together with flashing lights in little tiny alleys. In Tibet I probably saw a total of 15 foreigners in 8 days. Right now I see about 10 foreigners in the Thamel net bar where I am typing this!

Lhasa: Lost Photos & a Monk's Pen

JAN 18. I visited many places in Lhasa. I saw the Potola Palace (BuDaLaGong), the most famous landmark of Tibet. In short, there are a lot of Buddas there and a few tombs of former Dali Lamas. I took a lot of photos. Then I went and booked a tour to the Nepal border. I visited the Jokhang Temple, the most famous Tibet temple. Again lots and lots of photos. Most of my photos were outdoor ones from the rooftops of the palace and the temple. On my way back to the hotel, a guy (named Dorgee) started talking to me. He is probably 192 cm or 6 foot 4 inches. He looked Tibetan to me but he also looked like a tourist. So I asked where are you from and he said Kanding. Is that near Lhasa I asked? No, it is in Sichuan province, near the Tibet border. He is ethnic Tibetan and cannot speak Mandarin Chinese - only Tibetan, some English, and very little Chinese. He followed me around to some other places and we exchanged cell phone numbers. He was very eager to practice English. He visited Nepal last year for 2 months and is living in Lhasa now with his uncle to study English in Lhasa.

NIGHT OF MISERY. In the evening, I felt bad again. Just felt cold and shivering but it really wasnt so cold. I had some Niu Rou Mian (bu yao la jiao) - Non spicy beef noodles. Usually I like spicy food but I thought my stomach might not like it yet. Then I went to the net bar. I planned to download the photos from the first 5 days of my travels and email the best 3 or 4 to people. So I downloaded my photos. When I was 90% done (about 2000 MB), the computer crashed. Knowing this is a net bar where computers often delete other people's files when the computers reboot, I did not restart immediately. I went and explained the situation to the net bar staff. They assured me all my pictures would still be there when I rebooted the computer. I asked a second time. Again they assured me. So I rebooted. Upon reboot, there was nothing there. All files were gone. The net bar guy said, yeah of course all the files are gone. But you can redownload them from your camera. WHAT! I said? I had moved them to clear up the space on my camera. The net bar guy did not know much about computers. They had no restore software. And they offered no help. This was a loss of almost all of my photos from the time I had left Tianjin. I was really sad. :( The guy kept saying they are gone forever - forget it. But I persevered. I bought and downloaded some restore software to try to recover them. After many frustrating hours with the software, I was finally able to recover 25% of them. So I still lost a lot of photos. I finished at the net bar at 3am. I asked the net bar if they could give me 1 or 2 hours for free because their computer had crashed, their software had deleted the files, and they had no recovery software - I had to do everything myself. They refused and made me pay the whole amount. So I paid and left. No, actually I didn't leave. It seems the boss of the net bar had locked the door at midnight and had gone home. So we were all locked inside the net bar. This was ok to the other customers -- boys who were playing computer games all night. The guy said no problem. You can just sit here until the boss shows up at 9am. WHAT? I told the guy to call the boss and let me out of the net bar. Around 4am a key appeared and I was able to leave. I had planned to take a bus to visit a monastary the next morning at 630am. I knew that if I went to my bed I would sleep until noon. So I went to the hotel lobby and tried to do some work (trip planning, etc) and fell asleep in a chair. It was ok though. I woke up at 625. I checked my bag at the desk, ran down the street and...

JAN 19. ...made the bus. My night of misery was over. I slept on the bus for the 1.5 hour trip (45 km) to Gandan Monastary - seat of the Dali Lamas. It is beautifully located at the top of a mountain. In total, the bus ride (round trip) and admission to the monastary cost me $2.50 (20Y). Cheap is good. And the monastary and the views from the top of the mountain were amazing. I had a good time. An old monk in one of the temples there asked me to give him a pen. I thought he meant to use and then he would give it back to me. I gave him one that said "JH Churchill Funeral Home - Murray KY". When he got it he said "Thanks" and put it in his pocket! So an 80 year old monk at Gandan Monastary in Tibet is now using a JH Churchill Funeral Home pen! On the way back, I made several videos of people on the bus with my camera. They all loved it. Small children, old men, young women, etc. all posed in the videos. It was fun. Yes, everyone on the bus was Han Chinese or Tibetan except me. And nobody spoke English. One girl I met (she was probably 10) spoke excellent Chinese. Of course, I am not a good judge of Chinese, but I could understand so much of what she said. She said her family is from Ge-er-mu (Golmud) in Qinghai. After I got back yesterday afternoon, I met Dorgee again. He showed me around some places in Lhasa. Last night, I found that two new guys wanted to travel into western Tibet with us. One was an American and was one was Canadian. Both are studying Chinese at Capital Normal University in Beijing. The Canadian was realy sick and so we decided to postpone the trip one day to give him time to recover. So now I will have one additional day in Lhasa. Aghh! I'm ready to leave Lhasa already. I usually like to spend one day in a city. Jan 20 will be my fourth day... Ok, one more day in Lhasa...

Jan 20. I left around 9am and hurried over to Jokhang Temple. I had been there before, but I had lost some of the photos I had taken there. Plus, one of the guys staying in the dormitory with me at the Yak Hotel told me that if you go before 10am, you can get in for free by following the pilgrims into the temple. Sure enough, at 9am (the sun rises at 8:40), I was able to get in for free. I was able to take many good photos so I was happy. Then I stopped by my favorite Lhasa icecream vendor (whom i visited many times while there) and got some icecream for 0.5Y ($0.06). Next I decided to visit three monastaries near Lhasa - Dreprung, Nechung, and Sera. I took a minibus out of town to Dreprung and they told me to get out on the highway. From there, it was a 40 minute walk up the mountain to the monastary. Nice walk - but tiring at altitude. Right outside the monastary i ate lunch - a bowl of noodles for 1 kuai ($0.12). The monastary was interesting - and big! It was once the biggest monastary in the world. After seeing most of it, I walked downhill to Nechung monastary. Along the way I passed a man and woman carrying large bags on their back. The man looked at me in a strange way and in a girl's voice said "Hello money." This is a common things that beggar children in Lhasa say to foreigners to beg for money. However, he seemed really strange. I don't like to give money to people just because the beg. However, one thing i did start doing - and it seems to be beneficial to all - is to not eat all of my food at meals. Usually we just eat because the food is there - not because our body really needs every bite of food. I then ask the restaurant to give it to me in a to go box (dao bao). The first beggar to ask me nicely (some are really aggressive and annoying) gets to finish my food. I've tried this 4 times and each time the beggar began devouring the food before I walked away. I lose weight (or at least don't gain it - and the beggar is not so hungry). It seems to be a win-win situation. Anyway, I avoided this strange guy on the mountain - even running to get away from him. He was scary even though there was a woman (wife?) with him. Next I visited Nechung monastary and it was interesting. Tons of beggars there - mostly children. Images of dead/bleeding people inside. Really wierd for a Buddhist monstary. Afterwards, I took a bus into town and then another bus out to Sera. Sera is only 4 km north of central Lhasa. Sera was interesting because at 3:30 pm everyday (when i was there) the monks debate each other in the courtyard. The monks sit in groups and sort of yell at each other and slap each others hands. This is done in a friendly way - none of them are mad at each other. It even almost seemed like a show for tourists - they allow photos and video. After watching for a while, I climbed halfway up the moutnain behind Sera and got photos of the monastary and the Potola Palace in the distance. Upon arriving back at the hotel that evening, I found out that the Canadian student who was to go with us across Tibet was extremely sick and was about to fly back to Beijing to go to the hospital.

Speaking of Canadians...(Two days previously I met a 50-year old Canadian who talked to me about travelling to Everest. He used to teach on a small island in Lake Huron. About 4.5 years ago, he left Canada on his bike and biked from Canada - US - Mexico - Latin America --- all the way to Argentina. Then he and his bike flew (the only time he's flow on a plane in the last 4.5 years) to Cape Town, South Africa. From there he biked north through Africa and into Europe. From Europe he biked to Moscow, across the Stans (Khazakstan, Kyrgizstan, Pakistan, etc. to India. From there he hoped to bike into Nepal and then into China (via Tibet) and then to Kunming, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, and on to Australia. However there was a problem - when he got to the India/Nepal border, Nepal would not let him enter on his bike. So he biked back across India/Pakistan/Kyrgizstan and entered China at Kashgar on October 26, 2005. He then biked south from Xinjiang into Tibet.)

Anyway, I found that the Canadian was out but that the 27 year old Isreali guy (Or Russo) and the 21 year old American student (Chris Fitch) had each found another person to go with us. Or had found a 19 year old Australian (Kieren) and Chris had found a 26 year old Japanese guy (Yuya M.). Chris previously lived in Japan for 1.5 years and is fluent in Japanese. The problem is that our SUV (Toyota Landcrusier) was supposed to leave the next day and it could only hold 4 people and the driver. We found another group leaving the next day and then one of the 5 in our group had to decide to go with the other car (2 british guys). Our car was going to the Nepal border (one way from Lhasa) whereas the other car was going from Lhasa to base camp and then back to Lhasa. Since Or and I both planed to leave China and go to Nepal, we had to stay with our vehicle. So the choice was among the other 3. All 3 wanted to go with us and not the others. Finally the Australian conceded and went with the other 2. So our group was set - me, Or, Chris, and Yuya. Or and I went with Kieren to the other hotel to inform the two Britisth guys that he would be riding with them. The two British guys were wearing matching colors (blue) and previously Chris had commented that they were gay. When we got to their room, they were still wearing the matching clothes. Kieren told them - I'm going with you guys tomorrow. But you are normal people right? Of course the two British guys said yes we are normal. Who is going to say no we are really wierd? By the time we decided what was going on it was about 11pm. We are leaving Lhasa tomorrow morning at 8. Might not have Internet access again for several days.

Tonight, three Chinese students moved into the dormitory of the Yak hotel where I was staying. They were from Shanghai. I noticed the guy had some cuts on his lip but didn't think anything about it. Later I asked them if they had taken the bus from Golmud or flew in. The boy said they had taken the bus - one day after I had (2pm on Jan 17). Around 3am, the driver of the bus had fallen asleep and hit a truck which was parked on the side of the road. The truck was damaged but the driver was ok. However, the Chinese boy said the 3 of them were the only ones on the bus not severely injured. His lip was cut and the girl's leg had a bandage on it. He said the 4 people sitting across from them (an aisle in between) all died. So it seems the bus is not always so safe. He told the story very calmly, as if it wasn't a big deal! Glad I didn't take the bus!

In case you are wondering, today I have had no stomach pains and no apparent altitude sickness. I was running around on the mountain today where the monastary was and had no problems. Felt like I was almost back down at sea level like in Tianjin or Murray. So no health issues. I feel great. Upset about losing a lot of photos, but I realize photos are not the most important thing in the world.