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While traveling I read an article about the significance of international boundaries, where they mentioned that 90% of the world’s population will not leave the borders of their home country. This is mostly for economic reasons, but if you take that only 20% of Americans actually have passports, that is not always the case. After four months in Asia- and especially for the portions where I was traveling solo- I had time significant time to think about travel and why I am drawn to it time and time again.

And one perk of being gone for an extended period is that it really sinks in that what many of us have living in the rich/industrialized world is really a skewed reality of how the world really is, but in a good way. The reality for most is not necessarily if they want the goat cheese/organic shallot/smoked salmon omelette for breakfest or what city to head to for a weekend getaway, but more so the constant headache of often minimal employment/education opportunities, corrupt governments, inadequate sanitation and healthcare and being stuck in a never-ending cycle of it. In most of the world’s countries the government can’t really be relied on for meeting basic needs of the population and, work as hard as you might, you are often stuck into a position you’re born into (Nepal still has a rather firm social caste system). I am not saying that people are unhappy (heck, often people look more upbeat on the public buses of Indonesia or Zambia than people headed to work in Seattle) but that just by where you are born can heavily restrict what you can do in life.

Case in point; on a bus ride in Java, Indonesia I met an Indonesian around the age of 20 and we passed the ride chatting. When I mentioned that I was headed to Nepal in a couple months his eyes lit up and he pulled out a mint copy of National Geographic Traveler on Indonesia from his backpack with dedicated coverage of climbing guides for major Indonesians volcanoes, and he mentioned that he has always wanted to go to the high peaks of the Andes or the Himalaya or European Alps. Given that he was working in a factory on Java (which, by Indonesian standards is a lucrative job) this sadly will, in all likelihood, never happen for him.

When I was in high school I got hooked on the same, religiously reading Outside Magazine and endless travel books and too had daydreams on traveling the high mountain ranges of the world/the plains of Africa/the ancient archeological sites of past civilizations. Fortunately, I am in a position to make it a reality; save some extra money, clear the calendar, buy a ticket on the and internet and next thing you know you’re digging your crampons into a Peruvian glacier or strolling through the sites of Ancient Petra in Jordan.

So there’s the obvious joys/challenges of travel, of the exotic sites, environment, people, tastes, foods and experiences (and the bus rides and stomach problems and potential loneliness that can come with it). But a secondary element and for me even more important is having the time away from home and your more regular day-to-day life to re-prioritize what you really enjoy about your life, what you genuinely want to do with it, what you can do without and coming back to chase after goals and opportunities that are often times much more readily available in the industrialized/rich world than elsewhere.

It has been quite a trip and I’ve enjoyed posting these blogs along the way, hope you’ve enjoyed reading them!

The final trip route

China

I’m not exactly sure when we left the Tibet region and entered China itself, the Tibetan plateau provided a never ending backdrop of the high plains and snowcapped peaks and essentially sheer desolation. Locked in our sleeper capsule on the world’s highest railway (occasionally being pumped with oxygen for the legs above 5,000 meters) we passed the 36 hour journey to Xi’an absorbed in conversation, games and our 14 person communal, well stocked bar collection (Travel tip: stick to French, not Chinese wine)

Our tenure in China was a short lived one, spending our whole time there in and around Xi’an and Beijing (and on trains). Between the two we stuck to the main highlights: the Terracotta warriors, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Olympics complex.

China was a pleasant surprise, it had been one of those countries that I’ve never been that interested in going to, but flights home from Beijing were significantly cheaper then anywhere closer to Nepal so I merely planned to “swing by”. The food was phenomenal, people were reserved but friendly, Xi’an and Beijing were way more modern then I was expecting and it was a great way to wrap up the Asia trip. We really did see a small snippet of the country and given it’s history, being the most populous country in the world and the 4th biggest one in land area there’s plenty more to see. It would only be so much easier if I spoke Mandarin…

Tibet

Despite it being the 21^st century, Tibet is still a harder place to get to than most countries: there’s really no major airports anywhere nearby, China opens and closes the region at whim and often times unannounced, the season is quite short as it is still “the Roof of the World” i.e. snowed in, the visa and permit is expensive and incredibly strict (as a foreigner you have to go on an organized tour with a guide and a set itinerary and only to certain parts of it) and you hear enough conflicting points about the whole process that until we actually crossed over to it I wasn’t getting my hopes set up too high on the Chinese authorities letting us in.

That said, it was a phenomenal experience. We spent five days overlanding from Kathmandu to Lhasa, stopping en route in Nyalam, Lhatse, Shigatse and Gyantse. The tour we took has set departures twice a week and since the new rule is that tours have to be on buses (instead of Land Cruisers, aiding dispersal) we had 53 tourist on two buses the whole time, overall an incredibly fun group but very mass tourism-ish for an area known for its open landscapes and remoteness.

The towns are a mix of Chinese and Tibetan influence, with the Chinese sector moving in fast: billions have been spent on roadway, rail and electrification improvements, many towns have the historic Tibetan section and an ever-growing, concrete box jungle modern Chinese section, the signs are in Tibetan and Chinese, but with the Chinese letters being double in size. In Lhasa, Tibetans are now outnumbered by Han Chinese at best at two to one. There had to have been more cellphone stores in Shigatse per capita then in just about everywhere else in the world.

Then there’s the endless point of conversation and ever-forming personal opinion of China’s “liberation” of Tibet in the 1950′s and how China has permanently altered it. The closest comparison I can make is when I go back to the Czech Republic we’ll visit castles from 500 to 1,000 years ago or so, walking around impressed by the grandeur, envisioning what life like must have been back then and how those empires functioned. But since then Europe has changed so much, empires have come and gone and there’s no sadness or nostalgia from seeing these abandoned fortresses.

In Tibet this change is much more recent. The liberation of Tibet happened in the 1950′s, and it’s hard not to feel that modern China is quickly wiping out (intentionally) a culture. The Potala- what essentially used to be the seat of the Dalai Lama (now in exile in India)- is essentially a tourist attraction and plays no role in Tibetan government, monasteries have restrictions on the number of monks that can live there, pictures of the Dalai lama and the flag of Tibet are strictly forbidden (many people in our group had guidebooks seized by Chinese immigration as they disagree with the history and maps published in them), and the presence of Chinese soldiers and endless checkpoints give it a military feel.

China points to the facts that Tibet has historically been part of it, that it is drastically modernizing it and providing double-digit economic growth to an impoverished region. It’s more of a complicated situation then I’ll go into here, but reading about the facts and history with an open mind its hard not to feel that in X amount of years Tibet will be a distant memory. No matter how many “Free Tibet” bumper stickers people slap on their cars, it seems like an inevitable fate.

The Dalai Lama, to paraphrase, writes: “go to Tibet, see as much as you can and tell everyone about it”
I agree, go to Tibet and be fascinated, but don’t expect an untouched Shangri-La.

In Tibet

Greetings from Lhasa, Tibet- got in yesterday after 5 days of overland travel from Kathmandu. We got out of Nepal by the skin of our teeth before everything hit the fan in Kathmandu:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8663390.stm

Will write more and post some picts from Tibet aka The Roof of the World once I learn Chinese or find a computer in English…

Nepal Wrap Up

Extending your visa is usually a good sign that the travels in a country are going well (unless it’s affected by an Icelandic volcano), and I’m back in Kathmandu for a final round after six weeks in Nepal (and one visa extension). Slated to leave for Tibet tomorrow on a week-long overland trip to Lhasa, which is also essentially the home stretch of this trip. For better or for worse I added up the distance from Kathmandu to Beijing (flying home to Seattle from Beijing on May 17th) and there’s over 3,000 miles to cover overland, with a good chunk of it being the Tibetan plateau. My friend Prabhu from Seattle is out here for three weeks and we’ve been touring around the Kathmandu valley while China processes are Tibet entry permit and Chinese visa and a small fortune for the privelage. Unfortunately, independent travel is forbidden in Tibet for foreigners so we’re going as part of a group tour.

Some final pictures from Nepal:

Everest/Khumbu Region Trek

Trekking in the Everest region is a story of yaks and naks and yak-cow hybrids and prayer flags and thin Himalayan mountain air and endless plates of momos and hours of trekking on century old paths and freezing nights and cozying up by the yak dung fire at night and Sherpa culture and fighting off altitude sickness and porters carrying their body weight on their backs and meeting Everest climbers and passing the time with mountaineering books and endless games of chess matches and never ending cups of tea.

For the Everest region is simply one of the best mountain trekking regions in the world. This is them, the highest peaks that exist on our little blue planet, and you’re nestled in between them. They’re so close that you can touch them is hugely inaccurate, because despite sucking in thin mountain air and endless hours of trekking, even after a week of non-stop travel and culminating our journey up on Kalaa Pataar (elevation: 18,200 FT) Mt. Everest is still 11,000 vertical above you and you feel as if no amount of effort could potentially get you to its summit.

I met up with my friend Laurie and her brother Mark in Kathmandu and after several days of dealing with logistics, permits, flight arrangements, porter arrangements we were off. Off to the airport to wait that is, as given the high probability of poor weather we waited for 8 hours for a 35 minute fight to Lukla that never left that day or, for that matter, the previous three days prior. Flying to Lukla would shave off 5 days of trekking from the beginning and get us into the high mountains faster (well, we’d only need two weeks total instead of close to a month if we did the full Everest Base Camp trek) But the next day Sagarmatha (Mt. Everst) smiled upon us and off we went.

We spent two full weeks trekking and got in a great routine of wake up (in tea houses aka trekker huts the whole time, no camping in 0-degree weather needed!), breakfast, trek all day coupled with meal and drink stops and spending the evenings lazing around the trekker huts fighting off blisters and downing endless pots of mint tea. Repeat. The scenery was unbelievable and by the time we made it to the tail end of our trek we were a 10 day walk from the closest road in alpine country that doesn’t seem it could sustain humans but somehow, in a delicate balance, does.

We took enough pictures to fill a Google data bank with, but the colors just aren’t as great on a point and shoot camera, but at least an overview of the region.

Phnom Penh>>Bangkok>>Kathmandu triple header

The way my flights worked out to Nepal followed that above route, so three capitals in three countries in three days. Finished up in Phnom Penh going to see live music with Phavy, a fellow Seattlite who recently relocated to Cambodia (we share mutual friends, one of those people you see twice a year). In Bangkok I landed right smack in the middle of the red shirt protests (see this weeks The Economist cover for details) so the usual 30 minutes into town turned into a 2+ hour ordeal with way too much walking given the heat. Though it was technically a protest with security and all, it felt like a festive parade. My plans to upload a first-hand account video were shot down by the internet speed here in Kathmandu…

Met up with a friend from Belgium, who I traveled with in Laos, and we had a late night out in Bangkok with some of his Thai friends and a Dutch guy I met on the bus into Bangkok. Good times all around, and drinking cocktails at his girlfriends outdoor veranda opposite the Grand Palace was the best way to wrap up 2+ months in SE Asia.

A couple hours later my 6am alarm jolts me awake for my- direct even- flight to Kathmandu, Nepal. On the plane I start chatting with a fellow seatmate, a Nepali of the same age who speaks perfect English, and it turns out a lot of his family living in the U.S. and his parents are actually heading to Seattle this week. A couple hours goes by and next thing I know you can see Mt. Everest out the window from the plane and after some border formalities I’m in his parents car with him to his house for lunch. Over a plate of momos in their Kathmandu home I meet their close family friend, who was the recently elected the Alan Greenspan of Nepal, and coming next print cycle will be signing all of Nepal’s bills. Not exactly the plane ride outcome I was expecting.

So its been a hectic couple days, but I’m in Nepal on what is essentially a totally separate trip in itself, “Phase II” if you will. And coming to the Himalaya has been the focal point of this trip, so I’m pretty excited about making it here after years of thinking about it/planning/dreaming. The plan is to to travel around Nepal, up through Tibet and off to China and catch the flight back to Seattle from Beijing.

Cambodia

Recently I had a ohh-too- realistic dream that I was at a private function in Seattle with a couple friends and they were serving Boundary Bay IPA, chilled smoke salmon and European cheeses, everything was so perfect. I even remember picking up a pint and noticing the condensation that lined the outside of the glass- details in dreams that one necessarily doesn’t pick up on. To say I was disappointed is an understatement when I woke up drenched in sweat in a windowless guesthouse room in Phnom Penh, Cambodia…

But dreams of Western food and air-conditioning aside, two weeks in Cambodia worked out quite well.

A quick super-condensed recap of the past 30-some odd years of  Cambodian history: in 1975 Pol Pot, the diabolical leader of what were the Khmer Rouge takes control, forces people out of the cities and attempts to create an idealistic Maoist agrarian republic. Essentially, anyone that had a college degree, knew another language, wore glasses or had any sort of indication of skills or intellect was executed. By some estimates the Khmer Rouge was responsible for directly or indirectly killing 1/4 of the country. One example of their “logic” was to double rice production from 1974 to 1975, quite an ambitious goal which was not met- though pretended to be- and the actual harvest was sold to China or put in stockpile leaving the non-existent rice that grew on paper to the farmers, leading to widespread starvation.

Overthrown by the Vietnamese in 1979 Cambodia went through several phases of famine, being occupied be a foreign country (Vietnam withdrew in 1989) and general periods of civil unrest, changes in government and overall a devastated population and economy. Finally in the late 1990′s the situation started to turn what is hopefully continued better, but all around you can feel that recent past that carries over into the current state of the country.

Walking around Phnom Penh and the main tourist sites are called “The Killing Fields” or the “S21 Genocide Museum”. Lively cafes have mushroomed around town and NGOs and foreign investment is pouring in resulting in double digit economic growth…but among this Cambodians with missing limbs from landmine explosions sell books and the ever-so-corrupt government converts foreign aid and bribes into Louis Vuitton bags and brand new vehicles.

This wraps up SE Asia for now, and I finish off here with a couple days at the beach in Shinoukville drinking mojitos and lazing around.  And if the 100,000 protesters in Bangkok keep the airport open I will hopefully be in Kathmandu, Nepal this time next week.

Laos PDR

Spent some time in Northern Laos before coming down to Cambodia. “Laid back” doesn’t even begin to describe the place, and it has been debated by travelers if the Laos people actually have a pulse. On my final exit passing through airport “security”, I go to retrieve my bag from the scanner only to see the security guard there asleep…

Vientiane, Laos, the name resonates history of French occupation. Among some of the quirkier items I’ve seen on this trip, a replica of the Arc De Triomphe in downtown Vientiane sticks out. Built in the late 1960′s from cement donated by the U.S. (which was originally intended for airport improvements, hence the nickname “vertical runway”) its what one would expect in the 2nd/3rd world- a poor replica of the real one.

That aside, hoping to get some fine city views and a basis of orientation I went up to the top. There happened to be four Buddhist Monks working on a homework assignment. I have always been a bit hesitant about having any sort of interactions with monks, worrying that some inadvertent hand gesture is going to send me to some sort of Buddhist Hell. But they were keen to talk, spoke great English and I ended up staying an extra hour up top covering a wide range of topics. They were quite eager to learn some American slang, though I kept any explicits out of it (see reference to Buddhist Hell above). Not sure what this group would have come up with, but for “number one” or “best” the best alternative I could think of was “top dog”,which they couldn’t stop laughing over and kept working into the conversation. I’m not just backpacking around here, I’m essentially a Cultural Liaison!

And I found out that Buddhist Monks do use email as well, as “Monk Kanha” is a gmail contact of mine.

But Laos was a good time, Luang Prabang (the former capital and a UNESCO site) and the Plain of Jars (2,000 year old stone jars scattered around the countryside with an unknown purpose) were some top highlights, as was the mountainous countryside.

Northern Thailand

After Indonesia, caught up a flight to Bangkok, Thailand via Singapore and then went straight up to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. Has been interesting being back in Thailand, after a nine year hiatus.

In Chiang Mai spent 3 days going to culinary school. Is a career change in order when I get home? I think not, but I finally know what I’m eating and how to make it in Thai restaurants. Didn’t realize how much sugar their is in everything(!) as basically any Thai dish calls for sugar, palm sugar or coconut milk (or a combination of).

A couple days ago made the trip up to the Burmese (Myanmar) border to a refugee camps of sorts for the long-neck tribe. Frequently associated with Africa (though they’re only here in Burma/Thailand border area) the women of the tribe are known, well, for their long necks that they form by sequentially adding rings around their neck as they grow up, starting at the age of 5. It was quite interesting to see, though somewhat awkward as you pay an entrance fee to the village (which, the guide reassured us, goes to community development or some government officials home improvements, depending on your level of cynicism). As they are technically refugees, the tribe can’t go further into Thailand or back to Burma, so they’re somewhat stuck.

Also in Chiang Mai I met my “neighbors” from Seattle, my upstairs neighbors from Public Storage on Capitol Hill. They’re the high-end tenants there as they have more than double square footage. Hierarchy aside, there is talk of a house warming party upon our return home.

Short-term plan is to head over to Laos soon and then to Cambodia.