Christmas time in Seoul

 12/17

Breakfast buffet at our hotel, then the subway to Kunming airport. Took a flight to Jinan, China on Shandong airlines where we had access to a lounge due to a reward perk from using trip.com so much for booking guest houses and trains. We then had a flight to Incheon, South Korea. From there we took the train into Seoul to our hostel. It was super cold (single digits), and we went out for a late meal of steaming hot noodles.

12/18

We had breakfast at our cozy hostel (complete with Christmas decorations) and then walked to Namsam park where we hiked up Namsam hill to N Seoul Tower, which has great views of the city. It was a very cold and grey day in Seoul. We then took a bus downtown and visited Gyeongbokgung Palace where we explored the grounds before heading to a lunch of some traditional Korean cuisine. As we walked and bussed around Seoul, we couldn't help but notice how decorated for Christmas it was. We then took a bus back to our neighborhood where we explored a bit of the huge and famous Namdaemun market and sampled a couple Korean snacks. 

Then it was back to our hostel to pick up our luggage before catching the train back to Incheon for our flight to Dallas. Korea was nice because, they, unlike China, were in the Christmas spirit. On the flight to Dallas we talked to some flight attendants at the back of the plane during our flight, and they had caught a Chinese man smoking in the bathroom. Classic...! haha

12/19

Arrived to Dallas and then the flight to Denver.

Yuanyang Honghe Hani Rice Terraces

 12/13

We arrived early morning to Kunming in the rain (first rain we'd experienced on our entire trip). We went to the hotel we'd be staying at before flying out and dropped off our big luggage and partook in the yummy breakfast buffet. We then walked to the train station to take the high-speed train to Jianshui. On the train, the old man sitting next to us gave us some oranges. At Jianshue, we took a bus to Nansha where we caught a minivan to Xinjie, where we switched to another minivan taking us to Duoyishu. From there we walked about 10 minutes to the village of Pugalao, which has no roads: only stone paths and steps along rushing water. We checked into our guesthouse where we had splurged on a terrace view room as we were here to see the famous Yuanyang Honghe Hani Rice Terraces. The owner Lucian was nice and spoke good English as he had lived in Nepal before. He had a sweet old dog and a young cat who liked to cuddle together. So cute!

Our room had a great view of the terraces out a huge window as well as a nice electric blanket for the chilly nights. It was a bit cloudy and misty, but it was still a really nice view of the terraces at sunset. We hiked back up to Duoyishu for dinner where we met a nice Chinese lady who spoke English and helped us order. We walked back in the rain.

12/14

We woke up and watched the sunrise over the terraces from our BED with tea and had a generally slow morning. We had flower cakes from Lijiang for breakfast. 

We then spent the day walking from village to village and viewpoint to viewpoint. This time of year the terraces are flooded, so they are really beautiful as they reflect the sky or shimmer if the sun is low. The terraces were constructed by the Hani minority group who have distinctive clothing and headwear and live a very traditional life. Most of the villages can only be accessed by foot and are full of chickens and ducks and geese running around the narrow, twisting streets. The Hani also have gentle water buffalo that will be led through the paths out to the terraces. Water runs all around through little aqueducts and channels the Hani have built. Their homes are called mushroom houses because they are a bit in the shape of a mushroom and have thatched roofs. The rice here is pink rice. It was cool both to tour around the villages and to walk amongst the rice terraces and check out the viewpoints.

A very friendly and playful dog (though it didn't know how to be pet) followed us for about 9 miles of our journey and waited for us even when we stopped at a restaurant for lunch and visited villages. It seems like on all of my trips I always have a dog follow me for a long hike at some point. I always name the dog after a local food, so we called this one Bao (after the steamed bao buns), but also Bao ze Dog as a play on Mao Zedong. As we were hiking through one village, a crazy old lady, who was doing something with manure, came after us a bit with manure in her hand like she might throw it, so we had to deploy our umbrellas as protection. We wondered if in her mental state and with her age if she thought we were crazy white spirits.

Before sunset, we caught a minivan to the Bada area where we did some more hiking and then watched the sunset, which was cool reflecting on the water. Then we caught a ride back with 2 friendly women in their private car who spoke a little English. An Italian guy is staying at the guesthouse. He had started in Moscow and done the Trans-Siberian Railroad. He was the first westerner that we had conversed with since Kathmandu!

12/15

We woke up early and climbed up to the main road to watch the sunrise from Duoyishu with the hordes of Chinese tourists (and their drones). But it does afford a really spectacular high up vantage point of the terraces. After this, we walked back to our guesthouse. On our way a friendly seeming dog ran up and nipped at my calf causing a small scratch through my pants. This would eventually set off a very annoying and expensive rabies ordeal (you can read about it in a later blog). Back at the guesthouse, Lucian made us egg and noodle soup, and we sat out on the porch with the cat and dog and gazed at the terraces while we ate. 

After breakfast, we set out once again to hike through the village and terraces including Quanfuzhuang, Qingkau, and Bada villages. Again, it was nice views of the terraces, and we also walked along some more natural areas. We watched the sunset at a different spot and got a ride back with a Chinese couple staying at our guesthouse and had rented a car. Lucian had killed a chicken that morning, and he made us a dinner with chicken and other items and served us wine as well.

12/16

Again watched the sunrise from our room and had noodle soup for breakfast. We then took a minivan to Xinjie where we transferred to another minivan to Jianshui where we toured the twin dragon bridge with its 17 arches. Then hopped on a high-speed train to Kunming and walked to our hotel: Ibis. Very nice and on the 10th floor with nice views of the city. We went out to eat dinner in Kunming. Had some yummy noodles. THen we watched ping pong and short track speed skating on the TV.Yuan

Shangri-la

 12/12

We got up early and caught the early high speed train to Shangri-la. Shangri-la is famous because it might actually be the location of James Hilton's Shangri-la in his utopian novel "Lost Horizons". Shangri-la is also in a Tibetan part of China, though not in the province of Tibet. It's at a high altitude (3160m/10,370ft) and surrounded by snowy mountains. In 2014 a devastating fire destroyed half of the old town, but it did not damage the main Tibetan Buddhist temple on the hill in town.

When we arrived on the very cold morning, we took the bus to the ancient town and walked a bit along the cobbled, carless streets. We then hiked up a steep hill to a Tibetan temple that has the world's largest prayer wheel. And indeed it is huge! It takes about 15-20 people pulling on it to make it turn! Next we caught a bus to take us to Ganden Sumtsenling monastery that very much resembles the Potala Palace in Lhasa. There is a lake in front, from which there were good reflecting views of the monastery complex. We then climbed up the stairs to the monastery, which was beautiful with its shimmering gold roofs. Of course there were lots of Han Chinese dressed up in old Tibetan outfits holding prayer wheels. It's rather annoying to me because the Han Chinese have not been kind to the Tibetans. It would be like me dressing up in Native American regalia and going for a photo shoot to Mesa Verde or some other pace of spiritual importance to Native Americans. We climbed to the top of one of the buildings which afforded us good views of Shangri-la town and the surrounding mountains. 

After this visit, we went to lunch and walked a bit more around town while Elisha shopped. Back at the huge and brand new train station, we had fun trying to get all of the prayer wheels in the giant square to spin at the same time. We were able to because they were well oiled. We then took the high-speed train back to Lijiang. The train route to and from Lijiang and Shangri-la was probably 80-90% long tunnels; however it crosses a bridge over Tiger-Leaping Gorge, so we got a good glimpse of the gorge with its steep wall, rocky mountains, and blue-ish river below. The river had been a raging brown when I was there before because I had visited during the rainy season. I had really wanted to take Elisha on this awesome trek, but we just ran out of time. 

After arriving to Lijiang, we took the bus to the old city. I hug out with Dragon for a bit while Elisha shopped. Dragon gave us a parting gift of a box of flower cakes, then we went out for dinner before heading to the train station. We boarded a double-decker overnight train to Kunming (soft sleeper). This train was cool because not only did it have a dining car, but it had a disco car with a piano and disco lights

Ancient city of Lijiang and Yulong Jade Dragon Snow Peak

 12/9

We got up early and flew from Xi'an to Kunming (the "spring city"). We noted how clear and fresh the air was in the city of eternal spring. Because the the transfer to the train station went smoothly, we changed our train ticket to an earlier train and then had a yummy lunch in Kunming. We boarded our high-speed train for the journey to Lijiang. En route we passed by Dali and it's large lake

We saw no foreigners (white people) during our entire time in Gansu and Xinjiang provinces. But even on our whole journey thus far we've only see 4 or 5 westerners total. We figured that because Lijiang is more touristy we'd see some more westerners, but we didn't see any there either.

We arrived to Lijiang and took a bus to the outskirts of the ancient city. No vehicles are allowed in the ancient city with its maze of narrow, cobbled streets, so we had to find our way somehow to our guesthouse. We walked a bit over a kilometer and up a hill on steep stone steps to find our guesthouse. We checked in and then went out to explore the town. 

I visited Lijiang back in 2010, and it has changed a lot. Now it's a lot more of a chic place for young people who are all out taking glamour photos with fancy, traditional costumes and often personal photographers. There is a bar street where every building has a live band, and you can hear multiple bands at once. But there are also things I still remember, like the free samples of yak jerky and lanterns hangings along the narrow streets that often have little waterways. In the old time, they created canals and waterways to that each and every house received water from the glacial river. 

We went out for some noodles and local Naxi (the minority group here) bread with fillings.. When we made it back to our room and took a shower, the toilet was clogged as was the shower. It turns out the shower drain was connected to the toilet pipes, so when the toilet flushed sewage came up out of the shower, so you took a shower with poop in the basin! The room we were in had been fancy, but we had to change to a different, less nice room that had a mattress that Elisha really didn't like. The owner/manager is named Long (dragon) and is really nice. He showed us how to make tea in the special way here, made tea for us, and then gave us a free brick of tea.

12/10

Because Elisha really didn't like the room, we transferred to another one. This was back to the fancy side of the hotel. It's a fancy room with smart lights, curtains that close mechanically with the switch of a button, heated toilet seat, and all these other smart features that we didn't know how to use because the buttons are in Chinese. After switching rooms, we walked to the black dragon pools where there were great views of the Yulong Jade Dragon Snow mountain, including a reflection in the pools. In China, if they call a mountain a "snow mountain" it means that it's heavily glaciated. The black dragon pool area not only had great views of the giant mountain, but cool Chinese buildings and coy fish in the ponds.

After exploring here it was time for a delicious lunch and then it was off to explore the twisting, cobble streets of ancient Lijiang. The city is cool with its narrow lanes, often with little creeks running through. All of the houses (now many turned into guesthouses) open up into beautiful courtyards, all decorated and designed a bit differently. Along our journey, we visited the Mu mansion and a Buddhist monastery. And then just lots of interesting streets and alleyways. Along the way we sampled lots of free dried fruits, sweets, snacks, and jerky along the way. And also had some of the famous flower cakes.

The public restrooms in Lijiang are so crazy and fancy. They have a digital board letting you know what is occupied. It's all touchless, with a wave of the hand to open and close the door. And a plastic wrap is automatically deployed to cover the seat. At the end of the day, we climbed the hill near our hostel to a large pagoda for 360 degree views and to watch the sunset over town and on the snow mountain. At night the pagoda was lit up really cool, and the walk through the forest was also really cool as it went through a (plastic) mushroom forest that was lit up, including with moving/dancing mushrooms. We had dinner at a fancy place in Old Lijiang town amongst all the picture takers.

12/11

We had arranged a classic Chinese day: A group tour to the Yulong Jade Dragon snow peak, to be scaled, not by hiking, but via a cable car. The hostel employee who was supposed to take us to meet the tour slept in, We contacted the hotel owner (Dragon), and he was very apologetic and made the employee buy us breakfast (hot soy milk) and take us in a cab ride (surely expensive for him) to meet back up with the tour. The tour had 4 other people (Chinese of course) and the guide. The guide couldn't speak English, so in some ways, it was a guess as to what the program was. But Dragon had give us one of his spare phones that had WeChat (Chinese social media app used for nearly everything: paying, social media, messaging, etc) so that we could text with the guide because that way you can easily translate, especially such things as when to come back or when/where to meet. 

Our first stop with the group was moon valley which was an area with several of these amazingly clear and turquoise/emerald lakes. Incredibly beautiful color! As a backdrop was the snow mountain as well as waterfalls between the lakes. It was just a truly stunning area, and we spent several hours there. Then it was back on a bus to a lunch spot where our group shared a big hot pot bowl. Then it was a bus to the gondola where we waited in line to board the gondola.

The gondola took us from 11,000 feet above sea level up to 14,783 feet. There was a boardwalk/stairway that continued up to about 15,350 feet through the snowy landscape. There were a ton of Chinese struggling to walk up the stairs, all sucking down on oxygen bottles. The tour provided each person with 1 bottle, but most people bought extras and took multiple bottles. It was a funny sight! And quite comical to me as, of course, the oxygen cans are just gimmicks and won't really help with the altitude. Same as the ones they sell here in Colorado for tourists. There were really nice views from the top, including of a glacier we could look down on. Besides oxygen bottles, the tour companies also supplied everyone with parkas, so everyone had matching blue, green, or red parkas. It was all just a funny sight. 

Because you go up so high, so fast (especially if you flew in from Beijing, Hong Kong, or Shanghai), it's easy to get altitude sickness, and we saw a few people vomiting. After hiking up to the end viewpoint and hanging out in the snow for a bit, we headed back down the gondola. 

We ate a delicious meal for dinner (eggplant, lotus, and pork dishes), then had a tea ceremony at our guesthouse. We tried to book a tour to both Shangri-la and Tiger Leaping Gorge since we had only 1 day left, but that tour unfortunately wasn't running.

Traveling the Great Karakoram Highway (Chinese side)

12/5

Today we started our journey up the Karakoram Highway, the famous highway connecting China to Pakistan via the highest paved road in the world (a towering 3500 feet higher than Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road in the US and 1500 feet higher than Pikes Peak Road, the highest paved road in the US). It traverses through stunning scenery in the Pamir and Karakoram ranges and reaches a height of nearly 15,500 feet). It has always been my dream to travel the Karakoram highway, so this was a chance to do half of it. The most spectacular side is the Pakistani side, but the Chinese side is also gorgeous. 

We hired a driver (Fu) and a car (Toyota Rav-4). Our first stop was a police station to get the permit to dive the road. This road is highly controlled and foreigners must have the permit as well as a driver and car permitted to take foreigners. After obtaining the permit, it was on to the highway. The road is magnificent (at least on the Chinese side)--wide, smooth, and as good as the best American highway and probably with more safety features. Of course it stood out as a crazily stark contrast to the Nepali "roads". 

The first stop on the trip was the Oytagh Canyon which as very red mountains. Continuing past a couple passport checkpoints, we were climbing up in a deep canyon with a glacial blue river below very steep, dry mountains. The mountains made me think how I imagined the rugged mountains of Afghanistan (which makes some sense since Afghanistan is nearby). As we continued up, we began catching glimpses of white and glaciated mountains. And as we continued higher up, more and more mountains and glaciers came into view. We then popped out of the canyon at the large White Sand Lake (Bulung Kol Lake). 

We first took a road that eventually goes over a pass into Kyrgyzstan to get some views of the lakes and surrounding mountains.  Then we went back to the Karakoram Highway to a spot where we could go to the lakeshore. The lake was frozen, so we walked out on it a bit. Additionally we rode a yak for some classic Chinese photos. Surrounding the lake are many glaciated peaks. We continued driving along the shore of the lake to reach another viewpoint which had views of large, smooth sand dunes on the opposite side of the lake. They were simply beautiful. 

Back in the car, the beautiful scenery continued, going past snowy peaks and meadow areas with the occasional yurt and flock of sheep with a lone (and presumably cold) shepherd. The next stop was stunning Karakul Lake (also frozen), which is surrounded by tall, glaciated mountains, including Muztagh Mountain (7548m/24,757ft), which means "Father of Ice" Mountain in the local language. Then it was up Subash Pass (13,400 ft), which of course had great views. The next viewpoint stop was the Taheman Grasslands, where a river winds its way through a grassland in front of white peaks. Here we saw the sunset glow on the glaciers.

Just as it was about to get dark, we arrived to Tashkurgan (aka Tashi). Being low season, the first couple of place we stopped to get a room were closed, but we eventually found an open hotel. Their list prices for a room was 500 yuan, but they asked for 300. However, we bargained them down to 150 yuan! It was a huge double room complete with an oxygen machine for the altitude and view of the police station. We went out for dinner (had a delicious eggplant dish) then back to the hotel where we watched some TV (in Chinese of course): ping pong and short track speed skating.

12/6

Slept in because sunrise is after 10am here! We went to a steamed bao buns place for breakfast and also had a bowl of hot soy milk. Then it was in the car to continue up to Khunjerab Pass (15,397 feet). First we took a little side road that goes over a pass into Afghanistan and stopped at a viewpoint to peer into Afghanistan. We saw some camels walking along the dry and frozen terrain. As we continued to ascend, the ground became mostly snow-covered. At one break in the mountains, up a valley, I think we saw the tip of the pyramid of K2 (the 2nd highest mountain in the world). We eventually reached a spot 3km (~1.8 miles) from the border and that was as far as China would let us go at this time. We were at an altitude of almost exactly 15,000 feet. We took a few photos of the border signs and then the police ushered us back down the hill.

The next thing we were going to do was to take the "dragon road" (Panlong ancient road) up some mountains on the opposite side. It's a crazy road with something like 604 switchbacks (google image it), but unfortunately it was closed due to being the winter season. Fu said we could see it from the top, however, by going a different route up from the backside, so we headed for this route. It followed a glacial blue river and then along a beautiful turquoise lake (Lake Xiabandi) that perfectly reflected the dry mountains. We continued along to a village famous in area lore where a Chinese soldier met a local woman, and they fell in love. My understanding is they made a movie about it that became famous--something called something like "Why are flowers red". Here at a police checkpoint, they didn't like something about Fu's registration. Fu said that it was because the car was a personal car and not a registered tour car, but I think there was some translation issue (or he wasn't being honest) because the car would have had to be a registered tour car. I think what happened, after talking to someone at the tourist center, was he hadn't gotten the permit needed to go on that specific road at the police station in Tashi. So sadly we had to turn around.

Back in Tashi, I walked around town, and then we went out for dinner. It was a bit of a bummer that we couldn't go up the dragon road, but it was great how far up the Khunjerab pass we got because I was prepared that we might have to turn around right after Tashi. 

Something really cool about this area is how it's such a crossroads of so many cultures and countries. Within a small radius of the area you can cross into Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Tibet, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan with Kazakhstan and Mongolia not too far away either. There are still yurts in the area and shepherds with their flocs, but China has also built more permanent housing structures as well.

12/7

We went back to the steamed buns place for breakfast. We then visited the old Tashkurgan stone city (mostly ruins) and the fort , which helped to protect the silk road traders back in the day. It was pretty cool with a nice mountain backdrop behind it. We then walked down on the boardwalk of the golden grassland, which is a summer march pasture, but during our visit was frozen. After touring around these areas we hopped back in the car for the gorgeous journey back to Kashgar.

Our driver, Fu (34 years old), was an interesting guy. He spoke decent English, but he still couldn't always relay deeper, more complex thoughts, or would have to use the translator app. He really likes basketball (Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson are his favorites) and has lots of criticism for Chinese basketball players. He knows his Chinese history. When talking about China or politics, he definitely recited the party line and talking points. For example, he said that America is a the better trade partner with China compared to Europe because of America's lack of industry regulations compared to Europe. He (and most Chinese) are big supporters of Trump because they really value a strong and authoritative leader. He told us he was a big supporter of Trump, even though Trump cost him his good job: He was supposed to manage some American factory in the area before a Trump policy shut down such American factories in China).  He is of course a big supporter of Xi Jinping because he is a "great and strong leader". 

Regarding the Uyghur people, he believes China is helping them by bringing them out of poverty and bringing infrastructure and modernity to them. He says the best China is a China of one, for the people, and a strong China. He says China doesn't see race like other countries do (and like America does he says). He said that in China, all people are just people. He also thinks that it's better for the people, the more land that China controls and that they should control everything that was once controlled by China at the very height of their empire. In Kashgar, the Chinese government is tearing down a lot of the old city and building a more modernized city. It's definitely true that the area is prone to earthquakes and that the old city buildings were rather dangerous--an EU report found that they were severely under code and that the next earthquake or fire could kills tens of thousands. They are now putting the people in modern buildings and have given them other infrastructure such as high speed internet and cell service. The Chinese have definitely brought money to the province and the people so that they are now richer in the things that we as westerners tend to think are important: hot showers, heated homes, indoor plumbing and sewage, clean water, communication (internet and cellular), etc. However, there is also a lot of thought that the Chinese had an ulterior motive in all of this modernization. It has been said that they also want to tamper down the culture or the Uyghur people and that by destroying their old buildings in the name of progress/safety, that they are achieving that goal since a place has so much meaning.

There's a long history of Chinese conquest and defeat. I remember learning some of it back in Mr. Vik's world history class in 7th grade and then again in Mr. Wells world history class in 9th and 10th grades, but over the centuries, the Chinese empire has expanded and collapsed as they have conquered neighboring areas and then been defeated by others. For example, back when Kublai and Ghengis Khan were running the Mongolian empire, the Mongols conquered and ruled a huge swatch of China and the Chinese empire was small. At some point, and I 'd have to read about it again, the Chinese controlled Xinjiang province and then lost it, and then recaptured it again. The people living there (mostly the Uyghur Muslims) haven't loved the Chinese rule, so in the late 1990's and early 2000's they did quite a lot of bombings and uprisings, which caused the Chinese to answer with their police state and "cultural genocide" as many have called it as China attempts to make the Xinjiang province something they don't have to worry about by basically getting rid of the strong Uyghur identity and making them all "one China". The Chinese, however, for tourism, still try to highlight the Uyghur culture and they emphasize visiting their handicraft shops and music and dancing and such, making their culture something more like a show than an actual part of them. While it might be a greatly impoverished country, it does seem like that Xinjiang should be an independent country.

I guess something sort of of similar could be the US and the territory/state of Hawaii. Hawaii was a militarily strategic place for the US and we brought "modernity" and American culture to the people, removing a lot of the traditional values and practices such as how they governed with chiefs and chiefdoms and their traditional ways of marriage, land ownership, religion, sacred sites, and such. Now, we like to highlight certain parts of their traditions and customs by having Hawaiians dress in traditional costumes and dance and eat fire and such at luaus for mainland American tourists. And I didn't necessarily realize the angst and anger that many Hawaiians have towards Haoles (Americans) until my Hawaiian friend (close friend in college and roommate in Boise), Yosh, told me all about it. In fact, he told me that in many places outside of the touristy areas of Hawaii, he would fear for my safety if I visited. When Elisha and I visited the Big Island a few years ago, and I had more knowledge about all of this, we certainly noticed this feeling towards Haoles when we were in some of the more remote and rural areas. Not exactly the same situation, of course, but just something that we thought related in our own country's history.

He also has a major aversion to risk and danger (much like most Chinese)--for example, skateboarding is too dangerous as is swimming in a big lake. He says people in China don't play baseball because of how dangerous it is with the fast pitching. I have to admit that China is probably one of the safest countries I have ever visited. Not only is crime basically non existent due to all the police and video surveillance (and b/c the Chinese people are just really good rule followers), but they really don't allow you to do risky behaviors. For example, you can't just hike wherever you want, you have to be on these perfect paths, with all the warnings and handrails and such. They have warning signs for everything everywhere; they have beautifully constructed roads with all sorts of safety features and slow speed limits (which are followed). They have modern vehicles, etc. And they have safety features like fire masks and such in every room. 

As we drove along the road, it was fun to have google translate the communist party propaganda on giant billboards along the highway. I noticed them more in Xinjiang than elsewhere, though we were on the roads there a lot more since we mostly traveled by train in China.

We didn't really talk to many people about politics in China, mostly because we came across so few people that knew enough English where this would be possible, but also because it's just better not to. I would have loved to ask Stella what she thought about the Uyghur situation since she spoke good English, was highly educated, had Chinese friends living in NYC, and was a Han Chinese visiting Xinjiang. But, you just don't really want to cause a problem with a new friend. She did acknowledge how China blocks google, but didn't say much about it. And she also said she was excited to see the new Barbie movie since it has a feminist theme to it. So she clearly wasn't entirely on board with the communist machismo. 

Back in Kashgar, we said hello to the family and little tiger before going out to get some dinner, including some Shawarma style burritos. That evening while Elisha rested up in our room, I hung out with the family in the family room (Mrs. Li, her son and daughter, and of course little tiger). The kids talked to me in English and mom was practicing too. We snacked on dried fruits, oranges, and pomegranates. The daughter was face-timing with a friend who also wanted to practice her English with me. They told me they thought I was 30! And that I was kind and sweet. Then the daughter sang a Taylor Swift song (Love Story) and a Chinese pop song for me. Definitely a fun night with the family.

12/8

Mrs. Li made us noodle soup and HUGE steamed buns for breakfast. Then we headed out on the town for more exploring of both the ancient city and old city and a visit to the pagoda. We had a meal at our favorite restaurant, getting steamed buns, meat on a stick, and eggplant laghmon. We then visited a famous "ancient" teahouse where you sit on the floor in the traditional way. Some Uyghur men were playing music with their traditional instruments. Next we watched a camel show right outside our guesthouse that was highlighting Uyghur culture and marriage practice. We then had to say a sad goodbye to Mr. Li and her family before catching a taxi to the airport.

We flew from Kashgar to Xi'an, and they served Laghmon and plov (rice dish) on the plane, which Elisha got a huge kick out of. We arrived very late (after midnight) to Xi'an and stayed at a hotel near the airport. The hotels are just so chea. This was a nice hotel with free airport pick up and drop off for 11 USD.

Traveling along the Silk Road to Kashgar (Kashi), Xinjiang

 11/30

Xi'an in generally considered the start/terminus of the famous silk road. We got up early and took the subway to the train station and then a high speed train to Jiayuguan in Gansu province. The train ride was interesting, passing some mountains and agricultural areas, some sand dunes, and some big cities. Upon arrival to Jiayuguan, we took a taxi into town. Unfortunately, we had a problem checking in. I had booked a private room at a hostel via a hostel booking website, but when we arrived, they didn't have any record of it. The girl wasn't good with the translator app, so it took forever to arrange to get something else. Dorms in China always seem to be male and female segregated, which we don't prefer, but we were willing to do this. However, they had these cool space pod things. They are actually pretty sweet and do look a bit like a space capsule. The door opens like and capsule and then inside the rectangular pod is a mattress and mirror as well as a charging station and way way to control the lights for different moods/reading. One of the light settings is a cool space-age blue. 

We went out into the cold night for dinner at a clay pot place. We then tried to find something resembling a supermarket to get some tea bags and maybe good snacks, but there was nothing resembling a market save for tiny convenience stores. We had kind of a rough night because there was so much smoking in the hostel. In China, people just smoke like crazy and don't seem to follow no smoking rules at all.

12/1

We arranged for a private car to take us to the 3 famous Great Wall of China sites here, though the lady who was our driver didn't listen to my instructions of where to go first (I wanted to go to the fort first b/c the light would be best on the snowy peaks in the background). First we visited the "first beacon tower", which is the farthest west extent of the Great Wall of China. This farthest west tower sits on top of a  high and sheer cliff overlooking a frozen river. This last tower is now pretty rundown as it has not been preserved and the desert is starting engulf it. From this tower, the great wall (adobe here because of the building materials available) runs east. The wall here has also been eroded and is now just over 9 feet tall as sand dunes are encroaching on it.. They have dug out part of the ditch in front of the wall to show what the ditch looked liked, but the rest of it is now filled in by sand. In the same area, we also crossed to the other side of the gorge by walking across a suspension bridge. On this other side there were some buildings and other things they have set-up that are traditional dwelling places from the great wall time period.

Next we visited Jiayuguan Fort (Jiayu Pass). It's a really cool walled fortress with several towers and views of high snow capped peaks with glaciers. Jiayuguan is the western gateway to China proper, and for the imperial Chinese, the beginning of the back of the beyond. It was of course important for safety on the silk road.

Lastly we visited the "overhanging" Great Wall, which snakes up a desert mountain ridge. There were views across the valley to the big mountains as well as to the factory filled city. There was also a little (little!) ski field where they made snow, since of course it's in a desert. For dinner we went to a delicious hot pot restaurant where you cook all sorts of items in either a spicy broth or a a tomato broth. We felt a small earthquake when we went to bed.

12/2

Got up very early to catch a train to Kashgar in Xinjiang Province. We were in a "hard sleeper" car, which actually has a soft mattresses with a pillow and blanket, In our berth we have 2 bunks stacked 3 high. Elisha was in the bottom bunk, and I was in the very top. Lots of desert scenery and windmills as we traversed across the desert landscape. We passed some snowy mountains as well. We continued along very flat desert in the Turpan Depression that is below sea level (2nd lowest place on the earth at 505 feet below sea level). At the city of Turpan (near Urumqi), we switched trains. Now we were in a "soft sleeper", which has just 2 bunks stacked 2 high in a berth with a door that can be closed. And, as on all trains, there is an endless supply of hot water for tea or noodles. After boarding we went to the dining car to enjoy a yummy meal and watch the scenery go by. After the sunset set, we retired to our bunks to read.

12/3

We arrived to Kashgar early in the morning (7:30am) and in the pitch black dark. Because the country runs on Beijing time and Kashgar is very, very far west of Beijing, the sun doesn't rise until 10am, but sets at 7pm (this time of year). It was very cold when we arrived. Because our guesthouse would be in a narrow and and carless street, we had the taxi drop us off a the mosque, a main landmark. It was dark and completely empty everywhere: not a person in site. We walked in the direction of our guesthouse, but were having trouble locating it because of course everything was listed in Chinese characters. Then we saw one Chinese lady all by herself and we walked up with our translator app, but turns out, she spoke English. She was a Chinese tourist our looking for breakfast. Her English name was Stella. She helped us find our guesthouse (Qingfeng Geya Guesthouse) and called the number at the door since the door was locked and the guesthouse owner (Mr. Li)  was asleep. She came to the door and let us into the warm interior. The guesthouse was a traditional style with an inner courtyard, but covered). Inside there were 3 cats, including the extremely friendly xiao laohu (little tiger). He loved to hang out with us in our room and sit on our laps. After settling into our room, which was built in the traditional style (Central Asian looking), we made plans to heat out with Stella to the Sunday livestock market.

Kashgar (aka Kashi) is located in Xinjiang Province which is the place where the Uyghur muslim ethnic minority live. What China is doing to the Uyghurs--attempting to wipe out their culture by tearing down mosques, old city sections, and importing Han Chinese is a whole can of worms. Due to violence from the Uyghurs (bombs and such around 2013/2014), the province is more or less a police state with so many police and the most police stations I have ever seen. And of course, like elsewhere in China, they require to see/copy your passport at hotels, train stations, and subways. China definitely has lots of cameras monitoring everything at all times, but there there seemed to be SO MANY. Also, they have x-ray scanners for bags for entering the old town, shopping centers, some tourist sites, and other places. However, these seemed to be fairly lax now (except at the airport and train station) since the violence has been very quiet lately. 

The livestock market only occurs on Sundays and it's where the local Uyghur and Taji people bring in their sheep, cows, horses, and camels to trade. The Uyghur people definitely don't look Chinese and look very Central Asian . They wear dark colors and fur hats. The bartering for animals is done in small groups using fingers and knuckles and ending with a handshake. The sheep here have major bubble butts of fat! It's pretty hilarious. Aside from livestock, other wares are sold and, of course, food as well. Most of the food is mutton or mutton based: mutton on a stick, mutton soup, mutton with noodles (laghman = the Uyghur noodles), and mutton steamed buns. But also lots of middle east style nuts and dried fruits (ex. raisins, goji bears, dates, apricots, and other fruits we don't know). And we also had some fresh-squeezed pomegranate. They also bake wood oven bread (naan) and have weak tea provided with every meal. After the lively livestock market, we rode the bus back to town to seek out the daily bazaar that we read was even more lively on Sundays. They have the saying "You can find everything at the bazaar except for milk from the chicken". We found some areas selling carpets and food (nuts/fruits), and other things, but nothing like we'd heard/read about. Then we learned that the large bazaar area had been torn down. I would guess the Chinese are going to build a new and modern one without the Uyghur history and character; however, that has not happened yet. We did find the huge area of rubble of the old bazaar on a different walk. 

We next headed to the Kashi ancient city which has mostly been rebuilt/modernized (but in the old style). However, you can view some of the original ancient city from a platform where the buildings do look dilapidated and unstable. The building style is adobe. This viewing area might serve a purpose to the Chinese to prove that their tearing down of parts of the city was necessary for safety reasons. There are many places in the ancient city that we couldn't walk down (alleyways blocked by barriers) due to the demolition/construction. The remodeled areas, however, still looked really cool as they were built to replicate the old style. And in many of the buildings there were local craftsmen (ex pottery, musical instrument making, knife making, blacksmith, tea shops, etc). 

Next we moved over the to walled old city. There are no vehicles here either. There are several main streets selling food, wares, and crafts and then more narrow alleyways leading from the main streets to residences. Many of these buildings--but not all--have also been remodeled, but again in the old style. We split with Stella in the afternoon and we walked around some more to get some views of the walled old city from afar and across a little lake. We also found the biggest (and legit!) supermarket that we would see in China (and our whole trip for that matter). We spent the evening hanging out with the guesthouse family (Mrs. Li) and her son and daughter and of course Little Tiger. We talked to Mrs. Li mainly via google translate, but her son knows decent English and her daughter is learning. She shared tea, dried fruits, nuts, and fresh fruits.

12/4

We had a breakfast of cornflakes and milk (first western style breakfast in a long-time, bought from the supermarket). Then we met with Stella and took the bus to the train station where we took a train to Shache (Yarkant) south of Kashgar on the southern route of the silk road. From the train, we could see some big snowy mountains in the distance. When we got to Shache we went straight to a restaurant to have pidgeon . It was surprisingly delicious, being a dark meat like turkey. We then proceeded to walk through the old town and explore the street bazaars. At one point we found a table tennis table and played a bit of ping pong with some locals. We also watched some Uyghur folks dancing. We visited a tea shop that was very dark and smokey and filled with only Uyghur men. They were playing Kung Fu moves on an old TV with a DVD player. In the teahouse we had tea and bread, which the local men broke into pieces and put into their tea bowls (tea is drank out of bowls). 

We took the train back to Kashgar. Stella talked quite a bit to the conductor. He said foreigners rarely rode this train. In the past year he had only seen a group of Japanese (he didn't like them) and a group of Pakistanis. 

When we got back to the train station, we took a cab. When we got to the city, due to me sitting on the side where the traffic was, I scooted across the backseat. In the process my phone fell out of my pocket. I noticed pretty much right away when I got out that my phone wasn't in my pocket, but the taxi had already sped away. I immediately began panicking. It's a big city (nearly a million people) with hundreds of taxis, and we had no idea who the driver was, let alone what taxi company it was. Keep in mind that my phone had all my photos from Nepal and the beginning of our China trip and also all the apps we used for email, texting, booking trains, hotels, translating app, etc, etc.

Stella remained pretty calm and called the police, and then we went over to some nearby police to talk to them while Elisha waited by the curb in case the taxi came back. The police we talked to summoned an English speaking captain from somewhere and he came to talk to me. But I figured all of this would do little good unless whomever got in the taxi next (or the driver) was a kind hearted soul and turned the phone into the police. On my phone I have a message that says "if found please call my wife Elisha at 208-xxx-xxxx" but of course it was in English and doesn't have the +1 country code. When I calmed down a bit, I had the idea of Elisha calling it with her phone, but not only was service a bit spotty for us, but I unfortunately had the phone on silent. I also searched, using Elisha's phone, how to track my phone. To do so I would need to log in to my google account. However, with 2-factor authentication, in order to log into my account, I would need to get a code sent to my (lost) phone. I tried to contact google-fi support, but, as I said, service was spotty and I couldn't connect. I had the thought of mom accessing my account from my computer at home, but she and dad were in Arizona with Grandma.

Having exhausted options for the time being, and it being cold and dark, we headed back to the guest house. I had the son of the Mrs. Li text a message to my phone in Chinese with his phone number in case the driver or passenger saw that notification. But then suddenly Stella came rushing into the guesthouse breathlessly saying the police had found it!!! I could hardly believe it, and in fact, wouldn't believe it until I saw it. But sure enough, a few minutes later, the English speaking captain and about 4 other officers stopped by with the phone!!! I hugged the captain and Stella! The police squad wanted to take a photo with me and the phone and them, all beaming proudly. Of course, we couldn't take a photo with our phones of the celebration because you can't take photos of the police in China. Wow! So unbelievable and such a relief. The phone is just so valuable to me. 

You know how I said that the area has just so many cameras...well, based on when we said we got into the taxi and when we arrived to our guest house, the police were able to use the cameras to determine what cab we were in and then use the license plate (or maybe facial recognition) to determine who the driver was and then call him. Pretty incredible! It was now after midnight, but we all went out for laghman. 

Ancient Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors and climbing the crazy mountain Hua Shan

 11/26

Took an early morning flight from Kunming to Xi'an. Kunming is another super fancy Chinese airport. Once in Xi'n, we took a bus downtown to where our hostel is. After checking in (they give you free hot milk, haha!), we went out for a noodle lunch. We then walked around the city.

It's famous as an ancient city, the first capital of China and the start of the silk road. We visited the bell and drum towers, which are beautiful large buildings within the walled city. We had some tea and snacks and then visited the south gate of the wall and the little goose pagoda. We then caught the subway and went to the big goose pagoda area. It was a beautiful area wit a tall, skinny pagoda and a reflecting pool with lots of lanterns. All throughout the city were girls dressed up in traditional Chinese garb, make-up, and hairstyles (similar look to Japanese Geisha) taking beauty photos, but there were especially a lot of them at this location. People were selling props for them and had special lighting for the photos...a big production. The ares was very beautiful with all its lanterns and lights and the classic Chinese style buildings all lit up. 

The reason we were there was to watch the music fountain show. It did not disappoint! It was a cool display of water fountains with lights and music in front of the pagoda. We then went to a big diverse night food market in the area. Because the area was so cool, we walked around for awhile checking out all the cool sights and people and drinking tea. Eventually took the subway back to our hostel

11/27

We slept in a bit, then walked to the South city wall gate where we climbed up onto the wall and rented bicycles. We bicycled on top of the wall for the entire length of the wall (~10 miles). It was neat to look down on the city from above. Outside the wall was a moat with walking paths and creation areas between the wall and moat. The coolest was an area with >20 ping pong tables in a row with people playing. But also another area with people singing and dancing as well. 

After the bike ride, we got some noodles and then took the subway and a then a bus outside the city to visit the famous terracotta warrior army. This "army" of foot soldiers and horses made out of clay was buried in 210 b.c. along with the first unifying emperor of China (Qin Shi Huang). There are 3 main pits to visit where the archaeological excavations are occurring. The first pit has had over 200 soldiers excavated with  an estimated 6000 total (most remain to be excavated). They have excavated soldiers lines up in rows like an army (and how they were buried). The wagons, which were made of wood, have long since disintegrated, but not the bronze weapons that the soldiers carried. Each of the faces of the soldiers is unique! The first pit is the size of an "aircraft carrier" (300m x 60m...length of 3 football fields).

The second pit was also super big, but less excavations have occurred there. We could actually see archaeologists working on excavating as well as running some 3-D imaging sort of equipment. In the 2nd pit viewing area accessible to tourists, they had 5 or so of the various soldiers (ex. archers , generals) that were in glass cases that you could get up real close to in order to see the detail. The 3rd pit was rather small in comparison and was composed of high ranking officers and their horses. 

Definitely a a really cool experience and super impressive, especially considering the age of these...several centuries before Christ! 

We then took the bus and subway back to Xi'an and wen to eat at the famous Muslim night food market in the Muslim quarter. The Muslim quarter has narrow streets and the food street is very busy with all sorts of foods. We had one of the famous ones where they put breadcrumbs in a bowl and then noodles and soup over it. We also had the famous paomo (Chinese hamburger) where they have some sort of pork and beef between buns: a delicious go-to snack. After exploring the night market with our mouths and and eyes, we headed back to the hostel where there was some live music.

11/28

We took the subway and then a high-speed bullet train (that goes 304 kmh/189mph) to Hua Shan City. After some noodles and "Chinese hamburger", we took a bus to the base of Hua Shan Mountain (of the the 5 holy Taoist mountains in China). There is an ancient stone path going up to the mountain and its 5 peaks. The bottom was a steep path along a little creek, but soon it turned to ALL stairs with some sections of stairs that were 70 degrees and incredibly steep with the steps carved out of the rock. Along the way, we passed various temples and geologic features, all of which relate to a Chinese legend. 

Before sunset, we arrived to the top of North Peak. All along the top of the mountain are stunning views of the mountain ranged with its huge granite rock races that rise steeply from the valley floor. Super impressive due to the dramatic cliffs. From the North Peak we could see a bit of the sunset, but it was mostly cloudy in that direction. The moonrise, however, was spectacular as it was full and red from the pollution/haze below. We climbed up a granite spine (known as the dragon's tail) with stairs carved into the rocks. Cliffs fell away below on each side.  We kept going up in the darkness, which was no problem, and not because we had our headlamps (which we did), but because they have lights illuminating the path the whole way up from the bottom so that pilgrims can hike up in the middle of the night in order to reach the summit for sunrise. 

We continued up to East Peak where we stayed in a dorm. We had noodles with a Chinese family and then went to bed in the warm room: it was very cold outside.

11/29

We woke up for the sunrise to watch from the top of East Peak. It wasn't a great sunrise due to clouds, but there was some red glow. We then climbed down the "sparrow hawk flipping over" path to the Chess Pavilion. It's a vertical wall to access the chess pavilion, so there have been steps carved into the rock and iron chains installed; however, you still must wear a via ferrata style harness. The chess pavilion is really cool because it sits on this little granite knob jutting out from the mountain and is only reached by that very exposed sparrow hawk flipping over path. On the chess board is the position of the last game played there by some emperors or sages of Chinese legend. After climbing back up we went to our hostal for a breakfast of noodles and tea, which helped us to warm up.

We then climbed up the "sky ladder", which was a vertical rock face with carved in footholds and iron chains--but no harnesses. It was crazy to see some of the Chinese people who did it who neither seemed to be in shape nor coordinated. From there we climbed Central Peak and then South Peak, which is the true summit at 2,155m (7068ft). 

After the South Peak we did the famous "plank walk to the sky", which includes traversing some steps cut out of the stone on a sheer cliff face with the bottom 5,000 vertical feet below. You then get onto the plankwalk itself, which is a narrow plank that you must walk on, also with the same long, precipitous drop. Of course we had harnesses with fall protection as on would have on a via ferrata. The experience was definitely exhilarating, and I think Elisha was pretty scared (she almost didn't go as we had to wait for a long time to go, which meant she had a lot of time to think about it). 

Many people, especially bloggers call this "the most dangerous hike in the world" (if you want to see for yourself, and see the pictures, then google most dangerous hike in the world and Hua Shan). However, it have to totally disagree. (A) it's not a hike, it's a via ferrata, and it's not more dangerous than any other via ferrata. In fact it was extra safe as they had guides and professionals actually put the harness on you. (B) It's not dangerous as you have fall protection, and they have really fool-proofed the cabling system so that you can't possibly even unhook. There are many by far more dangerous hikes where people die or are injured regularly (ex. Longs Peak trail).

After that amazing experience, we headed to the summit of West Peak, then it was back to North Peak to complete the circuit. Up on the mountain there were many great views, breathtaking overlooks of sheer cliffs, and interesting, challenging--and perhaps scary to some--trails cut into cliffs and ridges. Also, little hotels, eateries, shrines, and temples dotted the mountain peaks. Additionally, there were cool "buildings" carved out of giant boulders or the mountain itself. We also took some photos in traditional Chinese garb at one of the viewpoints. A few of the young Chinese tourists could speak a little English, and it was fun to meet them. For the plank walk I was 001 (#1) and Elisha #2, so we got to go first. 006 knew a bit of English and could translate some of the directions on the plank walk for us. Even though most in our plank walk group did not know English, it was fun with them and almost a bonding experience since everyone had some fear to relate to each other with. 

We headed back down again following the same trail that we ascended the mountain by (some, or more likely most take the cable car up and down), of course including those crazy steep sections with small stairs carved out of the rock. We finished in the dark; the path lit up by the lamps for the sunrise walkers. We took a cab to the train station, then a high speed train to Xi'an, and then the subway to our hostel. We got our free hot milk and then headed out to a night market area for dinner.

Langtang Trek and Tihar Festival and Happy Thanksgiving in Kathmandu

 11/12

A rest and errands day in Kathmandu. We had breakfast at our hotel, then dropped off laundry. I did some research for our next trek and China. Oh, and while we were on our last trek, Arjun, was able to get us our Chinese visas at the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu. 

We walked to the tourist commission to get trekking permits for the next trek, but someone told us not to bother. See, Nepal just passed a new law that you are required to have a guide on EVERY trek, not just the treks that had always required guides. They say that the law is to improve safety on treks, but this quite controversial. If you read the articles on the Kathmandu post about it, it seems more likely that the government officials who have ties to some of the big trekking companies are just trying to figure out how to fill their pockets more. The reason for this thought is that 1. the guides aren't required to take any extra safety training; 2. Nepalis aren't required to have a guide, and statistics show that per capita they actually have more accidents and 3. Accidents are about equal between independent trekkers and those with guides, indicating that guides, at their current level of training,  aren't really effective at preventing accidents. And many people think this will lead those people who want to do independent trekking to travel to other countries where trekking can be done independently, which would hurt the local people economically. But anyways, we had heard that they still aren't enforcing this new rule yet, so we opted to go without a guide since obviously hiring a guide increases the cost, but we also really enjoy the freedom of not having a guide or itinerary and just feeling free to do what we want how we want.

Today as part of Tihar all the shops, houses, restaurants, hotels, etc created artwork in front of their door with flowers and colored sand and candles. From there, they made a path with painted footprints coming inside to an offering area. So we walked around checking out all the cool illuminated art. Pets are also given flower necklaces and paint is put on their heads. We had a delicious dinner at a Thai place in the traditional Thai style where you sit on the floor.

11/13

More errands today. We went to a nice buffet breakfast at the guesthouse across the street from ours. I worked on booking flights to China then went to the bus station to buy tickets for the next day.

We visited the "Monkey Temple", which was cool because it had lots of monkeys running around this Tibetan Buddhist temple. It was a steep, steep and long stairway up to the top, so there were good view of Kathmandu as well. We had lunch at a Chinese noodle spot and dinner at an Indian place

11/14 Day 1

Early local bus from Kathmandu to Syabrubesi. It was a really cool road going steeply over a pass out of Kathmandu and back down to the agricultural valleys on the other side. There were some good views of big white mountains, including Manaslu (the mountain we had just returned from). We drove in the valley for a while and then back up a high on a pretty wild road with very steep drop offs and cool mountain views and also views of towns clinging to the steep hillsides with agricultural terracing. Elisha was nervous due to the wild road and rickety old bus. We stopped at the Langtang National Park checkpoint. Langtang NP has red pandas and snow leopards among other rare species.

We arrived to Syabrubesi in the afternoon. We had some soup and then hiked to Tiwari (1560m/ 5116ft). We stayed at a small teahouse in the canyon. It's run by a a nice family, and we chatted with the owner's son during our dinner of dhal bhat. They have a friendly dog and cat as pets. We were the only one there. As mentioned above, guides are now technically required on all routes in Nepal. This law was passed this April of 2023. However, they don't really have the infrastructure in place to enforce it, and after reading many things about it, it seems more like a money/power grab by the politicians in Kathmandu rather than the safety reason that they are claiming. Manaslu circuit always had required a guide bit it is in a specially protected area, but Langtang (and Everest Regions and Annapurna Regions) never did. Because of the lack of enforcement, because others told us it's fine (including in the Kathmandu government office), and b/c I feel comfortable trekking on my own, we decided to go solo. The vast majority of other trekkers on this trek also went solo without a guide.

11/15 Day 2

Trekked to Gumnachok (2770m/ 9086ft) passing by Bamboo, Pairo, Renche, and Changtang (Lama Hotel). We had breakfast snacks at Bamboo, which overlooked the rushing and cascading glacial river. We had lunch at REnche where a nice older lady was the chef. At Gumnachok we had nice views of some big, snowy peaks. The whole way we followed the frothing and rushing river. We saw 3 langur monkey troops along the way. The dining room at the River View teahouse that we stayed at was very warm! Like a sauna almost.

11/16 Day 3

We trekked to Ghumba (3400m/11,152ft), which is just short of the larger village of Langtang. The reason we stopped short was because a lady at a teahouse offered us to stay at her place and she would give us a free room, free hot solar shower, free wifi, and free charging for our phones if we stayed at her place and ate meals at her teahouse. This of course sounded great to us, plus, most people continue onto Langtang, so we knew we'd be basically alone, which is always nice. This deal would be a common thing as we continued up and it was something I remembered from doing the Annapurna circuit. When the treks aren't very busy, teahouse families will try to convince you to stay with them by giving you a lot of free things. This is because it is the meals where they really make a lot of money. The rooms are really cheap (like $**** normally), but the food can be a bit pricier comparatively, so they are happy to give you a free place to stay if you'll eat with them. 

Along the way we saw a big troup of Langur monkeys warming up in the sun. We also picked some seabuckthorn fruits (high in antioxidants) that were very sour, but also good. At our teahouse we saw some Tahr (a goat like animal, native to the Himalaya). After we put our bags down, we hiked to "new" Langtang. Langtang was completely destroyed and buried by a landslide that occurred during the 7.2 magnitude earthquake of 2015. So now you walk over the landslide to get to the new Langtang with the old village buried deep below (20 meters below as you walk over the landslide). I heard about 400 people died in the landslide. 

In Langtang we stopped at a bakery for a donut and chocolate croissant, then we hiked up a little hill to see nice views of glaciated peaks. At the bakery, the owner said he had 22 family members die in the landslide. We also visited the earthquake memorial. 

Back at our place, we had lunch and hot showers and then visited some nearby teahouses to have a glass of seabuckthorn juice and to visit another bakery for apple pie and brownies. We also saw some deer-like animal. There is an Israeli guy and his French girlfriend also staying with us (the only other guests), and he was happier to talk about Antarctica than the war in Israel.

That night I had an interview with Colorado Parks and Wildlife for a mountain lion research job. It worked out since their was wifi. Since it was cold and the time difference was 12 hours, I did the interview at about 8pm our time while in my sleeping bag.

11/17 Day 4

We hiked to Kyanjin Gompa (3850m/12,630ft), but on the way up we stopped at the bakery in Langtang. Once we got above Langtang, we were in a wide glacial valley with beautiful mountain views. Before we reached Kyanjin, we stopped at a giant chorten that had lots of hydro powered prayer wheels and one giant prayer wheel inside the chorten. There were also stone carvers creating the mantra mani walls. Soon we reached the top of a moraine (that had a wind-powered prayer wheel!!), and we were able to look down on the town of Kyanjin. It was an interesting sight because the town is fairly large and full of colorful, multistory buildings set amongst this beautiful mountain backdrop. Some people refer to it as "New Yak City". We decided to stay in one of the 3 lodges above the town because of the views of the valley and nearby glacier. 

We are staying at the Himalaya Hilton Lodge where our room, hot solar shower, and wifi are free as long as we eat there. It has great views out or room window of a glacier as well as the tallest peak in the area (Langtang Lirung 7234m/23,734ft; 99th tallest mountain in the world). And the sun deck that our room opens up to has a great view of Kyanjin town and the mountains beyond. 

After lunch we hiked up to ice lake, which was glacial green-brown and indeed partially frozen. We continued up the moraine and hill until we reached a holy cave. It had nice views of the glaciers, one of which we looked down upon. If we had continued up, we would have reached the Langtang Lirung basecamp. Once we got back down, we explored town including visiting the yak cheese factory where we sampled and bought some. We also stopped at a bakery. In the late afternoon we took a very hot shower from the solar shower and watched the sunset on the mountains. 

11/18 Day 5

Our first full day in Kyanjin. We climbed up Kyanjin Ri (peak) which is 4600m/15,088 feet. It was very steep up, but had beautiful views of the glaciated mountains all around, of the ice lake, and of Kyanjin village. Just superb 360 views! We went down a different way through an empty glacial valley below the Kimshung glacier. Back in town we had Sherpa stew and a pizza. We then went to town to the bakery. Dinner of Dhal Bhat.

11/19 Day 6

Hike up to Tsergo Ri (Cherko Ri) which is at an altitude of 4984m (16,348ft) and one of the highlights of the region. It was a beautiful hike! We started at dawn, so we saw the sunrise light up the big face of Lantang Lirung. We were the first to the summit and had the summit all to ourselves for an hour. We we arrived to the summit, there was a herd of Tahr at the summit, that soon scattered below. From the summit there were beautiful 360 degree views of glaciers, the braided glacial river and mountains all around. You could even see over to mountains in Tibet. 

We had a packed breakfast on the summit, and when we got back to town, we had lunch on our nice roof (tuna pizza and mushroom chowmein). After reading on the sunny deck for a while, we walked down to the Tsona lakes (5 small lakes). Then we hiked back to the village to visit our favorite bakery for cinnamon rolls and masala chai. And of course Dhal Bhat for dinner.

11/20 Day 7

Hiked to Langshisha Kharka which lies up the beautiful Langtang valley. It was a long hike, but not too steep. It followed the glacial green river the whole way. There were lots of yaks and of course beautiful mountain views ahead of us as we walked towards Tibet. At Langshisha Kharka--a summer yak pasture--there was one small structure in a beautiful valley surrounded by high mountains with 3 large glaciers coming down. It's not a popular hike, so we only saw one other guy out there. On the way back we saw so many tahrs--at least 100 with the males being so big and shaggy. We made it back to the Kyanjin in time to watch the mountains turn pink. We had some masala chai and apple pie at the bakery before heading back to our place for a hot shower and dinner.

Kyanjin Gompa is a very plush place for trekkers. You can always enjoy a hot solar shower, with reasonable pressure, at the end of the day. There are bakeries with microwaves to warm up their items. The dining rooms are all warm with wood and yak dung stoves. There is good electricity and pretty reliable wifi. The beds are decent enough and have blankets to supplement your sleeping bag (all lodges and teahouses on our treks had these blankets this time around). The rooms are of concrete, and thus have some insulation which keeps the room from dropping below freezing like it does outside.

The food here is about the same as everywhere trekking. Breakfast menus of muesli with hot milk, oat porridge, tsampa porridge, pancakes, Tibetan bread, chapati, and eggs. Lunch/dinner is momos, chowmein, spaghetti, macaroni, potatoes, rice, pizza, curry, soup, noodle soup, ting momo, sherpa stew, dendo, and, of course, the main item: dhal bhat. This consists of papadam, pickle, rice, potato veg curry, cooked green veggies, and dhal (lentils). And the best thing is that it's unlimited! So it's great for trekking fule. They have a saying here (new since I was last here): "Dhal Bhat power, 24 hour". Basically as soon as you start eating, people come to top off the various parts of the dhal bhat meal. You definitely never leave hungry. And then the menu always has all types of teas and a few desserts like apple fritters/pie and snickers and mars "springrolls".

11/21 Day 8

A long downhill day to Rimche (2485m/8151ft). We ate at our favorite bakery in Kyanjin (apple pie and masala chai) before heading down. For lunch we stopped at a place where a deaf gal was the chef and baker. According to Elisha, her donuts were the best Elisha had enjoyed in Nepal. We saw a big troupe of Langur monkeys on the way down. Found out today that I was offered the Colorado Parks and Wildlife job...

11/22 Day 9

In the morning, the guesthouse owner invited us to have tea with her by her stove. She was so friendly and nice. We then took the "high road" to head back to Syabrubesi. It was a cool route, leading us along the cliffs looking way, way, way down the valley. We also had some nice views of the snowy peaks. We walked through Sherpagoan, which was a quaint little village. We had lunch in Khangjim with a nice man who had some friendly cats. As we were walking through Kangjim, we were persuaded at a guest house to stay instead of heading down to Syabrubesi, partly because the views were so nice and, there was such good sun to enjoy the afternoon and because the rooms/shower were so very nice. So we stayed the night in Khangjim (2280m/7478ft), where we read in the sun on the rooftop and enjoyed the sunset. They had a very nice cat to pet. I ordered some seabuckthorn juice, but because the lady at the hotel was covering for her sister, I don't think she knew to use mineral/bottled/boiled water, so she mixed the strong fruit juice with tap water, so I was pretty nervous I would get sick. I ended up not getting sick

11/23 Day 10  Happy Thanksgiving!

We started trekking before sunrise to get down to Syabrubesi in time to catch a bus to Kathmandu. The bus ride back to Kathmandu was of course tediously slow and long, but it had great views, especially at the beginning with the terraced villages built on steep cliffs in front of snowy mountains. And the road built high up on the steep mountains with the river a long, long drop below! We got to ride a bit in the front of the bus, which was fun. On the journey, the bus of course stopped for lunch so our first Thanksgiving meal was Dhal Bhat.

A few notes on Nepali generosity: The man at the lunch the previous day gave us Tibetan bread at no charge; the woman at lunch 2 days before gave us each an extra bowl of Sherpa stew at no cost, and the lady running the place we stayed at the previous night had us sit by her cooking fire and gave us free milk tea. She was so appreciative that we had come back (we had eaten lunch at her place when we were going up the valley)

When we arrive back to Kathmandu, we checked into our same nice hotel. We were overwhelmingly surprised to see, when we opened the door to our room, that Raj (the super nice hotel manager) had a cake arranged on our table with "Happy American Thanksgiving" written on it. So sweet and thoughtful. We quickly showered and then headed to the New Orleans Cafe where they had live music and a Thanksgiving dinner set menu: We had pumpkin ravioli as a starter, then turkey with potatoes, cranberry, stuffing, and veggies as the main. Then it was pumpkin pie and masala chai for dessert. We also had a couple orders of ice cream cocktails!

11/24

A foodie day in Kathmandu and some shopping. Breakfast at a French creperie. Lunch at a momo join, then additional lunch and lassies at the Fat Buddha Cafe (Indian food). Beer on our guesthouse's rooftop balcony. During our shopping, we bought a nice painting. Did some laundry. I got a haircut and close shave at a barber, all for $3 USD. Dinner back at the New Orleans Cafe where we got steak sizzlers for $6.26 USD. Mine had rum on top that they lit, and it really flamed big! Then we had flaming brownie with ice cream. 

11/25

Nice buffet breakfast at the hotel next to ours. Did some packing and some internetting before going for an hour massage at the "seeing hands" massage place where blind folks give the massages. Only $15 USD for an hour! And it was very good. Great for after trekking. We had a last lunch at an Indian place, then it was off to the airport. 

We then flew to Kunming, China where we managed to find the airport shuttle to our nice (and super cheap) hotel. Snickers and beer were given to us on the plane! We went out for noodles late that night. 

Manaslu Circuit Trek

 10/31 Happy Halloween!  Day 1

We met our guide Santosh at our hotel very early in the morning. We took a taxi to the local bus station where we boarded one of the classic (colorful and old) Nepali buses. It was a scenic and windy and slow drive. To go something like 150 miles take 6-8 hours, including stops for breakfast and lunch. Going over the pass out of Kathmandu, we saw our first vistas of the snowy peaks. When the "good" road ended and we reached a rougher road, we transferred to another more burly bus. That bus had to change a flat tire, so we had to wait for that. It was a very rough and bumpy road to Soti Khola. Along the way we had to ford some streams as well. At Soti Khola we changed to a 4WD where we squashed 10 passengers and a driver in. The drive from there to Machha Khola was really cool and rough. There were steep drop offs to the glacial river below. And there were so many waterfalls everywhere as well as suspension bridges (foot bridges, not for the vehicle). We arrived to Machha Khola (860m/2850ft in elevation) which overlooks the river. We took a short walk to check out waterfalls and to cross a suspension bridge. 

11/1  Day 2

Early start to the day. During the entire day, we hiked by lots of waterfalls. Early in the day, we visited a little, but nice hot springs where we took a soak. We met Jenny from Alaska who is a seismologist spending about 2 months trekking in Nepal. She now works in Alaska, but she had worked on a project in Nepal at one point. It was really nice walking as we trekked along the raging glacial river, in a gorge, and through villages, seemingly lost in time. We caught a glimpse of a monkey. In the afternoon we arrived to our destination of Jagat (1340m/ 4395ft), which I think means checkpoint in the local language.

After checking in to our tea house, we did a side hike up steep stairs to a cute rock village with waterfalls above and below it. It felt like a village straight out of a disney movie. We met some friendly locals who couldn't speak any English, but we had a good time trying to communicate. To reach the village, we had to go over a suspension bridge that crossed over a super deep gorge with waterfalls below it. It was so high that Elisha was scared, but the kids (and old folks) of the village cross it with no problem, even playing tag across it. We had a dinner of mushroom pizza, potato momos, and apple pie.

11/2 Day 3

Hiked to Deng (1860m/ 6101 ft). There were lots and lots of waterfalls along the way as well as a super high suspension bridge. We're starting to get some snowy mountain views (Sringi Himal). Throughout the day we passed through lots of cool villages. From our teachouse in Deng, we have really nice views of the snowy mountains. We continued to follow the roaring river all day and of course lots of suspension bridge crossings. We had traditional foods for dinner.

11/3 Day 4

Today we hiked to Namrung (2630m/ 8626 ft).  We had nice views of mountains along the way. We continued along the raging river, which is getting smaller as we climb. Again. lots of cool villages to walk through. Most of the villages have buildings made of stone, often with thatched or even rock roofs. Through the village there is usually a very nice and smooth stone path. There are lots of domestic animals such as chickens, ducks, and goats. The villages looks like they could be from the middle ages. Along the way we went through a thick and mossy forest, which was very reminiscent of a New Zealand forest. Near the end of our hiking day we came upon an apple farm where we bought apple danish and fresh squeezed apple juice. Namrung is surprisingly fancy with "German" bakeries, nice accomodation, and real coffee machines.

11/4 Day 5

Hike to Lho (3180m /10,430 ft). It was a shorter day, but a good bit of uphill. There were some nice views of Manaslu and Nieke along the way. Manaslu is the mountain that we are circumnavigating. Manaslu is one of the 8000m peaks at 8163m (26,781ft). It is the 8th highest mountain in the world, and it's name means "mountain of the spirit". When we reached Lho is was clouding up. We dropped our bags off at our teahouse and then hiked up a small hill to a large monastery with nice views towards the mostly cloud-covered Manaslu. But also great views down to the village as well, where the locals were busy harvesting wheat by hand. Saw a cute little weasel. 

Back at the teahouse we did some laundry by hand and spent the afternoon reading from the rooftop deck (where our room also is) in the hot sun (cold when the suns goes behind the clouds). We eventually got a glimpse of the peak of Manaslu and after dinner, by the moonlight we could see the whole mountain as the clouds had dissipated. 

Something different from the last time that I trekked in Nepal is that cell service appears to be ubiquitous so far (it won't be later on, higher up). We've had service basically the whole way and LTE most of the way. Most teahouses have advertised wifi (for a cost usually), but not all have worked. We've been trying to deal with renting a place in CB, so we've needed wifi access). There has also been power at every place in order to charge devices. When I was here last time (2010), maybe a few places had solar power, but it was before phones took off, so there was no real reason to charge anything as one carried enough spare batteries for traditional cameras. And hot showers have been at every place (~$2-3), either solar or gas powered. There were a few hot showers here and there when I was here last, but they felt expensive, so I never indulged. 

We heard there was an earthquake in Western Nepal that claimed greater than 100 lives. Santosh claimed to have felt a small shake at about 2am, but we didn't feel anything.

11/5 Day 6

Trekked from Lho to Sama (3520m/11,546ft). It was a beautifully clear morning, and we woke up to the alpenglow on the HUGE east face of Manaslu. After a chocolate pancake and a swiss rosti with egg, we left Lho. We stopped at the monastery again on our way up as the view were crystal clear. After hiking through a forest, we arrived at Shyaula, which was absolutely breathtaking with 360 degree views of huge mountains all around! It was so stunning. As once German trekker said "Now this is the Himalaya". There were giant mountains wherever you looked. 

Since the weather was so good, we decided to hike up to Pungyan Gompa (a type of holy site). We left our bags at a teahouse and started the steep hike up with amazing mountain views everywhere. We had a fun and challenging crossing of an icey river (ice obscuring the stepping stones). Eventually we made it up to a high, flat area we were could look over the moraine and down to a glacier. And in front of us of course was stunning and towering Manaslu. We continued on to the Gompa, which was right there at the base of Manaslu. The peak of Manaslus rose 14,000 feet straight up, yep, that's right, 14,000!! feet straight up. For comparison, Longs Peak rises 7,000 feet above Estes Park (and yet it's at a far distance, this was craning your neck straight up) or Pikes Peak also rises 7000 feet above Colorado Springs. Incredible! We hiked up beyond the gompa to a big ridge/moraine where we could look right down at the glacier.

On the way back down, we walked past some small lakes, including a very green one. We had a quick lunch at beautiful Shyaula before continuing the trek to Sama. We went through some golden Tamarack forests before coming to the flat plain where the rather large town of Sama sits. It's a town made of stone buildings with a large monastery and some very long mani walls and prayer wheel walls.

11/6 Day 7  Acclimatization day in Sama

We had a big day today! We hiked the very steep trail up to Manaslu Base Camp (~15,900 feet). It was an incredibly beautiful hike. The whole way we had amazing views of Jade Green Biendra Tal (lake). And we were hiking alongside and then above the glacier and glacial ice fall. The last bit of the trail was snow-covered and the whole landscape snowy. 

From the basecamp, you're right up close to Manaslu and amongst her glaciers. We enjoyed watching (and listening to) the avalanches as the sun warmed up the slopes. At the top we hung out for awhile in the sunny but cold weather. We took photos amongst the prayer flags. 

On the way down we detoured to Biendra Lake. The lake has a glacier coming right down into it, but that didn't stop me from jumping in, much to the dismay of Santosh. Most of the people from the area believe you get sick from cold water, including drinking cold water. But Santosh was equally impressed b/c he took lots of photos of me (in my underwear!), haha. In the afternoon we read in bed and maybe felt a small earthquake.

11/7 Day 8

Trek to Samdo (3875m/12,710ft). We started out by first hiking up to Biendra Tal to see the amazing reflection of Manaslu in the lake. It was then a pretty easy hike to Samdo. Samdo is a cool, old stone style village. We explored the village a bit and then hiked up Samdo hill to about 13,400 feet for acclimatization purposes. Nice views from up there of the high mountains. Pretty cold at night.

11/8 Day 9

Trek to Dharamsala (aka Larke Phedi) at 4460m (14,628), but before doing this, we had a big day with a great side trip to the Tibet border. Hiked to Larke Bazaar (an old Tibet trading area) before dropping our big packs at a tea house and heading up the Fukang Valley. It was a beautiful and desolate valley that reminded me of the McMurdo Dry Valleys. It was dry but with big glaciers on all the of the peaks coming down into the valley. We saw lots of snow leopard scat on the trail and some blue sheep before we turned sharply up to go to Lajyang Bhanjyang Pass (Rui-la) at an elevation of 4998m (16,393 ft). At the top of the pass was the border with Tibet (China). There was a fence, a marker indicating the border, and a chinese flag, but nothing else. Of course there were great views, especially back towards Nepal and the massive Fukang glacier. On the way back we got really close to a huge herd of blue sheep that also included quite a lot of lambs.

Back in Larke Bazaar we had lunch and decided whether Elisha was feeling good enough to head up to Dharamsala. Some food did her well. There were nice views heading up, including views of Manaslu and Manaslu's big glacier. Once we reached Dharapani, I hiked a bit up above the camp to the Larke glacier moraine. Dharamsala is just a camp for trekkers, not a proper village. It has tents and some basic stone dorms--a cold place. Elisha was dorming with 2 asian women, and I was dorming with 2 Korean gentlemen that we had met earlier in the trek. The fog rolled in at night, and it snowed a bit. Early to bed in my warm sleeping bag.

11/9 Day 10

We were up at 3:45am for a quick porridge breakfast before tackling Larke La (Larky Pass). We really cruised, passing most people who had started well before us. As it slowly became light enough to see a bit as we trekked, we were treated to inspiring views of high mountains, white snow, and stars. The upper part of the passchad quite a lot of snow from previous storms, but we woke up to clear skies and beautiful stars. At the top of the 1st pass (5106m/ 16,757ft) (it was a double pass), we took photos at the pass sign and amongst the prayer flags with our new friends (from Missoula, Montana) Eric and Sarah. 

We then continued on to the 2nd pass (5166m/16,944), which had absolutely amazing views full of glaciers, jade green lakes, and big mountains, including some of the Annapurnas. It was then a very steep descent (but with fantastic views at every step) down to "high camp" where we had a snack of soup surrounded by gorgeous mountains and glaciers. After more descending , we took a side trip to Ponkar Tal (lake) at 3965m (13,0005ft). It was a cool side trip because the lake was a beautiful green backed by big peaks, but also because as we walked high up on a moraine, we could see 3 large glaciers merging. 

We then finished the day by descending down to Bimthang (3590m/11,775ft), which has huge mountain views (including Manaslu) and a glacier running beside it. For sunset we hiked over a moraine to a little lake that had a nice reflection of the mountains. Then it was back to the teahouse for dinner

11/10 Day 11

Long day, mostly downhill to Dharepani (1963m/6438ft). We started the morning with a beautiful sunrise on the mountains around Bimthang. Before breakfast, I hiked down to the little moraine lake to see the sunrise reflection. We had really nice views of Manaslu as we started down, steep down, on this frosty morning. A lot of it was through a beautiful primeval type forest. We had lunch at a really nice teahouse in Gowa. The we made our way down towards Dharapani. Dharapani is on the Annapurna Circuit (so I had been there before). The road now comes up to Dharapani, which it didn't back when I trekked Annapurna in 2010. I think Dharapani might have been a 2 or 3 day trek in from the start back then of Besi Sahar. So more or less, it was the end of our trek, so we celebrated the end of the trek with some affordable beer and snacks.

During the circuit, there were many people doing it, but we seemed to stay and eat with the same people. We especially became friends with Sarah and Erik from Missoula. But also with Alex and ???, two very friendly, positive, and fit people from Spain, who also had great stories of Pakistan. And then a Swiss couple, of which we didn't know their names, but the guy was a crazy ultra runner. We called their guide Nuggs because he always wore a Denver Nuggets ball cap when he wasn't wearing a ski hat.

11/11 Day 12

We shared a jeep with Erik and Sara to Besi Sahar (where the Annapurna circuit used to start and Manaslu used to end before the road was put in. The road was pretty sweet and crazy. I think Elisha was scared. It was a rough narrow road, high up on the side of a very deep and steep gorge with the raging glacial blue river below. At places, the road was super narrow with a >2000 foot drop to the river below. We made a couple of stops to look at a couple beautiful waterfalls, including one that poured onto the road. And we also stopped to look at some beehives situated under overhangs on cliff faces that the locals reach by using rope ladders. They harvest the honey, and the honey has a psychedelic effect. We tried some the night before; it was delicious and very floral. 

After Besi Sahar we changed to a crowded minivan for the very windy and slow road back to Kathmandu. The road is in bad shape and there are so many slo trucks and buses that we were constantly in a state of passing. When we arrived to Kathmandu, 11 hours after we started, we took a taxi back to our guesthouse. We said a sad goodbye to Santosh who had been a GREAT guide. He was so enthusiastic and easy to make laugh. We enjoyed him very much, even though he was a junior guide (@ $25 USD per day)

We took showers and then head out to an Indian dinner to celebrate being back. It was the start of the Tihar festival, so there were parades in the streets and Christmas-style lights hung up. 

You maybe curious what the average day of trekking is like. Well, we'd wake up about 6am-ish and stuff our sleeping bags and pack up our bags. We'd 'make' water using this new filter we were trying called the Grayle (aka the Holy Grail), which filters out protists, viruses, and bacteria as well as other contaminants, including micro plastics. We'd then head to the dining area of the tea house to have breakfast where Santosh would be waiting for us to bring us our breakfast that we'd ordered the night before.. For breakfast we generally chose between porridge, muesli, tibetan bread, pancakes, eggs, or potato. We'd then settle the bill and head out. In the mountains, it's wise to start off early in the morning as weather and clouds can roll in during the afternoon. We'd then hike the trail, stopping here and there for a rest or to take photos or drink some water. When it was near to lunch time, we'd stop and have lunch. We tried to order something that would be quick to prepare, so usually noodles or soup or dal bhat. Then it was back on the trail until we arrived to our final destination where we would set up our sleeping bags and then get some tea and read, or go out for a side hike. It would get dark about 6, and that is when we'd have dinner. Options for dinner included chow mein, momos, sherpa stew, ting momo, spaghetti, Nepali take on pizza, fried rice, potatoes, noodle soup, veg curry, and of course the trekking staple Dhal Bhat. Each guest house would have a different take on some of these things. While trekking, you basically eat vegetarian. Dhal Bhat is a really good go to because it is UNLIMITED! Which is super nice when you're trekking. Dhal Bhat usually consists of a popadam, some pickled vegetables, some potato/veggie curry and then rice and dhal (lentils). It tastes good, but the best is that you really get full after a long day of trekking. You also generally order tea or hot water with your meal. The guesthouses very in style and quality, but generally it's a very small room with 2 small single beds with a generally thin mattress. There is no heat or anything, so inside is only a bit warmer than the outside temperature. Two other things that were different from when I did the Annapurna Circuit, Annapurna Sanctuary and Base Camp and Everest Base Camp treks back in 2010 is that all of the teahouses provided blankets to use as a supplement to your sleeping bag and that almost all the dining rooms had a wood burning stove to heat the dining area, though people were really terrible at keeping doors closed, so it wasn't always as warm and cozy as you might like. At night after dinner we'd read and journal in the warm dining room or back in our sleeping bags until we were tired. Temperature wise: the mornings would be very cold and crisp, but once the sun is out, it feels rather warm since the sun is so strong at the high altitude. And of course it would get chilly again at night.

Here is the website for the tour company that we used and really liked, in case you're interested:

https://www.greenvalleynepaltreks.com/

Journey to Kathmandu

 10/25

A packing and prep day in Estes Park. We biked around Lake Estes so that Elisha could watch the elk herds and see the bulls bugle and fight. I also worked on some pollination project stuff before leaving.

10/26

Zach, Mary, Mom, and Dad arrived around 4am in the morning. There had been a hurricane that sprang up out of nowhere and impacted Zihuatanejo, but they were able to get out. More packing. I was dealing with UPS to try to get my new phone that I had ordered since my old phone was hardly working and the camera isn't so good. I got it just in the nick of time, and ended up setting it up at the DIA airport. Flight to Frankfurt, Germany on Lufthansa. It was a nice flight with good food and copious drinks

10/27

Arrived to Frankfurt. Got a pretzel at the airport, then Flight to Chengdu, China

10/28

Arrived very early in the morning to Chengdu. For some reason our flight itinerary (booked using miles) had us not catching that same day flight to Kathmandu, so we had to spend the night in China. It was a bit of a challenge at immigration to get through since we didn't have a visa and the airport (super big and beautiful) was brand new, so the people there didn't seem to understand or know about the 24 hour transit visa. We kept getting bumped from line to line. Eventually I showed them an old 24 hour China visa I had in my passport, and they figured it out. 

We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express airport hotel (though it's a 25 minute drive to the hotel b/c of major construction). We rested in the hotel, then took a taxi to a nearby city to walk around and get some yummy noodles. Welcome to China where a big noodles lunch is only $1. We taxied back to the hotel and then had the famous Sichuan spicy hot pot (fondue style), which would wreak a bit of havoc on the digestive system the next day. We then went back to the hotel and just crashed.

10/29

Had a huge, amazing breakfast buffet at the hotel before heading to the airport. Chengdu TFU airport is brand new and very fancy. It's very technologically advanced: security gates that recognize you by your photos and open for you.

Flight to Kathmandu on Air China. It was an incredibly scenic flight! First we flew over the heavily glaciated and snowy mountains of China. Then we flew over the mountains and high and dry plateau of Tibet from where we could see Mount Kailash (a very holy Tibetan mountain) and Lhasa with the giant Potala Palace. Then we crossed into Nepal and flew by the Nepalese Himalaya, including many 8000m peaks, including Mount Everest.

At the airport, we had an ATM machine freeze and almost eat our debit card, but we were able to pull it out. We were picked up by our trekking company (Green Valley Nepal Treks; https://www.greenvalleynepaltreks.com/ ) and greeted with floral lays. We were dropped off at our nice boutique hotel (Hotel Friends Home), then made arrangements with the trekking company for our upcoming Manaslu Trek. Because the Manaslu trek is in a special conservation area, a guide is compulsory. We would prefer to go without a guide for cost and freedom reasons, but it is the only way to do this trek. I had a contact, Arjun, from the previous time I was in Nepal that helped to arrange a porter-guide (junior guide) so that it would be cheaper for us. 

We explored around Kathmandu a bit--in the Thamel area and the narrow bazaars. The streets of Thamel are busy and full of pedestrians, bikes, cars,and motorbikes. So it can get annoying walking through them. The bazaars are super narrow, and it's shoulder to shoulder walking, but motorbikes will still try to forge ahead through. The streets can be pretty dusty and often polluted as well, so many people wear masks, including us most of the time. Otherwise you can get a Kathmandu Cough (similar to the Khumbu Cough, but instead of caused by cold and high altitude it's pollution). We ate some Indian food and momos.

10/30

Went to Durbar Square for sunrise when it's still very quiet, and we enjoyed some chai. Durbar square is the old medieval palace and temple area and full of old and ornate buildings as well as holy men, pilgrims, tourists, and people selling wares on blankets. We ended up having 2 breakfasts. haha. We did more walking around Kathmandu and visited Freak Street, which used to be the seedy backpacker area, but is now a more hip place with bubble tea shops and more. We had a Korean BBQ lunch there. In the afternoon we packed for our trek and then went out for a fancy (but cheap) dinner at 3rd Eye, a delicious Indian restaurant. And the prices are right so that we can enjoy the main meal, but also tea and lassis and appetizers and desserts.

El matrimonio de mi hermano en Troncones, México

 My brother and Mary (M-nuggz) have been dating for awhile and decided to finally tie the knot with a destination wedding in Troncones, Mexico. There was a danger, do not travel alert by the US State Department, which caused a few people to not come, but overall I think they had about 50 people. And as is often the case, the most dangerous thing there was not what one would expect, but seasickness on the boat ride.

10/16-17

Trying to pack for 2 trips (Asia and Mexico) and finish up last minute things for the Oceanic Society. Oh, and work on some edits for some publications I'm working on. Drove to Estes on the 17th I believe.

10/18

Very early flight to Houston from Denver, then on to Mexico City. We had a long layover,so we took the subway into the city. We got tacos (Elisha's favorite) and ice cream and explored a few areas like Zocalo (the main square), Mariachi Square, and the palace. Because the airport has weird terminals that are very far apart and we were storing our luggage in the opposite terminal, we nearly missed our flight going to Zihuatanejo. We got off at one subway stop too early for the terminal where our luggage was stored, but since we still had tons of time, we decided to walk. But then the path we were taking dead-ended. The rest is a bit confusing in my brain as to what exactly happened. But we finally got to a terminal, but it wasn't the one with our luggage. So we took a bus to the other terminal and collected our luggage. Since we had flown in to that terminal, we figured it was the international terminal, so we took the sky train back to the other terminal, which we assumed was domestic. It mostly was, but apparently most the AeroMexico flights leave from the terminal we were just at. So we rushed to take the train back. When we got there, check-in was closed, but we split up to look for a manager, and I managed to convince someone to give us a late check-in bording pass. But she said we'd have to run. We rushed through security and then sprinted through the airport to arrive in time to catch the flight. And in fact, we had to wait a bit as the flight was a bit delayed. We met up with some wedding goers at the gate, and then once we arrived to Zihuatanejo, we took a shuttle together to the small coastal village of Troncones where all the wedding folks were staying and the ceremony was to be held.

10/19

We were sharing a villa with my parents. It was a beautiful beachside resort with a nice pool. You could hear the waves and catch a glimpse of them from our villa's seating area. The villa was an open air style where the kitchen, dining room, and sitting area were all open air, while the bedrooms were enclosed with air conditioning (thank goodness!).

We lounged around the villas in the morning, and I worked on my best man speech. We then went out to lunch with Stu and explored the town a bit. In the evening was a cocktail party, then a costume dance party. The catch was that someone else chose the costume you'd be wearing and you had to parade down in your costume, runway style. Mom had the costume of a Swifty (which I think Allison selected). Elisha was an attractive Arabian woman (my mom selected it), and I was a blue M&M with cool light up glasses that Scott K selected. I dressed up Alex Banas as a funny cowboy with apron chaps. Not surprisingly, given the heat, the party ended up in the pool

10/20

We did a catamaran sail booze cruise out of Zihuatanejo. We did some snorkeling (really bad---murky and no corals, but a few fish) and swimming in the incredibly warm water. The highlight would have been the open bar and food, but both Elisha and I got seasick, so we could not enjoy it. Several others were also seasick, including Mary, who was very sick and actually got boated off the main boat later. 

Afternoon cocktails, and then it was the rehearsal dinner where Kelsey (best friend of Mary's), Gerry (Mary's Dad), Emma (Mary's best friend in CB and interestingly my second cousin twice removed or something like that), Steve Dole (Zach's best bud from college), Dave Pfeifer (Colorado friend of bro's), and myself (brother! ha) gave speeches. Supposedly mine brought a lot of tears to the crowd. I'll paste in the outline of my speech at the end of this. After dinner there was a Mariachi band and dancing

10/21 Wedding Day

We (mom, dad, Elisha, myself, and Dave Yogg) hosted cocktail hour. It was a nice ceremony on the beach, presided over by Gaelen, one of Mary's Whitefish friends. Mom read a poem at the ceremony that I had found for her. Dinner and then a good dance party, that of course ended up in the pool

10/22

Relax day. We hug out at the pool and did some walking around. We hiked up to a nice viewpoint above the resort with good views of the coast and town. We went as a family (bro, mom, dad, Elisha, and me) out to dinner outside of town at a seaside place with a nice sunset. Had a delicious red snapper!

10/23

Drove out to Saludito for some longboard surfing with several people. It was fun, but tiring, but I caught some waves. Back in Troncones, I led mom and Elisha to a place where they were going to be releasing a bunch of sea turtle hatchlings. They were so cute, and it was really picturesque as the sun was setting as we released them. The guy drew a line in the sand, and then we dropped our hatchlings behind the line to make it a sort of race. But it was really cool to watch, and a really cool experience! Afterwards we threw the frisbee around a bit.

Some people had gone out deep-sea fishing that day and caught quite a lot, so we had a group dinner of fresh fish, steak, and fish tacos

10/24

Lazy morning. Then got a seaside massage for ~$30/hr. Took a taxi to Zihuatanejo. Flight to LAX, then a flight to Denver. Arrived to Estes about 3am.

Here's the speech and an intro about it:

It's sort of 3 parts. The part in pink, I memorized and is from one of my favorite Jerry Seinfeld skits. The part in yellow is derived from Chat GPT, which I read directly off of a phone. I actually asked ChatGPT 4 or 5 times to write a best man speech and then I combined the best parts. I can't quite remember, but I think the prompt I gave chatGPT was something akin to this "Dear ChatGPT, please write a best man speech for my brother, Zach and his fiancee Mary in the style of Vince Vaughan's character from Wedding Crashers. They live in the ski town of Crested Butte, Colorado now and Mary is from Montana"  Wedding Crashers is one of Zach's favorite movies and is of course wedding themed. The part in blue was just some notes for what I wanted to speak of more off the cuff, in a real manner. I think I probably followed fairly close to the prompt, but I did vary some. I know because Emma had mentioned in her speech something about how friends are so important b/c they are the people you really choose, and I referenced her and said something about how we don't get to choose family but I was lucky with who I ended up with. But other than that, I'm not entirely sure what I said. It's hard for me to remember though b/c when I am public speaking, I'm so nervous that it's really a blur to me. But Elisha might remember better.

I heard about, a study, that speaking in front of a crowd is the number 1 fear of the average person. Number two is…death. Death is #2. As Jerry Seinfeld commented,  this means that for the average person, if you have to be at a funeral,  you’d rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.

So to take some pressure off me, I decided to ask my good friend chatgpt out…

[Imagine a confident and charming delivery, Deliver with comedic timing and a touch of sarcasm]

Ladies and gentlemen, grab your champagne flutes and your laughter hats because we're about to get this shindig rolling! I stand before you today, honored to give a toast for my little brother, Zach, and the stunning Mary. And, boy, let me tell you, being Zach's big bro is like having a front-row seat to the world's craziest rollercoaster.

Now, these two lovebirds met in good ol' Montana, and let me tell you, their love story is like a trip through the terrain park. They found each other in the wild, and now they're living it up in the ski and party paradise of Crested Butte. You know, Montana…. Colorado - that's like Love at First Powder!

Now, before I dive into this, let me just say, Mary, you look absolutely stunning today. Zach, you clean up pretty well too, buddy. I guess someone had to finally convince him that cargo shorts and flip-flops aren't suitable for a wedding.

Now, I've got to say, when Zach told me he was getting hitched, I thought he was pulling one of his classic pranks. You know, like the time he convinced us he could breakdance (and trust me, folks, he can't). But then I met Mary, and I realized he wasn't joking. And thank goodness for that!

You see, Mary is the real deal. She's got this way of taming Zach, and believe me, that's no small feat. I mean, he's like a wild stallion, and Mary, you've managed to saddle him up and ride off into the sunset together

I've known Zach my whole life, and I gotta say, he's a character. Remember when he thought the microwave was just for popcorn and he nearly blew up the kitchen? Classic Zach. But when he introduced me to Mary, I knew something was different. He looked at her the way a kid looks at candy.

Zach, my little bro, you've always known how to make life one epic adventure. You've found your partner in crime in Mary, someone who's equally ready to tackle the slopes and hit the dance floor like there's no tomorrow.

Mary, you're an absolute saint! You've managed to snag my wild child of a brother, and for that, you deserve a medal or at least a lifetime supply of patience. Jokes aside, Mary, you're the peanut butter to Zach's jelly, the cheese to his macaroni, and the yin to his yang. You've added a spark to Zach's life like no one else could. You've got the same zest for life, and together, you're a force to be reckoned with. Your love is like a double black diamond run - thrilling, exhilarating, and sometimes a bit of a wild ride, but you always come out on top.

Now, I've had the pleasure (and sometimes, the pain) of knowing Zach for a while. He's a unique character, let me tell you. He's got a charm that can melt glaciers, humor that can make a grizzly bear chuckle, and loyalty that would put a bloodhound to shame. And Mary, you must be quite the catch to snare this elusive bachelor!

And speaking of Zach, well, he's always been a bit of an oddball. You could say he's like a fine wine – he gets weirder with age. But he's also got a heart the size of Texas. He's the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back, even if it's covered in pizza 

So let's raise our glasses to these two lovebirds who are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. May your marriage be filled with more laughter than rom-coms, more love than Disney, and a love that’s as wild and untamed as the Rockies themselves!

Here’s the deal, I have to hide behind this cover of comedy and technology b/c there aren’t really words, at least none that I’ve mastered, that can come close to conveying how much you mean to me as a brother and to describe all the life adventures we’ve been on. Just know that the feeling is there bro. I’m so proud of you. Mary, obviously he’s a great catch, but I know that he’s a very lucky guy to have found you. I’m lucky and honored to call you a sister and i’ve loved our heart to heart hikes we’ve had.  I’m definitely looking forward to hanging out more, and of course looking forward to sharing laughs as we watch zach shake it on the dance floor.

Cheers you guys!