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Showing posts from September, 2008

Updated: Most Complete Pictures

If you're not on Facebook, here are my pictures from August and September: Old Summer Palace Park Let the Games Begin Soccer, Beach Volleyball, Athletics, and More Olympic Green at Night Soccer, Club Bud, and Diving Winding Up the Games Closing Ceremony Closing Out Beijing Closing Party Summer Palace 1 Summer Palace 2 Summer Palace 3 The Ming Tombs Xi'an Train to Tibet Jokhang Temple, Potala Palace Sera Monastery Drak Yerpa, Mountainside Monastery Drak Yerpa Picnic Yamdrok Lake Tibet: Last Day Chengdu Emeishan and Leshan Bangkok 1 Bangkok 2 Ko Samed

The Fabulous Life of an Unemployed Person Visiting His Parents

Wednesday morning I got up early (jet lag made that easy) and unpacked all of my bags and boxes. I packed all of my dirty laundry into one bag, and packed another bag of gifts I would take home. For $26 (compared to $41 for Amtrak) I'd booked a MegaBus to Toledo. I hopped on the 151 bus around 1:30 and soon I was looking around Union Station for the MegaBus dispatch. A Union Station employee informed me that MegaBus was being sued for the use of the Union Station name, and he was not allowed to give me any information. I called Vinnie at work, who looked up further details on the internet, and told me I could catch my bus on Canal Street, 300 feet south of Jackson. It was true, and soon I was on a beautiful double-decker bus to Toledo. They dropped me off in the parking lot of the Southwyck Shopping Mall in Toledo, and my family picked me up there. We stopped by Applebee's for a snack, and soon I was snuggled up in the 2nd most comfortable bed I've seen in months (mine bein

Can the End Really Be Here?

We said goodbye to Jared at the Beijing airport, and a private car took John, Ethan and me to the St. Regis, where, for the first time in 24 days, John, Ethan, and I would be parting ways. John and Ethan stayed at the St. Regis with John’s mom, who was in Beijing on work, and I stayed with my friend Craig, who is still working in Beijing, closing out his company’s games-time operations. We couldn’t stand to be apart for too long, though, and all of us (including Jared) met up for one more Saturday night of drinks and dancing at Destination. Sunday, after I picked up the bag I’d left at the Beijing International, we went to the 798 Art District, a group of former German-designed Bauhaus factories which years ago were taken over by artists using them for studios. Before the Olympics, the city finished renovations on the trendy District, which now contains more than 300 galleries of all kinds of artwork. While we wandered through the artwork, it began to rain, and after a couple of hours,

Bangkok and Ko Samed

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Thursday, September 11, 2008 Thursday morning, we slept in a bit and packed up our things. After brunch at Shamrock’s (yes, we loved that place,) and some Starbucks, we hopped in a taxi to the airport, where, after a short flight to Guangzhou and a bit of a layover, we found ourselves on an EgyptAir flight to Bangkok. At the Bangkok airport, we found Western toilets in every stall, paper towel at the sinks, and hundreds of choices for chocolate, beverages, and English language books and magazines at the book shops. We checked by the visa counter to make sure we’d understood properly, and were told “American? No need visa. Canadian? No need visa.” We loved this place! Passing through customs was quick and easy, everyone spoke English, the taxi stand knew where we were going, and the nicely air-conditioned soon had us checking into a neat and clean hotel room in the center of the city—at a cost of $57 USD for 3 people. The biggest clue to the fact that we were in an exotic foreign city w

Quick Update

I´ll write more later, but after a fantastic trip to Emeishan and Leshan, and 2 uneventful flights, John, Ethan, and I are now in Bangkok. My friend Jared arrives late tonight to join the last leg of the journey. The Thai keyboard is a little tough to figure out the punctuation, so I´ll wait to post real blog entries until I can use more than a period. We´re staying in the heart of Central Bankok, and today´s goals including finding swim trunks and a Thai SIM card so we´ll have phone service for the next week. We´re about to go out exploring the city, so wish us luck.

PICTURES: What You've Been Waiting For

If you're not on Facebook, here are my pictures from August and September: Old Summer Palace Park Let the Games Begin Soccer, Beach Volleyball, Athletics, and More Olympic Green at Night Soccer, Club Bud, and Diving Winding Up the Games Closing Ceremony Closing Out Beijing Closing Party Summer Palace 1 Summer Palace 2 Summer Palace 3 The Ming Tombs Xi'an Train to Tibet Jokhang Temple, Potala Palace Sera Monastery Drak Yerpa, Mountainside Monastery Drak Yerpa Picnic Yamdrok Lake

Emeishan and Leshan

Monday, September 8, 2008 We got up early in the morning, and although it was raining, managed to catch a taxi to the Chengdu Bus Station. It was easy to pick up a ticket to Emeishan, and soon we were on a bus. We napped during the 3 hour ride, and after a few little misgivings about the woman on the bus who demanded 5 more RMB from us, we were dropped at the base of Mt. Emeishan. Several of the local restaurateurs had stationed people at the bus station, and when we found one from the Teddy Bear Hotel, which Kate had recommended, we followed her around the corner to their establishment, where we gobbled down some lunch and gathered some information for the climb up the mountain. John and Ethan had done some research in the Rough Guide during the bus ride, and knew that we needed to start hiking at the 2nd bus stop up the mountain, so after lunch, we hopped on another bus and were soon at the base of the trail, ready to start hiking. The entire path was covered in stone, and we realize

Doing the 'Du

Friday, September 5, 2008 We got up early Friday morning; Tse Tan picked us up to take us to the Lhasa airport. I was not feeling well. Something I ate on Thursday brought me a little case of Montezuma’s revenge. On Friday, I took advantage of every bathroom in our path, some more than once. The flight was uneventful (except for the child who barfed all over his seat across the aisle from John,) and when we arrived in Chengdu, a short taxi ride from the airport landed us at our hotel. While John and Ethan went out for a walk, I took a nap in the hotel room, which left me feeling much better. We met John’s friend Kate, who he’d met in Beijing, for dinner. While they ate some more adventurous Sichuan hot pot, I had some white rice and a few pieces of their meat cooked in a milder sauce. We went out for a few drinks after dinner, but the evening was pretty uneventful. It was nice not to have much of an agenda, after Tibet’s non-stop touring. Perhaps Friday’s most notable happening was the

Boys' Day Out

Thursday, September 4, 2008 Our last day in Tibet! ☹ We got up early to meet Fran and Mirjam for breakfast. They were leaving for the airport at 8:30. It was tough to say goodbye to these girls. I’d been working with them since early June. John and Ethan have grown to love them in our short time traveling together. It is amazing how well the whole group has gotten along in Tibet. There has been no drama, and we’ve talked about reuniting for future trips together. Top ideas are a cheese-throwing or tomato-throwing festival in Italy, the Running of the Bulls, or a safari in Africa. We all love food, and getting to know the many ways to eat yak has been a pleasure. At 1pm, Tse Tan picked us up to take us to Norbulinka, the Dalai Lama’s Summer Palace. Several different Dalai Lamas built houses on these grounds, and we saw the home where the current Dalai Lama lived before 1959, when he fled from Norbulinka to India. The grounds are also a popular park for locals, and there were performance

MORE INFORMATION

For more information on my travels, follow the links in "My Blog List" to the right. Travels, Trials, and Tribulations is Ethan's blog. Cultural Exceptions is John's blog.  Both of them are traveling with me and even sharing my hotel room.

Yamdrok Lake

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In the mountains outside Lhasa, past the airport, there lies a holy lake, Yamdrok, which sparkles turquoise between the green mountains and the snow covered peaks. Tashi and Tse Tan drove us the 50 km outside the city to this beautiful place, which is approximately 14,500 feet above sea level. When we got out of the van, we were immediately bombarded by people trying to sell us cheap necklaces. Pushing past them, we started up the hill, where they would not follow. The higher we got, the more we huffed and puffed, but the more beautiful the scene as we left behind the parking lot and the tourist-hungry hawkers. John, Ethan, and I continued climbing, setting our sights on the highest peak near us, where, upon our arrival, all of our huffing and puffing was made worth it. We had a 360-degree view of the mountains, only one of which was higher than we were at nearly 15,000 feet. The other half of Yamdrok Lake, which is 60km long, and the 2nd largest Holy lake in Tibet, had come into view,

Doorways and New Friends

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I find myself drawn to doors. Each doorway in Tibet has its own beauty, its own paintings—flowers, symbols, colors. I find each new one beautiful and unique, and I’m drawn to photograph it. I’ve photographed closed doors, where the beauty of the door knocker and its attached prayer shawls are enough. Sometimes the doors are open and the scene behind the open door overshadows the decoration of the door. And sometimes a beautiful door leads to a lackluster courtyard. The past few days have given me time for reflection, and as I think about what I’ll do when I return to the States, I feel as if I’m entering a long hallway with many doors. There are many cities I’ve considered living in, though I love Chicago, and returning to live there is certainly not low on my list. I believe that there may be several jobs for which I am qualified, but I’m not absolutely certain that I could choose one right now as the one that is right for me. In which direction will I go? Behind which door is the car

First Day in Tibet--Overwhelming!

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Johkang Temple Tse Tan picked us up at 9am with Tashi, the driver, and we set out to downtown Lhasa. After a short drive, we were on an ordinary street, but the mountains seemed to peek around from behind the buildings everywhere we looked. We soon emerged on a square in the middle of town, at the end of which was an ordinary-looking white building with some golden animals on the roof. As we got closer, we saw two large white ovens, into which women were scooping Juniper and incense. Clouds of smoke were billowing from the stack, and we noticed that the whole town seemed to smell faintly of smoke. It felt appropriate to me that I spend Labor Day weekend somewhere that smelled like a campfire, since that’s the smell of the Mill Creek Campground. When we turned the corner around the tree and ovens however, we realized that this was the entrance to the Johkang Temple, our first stop for the day. Draped over the entrance were large curtains, woven from yak hair, and embroidered with Buddhi