Postcard from Samarkand

We arrived in Samarkand after an uneventful but expensive night in Tashkent. We managed to find a hotel (actually our taxi driver took us to a different one than the one we wanted) and were able to negotiate the price from $40 to $15 for the night. We then went out exploring.

The main thing to see in Samarkand is the Registan. It is a collection of three Medrassas or Islamic schools that have been restored. The first was built in the 1400s and the other two in the 1600s.



This one is distinctive because it has two ligers (lion/tigers) adorning it with a smiling face right above them. This is unusual because humans and animals are forbidden to be represented in Sunni and Shiite art. This is why they have the very fancy mosaic patterns.

The inside of the Medrassas are an open courtyard surrounded by dorms now filled with hawkers of tourist trinkets. There are four large arches on the inside where I guess the teachers taught from.

Samarkand was the capital for the Timurids lead by Amir Timur or Tamerlane as he is known in the west. Even though most in the west have never heard of him, he carved out an empire in his time to rival even Alexander the Great. He lead campaigns and conquered Constantinople, Delhi and Moscow. He was on his way to China with 200,000 troops when he died of disease from the cold. He motto was "The earth is not big enough for two kings."

Throughout the Timurid empire are blue domes like this one.



They really are all over the place in this part of the world. When Amir Timur died, he left behind a black sarcophagus. Lots of mistique now surrounds it. It was taken by a Turkish king even after being warned not to. He broke it in two and his son got sick. After returning it to Samarkand, he got better. It was exhumed by Russians a week before Hitler attacked them and reintered a week before the deciseve battle of Stalingrad was won.



Supposedly written somewhere on it is his epitaph, "If I were still alive, the world would tremble!" What a great guy.

For something a little more lighthearted, we found a new scent of laundry detergent for those of you tired of Tide.



The next morning we took the bus to Bukhara. We figured out how to take the local bus which was a little slower, lots cheaper and more tiring since we had to talk to all the people on the bus while sitting in the aisle. Here are all the guys from the bus. The one on Stephen's left asked us over to his house about 300 times with promises of rivers of whiskey. We didn't take him up on the offer.

First Postcard from the Fergana Valley

We arrived in the Fergana Valley (Kyrgyzstan) from China and were in for a huge change in culture. It is amazing what crossing some mountains can do. We went from a rice and noodles culture to a bread and cheese culture.

One of the most amazing things about the area is how much it feels like the mid-western part of the US. Wide clean streets, houses with yards, much larger personal space and blond haired blue eyed people walking around. In fact, this is the first place on our travels where we can be mistaken as locals until we open our mouths. Theres is lots of farm land, cows walking around and cotton everywhere.

Communication is remarkably easier too. Not only can we read the Cyrillic writing with a little practice (we never got very far in Chinese), but when we try and pronounce the local words, people mostly understand. If they don't we can pantomime and usually be understood. In China we would try and say the words in Chinese, pantomime and try every trick in the book only to realize that the person had absolutely no idea what we were trying to communicate.

I'll post more about the Fergana Valley including pictures after we cross back through the area and camp there for a while. On a side note, we cut out Tajikistan from the trip plans as it was going to take too long. Instead we will just be camping in the Fergana Valley.

About China

Now that I am out of China I can write a little more about my experiences there. I really wasn't sure what to expect since I knew they were communist and the first 10 years of my life were brought up in a world afraid of the Soviet Communists.

Crossing in to China from Laos, it was definitely like stepping into a different world. First of all, almost no one spoke English and few things were written in English. When we would have trouble speaking to someone, they would dutifully write out what they were trying to say in Mandarin! Thanks. They also had these peculiar hand motions for different numbers. We would ask how much and they would make the shape of a gun pointed left. I think that is 7 or 8. Sometimes it would be the pinky and thumb pointed up with the rest curled. That is 6. 5 is all five fingers pointed up and bunched together and so on. We would hold up five fingers and they would get confused. Overall it was very hard to communicate in China which resulted in us not eating very much for a lot of the time because it was just to hard to order at a restaurant.

The Chinese also have a very different idea of common space and common courtesy. Mostly that there is none. I had several people walk straight through me like I wasn't even there. I used to wonder why Singapore had the no spitting law. I wonder no more! In China they hock lugies constantly and it sounds absolutely disgusting. Beijing has recently passed a no spitting ordinance as well so hopefully it will improve soon.

Sidewalks are also public trashcans and toilets. It was not at all uncommon to see children or people older than children going to the bathroom in the middle of the sidewalk. I remember seeing a pile of poop on the sidewalk and thinking that someone didn't clean up after their dog and then thinking that it probably wasn't a dog.

The "No Smoking" signs on busses apparently means that it is optional to actually smoke a cigarette on a bus but you have to endure a bar rooms worth of second hand smoke. I must have smoked at least a pack of cigarettes worth of smoke on each bus ride.

Okay, enough griping, now some genuine insight into China. China is the most capitalistic (they call it modernizing) of all the nations I have ever been to. True they are good about giving lots of opportunities and equality to most people (women had the same jobs as men EVERYWHERE) but there was nothing that the government provided for free. You had to pay to use the roads, pay to get healthcard, pay to go to school and pay for just about everything. I thought communism was about "to each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Apparently communism means something else in China.

Overall it was a great experience though. China is a wonderful place even if the great firewall of China does block half the internet (including this website!) and there are almost no religious or personal freedoms. Hopefully with rising prosperity and education, the chinese will start demanding more freedom. On the plus side, the underground church is really fired up about reaching out to other nationalities. Hudson Taylor would be proud.

Okay, enough about china.

Postcard from Kashgar

We had a great day exploring around Kashgar. We saw the huge statue of Mao, sections of the old wall and old buildings. Of course we took plenty of good pictures however, I forgot to put the memory card in my camera so none of them were actually recorded.

The wall was really incredible. It was about 30 feet high and 20 feet wide. You could really get a feeling what it would be like to approach a city like this in its hayday. Now it is just another chinese city with some old buildings still in it. It was a lot of fun to wander around the old section of the city and see all the old adobe style houses. It was also good to be in the bread part of the world again. Bread on every corner. I took some really cool pictures of people making bread and old homes but... well... use your imagination.

We stopped by the famous Kashgar Sunday market and perused for a while. It wasn't as big as I pictured it but it was fairly large. Lots of spices, knives, hats, carpets and anything else you want to buy there. We're going to some places with other really good markets. They are really packed with people.

The next day we left for Kyrgyzstan which was pretty easy to find a bus. Getting through the border was another matter. We had to go through a passport check to approach the border, show our passports to get in the building and get a departure card, show our passports at immigration, show our passports at customs, show our passport leaving the building and show our passports at the security check outside. Thats was all just to LEAVE China. I never though a country would care that much to make sure everything was just right when you left. Then we went over to the Kyrgyz side and made it through immigration without a problem but got pulled aside right away because we were Americans. The immigration officer asked me what state I was from to which I replied "Texas!" He told me that wasn't a state in the US. I begged to differ seeing as I had lived there for 11 years. He was not convinced until I pulled out my driver's license which is from Texas to which he said "Oh! Tehas! That is how it should be pronounced." Silly me. A couple more passports checks and we were home free.

Postcard from the Silk Road to Kashgar

We left Chengdu a day later than we had planned since we missed the train by 5 minutes the first time and had to reschedule the trip for the following day. The following 3 days and two nights involved a lot of sitting on a train bed and reading or sitting or sleeping or not a whole lot of doing anything. We eventually arrived in Urumqi which is the most landlocked city in the whole world which means is it is the farthest from any ocean. After we arrived we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to the bus station for Kashgar. We took the 24 hour bus to Kashgar which meant we had been traveling for 4 days and 3 nights STRAIGHT! The road to Kashgar is the famous Silk Road which is a whole lot less cool than it sounds. Maybe part of the reason I say that is because we very exhaustedly saw it from a bus on the last leg of the journey. Anyways, imagine a vast expanse of flat dirt with an occasional bush and every 50 miles or so there is an oasis with tall stately poplar trees and square chinese buildings and you have a good idea of what it looks like. Also along the road is the second lowest point in the world after Death Valley. Quite a change after being in Tibet the week before and heading into the mountains of central asia next week. Eventually we arrived in Kashgar and crashed in the hotel after showering. The bed felt great since it wasn't slightly smaller than my body and constantly bouncing around all night. We experienced a little "train" lag the morning on the bus since we stopped for breakfast and we thought it was like 3 in the morning. Turns out it was 8 and the sun hadn't even started to come up. We had traveled so far in a couple days that the sun had changed by about 4 hours! The time was still the same since all of china runs off of Beijing time. The sun rises at about 9 and sets around 9 in the evening. Really strange for us. Turns out also that we are still in the fasting month of Ramadhan here. We thought we were going to miss it but didn't.

Tomorrow the plan is to leave for Kyrgyzstan after exploring Kashgar today. More to come later.

Postcard from Chendgu

UPDATE!!! Photos for the last three posts have been fixed. Enjoy!

Chengdu is more of a transition city for us and there isn't really a whole lot here we were excited about doing except for going to the Panda Research and Conservation Park. This is where the majority of the captively bred pandas have been born in the world. So this morning we hopped on a bus and headed over to check it out.

This is a photo of Jing-Jing.



She is the official Panda of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and if you think that is a little overboard, you haven't been to China recently. Everything here is 2008 Beijing Olympics. They are hyping it so much here it is ridiculous and it is still two years away.



Here is a photo of a couple of Pandas eating. This seems to be one of the two primary activities of the Panda. The other is sleeping. They are incredibly slow and docile for bear-like animals. It was a lot of fun to see them. The center also has a really good video explaining all about Giant Pandas and the attempts they have made to breed the pandas. They have been suprisingly successful the last 6 years or so.

Also at the park was an added suprise for me. The firefox!



Technically called the Red Panda or Lesser Panda, a common nickname is the firefox. Why is this so cool? Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I love the Firefox browser. The animals were cool to see in person and incredibly cute.



Tomorrow morning we are boarding the long train to Urumqi. We'll be on the train for several days and then after a short stop there, be heading by train to Kashgar. Don't expect to hear much from me for a few days then.

6 Days in Tibet

After overnighting in Chengdu, Stephen and I decided to go to Western Sichuan instead of Tibet. Western Sichuan is ethnically tibetan but open to tourism in a way that Tibet is not. We decided not to go to Lhasa since it is overly touristy and expensive. The decision proved to be a good one as the area we went to was beyond our expectations. Here is an account of our 6 days of travel there.

Our first day was pretty normal. We caught the bus to Kangding which usually takes 8 hours. On the road though there was a rock slide in progress. We thought it pretty amazing at the time that we could watch rocks fall onto the road.



We waited about an hour and the rocks stopped falling and we were able to continue the journey. We arrived in Kangding which is the last Han Chinese town before Tibet but there are still lots of Tibetans there still. We set out to find tsampo which is barley meal, yak butter and tea mixed into balls. We did find a nice couple who happily made us some to try. It was interesting, filling but definitely high in calories. It was plain that it was invented to be easy to carry and energy given while herding yaks up in the mountains. We overnighted there and caught the two day bus to Dege the next morning.

The next day was primarily involved with bumping up and down on a rickety old bus and trying not to slide off the seats since they were angled down funny. Not the most enjoyable ride. We passed by the beautiful rock and pine houses of the Tibetans.



Our guide book says the ride to Dege is 24 hours so we thought it was non-stop. Unfortunately our bus driver was not able to drive for 24 hours straight so we stopped at a town called Luhuo for the night. When we got off at 6PM we thought they meant that we would be stopping for 6 hours because they kept saying 6. So we wandered around town for a while and tried to talk to the locals but we don't really speak mandarin or tibetan. They were most impressed with my arm hair though and Stephen found it very funny when about 20 men from the town were crowded around me petting my arm hair. My favorite guy there kept informing us that I was a 3 and Stephen was a 2. We have no idea what that means but I'm glad I'm higher than Stephen is. Eventually we realized, through the repeated attempts of the town people to tell us, that the bus was leaving at 6AM and that we had better get some sleep. We found a cheap room at the bus station and crashed.

Unfortunately that meant that we wouldn't be able to make it all the way to Dege because we would have to turn right around and head back to make it to Chengdu in time for our train to Urumqi. We decided to get off the bus in Ganzi which really confused everyone since we had paid for all the way to Dege. Ganzi is in a valley at over 10,000 feet and some of the passes we were going through were more than 13,000 feet. We were really looking forward to the pass to Dege which is nearly 20,000 feet high. Since we got off, we weren't able to do it. In Dege we found a good hotel, a great bakery and prepared to hitchhike back and do some camping along the way. So we went into the town to buy some food stuffs but we offended this one guy while trying to buy spices and stuff. We aren't exactly sure what we did but he got very angry so we just left. The next guy just gave us what we wanted for free so we weren't sure if we were doing something wrong but in the end we ended up with everything we needed without getting kicked out of town. We also had some time to look around the area.



One of the prime incomes in the area is from raising and milking yaks. One of the things we bought was yak meat to eat while camping but eventually burned it as we had pretty well mutilated it while trying to cut it and it was full of yak hair. Not very appetizing. Sorry that I didn't get any pictures of the amazing people. They were almost all in traditional clothes which included crimsen monk robes, bright skirts with wide brim hats for the girls and cowboy outfits or yak coats for the guys. I'm not kidding about the cowboy outfits. For some reason, the whole area feels like the wild west. There are horses everywhere and cowboy hats, towns look like Dodge city and even yaks look like hairy cows with horns. In one town we even saw a horse go bolting through the town with a saddle hanging behind it. A minute or two later a lady came running after it.

After spending the night in a hotel and getting cleaned up, we decided to try and hitch back to Kangding and do some camping for a couple nights along the way. We started out early the next morning walking out of town along the road. We walked for an hour or so before a tractor with a trailer came along and picked us up.



Also in the tractor was this lady who is the only Tibetan I took a picture of. I asked some other people but they either said no or wanted money which I wouldn't pay them.



He only drove us a few miles and then turned off. We continued walking and after 4 and 1/2 hours, we had only made it 10 miles. Finally a truck driver pulled over and gave us a lift. Now one of the things about hitching in other parts of the world is that you are expected to pay for the ride. It is also oddly enough more expensive than taking the bus. Anyways, the bus driver took us as far as Daofu although we wanted to go up to the next pass. He stopped to take on a load and he seemed to indicate that we wanted to take us farther. So we waited around for a while and they started loading his truck with used cardboard. We realized it was going to be a while so we decided to help as it would get us back on the road faster. 3 hours later we had finished it up with a bunch of empty plastic bottles on top. It was lots of fun and the loaders were very appreciative of the help. They even fed us dinner which is a big thing here. We had a friend in Kunming who said he has been living here for 3 years and has never been invited over for dinner at someone's house. We got back in the truck and drove another mile to the hotel, much to our suprise. Then to our even greater suprise, the hotel was crazily decorated on the inside like the picture below.



Every inch of the place was crazy like that and the hotel was built in the traditional tibetan stone with pine interior. We spent the night and were awoken by the truck driver who wanted to keep driving us. We kept trying to explain that we wanted to get off at the next pass but he didn't understand until we arrived there and motioned to get off. He thought we were nuts since there was snow everywhere and it was really high up.



We trekked up the hill and found a good spot to cook breakfast on the stove we brough with. We had figured out how to use it with diesel although it made everything taste a little funny. Noodles and tea later, we kept hiking till we found a place to pitch the tent and build a fire. We gathered wood and spent the next 2 hours trying to light the fire. We destroyed two of our three lighters (holding the last as an emergency for the stove) and still didn't get anything lit since all the wood was soaking wet. It was really cold too. Finally with a splash of diesel we got it going and worked furiously to keep it going. I started getting altitude sickness, although I didn't know it right away, so went and laid down. It started sleeting and I wasn't getting any better so we decided to head to Tagong for the night. We did so by breaking camp and hiking out to the road and hitching a ride on a pickup that liked to take potholes at full speed. We spent the night there then caught a quite shared taxi to Kangding then a bus to Chengdu.

Interestingly enough on the way back we had to stop again for the same rock slide. We wondered whether the whole thing was caused by the local villagers who always showed up to sell food at inflated prices to the passing motorists. One never knows. We finally arrived back in Chengdu and crashed at the hotel.

For anyone interested in visiting tibet, I would highly recommend Western Sichuan as it is very authentic, under touristed and still wild where Lhasa is overtouristed and mostly Han Chinese as the Tibetans have all cleared out. That is the account of our 6 days in (almost) Tibet.

Postcard from Kunming

Taking the bus from Luang Phrabang in Laos to Kunming in China was definitely an experience. The bus ride was 40 hours long but was a sleeper bus which made it bearable. The four of us attempted the trip and were greeted the first night by northern Laos roads. By roads I mean a patch of potholed land that a good vehicle can probably pass over. Trying to sleep while passing over these roads was like playing football and sleeping at the same time, where you are the football. We were jostled left, then right, then up, then down constantly.

It was all great fun. During the next day we crossed into China without too much difficulty although I was questioned a bit after I couldn't provide any ID besides my passport and scuba certification. The border agent wanted something issued in the US to which I explained repeatedly that I didn't live there so I didn't need certification beyond my passport. He eventually gave up and let me through. The next day and night were much better as the roads were actually passable if not a little curvy. We arrived safely and groggily in Kunming.

Our time in Kunming was lots of fun as we toured around the city looking at cool stuff. We went to some ponds with nice parks around them and tried out tea which is very famous from this region of China.

For fun one day we did a photo scavenger hunt and set of as couples to see how many of a list of items we could find. This is the result of the most disgusting food.

Doing the scavenger hunt turned out to be lots of fun and a way for us to explore places in Kunming that we wouldn't have otherwise seen. China was definitely interesting. As Katie put it, "it's like a really big Chinatown."

Also in the market we stumbled across this fruit that we had no idea what it is. It smelled a bit like a lemon or orange but was solid on the inside like an apple but without a lot of meat.

Our last day in Kunming we went down to Shilin, which is the stone forest. It is basically limestone rocks that have been weathered into huge pillars in really odd shapes and sizes. Some are quite spectacular and the highest reach nearly 30 meters (close to 100 feet). For anyone planning on visiting Shilin, the entrance price has been raised to almost $20 so I hope you really like rocks.

Finally, the next day we tearfully said goodbye to Ryanna and Katie and dropped them off at the airport for their flight back to the US. We then boarded the train to Chengdu.

We're only staying in Chengdu for the night and then will head out near Tibet for a while. It may be a while before we get back to internet again but I'll post when we do.

Postcard from Laos

We arrived in Northern Thailand right across from the border with Laos after a suprisingly fast 18 hours of taxis and busses from Angkor Wat. We spent the night with some friends of some friends and had some really great discussions with them. The work they are doing is very exciting and it is amazing to see God working in this part of the world.

The next morning we headed into Laos. First off I'd like to say, if you have the chance, GO TO LAOS NOW!!! Laos is truely awesome. We have enjoyed some of the best food we have ever had for around $1 per meal. The people are also very friendly, not pushy like Cambodia and Thailand. The infrastructure is also developed just enough to make things comfortable but not feel like you aren't experiencing the real culture. In another 5-10 years though, Laos will probably be ruined similar to how Thailand now is. It takes a lot of work to find a part of Thailand that is comfortable. Not so in Laos, it is amazing. Truely the jewel of the Mekong.

We stayed with some more friends there and were pleasently suprised by Laos. The big excitement of the trip happened the next day when Ryanna and Katie arrived from the US to join us for part of the trip.



The friends we were staying with have a new baby boy that is one of the most happy babies I've ever seen. Our stay in Laos was awesome. In Vientiane, we ate at a Vientamese place that Stephen raved about for days. We also ate at an Indian place that was phenominal and they had the best breakfasts at a place called Joma. Our whole experience in Laos with eating could be summed up with "gastronomical bliss."

But there was much more going on that that. For one thing, we were both very happy to have Ryanna and Katie there. We have done tons of stuff and had a blast.

First off, in Vientiane, we went to the "Arc D' Triumph" as I call it. It is modeled after the french thingies and represents the communist victory over the king of Laos in 1975.



I also have a picture of Ryanna from a distance looking like she is holding it up but I don't think she would be very happy if I posted it. We also saw the big stupa and water fountain around town. Mostly we just enjoyed catching up.

The next day we took an overnight bus to Luang Phrabang.



Luckily it wasn't this bus with candles for headlights. The bus we did take wasn't much more comfortable though. We did make it safely.

Luang Phrabang had an amazing night market although we haven't bought anything there yet.



We had a great time walking around, looking at the World Heritage city and gazing off over the river.

The next day we rented a boat to go see the Pak Ou caves.





Along the way we had to fill up at the local area gas station. You can actually see gas pumps like out of a regular gas station on the boat.



The caves themselves were mildly disappointing seeing as they were just shallow caves along the river filled with thousands of budda statues. I guess that would have been more exciting if I worshipped budda.





It did have some amazing shots of the Mekong river though. Speaking of which, the Mekong is a really huge river that flows really fast.



Once back in town, we climbed to the top of the hill where there is yet another stupa to watch the sun go down. Unfortunately, it was a very foggy day so it wasn't so impressive.



After that we went down to the river and had yet another amazing Lao meal.

The next day we took an elephant tour to a waterfall. I think the pictures probably speak for themselves. It included a Land Rover to get to a rickety little boat and then a two hour elephant treck right to the waterfall. The water was suprisingly cold but very refreshing.









Hopefully tonight we will catch the sleeper bus to Kunming. It will take 38 hours and leaves in the evening so we should arrive around noon on the second day.