[we should whisper on lj, like in a library]

Lag. Laaaaaaaaaaag. I'm trying to hold out 'til sunset. Wearing denim for the first time in a long time. And a sweater. House furnace has been turned on for the first time! (House was at 57°.) Leaves are falling from the fig tree...little piles of unpacked objects litter the floor...must grocery shop.

Free airport wi-fi! All you have to do is present your passport to get a personalized login, presumably so they can log your every bit and check for seditious activity.

Because I had an internal Chinese flight they gave me a transit visa (hence ability to leave airport for hotel last night), so here in Shanghai I wandered over to peep at the ( Read more... )

I'm such an Anglocentrist, just one channel with some English news. But I should be more charitable; CCTV1 also has some circus types who have trained dogs to play soccer with a balloon.

Hot shower dispatched! Feeling safer once I realized my room has no bathtub! Should be sleeping, not watching some bozo unicycle on a slackline with traffic cones ( Read more... )

I'm not sure how smart it was to get in a car with two strange men, but it seems like a nice hotel room for…$26? It was interesting negotiating the price without knowing the exchange rate! Cheaper than the airport hotel at least. In case I wake up in a bathtub full of ice, know that I'm at the «Ruexing Kunming Traders Hotel» and their phone number ( Read more... )

Hope my traveling companions are feeling well enough to enjoy it. They appear to have succumbed to «Miranda,» a drink containing raw fruit. It wasn't pretty!

Tomorrow those of us able to leave the hotel will venture to Patan, with the highest density of UNESCO World Heritage sites in the world. Then a last fit of souvenir shipping and out!

The election seemed to go smoothly here in Kathmandu. People seemed in good spirits walking to the polls, and the roads were empty of motor vehicles, which made for some once-in-a-lifetime cycling as we pedaled to the mighty Bodnath and Pashupatinath temples for some site-seeing. Imagine your nearest interstate highway with just pedestrians and ( Read more... )

They say Jimmy Carter just flew in to observe the Nepali election coming in three days. The government has posted army and police on the major highways, but the Maoist faction that called the transit strike has still managed to firebomb a few buses over the last week, and we are pretty sure we heard an IED going off from the fabled hilltop monkey ( Read more... )

We will not be kept down! Mardi Himal was selected as a substitute trek. Even though it is but a bump on the side of Machhapuchhare, our walk will be somewhat analogous to climbing Pikes Peak from Colorado Springs. We shared a jeep to the trailhead with some Frenchmen, paying a somewhat extortionate price to offset the risk of burning jeep. But it ( Read more... )

Politics! A scourge the world over, but anarchy has its downsides too. (Even I will admit it.) Some of the Nepali political parties have decided not to run in the upcoming Big Election, and instead have called for a ten day general strike to make known their displeasure with the status quo. During the general strike, or bandh, shops are ( Read more... )