April 1st, 2000 8:30 AM...

I'm sitting in a cyber-cafe in Kathmandu, Nepal. This is my third time to Nepal and Dan's second. It's fun to come back to a place that you recognize. It really hasn't changed too much in the four years since we were here last. The dogs are still rabid, the streets still smell, the people are beautiful and you still get approached every 5 minutes by someone selling either hash or tiger balm. We are, once again, staying at the Potala Guest House. The sheets are worn out and the toilet leaks but what do you want for $10 a night?

Kathmandu

Courtesy of FreeFoto

We flew from Saipan to Hong Kong and only had a half day there. We spent a good part of that time getting a Chinese Visa. If we had been smart we would have done this months ago from Saipan, but time slipped by and we didn't. The reason we want a Chinese visa is to enter Tibet from Nepal after our trek. We read that you cannot get a Chinese visa in Nepal because the Chinese government is so paranoid of the worlds support of Tibet, and they assume that everyone entering from Nepal are only interested in Tibet and not the rest of China. Anyway, for this reason we spend the day in Hong Kong getting the visa and paid $100.00/per for the 'rush' visa instead of $30.00/per for the normal visa (I'm sure the extra $140 for our two visa's were pocketed by the guy that typed the document up). Upon arriving in Kathmandu we discovered that the Chinese government will no longer allow individual travellers to go to Tibet from Nepal and that you have to go with a group and our $100 visa is vitually worthless at this point. AAARRRGGGHH. More about Tibet as the time gets near.

We are now trying to concentrate on our upcoming trek of the 'Annapurna Circuit'. We have to rent and/or purchase a sleeping bag and down coat as we had decided to leave ours at home. There are plenty of outfitters all over Kathmandu so it won't be a problem finding the gear. The only concern is having a sleeping bag and/or coat that is already home to smaller life forms. After getting our gear we will head to the Annapurna region via bus and start our trek. The trek will take anywhere from 17 days to 25 days. Alot will depend on the weather, our health, and whether we find some fantastically quaint village that we decide to hang out in for a few days. Since we will be out of cyber-touch for the duration of our trek you will all have to sit at the edge of your seats waiting for the blow by blow. Until the next entry..Namaste!

Annapurna

Courtesy of FreeFoto

04/02/00

We had a wild night in Kathmandu last night. A former client of Dan's, who used to work at the Dynasty Casino on the island of Tinian, is Nepalese and is living back here in Kathmandu. We called her upon arriving here because we wanted to get together with her. Last night she decided she wanted to show us the town so her and her boyfriend took us to the 'Casino Royale' in one of the fancier hotels here in Kathmandu. After a few hours of entertainment off of Dan's $20.00 worth of chips, we had dinner and then headed to a Nepalese disco, Club X Zone. What a trip to be dancing in a disco with the young Nepalese! To be on this 'double-date' with a Nepalese couple and to have them show us what they consider a Saturday night in Kathmandu was quite a treat. This was a side of Nepal that we would have never experienced on our own.

April 21

We are now back in Katmandu after a wonderful 15 day trek around the Annapura Cicuit. On April 3rd we took a 7 hour bus ride out of the city to Dumre, where we changed buses to go to Besihahar. I started to get very sick halfway during the bus ride. Celisa had insisted on an expensive tourist ($9.00) bus over the local bus ($2.00) and I was glad that we had the extra "luxury" --(no chickens or goats). With a 103 temp, I climbed off the bus and into a bed that Celisa had nabbed right near the bus stop. The next day I felt well enough to hike 3 hours to Nagadi. We had two porters along with us to carry our backpacks so the hiking was not too hard. Near the end of the 3 hours I fell hands first into a mud puddle and that was my signal that it was time to stop for the day. For the next 5 days we hiked 7 or 8 hours a day. We were both feeling strong and were enjoying the time in the mountains. I had not touched snow in over a year and I was missing the white stuff. The feel of the whole trek would be like hiking from Golden up to Loveland Pass. We started low and hot and ended up staying at 14,500 feet on day 9 prior to our hike over the Thorong La pass at 17,600 feet. Both of us had no problems with the altitude even though we lost one of our porters to altitude sickness on day 7. (The other porter was sure that he could carry both of our packs. He did just fine but I did help him out by taking my own pack over the pass. We also gave him a nice tip over and above his $7.00 a day without expenses that he was making.)

Day 10 through 15 was supposed to be much easier due to the downhill vs. uphill. Our first day going down however, we ran into a very strong headwind that just about sandblasted our facial skin away. The next "downhill" day we had rain and had to cross a swollen creek. I soaked my boots trying to jump from rock to rock. I yelled to Celisa and Sangar to cross barefooted as I ran for cover under the trees. I have now learned that it is much better to help ones wife across a rain swollen creek rather than running for cover.

The people that we met on the trek were all very nice. The locals extended so much hospitality in their guest houses. The average charge was a dollar a night and the food was really pretty good. We also met up with two guys from Boulder and 3 other Americans. We would play cards every night as there is not much else to do in the mountains after the sun goes down.

On Saturday the 22nd of April we board a small bus with 13 other travelers for a 4 day bus ride to Lhasa, Tibet. China will not allow individual travelers to visit from Nepal so we are forced to join a group. After the bus ride we will spend 4 days touring Lhasa and the surrounding area and then fly back to Nepal on the 29th of April. "Talk" to you later.

Pagodas at Kathmandu Durbar Square

Courtesy of FreeFoto

April 29, 2000.

Here we are back in Kathmandu after an incredible eight days in Tibet. WOW...I don't even know if I can begin to describe what I feel about Tibet. It was an amazing country, amazing scenery and unbelievable beautiful people.

The journey started at 5am in Kathmandu where we were promised a very comfortable bus ride to Tibet. We were to drive to the border of Nepal and Tibet and then onto a village about 30km (18 miles for my American friends/family) from the border for the evening. The drive through Nepal was fabulous. We drove up an amazing canyon on a road that was BARELY cut out of the cliff's edge. There was a raging river about 500 feet below and amazing forests all around. (Mom..if you are reading this, you definately WOULD NOT want to be on this road!!!). Once reaching the border of Nepal and Tibet we had to get off of the 'luxury bus', go through all of the B.S. immigration with the super-paranoid Chinese government, and then walk across the 'Friendship Bridge' to China.

Friendship Bridge

Courtesy of Galen Frysinger

Between the 'Friendship Bridge' and the first Tibetan border town of Zhangmu there is an 8km section called 'No man's Land' in which we had to get into the back of a truck and ride. Now, 8km (or about 5 miles) doesn't seem like far for standing in the back of a dirty, bumpy truck, however, we are in Tibet now and the roads are HORRIBLE and this short ride took over an hour!

Transportation?

Courtesy of Galen Frysinger

Did I mention how bad the roads in Tibet are? As I mentioned before, the village that we intended on sleeping this first night was only 30k or 18 miles from this border but the roads are so unbelievable bad that it literally took FIVE HOURS to go that distance...amazing! Also, gone was the 'luxury bus' that was promised and there were 15 of us squeezed into a mini-bus which would be 'home' for the next five days. But, what was also amazing was to be in Nepal and to slowly, slowly climb up the Tibetan Plateau at 12,000 feet. We were literally inching our way UP the to the roof of the world. Once reaching the plateau, the whole landscape changed. Gone was the lush jungle and deep river valley and we found ourselves in a moonscape-like land as far as the eye could see.

The journey between Kathmandu and Lhasa took five grueling days, driving 7 to 9 hours a day over passes that were 15,000 feet high but it was o-so-beautiful. I never got tired of looking out the window and seeing miles of moon-like land, beautiful mountains, and dried glacier fields and river beds. It is a stark, beautiful country. A little trivia for all. The Himalayas are the youngest mountain range in the world and also the tallest. They are growing STILL at a rate of 10cm per year. I find that fascinating. The villages were few and far between and literally no amenities whatsoever between them.

Did I mention how beautiful the Tibetan villages were? The Tibetans have a real nack at creating the most beautiful little villages out of mud bricks, prayer flags and a little white paint! Rows and rows of drying Yak dung would be stacked on the roofs of all of the houses and every house would be painted white with a maroon and blue stripe painted from top to bottom. Prayer flags would be sticking out of the mud roofs of literally ALL of the structures. The flags are blue, red, white, yellow and green. The blue represents the sky, the red represents fire, the white represents clouds, the green represents all living creatures and the yellow represents the good earth. When the prayer flags blow in the wind, it sends 'mantras' to heaven praying for a good harvest and long life for all! Tibetans have been growing barley for centuries in this high altitude but a few years back the Chinese government insisted that they grow wheat and rice instead. The farmers told the goverment that wheat and rice cannot grow at this altitude but they insisted and in one year alone, 70,000 Tibetans died of starvation. I thought about that ALOT when watching the farmers tend to their barley fields.

Potala

Courtesy of Tibet Study Association

We reached Lhasa, the capital, after five very hard travel days. Lhasa is home to the Potala, the winter palace of the Dalai Lama. It is an amazing building and sits up on a hill overlooking the city. We toured through the Potala but unfortunately there are only a few rooms left as is after the Chinese government 'liberated' Tibet. Most of the 1000 rooms of this amazing palace were destroyed and the riches carried off to China. None the less, it was amazing to be in the meeting rooms of the Dalai Lama and see his seat and picture him, as a 14 year old boy, sitting up on this 'throne' meeting with advisors and scholars and monks! We spent another day in Lhasa at the Jokhang Temple which is the holiest Monastery for Tibetan pilgrams. We were honored with watching about 70 monks chant one evening in the monastary. The sights, smells and sounds combined were almost more that I could handle, it was truly amazing. So much has been taken away from the Tibetans yet they have beautiful smiles and loving eyes. I truly have not seen more beautiful people in my life. I WILL go back to Tibet..there is no doubt and I would encourage anyone with any interest in the welfare of the Tibetans and the Dalai Lama to go to Tibet as well. It was quite obvious that the Tibetan people truly appreciated our presence there. We would have strangers walk up to us, stare, smile and give us a thumbs up. It was their way of saying thanks for the support. Dan and I also had the pleasure to 'illegally' give away a picture of the Dalai Lama. For anyone that doesn't know this, it is strickly prohibited by the Chinese Government to have ANY picture of the 14th Dalai Lama in Tibet. When we crossed the border, they requested to see all guide books we had and they flipped through the pages looking for pictures of his holiness! Little did they know that I 'happened' to be reading a book by the Dalai Lama and it had a full photo of him on the cover! If they had found this, they would have confiscated the book or at least torn the cover off. Anyway, on our last night in Lhasa, Dan and I walked part of the Barkor Circuit, which is a clock-wise walk around the Jokhang Monastery that pilgrams come from all over Tibet to do, and we found a couple of monks that looked like they could use a photo of the Dalai Lama! It was quite fun to secretly give them the photo and see the excitement on their faces to receive it. If I could have, I would have given a thousand photos out that night (of course, I'd be in a lousy Chinese prison right now).

Well, that's probably more than anyone wants to know about Tibet so I'll stop for now!

May 4, 2000

OK. Now, I think it is only fair that since I've relayed the story of how wonderful Tibet was, I should relay the story of the bus-ride-from-hell! As with all international travel, when forced into a 'tour' situation, you will find all types of personalities from all over the world. This particular 'tour' was the craziest we've ever been on! There were 15 of us shoved onto this small minibus for five solid days of hard travel. It definately brought out the best and the worst of all of us! We will start with Richard, the sixty-three year old self-proclaimed bi-polar man from New York. Right from the start he was a bit strange but by the end of the trip he was basically out of control. He wasn't cut out for this type of travel. It was a trip he booked from the USA and I believe that he pictured a big luxury bus traveling on paved highways and nice hotels. He obviously should have done a little more research on Tibet. The funny thing was, he was on a quest to go to 60 countries. Tibet was his 41st. I don't think he even cared which countries he went to, as long as he reached 60 of them before he died. Anyway, Richard proceeded to get altitude sickness, even on day one. The higher and longer we went, the sicker he got. I'm not sure if it was the effect of the Prozac and Lithium that he was taking for his bi-polar-ness or age played a part, but we were worried on day two that he was going to die of altitute sickness. He was delirious, not eating, had diarrea and slept most of the time. On several occasions he would ask "are we in Lhasa" when we were only on day 2 or 3 of the trip. Finally, a doctor had to give him an IV to get some liquids into his body. He was freezing and had not done enough research on the weather to know how to pack. He was wearing thin dress pants and loafers. Poor Richard 'wet' himself a couple of times on the bus (because of his delirium)..we were truly worried for him but also all were a little upset that he put us in this situation when he should have known better. Anyway, he was doing much better by the time we reached Lhasa. He was eating, felt warmer and he seemed to have his senses back. The topper on the cake though was as we were driving into Lhasa the Potala appeared. All of us were staring out the window, admiring the beauty of the structure. Something we traveled 5 hard days to see. Richard was sitting behind Dan and I and leaned forward and asked me "say, does anybody know what that is?".

We have to add the story of Kim. Kim was a 36 year old ex-stripper who wore her cheerleading windbreaker around all of the time. According to the jacket she took first place in a cheerleader contest in 1982 (time to retire the jacket, Kim!). Kim told us on the first day of the trip that her boyfriend couldn't understand why she would want to go to Tibet. He thought a ClubMed vacation would be much more suitable. She was laughing at that. She also told us that she was a nurse for a plastic surgeon. That didn't come as any surprise to Dan and I as she had unusually large breasts for someone her size! Anyway, after day one she told me she was really sick of the scenery, that it was boring. I told her she'd better get used to it because it was going to look that way for the next 5 days! By the second to the last day of the trip she said she couldn't wait to leave and that her next vacation was going to be a ClubMed one!!!! What a surprise!

Next we have Johnnie. Johnnie was from Rome, Italy. Johnnie didn't seem too interested in Tibet. I'm not quite sure what he was doing there. He slept through the entire bus trip on the first and second day. When we were in Lhasa and midway through touring the Potala he told Tenzin (our Tibetan guide) that he wanted him to take him back to the hotel, he was hungry. Tenzin told him he couldn't so Johnnie left on his own. We found out later that Johnnie had a Chinese Prostitute waiting for him there. I guess since he was sharing a room with another person he figured he had to see the prostitute while we were all out! Anyway, apparently he took a Tibetan prostitute the next day. Maybe his idea of experiencing other cultures is different than ours.

Don't get us wrong, we made some great friends on the bus too! There were some wonderful people (you know who you are) who we are sure we will keep in contact with for a long time!

Today we leave Nepal for Turkey...until then, Namaste.

St Sophia, Istanbul

Courtesy of Galen Frysinger

05/11/00 Istanbul Turkey

First and foremost we have to let you know that the keyboards on the computers in Turkey are very odd so the spelling and puncuation may look strange. You have to use your imagination.

Our first introduction to Turkey was meeting a nice Turkish man on the flight from Nepal. He proceeded to give us tips on Istanbul and then gave us his home telephone number. He wanted to make sure that if we had any problems that we would call him. We would soon find out that he was NOT the exception to the rule but that Turkish people are very friendly and always go out of their way to help us.

Istanbul is a beautiful city, rich ın culture and history. We've spent the last five days visiting mosques, palaces and museums. We've walked through narrow cobblestone streets and into huge markets and bazaars. Except for the carpet-baggers who are insistant that you visit their carpet shop, the bazaars are colorful and friendly.

Celısa and I decıded to sample the Turkısh Baths-- or Hamams. We were a little scared after goıng ınto a few of the places and seeıng these large Turkısh men tellıng Celısa -- I gıve you massage. One evenıng we decıded to gıve ıt a go. Celısa was dırected to the womens area. I was gıven a towel to wear and was pointed to a dırty door. (The place had a sıgn that saıd that ıt had been open for 537 years. The sıgn was at least 50 years old so I am bettıng that ıt was nearlyl 600 years old. A good hard cleanıng anytıme ın the last 200 years would have been welcome.)

Insıde was a steamıng room wıth a 25 foot square marble block 4 feet off the floor. Turks were layıng on the block and gettıng washed or massaged. A sıde room had a hotter steam room and other rooms had wash basıns. I spotted a frog ın one room and green moss near the skylıght so you know that the humıdıty was up there.

After the steam bath a man the sıze of Mike Root came to me and started washıng me wıth a rubber mit. If you dont know Mike Root, he wrestled for Western State at 230 lbs. back ın the 70,s. He wıshes he were at 230 now. Thıs rubber mıt had sand embedded ın the palm and the very hard rubbıng removed all small moles, skın tags, pımples, and most of my skin. The mıd sectıon towel was kept on at all times, thank Allah.

After the mıt rub, the bıg guy gave me the hardest massage of my life. I feared for broken bones but took it like a good Turk. The face rub just about took off my eyelids. Afterwards I felt great! Celısa on the other hand had a very weak massage by a huge Russian woman wıth gold teeth. It was mainly a weak washdown for her. A good time for 12 bucks each. The sad thing ıs that many of these baths are being closed down as ın-home bathrooms are being built ın the Turkish homes.

May 13

We've left Istanbul and have made our way down south a bit. We took a ferry then bus to Bursa a few days ago. We visited a beautiful old Ottoman Village outside of town that has been preserved. It's a peaceful place with cobblestone streets and peach and cherry orchards surrounding it. The highlight for us was that there were no other 'tourists' so we lazily walked around for several hours looking at the homes and surrounding countryside. After a full day of sightseeing we decided to try another Turkish bath. This time we opted for the 'family bath' which we were told was better because we would be in a room together. Actually it was very nice and we both got the royal treatment from a Turkish man. He, of course, had to verify with Dan several times that I really was getting a scrub and massage. I guess he felt he had to ask Dan's permission to touch me! Anyway, it was a good massage this time and any signs of tanned skin that I had left over from Saipan are now officıally gone.

Indoor Market

Courtesy of Galen Frysinger

Today we took a 7 hour bus trip to Ephesus. We will be here for several days as there are alot of Roman ruins to see. The bus trip was pure luxury. Big air-conditioned bus with no smoking, no goats, no chickens and no fighting for 1/2 of a seat! There was even an attendant coming around every 10 minutes or so handing out water or juice or coffee. This bus only cost us nine dollars and was a far cry from most buses that we've been on. (This must be the bus that Richard thought he was getting in Tibet). Until next time...

May 20, 2000

Bodrum, from St Peters Castle

Courtesy of Ed's Gallery

Well here we are in a little Mediterranean sea-side village called Oludeniz. It's situated on a lagoon to one side, the bay to the other and a sandy beach in between. Between the town and the sea are mountains forested with Ponderosa Pines. It's really quite beautiful. Since it's low season right now there aren't too many people here which is nice for us. It also means we can get some decent deals on rooms. We are paying $13.00 for a really nice hotel that is near the water and breakfast is included! Of course, we are entirely spoiled from the ocean waters of Saipan and I can't get the courage up to get into the sea here. The water is FREEZING as far as I'm concerned. I think the only people getting in the water are those crazy Brits who probably think that the water is warm.

Before coming here we spent the last few days in a sleepy hamlet about 5 hours north of here called Gumusluk. This was a wonderful little village on the Aegean Sea with just a few pensions, restaurants and ruins of the ancient Roman town of Mindos scattered about. We rented a little apartment on the beach for $16.00 a night and bought groceries in the market. Most of the time we spent here was walking around the ruins or sitting on our balcony eating bread and cheese and drinking really fabulous CHEAP Turkish wine. We did manage to find a windsurfing board and a couple of paddles and paddled around the bay looking at the yachts that were anchored there. The ruins of Mindos were facinating to look at because you would just run across them everywhere. We were walking on a hill and saw Mosiacs in a beautiful pattern just laying there on the ground and carved marble pillars laying in the water. We also found countless pottery chards stuck in the layers of mud and dirt at the edge of cliff near the water. We poked around for a while looking for some valuable artifact but came away with nothing but dirty fingernails!

Gumusluk

Courtesy of Ed's Gallery

After spending a few days in Gumusluk we had to force ourselves onto one of those luxury buses again and head down the coast to this seaside town of Oludeniz. We are now looking into the possibility of getting on a chartered sailboat and sailing down the Mediterranean coast to Kas or Olympos. (Of course, for me that means spending alot of time feeding the fish because I generally get seasick). Until next time...

May 22

We did go swimming and the water was not that cold. The Europeans and the Turkish were loving the cold water-- the Saipanese were a little shy.

We did sign up to paraglide off a very large mountain-- what a wild ride. We rode in a truck for 50 minutes up a very winding road to the top of a 6500 foot mountain that is very near the beach. In other words-- it was steep. Pıcture a 14,000 foot peak next to Georgetown. My 'pilot' slept the whole drive up the mountain. Celisa and I were a bundle of nerves. We were given pilot jumpsuits and helmets with chin bars. The Turkish guys spoke very little English and appeared to be in a hurry. Celisa got rıgged up first and her pilot told her to start running down the mountainsıde. The wind was blowing sideways and they were unable to go into the air. On the second run they whooshed up into the sky and were climbing fast in the wind.

We took off next and seconds into the air we were rising above the mountain to 7000 feet. Celisa was even hıgher. With the pilot behind us, all we could see was our feet and the sea/ beach/ hills below. Celisa immediately felt sick to her stomach but never threw up. I just kept breathing deeply and thinking positive. At one point the pilots were so close that Celisa thought she could reach her feet out to touch my chute. We both yelled out about not getting too close to each other. The ride lasted over 30 minutes and ended with two perfect landings on the beach. We were glad we jumped but won't be signing up for another one for a year or so.

We are now sleeping on a 60 foot wooden sailboat docked in the town of Fethiye. We plan on leaving tomorrow for a 3 day trip to 12 islands nearby. Seven Aussies are on board as well. Pray we get some sleep.

05/29/00

Well we DID survive the sailboat trip but the seven Aussies turned into EIGHT Aussies and FOUR Kiwi's! It was great fun but hard for us 40+ Americans to keep up with the young Down-Unders. Thank god our American friends Brant and Cindy, whom I met in Bali a few months back, where in Turkey at the same time and decided to join us on the boat. Although the 'Gullet', which is what they call the Turkish sailboats here, never put the sails up (we motored around), the trip was GREAT. We saw some awesome coastlines and beatiful little coves and bays. The water was calm as can be so I never bothered to 'feed the fish' as they say. We slept on the boat for free the two days the boat was docked in Fethiye before the cruise and could have the night after arriving back in Fethiye as well but we opted out because we truly didn't get ANY sleep for the four nights! (By the way, we've learned some interesting drinking games in case anybody reading this needs to new one)

After leaving Fethiye we headed 4 hours or so down the coast to Olimpos (yes, it's really spelled that way). There really isn't a town in Olimpos now but a bunch of tree-house accomodations surrounded by 3rd Century B.C. Lycian ruins, mountains and forests and a beautiful beach. It was fabulous. We spent several days just exploring the ruins and laying on the beach. The beauty of the ancient city of Olimpos is that the ruins really haven't been excavated or restored so they are scattered amongst a thick forest overlooking the sea. Dan and I had the best time just hiking around in the forest looking at them. We also hiked up Mt. Olimpos nearby which is where the original Olympic flame came from. On Mt. Olimpos there is some type of natural gas 'leaking' out of the mountain in various spots and when the gas reaches the air it bursts into flame and just burn. We hiked up the mountain at about 9:30pm and suddenly came upon a bunch of flames burning and a faint smell of gas. You can even take a match or lighter to certain spots around that aren't burning and they will ignite. I don't know if there is another place on this planet that has this strange phenomena but it was quite impressive to see. They know that these flames have been burning for at least 2000 years or so because they have record of the Lycians using the flames as a sort of lighthouse for the ships in the sea and apparently (we've been told) that the Greeks used this flame for the first Olympics. WOW.

We are now in Antalya which is a rather large, modern city on the southern coast of Turkey but has a beautiful old section of town that we've been enjoying. Our Pension is a beautifully restored Ottoman House with a large garden out back. Tomorrow we get on yet another one of those Turkish luxury buses for a 10 hour bus ride to Adana and then the following day another 10 hour bus ride to Aleppo, Syria. We have no idea how 'connected' Syria is so this might be our last entry for a few weeks..until then..Masallah