How to Ride a Motorcycle Across SE Asia
Originally Posted on OffTrackPlanet.com When it comes to Southeast Asia, everyone has the same guidebook and the same itinerary. Chances are you’ve island hopped through Thailand, trekked through Laos, hit a tranny bar here and there and you still haven’t left the crowd behind. You’re stuck on the Banana Pancake Trail. It’s time to get … Continue reading
Asia in Retrospect – Final Post (Beijing, China)
And now, it is my last day in Beijing; I am finally ready to leave China, finally ready to go to Mongolia, to Siberia to Moscow on Trans-Siberian Railroad. I have my tickets in my hand, my visas in my passport, and my plane tickets back to the US are already booked. My journey across … Continue reading
I discuss Freedom with Athena (Great Wall of China)
I the train journey from Lhasa to Beijing took two days. The train traveled across all of China, from the Tibetan Plateau to the mountains of northern China, past the terracotta warriors in Xi’an and onwards to Beijing. The Beijing municipality is roughly the size of Belgium, so it took a while to get to … Continue reading
Thoughts on Tibet (Train from Lhasa-Beijing)
The next morning I arrived at the newly constructed Lhasa Train station and boarded the Lhasa-Beijing train, the world’s highest train and a remarkable feat of engineering. The train is completely sealed and pressurized, and in case you feel lightheaded, oxygen masks are provided…which might come in handy now that Mitori was gone. The train … Continue reading
I Climb Mt. Everest…Well, Not Quite (Everest Base Camp, Tibet)
I awoke early the next morning like a child on Christmas morning, curious to discover Everest and half-expecting to have some spiritual revelation once I saw the place where earth meets the heavens. After 27 cups of yak butter tea, I was ready to go but my teammates were nowhere to be found. I was … Continue reading
Onwards to Everest (Tibet)
We stayed the night in Shigatze and spent the next morning applying for travel permits to Mt. Everest. Tibet is a land of permits, a world of restrictions. We needed three permits for our trip: one for Lhasa, one for outside Lhasa, and one for Mt. Everest. Military Checkpoints every hour. No getting out of … Continue reading
Leaving Lhasa (Tibet)
After three days in Lhasa we were ready to explore the rest of Tibet. Ferguson, Kiwi Kevin, Tripp the German, little Mitori and I jumped in the Land Cruiser and set off on the two-day journey to Mt. Everest. We departed early in the morning with the intention of visiting a holy lake, a … Continue reading
The Dalai Lama’s Palace (Lhasa, Tibet)
The most enchanting place in Lhasa may be the Jokhur Temple, but the place that best embodies the image of Tibet, the peaceful Buddhist kingdom on the top of the world, is the Potala Palace. The enormous white and red palace sits atop the Red Hill like a crown smiling benevolently over all of Tibet … Continue reading
Controversy on the Tibetan Plateau
“The main reason Tibet is so undeveloped and un-Chinese – and so thoroughly old-fangled and pleasant – is that it is the one great place in China that the railway has not reached. The Kun Lun Range is a guarantee that the railway will never get to Lhasa. That is probably a good thing. I … Continue reading
Into Jokhur Temple (Lhasa, Tibet)
Dawn in Lhasa is magical. From midnight to 7:30 AM silence sweeps across the growing city. The bars power down, the taxis stop honking, cars are parked, the streets empty of pedestrians, and the city sleeps. Lhasa is surrounded by high, protective mountains and the rising sun’s beams are blocked so that daylight creeps slowly … Continue reading
Marko Polo Travels 