Deja Vu: Buses & Hitchhiking Across Aragon
This morning I decided to leave Barcelona and head north to visit my good friend Griffin in the Basque Country. I felt listless in Barcelona. It had been over two weeks since I’d stepped off the ship, and I’d been bouncing around Italy and Spain ever since. In Barcelona I’d been in a 6-bed dorm … 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
Tibet – First Impressions (Lhasa, Tibet)
The most memorable aspect of Tibet is the sky. The sky in Tibet is as blue and capacious as an ocean. When I arrived in Tibet I felt as if I had landed on another planet, a magical land of brown hills hanging upside-down over the calmest of seas. I say the sky is simply … Continue reading
Motorcycle Diaries, Day One (HCHM -> Mui Ne, Vietnam)
Three Challenges – Challenge One – Challenge Two – Challenge Three I know what you are thinking. Motorcycle Diaries? You mean like Che Guevara? Haha, yes, cliché isn’t it? Or should I say, cli-Ché? (This cheesy joke is hereby patented by Mark Ayling). Well, if Che Guevara had ridden across South America on this Russian-made … Continue reading
Thoughts on Burma, Retrospective
My visa would expire in a little over a week, so it was time to think about getting back to Thailand. The country is hermetically sealed from its neighbors, the only way in or out is via airplane from Yangon to Bangkok. March 27th was National Armed Forces Day, so the government shut down the … Continue reading
Mustachio Bashio (Mandalay, Burma)
Secret Police – Fu Manchu – The performance – Sobering facts – American Democracy There was only one thing I wanted to see in Mandalay – the Mustache Brothers Comedy Troupe. On my second night in town I went to go see their famous nightly performance, and I am still not sure what to think … Continue reading
Another Side of Yangon (Yangon, Burma)
Out the door – Monks, tea and serenity – Hide and seek – History Lesson – Excerpts of Propaganda After a sleepless night I shook the paranoia from my mind and set out determined to resume my discovery of Burma. I still yearned to hear the opinions of Burma’s silenced citizens, but I would now speak … Continue reading
Cherry Tops (Yangoon, Burma)
Cherry Tops – First impressions – The streets of Yangon – Taboo conversations – Gestapo arrives – Wake-up call “Cherry tops.” At first I didn’t understand what my Irish friend meant. It took me a few seconds to translate his cockney rhyming slang, but then I got it: Cherry tops was slang for Cops, referring … Continue reading
Marko Polo Travels 