Racha Yai Island – South of Phuket, Thailand

We’ve been here for the first four nights in celebration of Nelson and Elaine’s wedding!  They had a beautiful ceremony officiated by Nelson’s brother Brian.  Nelson sobbed the entire time.  The reception was great, capped by fireworks on the beach.

Our days have been relaxed, a lot of reading, snorkeling, and eating.  We’ve biked around the island exploring the different areas and eating the local curry.    The Thai people have a reputation for being extremely warm and welcoming, and we’ve found this to be absolutely true.  They are always smiling and extremely nice.

One funny thing that has been happening is that our frisbee draws interest from the locals.  We bring a frisbee on every trip, even camping, it always comes in  handy.  We’ve been throwing a frisbee in the evenings on the beach, and without fail people will come up and want to give it a try.  Kids and adults alike. It’s pretty funny.

Ko Phi Phi

A speed boat, taxi, ferry, and longtail boat later we found ourselves on the island of Ko Phi Phi. The claim to fame here is that the uninhabited sister island next door was the location for the Leonardo Di Caprio’s “The Beach”. Both islands are very beautiful.

We  traded our posh euro-style resort with a private outdoor shower for a hippie commune/treehouse with a mosquito net.  Other than that life is still slow, filled with sun, sand and curry.

In China we had such a good time climbing that we thought we’d try it again.  We found a little guide service that took us and a couple of Aussies out for a half day on the wall.  Similar limestone climbing to what we had in Yangshou, China.  The climbs were easy but they had a great view of the bay from the top.

Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand

After a week on the beach, we’re ready for a little more culture and adventure.  We’ve chilled out so much that we almost missed our ferry back to Phuket.  Who pays attention to time on the beach, no body actually looks at a clock right? Wrong.  We made it as they were pulling up the ramp, phew!  We’re flying up to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, which should be very different from the beach towns of the south…

We arrived in Chiang Mai late at night to a very welcoming owner of the Baan BooLoo Guesthouse in the old city of Chiang Mai.  She has a very cute place that is traditional Thai, up on stilts and made out of wood.

In the morning we decided to go to two of the more popular temples in Chiang Mai.  The first temple is the Wat Phra Sing temple and is walking distance from our guesthouse, still in the old town.   The second temple is called Doi Suthep and is up on the hillside overlooking the Chiang Mai valley.

We found a taxi driver to take us up the winding road to Doi Suthep.  He was very nice,  proud of his town and pointed out many things on the ride up the mountain.  More of tour guide than taxi driver.

Doi Suthep is 300 steps up from the road that leads you there, and is a lively scene at the top.  Many monks, bells and trinkets.   At one point, a band started playing and more monks in white robes came out throwing coins in the air.  People were scattering to grab the money on the ground.  Then an offering came by and everyone put the money back in the trays.

Outside of town is a village of several “hill tribe” people.  There are hill tribes all over the mountains in this area, most of which you have to trek a day or more to get to.  There is one village not too far outside of town that is accessible by car.  Our driver Yut was doing such a great job that we stayed with him and had him take us to the hill tribe people.  They allow you to walk through the village, and view their homes.  It feels a little bit invasive and perhaps contrived (as they are making money from this).  At the same time it was interesting, many homes had dirt floors and just a fire with a wok for cooking.  They live in a beautiful valley with rice fields all over.

One of the things we had wanted to do while in Thailand was take a cooking class.  In Chiang Mai there are a few cooking schools that offer all levels of classes, from a half day to week long courses.  Again we relied on Yut, and he took us to a culinary school that he knew of and we signed up for the next morning.  The next morning a little van came by the guest house and picked us and brought us to the cooking school.  We were joined by a couple from Seattle, a chef from Denmark, a couple from Northern Ireland and a gal from Spain, all of different abilities.  They taught us all about the different spices, peppers, coconut milk, etc.  used in Thai dishes.  They would first demonstrate how to make a particular dish, then have us go back to our stations and let us go at it, helping when needed.  After each dish we sat down at a dinner table with everyone and ate their new dish.  It was great fun, we made four dishes in all: panang curry, Chiang Mai curry, a fried fish dish, and a sweet and sour vegetable plate.  The chef and owner of the school is a celebrity chef that has a show on the BBC.  He was really good, had a great sense of humor, and talked with a British accent which was kind of funny.

We capped the day with a trip to the night bazaar, another massage for Marian,  and seats at a Thai boxing fight.  Great day.

Our last day in Chiang Mai we spent with Yut as our driver again.  Marian called him up and he was glad to show us around for another half day.  We decided to check out the elephant rides.  Yut told us there were two places that had elephants.  One place was like a theme park and he thought we would like the other better.  We obviously went with his recommendation, which turned out to be a good decision.  As we drove by the first place, there were loads of cars and tour buses.  Ten minutes later we arrived as the only people at a small hut that had four elephants.  They came right up to the car as we pulled in!  They set up a harness for us, we climbed on from a platform, and they took us around the country side for about an hour or so.

On the way back Yut said he wanted to show us something, and he took us up further up a valley to a Hmong village.  This village had a different feel all together than the first hill tribe village we went to.  The first one felt like a theme park, kind of a show.  This one felt legit.  We were the only tourists there.  They showed us their “museum”, Yut translating,  and said we could walk around a bit if we wanted to.

We had a great time in Chiang Mai.  The city itself isn’t very pretty, the buildings are cheap looking and dirty from all the exhaust (which can be overwhelming at times).  However, the surrounding mountains are beautiful, there are many opportunities for exploration here, and the city comes alive at night markets, bazaars, and great little restaurants.

Chiang Rai

We had wanted to rent bikes in Chiang Mai, but it was hard to find a place that rented a regular bike.  The little cafe across from our hotel rented motorbikes, kind of an enhanced scooter.  I was a little nervous about renting the motorbike because they drive on the left side of the road in Thailand.  That, and it seems that traffic signs, lights, and lanes are mere suggestions.  We went for it anyway, and it turned out to be great fun.   The helmets didn’t fit, so we left them in the room.  They never asked if we knew how to drive one, or anything about insurance.  We just handed over our 250 Bhat/day ($7.50) and were off. Our scooter really moves, easily hitting 100km/hr on the highway, much faster than my little Honda metro at home.  The first day we just picked a direction and went for it, ending up on some dirt roads in the surrounding country side.

Mae Salong

Mae Salong is unique in that it’s a Chinese village.  It was settled by the fleeing Kuomintang from China back during the Cultural Revolution.  Marian’s parents went to Taiwan, some people went to Northern Thailand.  It’s a little bit tricky getting here as you have to take the city bus north from Chiang Rai, get off in the little town of Mae Chan, then get in one of the shared pickup trucks that take you an hour into the mountains.  We’re close to the Laos and Burma borders and there is an ongoing opium drug trade problem, so there are several drug stops on the highway.  The police board the bus and look around and everyone shows their ID.  I didn’t have my passport because the lady who rented the scooter kept it until we returned the scooter.  The policeman asked for it, I said, ”Sorry I don’t have it”, and he just moved on.  Phew.

The scenery is spectacular the whole way.  It’s the only place in Thailand that grows tea.  We didn’t realize how long it would take to get here and the last ride down was in the early afternoon, so we only had a few hours to spend in Mae Salong.  Marian did get to speak some Chinese to order us lunch and figure out how to get back to Chiang Rai (which was different than getting here).

I was bummed that I didn’t get to the tea plantation due to our lack of time, so I headed out before sunrise the next morning on the same route, this time on the motorbike.  Marian preferred to sleep in and get a massage, so I was on my own.  45 minutes on the highway, through the drug stops (still no passport and again they could have cared less about me), then an hour up the mountain.  It was a great ride, and I could stop at any point to take pictures.  I made it to the plantation and they gave me a tea ceremony.

Beijing

We chased the sun west and somehow made it from Friday morning to Saturday night without a single period of darkness.  All connections went well and we found our way from the airport, through the Beijing subway system to our hotel, the Jade Garden Hotel. 

It’s still fairly early on Saturday night and we’re tired but not sleepy and head out to try and get a feel for this city.  The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square are the geographical center of town and our hotel is a few blocks away, so we decide to check it out.  It’s quiet with just a few tourists and the guards.  We snap a few pictures and head back to get some sleep.  One long long day.

Sunday October 18th

We’re both up at 3:30am.  We kill time for an hour or so and then head back to Tiananmen Square for the morning flag ceremony, which they do at sunrise and sunset every day.  As we head out of our hotel lobby, I notice that the three front desk staff are all sound asleep with their heads on the desk.  Not that I blame them, it’s early.  It’s just funny to see.

The flag ceremony is a fun event.  It’s all very formal and people gather to watch the guards come out of the “Gate of Heavenly Peace” with chairman Mao’s picture watching over the whole thing.  They shut down the huge boulevard that runs through the square, raise the flag of China, and march back on in.  The whole thing takes maybe 30 minutes.

Our breakfast was wonton soup with seaweed, mini shrimp, and cilantro, along with 2 bao-zi (meat filled pastry buns).  It was great, and cost us all of 90 cents for the both of us!   We’re loving that.

Our tourist activity for the morning was to brave the crowds and try and see the Forbidden City.  To me it was a site that’s overwhelming to try and tackle.  You’re worn out before even making a dent in the ancient city.  There are supposedly 9,999 rooms spread over the immense Ming Dynasty grounds.  We spent most of the morning making our way through the various rooms, hallways, courtyards, and walls, trying to imagine what it was like to live here even just 100 years ago.

Sunday night we headed out to see the Olympic center – The Bird’s nest and Watercube.  The grounds are on the other side of town from where we are at, so back to the subway we went.  The subways here are awesome, modern and clean and we’ve never waited more than about 2 minutes for the next train.  They cost 2 Yuan (about 30 cents) for unlimited transfers.

The Olympic center was quite the site, and as it went from evening to night and the lights of the stadiums turned on, it became quite the scene.  It’s been over a year now since the Olympics, but there were still hundreds of people taking pictures of those two buildings.

Monday October 19th – Great Wall of China

Today we made the trip to the Great Wall.  There are several locations to choose from to visit, some closer to Beijing than the others.  The closest and most popular is called Badaling, which we read is easy to get to, totally restored, and therefore swamped with tourists.  We opted instead  to have a little more adventure and head about 2 hours north of Beijing for the section that connects the towns of Jinshanling and Simatai.  We took the city bus and hour north out of town to an agricultural town called Miyun.  From there, Marian bargained hard (or at least as hard as Marian can bargain) with three taxi drivers for the best price.  We’re bargaining for them to take us another hour to the start of the trek, drive to the end of the trek, wait 4 hours for us to finish, then drive us back another hour to the Miyun bus stop.  The whole thing cost us 380 Yuan (about 55 dollars).  

The ride from there was a little crazy as all foreign taxi rides are. Think passing a car on the left who’s already passing a car on the left, while you both go around a semi blind curve.  They seem to think that a quick beep of the horn while going around a blind curve is all that’s needed to avoid an accident.  So far it has worked.  At one point there were two big piles of rocks on either side of the road and a bicycle further narrowing the passage.  The oncoming car and our driver were both trying to get to the gap first, ours made it and the other guy had to clip side of the pile of rocks.  Our driver just turned around and laughed at us, like he had won the game of chicken.  There was one fairly significant accident that we passed that reminded us that they don’t always make it.

The Wall was amazing.  The trek from Jinshanling to Simatai is about 10km and took us just over 3 hours to complete.  You travel the ridge line from tower to tower, up and down over thousands of stairs.  It looks like they are trying to restore the wall a little at a time.  Near the two towns, the wall is in great shape.  As you get farther from Jinshanling it deteriorates and some spots are kind of sketchy.  It can be steep enough that you have to use hands.  Then as you start to get closer to Simatai the condition improves again and the walking gets easier.

There were people around but for the most part we trekked by ourselves and just enjoyed the experience.  Certainly it’s far enough away to discourage crowds, and difficult enough that some people would have a hard time.  At each tower there’s someone waiting with a cooler of “coke, beer, water, tea”.

Arriving in Simatai there was a zip line that crossed a lake and took you down the final section of elevation.  The saddled us up with some harnesses, clipped us together, and sent us off the platform.  A boat waits to pick you up and take you to the end, where our taxi driver was waiting.  It was a great way to end the hike. 

It was another exhausting day but the highlight of the trip so far.

Tuesday October 20th – Summer Palace

Today we strolled through the grounds of the Summer Palace, which is where the Qing Dynasty Emperor would spend his summers to try and escape the brutal Beijing heat.  It’s now a large park that circles the hand-dug Kunming Lake as has many temples, buildings and towers.  We enjoyed the Summer Palace more so than the Forbidden City, it’s not so stark and exact, and since it’s a park, there are other activities going on.  The men fly kites, the women line dance to music.  We saw a few people meditating and some practicing Chinese calligraphy with the large brushes and a bucket of water.  We walked around the lake and hiked up to the top of the “Tower of Buddha Incense” for a view over the whole grounds.

Observations about Beijing -

• The air quality is really bad here, I mean really bad.  That’s not a secret and we knew that going in.  What’s funny however is that it makes people spit a lot.  At first it was weird, people spitting all over the place, on the bus, while standing on the escalator, etc.  Now we’re doing it too.  After a half a day of walking around you can feel the smog in your throat and it makes you want to hawk it up. 
• Some people wear the masks, so we are doing that too (Marian more than me).  It’s a little strange to walk around a city wearing a surgical mask, but it’s so common here no one notices.  
• It took us a few days to notice that no one has more than one child.  Usually that one child is on the back of their bicycle, wearing a mask but no helmet.  We’ve yet to see someone wearing a bike helmet. 
• China’s obviously in transition and much labor is still done by hand.  We’ve seen a group of 4 men pulling large sewer pipes down the street on a cart.  It’s very common to see a huge load of branches, produce, boxes, etc, etc being peddled down the street on bike with a cart.  We even passed one guy and his son traveling through Miyun via horse and buggy.
• The names of any historical building are always very ambitious.  “Tower of Over Abundance and Plentiful Rain”,  “Hall of Supreme Inner Harmony”, etc.  (I’d settle for just inner harmony, seems good enough.)
• Lines are a suggestion.  We have been cut in front of everywhere, even on the plane to get into the bathroom!  It drives Marian nuts.

Marian is doing absolutely great with the language, it’s a huge help as almost no one outside of the hotel speaks English.  She orders our food, bargains prices, asks for directions or help, and has been complemented on her speaking multiple times.  What a blessing!

For our last night in Beijing we decided to go to a Chinese Acrobatics show.  If you’re familiar with Cirque du Soleil, this is along the same lines: unbelievable performances and maneuvers.  Ironically, the most memerable part of the show was at the very end when, for once, they actually messed up.  There were at least 8 girls balancing on one another while riding a bike around the stage in a circle.  We were nervous for them just watching, and you could tell that they were just a little off that night.  Sure enough, the whole thing came to a crash.  At least one of them was injured and they had to help her off the stage.

Tomorrow we’re off to Yangshuo in the provence of Guangxi…

Thursday October 22nd – Yangshuo, Guangxi

We made it to Yangshuo, the place that Ba (Marian’s dad) calls the most beautiful place in the world.  It’s definitely a contender for that title.  We’re staying just outside of town in a quiet and nice little place called the Li River Retreat, it’s perfect for us.  Town is hectic and the happening spot is a place called West Street which reminds us of Playa in Mexico – shops, restaurants and all the tourists in town.  We’ve yet to run into another American since being in Yangshuo.  There are a few other caucasians around, and nearly all of them are German for some reason??

We rented bikes to get out into the country side.  We have this very basic map and just picked a spot which looked like a couple hour ride away and went for it.  After battling our way through the traffic of town, we were soon on a quiet street which eventually turned into a dirt road, which eventually turned into a dirt single track path.  We took our time leisurely making our way through farms, rice fields and little towns.  Spectacular karst scenery is in every direction.  At one point a lady came out to us and wanted to show us the way to the Yulong Bridge, which is where we were headed.  We were skeptical of her because we knew she was trying to sell us something.  She would ride ahead of us by several minutes and wait where the trail forked and point us in the right direction.  Even when we would take a break for a half hour and shoot some photos, wade in the water, eat lunch, etc. she would patiently wait and help us find the way.  At first we were a little annoyed, but in the end it was a big help, we would have been lost several times without her help.

At the Yulong bridge you can hire a bamboo raft to go back down stream a few miles.  It looked like a lot of fun so we did it.  They put our bikes on the raft and we slowly floated down the river for several miles, then biked back to town.  Another great and exhausting day.

You can get a massage here for about $8/hr, so Marian has been getting one every day.

Friday October 23rd – Yangshuo, Guangxi

The big adventure for the day was Tai Chi.  We had read about Tai Chi lessons, and set off to find them.  In the next valley over from our hotel there were several schools that teach Tai Chi and Kung Fu.  We just picked the first school we came to and rode our bikes up the driveway, where we were warmly greeted.  The lesson was starting in about 15 minutes and all of the students were slowly making their way to class.  There were two Brittish guys, a Danish lady, a lady from the US who lived in Thailand, and about 8 Chinese.  As it turns out this was a school where you stay for 6 months to a year and learn TaiChi fulltime, we were a little out of place.  They started with a warm up and some of the students were waiving for us to join them, but the Master had said, “No, we must just watch.”  Eventually, the students talked him into it and we joined in the warm up.  After the warm up one of the other Masters pulled us off to the side and gave us our own private lesson, going through some basic moves and sequences.  He kept telling Marian that she was a natural, that she could become very good if she wanted to.  He would give explanations to Marian, who would then translate to me.  Our Master would listen intently to how she translated certain words.  He spoke a little bit of English and was eager to learn new words  – “Accurate”, “From the top”, “Loosen up”.  At the end we were friends and he asked us to sign his book, and we asked him for a picture with the three of us.  They were extremely nice to us and we had a great time.

Saturday October 24th – Xing Ping

The next two days were days that we left open as far as what town we would stay for the night.  There is a small town 45 minutes up river called Xing Ping (shing ping) that we decided to try out for one night and then make our way back to the Li River Retreat in Yangshuo for our final night in Guangxi.  In Xing Ping there are only a few streets and a few places to stay.  We tried out the HI hostel and they had a double room with private bathroom for about $12/night and we took it.

The streets during the day are busy with tourists checking out the town from one of many boats that stop here on the way to Yangshuo.  Our big adventure of the day was to hike up to the top of a near-by karst formation to get a view of the whole valley in which Xing Ping sits.  It was beautiful – endless karst formations in all directions with small towns in all of the valleys and the river carving its way through it all.  We were hoping for a sunset, but it’s too humid and hazy today (probably every day for that matter).  By the time we made our way back down the tourists were gone and we were one of about three people out in town.

Sunday October 25th – Climbing Yangshuo

We caught a morning bus out of Xing Ping back to Yangshuo for our final day in the Guangxi provence.  When we arrived back at our favorite little hotel, the ladies that run the place saw us coming back up the drive way and came out to warmly greet us and take our bags.  They’re so cute here at the Li River Retreat, always willing to help and are genuinely nice to us.

The day before we had set up a climbing trip through a climbing outfit in town.  The lady that runs the outfit was named Echo, and ran a bar/restaurant in town, which also served as a climbing excursion shop.  She was Chinese and spent time in the UK so she spoke English wonderfully.  Yangshuo is a climbing mecca since many of the thousands of limestone karst formations have climbing possibilities.  Much of this area is still largely undeveloped, and Echo and her crew have been working on opening new areas and growing the sport in this area of the world.

There were six of us – Marian and me, a Korean gentleman named Roger, Chris from Seattle, Echo, and Xiao Qiang, the other guide who was an absolute stud climber.  Roger the Korean owns a factory in Korea that makes climbing shoes for a few of the large brands in the world.  Ironically, he had only climbed a handful of times, but he climbed very well.  He was also responsible for introducing the brand Montrail to China and Korea.  I was wearing my Montrail shoes, so we were buddies right away.  Xiao Qiang would lead the routes with ease, pulling up two ropes and setting two different routes for us to work on. Then the four of us “clients” would climb while Echo and Xiao Qiang belayed.  Marian, Rodger and I were all about the same level and they catered to us, working our way from an easy 5.6 warm-up to some challenging 5.10s.  Chris had never climbed before and would just get a far as he could and then come down.

The rock here is limestone and is very different from the mostly granite and sandstone that we have in Colorado.  There are huge pockets, caves, and columns that make the routes interesting.  The rock itself is sharp and angular.  The routes are long, up to 30 meters.   By comparison, Marian and I have a 50 meter rope which obviously wouldn’t work here.

We climbed for about 3 hours until the forearms were exhausted, then made our way back to Yangshuo for a beer at Echo’s restaurant.  We were all buddies by this time and we just hung out for the rest of the afternoon telling stories and drinking beer while Echo brought out pizza, snails and dates.  Roger told us next time we need new climbing shoes, to just email him and he’ll send us a pair!  Our last day in Yangshuo turned out to be a good one.

Monday October 26th – Lijiang, Yunnan

We left Yanghuo and headed farther west for Lijiang which is in the Yunnan Provence.  Getting there requires two flights from Yangshuo, one to the large city of Kunming, and another very short flight to Lijiang.  We ran into some trouble in Kunming in that our airplane for Lijiang never showed up.  They said it was delayed, so we waited for a while for some news on how long the delay was going to be.  We had a taxi and a hotel lined up on the other side so we wanted to give them a heads up if it was going to be a while.  Marian kept trying to get information out of the airline staff at the gate and finally talked to another passenger who said that the flight wasn’t coming.  He told us that they hadn’t made the official announcement yet and that we better get booked on another flight before they do.  After that, it was mass chaos. We ran back out through security, battled to get to our airline’s ticket counter to change the flight.  If you’re not pushy and very aggressive, you’ll never even get to the counter.  Marian was tough, pushing and shoving and yelling her way to get the ticket attendant’s attention.   Then we had to start all over again to get checked in.  Marian battled again pushing her way up to the counter and arguing with other passengers in order to be the next one served.  We were running up against the 30 minute time limit for checking in and this was the last flight for the night to Lijiang.  Marian came through big time and we made our flight, phew!  We arrived at our hotel in the old city of Lijiang at 10:30 pm.

Lijiang is the cutest town!  The whole town is a UNESCO site and is one of a very few ancient villages in China that have survived from antiquity.  Lijiang is one of several villages of the Naxi (nashi) people. The streets are narrow, paved with cobble stone, and wind and turn every which way.  At first you need a map to find your way through.  We instantly loved it here; it was worth the trouble earlier in the day.

Tuesday October 27th – Lijiang, Yunnan

We were up and out early this morning to try and get a better feel for the town before it gets busy.  It’s a gorgeous little town with a couple of squares, a temple, two large water wheels, a market, and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (18,359 ft!) looming off in the distance.  Many of the elderly Naxi still wear their traditional clothing.  We visited the market and bought some fruit.  They had everything at this market including live caged chickens for sale.  Disturbingly to us westerners, they also had caged live dogs for sale, which we assumed were also for eating. 

After getting a feel for the town we decided to rent bikes again and tour the country side.  We rode north for about an hour to another Naxi town of Baisha where we had lunch of yak, pumpkin, and fried rice.  Baisha has murals that are several hundred years old and were painted by Buddhist monks, and we gave them a visit.  A comical moment happened as we were leaving town –  a big steer was just walking his way up the main street.  Everyone just moved aside and let him come on through.  Even the locals thought it was pretty funny!

We made one more short stop at another Naxi town of Suhe.  It was like a smaller Lijiang and we just walked the main street and then made our way back to Lijiang.

Our best days so far have been on the bikes, and this one was no exception.  We had a great time just pedaling through the towns and country side, just taking in the daily activities of life here.

We ended the long day with a trip to the Naxi orchestra.  The orchestra is interesting that they play ancient instruments, and there is some cultural and historical significance of their group,  but the music is somewhat annoying.  We felt bad thinking that, but there’s no way around it.  When the ladies start to sing “opera” style, you almost plug your ears.

Wednesday October 28th – Lijiang, Yunnan

We woke up this morning to freezing cold.  Okay, it’s not that cold, but our room has the Japanese style paper windows and no heat, which is the norm here in the old town.  Despite being at nearly 9,000 ft, and at the foot of the Himalayas, Lijiang is surprisingly temperate getting into the mid 70′s during the day and probably into the low 50s at night.  We have yet to see a cloud except for the ones blowing off of Jade Dragon Snow Mt.  Still, it’s cold in the morning when your room is about 55 degrees.

With the exception of Beijing where every day was packed full of sightseeing, we have generally been following the pattern of going hard for a day and then taking a relaxed day.  Yesterday was a full exciting day, today was a relaxed day.  We tried to finish seeing parts of the old town that we had yet to make it to, then headed off for Black Dragon Pool Park.  Black Dragon Pool Park is a public park that has some wonderful views of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.  In fact, it’s kind of the Maroon Bells of this area, you see the particular photograph everywhere.  We spend a good portion of the afternoon just wandering through the park and enjoying the day.

Tomorrow we’re off to Shangri-La (shang ga li la), formerly known as Zhongdian.  It takes a four hour bus ride from Lijiang to get there and marks the final destination of our trip .

Thursday October 29th – Shangri-La, Yunnan

After a long but scenic bus ride that circumscribed Jade Dragon Snow Mt and crossed the famous Yangtze River,  we arrived in Shangri-La.  The Songzanlin Monastery was the reason for continuing on to Shangri-La as it’s the largest and most significant Tibetan Buddhism Monastery anywhere in the world outside of Tibet.  Coming here was an easy way for us to get a flavor of Tibet without having to go through all the special travel arrangements, permits, extra distance, time and money of actually going to Lhasa (maybe next trip).  At one point the monastery housed 8000 monks!  Today it houses closer to 800.

The story behind the name “Shangri-La” comes from James Hilton’s book Lost Horizon from 1933 where a hijacked plane ends up crashing just past the Tibetan plateau near a mythical (and fictional) village called Shangri-La.  There’s a  large Buddhist monastery in the book and this is about the right geographic location in the world, so the Chinese government decided to rename Zhongdian as Shangri-La to help promote tourism.  It’s kind of gimmicky, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a great place to visit.  I decided to read Lost Horizon on this trip; It’s been fun to read the story and imagine that we are in the same location.

We walked over to the monastery today and made our way through the grounds.  There are several temples with prayer flags flapping in the breeze.  Along with the monks, there are a few tourists, and some livestock.  We mostly just try and stay out of the way while still getting a feel for the place.  We ran into one very young monk who must have been 10 years old.  He wanted us to tour one of the sanctuaries and kept pointing which way to go.  We asked if we could take his picture, but he shook his head no.  Three of the monks were running a concession stand with the usual coke, chips, etc.  They also offered “Yak butter tea”.  We gave it a shot, andI can’t say it was all that good, a little sour.  It also came with some kind of a powder, but we couldn’t figure out what that was.

Friday October 30th – Shangri-La, Yunnan

The Songzanlin Monastery sits high up on a hill overlooking the old town (and growing new town).  The old town is somewhat similar to what we saw in Lijiang and Baisha, old wooden buildings surrounding narrow winding cobblestone streets.  There is another monastary on a hill within the old town which made for a good venture.  The actual sanctuary was somewhat status quo and we’ve seen a bunch of them by now.  However, there is also a giant golden prayer wheel which was the source of some great moments. 

The wheel sits perhaps 40 ft tall and 15 ft in diameter and takes quite a few people pushing hard to get it moving.  When we first got there it was stopped, but we arrived at the same time as another group of four or five Chinese and a couple of Tibetan Buddhist old ladies.  We all pushed and got the wheel turning, always in a clockwise direction (that’s a Buddhist thing).  We had barely the minimum number of people to keep it moving, which made it quite a workout for all of us.  When someone would drop off, it would slow down and everyone else really had to pull hard.  Then some new people would arrive and it got easier to keep it moving.  If there were enough other people around to keep it moving, I would drop off to take some pictures and then quickly get back on.  The elderly ladies never dropped off, they just kept going.  Then again, they were little and elderly and I don’t know how much work it was for them:).  At one point I was in the slot just ahead of one of the cute old ladies and we barely had the wheel turning.  I was pushing as hard as I could and would  look back at her and she’d smile and nod as if to say, “Keep going we’re moving it!”.  Marian got a few photos of us together.  After a while Marian and I were worn out and just let the thing come to a halt.  The old ladies then continued to just walk clockwise around the wheel.  As we were about to leave, the nun that was behind me on the wheel came up to us and wanted to see the pictures, she thought they were great, it was cute.

Late that afternoon, I went back to the Songzanlin Monastery to grab a couple of little gifts that they sell right outside one of the large sanctuaries.  There was non-monk guy that was running the little gift stand.  I didn’t have exact change and he had to break the bill that I gave him.  So we went over to this door on the side of the sanctuary and opened it up.  Inside was one of the monks, sitting cross legged, meditating, looking over his scriptures.  My sales guy told him that I needed change (or at least that’s I assumed he said).  It was a little awkward, but then the monk whipped out this huge wad of cash from his robe and proceeded to give me change.  He also gave me this little gold bell and said something that I didn’t understand.  It was kind of a funny moment.

Saturday October 31st – Kunming, Yunnan

We left our posh retreat early this morning to fly back to Kunming from Shangri-La.  The Shangri-La airport didn’t have heat and it gets very cold at night here.  It was kind of funny to be going through the security line and being able to see our breath!  An hour later we were in Kunming which is known for its temperate climate, it was mid 70s and beautiful.  We’re tired and not all that motivated to really do much site seeing here in Kunming.  It’s just a big city to us (about 6 million people).  We just found our hotel, found some restaurants, and bought some tea to bring home. No real stories here.  Tomorrow we fly back to Beijing for a four hour layover before heading back to the States.  We do get to hang out and grab some lunch with Marian’s cousin Nelson, looking forward to that as we have a ton of questions on China that we’re going to bombard him with.  Other than that we’re just about done!  As always, it will be nice to get home.

January 31st – Denver to Seattle to Vancouver

Our yearly trip to a new ski destination takes us to Whistler, British Columbia, Canada this year.  Vancouver and Whistler are hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics!  This year Mom and Dad would join Marian and me for the adventure!  It would be the first time skiing out of the US for all of us.  

After exhaustively and unsuccessfully searching for an airfare deal into Vancouver, we opted for the much cheaper route of flying Southwest Airlines into Seattle, then making the 3 hour drive north to Vancouver.  I couldn’t find flights into Vancouver for less than $580, not including bag fees.  Southwest into Seattle was $179.  The three hour drive each way saved us more than $1600 bucks!

Weather in Seattle was gorgeous for January, mid 50′s and mostly sunny.  I’ve never been to Seattle when the weather hasn’t been great so I’m beginning to think the whole rain thing is just a plot to keep the rest of the country away.  Hmmm.

We made a quick stop at Trader Joe’s, ate lunch at the Gas Works Park, then headed across the border for Vancouver.

We arrived in downtown Vancouver just about sundown, found our hotel, watched Serena Williams destroy Safina in the Australian Open final, took a short walking tour of Vancouver, and went to dinner at my all-time favorite Indian food restaurant (India Bistro, Davie St.). One eventful day!

February 1st – Vancouver to Whistler

Marian and I had a room in the hotel that was directly above the dance club from the Irish Bar downstairs.  Fortunately, mom and dad’s room was up a few floors where they couldn’t hear the never ending techno beat.  The music started around midnight and would go until 3am, fortunately there was a reason to be up anyway – Federer vs. Nadal.  We watched all 5 sets of yet another epic Grand Slam final, from 1:30am to 5:30am. 

We woke 2 hours later to rain in Vancouver (and hopefully snow in Whistler).  We leisurely made our way through Stanley Park, out to the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge, and along the Sea-To-Sky Highway on the coast up to Whistler.  Normally this is an incredibly scenic drive, but with the rain and snow, we couldn’t see a thing. 

We stayed at the Aspen’s on Blackcomb, which is right on one of the runs that goes to the base of Blackcomb.  It’s a good location and our room was nice enough.  We kept an eye on the Superbowl while wandering town and settled into a little restaurant for the fourth quarter.  The snow kept coming throughout the night!

February 2nd, Blackcomb

We woke up to a bunch of new snow over the past two days! We all struggled with the weight of the snow – Marian likened it to skiing in mud. This is our first time skiing on the coast and it took us a while to get used to it. Whistler had been having a down snow year and all of the locals were out to take advantage of this powder day. The upper lifts on both mountains were closed all morning for avalanche blasting. Right before lunch we were able to get up to the upper lifts and ski some of the difficult terrain of Blackcomb. Unfortunately, the clouds were socked in and we could hardly see or get a feel for the mountain.

After feeling our way around Blackcomb, finding the hidden bowl and the Pakalolo Chute, we were exhausted and headed back for the condo. There is so much vertical (about a mile) that it took us an hour to make our way from the top, through the chute and all the way back to the valley!

February 3rd, Whistler

Sun! We woke to more clouds but about halfway up the mountain we were greeted by clear skies and were finally able to see Whistler and Blackcomb and all of the surrounding mountains. The clouds just hung in the valley all day. We took our first ride on the Peak to Peak Gondola, which is like an amusement park ride in itself. The new Gondola travels over the valley between Whistler and Blackcomb, 1400 ft above the creek below, and traversing 2.75 miles!  It’s quite the ride.

We found great snow on Whistler that had lightened up a bit, or at least settled, and spent the rest of the day exploring great ski lines in a few of the bowls. We ran into our first look at the Inukshuk at the Whistler peak, along with the unique Black Tusk Volcano which looks like a giant stone starfish flopped onto the top of a mountain.

February 4th, Day Off, Nairn Falls, Pemberton

We had planned to take one day off from skiing out of the week and today was the day. We took a leisurely morning in the Whistler Village, then drove up Canadian Highway 99 to see what was north of town. Along the way we came across Narin Falls Provincial Park and gave it a try. The falls lay back about a mile from the trailhead and we hiked in along a snow packed trail through the temperate rain forest. The falls aren’t as spectacular (or popular) as Shannon Falls in Squamish, but they do cascade a total of 60m (196ft) and make for some great pictures.

Next we headed further north for lunch in the small town of Pemberton. On the way back the clouds had settled in the valleys and we stopped along Green Lake to shoot some pictures. I posted one of these pictures and its neat to notice how the snow on the lake almost perfectly blended with the white clouds, with Whistler/Blackcomb in the background.

February 5th, Whistler, Skeleton World Championships

It’s impossible to ski this whole mountain in four days, but we tried to at least experience all of the major areas. In the morning, we spent our time on Whistler on some of the lines under the Harmony Chair. In the afternoon is was back to Blackcomb for Couloir Extreme and one more glade run that Marian had her eye on from day #1.

The World Championships in the Bobsled, Luge and Skeleton were all going on during the week and we dropped in that evening to see the Men’s Skeleton Finals (head first, on stomach). These guys were going by at about 140km/hr and it takes a while to get used to the pure speed of the event. We tried numerous times to get a picture of one of the guys, but with Marian’s point and shoot camera, we never did get a clear picture. A Canadian ended up winning the event!

February 6th, Blackcomb Glacier, back to Vancouver

We did our best to ski as much of the mountain as we could, and going into our last day the only major area that we hadn’t even touched yet was the Blackcomb Glacier. It had snow a few inches overnight and the four of us went for the glacier first thing. We had perfect conditions, sun out and a few inches of powder. For me the Glacier might be the most memorable run of the entire trip just due to its uniqueness and sheer size. You’re in this enormous valley on the enormous glacier, and it unlike anything that I had skied before. We did the run twice each time taking more than an hour to make the loop.

On the way down the mountain that afternoon we went from powder on the glacier and at the top, to ice in mid-mountain, to slush at the base where it had rained that morning, all in one run.

We had perfect weather this time around for the Sea-To-Sky highway back to Vancouver and stopped a few times to take some pictures above Squamish and again at Porteau Cove.

Our same Vancouver hotel put us on the 5th floor for the night (on our request), no techno beats tonight!

February 7th, home to Denver

Everything went smoothly from Vancouver back to Denver, except for a longer than expected wait at the border. Over all, a great trip! Thanks mom and dad for joining us this year!

We had a great powder day at Wolf Creek with it snowing 4 feet over the previous week and another several inches the previous day. The bottomless snow was perfect. There are several small cliffs on the knife ridge and I took the largest one that I could find. it’s probably around 25 feet or so, lots of fun!

Thanks to Joy for shooting the video!

October 4th – Arrival in Prague

Greetings from Prague! After 10 and a half hours of flying, I’m finally here in Prague. All of my connections went well, I’ve figured out the public transit, and found my hostel. I guess that’s a successful first day. The place I’m staying is a bit of a dive, but the guy at the front desk is very nice and helpful. He’s helping me with my Czech, though he laughs every time I say Děruju (thanks).

I walked all over the old town today, watching the Astrological Clock, and crossing the Charles Bridge. The bridge was quite the scene, everyone was out enjoying the Saturday afternoon! I’m going to get there early in the morning tomorrow on the way to the Castle district, and am hoping for fewer people. Weather is cool (50′s), though the sun was out for much of the day. More tomorrow, bed now…

October 5th – Prague

I couldn’t sleep past 4:30 this morning and thought I might as well get an early start. It was bitterly cold at that time, and the subway hadn’t even opened yet. I tried to take a tram into the old town, and got on one initially going in the right direction. The tram made a turn and I was headed into some suburb in the dark. I asked a lady for help and she tried her best but didn’t speak any English. She recognized “town centre” and proceeded to give me lengthy instructions, of which I didn’t understand one word. I just got off and caught the next one going back.

By this time (5:00), the subway station was open. There were two guys that appeared to be homeless in the station. They were talking back and forth in Czech for quite a while. Suddenly, one of them stands up and yells in English, “What did you say!” and then runs over and punches the other guy once in the head. Then it was like two cats after a fight, they slowly backed away and went on about their business.

It turns out there are not many people in a dark Wenceslas Square at 5am, and I was the only one on the Charles Bridge! I made the hike up two the Castle and the Cathedral which wouldn’t open for another 4 hours. There was a guard and one other jet lagged tourist. On my way back, the sky started to get a little color. By the time I got back to the bridge, there were a few photographers trying to get that iconic Charles Bridge shot. Besides being frozen, it was a great morning to be out and about so early.

I spent the rest of the day exploring other parts of the city – all the major markets, squares, and churches.

October 6th – Prague

I was able to sleep until 6:30 this morning, feeling good. After picking up a couple of pastries, I went back up to the Castle to try it again in the sunlight. On the way up the hill on the tram an old guy started talking pretty seriously to me in Czech. I don’t know if he was mad at me for some reason, or if he was just venting. No one else seemed to be paying any attention to him, so neither did I. I quickly jumped off when my stop came, getting yelled at in Czech is kind of intimidating.

The best part of the Castle Quarter is that it has a wonderful view of the Old Town from above. I took a few pictures and did the walking tour from Rick Steves’ book then walked back down the hill and around the Little Quarter.

I picked up my bus ticket to Cesky Krumlov for the morning and headed back to nap for a few hours. I’m hoping to do a concert tonight!

I’ve had two really good meals here including some goulash, and the cheapest thing is the beer. Pilsner Urquel is about 50 cents a bottle in a nice restaurant, 4 times cheaper than bottled water. The Czechs love their beer. In my vocab lesson for the day from my friend at the front desk, he said the only word I needed to know was “pivo” – beer.

October 7th – Cesky Krumlov

I bought my bus ticket from Prague to Cesky Krumlov last night, and it was a good thing I did – several people didn’t have a seat and miserably stood for the 3 hour ride. About a half hour into the ride a guy from the back goes racing up to the driver while we are on the highway and says something, then sits by the door. We stopped at the next pullout and he goes running off to the bushes. There was a semi truck that he tried to hide behind, but the truck was just pulling out. As the truck left, this poor guy was stuck peeing on the side of the road with an entire Greyhound-type bus watching and laughing, it was hysterical. He got back on and we went about our way.  If I knew how to say, “Did you wash your hands?” in Czech, I would have.

Every once in a while the bus would rock back and forth a little bit, just enough to notice. After a while I looked up and saw that our driver was talking on his cell phone! For the remainder of the ride, you could always tell when he was on his phone because you’d feel the slight rock from him steering one-handed.

Cesky Krumlov is supposedly the best preserved medieval town in Europe, and it’s one of those places that you immediately love. It has the second biggest castle in the Czech Republic which has views over the small town. The river makes a horseshoe through town so you are always by the water; every turn is another picture. I cross a particularly photogenic bridge on the way to my hostel and each time I take another picture of the same scene, thinking somehow that the light is even better this time.

I went to a vegetarian restaurant on the river for lunch and had Indian dahl with hummus and… sauerkraut. That’s a new one that I’ll have to share with our neighborhood Indian restaurant back home.

October 8th – Cesky Krumlov

Today has been a relaxing day of reading, shooting photos, and moving from cafe to cafe. After five straight days of fast paced travel, this was much needed. I debated whether to move on to Austria this morning, but I’m glad I took a break. My hostel is great, the best I’ve ever been to. It’s super clean and comfortable, has nice views, free tea and internet. On the other hand, it is a back-breaking $11 a night. I took a few hour hike in the hills beyond the town, it was great.

When I first arrived in this town I would take a picture and put my camera away, get it out one minute later to take another picture, and so on. Now I just keep it out at all times. I even bought a small tripod over here because there have been many missed photo opportunities from not being able hold the camera still enough in low light; I could have had better morning shots on the Charles Bridge. Tonight I’ll get those types of shots!

Digital cameras have really changed things, everyone is taking pictures at all times. It cracks me up to see someone walk around a corner to a particularly beautiful scene, say ahhh, whip out their camera, snap the photo and move on. The whole thing takes about 5 seconds. I don’t think there is even a thought of composition. I guess film used to discourage that because you had to pay to develop all of your mediocre snapshots. Now they are still as mediocre, just cheap to dispose of, I guess. I certainly take many more shots.

October 9th – Hallstatt, Austria

To get out of Cesky Krumlov, I could either take the train back north for 30 minutes, then transfer to a line that went into Austria. Or, I could ride a small shuttle van straight to Linz. Naturally I chose the later, more expensive but a huge savings in time. The van picked me up from my hostel and I was put in the front center, like the middle seat in a pickup truck. The van was all Australians, and I sat next to a girl who needed a window just in case she needed to throw up along the 90 minute ride that snaked around following the river and hills.  She asked me not to talk to her so that she could concentrate on not throwing up.  It was a glowing foggy morning and all of the trees are in their height of color, it was beautiful. We made it to the train station in Linz on time, and she didn’t have to throw up.

I bought my ticket which is now all in German. On my ticket, along with the departure time and class, there was a 1E, which I figured was the platform. I went to the first platform, there was a 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and no 1E. I looked all over the place to no avail. I went back to information and she told me that meant “1 person”. I asked where my train leaves from. She said, “platform six, leaving in about…. now!”. When’s the next train? “hour and a half” So I ran. The train was leaving the platform, but unlike the Lightrail in Denver, the doors still open once the train is moving. For the second time in my life I jumped on/off a moving train.

I transferred trains about 20 minutes later and was headed for Hallstatt. When the ticket police came through I gave him my ticket. He said, “Hallstatt?” I confimed. He said, “Bad Ischel, then pash to Hallstatt.” I didn’t know what ‘pash’ was but I figured he meant we would go through Bad Ischel then go “past” to Hallstatt, which I knew. I said yes. He said “yes?” very concerned. I confirmed. He went about his way and I became concerned that I missed something. Was he trying to tell me that I needed to buy another “pass” or ticket at Bad Ischel? Or was this one of those trains that split at a certain point and I needed to be on a certain car? When we got to Bad Ischel, ticket man showed up immediately knowing that I had no clue what he meant. He said, “pash, pash!” and pointed. I hurried to grab my things and get off the train still not knowing what I was missing. I noticed many of the people were leaving the train and getting on a bus.  Finally I fingured out was a “pash” was, the bus.

I confirmed with the driver that we were going to Hallstatt and he corrected my pronunciation and said yes, I figured it was easy going from here. We stopped a several little villages along the way, and I watched the road signs as we neared Hallstatt. There was a 9km sign pointing right, we went left. I figured we were making a stop at another little village and would end up going back toward Hallstatt. 20 minutes later we arrived in Bad Ausse, everyone got off, and the bus turned off. Despite its cool name, Bad Ausse was not where I wished to go. I asked everyone around how I get back to Hallstatt, the only English they could muster was “pash”. The problem was, I was at a train station, and there were no time tables for bus routes. Not only that, no one spoke a lick of English, and the train station was closing. I waited for about 30 minutes for another bus to pull in, nothing. I was starting to get a little anxious because not only did I not know how to get back to Hallstatt, but I hadn’t yet a chance to change money to Euros (jumping on moving trains doesn’t leave much time for ATMs), I only had Czech Crowns. I thought I was screwed. An elderly American couple came through and I asked them if they had any idea how to get to Hallstatt, they didn’t. I asked if they had any idea where an ATM was. They told me, “In town, 1 mile that way”. She could tell I was a bit lost and very generously gave me 10 Euro. I tried to act like I didn’t need the money, but the truth was I did. I thanked her very much and they headed on their way. I thought maybe I could hail a taxi and hope my 10 Euro would cover it, so I tried and he declined me. Not long after, a high school aged girl came along who spoke some English. I asked how to get to Hallstatt and she said I have to catch the “Taxi Bus” at 3:15, which was in about an hour. It turns out that they are working on the tracks and the trains aren’t running. I ended up taking the “Taxi Bus”, which was a shuttle for high schoolers to get back to Hallstatt from Bad Ausse. I rode with one other boy the 20km back to Hallstatt. When you can’t communicate, everything is an adventure.  (On my way out of Hallstatt I learned what happened.  I was supposed to change buses in the town of Steeg, how I was supposed to know that I’m not sure, maybe he said it in German.)

October 10th – Hallstatt, Austria

The adventure to get here was well worth the effort, Hallstatt is wonderful. It’s very small but is gorgeous and has quite a history. Apparently there was a Hallstatt before there was a Rome. Salt or “white gold” was found in the hills around this region thousands of years ago and Hallstatt is at the epicenter. Due to how valuable salt was for preserving food, there is even an entire epoch of history, the Hallstatt era (800-400 BC), named after this tiny town!

I found a room in an elderly couple’s home for $25 Euro a night with breakfast. They were both very nice and spoke just enough English to inquire about my day and ask what I wanted for breakfast the next morning. The home smelled like soup all the time.

After walking through all the streets and seeing the church and square (you can see the whole town in about 30 minutes), I headed for Dachstein. If you take a look at Hallstatt on Google Earth, you can get an appreciation for how steep the mountains are here. Dachstein is the highest point near Hallstatt and the place where all mountain adventure in this area begins. You take a series of two cable cars to get to the top.

There is a small ski resort, copious hiking, rock climbing, and paragliding. I even came across a “town” of dog huts, for dog sledding. There are a number of backcountry huts that people hike to and stay, summer and winter. Above it all is the glacier. I rode up on the tram with a group of paragliders and I really wanted to see them take off, so I followed them on their hike. We wound up the mountain to a place where they could get a running start and then fly for about a half hour or so all the way back into the valley. One girl was only 15 years old and was on her final flight to get licensed. Her take off was the best I saw, maybe because she was so small. Two guys crashed, which looked really, really painful. One of the two was hurt, but he did eventually get up.

I hiked for hours, took another thousand pictures, and then returned back to Hallstatt. Another great day. I couldn’t have asked for better weather so far, it’s been perfect.

I’ll post pictures one I get to an internet cafe that allows access to plug my camera in. The only internet in Hallstatt is at an outdoor bar – 4 Euro an hour, comes with a beer. By the way, the highschoolers get off the bus and go straight to the bar, they are here with me right now. I guess they drink a beer and drown their Calculus sorrows.

October 11th – Salzburg, Austria

This morning (still in Hallstatt) I had breakfast with the guy that was renting the other room in the same house. He was from Korea, doing a masters degree in chemistry in London, and taking a little vacation to Salzburg and Hallstatt. He’s a super nice guy who loves baseball and the Rockies (though not as much as the Red Sox). He wanted to go to Coors Field where there are “many homeruns”. His name is Daerog which is Alex in Korean. I knew I liked him for a reason. He had been traveling once a month since he moved to London in August and had been to Paris, Prague and now Salzburg. He was planning to go to Italy next monthbut mistakenly paid someone in Prague $100 Euro (about $135 dollars) instead of $100 Czech Crowns (a little over $5), and the recipient never said anything. Being on a tight student budget, that was enough to cancel his trip for the month. He lowered his head and said, “such a terrible mistake”. I felt bad for him. We rode the bus together all the way back to Bad Ischel. He said he could show me around London if I was ever in the area, and I told him if he was ever in Denver that I’d take him to a Rockies game.

I arrived in Salzburg in the late morning and found a hotel with the help of the TI center. My hotel is the nicest (and most expensive at $50 Euro) place that I have stayed so far, very modern with a great breakfast and an in-room bathroom. Such luxury. It’s also the cheapest place in Salzburg except for the hostels which are full on this Saturday night.

Not surprisingly I spent the entire day on foot; I must be averaging at least 10 miles a day. Salzburg is a medium sized city, size wise it feels to me like Sienna in Italy. It’s big enough that it feels like a city, but easily walkable and all the sites are relatively close to one another. I took the Rick Steves’ walking tour, visited the towering castle, and meandered through the old town. I was up in the castle courtyards at sunset and it was wonderful. I peeked in on a concert at the Salzburg Cathedral where Mozart played the organ for two years. The acoustics were great, it sounded great. Unfortunately, I have no such attire for a venue such as that.

I really like Salzburg, I had the impression that it would be more overrun with Mozart trinkets, but I didn’t find that at all. I may be the only person here that hasn’t seen the Sound of Music, maybe when I get home.

I felt like I saw everything that I wanted to see, and though I had originally planned on staying two nights, I’m going to move on. Next stop, Bolzano Italy.

October 12th – Bolzano, Italy

The train ride from Salzburg to Bolzano is two segments with a one hour stop in Innsbruck. The train ride from Salzburg to Innsbruck is gorgeous, maybe the most scenic train ride I’ve ever been on. I was considering staying a night in Innsbruck so it was nice to be able to check it out ahead of time, though I’m still undecided.

There were about 15 people total on the train from Innsbruck down to Bolzano, I had my own private box (for lack of a better word) where there are six seats and you can close the door. Once into Italy, the terracing vindyards start almost immediately. About 45 minutes from Bolzano an older man opened the door to my box and asked if he could join me. I said sí sì, and pointed to the seat. We talked for a while and he inquired about everything to where I was from to what country my shirt was made in. He wanted to know where I was staying, which I had no idea. At first I was somewhat glad to have the company, but I started to get a weird feeling about this guy. He was looking at me kind of strangely, and I was wondering why he needed to sit in the same box with me, there was only maybe two others on the train. Then he asked me if I would like to stay with him at his home, which was an hour from Bolzano. He wrote down his phone number and told me, “I could give you a bed and some hot spaghetti.” Thankfully the stop came. He insisted on walking me out of the train station and showing me where the bus station and the hostel were located. I thanked him and left quickly. I hope I’m not misjudging a decent person just trying to help out a traveler, but my intuition told me otherwise. I think he was gay and hitting on me, despite knowing I was married and 32 years younger.

After leaving my new friend, I headed straight for the bed and breakfast that Marian and I stayed in on our honeymoon. I remembered my way right to the door but it was no longer in business. A green energy company had filled the building. This kind of bummed me out, I had fond memories of this particular bed and breakfast and I was really looking forward to staying there again.

Bolzano is a great little town and other than the B&B vanishing, everything else was as I remembered. There is an outdoor market every single day, all day, and they have a particular grape that I’ve never found anywhere else. They are so good, and I ate a ton of them. I went to Marian and my favorite restaurant (that we ate at 3 out of the 4 nights), and it was great and still cheap. I had Italian Gelato, which was noticeably better than the Gelato in Austria. And I tried to get the best Tiramisu anywhere from a different restaurant, but they were sold out. The next morning before I got on the bus to go to Castelrotto, I went back to the restaurant and ordered Tiramisu. Surprisingly at 8:15 in the morning, I was the third person to have ordered the dessert for the day.

By the way, I ran into my train buddy when buying a phone card!  He was standing outside of the door talking to another guy and didn’t notice me.  Phewwww.  On the otherhand, I got followed by a different guy after dinner that same night, and ended up having to walk quickly back to my hotel, but that’s a story for another time.

October 13th and 14th – Castelrotto, Italy

I arrived in Castelrotto after a short bus ride from Bolzano. There must be hundreds of small villages in the high hills of the Italian Dolomites. Castelrotto was recommended to me, so that’s where I went. The Alpe du Suisi is a hiker’s paradise with trails going in every direction and lifts to take you anywhere you want to go. Most of the trails are very mild, if you think of it in terms of winter sports, much is cross country skiing, with the downhill skiing being mostly greens or blues. As you get closer to the limestone spires, the hiking get more rugged and there is even quite a bit of climbing. The neat part is that there are huts everywhere, literally hundreds. Some are for staying overnight at, some are beer halls, some have food and music.

I hiked for about four hours in the middle of the day and came across numerous huts where I would always stop and rest. On a Tuesday around 2pm there was a band playing at one hut and people were singing folk songs and dancing like it was a Friday night after a day of skiing. The other funny thing is how well dressed the Austrian/Italian hiker is. I saw ladies in full dresses, and most men wore a collared dress type shirt under a sweater vest with nice pants. Then they would have heavy duty ice climbing type hard shell mountaineering boots and trekking polls, remember these are mild trails. It was warm, and I was the only one wearing a t-shirt and shorts (read: the only one comfortable).

I really enjoyed the little town of Castelrotto, and had a great 3 star hotel and spa (big time for me) to stay at for $35 Euro, so I stayed for two nights.

October 15th – Mittenwald, Germany

I got up early and headed back north for Germany. I had a change of trains in Innsbruck again and I skipped the immediate connection for a train two hours later so that I could see the town a little more. I once again had lunch in Innsbruck, wandered around the streets and old town, then headed further north into Germany and the small town of Mittenwald.

By now I have the routine down for staying in a private home, I can give all the needed answers though I don’t understand the questions. In German they are saying, “here is the key to the room” (ya), “here is the key to the outside door” (ya), “there is the bathroom” (ya güd), “what time would you like breakfast?” (8 o’clock). “coffee or tea” (tee). “Where are you from, England?” (No US) “Ahh Amerika, ya güd” “Where are you going next” (Munich), “Eeh?” (München), “Ah ya München, auf wierdersehen” (Ciao).

Mittenwald was a nice little town, home of world class violin makers. There are violins hanging outside of the windows that are drying, I’m guessing. It has a stream that flows right down the center of the main street in town. They have a canal built for the stream that you have to jump over or take mini bridges to get across. It’s a cute, laid back town that was a nice place to make a half day stop over.

October 16th – Munich, Germany

From Mittenwald I took the morning train to the main train station in Munich. I’m one day ahead of my schedule and my hotel wasn’t expecting me until tomorrow night. Fortunately the room was open tonight so I was able to easily add another day to my stay. Time to explore Munchen!

October 17th – Munich, Germany

I debated whether or not to go to Dachau, I wasn’t sure I really wanted to.  I’m not sure what made up my mind, but I got on the train and made my way there.  Every school-aged kid in Germany is required to go at some point in their schooling, so there were a few groups of high schoolers.  I rented an audio guide and made my way through the guided tour.  I guess what affected me the most was the crematorium, they have the ovens still there and wide open for you to look in.  I thought that was the most troubling part.  You walk through the gas chamber, into the room where they would pile the dead, then into the crematorium.  The whole area is just eerie.   On one end of the building there was a row of three smaller gas chambers, then a public restroom.  I thought that to be really odd, and though I really needed to go, there was no way I was going to shut myself in a room in this building.  I wonder how many people actually use that particular WC.

They have done a wonderful job of giving you as much history and information as you can handle, and they don’t hide a thing from you.  I took in as much as I could, and got back on the train to Munich, where they sing happy Bavarian songs.

October 18th – Munich, Germany

If I had somewhere else to go, I would probably move on at this point, but alas, I’m on my way home tomorrow.  I’ve enjoyed Munich, it’s a really nice city, but there are just a couple of must-do sites while you are here.  I would say two full days is plenty of time here; I had one day left over so I spent three. The pedestrian only Marienplatz, which is like a giant 16th Street Mall, is where I spent most of my time.  The best part is the live street music, especially on Friday night.  Just off of the Marienplatz is a great outdoor market with music and beer.  The Hafbrauhaus which is the most famous beer hall in the world is a fun scene, again especially on Friday night.  They have a special toilet in the men’s room just for vomiting.  Finally, the English Garden is the largest park in Europe (size wise, think along the lines of Central Park in New York), nudity allowed. 

On a side note, some things I noticed here in Germany:

• There are a lot of German Shepards in Germany, go figure.  They are kind of like the Lab in the U.S., it seems like 1 out of 2 dogs is a German Shepard over here. 
• The Simpsons in German is still hysterical, though Homer’s voice isn’t quite right. 
• My favorite word that I saw written was beförderungsbeningungen, I have no idea what it means but it’s fun to try and say.

I tried to cap off this trip with a Bundesliga soccer match, there are two teams in Munich. Unfortunately one of the Munich teams were away this particular weekend, and the other was playing on Sunday after my flight, oh well.

October 19th – Denver, Colorado, Amerika

It was a long trip back, all the connections went well but it was still over 20 hours from door to door.  I’m up at 3:30 this morning (the 20th) and I posted the rest of my pictures and was finally able to do a spell check on this blog.  Sorry for all the errors, for some reason the German spell checkers just aren’t that effective .  I thought about staying with my routine and going out with my camera early this morning and taking some shots of Denver.  Just joking. 

It’s great to be home.

My friend Joe and I left Saturday from Denver and drove to Glenwood Springs to stay with some of Joe’s good friends. Sunday morning we were up before the sun and made our way towards Aspen and the trailhead.  When packing for the trip, I had decided to use my wife Marian’s skins for the trip.  Her skins are very new, much wider, and adhere well to the ski.  Mine are old, thin, and come off constantly.  What I hadn’t realized was how much shorter her skins were than mine (stupid mistake, I know).  So there we are at the trailhead trying to get all the gear ready and my skins don’t fit the skis.  We thought about driving into Aspen and buying new ones, but that was at least an hour out of the way.  Enter the savior of all backcountry trips – duct tape.  I was able to bend the clasp on the end of the skin to be flat and tape the skin on.  I knew this was a one-time option, but since the trip in is all uphill and the trip out is all downhill, it might just work.

We thankfully had beautiful weather.  If it had been snowing, or if we would have had to break trail, it would have been a long day with just the two of us.  Even in perfect conditions, this is a long haul.  It took us just over 5 hours of travel time to cover the distance.  Five hours of watching one ski go in front of the other, counting steps, trying to figure how far we still have to go.

As I was coming upon the hut, the first thing I saw was the chimney.  Being exhausted and not quite expecting to be at the hut yet, it was like an optical illusion.  You couldn’t see the hut because it was completely buried by snow on the backside, except for the chimney.  It took me a second to realize that we had finally made it.

The hut wasn’t supposed to be full for the nights that we were staying, and when we arrived there was nobody else there.  In fact, it wasn’t until almost 9PM that our first hut friends arrived.  Joe and Sarah from Boulder came in wearing headlamps.  They had been skiing in Crested Butte and then made the trek in after the drive.  Joe had a broken arm from a climbing injury and Sarah had hurt her back a few days prior, but they made it through the difficult trek.  Nobody else ever came.

Over the next two days I had a great time with Joe, Joe, and Sarah, and we did what you do on hut trips – ski a little, tour around a little, eat a lot, play games, and keep the fire going. 

I had forgot to get my camera battery off of the charger the night before we left. It wasn’t until I was about to shoot a picture of Joe cruising through the powder, that I realized my camera wouldn’t turn on.  What a bummer!  We relied on Joe’s little borrowed camera for the few pictures of this trip, at least I have something.

The ski out was fast and easy, taking less than an hour.  It was a great trip, thanks Joe for leading this one!

Sunday Nov 4th – Seattle, Washington

This trip came about when Southwest Airlines was offering $25 one way tickets for the dates of November 4th through 8th, 2007.  Having flexible vacation time, I took advantage.  I had been to Seattle once many years ago in a family road trip but really didn’t remember much about it.  I decided to spend two days in Seattle, then make the trip across the border to Vancouver and spend another two days there.

In Seattle I stayed at the Green Tortoise Hostel in right next to the Pikes Place Fish Market.  It has a great location, and a nice price, but it is disgusting.  I don’t recommend it unless you are traveling alone and on a tight budget.

Monday Nov 5th – Seattle, Washington

I set out to see as much of Seattle as one can see in one day.  It wasn’t hard to get out of my grungy hostel bed and get an early start. I was out before it was light and spent the early morning down by the water and continued up towards the Pikes Place Fish Market and the original Starbucks.  I then made my way up through Capitol Hill to the park.  It was very foggy early morning, and being November I was hoping that it wasn’t going to stay that way.  The sun started to break through giving me my first glimpse of the Space Needle.  As the day went on the skies cleared totally and it was a beautiful day to be in Seattle. 

I took the trip up the Space Needle and could see for miles in every direction, from Mt. Rainier to Bainbridge Island and up to the Cascade Mountains.

I had lunch in the “Center of the Universe” (Fremont), with their troll, Lenin statue, and missile.  To round out the day I spent an hour or so touring the University of Washington campus, and watching some boats go through the locks from Lake Washington into the Sound.

Tuesday Nov 6th – Vancouver, Brittish Columbia, Canada

I headed north for Vancouver stopping in the university town of Bellingham.  I spent a few hours eating lunch and reading down by the water, then moved on for the border.  This was the first time I had ever driven out of the US.  I answered a few questions about why I was alone from Colorado with a car from Arizona (rental car) heading to Vancouver, I guess my answers checked out fine.

Almost immediately it started to rain once I crossed the border and it wouldn’t let up the entire two days I was there.  I stayed at a Hostelling International Hostel in downtown Vancouver which was really clean, well run, and cost about $18/night.  Out of luck I was the only one in my room the first night.

I spent the remainder of the day walking through downtown Vancouver, watching the planes take off and land on the water, and the cruise ships leave from the bay.

Wednesday Nov 7th  – Vancouver, Brittish Columbia, Canada

I visited the Nitobe Memorial Japanese Garden on the campus of the University of British Columbia, which is supposed to be the best Japanese Garden anywhere in the world outside of Japan.  This time of year it is even free to enter.  I just missed the height of color; the garden was beautiful.  There was every possible shade of red, yellow and gold.

I traveled through Stanley Park, across the bay to North Vancouver and to the Lynn Canyon Suspension bridge and park.

After another full day of sightseeing, I had dinner in downtown Vancouver and hit the sack.  To my surprise, I wasn’t the only one in my room anymore.  Three guys from England had just arrived, were asleep by 8pm, and had locked me out.  It’s always a little awkward to have to knock and wake three people up that you don’t know, then as quietly as possible enter the room an climb into bed.  Oh well, that’s what you get with a hostel.

Thursday Nov 8th – Seattle, Washington

I made the 3 hour trip back to Seattle.  The weather cleared as soon as I crossed the border and was nothing but blue skies by the time I arrived in Seattle.  My flight was later in the day and I had several more hours to work with, so I visited Snoqualmie Falls just east of Seattle.  You start at the top of the falls and at this time of year when the water is lower, you can work your way all the way down to the bottom.  It’s a fun sight to see.

Overall this was a short trip, but a really nice trip to see this area of the world that I had never been to.  I wish I had a little nicer weather in Vancouver, but it’s a great city and I can tell that when the weather is nice it’s a great place to be.  I had nothing but blue sky in Seattle, so I’m pretty sure it almost never rains there.