I'm in Kathmandu! Freedom! Non-censored publications! English language! No umbrella-toting! Supermarkets without shrink-wrapped chicken feet! Dalai Lama's photo! I am positively hyperventilating at the prospect of non-censored non-Chinese stimulus around me. Heather & I are acting as if we just got out of prison. I nearly wept at one of the 10,000 English-language bookstores around here that had something other than Chinese propaganda (and ohhh...

The Tibetan Nightclub Story The afternoon starts out fairly tame - after reaching a fairly dull town of Nyalam and checking into the Kailash hotel for the evening (indoor plumbing!!) Heather & I decide it was well past beer o'clock and search out the nearest thing to a Tibetan pub, a teahouse across the road. It did have a pub-like feel to it so we tucked into 2 Lhasa beers and occupied our afternoon periodically saying to each other Heather, what'd you do ...

Sept 11th & 12th - Mt Everest! The road from Saga to EBC was a long one and something we'd seen before. After 6 hours of driving we hit pavement for the first time in a very, very long time. The sensation of not having your bones jolted around every 3 seconds, and yet all the while still making forward progress, was quite odd. We had lunch in Tingri, where we had stayed the night previously (stray dogs, yak carcasses, check) and then hit the road to hea...

Paryang to Saga 6 hours on bumpy roads. Arrive Saga 3pm. Check into hotel. Use public baths and pay 10 kuai to shower (they provided a HAIRDRYER... something I haven't seen since... um... March?) We get strangely excited about the presence of chocolate in the supermarkets. Decide to buy red wine because we haven't seen it in so long. Regret decision to buy red wine without checking label more closely (6% alcohol cannot be good). Run out to pu...

Another loooooong day of driving. We decided to stay only one night in Manasovar owing to the fact that its sole attractions were a lake and a monastery - the lake was clouded over with bad weather and the monastery...well...been there, done that. We did stay at an absolutely lovely teahouse though, the nicest thus far in terms of warmth and hospitality. After my fit of anger yesterday at Kai's actions I wanted to find out more about the girl's condition so I ask...