Wow! I totally apologize for promising to keep everyone updated and then continuing to do nothing of the sorts, I'm blaming China!! I have gone through facebook withdrawel in addition to failed blogging guilt....
So, I have FINALLY arrived in Nepal after 2 weeks of overland traveling, starting in Beijing. Beijing was a rather jaded experience, but in a good way I suppose. We had a family friend taking care of us (Thank you SO much Mr. Liu, Stephanie and Vong!) and stayed in a lovely hotel near the Olympic Village. The second we stepped out of our little oasis, all expectations were thrown to the wind though-
A. I have NEVER seen so many people in my entire life! It was a holiday upon our arrival and all 16 million Beijing (ers?) were out. Single file, very organized
B. The food...oh, the food! Chicken feet are available in dishes that do not include chicken.
C. No one knew English...at all...but our Mandarin is solid, ni hao!
D. Beijing SWAT teams are incredibly helpful and love Carrie Underwood
E. If you don't wear Converse sneakers or denim booty shorts with leggings, you aren't cool.
F. Chinese people loved to take pictures with white girls from U-S-A (peace sign and cheesie smile)
Once we completed the usual Beijing rounds, we boarded the infamous Quinghai Express, en route to Tibet....for 45 HOURS! We were supposed to be in one of the fancy sleeper cabins but there some how was a mix-up and we were in a tin-can cabin with 6 other people, stacked on top of eachother, literally. Everything was fine for the first 24hours, lots of sleeping until we picked up a few new passengers for our compartment that were rather fond of the foulest smelling pickled CHICKENS FEET one could imagine. For the following 20 something hours, we stayed in the dining car. Made friends with some Spainiard boys and played lots of chess. We accrued a crowd, apparently they don't play chess in China.
Once arriving in Lhasa we were ready for a new beginning and a loooooooong shower. We weren't particularly looking forward to our hostel since Lonely Planet called it similiar to 'Cell Block H' but we actually really enjoyed the graffitied walls and 'retro' feel. We had hot showers, and that's all that mattered. Lhasa was amazing though! The people were beautiful and the city was delightful and none of the meals included chicken's feet....
Ahhh! I have so much more to say but I need to meet some friends for dinner and begin a little exploration of Kathmandu! I'll pick up where I left off tomorrow- Coming up next: Monasteries and monks, being stuck in a car for 4 days with a British gentleman, an asshole Texan and a sweet Chinese/Cantonese/Austrailian chica. Tenzin and car wrecks. EVEREST! And everything else in between. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated from now on because I don't think Blogging is illegal anywhere else in the world besides China.
PS-I have BILLIONS of pictures but i can't figure out how to load them just yet..coming soon!
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