7000km Journey from Mongolia to Nepal

Over a month ago I set out on an ambitious journey from Mongolia – I was looking at a nearly 7000 kilometer journey, four countries and some serious mountain ranges and deserts between me and Kathmandu, Nepal. My friend Diane was already trekking in Nepal and I was trying to meet her in early November so we could hike the Annapurna Circuit together, a long-term dream of mine and one of the few ‘must-do’s’ of my journey. Luckily for me, ambitious China has built the highest railroad in the world into Tibet, traveling in over 4000 kilometers in total from Beijing. Target acquired, lets begin.

Before my long Mongolian tour I booked a flight to Beijing from Ulaanbaatar. The price was nearly the same as a train ticket and saved me over 30 hours of travel. I couldn’t possibly handle another two-day delay at the Chinese border either. I also had been scrambling to arrange my Tibet tour from dodgy Internet connections in Mongolia and HAD to be in Lhasa by October 27th to meet my group. One thing I did not do was arrange my train ticket to Lhasa, as the owner of my Beijing hostel informed me over e-mail that NOBODY goes to Tibet this time of year, so getting a ticket will not be a problem. Well apparently a few people do go to Tibet in October because when we contacted the train station, the only option left was a hard seat in 3rd class. Not the most appealing option on a 48 hour train journey, especially in China. I had no other choice, so I booked the 4000k train for a stiff $50, got myself a massage and 15 lbs of water, food and beer and headed to the train station for the 9:30pm departure….

Let me back up here – despite being through Beijing twice it hasn’t earned any blog time! This second time through was only a 36 hour stopover, but I used it  as an opportunity to visit a number of places that were closed on my first visit for the 60th anniversary celebration of the communist revolution in 1949. I walked through Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, going to the must-sees in in Beijing and snapping that obligatory photo with the man himself, Mao ze Dong. My first trip to Beijing back in early October was actually much more memorable despite the city wide lockdown and tight security. I was able to catch up with an old IBM Pittsburgh colleague of mine, Dave Cai who now lives in central Beijing and works at Volkswagen. Dave showed me his posh apartment and took me out for a great dinner. I really enjoyed our intense conversation about the future of China, its relationship the United States and the rest of the world. I consider China the world’s great experiment of the 21st century – they have momentum and strength of an industrial revolution West of centuries past, but with the keen advantage of hindsight and history. They have a unique opportunity to change the world based on ideals and through planning, in way that has never been done. I find myself frequently talking global politics and the discussion always ends up in China. And back to China we go: Beijing – I rolled in a couple of days before the big October 1 National Day celebrations, figuring that one of the largest celebrations in history would be fun to be around. Well turns out only if you’re Chinese. Foreigners were given a tight lease, not allowed anywhere near the festivities or into tourist locations for many days. Fortunately I hooked up with a crew of travelers at my hostel, spent time hopelessly trying to sneak in to see anything, but ultimately watched the celebrations on TV like everyone else in the world despite the events happening only a 10 minute walk away. At one point a few tanks rolled down our street on their way out from the celebrations. I’m not sure if anyone did catch it on television, but the ceremony was quite an impressive showing of the massive armament of the Chinese military. Personally I believe Nationalism breeds only more violence and division (How can you rally behind a single country and also promote world peace- it is a contradiction. Separateness always breeds division and violence through its very nature). This is another aspect of the China experiment that will play out in our lifetimes – they are fiercely nationalistic, at times quite xenophobic and have in my opinion placed their loyalty for country ahead of themselves or anything spiritual.

Back to the slightly more present (Oct 25), boarding the train for Lhasa. In China, you don’t need a ticket for a seat, just the train. People ended up lying all over the floor, in the common areas and just about anywhere a couple of inches of space could be found. I’ve heard that during holidays these trains are so packed that people have to stand for days at a time!

I was the only white guy in 3rd class and people curiously watched me down a couple beers and eat dinner. Feeling exhausted, I was able to sleep with my hands folded on the table, waking up the next morning in Xian where the vast majority of people got off  the train. The next day I will always have great memories from. I’m pretty sure that every single person in 3rd class who could speak more than five words of English introduced themselves to me, and I found myself meeting many really incredible people, sharing food and drink and photos, exchanging e-mails and simply having an amazing time as the incredible beauty of China passed by my eyes outside the train window. This quickly changed in Xining, the halfway point. The train became packed again, and a nice family of Tibetans with 4 small children decided they were going to take FULL advantage of their one seat reservation in my row. I ended up with my face literally squished against the window, with a total of 11 people sharing 6 seats. Now – I was on my way to Tibet – why not start the cultural exchanges right away!? I already had a small child on my lap and the father brought out a stove to cook up some Yak Butter tea on the table. I played along for a while, but 24 hours like this were not looking very appealing so I bought my way into a comfortable sleeper cabin for the second half of the journey. While not nearly as exciting as 3rd class, I did get a great nights sleep in the oxygen filled cabin and woke up to the high Tibetan plateau out my window…The next day passed in tremendous comfort, I was sipping coffee and eating my snacks as I snapped photos of one of the most beautiful and yet inhospitable landscapes in the world. It was such a contrast to the lush forests and rice fields of the day prior.

Ultimately I recommend the same approach to anyone taking the train – spend half of your time in 3rd class, but enjoy some luxury and upgrade on the second day.

Eventually the train pulled into Lhasa, once the most inaccessible city in the world. Prepared for a complete shake down from the authorities, I strangely just walked off the train and out of the station without once displaying any of the many permit and visa papers I was carrying…. And just like that I was in Tibet.

… To be continued…

Reflections @ 6 Months

Thank you to everyone who wrote to me recently, I realize now that I projected an image of being quite pathetic a few days ago! I’m back in Kathmandu, looking at spending a week here as I wait for my India Visa to come through. I made the mistake of not beginning this process before my trek and am now faced with numerous days of queuing, waiting, queuing, waiting, and hopefully I’ll have a visa in my hand on Friday. Several people I met at the embassy had this turn into a multi-week saga. There are definitely worse places to be than Kathmandu. There is a great traveler vibe, an abundance of western comforts like book stores and coffee shops, perfect weather and cheap food. The major annoyances here are the tiger balm touts and excessive noise pollution. I didn’t do anything touristy on my first run through the city so I’m planning on seeing a few sights between coffee shop visits and blogging I have not updated my blog since leaving Beijing over a month ago – sorry!

After my last post, I should clarify some things around my trip home. Its also time for everyone’s favorite post – my bi-monthly, “Reflections”. First, my decision to come home in December was actually made almost 2 months ago, during my travels in China. I reserved a flight using frequent flyer miles, knowing I would have the option to cancel the flight if I decided to stay on the road. I can’t quite recall my decision making process, but it was at this time where I began to feel a sense of momentum and speed to my travels that had gotten a little out of control. It was during this time that my plan to travel through Mongolia, back to Tibet and onward to Nepal and India became real, and the days ahead were no longer as free and open as I once envisioned. People since have asked or suggested – Why not just stop? Just sit still, change course and throw out all of the preconceptions? The irony is that this feeling was no different than one that nagged me the past couple of years at work. Its not that I didn’t want to go to the places I did – I very much did. Its more that there was an undercurrent of not being completely true to myself in some way or another.

  Its clear that there is something much more fundamental at work in one’s sense of freedom than outward appearances, physical location or commitment levels. Needless to say, I endeavored ahead. I saw and experienced an incredible amount in a few short months. I have not a single regret. But I am exhausted. I mentioned a few days ago that this feeling doesn’t go away no matter how much I rest. Its my body (and spirit I believe) telling me to go home and rest.

It’s not just for physical reasons that I am coming home. I’m considering my forthcoming time at home an opportunity, an exploration if you will. I significantly overestimated the amount of time I would have during travel for investigation of the more practical aspects of life. Examining career possibilities, networking with people from home and teaching myself Spanish were all on the list when I left. I laugh now, but in Japan I started a concept of using one day a week as a work day where I would sit in a hotel or coffee shop and do some of these things. The burdens of travel, the quality of Internet in 3rd world countries and the speed of my travels quickly made this an idea of the past. My notebooks are riddled with one liners and thought bubbles that require a 24 inch screen LCD, a comfy chair and Google to investigate more thoroughly. I find myself frequently wanting to reach out to call people, to discuss something, quickly to realize I’m nowhere near a phone or even if I am that its 4:37am in the Colorado. My business school professors would consider this a midyear review.

A midyear review in conjunction with setting ideas into action. This entire trip has been about ego deconstruction, self awareness and exploration of truth. Seeking to be a vessel of divine will, not a creature of whim and momentary desires. I’ve been able to sit with many different aspects of myself, digging deep into my habits and my conditioning. I’ve broken down a number of these to their roots, seen how certain fears and attachments to the past drive my actions and words. There are many, ohhhh so many, aspects of being that continue to ask for my patience and careful watch to reveal their true nature to me. The people and places of the world have been great gifts for me in this discovery process. But right now I want to experiment with the application of these gifts in my daily life in the place where I plan to spend a large part of my life – Colorado. The meaning of a retreat is to go away, reflect and to return. I mentioned in my 4 month reflections that long-term travel, the endless vagabond journey will never be my forte. I have collected many golden nuggets from this journey and my bag is getting a little heavy. Its time to bring them home and smelt them into something useful.

Why would I pick the coldest months of the year to return to Colorado? Well, steep turns in knee deep snow at Berthoud Pass comes to mind very quickly…

The truth is I’m just ready. I miss my family, my friends, the small daily joys of my existence in Boulder. And despite our countries share of problems and clear disregard for so many things – I’ve never missed her comforts and opportunities so much.

Thanksgiving Day Delights

I spent Thanksgiving in great form – wrapped around my toilet all day and night with a violent attack of both vomiting and diarrhea. It was the perfect storm of giardia, food poisoning and a bad cold. I have to admit I’ve had a great run of over six months of no major GI (gastrointestinal) illnesses, generally eating and drinking everything placed before me. I’m now spending a few extra days in the Nepalese town of Pokhara, a chill, lakeside village with all of the standard traveler amenities. I’m popping a full-suite of antibiotics and trying to muster the courage to put something non-liquid into my body for the first time in over 48 hours… Fortunately I have a good crew of friends here, including my friend Diane from home and a group of people that we met on the trek. It’s always nice having something of a community to put that smile on your face when you are feeling ill.

Obviously being sick places my body at the forefront of much of my thinking and has given me something to write about today. During my battle with the stomach amoebas, I found time to do a Chakra healing session with a healer that a friend I met in Tibet recommended to me. It was a very interesting experience for me, my first with Reiki and singing bowls used in an energetic session. Sabine, the healer, acts as a medium between the universe and me. She did her thing as I relaxed and focused on my breath and body. Certain aspects of it were much more powerful for me, and I had a sense that she was pulling energy towards my feet. Afterward, we had a nice discussion where she highlighted several things that have been themes for me from either my own work or have been brought forth in prior spiritual readings:

1. I have difficulty grounding – my connection to the earth through my lower chakras is very weak
2. My throat chakra is blocked, indicating that communication can be blocked (specifically inward, i.e., following intuition).
3. I need to rest more, to recharge myself.

# 2, the part about intuition is a big theme for me, as I alluded to it in a previous post. I think this will continue to be a process for me of listening more and more to myself, shedding the social constructionist and outward pressures from society and myself that define me through my ego-body. But that is a blog post in itself…

Grounding and rest are where I want to focus right now. First, rest. Frankly I’m exhausted. Obviously the Thanksgiving day fun is part of this, but even prior to getting violently ill, I was finding that part of me was very, very tired, despite how much rest I was receiving. There are a million factors, but primary amongst them are the difficulties of travel, always changing location, having a different bed and new food every day, moving, moving. It’s also quite difficult to ground oneself in these circumstances (at least for me). I’ve been ignoring my body and some of the obvious signs it’s been giving me. I’m becoming much more aware in recent years of how the body often mimics psychological, emotional or spiritual issues. For example, I’ve been experiencing issues with vertigo over the past year – the beginning of which began when I began making preparations to leave my job, my home and many of my material possessions behind to begin this trip. Most of the time the vertigo has been minor, but at certain times (usually when faced with major uncertainty), I have had days where I cannot function very well. Most recently this occurred to me as I was losing someone close to me.

Recently I also mentioned some ‘big life decisions’ that I had made. One of these is to come home in December to rest, to reevaluate and reflect on my travels thus far. I also had ideas (and hopes) around some aspects of my life that included other people. One of these doors was closed rather abruptly the day before I fell very ill, dealing me a very heavy emotional blow. Connection? Of course there are biological explanations to what was going on in my stomach – but the timing is just too perfect. You can dismiss this as coincidence, or recognize the powerful fusion between the many aspects of being.

I don’t think I’m doing a great job here, but I’m trying to show the body’s sensitivity to life events, and also highlight a major piece of work in my path – finding the ground. It’s ironic because most people would look at me and consider me very grounded…. Level-headed, practical, etc. However this is an outward, material existence and cannot be mistaken for one’s inward sense. Just in the past two days have I really started to look at the things that I may have (falsely) used to gain a sense of ground without my own work: Things such as a career, financial security, relationships (romantic or platonic) with people who are very grounded. I will be coming home completely empty-handed, no home to hide in, no woman or career to return to. I will have to consciously do my own work of rooting, grounding. I had a conversation yesterday with a friend who discussed meditation techniques involving visualization of growing roots like a tree. I am going to experiment with this subtle shift as often meditation takes me ‘up’, not ‘down’.

Sorry for blogging a confusing work-in-progress. We’ll just consider this a conversation starter for later….

I will be back in Colorado in mid-December. There is a part of me that feels ‘defeated’ because I didn’t complete a full year on the road. However, I am open to every and all possibilities. Life may find me on the road again in a few months or it may find me remaining in Colorado, exploring existence in my own backyard.

Update from Annapurna

Hi Everyone. I haven’t been on a computer in almost 16 days which must be the longest amount of time since I was 11!  My trek has been amazing. I safely navigated the 18,000 foot Thorung-la pass despite an early season snowstorm and frigid weather. I’m hiking with a great group of people and we’re now on our way out, crossing through citrus fields and rice farms, reminding ourselves to turn around and look at peaks behind us. I’m in great health, enjoying the slow pace of hiking, staying at tea houses and appreciating the cultural aspects of this region. Its also been an incredible opportunity for reflection, digging into some subtle aspects of being that require patience and stillness.  I hope everyone at home is enjoying the relaxing Thanksgiving holiday – cheers!

Annapurna awaits

Friends. I’ve been in Kathmandu now for almost 4 days. 1 day turned into 2 and 3 into 4. I had hoped to catch everyone up on my adventures through Tibet, but ultimately I have run out of time. You’ll have to make up your own stories for now from the photos I posted… I didn’t realize how exhausted I was until I got here, but am feeling much better after loads of good food, some massage and plenty of sleep. A few personal issues from home also left me quite emotionally drained, and in combination with the hectic travel schedule I was running on empty. This is the first city I’ve spent more than 3 nights in since Indonesia, over 2 months ago!

Tomorrow morning I leave for the Annapurna region of Nepal to attempt the two-week Annapurna Circuit trek, one of the world’s classics and another life-list item for me. I’ve spent my time in Kathmandu quite idly, not doing a single tourist activity. Just talking to locals, soaking in the hectic place, resting up and simply catching my breath.

My dear laptop will be in storage for the next few weeks, so I’ll be offline for a while. Thank you to everyone who has commented and e-mailed me as of late, I really appreciate the support and feedback.

People of Tibet

Amazing photos taken by one of my travel partners in Tibet, Maaike

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Rationality versus Intuition

A major reason I began this pilgrimage was to perform a reset in my life, to sell my possessions, abandon my apartment and live as simply as possible. The physical and material aspects of house-cleaning, while not easy, are much easier than the psychological and intellectual ones. You can throw out an old couch but can you throw out a way of thinking? An opinion? A habit? I believe you can, and as I find myself away from home for over 5 months, I have found myself successful in some of this cleaning. This process stems from my Zen Buddhist practice and the concept of returning to a beginner’s mind.  A beginner’s mind being one always coming out of the moment, in the present, not relying on the storehouse of memory, society or intellect to act. To see directly into relationships as if a pure mirror, without the haze and dirt that inhibits and hurts these relationships. I of course mean relationships to people, but I am also talking about relationships to nature, to objects, to thoughts and of course ourselves.

For me, and for many of us, we over-rely on our intellect to guide us in this uncertain world. We often distrust our intuition, our heart or small signs that come to us through the universe. A friend of mine recently said to me, “Men tend to make daily decisions rationally and the most difficult decisions intuitively while women tend to make daily decisions intuitively while making the most difficult decisions rationally.” While this is highly generalized, I can say it is for me, true. Or more accurately, I used to make ALL of my decisions rationally and/or practically, often completely ignoring my intuition. That sort of decision making has kept me in relationships longer than I should have been, sent me on a life path that was not aligned with true self, kept me in a job I was disinterested in because it was the most practical thing to do.

Before this trip, and definitely on it, I find myself beginning to fall on the other side of the coin. For me this is often scary and uncertain. Intellect allows us to put nice little boxes around decisions, to weigh the pros and cons, to move forward with a sense of certainty. Intuition is a curious thing – showing up in dreams, small signs throughout the day and in partial concepts and emotions, never painting a complete picture. When one moves forward with an intuitive decision, they are placing great faith in the unknown, in themselves and their ability to listen to their heart, gut, or the universe depending on where you think intuition lies. I can tell you for sure its not in your head!

Recently I have not felt the creative urge to write, to blog or even to read. I’m playing in the space of intuition, scribbling little notes in my notebook, questioning EVERYTHING I have ever thought or believed. I’m struggling to take off the chains of the past that I’ve allowed to define me. Yes, my name is Keith, I grew up here, went to school here, had this training and this job, lived here, traveled here, etc, etc. BUT, that is not who I am, right now. That is the path my body and mind have taken to reach this particular place in space and time. I’m not suggesting ignoring the past, but when someone asks you, “Who are you?”, don’t take that question lightly. Great masters have sat in caves for a decade holding only this question. Or more modernly, a quote from the book, Fight Club: “You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world”.

Not only do you create an idea of who you are, but your friends, your partners and your families often heavily reinforce this. An astrological reading I once received informed me that this is especially difficult for me – that people in my life often see me as an image of the past, that I can struggle to redefine myself around those I spend a lot of time with. Who knows if its different for me than anyone else – but I am aware of this difficulty. I find myself wanting to surround myself with people who DO allow their own images of me to change, to shatter old boxes and those that give me space to grow. I think about this a lot. Only the enlightened can truly see other individuals as momentary manifestations of a divine force, not images from their own memory and opinion. The rest of us, as it is human nature, tend to create images of those close to us, its easier and safer (If a masked man comes at you with a baseball bat, you may want to rely on a few stereotypes). BUT, when a loved one says or does something that is not part of your image, we struggle, we say “I don’t know you!” That is really like saying, “You are not acting in a way consistent with my image of you!”. Often this image is our own projection from the past of what is right, what is wrong, a belief that our path in life and view of truth is the same as everyone else’s. I’ve written about how one of the things I struggle most with while traveling is not finding people to connect to. As I write this blog, however, I realize that this is because it is easier and more comfortable to sit in other people’s boxes at home than to express yourself anew all the time. So we all end up creating these images and boxes and never truly communicating soul to soul with those most close to us. More recently I’ve been on a few guided trips where I was able to spend time with the same people for a couple weeks. I truly enjoyed the opportunity to talk, to share, to experiment in this space of a present relationship, one without a past. Yesterday, I said to someone, “I can’t believe how much I shared with you, I would often not share that much with someone from home”. Why not??? Because it would force me out of that comfortable box! Well, sorry everyone, but I won’t sit in your box anymore.

So let me pose the question – who exactly are YOU?

Tibet Photos

Week in Tibet, Oct 25-Oct 4, 2009

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Mongolia – MBA in action?

I spent 17 out of my 21 evenings in Mongolia in a traditional Ger – a rounder version of a teepee, generally with enough room for 4-6 beds and a wood or cow-dung stove in the center. I rode horses, camels, did some trekking, rock climbing and even one unintended swim… Despite some extremely memorable experiences including killing and eating a sheep, exploring sand dunes in the Gobi desert and spending time practicing my horrible Mongolian with local families over Airag (fermented vodka) and yak cheese, something that will stick with me longest will be the group dynamics of our 5 person group that left UB (Ulaanbaatar) in a 40 year old Russian jeep on an intended 14-day  tour of the country. One member of our group ended up being exposed as psychologically unstable, with severe control and attention issues. She was also the only female in the group. Big lessoned learned for me! Before we left UB, I already sensed the anxiety steaming from this individual, as she was pushing her  agenda and timelines despite the remainder of the group being fairly relaxed and flexible. In the future…. trust your instinct! I underestimated how intimate it would be spending two weeks with strangers mostly in a jeep or a ger. In my rush ‘to take advantage of time’, I compromised and decided to travel with this group to meet my selfish goals of a cheap, long trip.

The trip commenced, and after two days of butting heads with this individual, I decided the only way I would survive the trip was to allow her a large space, co-existing and taking the path of least resistance. Interestingly, while I did this, her tension with two other members of our group increased. Her behavior bordered on unbelievable (one night storming out with no food or clothing and getting lost until we got a call from the police in the morning), to just annoying, i.e., in an effort to do what she needed she would disregard everyone else’s property, including our hosts. Our first two nights consisted of upsetting hosts by moving a Buddha statue to the floor and burning a nylon bag on the stove so the place smelled like plastic for 2 days. Despite these strange and inconsiderate behaviors, the biggest issue came from her worldview. She portrayed herself as a eastern thinking, enlightened individual with deep insight into things like meditation and other-worldly phenomena. However, what I finally deduced after a week was that any conversation she entered (almost all of them due to her attention issues), became an argument rather than a conversation. This was due to her use of words such as “actually, I know, NO, let me tell you”, which immediately ruined the air of decent discussion. And we had some great ones going around meditation, religion, global politics, etc. If someone challenged her, she would become upset and escape. The rest of us spent countless hours deducing her background and how this apparently confident 32 year old could really just be a frightened child running away from problems at home, but we’ll leave that to the psychologist which I really hope she seeks in the near future.

I was constantly digging into the archives of MBA training, looking for group conflict strategies to help right the situation. Ultimately other than some decent facilitating, the only solution was to remove the individual from the group, and we were all thankful for giving ourselves a 10-day option where people could leave the trip. She pleaded ‘to stay with the group’, promising to ‘work on the issues’, but ultimately 3 of us decided we were not on holiday to provide therapy, but to have an easy time and asked her to leave. One of the guys did leave with her, leaving 3 of us to finish the tour. That is a story in itself.

The final three days were brilliant. Stefan from Switzerland and Jules from England and I at first celebrated our freedom, but then very much enjoyed conversations about life and love after getting comfortable with each other. Recently I blogged about how difficult it is to find meaningful relationships while traveling – but this was the first time I can say I felt like I had a couple of like-minded male friends to help me explore large issues in my life, and vice-versa. It felt like group—therapy at first, after all the tension we needed to debrief, talking about male/female dynamics, group interactions and situations, but we quickly moved beyond the tragedy, enjoying a few days hiking around the countryside near beautiful White Lake in central Mongolia.

A felt pressure to leave Mongolia a little earlier than I would have liked – winter was coming in fast (-23c one evening and several snow storms), plus I was trying to get to Nepal to do some trekking before winter set in there. Always running from the snow! BUT, I would like to come back some day, explore northern Mongolia and the reindeer people, the Kazaks of western Mongolia and possible journey into the “stans” – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan from there.

It is true what they about Mongolians – they are extrememly hospitable, lived a very simple lifestyle in one of the worlds harshest climates. It wasn’t so much about sightseeing here. In fact, I was quite saddened to learn about the history of Tibetan Buddhism here. Despite the first Dali Lama coming from Mongolia, today Buddhism is a shell of its former self, destroyed by the Stalinists in the 1930’s and 1940s. Countless times I’d read in the guidebook about a monastery yielding thousands of monks and hundreds of buildings, followed by a sentence that Stalin had the monks sent to Siberian death camps and the buildings burnt to the ground. Today, you will find a handful of monks and a few buildings built in the 1990s after the fall of communism. Hardly any semblance of Buddhist culture remains in day to day life.  The trip was more about getting off the tourist trail, watching day to day Mongolia life and having A LOT of time to think and reflect. The true benefit of my time here can’t really be measured, but I have made some rather large personal decisions that I feel VERY clear about and look forward to sharing with everyone in the near future.

Into Tibet

I find myself in Beijing, a few hours before commencing a 48 hour train trip to Tibet. Due to my own procrastination, the only seat available is in third class which means there will be very little sleep occurring over the next two days. Despite this, I am very excited about the next leg of my journey that includes 10 days in Tibet with a guide and a Toyota Land Cruiser, making my way to Kathmandu in Nepal via Everest Base Camp.  

I’ve been staring at this page for 30 minutes and the words just aren’t coming today. I was hoping to blog about my 3 weeks in Mongolia but am simply not feeling inspired. It was quite an adventure in the countryside, including the sheep slaying, crazy group dynamics and an incredible amount of solace and quiet. I realize now, that despite the solitude, I’ve been traveling constantly, with at most two nights in the same place over the past month. This may explain my sense of exhaustion today. Didn’t I recently blog about this? I need to take a holiday from my holiday soon.

I’ve been spending a lot of time contemplating some rather personal things, some around relationships and therefore not safe blogging material! I imagine I will have time on the train to write, but not sure if I’ll be able to upload anything from Tibet due to the Chinese quarantine. My health is good, and my spirit is as well, just a bit tired. I have been putting the familiar pressure on myself to make progress, whatever that means. Off I go…