Eat Everywhere

Chengdu Research Base Of Giant Panda Breeding vs. Ya’an BeifengXia Panda Base, the Zoo and the town of Ya’an. Exactly 2 weeks after I visited Ya’an, a magnitude of 6.6 earthquakes hit the region. The 60 plus pandas at Ya’an Beifengxia Panda Base are unhurt, however I am not sure if the road to the… READ MORE

Chengdu Research Base Of Giant Panda Breeding vs. Ya’an BeifengXia Panda Base There are two panda reserves in China and they are either in or near Chengdu – the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China. In 2006, The Sichuan Panda Habitat was added to the World Heritage List. Today, pandas are critically endangered with… READ MORE

Day 2: We began day 2 of our trek at around 8:30 am. Light snow was already falling from the sky. This time Ju told all of us, “Today is the toughest day and we will all walk close together.” Our goal was to make it to Dolma la pass at 5648 meters, which would… READ MORE

Day 1 The most talked about day has finally arrived. At around 9am, we left our Darchen guesthouse and began a 6 km walk to the starting point of our trek. While the entire team moved forward rather quickly, I walked slowly and stayed in the back with Ju. Taking in the surroundings, the yellow… READ MORE

I have not seen myself in a mirror or have taken a shower for a few days, my hair is oily and my scalp is starting to get itchy. The conditions of the latrines has been stressing me out also: if we’re lucky we would have squatting toilets with small dividers in between, but some… READ MORE

The road to Mt. Everest Base Camp was a short 3-hour hike from our guesthouse at Rombuk. I was nervous not only because it was my first high altitude trekking experience, but also because I was feeling very unfit at that time. I was working, over-eating and doing very little exercise for years before this… READ MORE

Traveling in a Land Cruiser I was awakened by the bumpy ride, the well-cemented road was replaced by a barren rocky path. We’ve left Shigatse a few hours ago and were on our way to Mt. Everest. There were the 5 of us traveling with 2 guides, 2 drivers and 2 land cruisers. I was… READ MORE

Leaving Gyantse, we continued driving west to the town of Shigatse. On the way we stopped by a village to visit a Tibetan home. The owners of the home are a couple in their early sixties but their rigorously sunburnt wrinkled skin made them look much older. They share the house with some of their… READ MORE

We bid farewell to Lhasa and headed to Gyantse, a town that is 6 hours away by car. As soon as we left Lhasa, we started ascending to higher altitudes. Feeling well acclimatized, I sensed that the adventure had finally started. A Tibetan Mastiff at Kampala pass (4560 meters). A typical tourist trap where locals… READ MORE