Bootstrappin’

Did you know that roosters in other parts of the world speak a different language than roosters in America? A few weeks ago, I made the mistake of using the word “cock-a-doodle-doo” with my European friends, and they had a good laugh at that ridiculous word. “Why?” I asked. “What do roosters say where you [...]

Long cow is looooooooong! We’re now about halfway through the second half of the Annapurna Circuit (the “Jomsom Trek”), and this gigantic bovine showed up out of nowhere! My friend Brian (from Ireland) took this photo, and Hans is the one in the middle.

These goats don’t know it, but they’re headed for the dinner table. While we were trekking around the Annapurna Circuit, the Nepalese people were in the middle of the 15-day national festival of Dasain. Dasain (sometimes “Dashain”) is a Hindu harvest festival, where families gather together, feast and make merry, recite mantras, and worship the [...]

This is a short video I recorded from the window of our jeep while we drove from the China border to Kathmandu. Nepal is a really great country to observe through the window of a vehicle. All the houses are built right up next to the roads (because the canyons are so steep that there [...]

As we drive along the bumpy gravel track of the Friendship “Highway” between Tibet and Nepal, we are constantly confronted with roadblocks. The most common? Gigantic herds of goats! Apparently, the goats that people eat in Nepal are raised in the grassy plains of Tibet, and then marched along the highway down the steep, precarious [...]

I’ve just spent two months in China, and despite Beijing’s best efforts to improve translations nation-wide, I’m happy to report that Chinglish is still everywhere. There’s nothing better than awesomely hilarious mistranslations! The opposite of Recycling Bathroom notice

Yaks are pretty much the coolest animal of all time. Sure, they may just be big woolly cows with sweet horns, but they’re a way of life for everyone in rural Tibet. The nomadic yak herders live in tent encampments in the windy Tibetan planes, surrounded by their herd, and yaks are the source of [...]

Today my friend Tee and I were walking along the shore of Namtso Lake here in Tibet, and we were approached by these two young “monks.” They were boys, around 12 or 13 years old, adorned in red Tibetan Buddhist robes, but there was something off and un-monklike about them. Maybe it was the fact [...]

I didn’t know that iPods could get altitude sickness, but my iPod has been pretty sick ever since I arrived in Tibet. I’ve got a fifth generation 60GB Video iPod, and whenever I get above about 3,500 meters in elevation (a little over 10,000) feet, it wonks out. Its poor hard drive starts making those [...]

I thought I knew Chinese food. Then I came to China. “Chinese” restaurants in America are a pretty poor representation of the real thing. Panda Express and all those Chinese buffets are about as American as Burger King. Some of our favorite “Chinese” foods are western inventions as well. But really, what did you expect? [...]