The Rare Sights of New Zealand...2009 Traveling Winding to a Close

Hey all,

The semi-world tour is coming to an end in a few days and it is time to head back to NJ for Christmas! I last left you in the North Island of NZ but would now like to bring everyone up to date on NZ's South Island. The South Island has magnificent scenery and reminds me of Alaska, Montana and Wales at different times. There are immense numbers of sheep and very few people. Of the roughly 4.5 mm people in NZ, only 20% are in the South Island. Tourism runs the show and outdoor adventure is the staple crop of many towns...fitting given the scenery.

So I have been joined by a friend for the tour of the South Island, Serena, from NYC and a colleague in The Nature Conservancy Young Professionals Group. She is here on a 2 week vaca before xmas. We have done a big loop of the South Island and head back to the North Island tomorrow in order to fly back to the states.

There are many things to explain and discuss about NZ's majestic South Island, but this blog will restrict the details to the rare/most interesting sights along the way. One of the first stopovers was Mt Cook (located in the middle of the Island) which is the backdrop for "Helmn's Deep" in Lord of the Rings. We also did Bungy in Queenstown; cruised the Doubtful Sound overnight seeing the very rare Fiordland Crested Penguin as well as Fur Seals and Bottlenose dolphins. This part of the NZ is the Bottlenose Dolphin's southernmost range since they are a warm water species (the water isn't warm, we went for a short-lived swim off the boat). The Doubtful Sound is a larger and more secluded version of the famous Milford Sound. It is in Fiordland National Park which is one of the largest parks in the world. The scenery was unbelievable with steep hillsides carpeted in trees and laced with waterfalls that pour into the sound's waters below.

After Queenstown and the Sound we ventured to the West Coast and into glacier country. In this part of NZ the glaciers are located right off the shoreline in what NZ refers to as the "Southern Alps." The combination of location and elevation makes for a unique landscape as the glaciers are all surrounded by NZ sub-tropical rainforest! It is difficult to imagine and comprehend, but is true: 20 ft tree ferns on slopes that touch frozen ice. Today we hiked for 7 hrs on the Franz Josef Glacier which exists in some of the (if not the) warmest temperatures for any glacier in the world. The snow at the top of the peaks keeps feeding the glacier, and it will not be disappearing anytime soon (despite climate change and our world's inability to have enough guts to tackle the problem). Along the way we saw the Kea, the world's only Alpine Parrot. This tropical looking bird just hangs out on the snow foraging for food. They are one of the smartest animals in the world and certainly take the crown for smartest bird. Last but not least, along one of our many drives through cattle rangeland in the South Island we saw some "frisky cows." This did not seem like a rare sight at first but then we saw what was actually happening. One cow was mounting another, but from the wrong angle! Yes, there are so many things i can say here but will let you use your imagination for the sake of keeping this blog "clean"...but the cow was humping another cow's face. Icing on the cake of rare sights here in NZ.

To top it all off, this last 2009 blog entry will also host the last lesson of Aussie, British, Kiwi language for my less-traveled american friends and family.


Sweet As: A kiwi favorite. This really doesn't mean anything..."Sweet as ___" - who knows, you can fill in whatever you want. But they don't finish the phrase...sweet as is stated simply on its own. This phrase is used to mean, "ok', "cool", "thanks", and usually comes by itself or at the end of the sentence. Some foreigners think you are actually complimenting their dairy aire, but that is not the case, there is only one "s" in Sweet As.

Friends with Dorothy: I just learned this yesterday from a Manchester girl. She was very sweet and proper and clearly didn't use any offensive language. But she was explaining one of her guy friends that doesn't like girls and referred to him as being "friends with Dorothy"...as in the Wizard of Oz. I think this is great, and it is quite funny. A supposedly less offensive method of calling someone gay. Usually only refers to guys.

Sharpish: Technically i was reminded this one from re-watching "Snatch" (an awesome movie)...but this is a classic British phrase and it means ASAP. "Mate, get that for me sharpish!" "Mate, we need to leave sharpish!" We should definitely bring this one to the US...it just sounds much better with a UK accent.

Glacier: Last but not least. This word, obviously you know what it is but it is pronounced differently here. We say Glay-Shur - seems logical. They say Glass-e-uh. Difficult to explain without sounding it out for you, but still interesting to know the different accents. This pronunciation is fairly consistent for all the Commonwealth countries.

OK, see you back in the States. The plan for next year is actually to not travel as much, maybe live in Jackson Hole, somewhere in the US with lots of outdoor activities, most notably skiing and fly fishing.

Dave

Demystifying the Myth - New Zealand's North Island

Hey all,

I am back after a 6 day tour, with Active Earth , of New Zealand's "Far North" - the very top of NZ's North Island. And I am determined to set the record straight about the North Island!

The common myth about NZ is that you should not bother with touring the North Island and spend all of your time on the south island. A few reasons for this include: 80% of NZ's population lives on the North Island, the South Island has most of the Parks and conserved land, the south island is more majestic, etc. These are all true (but remember NZ has only 4.5 mm people and it is practically the size of Italy which has 60 mm people!). The fact of the matter is that the North Island is an entirely different ecosystem and is a sub-tropical rain forest (the south is more like the Alps, etc). In the North there are fern trees that grow 20-30 feet tall! They look exactly like regular backyard ferns, just massively bigger. There also are kauri trees that grow for up to 2,000 years and are the size of our sequoia trees. Honestly, they could have filmed Jurrasic Park here!

We spent 6 days hiking/kayaking/touring the north island, all the way up to Cape Reinga (the northernmost point where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean)...sunset there was spectacular. Just to give you a taste, the picture above is the view from my tent during our first night. We camped on a cliff overlooking the ocean, nobody was around. We went for a swim in the crystal clear waters. Since we are much further south than Australia the water was cold...60 degrees to be exact. I have never felt like less of a man if you catch my drift. On the last night of the tour we actually got to see a Kiwi - the iconic NZ bird. This flightless bird is quite rare and requires much conservation work because introduced predators like to make them a meal. Seeing a Kiwi is a very rare sighting and most NZers have never actually seen one in the wild. It was very exciting, especially for your very own bird man!

Although I have not yet been to the South Island, I hereby declare the North vs South Island myth bogus. There is beautiful scenery in this country wherever you go and the landscape is very diverse; differing from North to South. The next stop is fishing near Lake Taupo (also North Island) for a few days...then heading down to Christchurch for a tour of the South Island.

Hope things are well and that Thanksgiving was good for everyone. I spent Turkey day kayaking on the east coast of the north island, eating PB&J and chocolate covered banana cake. The scenery is better than being stuck in NJ but the food certainly doesn't hold a candle to mom's cooking!

later

dave

The end of Australia...off to New Zealand

Technically i am already in New Zealand, booking trips and preparing to enjoy the sights over here. But the end of Australia deserves an entry. After touring the Northern Territory i ventured back to the east coast (Brisbane) and met up with my buddy (Ricky) from my Kenya/Tanzania overlanding-safari trip back in June (he is one of my new British mates). We took a bus to Hervey Bay from Brisbane and booked a Fraser Island self-drive tour. Spent 3 days and 2 nights on Fraser Island which is a massive sand island off the eastern seaboard of Australia (about 1/2 way up the eastern coast and a UN world heritage site). We had an old Toyota Land Cruiser and jammed a total of 10 people in (with all their stuff) for 3 days. The group was composed of 4 Germans, 1 Swiss, 1 Chilean, 3 Brits and the token lone American. Overall it was a good group. Of the 7 dudes (yeah, we had a dude heavy group) 5 of us drove the manual 4wd on the sand, but we had one kid (Chris) who took control in the really tough driving situations. The island has not had rain for ages and the sand is very, very dry which causes most groups to get stuck multiple times. We actually didn't have any major problems and only had one slightly annoying situation when we got stuck behind 3 vehicles that didn't know how to drive and kept getting stuck every 50 feet. We eventually blasted around them after a bit of negotiation and pushing our own vehicle through the thick sand...we made the ferry off the island with 3 minutes to spare! The highlight of the Fraser trip (besides the funny drunk antics Ricky and I pulled off the first night) was Indian Head. This part of Fraser is a massive rock cliff that sticks out over the beach. You climb to the top and look down into the crystal clear waters. We saw 3 sharks patrolling (reef or tiger, hard to tell) as well as turtles, rays and a pod of dolphins. It was quite a sight.

After Fraser we took a nice 13 hr overnight bus ride to Airlie Beach which is a small beach town established for sailing to the Whitsunday islands. I am going to post whitsunday island pics on facebook because the water and scenery we experienced was unbelievably breathtaking. Since Ricky and i didn't book our sailing ahead of time we had to book different trips. He had plenty of time to chill but I already had the flight here to NZ and took the last spot on a large, old sailboat that was leaving the next day. The crew of our ship was very helpful and chilled out and our group was a nice mix. I spent much of my time with 3 Frenchies - 2 guys and 1 girl - you know, repairing relations across the Atlantic with our old ally. Our group enjoyed 3 days snorkeling in various spots around the islands as well as hanging out on Whitehaven Beach (pictured above). Whitehaven beach is the most photographed beach in Australia. The sand is perfectly white and the water is more blue than you can imagine - and filled with sand sharks and sting rays (don't worry we kept Steve Irwin in our thoughts and shuffled along the sandy bottom so as to not get a barb in the foot). The Whitsundays were a great way to end the ~6 weeks in Australia.

Overall Australia was an interesting experience, tons of new friends and plenty of amazing and diverse landscapes to experience. Looking forward to New Zealand!

Not to disappoint those looking for more from this entry: there will be a final entry of Aussie language for everyone's edification!

I know you are excited, it is ok, you can get excited at work, after all this blog is helping you kill the day, right?

1) Too easy! - This is a great phrase. There are quite a few variations of this Aussie phrase such as "It's too easy" or "easy peasy" and my favorite "Its too easy, lemon squeezy." Only a few Aussies I met actually use it (our tour guide up in the Northern Territory gets the award for most variations of the phrase and most frequent usage)! This phrase effectively is a variation of "thank you" or "take your time" or "no worries" depending on its use in a sentence. It is most frequently used as a version of "thank you" if you are accommodating to someone.

2) You're Alright - An Aussie version of "No Worries." If you bump into someone or get in their way or drop a pen or accidentally stab someone in the hand - they will just respond with "you're alight." Not as exciting on paper, but a good one to hear in person

3) Bugger/buggered - this is an Aussie and British phrase and has many uses. "Bugger off" can most realistically be translated to "f-off." The word can also be used in this context: "this bloke tried to dance in the club and totally buggered it" - meaning he screwed it up. They also use bugger as a noun - usually referring to animals or...u guessed it...bugs.

4) Chips - This is very important to the Brits and Aussies. Fries...what people sometimes in the US refer to as French Fries and what some nutcases in the US call Freedom Fries (and by nutcases I am referring to conservatives...you know the people in our country who shouldn't be allowed to vote such as the ones that think religion includes speaking in tongues and that all Muslims are terrorists or those that still think Saddam Hussein is harboring weapons of mass destruction). OK, strayed a bit off point there...but what we refer to as Fries are CHIPS. Yes, i know, makes no sense, but that is what it is.

OK, that is enough for now. The next update will officially be about New Zealand - hope to have some interesting pictures, stories, etc.

Havin' A Bit of A Walkabout - Northern Territory, Australia

Hey folks. I have been MIA for a few days, just finished a 9 day trip through the northern and central outback, going from Darwin to Alice Springs and seeing many of the sights along the way. Although this blog is not intended to be a Discovery Channel briefing, the story behind some of the outback in the Northern Territory is too interesting to be left unsaid, an attempt at humor can come after the history lesson.

The Northern Territory (one of Australia’s 8 states/territories) is 1/6 the landmass of the Australian continent. Yet, there are only about 200,000 people living there! (that is less than 1% of the entire population)...and 30% of those people are Aboriginals (not very well integrated into the society, but seems like Australia is making a much more heartfelt attempt to mitigate wrongs than the US is with it's natives). Our first (and most interesting) stop was Kakadu National Park. Kakadu is technically a tropical savannah that has extreme dry seasons (the temp was over 100 during the day) and extreme wet seasons (where a majority of the park is closed due to many meters of water flooding the landscape and surrounding structures). Honestly, the landscape and the birds remind me of Africa...It is a very hot and very harsh environment. The only thing missing are the large herds of animals and the carnivores that live off them. Kakadu is also a special place because it is a World Heritage site according to the UN and is designated as such for 2 reasons: 1) natural beauty, 2) "creative genius" from the many aboriginal paintings throughout the park. This is a massive place, roughly 20,000 square kms and it was designated a national park by the Aboriginal people of the region. In the 1970s and 1980s the Aboriginal people of Australia (in many cases) successfully argued in the high courts to get their land returned from white settlers. They had to prove an attachment to the land both in terms of subsistence and spiritual activities. They were given large tracts of land and Kakadu was originally handed over as aboriginal land to do with as they wish. In order to save their culture, produce revenue and protect the environment, the Aboriginal people of Kakadu agreed to lease the land back to the Australian Parks authorities and they now jointly administer the park for environmental and cultural preservation. Needless to say, this was a special place with amazing sights. After Kakadu we drove down to the "Red Center" where the landscape turns into desert and the land becomes dustier and drier. This is also where the famous Ayer's Rock (Uluru) is located. The trip was great fun, good sights and many new, fun friends.


OK - now we need to continue the language lessons from the first Aussie blog. I am also making the executive decision to include not only Aussie phrases but also British phrases that are worth writing about. After all, Australia was once under the auspices of the British throne.

1) "Sort of" - This is the Aussie version of "like." You know how everyone in the US peppers their sentences with "like" unnecessarily? The Aussies say "sort of." It is less prolific than some "like" abusers in the us and occasionally has its place in the sentence, but it pretty much is like...a filler word, sort of.

2) "Bloody" - There is no way of beating around the bush on this one. It is a substitute for F-cking...and no I don't mean the verb but the adjective. And seriously, relax, not trying to be derogatory, but the fact of the matter is people in the US drop the f-bomb a lot and in Australia and the UK they just say bloody. When you think about it the word sounds bloody weird, but it is not "foul" language per se. Some examples: "This bloody idiot pulled out in front of me." "I need to answer this bloody phone." "Why are there so many bloody Germans in this country."

3) "Bloke" - This is an important lesson because it incorporates some learning from the first lesson and requires a bit of distinction. Bloke means: dude, guy, man, etc. It should not be confused with "Mate" - which can also mean some of these things but in a different context. When you refer to your friends - you say "mate"..."I need to give my mate a call"; "Hey mate, how ya going?" When you are referring to another person as in "this guy said etc" or "this guy was walking down the street and got run over by my mate"...you can substitute "Bloke" for guy. Got it?

4) "Do One" - This is not aussie from what i am aware of, just British. But this is a good one because it is so terribly confusing. This means "to leave". The first time i heard it was hanging out in Sydney with these brisith blokes, one of which is my mate (you confused yet?). We were standing in line, there were lots of attractive girls around, i was terribly confused when they said it. "Do one?...uuuhhh." Nope, not what your thinking, but "you wanna do one" actually means "let's get out of here", "let's leave" or if you want to bring it back to the 1990s hip hop i am cool even though i am white phase: "let's bounce"....you could even say "let's skedaddle" if you are sort of over 50.

5) "Having a bubble" - Saving the best for last. This means: "you making fun of me", or "you laughing at me." It is British, technically cockney rhyme, but it is my favorite one. So when the British say "are you making fun of me" or "are you joking" they actually say: "are you having a laugh" (with the accent of course). So to get to bubble we need to do some rhyming. Laugh rhymes with bath and you always take a bubble bath. Here is the sequence: "Are you having a laugh" ---> "Laugh" rhymes with "bath" ---> "Are you having a bubble bath" gets shortened to "Are you having a bubble."
Another good rhyming scheme: Bees = Money...what? "Bees and Honey" - honey rhymes with money therefore Bees = Money. pretty good

I think we should bring some of these to the US, maybe "Bloke", "mate" and "are you having a bubble."

Off to the east coast again in a few days.

Hope things are well in the US

dave

Scuba Diving in the Land Down Under

Hey all,

Hope things are well back in the US. It is really rough getting on here in Australia, lots of sunshine, nice 80 degree weather, beautiful beaches, plenty of activities.

Last Sunday I flew from Brisbane/Byron Bay area (the end of my surfing journeys) to Cairns, which is in Northeastern Queensland, right on the ocean. It is a nice, laid-back beach town with a ton of diving and snorkeling tourism. You can also get to the rainforest from here which is north of the city in Daintree National Park and Cape Tribulation - an area well know because it is where the "Rainforest Meets the Reef." Seriously, the reef up at Cape Tribulation is right next to the beach and the rainforest goes right up to the sand. Much of the land is preserved and it certainly is breathtaking. But, i digress...this entry is about scuba diving.

On Monday, I got picked up by Deep Sea Divers Den and ventured off on my 3 day, 2 night journey to the Great Barrier Reef.

First, we got on a ~65 ft boat with 30 other people and powered out to the reef (Norman Reef) which took about 1.5 hrs. I thought we were just being transferred to the larger live aboard boat, but we actually started diving on the smaller boat. It was mayhem, there were 20 -25 people trying to put on their wetsuits and dive tanks. Then they said: "OK, find a buddy and jump in, if you want a divemaster it will cost you $15 per person extra." Huh? I have never been diving where they just throw you in the water without a divemaster, but whatever, the current wasn't too strong and they were willing to send out the small inflatable rafts to pick you up after surfacing. So we did 2 dives on the smaller boat, then got transferred to the massive liveaboard where we did 2 more dives that day. The last dive of the first day was at night after they started feeding the sharks offshore. We then did 4 dives the next day - i skipped the night dive in order to "snorkel with the sharks."

Yes, this comment requires a bit of explanation. So the first night, while they were preparing us to do the night dive, they started feeding the sharks (with leftover bits of dinner). By the time we jumped in the water, the sharks weren't around, we could only see a few off in the distance. So 3 of us decided to investigate the opportunity of jumping in the drink directly with the sharks. My roommate (Tim) and fellow scuba diving buddy (Matt) asked the manager of the boat to let us in with the sharks. He explained the process and told us we could do it. We didn't exactly jump in with the sharks, frankly they would have been scared away if we did. So we were allowed to lay on the large diving platform at the back of the boat and they lowered us into the water. We had our masks on and snorkels in and had the cameras ready. We stayed in the water for a good 15-20 minutes while the crew threw bits of food out right in front of us. There were at least 100 fish and 3-4 sharks that had a feeding frenzy at the back of the boat (right in front of our faces) as the rest of our boat mates looked on. It was quite intense and the sharks got comfortable enough to get quite close. These were standard 5-7 foot reef sharks that technically can rip us apart, but realistically are not going to cause any harm. There is no need for a cage unless you are bleeding, holding fish in your hands, or feel the need to provoke them. Needless to say, this was the highlight of the diving trip and you can view the video of the sharks feeding in front of us at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS7_Sh2_1TI

The diving trip was a great experience with a variety of enjoyable people. I am now back in Sydney partying with a few friends (actually won a bunch of money at blackjack last night as well...yeah, at 4:30 am) and will head off next week on another set of adventures, some alone and some with my travel buddy.

Later

dave

Heaps of Roos!!!!!

After a long hiatus, it is finally time to re-initiate the blog. Honestly, writing this blog from Australia is more difficult than previous locations (believe it or not) since there is nothing shocking or cultural about the experience, so i will serenade you with humor (or at least make an attempt). I was originally going to make the next blog entry a synopsis of Asia travel - but it is too late...and was also considering writing about living "at home" with the parents in NJ - that is just humorous, especially trying to go out in NYC from the burbs - what a mess. But the time is right for a proper Aussie blog entry!

So you will get a lesson in Australian language and other tidbits of Aussie-appropriate information.

Language lesson #1: (perhaps there will be more to follow over the next few months):

1) G'day Mate: Everyone know this phrase and loves to make fun of it. But let's examine the details more closely: G'day is pretty obvious - means: hello, what's up, nice to see you, or if your name ends in a vowel and you are from NJ it simply means - "OOOHHHHHH" - with some fantastically guido handshake or thug hug thrown in
Mate - another Aussie and British specific phrase (also common in NZ and South Africa too) that means: friend, buddy, bro, "hey girlfriend", "you my n$%&a", and of course the inimitable jersey special: "OOOOHHHHHH"

2) Heeps: Part of the title of the blog - I am sure you are scratching your head - "Heeps of Roos?" - what on earth does that mean? Well listen rocket scientists - Roos are Kangaroos - yes, we have seen a bunch of them. Specifically the Eastern Grey Kangaroo and they are the Aussie equivalent of North America's deer population. Very weird to see them, so crazily different to what we are accustomed to.
Oh yes, Heaps - that was the confusing one. In Aussie speak - heaps means: lots, many, tons, a variety.

3) Thongs: Seriously, these are flip flops. It was suggested that I bring my "thongs" during the first weekend and of course I naturally started making jokes about the leopard prints that i had, etc, etc - they didn't really understand the joke (also not a surprise). Flip Flops - ok - just one of those weird things over here. Like "Double-fisting" in the US refers to drinking 2 drinks at once and in Australia and the UK...well, let's just say it means something I can explain on an individual basis.

There are likely lots of other phrases, but these will do for now. Will write in for any other hilarious phrases at a later date.

Aussie Culture 101:

Seriously, not much to report here. This is almost as ridiculous as saying "American culture." Unless you consider packing a lipper, frat parties, rap music or the oxymoron of educated yet ultra-religious people culture - it is safe to say we adopt much of our culture from other parts of the world. Probably baseball and football (known as gridiron over here) are some of the more defining things that are "American". Australia is very similar to the US or the UK in terms of the people and the city vs. countryside dynamic. "Culture" over here is best explained by surfing, rugby, Aussie leagues football, and obviously the accent.

Not knocking the Aussie people or experience, just trying to give you a sense that this trip is really more about adventure than anything else...don't get me wrong the Aussie trip has been a blast so far and I am happy to avoid a language barrier and am not terribly interested in spending more than a minority of my travel time learning about cultures anyhow.

The majority of the last week over here has been spent surfing. Had a good weekend crew from all over the world for surf camp (pictured above: Italy, France, Germany, US, England) and am now about 5 hours north of Sydney with a group that takes you to find the best waves for surfing. The first weekend I did fine getting back into the swing of surfing (catching waves, etc) but yesterday I got absolutely crushed. The waves were really intense - they didn't look that large, but had a lot of volume behind them. I am beyond the beginner surfer stage and have pictures to prove that I know how to surf for real, but yesterday was crazy. Took me 4-5 hours of surfing to get a proper wave and not get crushed into the sandy bottom. Was fun though - i wasn't going to leave the beach until i rode a wave all the way through...but I have never been tossed around like that - even in the hurricane induced surf along Costa Rica last year.

Hope everyone is well. Australia is a great place thus far. People are laid back and know how to enjoy themselves. Will be surfing then scuba diving for the next week and will head back to Sydney to meet some mates (see - good use of Aussie vocabulary). Later

Dave

Deeper Into China's Mountains

The last few days couldn't have worked out any better.  During the last entry, the plan was to head to Yubeng - alone.  As usually happens when traveling alone, I met a larger group going on the Yubeng trek.  It ended up being a group of 5 Chinese travelers and me (the crew pictured above).  There were 2 guys from Hong Kong (Adrian and Tim; both young 20s and in law school) who spoke perfect English.  There was also 1 girl (Louise; my age) from Shanghai who spoke perfect English (and German) and who plans to pursue a PhD in anthropology in Deutschland.  There also was a young girl from inland China (no western name) as well as 1 guy from the Chinese army (i was told he was from the equivalent of our "Delta Force", but had been out for at least 2 years traveling his country...he didn't speak English so we did a lot of hand signals and grunting to communicate).  We all met for dinner and hopped in a mini van the next morning.  It was 1.5 hours to the hot springs of Xidang and then a 7 hour hike into Yubeng village (pronounced: u-bong).  Most of the hike is uphill with the last 2 hours a descent into the village.  This was definitively the most remote place i have been on my travels thus far.  Yes, Africa is very remote and they have far fewer resources, but East Africa is very accessible by 4x4 and there are dirt roads leading in and out of most places.  Yubeng is only accessible by horse or foot (only the weak take a horse - which are most Chinese "city" tourists - lazy buggers).  We hiked in by foot and carried our own gear.  Yubeng sits in a valley at the base of 4 sacred Tibetan peaks - Kawa Karpo and his 3 companions (these are all off limits for climbing to the peak because a group of famous Japanese mountain climbers died in the 1990s attempting to summit). 

 

We stayed at the Mystic Waterfall Guest House which is the last building (other than the Shenpu - a sacred temple) on the trail to the mountains.  This was very simple accommodation by western standards, but nice for the location - and the food was actually quite good.  We stayed for 2 nights and during our full day in Yubeng we climbed to the Sacred Waterfall.  This waterfall is sacred for local Tibetans (who are almost exclusively practicing Buddhists) and when you get to the waterfall you must walk clockwise through the water an odd number of times.  Needless to say, we all stayed true to local custom and stripped down to bare essentials and walked through the freezing glacial waterfall (it was sunny out, so we were just fine walked home half drenched). 

 

The next day we hiked out of he village and took a van all the way back to Shangri-La - passing quickly through Deqin and Feilai Si.  Along the way i decided to call the local guiding company in Shangri-La to see if they had any treks. 

 

And...the luck was in my favor, perhaps because i walked through the mystic waterfall!  3 random Americans were doing a trek to the Baima Nature Reserve the very next morning (i had been trying for days to get there and was effectively laughed because "nobody" camps out there).  But that is exactly what we did.  We had 3 days and 2 nights of camping; as well as a guide, cook and driver and good local Tibetan campfire meals.  We trekked for a 6 hours into the reserve during our 1 full day.  We had great views of the valley and surrounding mountains.  Our group was 2 guys and 2 girls; Christian, Maren and Shannon - they were all from the Rhode Island School of Design pursuing graduate degrees in Landscape Architecture.  We had a great experience with our local Tibetan crew and guide (Thupten - who spoke English quite well) and we also had quite a few laughs.

 

Exploring the Northwestern Yunnan Province here in China turned out to be exactly what i wanted to achieve.  Traveling alone has been an eye-opening experience because you get to meet many interesting people along the way.  The randomness of my travels and the lack of planning has also been fun, you would all be surprised how relaxed and go-with-the-flow these last few weeks have been.  One of my traveling companions commented (after I explained recent travels in Yunnan) that i travel "by the seat of my pants."  The last week or so couldn't be summed up any better than that and the randomness and lack of official planning has really added to the experience.  I now have plenty of new facebook friends and potential travel buddies after being in China (and India and Africa for that matter). Now off to Chengdu (the famous Panda research city) as a last stop off before heading back to Shanghai to fly home for family, friends, partying, weddings, and dare i say...a strict workout schedule!