the beginning of the journey

I didn't wait 9 months to post again. See, I'm making an effort.

Okay, this is the beginning of my 5 1/2 week trip around southern China and Thailand. I was hoping to have two weeks of R&R before beginning this trip, but the gods decided against it. Instead I had an insane two weeks, the opposite of the retreat I'd salivated over in my dreams. Oh well! There's always the beaches of Thailand to do that for me. At least I can hope.

I flew into Kunming from Lanzhou today. I left a frigid (a high of 19 degrees) and snowy (first snowfall of the season!) northern China and landed to a comfortable 60 ish degree southern China.

I came to Kunming last winter holiday, and I'll be retracing my steps a little bit again this year. This was only a 12 hour stop before continuing north to Dali, Lijiang, Tiger Leaping Gorge (which I was too sick to hike last year), and fingers crossed for Zhongdian, or Shangri-La (don't worry mom, I'm taking pictures for you). I'll try to keep you informed of anythig interesting that might befall me.


*Beth, if you're reading this, it's good to know the Bollywood world is surviving without me. I'm starved for it here in China, though I did find a copy of Speed with Zayed Kahn and that was awful. It was awful even for Bollywood. I also found Krish, though that's waiting for me when I return back to my apartment. I'm so out of the BW loop it's not even funny.