Monday, November 28, 2011

That's a wrap everybody!




In 109 days visited 7 countries, 2 autonomous regions and 1 island country, explored world cities St Petersburg, Moscow, Ulan Baatar, Beijing, Shanghai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai, paid with AED, IDR, HKD, CNY, RUB, INR, SGD, NPR and MNT, admired 2 new world wonders, tried to speak Russian, Chinese, Mongolian, Nepalese, Indian, Indonesian and Arabic, crossed 11 time zones, spent two weeks at an altitude over 3400m, took 52 GB of pictures, travelled on the slowest, fastest, highest and most famous trains of the world, practised at least 60 hours of yoga, learned how to surf, tried to figure out the differences between Chinese, Nepalese, Mongolian, Indian and Indonesian hinduism and buddhism, left Delhi (and India for that matter) without a Delhi belly and Bali without a Bali belly, supposedly extended my life with 25 years by swimming in freezing Lake Baikal, Siberia, explored the Mongolian steppe by horse in the footsteps of Ghengis Khan, drank vodka, ate caviar and played cards on the Trans Siberian Express, finally saw (many) dolphins in the wild and Orangutans in the zoo, crossed the Gobi desert by train, the Jaisalmer desert by camel and Dubai desert by 4WD, was slapped on the but with a burning stick in a Siberian sauna, spent time with Lenin('s corpse) on the Red Square, Moscow, admired Rembrandt's paintings in the Hermitage, St Petersburg, climbed the Great Wall, wandered the forbidden city, ate homecooked food in the Hutongs of Beijing, China and the home of Shaleindra Gupta in Goa, India, drank yak butter tea with the Tibetan monks, reached Everest Basecamp at an altitude of 5200m, ate quail in Nepal, cried for Mumtaz at the Taj Mahal, lived as a Maharaja princess at the Lake Palace in Udaipur, survived the monsoon (and a deadly busride) in Kathmandu valley, near missed a train crash in Shanghai and plane crash in Nepal, survived an earthquake in Bali and Tibet, yawned at the Terracotta warriors, wined and dined in Hong Kong, cooked porkbuns in a Chinese restaurant, bought sandalwood for a cremation in the holy city Varanasi, hung out in the slums Mumbai, survived in Goa on a daily diet of Kingfisher and Kingfish, drank a glass of wine in the middle of the rainforest of Singapore, cruised the Friendship highway, rode a bicycle in Delhi, Beijing and Ubud, smoked a sheesha in the Dubai desert, lived Eat Pray Love in Bali and much more...

Now back to the Winter Wonderland West...

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