| |
November
8 ->The Best and Worst of the First Six Months
THE BEST of the first 6 months
| 1. |
Getting engaged on Akaiami Island, Cook
Islands |
| 2. |
In a glider above the Omarama plain, New Zealand |
| 3. |
Dinner at Grandma's Kitchen in Beijing after a month
of mutton in Mongolia |
| 4. |
Helicopter ride over the Tian Shan range, Kazakhstan |
| 5. |
Watching the shark feed, Holmes Reef, QLD, Australia |
| 6. |
Climbing the massive sand dunes of Khongoryn Els, Mongolia |
| 7. |
Showering after finishing the Kokoda Track, PNG |
| 8. |
Bactrian camel ride in Gobi desert, Mongolia |
| 9. |
Bicycle riding on the old city walls, Xian, China |
| 10. |
Sunset over the minarets and madrassahs of Khiva, Uzbekistan |
THE WORST of the first 6 months
| 1. |
Day 3 of the Kokoda Track, Papua New Guinea |
| 2. |
Any time we were on a bus in India |
| 3. |
Nori projectile vomiting, Lake Issyk-Kul,
Kyrgyzstan |
| 4. |
Flying a disaster-prone Tupolev airplane
over the Himalaya from Kyrgyzstan to India |
| 5. |
Glacier outhouse nearly collapsing into
crevasse, Kazakhstan |
| 6. |
Shakedown by crooked police in Tashkent
Metro, Uzbekistan |
| 7. |
The abject Jodhpur train station |
| 8. |
Horrific pay-latrine near China-Kazakh border |
| 9. |
Every time Gomez (Turo) took the wheel
of the jeep in Mongolia (he could not shift correctly) |
| 10. |
Scott's near-death scuba incident, PNG |
THE FUNNIEST/MOST BIZARRE MOMENTS of the first 6 months
| 1. |
Poo mountain
in Chinese train lavatory (a whole life of squat toilets
and a Chinese man still faces the wrong way?) |
| 2. |
Scott staying up all
night terrified about the coyotes and bears outside his
tent in Kazakhstan (the sounds were made by tiny rodents) |
| 3. |
Watching a marmot BBQ
in Mongolia |
| 4. |
Hearing "Hotel
California" being belted out by drunk Peace Corps
workers at an outdoor cafe in Almaty, Kazakhstan (of course
we joined in) |
| 5. |
Witnessing Polynesian
rake-fishing in Cook Islands |
| 6. |
Scott getting tricked
into wrestling a Mongolian champion |
| 7. |
Riding in tractor driven
by one-eyed, stoned villager to the 'real' end of the
Kokoda Track, PNG |
| 8. |
The totally naked 'full-body'
massage Scott got in India that seemed to focus on his
groin. |
| 9. |
The day trip to the
Lonely Planet recommended hot springs at Shargaljuut,
Mongolia (there were no springs, only hot dribbles) |
| 10. |
Standing on a fishing
trawler in the middle of a desert at the site of the old
Aral Sea coast |
MOST VALUABLE EQUIPMENT of the first six months
|
New Zealand - Soup thermos
|
| Australia - Mobile phone |
| Cook Islands - Sunscreen |
| PNG - Water purification tablets |
| China - Toilet paper |
| Mongolia - 3-in-1 Coffee, air mattresses |
| Kazakhstan - Gloves |
| Uzbekistan - Sanjar (our guide) |
| Kyrgyztan - Ciprofloxacin and Immodium |
| India - Earplugs |
-> MORE RAMBLINGS
|
 |
