Kagbeni, Nepal | 17 November, 2006 | $1.39 After a lengthy stay in Kathmandu and six days in Pokhara I finally did the thing that one does in Nepal—hike. My longtime readers know I’m not a hiker and I don’t enjoy hiking for its own sake. In Nepal, however, hiking is the best way to…
Kathmandu, Nepal | 8 November, 2006 | $4.86 After my first night in Kathmandu both Sui and I searched the outskirts of the tourist area for a cheaper hotel. We found a nice place to settle in for what turned out to be ten days in the city. We did a bit of sightseeing but…
Kathmandu, Nepal | 2 November, 2006 | $11.10 After 13 hours of driving, including crossing the border from Tibet to Nepal, Sui and I were ecstatic to find any hotel room in busy Kathmandu. Arriving so late in the day we didn’t have much choice and ended up in overpriced rooms in the center of…
Everest Base Camp, Tibet | 30 October, 2006 | $5 (my portion of bill – shared with 3 others) Despite what most people expect, there’s not much to see at the base camp on Mt. Everest’s north face, at least in late October. The large field of rocks below Everest stood bare, a small string…
Shekar, Tibet | 29 October, 2006 | $6.25 (my half of bill – shared with roommate) After a long day of travel our driver pulled up to a hotel beside the main road and told us it was Shekar. We knew the main attraction in the area was Shekar Fort and when we pointed this…
Sakya, Tibet | 28 October, 2006 | $1.88 (my half of bill – shared with roommate) Sakya was officially the cheapest hotel room I had in Tibet, tied with the hotel I stayed in on my last day in Tibet at Tingri. After exploring Gyantse and Shigaste, we drove into town after dark. There were…
Gyantse, Tibet | 27 October, 2006 | $3.13 (my half of bill – shared with roommate) The second night of my Tibetan road trip was spent in Gyantse. We covered a lot of ground on this trip, and often visited more than one town each day. Leaving from Tsetang in the morning and detouring by…
Tsetang, Tibet | 26 October, 2006 | $7.50 (my half of bill – shared with roommate) My first day on the seven-day drive from Lhasa to the Nepalese border took me to a monastery named Samye, West of Lhasa and quite a bit out of the way. Most tours skip this location but I found…
Lhasa, Tibet | 25 October, 2006 | $6.88 (my half of bill – shared with roommate) After my exhaustive journey from Tajikistan to Tibet I needed some time to rest and regroup. The high altitude (11,800 feet / 3,600 meters), made simple tasks like walking to dinner in Lhasa difficult and left most travelers around…
Dunhuang, China – Lhasa, Tibet | 18 October, 2006 | $31.41 ($12.41 overnight sleeper bus, $19 train) A year ago this site was hacked and the Where I Slept series went on hiatus. I’ve decided to resurrect it where I left off last year, on my way across China into Tibet. After a nearly sleepless…
Urumqi – Dunhuang, China | 16 October, 2006 | $10.51 (over night hard seat train) Although I waited around for a sleeper train for a few days this leg was totally full. I finally gave up and decided it was time to have my hard seat overnight experience in China. I sat at a table…
Urumqi, China | 15 October, 2006 | $0 (couchsurfing) I met David first back in Mongolia but the first time I came through town he was somewhere in Western Mongolia. This time around our schedules matched up and I took a bus over to his apartment next to Xinjiang University. After four months on the…
Urumqi, China | 13 October, 2006 | $12.36 This is the same hotel I stayed in the first time I was in Urumqi and I thought it was easiest to go there since I knew where it was and what the rooms went for. After the rough travel I put myself through in Central Asia…
Kashgar – Urumqi, China | 11 October, 2006 | $42.65 (high speed sleeper train) This was my second time on this train and this time it was almost totally empty. I shared my 4-bed compartment with a middle-aged woman was quiet and courteous. She noticed I had a cold and insisted I take a few…
Osh, Kyrgyzstan – Kashgar, China | 8 October, 2006 | $50 (overnight sleeper bus) This would be my third time traveling between Osh and Sary Tash on this trip and this time I decided to go by bus. The first time was in a large China Aid truck after my accident and the second time…
Osh, Kyrgyzstan | 7 October, 2006 | $4.12 My brilliant plan to get a ride from Tajikistan to Sary Tash, Kyrgyzstan and then to hitchhike on a truck to the Chinese border didn’t quite work out. We arrived in Sary Tash at dusk and were told that the Chinese border was closed for the next…
Murgab, Tajikistan | 1 October, 2006 | $8.75 Murgab is the main town on the Eastern end of the Pamir Highway near the Tajik, Kyrgyz and Chinese borders. We arrived in Murgab around lunchtime and our driver took us directly to the police station where we were ushered into a concrete office with a man…
Alichur, Tajikistan | 29 September, 2009 | $8.75 We arrived in Alichur with an hour or two before sundown so I went out exploring. I took wonderful photos of the local kids and the father and daughter I had tea with in their home. Unfortunately, this is the one memory card in my camera I…
Navabad, Tajikistan | 28 September, 2006 | $5.83 Although there are a few official home stays that are approved by a Tajik organization we spent most of our nights on the road in the Wakhan Corridor and Pamir Highway with our driver’s friends. Navabad was the first place we stayed after leaving Khorog. We don’t…
Khorog, Tajikistan | 27 September, 2006 | $8 One of the two guys I was traveling with in Tajikistan flew into Khorog a day early and met me at the airport. He had walked, but a nice petroleum businessman from South America befriended me on the plane and offered us a ride in his fancy…