Alaska : Extreme Country, Extreme Weekend.

Departing Van Nuys Airport in the Cheyenne 82XL with Chris, Meghan, & JR.

On our first day we flew into Juneau Airport. It was a breathtaking surprise to drop below the clouds and see the vast, untouched beauty. Completely landlocked, Juneau can only be reached by boat or plane.

Beyond its extreme landscape, Alaska's bold native artwork is iconic of the people and its history.

A mystical forest on top of Mt. Roberts, Juneau.

On our second day we landed in Talkeetna.

After arriving at the wilderness lodge, we embarked on a tour of the Talkeetna River. Many houses line the river but can only be reached by boat, 4WD or a small train the services its isolated inhabitants. This is an indigenous compound, primed for winter living, hunting, and storing goods.

Flora & Fauna.

On the jet boat tour of Talkeetna River, Mt. McKinley in the background.

Talkeetna is the most quaint, spirited town I have ever been to. Because it is only 6 hours from the Arctic Circle, it has barely any sunlight in the winter and stays light almost all night in the summer. Walking around town you could feel celebration in the air, everyone in appreciation of the long beautiful summer days.

The next morning we took a ride up to the Denali Glaciers in a beautiful vintage plane with over sized ski's for landing.

Approaching Mt. McKinley. The glaciers move approx. 3 ft per day.

A magic carpet ride swirling around the tops of the glaciers.

On top of Ruth Glacier, Denali National Park.

A view of the planes on the glacier.

The first plane to land in Denali National Park, a 1960's Piper Cub.

On our last night we stayed in a very sleepy fishing town called Ketchikan. It is one of rainiest places in the world. Like the rest of Alaska, the town is mostly men, but as the saying goes, "the odds are good, but the goods are odd." I can confirm this statement to be true. 

Farewell China

I definitely fell in love with China in a way I didn't expect...Despite the terrible traffic & general confusion, it is a very impressive country that is at once traditional (Chinese Medicine, Taoism, body work, cuisine) & at the same time cutting edge (art, design, fashion, business). Drenched in historical significance, China took a global back seat in the Mao times & is again booming with prosperity & vibrancy. Definitely on the upswing, it was a fun place to visit is the midst of such drastic development.

On one of our final days we flew to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors, a collection of terracotta sculptures, each individual, life size figures, depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BC and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife, and to make sure that he had people to rule over. It consists of 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits (wikipedia).

The warriors were discovered in 1974 by this gentleman above. He found one while digging a well & was awarded 300 RMB (approx $50) by the government (which he handed back). He now works at the gift shop on site & signs books.

As you can see they are still located below ground where discovered, most of the warriors have not been excavated because once they are exposed to oxygen, their painted exterior, still colorful after 2,200 years, vanishes within 5 minutes. They are waiting for more "modern technology" to remove the others safely.

Guy bun heaven.

The TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) class turned out to be very interesting. Alex only uses herbs when he has a cold & he doesn't believe that either the new Eastern or Western medicine stresses enough the importance of preventative rather than symptom based medicine. He discussed diet as a key tool to mental and physical well being.

SNACK STREET: a very crowded street with Chinese delicacies, such as sheep penis, tarantula, stomach & silk worm cocoons.

"Stinky tofu", restaurants have private rooms for guests to indulge in this popular dish.

Read closely.

Clearly this was one of my favorite places.

Dessert.

Yummy cricket.

Grace I will miss the most.

Dinner at Made In China - Super Potato designed restaurant.

A little after hours lounge music, pop songs played on traditional instruments (sounds cooler than it was).

Old Beijing : Walking Tour

We started our day at the Lama Temple, walking over to Guozijian - the boutique Lost + Found (near the Confucius Universities), up to the newly gentrified Hutong area Wudaoying (a horrible lunch at hip vegan restaurant: Veggie Table), to the Hou Hai Lake District, Nanluoguxiang (NLGX) for souvenirs and a well deserved foot massage, then to Dali Courtyard for dinner.

Lama Temple, built in 1694. 18M high sandlewood Buddah.

 

Traditional Chinese Courtyard.

Guozijian, Confucius area.

Walking into the Wudaoying I had my favorite street food of the whole trip, pancake type dumplings filled with leeks, cabbage or minced meat with onions. TDF.

Hutongs are a type of narrow streets or alleys, most commonly associated with Beijing, China. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighbourhoods. Since the mid-20th century, the number of Beijing hutongs has dropped dramatically as they are demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, some hutongs have been designated as protected areas in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history. (wikipedia)

"Chipsters" : Chinese Hipsters.

We walked around the Hou Hai, the back lakes adjacent to the Forbidden City: this area of Beijing contains some of the most extensive old Hutong neighborhoods and the three lakes of Xihai, Houhai and Oianhai.

Men gathered around a heated game of Chinese Chess.

Street Food. 

Purse Man.

Ping Pong in the park.

Construction Site.

In the old days, because of its proximity, those working at the Forbidden City had their homes on the Hou Hai (back lakes), much like those who worked in Hollywood lived in Beverly Hills (as explained to me by my Chinese guide book).