The Wonderful World of LARIAM

KANSAS,
I speak a little too soon about Kansas, This place is a lot like Kansas!! Straight roads to the edge of the horizon; corn-fields on the side; dust-devils in the distance; a lot of SUV on the road, and not to mention the road kills... OK, so it is dead zebras, and hyenas.... not possums. But U get the idea.
　

ROAD-KILLS,
It is actually quite rare to see road kills in Tanzania, because the vultures get to them real fast. We saw a dead zebra on the road one morning, and when we passed by there again two hours later... There is nothing but bones, and a few vultures hovering over head. Thought you might want to know... U can get the rest of the stuff from PBS. :-)
　

LARIAM,
Arhhh... The wonderful world of LARIAM. The drug of choice for malaria prevention. I heard they works, but aside from treating malaria, they have some strange side affects. Rumors/tales from other travelers including lost of hair, and strange dreams.... One guy had such bad dreams that he rather risk malaria, than to take that stuff again.

But me, I am a good boy, I took one every week for two weeks now, just as the doctor had ordered. Got through the first dose in Tibet quietly with out much fan fare (prob. because I had a cold then, and wouldn't had woke-up if there is a earthquake).

Well.. The second dose was quite a different story.

Took one last Thurs. after dinner in the campsite where we stayed, and went to sleep in the tent. Woke up in the middle of the night at 3AM with a cold sweat. I had this dream of hundreds of hands coming though the tent and grabbed me, and was about to...

Ok...so maybe I am a little nervous, it's can't be the LARIAM.

On with the second night... this time I woke up in the middle of night with dreams of worms coming out of my palms. It is the LARIAM!! I remembered trying to squeeze my hand and forcing the worms out from my palm, one after one, and placing them on the table. Arranging them all according to type and size....It was weird!!

So, now you wonder what got into this guy's head, dreaming of worms coming out of the palm of his hand. Well... It all started with our safari drive to Lake Manyara National Park. We stopped at the gate to check-in, and we have a few minutes to check-out this one room museum at the entrance gate. Amount its collections of dead/stuffed birds, the museum had a display case of the common parasites found in the park animals. All in these little vials, arrange by size and species.... For what tourist would be interested in such a thing, I have no idea. But I think I studied it a little longer than I should.

The two Swiss girls whom went to the safari with me was also taking LARIAM at the time, and one saw snakes coming out of flowers, and one had a scared, because she had dreamt of forgotten to put the parking break on , and her car ran into the neighbor's house.

Well...Tomorrow is Thursday again. LARIAM day. I am actually a little curious of what it had in store for me. STAY TUNED....
　

SAFARI,
Drive...zebra....drive.....drive....hippo......drive, drive, drive....lions.....drive, lunch, drive.....drive, drive... That pretty much describe the whole safari for me (for 6 days!!). Not my cup of tea, you see.

Most of the parks in Tanzania (prob. else where in Africa as well), you can't just walk around on your own. You must be in the camp-site, or your vehicle. I think I annoyed our driver quite a bit, when I went out of the campsite for half-an-hour one afternoon. Yes...I do know there maybe a few lions out there, but I see school children walking to school inside the park! "The white men must not die." was the conclusion we had draw from this policy. Dame the Brits., ruining it for all of us. :-)

U can see a lot of this British influence everywhere in a Safari, nice cooked meals, with table cloth, tea, and coffee... Everything is so neat, and proper and safe. It annoyed the hell out of me.
　

SLEEPY SICKNESS,
In the entrance to the Serengeti National Park, there is a little note posted on the bulletin boards, warning tourist about its tsetse flies and the sleep-sickness it carries and the traps it had set up. At the end of the Safari, I began to wonder if all the animals in the park are infected, because they are all just taking naps and remain motionless all day.

The only exiting thing that we saw were two lions having sex, which lasted maybe ten seconds (including foreplay, which is just one chasing the other). After that, they went back to their naps. :-)

I guess I got spoiled by PBS, with all those exiting chases/hunt. The big migrations, the river crossing.... After all that TV, I think I need to see a real dinosaur to get me exited.... Hahahah....(Nah, it is because this is the dry-season, and all the big herds are up north. Sleepy sickness is only in cattle) Did saw a bunch of hippos, rolling in their own pool of feces.... Didn't smell very good, and you have to be careful about those huge crocodiles (some are like 5 meters long!!), but it makes for a good laugh.

Oh....don't wear anything black or blue to Africa, tsetse flies like that color. It just happens to be same color as the wildebeest, and buffalo, and unfortunately the same color as the only two T-shirt I had bought with me on this trip.( it was on sale what can I say). These flies really pack a bite. You figured, if they can chew through buffalo hide, they can get through your shirts. .
　

HONEY BADGERS,
One of my favorite movie of all time is "The Gods Must Be Crazy". It is about how a Coke bottle changed the lives of a tribe of Kalahari bushmen. In one funny scene, a honey badger took a bite of the biologist's boot and wouldn't let go for miles, while the guy was forced to drag him alone across the desert. Well, that animal had been latched to my memory for almost 20 years now. That's a honey badger for ya. The little thing (look like a skunk with a lot of small teeth) are know to attack animals far bigger than their size, and feed along side the lions without fear. Quite vicious. And I wanted to see one!!!

No luck, after six days.....saw just about everything from the rare rhinos, cheetahs, to the leopards... but no honey badgers. Our driver laughed every time when I told him I wanted to see a honey badger. He told me a story of one time when he went for a walk outside, and stumble on a honey badger that began to chase him. He got back in to the car OK, but the little buggar circled the car a couple times, and stared to attack the bumper. :-) He also try to warn me to watch for my balls, if I ever encountered one (the are know to go for that). Hahahah...... What do I have to worry about, I had my shoots.... .Hahahhaha.... .

Well good night folks....As U can see ....not much to do in Moshi at night, other than drinking Kibo Beer and watch HBO

Beware of Dogs and Bitches

DOGS:
Folks, let me tell you. If you ever read anything on the guide-books about those dogs in Tibet. Get a highlighter and highlight it, then get a pen and underline it, too. And if you have a marker, write on the front cover: BEWARE OF DOGS.

Oh, Yes.... U got it. I got bite alright. On my first day out of Lhasa! while the driver was taking us to one of the small monasteries in the middle of nowhere. In the courtyard, there were these four vicious dogs tight to their post, barking at just about everything. When I turned around, one of them somehow gotten loose from the post, and got me from behind. The owner pulled away the dog, and I cleaned up the wound as best as I could with my med. kit. Luckily, only two holes with little bleeding. The owner and the driver (both Tibetan) all try to comfort me some by saying, that Tibetan consider it lucky if you gotten when you are Thirteen. But....I am thirty?! Is that the worst year to get bite? and I have yet to seen any parents handing their thirteen year old to the dogs.... :-) ( You see, Tibetan believes that dogs were pre-reincarnations of people/monks)

Couple hours later, we got to Gyantse (the 3rd largest city in Tibet) and got to a hospital. The doctor put in a couple stitch and told me, "Rabies are pretty rare in Tibet...." Yeah... I am sure it is, but I am not taking any chances. I tried to get my rabies shots right the way, but the hospital have no stock at hand.

A day later, We got to Shigatse (the 2nd largest city in Tibet). I tried both hospitals in town and they don't have it either. Only by a whim, did I decided to ask the guys at the hospital pharmacy, and they told me that I can get it from the "Immunization Station" in town. By then, it was very late in the day, and I decided to find it the next day.

The next day, I went to the "Immunization Station", only to be told that the only stock at hand is at the sub-station, which is conveniently located next to my hotel. So I took the bus back across town to the hotel, and got my shot.

U see folks, the rabies shots are a series of shots done over a period of a month. One right after U got bit, then the forth, the tenth, .... date. Which brings up the question: "How am I going to get my 2nd shot while on the road to the middle of nowhere?" The doctor suggested I take a dose with me. Which brings up another problem: The shots need to be kept cold(0 to -8 deg C) at all time. A thermal bottle and ice would do it. Thermal bottle are easy, but let me tell you folks, finding ice in Shigatse is a pain in the ass (in my case, a pain in the leg too). U C, just about every ice chest in the shops are kept at the highest temp. possible to save electricity. (Which is why cold beer here is really not cold beer). And no one has ice!! I looked and looked and asked and asked, and was about to give up, when a idea came to me to check out those fancy hotels. So I went to the fanciest hotel in town (which is again right next to our cheap hotel) and Eureka....I discovered ice. Folks there are nice enough to let me have it free, after I show them my two holes in he leg, and explaining my predicament. Finally we were on the road again.

You know, I have heard from guys at the hotel, that they had know a few travelers who gotten bite too, but I never thought it'll be my turn.

So if the next time U R here, take note:

When the dogs here wag their tail, they don't mean to be friendly.
Not everyone went to Boy Scout and learned how to tight knots, so treat all tight down dogs as stray dogs.
Get your rabies shots ahead of time.
ROADS AND DITCHES:
Roads in Tibet are in a constant state of repair. Paved roads are a rarity here. Even if it is shown on maps as paved road, the paved surface may have been gone years ago. Mud slides and sometimes high water will take out roads and bridges all the time. And this is the start of the raining season... These roads are the most dangerous I have ever seen. If there is a place where the use of an SUV is justified, this is it.

For two days we went through a couple 5000m high mountain ranges without trouble, but on our way back from the Everest Base Camp the trouble started.

On out way out of one village check point, a dog (yes, those dame dogs again) when underneath our SUV without anyone noticing it, and we ran over its rear leg. The driver for the fear of the villagers starting to ask for damages/compensation left in a hurry. (I was told that some villagers does purposely do that using their dogs and kids by putting them/their foot underneath the passing SUV to get money)

That night, the driver whom had never drank asked for half a glass of whisky, saying is for settling his stomach. I kind of suspect, it is because of the dog. Sure enough, the next morning not 30 minutes after we started, we ran in to a ditch while trying to cross a river bed. The car almost turned over, and we got stuck right in the middle of the river. A accompanying SUV tried for half an hour to pull us out, but no luck. We even broken the rope that we were using. "We needed a big truck", so I had the idea of going back to the town and asked for help (I knew from talking/drinking with a couple of construction walkers the previous night, that their boss have one of them big trucks). So, off I went with the other driver/SUV.

While back in that little town, still negotiating the price to pull us out of the ditch, our driver show up with his SUV. Which surprise all of us. Apparently, while we were gone, a big truck showed up, and a SUV also showed up with a steel cable. It took them five minutes. When we were on the road again. our driver said quietly "It's that dog, I knew it."

TOUR GUIDES
To travel to some areas in Tibet, You (foreigners, myself included) are required to have a tour guides to accompany U. Which adds Y1000 to the price of the SUV/driver package, and they takes out one seat in the car. So when I tried to organized the trip, I tried to recruit a all Chinese (or speak/look like Chinese) group to save money. So when one girl showed up, who happened to be a tour guild visiting Tibet from GuiLin. We were more then happy to have her.

BIG MISTAKE. The girl is an air head with wind blowing out of her mouth 24hr a day. She talked, and talked, and talked..... "Look, a rabbit... Look how fast he runs...... I bet he taste pretty good.....Driver, can you drive faster next time, and we can have ourselves rabbit for dinner... HaHaHa (In high pitch)....Look how dirty that boy is ..... I bet they never showers .... " On one occasion when I gotten bored, I tried to find out how long she can keep her mouth shut, with out other people talking to her, and it averaged to about five second (not including nap time). I only managed to continue this scientific survey for half an hour, before I have to give up. Paying attention to everything she said prove to be too much. Oh, yeah... .Air seem to come out of her head even at night. On the occasion that we all shear the same room, U can hear her regular (and annoying) coughing every 15 minutes. A symptom of high altitude, but annoying still.

The girl is also an spoil princess, whom requires a five dish meals every lunch, and dinner. A shower every night, a room with no smell, and clean cloth... Hello, this is Tibet. She seem to be proud of the fact that her mother picked her up from her school every afternoon all the way to the end of high school.

The girl was also the rudest person I had met on the road. She would demean just about every waiter/waitress we seen. In one restaurant, where the waiter is a 10 year old boy. She would said like "Aren't U writing these down....let me write this down for U ......... Don't you know how to read?!" U know this is Tibet, kids are lucky to finish grade school, and if he is going to school, he wouldn't have to come work in the restaurant. I thought posting notices in hotels frequent by other budget travelers would weed out these trash (U know, If I call her a bitch. I can relate the whole road trip to dogs), but not.

NIGHT DRIVING,
Well, night driving in Tibet should get your hair stands up for a couple hours. Add to that were flats (twice) and electrical problems (which took out all internal light) and the mud slides (waited in the dark for an hour) and detours. And then the knowledge of your driver had been driving for the last 13 hours should keep your mind occupied for much of the trip. I got back to Lhasa @ 2AM last night, with a stiff neck. And slept for 12 hours. I am going to get some rest and try to get my 3rd rabies shots Monday.

Oh.... almost forgot, the scenery is beautiful, had my head out of the window all the time. Like a dog. Hahahhaha... .Maybe it is because of the dog bite, maybe it is to get away from that high pitch non-sense coming out of that bitch. Everest looks great, people are nice, Go and check out ZhangMu, it is like a tropical rainforest with numerous(10-20) water falls lining up through the valley., Some are like couple hundred feet high. We even drove underneath one. Better stop, before I sounded like a tour guide. :-)

You Gotta Save Something for the Next Time...

This morning was off to a rocky start......

First, I woke up late to meet up with the group I was suppose to go to NamSo Lake with. The guy had to come to my dorm room to drag me up. After yesterday's Sky Burial, I was very tired.

Second, when we arrived at the meeting place, the previously arranged trips started to fall apart after the driver refused to go, because they said we did not have the permit. Basically, they wanted more money. I know for a fact that U don't need permit for these places, we are heading away from the border, for Christ sake.

I had previously thought I could squeeze a simple two day trip to the NamSo Lake before I headed out of Tibet, but a group of Japanese students decided to used this agent they met on the street, with this incredible discount. With me out to the Sky Burial for the whole day, I thought best to follow their initiatives.

Well for one thing, the number in the group grew to 9 people. All with different needs, ranging from comfort, time, to cost. We spend hours arguing over how to go.... The agent played them pretty good.

I offered the option of calling up this driver(recommended to me through friends, and was quite happy with myself) and asked for two cars. For a minute, everyone okay with it, but when I finished calling. They changed their mind, and wanted one car instead of the two.(They wanted one from the agent they had arrangement with, and one from my driver).I called back to apologized to the driver, and ask for just one. He agreed to come.

While we are waiting, the agent played them some more and they decided to take both cars from the agent instead. F*#%%, What am I going to explain to that driver that is coming to pick us up?!

when the mess is over, the price they pay for two jeep jumped over from Y1600 to Y2100. I opted not to go.

They all just left with me ended up having to explain to that driver what had happened, The guy was pissed.... We woke him up early morning, and probably his friend too ....

Well ....Spend the rest of day resting, not having anything to do or worry about....One good thing... Met a Spanish guy who is biking across Tibet, and giving out some great tips on how to do it too....

NamSo Lake on bike next time. :-)

Sky Burial

I first heard about the Sky Burials while I was in Northern Sichuan. It is a traditional Tibetan burial method that involves cutting up the body of the decease, and offered it to the birds. It is a way for the soul to ascent to heaven. I was more than a little intrigued back then, and had even considered altering much of my plans to go to this monastery in the northern tip of Sichuan called LaMuSi to see for it myself. LaMuSi was then 2 days of bus ride away, and death/burial at this remote location was infrequent, so people had to wait some times a week to actually wittiness it. With each morning, you will have to catch a ride down to the mountain, climb up there and ask the monks if there is going to be a ceremony that day. It is basically waiting for people to die.

This kind of make LaMuSi a backpackers town, where there is bars, and restaurant serving western food. One I have heard so much about was it's Yak Burger. Upon hearing it from one guy to the other, it had become my 2nd reason to want to go there. :-) But it was not to be. Sky burial is a lot more frequent here in Tibet, it occurs daily, except for Sundays, and a few days in a month. Most are only open only to the locals., but one called ZhiGongSi is open to the public, it is 4-5 hrs drive from Lhasa. It is one of the highest Sky Burial Site in the world, so a lot of Tibetan wanted to get bury there. With the Sky Burial still haunting my mind, I decided to organize a trip to head out there. After two days of work, and some last minutes changes, the trip had reached its critical mass to move alone.

It was 2 AM when we woke up... , with just a little over two hours of sleep, we got in the jeep and head out of Lhasa in the rain. The headed east down this long road to the outskirts of the town, lit only with its head lights everything is a monotone color and the road with its tall tree lined its side, the road looked like a long tunnel into the darkness. It was like a dream.

I was suprised to find people, bikes, tricycle, tractors on the road. None of them have any light on, and each time we pass one, it is like a ghost racing by. It was very spooky.

After four hours of bumpy ride, we arrived at the monastery still dark. A little early.... We all dozed off.

When we awaken by our drivers 2 hours later, we saw a team of workers, and monks from the monastery came out of the door, some carrying on his back a large sack. Through the morning fog, we can still make up the shape of a man in its fetal position. The group walked up to the mountain without much to say, and we followed..... Half way up the mountain, that is when we first notice those vultures circling above our head, we counted maybe
10. Up higher we go, the more of them we saw, some flying so close to us, U can hear the sound of the feather rustling. This is when we realize just how big these guys are.

The guys circled the alter once, and put down the sacks in the middle of the alter(which is no more than 5m in dia, filled with large round river rocks). The man go about doing there work, some chanting scriptures, some sharpening their knives, some trying to keeps the vultures away. By now, there is like over two hundreds of them gathering up at the slope overlooking the alter.

The men cut opened their sacks(we can make out like eight bodies) and began to cut open the bodies, to make it easy for the vultures to consume. After 15-20 minuses of work, the men in charge of keeping the vultures at bay gave the signal, and the vultures rush towards the alter in its arkward steps. You are like 10 feet away, and U can hear the hissing, the grawing, the sound of bones knocking on stones. The whole alter was covered with vultures. I had never seen anything like it.

After 15 minutes or so, the men began chasing the vultures away and began cutting up the bodies a little more, and the process repeats again. When finally there are only bones left. The men bought out their stone hammer and began to crush the bones into pulps, and then the feeding continues.... 3-4 hours later, there is nothing left of the bodies, except for some small pieces of bone left on the ground.

It was a very strange experience, everyone that went there was still thinking of what to make of it still. As am I.

(If U do find yourself @ a Sky Burial, please treat it like a funeral for a family member. We have this one particular Israelis, that decided to take some photographs, despite knowing before hand that it is not allowed. The guy was pretty sneaky about it too.... It is of no wonder that the Israeli travelers are getting such a bad reputation as being loud,rude, and arrogant.)