Vagabonding begins!

I sit here so sore that I can barely focus to type this, but I will give it a shot.

I have been keeping careful journal notes in what little free time there is, but it sits peacefully back at my kung fu school and I hitched a ride to the nearest town of DengFeng for my part day off. I definitely plan to re-write and upload pics when I can manage to do so!

Amanda’s mystery pills she gave me in Beijing worked….no more stomach demon. Quite amazing actually, given how sick I was. I told her goodbye and had an uneventful ride and flight out of Beijing to ZhengZhou. As expected, someone from the school was waiting to collect me in the airport. Unfortunately, it was not the person I wanted to see.

[read on]

I have been in Beijing for 3 days and have barely managed to get 300 meters from my hostel.

It must have been my first meal here, but my guts have chosen not to cooperate very much with my travel plans at the present moment! Actually, that is an understatement. A foul demon has pretty much set up camp inside my bowels and it is slowly dehydrating me. I can only eat rice in small quantities, but hey - I was wanting to loose my gut before kung fu school anyway. I have had some nasty bugs that moved in and set up camp in my intestines before, but wow - this one takes the gold medal! Not exactly a surprise when you consider the public toilet I used today (a hole in the ground inside a wooden box) literally had poop handprints on the walls all around me. What kind of sub-humanoid freak would do such a thing? I have using squat toilets down to a science, my technique is patented - however, not being able to use the back wall completely messes up my style and makes life much more complicated. So much for the typical bathroom “for a good time call…” graphiti, I almost exploded into a maniacal laughter and ran down the street with my pants around my ankles it was so terrible.

Despite being sick, I did manage to meet up with Amanda at our fantastic Hostel “Beijing Hostel”. Who else am I going to find that will do kung fu in the street while it is raining, and then pushups in the hallway?

The hostel is the mecca for travelers on this street, the Bob Marley and Jack Johnson they play brings backpackers in like flies. Amanda shared some horror stories about WuShu training which gave me plenty to look forward to, but she also gave me some excellent tips for survival which will make it better. Fellow B&A member Adam is already there, so looking forward to meeting him.

I am so desperate to get fixed up before the hellacious training starts, that I took the 15 mystery pill regimen which Amanda was given at her school. It consists of a variety of different shaped and colored capsules, most of which would probably give the FDA a heart-attack. If it works, I owe her big time!

Aside from the micro-explosions going on inside my intestines every 15 minutes, this place has a lot of potential. I can’t wait to explore! We managed to walk around Tianamen Square (too sick to look up spelling) today in a light rain and took pictures of lots of Chinese families taking pictures. These people sure love Mao. When I have some time and proper access, I will post some great photos. I might be the only traveler in the history of China that has been here 60 days and did not mange to see the Great Wall. That will be the case if I do not make a trip back up to the north after WuShu.

I head out to ZhengZhou tomorrow for 1 month of the toughest boot-camp style training of my life - I am excited and terrified at the same time. Beautiful. Oops….maybe the those pills are finally kicking in.

Asia is madness. The sights, the sounds, the coordinated chaos. The smells of exhaust, delicious street food, and a hint of sewage. The "I can't believe he just did that!" driving. I love this place. Navigating the Beijing airport was a ... [Continue reading this entry]

I watched in horror as the battery indicator on my IPOD starting flashing, a warning of impending doom. Not normally such a big deal, but I sit here on my 8.5 hour overnight flight from London to Moscow in not ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well...I have just spent a cold, rainy, but incredible week in England - including London, lots of time in the north, and Stonehenge. London still maintains its title as my favorite city in the world. I had no internet access ... [Continue reading this entry]

20,000+ people have now been submitted to my dribblings on here....woohoo! One of these days I need to find something worth writing about. :)

People that have followed my blog this year know that I have been itching for an adventure. The kind that when someone stuck at home working asks you "how was it" you just look at them in silence because ... [Continue reading this entry]

I don't think I have stopped moving since I got home. I leave again on Wednesday Aug 15th for London, then Aug 23rd for my China adventure. I am having one hell of a time trying to pack for ... [Continue reading this entry]

After an exhausting 16 hour travel day, I arrived back in Kentucky with my father...both of us still in one piece. Mostly. Kentucky welcomed me with 100F weather and a humidity heat index of 104F. (40C for my metric friends). ... [Continue reading this entry]

A strange sensation came over me....one that I had not felt almost this entire trip. I was no longer cold, and there was something strange burning my face....something familiar....could it be, THE SUN !! After a ... [Continue reading this entry]