I have been in China the past two weeks. I started in Xi'an and saw the terracotta warriors. 6,000 of them were burried in tombs to help the emperor fight in the afterlife. They were found by a farmer in 1974 and uncovered. They are immaculate and look like they could spring to life at the snap of your fingers. Each warrior has a unique face. Xi'an was very friendly. It was the first capital of China, but less crowded and touristry than Beijing is now. I had tons of the local dumplings and the best duck ever; Peking Duck.

After Xi'an, I trained it to Beijing. Much more hectic there. I saw Mao at the "Mao"soleum, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. Beijing is building at such a fast rate and it already feels like Los Angeles. I would love to be a construction crane salesman there. The highlight was walking 10kms of the Great Wall. Many of these "main attractions" can be letdowns, but this did not disappoint. The wall snakes and winds all over these green mountains. It was in very good shape at some points, and crumbling in others. The section ended Simatai. The locals tag along with you trying to sell you drinks and T-Shirts and trying to point out stuff, like pointing to the northern side of the wall and saying, "Mongolia".

Next I trained it to Mongolia. That was an adventure because I got left behind at the border. I met two great Israeli guys, Tomer and Odeb, because they got left at the border too. Long story as to why, but we had a good adventure crossing the border the next day in a mini van filled to the brim with people, luggage, and fruit. We also had to battle it out in line to buy train tickets with the locals. The little old ladies were the worst cutters of all. Asia is competitive, let me tell you.

I've been in Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia for the past few days arranging a Jeep tour. I finally found some other guys to join me, Greg and Sebastian, from France. We leave tomorrow at 9 am and start our 10 day drive across the Steppes. We just went to an outdoor market and bought our supplies. Mongolia is very cool so far.

I spent 10 days in Tibet, 5 of which consisted of being shaken and vibrated in a bus like you can not believe. I felt like Scotty in Star Trek, "Capt. she can't take much more, she's braking up!" The roads were dirt or gravel the whole way and at first glance looked ok, but obviously needed some major grading. Aside from the rocking and rolling, the scenary was amazing. Tibet really is the Roof of the World. Most of it is above 4,000 Meters or 13,000 ft.

We spent a day climbing out of Nepal on narrow winding roads. The next day you get a great view of the Himalayas from the north or from Tibet. The contrast of the white mountains in Nepal with the brown of Tibet is quite striking, along with the dark blue sky overhead. A little later we even saw a clear view of Everest and the Cho Oyu Range. It looks completely different than in Nepal. You sit on a brown plain at 15,000 ft and look at Everest rising like a blue/white wall in the far distance. Then we passed a 5,000 Meter pass and from the top the whole of Tibet looked like a sea of brown peaks.

The next few days were spent driving through this sea of brown mountains going over several more big passes. Along the way we saw the local Tibetans, their white castle-like mud brick homes ( always with red, yellow, blue, green, and white prayer flags, the colors represent the elements of the earth: fire, earth, water, crops, and clouds ), and many yaks. We passed several fertile valleys where they were plowing the fields with the yaks. They decorate the yaks cerimoniously to help guarantee a good crop. They had these red plumes above their heads that made them look like the soldiers who guard the Queen in London. We also passed a village where the wives take several husbands. Actually, she will just take brothers. They do this because it saves dowery money for the brothers' family.

Of course, we saw many monastaries as well. They are very nice and in one we walked through a large assembly hall where hundreds of monks were chanting. I sat down and they signaled that I should chant too. The thing that struck me about the monastaries is that they must be a significant portion of national GDP. The Tibetans are devout. You would see many Tibetans moving through the monastary's many shrine rooms paying tribute with yak butter. Yak butter has an . . how shall I say . . . interesting smell.

Our destination was Lhasa and Portala Palace. Lhasa is the largest city by far and has about 50% Chinese. I think almost all of the businesses are Chinese owned. Mainland China gives incentives for the Chinese to move to Lhasa so they will dominate Tibet. It seems to be working. Portala was cool, but after seeing many other monastaries, it seemed like simply a bigger one. The cool thing was watching all the Tibetans walking around the temple in the middle of the bizar, clockwise, with their handheld prayer wheels. Hundreds if not thousands do this every day in the evening. Some look to be professional prostrators. They prostrate every few feet around the whole city. Not the norm, thankfully.

I'm in Xi'an now and off to Beijing tonight. I've enjoyed eating good food and relaxing. I'll send a report on China after Beijing.