Actually China wasn’t even on the list. But the adventurous son upon graduation from OU, decided to pursue his fledgling Mandarin. In China. So when the opportunity arose for him to take a month off from school and my schedule became such that a month was possible as well for me, we began to plan. Bigger backpacks were purchased. Squatter toilet techniques were reviewed. Immunizations. Visa. Maps, maps, and more maps. We nixed all the big cities. If I’m going to see something, I want to SEE something.

Something is not the interior of a city hotel where everyone speaks English and really, you could close your eyes and sense you were in any city of the U.S. No. What’s the point? I’m still young enough (recall the ad nauseum part? the women in my family have all been teenage mothers, including myself) to want to experience the places I go. That means hiking as opposed to a tour van, being exposed to uncomfortable physical conditions and intermingling with the population. I figure I can go back someday when I’m too old for REAL exploration and see Beijing, Shanghai, HongKong. And when I get really, really, really old, I’ll shop. Until then, exploration means occasionally being dirty, tired, and hungry, and some amazing captures on “film”.

For this trip, my son asked if I’d be willing to blend in a bit more. No one believed I’d do it. Well who can resist a huge dare? A lifetime of long, blonde locks were carried away by a broom and replaced with a dark brown color. My son didn’t recognize me at the Beijing airport!

The Wild West of China

Karakoram Highway Camel

This ain’t Beijing. It’s on the opposite side of the country, as far away as you can get from the major Chinese travel destinations. And if you managed to get here (a feat my friend), without knowing where you were headed you wouldn’t recognize it, or anyone living here, as being associated with China.

Machine guns and outdated airport equipment were in our face as we timidly looked around the tiny Kashgar (Kashi) airport in XinJiang Province. Not far from Afghanistan or Pakistan, the security was tight. In the Urumqui airport they’d flagged my backpack and after removing every single item comprising its 50+ lbs., determined the X-ray machine had not liked the looks of my water filter. The carbon filter looked menacing I suppose. Got to keep the water filter, but not before lots of time was lost trying to explain what a water filter is. My son’s fluency in Mandarin was not completely useless, just almost (they speak Uigher here). I didn’t want to look anyone in the eye for fear Urumqi had called ahead regarding the water filter incident. They hadn’t.

We spent about half of our 4 weeks in China in the West. It is still marked as a No Man’s Land on a few maps.

We embarked from the airport into a land that time has forgotten. Kashgar is a time warp that could just as easily have been the set of a Star Trek or Twilight Zone. It was indeed just as exciting as stepping through that portal opening. The Han Chinese are minorities here. Uigher is the language. The people (Uighers, Tajiks, Krygyzs, and Uzbeks) seemed the happiest and were indisputably the kindest we encountered during 5 weeks touring the backcountry of China.

Chinese-Kyrgyzstan border, Kyrgyzstan Woman of the House

The West of China, specifically the provinces of XinJiang and Gansu, had beckoned to me when my son and I planned the month long backpacking excursion, just as the Western United States has always enticed me. There are many similarities in their appeal. Still considered a no-man’s land (and marked so on a few maps), Kashgar is a fixture in time on the 6,000 year old Silk Road. In the XinJiang Province, 8 nations border to create a collision of people/culture/language, giving XinJiang’s capital, Urumqui, the title “most land-locked city in the world.”

Yak Dung Bread. It was served dipped in Yak Milk Chai Tea by the lady of the house (above). It was delicious!

Located in the Taklamaken desert, homes of mud and grass have stood for centuries. Sand storms are frequent. Coming from Beijing, or any of the larger cities, you see what you think is the same smog choking the air. But if you’re so lucky to find a shower, you realize once the water hits you, it’s not smog, rather sand. And regardless how new something might be in XinJiang, the sand ages everything quickly. Including humans.

Only in their most recent version did Lonely Planet make any mention of this portion of the Great Wall. My son had heard about it and so we asked around. A guy offered to drive us – 4 hours one way outside of Dunhuang and worth every shockless inch. My first Great Wall experience was at the section of the wall few people get to see. In the middle of the desert I glimpsed it. The magnitude of what I was seeing with my own eyes in the the middle of a wasteland moved me to tears. The Westernmost section of the Great Wall lies in the Gobi desert, is still VERY discernible, very viewable, and very mind blowing. It’s unrestored remnants from 101 B.C. were impressive – no stone work, just mud, grass, and small stones. The joy at sharing this sight with my son will be with me always.

Going Grocery Shopping

She was a yurt dweller off the Karakoram Highway not far from the Pakistan border. It was impossible to tell her age. Brightly (and warmly) dressed she had the features of a beauty queen, the movements of a model, and the smile of a joyous existence. Yet she was gathering water that weighed approximately 10 pounds on each shoulder. Then she balanced it with practiced skill. Having some distance to transport it back to her home meant any spillage would have been a tremendous loss of time and effort.

Id Kuh Mosque, Kashgar, Xinjiang Province

Uigher Musical Instrument Factory, Kashgar, Xinjiang Province

The Sound of Music

Yumen Pass, aka Jade Gate Pass

Dunhuang is southeast from Urumqui in the province of Gansu, just south of Mongolia. Also on the world’s first information superhighway, the Silk Road, Gansu is a treasure trove of Buddhist paintings and sculptures, and the Buddhist grottoes of the Mogao Caves. The arid land and harsh climate has made the land barely inhabitable. As such, the Gansu Province is one of the 5 poorest provinces in China. Dunhuang may be poor, but when we pulled into downtown in a “taxi”, we were instantly transported from weary travelers to starry eyed tourists. The town is alight at night with magical colors and we were gratefully rejuvenated by the sight. The light of day replaced the magic with a sobering reality. Yet even that meant 3 days of adventure we’ll never forget.

This picture of grottoes is on site of the Mogao Caves. There were no cameras or recording devices of any kind allowed inside the gated and heavily guarded caves. Filled with art and sculpture of a quantity and often of sizes that strain our modern brains to comprehend, the caves were exquisite. I’ve dreamed about what I saw in there several times since arriving home. Impossible to describe, breathless to behold, it was one of my favorite ancient sites. To quote Lonely Planet “The Mogao Caves are, simply put, one of the greatest repositories of Buddhist art in the world.” At its height the site had 18 monasteries, 1400 monks and nuns, and numerous artists, calligraphers, and translators. Generally agreed to have been founded in AD 366, the collapse of trade after the Yuan dynasty left the 1700 meters of grottoes and  millennium of art untouched for centuries as the Gobi desert took hold. It was only in the 20th century that the massive, priceless troves of art and remnants were rediscovered.

James Brown’s “Sex Machine” has a word in it that happens to be my husband’s favorite “lyric” of all time – “TASTE”. Seven weeks of dieting and 9 pounds lighter, I’m noticing a few things about TASTE – as in the sensitivity of my taste buds has come alive. A sweet potato is sweet – sans the butter and the brown sugar, a carrot tastes like a carrot and it’s delicious. I purchased cottage cheese this week for some variety and was surprised at its saltiness. Actually I’m surprised by the saltiness of most everything that has any processing. I realize this new awareness of what things taste like is not merely the result of attempting to limit my intake to 1500 calories a day. Technically, I can eat anything I want as long as I account for it. However I discovered quickly if I want to go to bed without hunger pains, those 1500 calories need to be well selected – meaning food that’s bulkier, healthier, with less prepackaged, little to no fast food, or fried food, etc. So not only has my intake decreased but the kinds of food I’m eating have changed. I’m enjoying the taste of food more than I have in a very long time.

From The Philosopher’s Diet , “You will know that you are making progress when you find that a raw carrot tastes very sweet. Peas have a lot of natural sugar in them, have you noticed yet? After a while you will tend towards salads (plain vinegar and oil, please) simply because you need to stuff your gut, and salads have a lot of bulk.  Vegetables. Whole grains. You are counting calories so carefully that you begin to think twice before you blow a lot of them on a small piece of meat.”  Well I’m still eating meat, yes even red meat, but not as much as before.  Don’t tell my rancher Dad.

Feeding Cattle

Something was funny. I can assure you, it wasn’t the weight on our backs.

Wind River Range, Wyoming

The St. Lawrance Basin Trail-head

Having returned from 4 weeks backpacking China with a thousand photographs, a large Moleskine filled with a multitude of entries and anecdotes, the story of it all is only now being synthesized by my brain.  I’ve attempted to put the pieces together before, but could never quite get my arms around them.  No amount of effort could pull them together into something cohesive. Upon my return I swore I felt nothing.  Exhaustion, jet lag, the weariness of the wear and tear of hard travel in a hard land, combined to send a perfectly targeted trajectory of flack to my brain, effectively deflecting the depth of impact upon my spirit this journey had made.

In truth I felt so much, so strongly, I was paralyzed by it. Until now.  Until friends and family started asking me if I was going to ever share my experience.  Yes, is the answer. Beginning with this post, I’ll be continuously documenting the trip until I’ve got it all out.

Chinese boy. Gansu Province.

I’ll start by sharing mostly photographs, easing into more of what I’ve written as we go along.

Doug Henderson, a renowned commercial photographer/graphic designer, instructed my first Photoshop course. His photography wrings emotion from my soul and we happen to share a similar view of photographing people. His perspective is eloquent, so I lifted it — hope he doesn’t mind.  “I think the average person is beautiful. I don’t see any reason to comb a little kids hair or tell them to smile. I see no reason to try to make an old person look young again, or to make a working man look like an executive.”  If I ever decide to be photographed, he’ll be the person I ask.

In my own words, I find faces moving.

Uigher Children. Kashgar, Xinjiang Province.

Uigher Girl. Taken while we gathered in her parent’s yurt on the Pakistan border for Yak Dung Bread and Yak Milk Chai Tea. Xinjiang Province. 

Woman of the house (yurt). Kyrgyzstan Woman.Xinjiang Province.

Ten Feet of Hair and really heavy earrings.
In a village called Huangluo, (not far from Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), for those of the Yao Nationality, long hair is a local tradition. All the Hongyao women can only cut their hair at 16 years old, symbolizing the fact she is an adult who can look for a lover. The hair cut off should not be thrown away, but is rather kept by the grandmother.
When the woman marries, the hair is made into an ornamental headdress and brought to the husband’s home as a souvenir.

This boy captured my fancy. You’ll see more photos of him. His face and demeanor was of a shy sweetness of heart, hardened by the environment. He had all the vitality of youth but eyes that betrayed his age. Uigher,  Xinjiang Province.

Leshan Grand Buddha. Sichuan Province.

We were the first Americans the proprietor had seen. His son came in from school and he asked him to play while we ate. The boy graciously agreed. The instrument is an Er Hu (thank you son for recalling that). Gansu Province.

Not all faces are human (Leshan Buddha) but all faces in a foreign land are foreign. Including our own.

Naxi Gentleman, Lijiang, Yunnan Province

Kyrgyzstan Man. Xinjiang Province.

Boys Will Be Boys

Naxi Orchestra Musician. Yunnan Province.

It was cold. He had the sniffles. Xinjiang Province.

Hands of an Artist. Naxi Orchestra. Lijiang.

Uigher boys, Kashgar, Silk Road in the Xinjiang Province.

Uigher woman. Kashgar.

I wanted to bring him home with me.

So you’re at least considering a SRT? Good! First, realize it’s not brain surgery. The logistics are simple, subjective, and subject to change – a beautiful thing. And keep in mind, SOLO road trips and road trips have little in common in the way of experience or preparation.

To push you over the edge, here’s my list of reasons to make at least one SRT in your life. And really, it should be at least an overnighter.

• You can disconnect every connectivity device you own.

• Planning can be thrown out the door; no agenda required.

• There’s no one to care when you eat, what you eat, or if you eat.

• You can turn around 500 times to photograph something you caught a glimpse of at 70 mph.

• You don’t have to ask or care if someone else is having a good time, what they want to see next, is the temperature comfortable for them, do they need a restroom stop, what music they prefer, does your driving scare them, do they care if you go 10 miles down a dirt road looking for that ghost town you heard about once when you were a kid.

• It’s your choice of music and volume.

• It’s your choice of lodging and check in-out time.

• Getting lost becomes meaningless.

• No one cares if you don’t shower that day, or brush your teeth.

Film!

Now that we’ve covered the touchy-feely side of solo travel, let’s talk about the practicalities, most of which revolve around safety. Until 2007 my solo road trips were taken in a 1994 Mazda MX-6. No 4-wheel drive, no GPS, no OnStar, no AAA membership, and just enough clearance to not be a turtle killer. And I had a fantastic time, no matter what happened, and a lot happened.

• The single most important component: your mindset. Make sure you’re ready to consider everything that happens part of the adventure.

• If you can afford it, purchase a AAA membership.

• Inform close friends and family you’re leaving and what general direction you’re headed. Yea you’ll have to hear all the crap about it, and listen to your Mom tell you not to sleep in your car, but do it anyway.

• Designate one person as your daily contact (and tell the others who that person is). Make that call once a day, without neglect.

• Purchase a recent Atlas.

• Pack a warm blanket in the car, heavy duty gloves, a rain jacket, jumper cables, ice scrapper, a pair of boots, and all the tools required to change a flat. Make sure you’ve got a good spare. Also see this post: Road Trip Coffee Can Survival Kit. 

• Have the oil changed, tires and basic fluid levels checked.

• Place a first aid kit in the vehicle.

• Never allow your fuel to go below ½ tank.

• Know the territory you’ll be in. If hiking, know the rules, the dangers (are there bears in the area, snakes, etc.) and be prepared for those. If you don’t know, don’t go. Actually, unless you’re familiar with survival techniques, I’d caution against going into any backcountry situation alone. With quite a bit of experience under my belt and some near misses (a run-in with a full grown mountain lion comes to mind), I now avoid most wilderness situations unless I’ve someone accompanying me.

• If you have any alcohol to drink, drink it after you’ve checked into your lodging for the night. Besides not wanting to drink and drive, you’ll also have all your capacities and wit about you during the time you’re out and about.

• Take both a car charger and a wall charger for your cell phone, and keep it charged.

• My own rules: No fast food. I pack sandwich fixin’s, snacks and drinks in an ice chest before I leave home. And I limit major highway travel. I’ve seen few things of note at 75 mph. But if you’re contemplating your first SRT and you’d feel better staying on major freeways, then do it! You’ll get all the benefits of solo travel and you’ll feel safe (VERY important).

Captured with film on last year’s solo road trip.

Road Trippin’

By: Red Hot Chili Peppers

“Road trippin’ with my two favorite allies

Fully loaded we got snacks and supplies

It’s time to leave this town

It’s time to steal away

Let’s go get lost

Anywhere in the U.S.A.”

Join the Road Trip Revolution at the Solo Road Trip Facebook Fan Page, here.

Four weeks of counting every morsel of food or beverage with calories, limiting that to 1500 calories per day, and I’ve dropped 6 pounds.  Oh happy day!  I even had a hamburger last week (I’ve temporarily discontinued the enjoyment of cheese) .  My friend at My Kugelhopf has not been much help with sticking to this restriction.   If you haven’t seen her website, check it out. You’ll be sorry if your weight is currently an issue.  Or glad in a torturous, perverted way. Back to the hamburger.  It counted for a whopping 550 calories, but was worth every one. I didn’t have any fries.

All my life I’ve had to watch what I eat.  Having a tremendous sweet tooth exacerbates the effort. As a kid I was fat. At 15 I experienced, successfully, my first weight loss effort and stayed fairly thin until about age 24. At 29 I lost 40 pounds, and it’s stayed off. But not without a fight. Since marrying 5 years ago a few pounds have crept back.  To summit Grand Teton I need to be as thin as I’ve ever been.  My knees are going to need all the help the rest of my body can give them.

So now you know I’m versed in the Herculean task of weight control. And it is Herculean.  To me it ranks right up there with paying your bills on time, getting and staying out of debt and living within your means — some of the basics of life, but astoundingly difficult.  Lulled by the simplicity of the task, many of us do not factor in the day-to-day strain of it.  The word consistency should have “unattainable” as a synonym.

Carrying around excess pounds and excess debt are means to the selling short of our futures. They both diminish the ability to be free.  While I believe living within your means to be honorable and admirable, keeping your weight at a healthy level may be only admirable, bordering on honorable.

Long before I discovered the book above I realized weight maintenance and philosophy had a great deal in common.  The book fell from a shelf onto my head during a late night crawl through a book store. It wasn’t so much the title “The Philosopher’s Diet” as the subtitle that caught my attention “How to Lose Weight and Change the World”. The author Richard Watson, is a professional philosopher.  From the back jacket: “If Descartes had sat down to write a treatise on losing weight as a metaphor for maintaining discipline amidst life’s vicissitudes, it would have read much like this.”  From the first paragraph of the book: “Fat. I presume you want to get rid of it. Then quit eating so much. No normal, healthy person on the good green earth ever got thinner without cutting down on caloric intake. Do a few exercises, don’t eat so much, and you will lose weight.”

Buy it. You’ll never be tempted again to try the latest weight loss fad.  Your pocketbook will thank you; your goal to live within your means will be rewarded.