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Having made the round trip to Spain several times and finding it expensive, especially from the west coast of North America, we decided to go just one way: 'round the world. So on the second of October, 2000 we slung our packs on our backs and walked from our home on Gabriola Island to Silva Bay and boarded a float plane. Thus began our journey of seven months, in which time we visited 18 countries, 14 of which were new to us. The following is a compilation of the e-mails we sent during our travels.

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Book 'em Dan-o!

Louie wanted to start this with a Hawaiian expression, this is the only one I can spell. If you don't 'get it' ask an older person. Needless to say we arrived safely and are relaxing on the North Shore of Oahu (surrounded by surfers). Maui might have been better, but we like it here. We've cycled, swum with big sea turtles and climbed Diamond Head. Finally caught up with our passports and are headed for Japan.
Sayonara!

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The Chopsticks Trail started in Japan, which was clean, efficent and very expensive. We used Kyoto as a base and visited Nara (the ancient capitol), Hiroshima (skipped the bomb dome), Miyajima Island, Himeji, and saw: bunches of buddhas, tons of temples, a series of shrines, plenty pagodas and a couple castles.

Korea wasn't quite as clean or expensive, but was efficent. From Seoul we visited Namhansansong, an enormous fortress in the Mountains. The temple architecture was similar to Japan, but much more colorful. From Seoul we flew to Hong Kong and on to Guilin. Spending five hours in the Hong Kong airport was a real treat -- like watching grass grow.

China was less clean, less efficent and cheaper. Much of our time was spent on the water. An 8-hour cruise on the Li River, land of mysterious hills resembling dragons teeth, was followed by a three day cruise of the Three Gorges, the site of the world's largest dam, which will back up the Yantze River for 600km all the way to Chung King (see Nat'l Geo article June 2000? for details).

We have used our chopsticks on a vast variety of foods, some of which we knew what they were. From Chung King we headed North visiting the Terracotta Army, the Hanging Monastery and A place with 50,000 statues of Buddha. And finally, on to Beijing! Where we saw the Great Wall, the Ming Temples and a rip off Chineese medicine clinic... and had the obligatory Peking Duck dinner.

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When we had a free day in northern China, Al wanted to go to Mongolia to look for the Yeti, but Louie vetoed the 10 hour bus ride and said Nepal is a better place.

Kathmandu is so overrun with tourists, souvenir vendors, tri-shaws, taxi's and trucks, our reclusive quarry certainly wasn't here. Flying over Everest we scanned the slopes, but no sight of oversized feet... On our way to Chitwan National Park we saw Yeti hotels, Yeti restaurants and Yeti souvenir shops, even trucks with Yeti tires but not their namesake. In the park we observed rhino, marsh mugger crocodiles and maybe a gharial. Attempts to go into the jungle to look were delayed and finally forbidden due to a wild elephant. We felt this was only an excuse until the pachyderm killed a local. This left us no choice but to go to Tibet.

For five days we struggled over the Himalayas at elevations above 5,000 meters (17,500 feet) suffering headaches, nausea and lightheadedness, searched the open wind-burned faces of the Tibetans, scoured monasteries that smelled of burning yak butter and paid tribute to the manifestations of every Buddha and numbered lama one could think of. Paintings of huge feet suggested his existence, but no real proof.

In Lhasa we finally slept well, being down to 3650 meters (12,000 ft.). However, the town is too civilized since the Chinese arrived. A bus ride on Yeti Encounter bus lines failed to do just that. Our last chance is in India -- we'll keep a sharp eye as we fly to Delhi.

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We made about the fastest trip to the Taj Mahal possible. We flew into Delhi, stayed two nights and flew out. The day we spent in India consisted of boarding the Taj Express train early in the morning, hiring a taxi and guide for the day in Agra and spending more time at shops the guide wanted us to visit rather than the Taj and Agra Fort. We enjoyed the Taj Mahal as best we could to get our money's worth. The inside of the mausoleum doesn't take long to see. In some respects we enjoyed the Red Fort better; it had nice views of the Taj across the water.

We didn't escape Delhi-belly even though we ate at a clean vegetarian restaurant for lunch. It didn't help us feel rewarded by our trip to India.

The day we left Delhi we travelled in 4 countries. Our flight to Bahrain had us change planes in Muscat, Oman and then spend some time on the ground in Abu Dhabi. Our timing for Bahrain was miserable because we arrived on a Thursday and everything was shut for Friday and Saturday, including the national museum. Besides, it rained (bah! rain!) and we both were still ill. Sunday found us taking the bus all over the area on the way to the airport, but that's all we got to see.

Due to Ramadan we found the evenings in Syria and Jordan a little boring. Not only did we have difficulty having any kind of breakfast, but most restaurants were closed and the few we found open for dinner were empty. That with Jordan having a ban on alcohol sales for the entire month, we wound up with no coffee in the morning and no beer at night...

However, the sights were really worth seeing. We visited Aleppo, Hama, Crac de Chevaliers, Palmyra, Damascus, Amman, Jerash, Madaba and Petra (2 day pass). PETRA is obviously our favorite spot. After seeing that, I think we couldn't imagine anything more fascinating!! Not only is the geology at least as interesting as Zion NP, but the history and architecture are captivating. The colors in the rocks really had us in awe.

After that we flew to Cyprus. It made a nice break. Easy to get around, more expensive, though. Would make a good place to travel around by bike! We especially enjoyed wandering around the old ruins, tombs, castles and museums. We visited Northern Cyprus for lunch and, although we were warned by the Cypriots that the Turks would kill us, we survived the pleasant experience without any cause for caution.

We could have spent more time on Cyprus, but the weather in the mountains was cold and wet and we were still recovering our health. So, the only solution was to head for Spain. The Costa del Sol would cure us. We spent our normal winter in Spain biking and walking for exercise and attending fiestas and carnival for entertainment. Stops in Philly and Kansas gave us time to visit relatives and a brief bar tour in Denver. And finally on the fourth of April we climbed off the float plane and walked home. It sure felt good to be there.