Bolshevik style in Moscow

Missed our connecting flight in Moscow and ended up staying for 8 hours in the airport. A long 8 hours as we were flying backward in time and it seemed like the day that would not end. Nothing to do but eat borscht and caviar and drink beer. Finally arrived in London after being awake for more than 24 hours.

If I were a vegetable...

i'd be very, very safe in mongolia! but if you are an animal with four legs...you best be moving on to India or something.

We have had a blast of a roadtrip in a superduty russian 4wd van (named meesh cause it was too cute not to name...we love to name things...wait for the horse story later). This is the toughest vehicle on earth i think...a tank and a boat at the same time. 14days, and 2000km's later we now look forward to our daily dose of goat meat and noodles (prepared any one of 20 different ways with different names)...the yak meat was pretty tasty too, but we didn't much care for the sheep...very fatty and grissly...especially when you take one of those rib bones from the metal pot in the middle of every ger (typical house/tent that we stayed in). Ever seen a mongolian eat a bone? clean as a whistle...like it has been stewed in a pot for a day. Very amazing!
We saw many sites and places, but some of the most interesting things we just the day-to-day goings on in the rural steppes away from the "cities"...i use the term loosely cause they all look like the street shot with the high fences...the hasha's as they call all look identical. Row upon row of 7ft fences with a barking cujo behind...not the most welcoming places. Inside you will usually find a cute host that will always welcome with a cup of yak milk tea and some bread...it is better on the inside for sure.
The landscape you ask? Well, heh, it looks and feels a whole lot like home. Dusty, fairly flat, and windy as shit! If that isn't Sask, i'll ride a yak all the way home. Despite that, it somehow manages to feel more isolated. Your are lucky if there is town every 100km, and you don't see any other vehicles for hours at a time. Your only company will be the odd herder riding a motorcycle to round up the sheep and goat or lying in the middle of the field having a nap. We have never seen so many animals just roaming the land (sheep,goat,horse,yak,cow, and the odd camel) not to mention the very sad eyesore of thousands and thousands of animals that didn't make it through the very rough winter this year...just lying where they collapsed. Seriously, every km probably would have 4-5 dead animals that we could easily spot by the "road" (the road being whichever of the 15 parallel wagonpath's we happened to be driving on at that moment).
We also, had a great time riding horse up a Khusvsgol Lake near Russia. We had a foot of fresh snow on the last night, and I had the coolest horse named Gus (short for Gustav...). They were a tad smallish and i could almost touch the ground with my feet when i was riding him, but he was a strong, wirey ol'cuss. Meighan named her horse Mikhael (Mick for short), but she had some trouble staying on that high-strung caffeine addict...you should ask her about it when you see her next...her neck and shoulder should be back to normal by then.
we are now off to see some big, half naked, mongolian men wrestle around in a way that makes absolutely no sense to us...then in a couple days we will be arriving in London to start the eurospa portion of our journey.
until then ol'chaps, James "the Bing King" Turner

Mongolia Pictures

Mongolia Pics

They Let Us In. Huh?

We actually got to spend our 24 hour lay over in China IN China! What is going on? We can get into China visa and fee free for 24 hours but India makes us sit in a cramped transit lounge for hours on end. This is a crazy world.
In the 24 hours we had a quick tour of Beijing. A visit to Tiananmen Square and around. A feast of Peking duck and a good night sleep in some industrial airport hotel instead of the airport floor. Life is good! My favorite part was the taxi driver who sang for us the whole way back to the hotel from downtown (about 40 mins). Surprisingly enjoyable.
We have now arrived in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia. We almost didn't get in here. All info (stupid Lonely Planet) says we can arrive get a 30 day visa at the airport. But not so easy. The immigration lady said, no sorry I can't do that. Can't give you a visa. Ok, so we have to fly out now? Ok, let me call the place you plan to stay. Then they beg her to let us in and she seems to say ok maybe. But then when we told her wanted to be here for 19 days, this seemed to be the strangest thing she ever heard. She just kept repeating (and sorta yelling at us) 19 days?! 19 days?! Like, what the hell???!!!
Anyway, we got in for 20 days. Thank god.
Tomorrow we are off on a 2 week jeep tour to the Mongolian 'outback.' It is pretty cold here and our dreams of staying in our tent out on the steppes might be deflated. But, I am sure we can find a cozy ger camp or two to spend the night. So, we'll post some pics of Mongolia when we are back.
M&J

Land of The Crazy Kim

Hey peeps,

not a long post cause we are off to Mongolia tomorrow and we need to get cleaned up for a night of norebang (karoake), soju and feasting on fabulous korean food (the food part has been pretty steady for the last 3 weeks...what a gorgefest it has been).

We managed to stay at temple last week and not piss off to many zen monks...my hips still hurt from the sitting and we were only there for one night! I Thought our new zen friend deserved a picture as he chauffeured us 3 hrs back to Seoul and then bought us some bbq meat and liqour, but only after we stopped off to briefly meet his wife and two children...the people of this country are SOOOO friendly to us! Also, met up with some good ol'Rider fans in another city...that green and white is recognizable anywhere.

Lastly, was a quick hits tour of the DMZ and a brief stop over in North Korea (in by about 6 feet i would say). This south korean soldier scared the crap out of Meighan (note the red face) when he snapped his arm up and out to indicate to her not to go behind him...the door to north korea is right behind him and i guess soldiers have been pulled through the door into north korea on occasion...yikes! and that big flag is also in a fake north korean village too.

anywhoo, off to sing my arse...cheerio!

Mountains, Food, Spas

and don't forget shopping. That has been what we have been up to. We spent a couple nights in Jirisan National Park and climbed to the second highest peak in South Korea (1915 m). One of the shelters along the trail was open so we could spend a couple of nights sleeping on the floor with 150 other people ... actually there were only about 15 other people when we stayed, but everyone goes to sleep at 4:00 PM and lights officially out at 8:00 PM and no getting up until 7:30 AM. This makes for a long night. Despite the grandmaishness of the nights, we were really happy to have the shelter as an incredible wind blew in and the temp dropped down to -7. Some people go on warm holidays, oh, but not us! You can see in the picture which way the frosty wind was blowing ... green trees on one side of the mountain and frozen white ones on the other side.

Other than mountains, we have been following James' culinary tour around the country. Right now we are in Jeongju, the home of bibimbap. Just a few more 'must eats' before we leave. We have also been trying out all the public baths - we just love walking around naked with all the koreans while they exfoliate the top six layers of skin off their bodies and exercise in the hot tubs. And we have found out that the Visa card still works. We both own a pair of jeans now and are ready to ride horses around the gers in Mongolia! Yee-haw!

Check out our updated map to see where we have been.

Sorry no naked spa pics : )

Love Motel James

James enjoying the luxuries of the love motel ... face moisterizing mask and all. What a geek (but I love him)!

Happy Han-gook!

We have arrived in South Korea ... or Utopia! We had forgotten what it means to be in a developed country, no horns constantly beeping, fast
public transportation, order, calm, and cleanliness.

Since we have arrived we have taken in some of
the sights of Seoul, hiked in Seroksan, visited a
North Korean submarine that got caught spying

on South Korea, scrubbed ourselves clean in the public baths, caught up with my old friend Jisun and eaten meat, meat and more meat. We are on a culinary tour around the country.
Life is good. We are

staying in Love Motels which most couples rent by the hour. Interesting free items included in the rental, but they are really clean, modern and nice so we can't complain.

Surprisingly I have been getting a lot of my Korean words back and have even been reading some signs, which has come in pretty handy when looking for a love motel.
We are looking forward to another week and a half of luxury before we take off to Mongolia. Also starting to think about coming home and getting excited to see all of our friends and family.

Lots of love

M&J

34 and counting

made it another year...cheers to all of you and see you soon!

(a draught can of guiness was the best beer i have had in 6 months...and at 10 bucks a can it was the most expensive too...how low have i stooped?)

Everest - North Col Route aka Tibet (Meighan)

Stats:
Days: 20 start to finish
Food Consumed: 10 lbs of potatoes and 72 eggs
Number of cries: About four but three were due to injuries
Longest stint without a shower: 10 days
KM walked: About 150

We started our big trip after a 10 hour bus ride to Jiri. This is a less popular entry point since they built an airport in Lukla … but like the trusty Turmanskis that we are, we decided to walk the extra seven days instead of flying. The trail from Jiri to Lukla was long and difficult. Each day was about 7 hours of walking and consisted of a 1000 meter climb and a 1000 meter descent (EVERYDAY!) There were some tears on Day 3 from grumpiness and on Day 7 when I twisted my ankle.
On Day 7 I hobbled into Namche Bazar, the half way point and place of semi-luxury, with a twisted ankle, a screwed up knee (a left over injury from the first trek) and a leg grotesquely swollen and infected from insect bites (don’t ask!). But after a refueling of apple turnovers and meat momos, we trekked on.
From Namche Bazar we hiked on to Goyko. This was my favorite part of the trek. To and from Namche we were surrounded by impressive snow capped peaks, lakes, huge glaciers and neat wildlife including ducks, pheasants, mountain goats and a mountain Thar (a shaggy mountain goat). From Gokyo village we also climbed to Gokyo Ri – 5360 meters. We finally cracked 5000 meters and beat our previous altitude record. We also got a view of Mt. Everest about 20 km away. It was pretty neat to see this mountain that so many have climbed risking their lives and that others have even lost their lives on. It’s pretty neat to sit and talk to the lodge owners as many of them have climbed Mt. Everest several times – we met a man who has been on top nine times! We also met a man who successfully climbed with the 1982 Canadian expedition even after losing three Sherpas (local people who are known for their assistance with expeditions) and one of the Canadians.
Despite the lore and legend that surrounds Mt. Everest, I found that the total beauty of the Gokyo Valley trumped the actual view of Mt. Everest for me. The glaciers in the valley, including one of the largest in the world, are amazing and so beautiful. It was so peaceful to sit on top of Gokyo Ri for a couple of hours just soaking in the stillness and the peaks. We had views of at least four of the ten highest mountains in the world … Lhotse, Everest, Makalu and Cho Oyu. Incredible!
After Gokyo I was feeling a bit tired and convinced James that we didn’t want to cross a high pass, so we walked back and spent a few days visiting a couple of Sherpa villages. In Pangboche we were lucky enough to include ourselves in on a puja (or prayer session) with a monk and four young men setting off on an Everest expedition. There was much rice and chhang (local alcohol) thrown around and everyone talked through all the prayers. A very interesting experience to say the least. Best of luck to those young guys.
After 18 days we celebrated the end of our trek with a few drinks back in Namche … I chose Beer Lhasa from Tibet (Free Tibet!) and then we finally arrived in Lukla to catch our flight back to Kathmandu. Unfortunately the weather caused delays and a major back up of planes. Luckily we only waited for two days … others were there much longer. The plane ride back on a 12 seater little plane was a bit scary as the runway basically drops off a small ‘hill’ but it was great fun and I am really glad we didn’t walk the 7 days back out.
We had a great time, met some really great people along the trail and saw some amazing sights. As a side note, James was an amazing guide on all our treks. He always found ‘a’ trail and he was very patient with me when I felt like crying (or when I was crying). He didn’t mention that on the Langtang trek, he was guiding groups, guides and all, up mountains to view points. Maybe he has a new calling. Today is James’ birthday! Happy Birthday Husband!
Well we are off to South Korea (with a possible stop in Singapore) in a few days. Stay tuned for adventures in Korean BBQ and naked saunas.

Love,the one year older and wiser JT and the much younger MM.

Everest - South Col Route aka Classic Hillary (James)

ok, so we decided the Big E deserved two blog spaces, so we split it up and Meighan got Tibet. I hope HH the Dalai Lama has better luck with her than the Chinese government. So WOW, Everest, eh! yup it was pretty dang special to see that hunk of rock reaching so high into the clouds. but much more than that it was the insignificant feeling of being surrounded by huge rocky giants. many of the mountians topout at over 7000m, and we walked right through them to get to the viewpoint at Gokyo Ri (5360m, a new personal record i might add). That is Mount Everest (8,850m, #1 in the world) at about 16km away in the high point behind us in the sephia shot (with Lhotse, 8516m - 4th highest, just to the right of it and then Makalu, 8485m - 5th highest, further off to the right just above our heads), and that is me walking up the Gokyo valley toward Mount Cho Oyu (8201m, 6th highest in the world). Crazy to think we have now seen all of the top 8 points in the world except for #2 - K2 in Pakistan/China.

The walk was the best part by far...17 days starting from Jiri and finishing with a jaw dropping flight out of Lukla (check out the landing at this airstrip...Lukla). The 7 day walk in from Jiri was hard work, but very, very peaceful as there were only locals, porters, mules, and a handful of other independent hikers (that is, peaceful minus the pestering from kids asking for sweets or pens...damn foriegners corrupting young minds...on the upside we only got asked once by a child on route after we got into the main part of the national park...dunno how that happens, maybe the sherpa people are more proud?). Speaking of porters, those dudes can carry some serious weight. We saw all sort of crazy things being carried, steel wheels for micro-hydro projects, sides of "beef"/"buff" ( water buffalo as is more like it), steel sections of pipes, and crazy amounts of wood. The one Meighan is "lifting" in the photo is a set of 4x4 boards that weighed 108kg...and they carried the boards on the same trail we walked...and went further than we did in a day.

The food was actually quite good on the route, if not a tad monotonous and ridiculously expensive...so much for the $50/day budget. A plate of rice, veg, and lentils was sometimes $7 per plate, yikes!

On the way back we got to share in a puja ceremony (blessing) in one of the main Gompas (church) on the Everest route. Some young sherpa men were on their way up to Everest as part of the forward party to get things ready at base camp, and they like to keep the local deities appeased. It was very fun and light hearted with lots of change pouring (local beer brew), rice throwing and laughing, but became more serious in the main hall where they left offerings (money, rice, scarves) for specific lamas and gods.

Now that i am so skinny my swim trunks fall right off my butt, it is time to get out of Nepal and stuff my face full of real red meat in Seoul. Watch out norebang (aka korean karaoke) cause i feel a soju fueled opera session coming on! I will, however, try not to fall straight into the table this time...Japan still won't let me back into the country after that episode.

Tashi Delek, Sherpa James

Nepali Anne

Welcome to Nepal Anne! Our good friend (and often running partner) decided to come visit us in Nepal for a couple weeks. We have been anticipating her arrival for many months and we were so ecstatic to visit with someone from home (not to mention the goodie bag of things she brought with her). We saw a few city sites and then boarded a 9 hour bone-shaking bus to the start of the Langtang Valley for a breathtaking 7 day hike to a 3,800M village that is about 4miles from the Tibetan border. All in all, a superb trek and piles of fun to have someone new to laugh with (and at..."hey guys, is there water running out of my pack and down my butt?" hahaha...yes there is!).

While on trek we snuggled three people in a room that was basically all bed (Anne doesn't snore if anyone is interested?), got caught in a nasty snow storm on our day trip up to the glacier (our faces aren't normally that red except when getting pelted by horizontal snow and ice), getting caked with a solid layer of yellow dust from the bus ride, both ways (have you ever seen that much dust on a backpack before?...sorry Tara and Kyle), and debating the finer points of yak cheese (is that really yak or nak cheese?). Good Times and Good Stories!
Thanks for the fun Anne...