Dec '0705
Beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep!!! 3h30 in the morning, our alarm clock rings. Quickly we sit up because today is THE great day: we are going to go to the highest point of our trek: Thorong-La Pass at 5416 m. altitude. All around us we hear people rumbling around while we quickly (believe us: this cold makes you very fast indeed) get out of our sleeping bags and into the cold night. When we get to the dining room, a lot of people are already awake and trying to get their breakfast as soon as possible. There is some excitement in the air: for most people this is the real highlight of the trip, for others it’s the part of the trip they are most scared off: will I make it to the top? And what about that slight headache? Isn’t that possibly altitude sickness?
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Dec '0704
The first week of trekking in the highest mountains in the world. Our first impressions of the Nepali mountain lifestyle, of eating Dal Bhat (the only food they seem to eat) and learning Nepali from our guide, Narayan, and our porter. Yes we were too lazy to carry our stuff ourselves! 
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Nov '0703
We have been in Kathmandu for about one week now, so it is about time to share some impressions and feelings. Compared to Chinese cities, Kathmandu definitely resembles more to any other Asiatic city than we have seen before (well at least that is what we think, because of course we never have visited Asia before). When in China most big cities resemble European or even American cities, with paved roads, all lined up and organized with sidewalks for pedestrians, in Kathmandu, paved roads are seemingly inexistent, there is no such thing as sidewalks and the traffic is one big mess. Cars (mainly taxis), motor bikes and rickshaws all fight for their existence on the road of course oblivious to the pedestrians who are definitely the one dangling dangerously at the end of the Nepali food chain.
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Nov '0701
China hasn’t been our favorite country so far, which is partially due to the fact that we had bad weather in the north and the fact that we couldn’t get into Tibet even though we tried so hard. But it’s not very fair to judge it so easily, as China definitely has some “worth seeing” sites, although it is sometimes just a little bit hard to find them. But that’s part of the adventure! 
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Oct '0719
Some people complained that we hadn’t been very courageous as far as our food choices are concerned. It is true that China is probably one of the countries with the most “exotic” food possibilities going from very spartian cuisine in the north, very spicy in the west until eating cat, rats and bugs glued to a stick in the south. But lately we had an experience that will keep everybody’s mouth open, including the people that think we aren’t courageous (we will see how courageous you get ).
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Oct '0712
Beijing, September 17th: After standing in a long, long waiting-line at the PSB (Police Security Bureau, the place where visa extensions are issued) we get to hear that our visa cannot be extended now. Period (no real reason given, as will turn out to be the “standard” in China). The only information we get is: “You can do it in Xi’an.”
Loss: half day of searching the office, waiting and wondering.
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Oct '0703
Now that we have been in China for a little while, we can maybe speak a little bit about the Chinese, because they are actually quite different from the people we met in Russia and China. Whereas the Russians were still very European and the Mongolians “Mongolian” (we don’t really know how to describe them but we agree that they are not European, but also not Asian), the Chinese are something different, something peculiar in their own kind.
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Sep '0727
Going on the Great Wall is always an experience as it is incredible to imagine that this immense wall has been built hundreds of years ago, like a snake sliding through the mountains in order to protect the Chinese empire against foreign invaders (especially the Mongols). It is even more incredible that this wall has never served its initial purpose of defense, because by the time it was finally consolidated the Mongol Empire had already declined.
And although it is slowly falling down (a little bit helped by poor locals using the stones for construction elsewhere) there are still big parts standing that are protected, partially renovated and thus can be visited by paying a very expensive “relic protection and cultural heritage protection” price (freely translated as “extremely high for foreign tourists” price).
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