Home » India China » From Russia to India (part VII: Travel notes on how to loose 20 lb effortlessly)

I am in Kunming, China, just arrived. I weighed myself on accurate airport scales and found that I lost 20 lbs and returned to my high school weight. I spent almost two months in Pakistan and India combined. Food is vegetarian there and pretty dull. Mostly rice with dal (kind of spicy bean sauce). But major factor in weight loss is not food itself but how they serve it. Here in China food is serviced usually by attractive, neatly dressed girls. In India/Pakistan it is always served by overworked boy, who looks dirty and put food on your plate with his bare hands even if a spoon is available. Passion for low sanitary food handling in these countries is very strong and unexplainable.

From Russia to India (part VII: Travel notes on how to loose 20 lb effortlessly)

Alex Mumzhiu
2006-03-22 19:38:33

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build Leh-Manali road completely manually. It was no mechanization at all.
2. The day I left Leh, the Dalay Lama came. Both side of road was filled with people waiting for him.
3. Broken bridge on the road Leh-Manali forced us to spent night in car. It was pretty cold.
4. Great Indian invention Western style toilet, with provision to squat on it.
5. In Delhi I met a delegation of Indian velo handicapped people, who rode to Delhi to attract the attention of government to the needs of handicapped people. Man in the middle do not have both legs and one hand, but he ride bicycle.
6. In Sikh temple where are pictures of all their saints, including Christ

Alex Mumzhiu
Lijiang, China
Sept 16 2005
4pm

My dear readers,

My trip is finished. I am at home. It was my longest trip, 161 days. I started at Almaty, Kazakhstan (see attached map), went to Kyrgyzstan, circled around Issyk-Kul Lake and continued to NE corner of Kazakhstan, where I crossed the border to Xinjiang province of China. I visited remarkable Hanas Lake National Reserve near the border of China with Kazakhstan and Russia, where Chinese saved large piece of beautiful Altai taiga (forest). Then I went to Urumqi, than to Turfan and eventually crossed Takla Makan Desert. Than by southern portion of Silk Road I reached Kashgar.

This part of my trip was influenced by great Russian explorers Przhevalskii and Roerich. Dzungaria, Kashgaria, Takla Makan Desert, Kun-lun and Karakoram were their favorite playgrounds. Not much has been saved here from their times, except for Takla Makan Desert. Crossing Takla Makan, was the main highlight of my entire trip, despite the fact that it was done not by camel, but by car.

After Kashgar I went to Pakistan along Karakorum Highway. A 300 km bike ride from the Kunjerab Pass to Gilgit was the most enjoyable part of my trip. Unfortunately these places are now ravaged by earthquake.
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