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

Displayed times (last time: )

earthquake.

From Islamabad, Pakistan I went to Lahore and then to the Amritsar, the holy city of the Sikhs and then to Dharamsala, the residence of the Dalai Lama. Both places are very spiritually charged ones.

After this I visited Roerich mansion at Naggar in Kulu valley. Roerich was a famous Russian painter, explorer and mystic. I visited most of the places which he traveled through during his Central Asian expeditions.

From Naggar I went to the city of Leh in the Laddak province of India, the so called "Little Tibet". I would like to take a camping trip through real Tibet one day. But there are so many stories of travelers who died there from high altitude sickness and cold. So the trip to "Little Tibet" was kind of training in preparation for the trip to real Tibet. I crossed 5,600 meter passes and camped at high altitude and now I know first hand what to expect there.

From Laddak I went to Delhi, India and than flew to the city of Kunming in the Yunnan province of China. From Kunming I sent you my last Travel Notes.

While the decision to go to Xinjiang province of China was influenced by Roerich and Przhevalskii, the decision to go to Yunnan was solely influenced by Vladimir Dinets's Internet book "On a Wild Ass' Trail" http://dinets.travel.ru/epanda.htm

From Kunming I went down to the city of Jinghong the administrative center of the Xishuangbanna region of China, bordering Burma and Vietnam. Than I traveled to Ruili, the town right on the Chinese border with Burma. I had very high expectations for that area and may be because of that, I was a little bit disappointed. In-spite of its remoteness, this area has become pretty touristy. I will write a separate report on it.

From Ruili I took a long bus ride to Dali and Lijiang, the two most famous tourist sites in Yunnan. There I went through the Tiger Leaping Gorge and Jade Dragon Snow Mountains. I will write about them later.

From Lijiang I took a short flight to Chengdu. I spent a couple days in Chengdu and took a tour to Jiuzhaigou National Park with an entirely Chinese group. Report on this tour is almost ready and I will send it to you soon. From Chengdu I took a train to Urumqi and than bus to Almaty.