Finally some photos...

The third photo is of our lovely guide in Suopuo, the town outside of Danba with ancient towers. We were walking up to the town and she was going the other way. She stopped and started talking with us in English. She is studying in a university in Kangding.

We decided, one day while hiking up a mountainside, that we should put a letter in a bottle. Since in Sichuan there are no oceans around, it seemed like a good idea to shove it into a crevice in the rocks and see what happens.

Here are some of the beautiful Tibetan prayer flags strung everywhere.

The third photo is of the Tibetan village of Jiaju where we stayed a night. I really like the way they have their homes set up. There are often four stories, three of which have balconies where you can view the town.

The man in this photo makes the best Jiazi (dumplings) in Danba, along with his wife. We went there for four nights straight!

On the way to Jiaju we found a traveler who didn't make it.

Our Tibetan host looks on as we leave. She spoke neither English nor Mandarin and our Tibetan phrasebook was useless, so we relied mostly on hand gestures. There would be moments where we just couldn't communicate and we would all just break out laughing.

The second photo was taken on the Maglev train into Shanghai from the airport. That's right, I was going 431 km/h on land.

The French Connection: This is Pauline, our French artist friend who we met in Chengdu and ended up spending three days together, two of which were on horseback.

Here are some kids in Songpan. The boy with the red shirt was running to meet who I presume was his brother, who had just gotten off our bus.

This is John, our intrepid horse trekking guide. The second shot is of Austin overlooking the Jiaju village. The third picture is of a monk near Maerkang with the kindest face. I think he was laughing at me though...

In Hong Kong, I visited a bunch of old WW2 pillboxes. During the intense fighting on December 19th, a Canadian soldier by the name of John Robert Osborn threw himself on a grenade, saving the lives of his fellow soldiers. For this he was awarded the Victoria Cross. As I was walking through Queens Road Central, there was an immigration protest going on. They weren't very organized though. Often members of the group would be singing out of sync and didn't sound convincing.

In Singapore I visited the National Museum of Singapore, which I highly recommend. It was interactive and informative. You are given a little computer companion that you wear around your neck. It comes with headphones and when you walk into a certain room you simply punch in the number on the floor and you are given an introduction to the exhibit. Near my hostel in Little India there was this man, sleeping the day away with his Walkman.

Ahhh, finally we're in the tropics. We were awoken yesterday by a spectacular Batam sunrise. Here are all of us eating dinner. On the far right is Roel, then Angeline, myself, Ted and Austin. Angeline is always smiling and laughing.

- Will