License plate read "Horseless Carriage" as vehicle classification

Newcastle - Any questions?

Only the colored world could know

Or something deeper?

Is it she that I fancy?

Fighting my way through the all

The pattern coming togethor

Vivid truth burning through

Her friendsip forever

Her soul uplifting

And her eyes that caught me as I walked

Wild brightly colored plains

A Day at the Norton Museum

Today, I feel significant

I was walking on the beach around 7.30 am and a bicycle rider on A1A started waving to me. I paused my shuffle and he told me he had a sea turtle that he found on the road. He was on the other side of a tall sea wall and the only entrance was locked so I jogged over and he handed me this little creature through the gate.

Wow. There is the potential for that little fellow to be on this earth after I die.

I placed the turtle on the sand a few feet from where the waves stopped rolling up the beach and the trip began. The first wave hit the turtle very lightly, just enough to get the whole shell wet and suddenly the rate of movement increased - the little animal felt it. The next wave slightly lifted and deposited it a foot or two farther away. Then a dash was made and the next wave ended with a turtle floating momentarily in a nice calm. One last crashing wave came in before I lost sight.

An ocean of future

Attack in China kills 16 border patrol officers

I saw the same group if soldiers jogging on the road and walked in front if this base not three days ago.

Attack in China kills 16 border patrol officers

Officials labeled the attack terrorism and suggested the culprits were associated with a separatist movement seeking independence for China's Uighur minority.

Astrophysicist Nobel Prize winner Dr. George Smoot

Town center at Altay

Lunch

Wish good luck to your turtles

and my life, my masterpiece, has yet to be written

for my horizon is broad and my future is bright

But for now those thoughts are far and my path isn't a path at all

And if I'll be great and give joy to others

I wonder if I will be strong and last the test of time

and consider my future

And as I continue my journey through life

But real questions remain...

As with all greatness, mistakes were made.

And a watch was kept to give forewarning against dangers.

Walls were built to keep invaders out and knowledge and power in.

Jiaohe was chosen for fertility, defense and water.

Who lived here and where do I live?

On my last day in China I visited the 2200 year old ruins of Jiaohe. The city was built atop a plateau encircled by two rivers. It made me think...

Turpan square by night

Isn't she cute!

On the right is the Secretary to the local Communinist party - he knew the party line well

Uiger family that we visited with

Greens and blues and browns

Irrigation tunnels

And they do taste good

Local wildlife

Cold nights and blisteringly hot days make for sweet grapes - and Turpan is well known for them

Turpan's Persian, Russian and Chinese mixture of cultures in food, architecture and language come together beautifully.

Lunch

The largest windmill farm in Asia. It stretches in all directions from my vantage point. Really quite mesmerizing.

Caucasian mummy found in western China.

Urumqi is a city of two million in the middle of a desert

Desolate desert airport outpost

Wonderful Tashgurkan fashion

I have spread

Cherry is the best known Chinese car manufacturer.

Dropping 3,000 feet has a funny affect on water bottles last sealed way up there

A solar powered yurt

The clouds alight upon the tops of mountains holding back as Sol's ever powerful prsence burns them away

Heading back east towards Kashgar and denser populations

The fort from an artistic direction.

The old Tashgurkan plains. Yurts, yaks and running water. Very pretty.

The sun rises

A traditional dress Tashkurgan photoshoot with Chonese military on top of the Stone City fort. A cultural marketing experience.

Stone City - a 1300 year old fort built by the Paris Dynasty. It was ravaged about 1000 years ago by invaders, yet still stands today.

Chinese guard was an asshole, especially being as how he was on the Pakistani side of the border

Welcome to China

Now leaving Pakistan

Off in the distance is the Chinese entrance gate and the Pakistan-China border fence

I got the napping seat on the bus

Pakistan Customs Special Task Cell - hrmmmm...

On the road to Sust (last city in Pakistan before China)

Leaving Pakistan

I leave Pakistan in the morning. The Hunza Valley in the disputed
Northern Territories specifically. Having really only explored one
city significantly I can't say I know this place, but I can say
Karimabad is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

I ate breakfast with a family early one morning when discovered during
a long walk by a young boy. Apricots fresh from a tree and milk from a
goat. Neither of us spoke the others' language but we communicated all
that was needed to understand.

I believe even more now in people. I believe even more now in their
inherent goodness.

Mountaintop lake in Gilmut

Landscape

Those eternal questions - who are we?

Jost has left his mark

If you're sick hold them in your hand just do hard and the poisons in the flower can help heal, so they say.

Small rockslide as we approached

...but life is hard.

A picturesque existence...

While the military presence in the Northern Hunda Valley was non-existent, Gilgit was a bit tenser with at least half a dozen military checkpoints on our way through the town. High walls surround the nicer residential areas. I'm told to not take the hard looks personally but to instead see them as a studied stare.

Children of Gilgit

Ping Pong and Prayer

I'm at the Selena Hotel in Gilgit, Pakistan. We have armed guards
outside and inside of our hotel. While waiting for our first excursion
out into town (going to see a mountainside Bhudda statue I believe) a
few of us decided to go play ping pong outside. That is where I found
the pictured guard.

I spoke to him about his family (he has five daughters and comes from
a family of 11 brothers and 10 sisters). I spoke a little about
politics as well. In his home town Peshawar he talks about how there is
fighting everyday with the Taliban. It hurts him and you can tell it
in his face.

At 4 pm the guards changed and he then rolled out his rug and prayed
to g~d. We kept playing ping pong protected in a relatively safe haven
surrounded by a war.

I am very lucky.

Hotel guard - nice rifle. The gate guard (who I will picture later) had a shotgun