Taps

One of the vendors in Soulard Market, ready to pour you some of the awful (IMHO) products of Anheuser Busch Inbev, while grilling hot dogs or sausages behind. Anheuser Busch used to own this town until it got sucked into the Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate Inbev. Budweiser was everywhere, even all over the world. The first advertising sign I saw in Tibet at a little airport restaurant was for Bud. The sign was in English, Tibetan and Chinese. The picture of the can said Anheuser Busch, St. Louis, Missouri.

I'm not fond of Budweiser. I'm sipping a Cotes du Rhone as I write this.        

B&W Challenge Day 7 - Big Piece Of Rock

The biggest one around. Glad I got to see it. This is the end of the seven day run but I've taken some more pictures recently that I'd like to edit in B&W. They get done that way when the image is right.

City Daily Photo June Theme Day: Nature

I'm mostly an urban street photographer. A trip into the archives was required to come up with something for this theme day.

This may be the single photo I'm most proud of. It was certainly the most difficult - Mt. Everest on a rare clear day. Long way to go for starters. We were travelling in Tibet with a small group, accompanied by English and Tibetan guides. There was a night at base camp, accessible by a very rough road. The shot was taken at 17,200 feet / 5,242 meters. I had pretty bad altitude sickness. Two men in the group had to grab me under the arms and pull me up the last little hill to the overlook. It was worth every effort.

Maybe there is something to the fact that Ansel Adams and I share a birthday. (Well, Kurt Cobain, too.) Okay, that's an exaggeration. Other than this shot not much has rubbed off.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Transitions

I don't have any new local material so I had to dig into the archives for this one. Not at all local, in one sense. It's the first billboard we saw outside of the Lhasa, Tibet, airport. We have an American icon, written first in English, then Tibetan, then Chinese. That's a transition.

And there is a link to the home town of this blog. Look closely at the can, where it says Anheuser Busch, Inc., St. Louis, MO, USA. The world keeps shrinking.            

Om . . .

Exiled Tibetan monks on stage at the International Festival in Tower Grove Park.  It seems almost sacrilegious to call it a performance. It seemed even worse to amplify their sounds and play them through huge loudspeakers. My reaction is influenced, I'm sure, by having had the great privilege of visiting some of their brothers back home. 

It was too hot and too crowded to shoot for long. May try to get back there when it opens this morning.                      

Meanwhile, Back In Tibet: Our Guide, Tenzin Choedak

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Before we stop doing Asia pictures on the blog, there are a couple of special things I wanted to feature. This is our superb Tibetan guide, Tenzin Choedak. He's a native of Lhasa but familiar with the whole territory. He's done mountaineering and rescue missions. Choedak seems to know everybody who matters. He works awfully hard and keeps everything under control with unflappable charm.

The guy is good. He can arrange custom travel programs throughout Tibet - he is certainly the person we'd go to if we return and Phil Colley of The Oriental Caravan, our tour leader, wasn't planning something. I'm reluctant to publish Choedak's email address here because that would generate lots of spam but if you are interested, contact me and I'll send it to you. Phil, by the way, does a terrific job on small group travel in Asia. We've been to Japan with him and came back for more.

The picture above was taken in the middle of nowhere with a child from a family of herders. The one below is at Everest base camp.

A bunch of new pictures have been added to the Nepal and Tibet set on Flickr here.

TOMORROW: Return of the Thursday Arch series!

STL DPB On The Road: Tibetan Temple Offerings

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The opulence of Tibetan Buddhist temples is a sight to see. They are often more ornate than the most Baroque European cathedral. The faithful leave offerings in Chinese yuan but we also saw U.S. dollars, Euros and once Argentine pesos.

This picture reminds me a bit of a 17th or 18th Century still life. I'm knocked out with jet lag, sort of staggering through yesterday at the office. People at work are telling me to get back to reality. But which one is or was my reality, Tibet or St. Louis?

STL DPB On The Road: Samye Monastery, Tibet

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Back at home, I went to the supermarket last night to stock up on general supplies. The breakfast cereal display contained an overwhelming number of choices. It made me me think of the tiny hole-in-the-wall shops we saw everywhere in Tibet and Nepal. No choices there. This little girl we met near Samye Monastery clutches a stick of gum given her by one of our group. It looks like her only possession.

We just heard that China is closing Tibet to foreign visitors again on October 1, the time of celebrations of 60 years of Communist rule. Made it just in time.

More new Nepal and Tibet photos have been added to the set on Flickr here.

STL DPB On The Road: Crossing the Brahmaputra River

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Hello again from beautiful O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. Nice to be back in the US. I edited a bunch of pix on the flight from Delhi and posted them on Flickr here. Lots more to come. Since I don't have any current St. Louis material I'll keep posting images from Nepal and Tibet for a bit.

Our group took a small local ferry to cross the Brahmaputra River and visit Samye Monastery, the oldest in Tibet. The boat was full of kids going from from an area boarding school for a holiday. The children were delightful and fascinated with my camera and iPhone. More of these images in the set on Flickr.

STL DPB On The Road: Food Shopping in Gyantse. Tibet

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Gyantse is a modest town southwest of Lhasa, more Chinese than Tibetan. Someone observed that the old town had a Tolkienesque appearance. Now the visitor sees dull, repetitive state architecture. The fruit and vegetable, market, however, is an eyeful. The offerings were gorgeous and very fresh. This stall sells spices, sauces and chili powder.

Leaving Kathmandu in a few hours. Possibly more later during our layover in Delhi.

STL DPB On The Road: Plateaus of Tibet

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Not a very sharp picture but, I think, a poignant one. Taken from a moving car, this little girl from a small family of yak herders makes human contact with the white faces rolling past. Note the adult, smaller child and tent in the background. They spend much of their lives in isolation, grazing their animals on what you see in the foreground. I couldn't see any water in the landscape.

Time to go home. It's been an intense journey. We'll be back in St. Louis in just over 48 hours, winds, aircraft and Delhi airport bureaucrats willing. Hope to get some picture editing done on the long flight from there to Chicago.

STL DPB On The Road: Mt. Everest

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McKinley - a big pile of rubble. Fujiyama - elegant but actually rather small. Mont Blanc - it has some elan but fails to reach the sky. This is Number One, Mt. Everest, shot from base camp on the Chinese side, about 5,200 meters or 17,200 feet above sea level.

So, live from Kathmandu, it's Saturday night. Just back in town with uncensored Internet after eleven enchanting, exhausting, bittersweet days in Tibet. It's bedtime here and we're worn out. More as time permits.

Going Up

The Crowes are really getting into the wilds of Tibet, and it's pictures like this which really pique my jealousy. Bob says of this:

A lot of our drive Sunday was through river valleys, one of which was dammed to make an eerie teal-colored lake.

We stopped at passes of 15,000 and 15,800 feet. We're sleeping to ight at 12,800. Doing pretty well with the altitude - fair amount of trouble sleeping but lungs and energy are okay.

PASSES of 15K feet! I've never been above 14-something (aside from in a plane) and that's standing on top of a peak. Anyway, here is the menu at a restaurant where the butter nun was skipped in favor of a yakburger and fries:

Dream Land of Tibet

Bob sent a bunch of pix from a colorful market, this one I thought was best. Here is his description:

The Barkhor is the old Tibetan quarter in Lhasa, which is otherwise a modern Chinese city. Our guide said that most of the vendors are Chinese or Muslims from the northwest of China.

And for the below:

The Jokhan is the holiest temple in Tibetan Buddhism. It is located in the center of the Barkhor. What's inside is much grander than what you can see here. Large numbers of pilgrims from all over Tibet come here, circling the temple clockwise and chanting prayers.

More from Lhasa

Got another couple of photos iPhone'd to me from Tibet. Of the above, Bob says:

This is the Mongolian Budhist "college" at a big monastery complex just outside of Lhasa. Once it held 5,000 monks. Today, 750.

You may not be able to read the name of the place below in red neon without clicking for a larger version. It's the Cool Yak Hotel, where only the coolest of yaks stay. It's apparently all about the yaks there. Saw a facebook status from my dad (yes, we're facebook friends) about nan with yak butter being delicious. Another wacky sign spotting, sadly undocumented, was the Lovely Cowboy Happy Restaurant. I'll leave you with one more piece of Lhasa flair, seen on the wall of a restaurant:

24 hours in a day.
24 beers in a case.
Coincidence?
I think not.

Tibetan Dispatch

Hey there all you STLDP followers. This is Son O Strangetastes, dutifully following this order from the proprieter:

Hey if any of the iPhone pix are clear enough post them to the blog for me with a little explanation. No blogger here.

Ah the magic of technology crossed with politics and geography! This is the Potala Palace in Lhasa, apparently taken from mom and dad's view of it from their lunch table. Jealous! Looking forward to more.

We're Outta Here

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Guest photo by Mrs. C., taken in Kathmandu a year and a half ago. A young Buddhist monk walks past Boudnath Stupa in the sunset. You can see more of her Nepal pictures here.

We leave today on a 19 day trip, going through Chicago and then on to Delhi, a 14 hour flight. One night there and then Kathmandu Saturday. Tibet on Tuesday. I may post a few days ahead if I get some editing done on the plane - no problem with Internet service in India. With luck I'll post something from from Nepal, as long as there is a place to hook up my laptop. No uploads from Tibet - the altitude is too high to run a laptop without damaging the hard drive. The Chinese government blocks Blogger, anyway.

Team member ShadowyOne will cover St. Louis as much as possible while I'm away. Expect a big tub-o-photos from Asia starting about September 22. Hasta la vista, y'all.