Nationality Patches

Wednesday I dropped off my shirts to have the 4Deserts and nationality patches sewn on the sleeve. Sounds like a simple enough exercise, but of course, nothing is ever simple for me, and so I had a bit of an existential crisis while thinking about what nationality patch to put on my clothes.

Displaying an American flag in many parts of the world can be an incendiary act. I am especially reminded of that sitting in Beijing today, 20 years after Tiannamen Square, where I am prohibited from accessing twitter, youtube, and even my blogging website. I can only write this post by accessing an international network via Citrix.

I am proud to be an American and proud of what the US flag represents especially the values of liberty, justice, and freedom of speech, but then I thought about the prospect of getting lost in the desert. The far western corner of China is home to many of China's military installations, and while it is IMPOSSIBLE that I will run into any of them, that other American value, pragmatism won out, so I will be sporting the HK flag on my arm.

Plus after three years of weekends spent in LKF, I think my future campaign to be POTUS is pretty much doomed anyway...

Encouraging email of the day

From an old Hkiss pal:

Can you pls look into getting a satellite phone?! At least we'll be able to recover your body... and an almost new satellite phone! :)

Packing Practice

My friend J is prepared for everything. We affectionately call her "Mom" because she is incredibly thoughtful and remembers all the little pieces of daily life that we overage adolescents of HK have a tendency to forget- tissues, tylenol, thank you notes, etc.



J has been exploring Asia over the last several months and staying with me between jaunts to India, Nepal, Laos, Bangkok, Burma, and Bhutan. J is the ultimate houseguest- she makes coffee in the morning, runs errands, does dishes, and brings home mint chocolate chip ice cream- Amazing. But I am most grateful for the extended tutorial in packing which I've enjoyed over the last three months.



Initiation happened 7s weekend; we stumbled out of the south stands to J's apartment to sort through old clothes, books, beauty products, and lord only knows what else. It's a blur but three days later, she emerged. Her life downsized from 12 types of suntan lotion to 2 and ten bottles of cold medicine to none. It was an important first step.



Before her India-Nepal-Bhutan adventure, she sat on my living room floor, and we debated the merits of dresses, running shorts, purses, and pain pills. We made sure that J was prepared for trekking in two bags, which she could carry herself. Several hours, outfits, and glasses of wine, later, J was on her way.


The crowning moment came last night. In less than twenty minutes, daydress, sportswear, swimwear, and evening clothes for three weeks in Bali were slotted into their appropriate pockets. Guidebooks, medication and toiletries were prepacked and all she took was a carry on.

I can only hope that Wednesday night as I frantically pack my bag, I can focus on such concise and exact packing.

So let's see, guess I don't need the blackberry charger in the desert, right?

In the Running is on the Today Show

Very exciting news about my charity...

In the Running's Erin Sprague has been selected for SELF Magazine's 2009 "Women Doing Good" award. Her classy mug is featured in the June issue of the magazine, which is on newsstands now. In addition, Erin will appear with the two other winners on the TODAY Show with Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb during the 10am hour on Tuesday, June 2nd.

http://www.intherunning.org/

Taper Tip of the Day

Eat plenty of protein from now on, keep walking/running but less intense and stretch a lot. Oh and pray.

-Peter Dunn

Zen and the Art of China Travel Planning

In most places, if you want to book a trip, you have two options:

1) Find the flights at the cost and times you want via a myriad of airline aggregators, enter your credit card details, and voila, off you go.

2) Call the travel agent, have a conversation about your goals and vision for travel, and they send you an itinerary. Again, voila, off you go.

Traveling in China is never simple though.

You try to book the flights yourself, but the price increases several thousand USD if you decide to pay with a credit card. You try to use the travel agent, but they won't book the flight because you are 10 minutes short of the minimum connecting time. Also they won't answer any of your questions, and the itinerary they send will not start or end in the correct location.

Next time, I will book earlier. (I tell myself that every time.)

In the meantime, I am trying very hard to remember that this is all part of the adventure. Sure, I am probably going to be stuck in the Urumqi airport on the way home. I know my bags are not going to make the connecting flight to Kashgar. And most likely, I will be stuck paying a change fee when my flight from Beijing is delayed and those extra ten minutes would have been helpful.

But at long last, I confirmed seats , and the journey of 250kilometers begins with a double engine Boeing 757 across the great Mongolian plain...

MDI- Monkey Defense Initiative

As a child of the 80s, this is also popularly know as "Trail Wars."