TravelBlog » Sultans of Sweat

Sultans of Sweat - samual duncan, francis, and brett et. al.

Leave it to me to post a travel blog 5 months into a trip.. the following posts are the most recent adventures, yes, I'm working backwards. .. I currently find myself reunited with my texan buddy Francis- We're in Yunaan province, China planning an assault somewhere between the Himalayas and Mongolia. The sultans aren't sweating as much thanks to our exit from SE Asia, now we can only hope the rain will let up. thanks to all friends, family, buckaroos and bula buddies for your interest and support! It's a delight to share this experience- most importantly keep in touch, I love hearing what all you wonderful people are up to!

-brettski et. al

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Joined on: April 29th 2007
Last Login: October 18th 2007

Blog Entries: 16
Photos: 249

TB Code: [blogger=37266]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by Sultans of Sweat, order by Date newest first.

By Sultans of Sweat
September 27th 2007

Mongolia

Asia » Mongolia

It is a cold rainy morning in Shangrila, China. I just finished reading about Francis and Brett's adventures through this area and decided that now was a perfect opportuinity to contribute to the blog. Those two scoundrels are off on a wild adventure in the Mongolian countryside. Riding horses, catching fish and trying to stay warm. I left them after an adventurous ten days spent trying to buy horses and tack. Here is a quick recount of my trip to Mongolia roughly two months ago. Hopefully it will help everyone picture where Frank and Brett are off exploring. While Big Frank [View Full Entry]

By Sultans of Sweat
August 24th 2007

monks on motos

Asia » China » Sichuan » Litang

Francis saying his prayers..

Perched at 4014 meters(13,246 feet-- 314m higher than Lhasa!), Litang is an absolute gem in so many different ways. The town is surrounded by livestock-dotted rolling green hills, and there is a range of large mountains towering over the town from the south. The town has a wild west feel and reputation, long known as a rebellious enclave of Tibetan nationalism. While home to a significant number of Han Chinese, the town is still predominantly Tibetan, and possesses a distinctly Tibetan "feel". Yaks and pigs wander through the dusty streets as farmers cruise by on deafening tractors and mon [View Full Entry]

By Sultans of Sweat
August 18th 2007

On to Sichuan

Asia » China » Sichuan

prayer flag pass
at over 15000 feet, a sprint for a photo left me doggin. beautiful spot for a long-anticipated pee.

After one night in Shangri-la, our 15 hour bus trip (we only would cover 200k) through the mountains out of Yunnan and into Sichuan was tedious but awesome. We had to take an alternate route(which they cited as they hit every passenger up for another 20 yuan while aboard) due to landslides, but the new road(if we actually took it) was a gorgeous and often very scary route. We drove along a beautiful clear river past Tibetan farms and slowly snaked across mountains and over prayer flag strewn passes close to 5000 meters in height. To return to a previous thought, [View Full Entry]

By Sultans of Sweat
August 14th 2007

from Kunming to the Gorge

Asia » China » Yunnan » Tiger Leaping Gorge

dali rooftops
too bad we didn't get much sun..

Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of the deepest gorges in the world, and the trek through it is spectacular and relatively grueling. There were nice little guesthouses along the way where Brett and I could talk with other travellers while looking out at the 5000+ meter mountains that tower over the gorge. We lucked out in that we got two beautiful sunny days of weather for our trek, and that the previous heavy rains caused huge landslides that closed most of the gorge's lower road off to marauding Chinese tour-bus travellers. The only bad luck was that we were hiking just [View Full Entry]

By Sultans of Sweat
August 1st 2007

AK elephant crew days

Asia » Burma

local bus-top transportation
pay and get on quick before the motorbike drivers can protest.

of course you overstay your visa when the damn thing says '4 weeks' and you forget there are 31 days in July. I'm filling up custom agent's pockets faster than Barry Bonds can hit h*meruns these days... a month can be an eternity or an instant depending on your mood. this visa exp. approached much too quickly and we found ourselves with over 700 miles to cover in two days without a direct route. but this is all a result of having too much fun in the forest living with a crew of government sponsored anti-poaching crew members. A pocket of [View Full Entry]

By Sultans of Sweat
July 20th 2007

Ancient Oriental to Contemporary Californian

Asia » Burma » Bagan

straight from 11AD

BAgan, July 20th southeasterly wind. locusts call from the sprigs of trees patched between the barren fields, the flat plain erupts in odd little mountains, as if the fields had mustered all of their collective strength and popped up these random peaks of the same color. when the swallows retire the bats come alight though the sprinting wind has already displaced any airborn insect. the portals of each little mountain yawn with the stretching of the days light. these black pores dot the horizon below their respective earthen spires of which time will wash away to the soil from which they [View Full Entry]

By Sultans of Sweat
July 16th 2007

and Crush All Who Oppose the Union...

Asia » Burma » Mandalay

Mandalay..
Flying fishes? I'll settle for a breeze

ship me somewhwere's east of suez where the best is like the worst where there 'aint no Ten Commandments and a man can raise a thirst For the temple bells are callin' and it's here that I would be by the old Mountain Pagoda looking lazy at the sea. I couldn't help hum Kipling's poem as another cramped bus ride carried me over the bridge into Burma's second biggest city- the romanticism wasn't lost, but I was simply happy to have found a warm breeze. The wind blows constant, filling the plain of the city w/ dust. These gusts are [View Full Entry]

By Sultans of Sweat
July 13th 2007

wizards carry credentials too.

Asia » Burma » Kalaw

a very cool train ride

Helloooooo? a raspy voice called from a window sill- i turned from what i thought was a private late night alley pee to just make out the glowing tip of a cheroot and a pair of spectacles. maybe the friendliest fella in kalaw had just made my acquaintence, leading to one of the more bizzare weeks of my life. aung 'lilly' is an energetic old man who loves company- he thus has a knack for drawing in curious travellers. on this particular evening we spoke briefly, but i promised we'd stop by after a 4 day trek we had scheduled with [View Full Entry]

By Sultans of Sweat
July 7th 2007

locals drink the red label.

Asia » Burma » Inle Lake

i like bicycles and sunflowers

An overnight bus ride North of Yangon is Nyaung Shwe, Inle Lake area. Generally the next stop on any tourist's list and well recorded by the Burmese military. They try, or at least request your passport everywhere you go- for bus tickets, guest houses, check points... Anyway, at Inle I found a bicycle, a farm run by a small family w/ two beautiful twin girls, a hilltop temple, a canoe, lots of tomatoes, and "Larry". Larry speaks great (sometimes hilarious) english. He takes tourists on hikes he himself doesn't like. And he longs for the peaks around the city of Kalaw, [View Full Entry]

By Sultans of Sweat
July 4th 2007

Cool how travelblog has kept the old names..

Asia » Burma » Yangon

rangoon arrival
the ship-cabin quarters weren't worth the fee, but the breakfast was killer..

Back in the land of internet freedom and well displaced from Bangkok for good, I write from a chinese internet connection- Dali, Yunnan province to be sure. I had a bit of a scare the last few days, a friend that accompanied my Burmese travels wrote to say she's tested positive for malaria and sweating away psychedelic dreams, though well taken care of, in a northern Thailand guesthouse... this news arrived w/ particular urgency as I myself had seen her every day for the last month and had been miserably ill for a few days when her news arrived- able to [View Full Entry]