Monday, February 27, 2012

Miah Jones


After skating this flatbar in front of Bozeman High School, Miah, Dallas, and myself decided to skate through the smooth hallways. We carved past lockers on the perfect floor, then stopped at the top of a set of stairs to hear the janitor yelling at us. I didn't think much of it, but Miah and Dallas took off. I followed them out the door and into the parking lot, down the street, finally stopping in an alleyway near Dallas' house. We laughed about what just happened. Miah was worried that he may get a call into the Principals office.


Thursday, February 23, 2012

Qingdao

The city of Qingdao is located on the coast, across from South Korea. I didn't know where to go after Beijing, then I had heard from fellow travelers about Qingdao, home of the Tsingtao beer brewery. The city was a unique mix of modern skyscrapers and old German architecture. It also seemed to attract a large number of Chinese tourists.


There was a lot of construction going on. The city was installing a subway, as well as many new skyscrapers.


Tourists were everywhere


In the background you can see the famous Pagoda that graces the Tsingtao beer logo.


Found this guy near the train station


I took a tour through the large brewery. As I exited, I found myself on "beer street", with bars and restaurants lining the busy sidewalks.


After the tour, I witnessed a man and woman arguing at the table next to mine. The guy slapper her on the back of the head, and she smashed two beer bottles on the ground at his (and my) feet. He stormed off, and two employees swept up the glass. Anyway, directly after that, I stumbled up the street (free samples during the brewery tour) and found these nice folks.



Monday, February 6, 2012

Beijing

I have finally begun editing my photographs from China. All of these were taken in Beijing in August 2011.
I spent the first few nights exploring the neighborhood around my hostel, which was located in the Hutong District.

A Hutong market

Always busy. Always smoggy.



This dragon guarded the Forbidden City

A street dog. He kind of resembles the dragon above.

I spent a day wandering around the beautiful Summer Palace




Sunday, January 15, 2012

Logan Triplett


Logan Triplett, tre flip. We have been filming as much as possible for Nash Addick's video, Say Sumptin!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Journey back to Ulaanbaatar

After a few days by the lake, I headed back to the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. I packed up my tent and hiked back toward the town at the souther tip of the lake. On the way I hitched a ride from a wealthy Mongolian family who spoke English. They took me to a Ger (Yurt) and fed me. The family consisted of two sisters, one of which had lived in New York City. Her son was into American rap music, and he asked me about smoking weed. They dropped me off in Khatgal, where I walked through town in the rain until I met these people...

I paid about 20 bucks for a ride to Moron. The group was from Ulaanbaatar, and all worked at a TV station there. They kept handing me beer and making frequent piss stops. We arrived in Moron, and they helped me find a hotel, which was a lengthy process.

The next day I got on a bus bound for Ulaanbaater. The trip started off nicely enough.


Around 4:30 in the morning, I awoke in my seat. The bus had stopped on the road, and it was raining. It pulled off the road, behind a similar bus. The driver shouted something and everyone got up and exited the bus, and I followed suit, not sure what was going on. We stood in the mud and watched our bus quickly pull forward, only to immediately become stuck in the deep mud. We hopped across small streams to seek shelter in our now stuck bus. The reason we pulled off the road was due to a bridge that had recently collapsed. We found large flat chunks of asphalt to place under the bus's wheel.


At one point I counted eight vehicles in a similar situation.


While gathering rocks to place under the wheels, I heard screaming. I assumed it was people yelling to warn another vehicle about crossing the mud. I looked over just in time to see this truck flip over into the gap where the bridge once stood. I stood there in shock at what I had just seen, while people ran toward the downed vehicle. Two people were pulled from the truck, a man and woman, and brought into our bus. She was bleeding from her face, while her husband was shivering and wailing uncontrollably. I had an emergency blanked with me which I gave to them. Most people around seemed unfazed by the injured people and continued to gather pieces of road to place under the wheel. After a half hour, the two people were put on a truck and taken to a hospital. We were able to get our bus unstuck, and around 8:30 we were back on the road. It was one of the strangest and surreal morning of my life. An hour or two later we stopped at a roadside stop for some food, and an English speaking Mongolian kid told me that there had been a third person in the truck who had died, a son of the two injured people.