Samjhana Mero Atma: May 2016

In July seven years ago I left the Emirates and went to Sarangkot where I stayed for ten days. I remember hanging Tibetan flags on a new tower and I remember the rain. Then I went to Kathmandu where I got a visa for China and Pakistan. The purpose of this journey was to visit the burial site of the ganji toking Caucasoid shaman in a small town two hours east of Urumqi in Xianjiang Province. I really didn't want to visit this place but in hindsight it was as if I had no choice. From KTM I flew to Delhi and from there took a bus to Ladakh and the capital city of Leh where I stayed for ten days or so. Then I took a punishing 17 hour taxi to Srinagar where I hoped I could find someone who knew a road that would take me to the Karokam Highway in Pakistan and then up into China. Nothing doing. Feeling a bit discouraged and mostly wiped out from the drive I flew to Delhi where I then flew to Phuket via Bangkok and after a few days flew to Hong Kong. From there I flew to Xi'an and then took the train to Urumqi and then a bus to Tulufan, famous for producing most of China's green grapes, for being the second lowest place on earth, and most recently for the burial grounds of the Tocharian people, blue eyed red hair nomads who long ago most likely came from Ireland.

Below are a few images from this crazy ass journey. When it was all finished I returned to the states for seven months before Fettulah Gulun's university in Gazientep Turkey flew me out of the states and off the streets of San Diego.