So Many Camel Rides

 It's funny, I hadn't thought about my first trip to China in a long time (it was fourteen years ago, and, well, a million things, both good and bad, have happened in my life since then). And then I bumped into my friend Kathy a couple weeks back and she sent me some pictures - and then my friend Kerry sent along some pictures - and suddenly I'm awash in China pictures. That said, the memories are not flowing as torrentially as the pictures are. Back in the day I used to travel with actual physical journals and I wonder if any of them from that trip are still buried in my desk? Despite the adventure of my first trip to China it was also a real low point in my life and maybe I don't want to read them. Still, I might do some digging.

Here's a picture from somewhere in western China, probably along the borders of the Taklamakan Desert. I was thinking that maybe it was the first time I ever rode a camel, but that was 2009 and I had travelled to Jordan for the first time five years earlier and I must have ridden one on my first trip to Petra. Since then I've ridden several camels. I'm sure this particular one enjoyed the ride more than most since I was about fifty pounds lighter in separation/divorce/misery diet mode.

Oddly, one place I never rode a camel was in Oman, the place where I saw the most camels. It seemed like every time Laura and I turned around there were dozens of them ambling about.