Fleeing the country.

So as most of you who read this already know, I will be leaving the safety of home for between 2 1/2 and 4 months. I will be back in Japan for a little bit, traveling through China and Tibet for a bit, then through South East Asia. I will be traveling alone, for the most part. I will know people in Tokyo, and Hong Kong/Shenzen but I am pretty much by myself after that. I might meet up with Duy in Ho Chi Minh city but it looks like that is becoming a more inconvenient and unrealistic option. The bets are running on to what people will think I will succumb, the most popular bets seem to be bird flu, insurgency, or natural disaster.
I think instead of using this blog, I will be sending updates of my trip through an email newsletter type dealy (I got the idea from Luke, for whom it seemed to be working well). If you send me a letter or email though, I will definitely write back. If you want to be added to the people who are on the list either put your email address in a comment, or email me at bigdyb AT gmail DOT com. (replace the AT with @ and DOT with . of course).
This is mostly going to be a play it by ear trip. I do have a rough itinerary, and I know most of the places I will be stopping by, but the details of how long or when are very hazy.

Tijuana.

I was in San Diego the other day, then I walked across the border into a giant pharmacy. I think people call it Tijuana. Within five minutes of walking the streets of "historic" Tijuana I was offered Crystal Meth, my kind of city. Spray painted donkey's littered the streets. In between pharmacies were junk shops, selling varieties of pancho's with emblems of different sports teams, leather goods, ceramic knock off garbage, and usually also pills. Revolution street was like walking around in a bad trip. Thankfully we could simply weave through the maze of hustlers and pimps off into side streets and into the semi normalcy of the rest of the city. There were still stray dogs, and run down houses everywhere, but the mixed in elective surgeon and dentist store fronts seemed almost respectable in contrast to the seediness of Revolution. We did find an awesome little taqueria run by a really sweet woman and male cook. It was the first restaurant we found were we didn't get the sensation they were ripping us off hard or that was frequented by vomiting frat guys. I had an awesome Asada Torta, and a good cup of Horchata. It was all damn tasty. Other food we ate was some street fish tacos, which Wollin described as "boss," and also some Churros, whcih were wheel pushed out of a playdoh press into a fresh plastic litre bottle of oil. It was good. On our way back to the border we found a store that was underground and had a big sign above it that said "Subway Downtown" in big letters and then in small little letters "the store." Just so you know in case you find yourself inebriated wandering around the border, there is no subway in Tijuana.