We’re in month 4 of our 11 month World Race, can you believe it?! That by no means indicates that we’ve only stayed 4 places. Although we thought we’d be in one place for an entire month, that’s not how it’s turned out to be at all. We stayed 4 different places in China alone (and that’s not including Tibet)!
I want to invite you in to what our sleeping experience has been like so far. These have been the places we’ve called “home” the past 4 months. The expedition teams are known to be a little more “bourgie” than traditional teams because we don’t typically have hosts so we are responsible for finding our own housing, which a lot of the time looks like hostels and airbnbs. The only places we slept that I don’t have pictures are in Pokhara, Nepal (I just forgot to take a picture) and on the overnight buses we took (didn’t even think about it…but those were definitely our worst nights of sleep, maybe in all of ever…I highly do not recommend). Oh, if you could only see the roads we were driving on…think of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, but with an added bonus of rain and roads only wide enough for one way traffic…anyways, lets begin, shall we…
Shanghai, China
This was John and I’s first time staying in a hostel! We had a roommate that we didn’t know, but this was also our first place staying together as Seal Team 6!
Shanghai to Wuhan, China
This was John and I’s first sleeper train! We had the top bunks of a 3-tier cabin. Let me tell you, trying to maneuver in a sleeper train with our big packs is quite the challenge, especially when you decide to climb into your bunk with it still on…(let’s just say that wasn’t my best choice)
Wuhan, China
We had a 3 bedroom apartment and we got our own room! We stayed here for about 3 weeks. The beds were just box springs so we put our sleeping pads and sleeping bags under the sheets for extra padding.
Xi’an, China
This room is underground, so it was pitch black in the middle of the day if the lights were off. The pregnant hostel cat climbed through our window in the middle of the night and terrified me, I had to wake up John to get it out of the room! We made sure to add our own addition to the art on the walls sharing the love of Jesus 🙂 #graffitiforJesus
Xining, China
This was definitely the strangest shaped room we stayed in. It was T shaped and we were squeezed into the top of the “T” as you can see behind John modeling his scarf for the cold weather we encountered there! Xining is at about 7,000 ft elevation which was just the beginning of the climb to Tibet.
Xining to Lhasa, Tibet
Another sleeper train! This train was 22 hours and it was so nice to have the bottom bunks to sit and look out the window! We gained about 5,000 ft in elevation during this train ride, so there was lots of ear popping.
Lhasa, Tibet
Our first hotel on the Race! All the lodging during our tour of Tibet was booked for us, so we got to stay in some pretty nice places!
Shigaste, Tibet
Hotel #2 in Tibet. Pretty fancy, but we only stayed one night. I think we were there for a total of maybe 12 hours.
Old Tingri, Tibet
This was definitely the most interesting “hotel” we stayed at. We pushed the beds together to form a big one so we could cuddle in our cement room with no sort of seal on the door or window…it was probably 30s that night! We woke up early to see the sunrise over Mt. Everest. It. Was. Awesome.
Gyirong, Tibet
This was definitely the biggest room John and I stayed in. It would have been perfect for a dance party, but again, we were only there one night before crossing the border into Nepal.
Kathmandu, Nepal
This is the hostel we stayed at for our debrief and training with the entire squad. We shared a room with people from the other teams which was super fun!
We got the chance to stay at the airbnb where our training was held and have our own room for a night!
After training we took a married weekend and got a private room at the same hostel after the rest of the squad had left.
This was in our first host’s home (the Grace family, if you remember them from our previous blogs)! Girls were in one room, the guys were in another. The floor was surprisingly comfortable.
Gorkha, Nepal
Our first time using our tent (the one in the back) on the Race! (Definitely won’t be the last) It POURED rain every night, so thank goodness for rain covers!
Varanasi, India
This was our longest time in one place! John and I had our own room which was a huge blessing. What wasn’t a huge blessing was the mosquito wars we got into every night…they were no joke.
Varanasi Train Station, India
This was an unexpected sleeping spot for us. Our train was supposed to leave at 6pm, but was delayed until 6am…We were on our way out of the country and didn’t have any way to contact anyone to come pick us up. Lots of interesting things happened that night…
Varanasi to Agra, India
We were super nervous about this train because we’d heard only terrible things about trains in India, but we were pleasantly surprised by the international sleeper car! It wasn’t as nice as in China (no food service, well unless you count random guys hopping on at train stops with their box of samosas…). But praise the Lord for no smells that India is so famous for!
Agra, India
Our hostel was less than a mile from the Taj Mahal, and you could see it from the rooftop!
New Delhi, India
John and I took another married weekend and got our own room at a hostel that the girls team was staying in. This place had free breakfast which was awesome!
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
All the girls on the squad stayed here for the first few days in Ethiopia for a women’s retreat. It felt like camp, it was super fun.
This is where John and the boys team stayed and where I stayed a few nights with him.
We called this place the Mariposa Mansion. My new team is the Mariposas and the house we stayed in was HUGE and at the top of a hill, which ended up being super inconvenient for transportation. We planned to stay the whole month, but due to the water being out for a week (yeah, no showers, and no flushing the toilet…) among other things, we decided to move and were extremely blessed with the place we’re in now!
Our current guesthouse! The third floor is a HUGE room that all of us girls are sleeping in with a balcony where we can see the amazing sunrises!
Thanks for coming along this journey with us. It’s been quite a wild ride so far! I can’t wait to see the next places we’ll be staying as we venture into the Middle East. Thank you for all of your support and prayers, we love you!
Victoria 🙂
