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"Life's an Adventure" Reader Photo Album
 Friends & Family: On a tandem bicycle, photographer Beda Beeli and his then wife Conny took three years to see 20,000 miles of Asia and beyond.
"We still had another 30 miles to get over the pass to Xiahe in Lanzhou, China, when it started to snow. This photo was taken in the summer of 2002, the eighth month of my then wife Conny [pictured in the back row, center] and my three-year 20,000-mile journey from Singapore to Beijing, as well as New Zealand, Hawaii, and the Americas, riding on a Cannondale tandem. This Tibetan family offered us yak butter tea, potato soup, and homemade pasta while we waited out the storm. We admired the ever-present smell of yaks and sheep, the yak dung-fueled clay oven, and the lightbulb powered by a car battery. Everything in their home was simple, neat, and tidy.
"It occurred to us that the family had likely never before seen Westerners because when Conny took out her contact lenses, they were almost disgusted. Later when the family saw my camera, they gasped. Then all the women went inside to change into their best clothing. We tried to get them to smile for the picture, but it wasn't until the camera exposure clicked that they started laughing."
—Beda Beeli, 35
Accountant and Photographer
South Burlington, Vermont
DIY: China is becoming increasingly accessible to visitors. "The food is great and the travel pretty inexpensive. I found that bicycle was the best way to get around because everyone else is bicycling, too," says Beeli. Xiahe, Labrang in Tibetan, in the Gansu Province of China, serves as home to the Labrang Tibetan Monastary.
Photograph courtesy of Beda Beeli
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