in memory of... - Briar Cliff University

With just a few clothes on her back and stowed away in her backpack, Renae Kremer made it all the way from Beijing to Kazakhstan in five weeks
hiking through the mountains (1); meeting new friends (2); and getting an up close view of the mountainous villages of Tibet (3).
BCU student spends summer
backpacking through Asia
When Renae Kremer returned for classes, she wasn’t alone in
sharing her summer experiences with friends and classmates.
But instead of recounting stories of a family reunion or a vacation
to the lakes, Kremer talked about seeing pandas in
Chengdu, walking the market of Kashgar, and eating yak burgers
and drinking yak butter tea in Tibet as she backpacked
through Asia for five weeks.
“It was an incredible experience,” said Kremer, a sophomore
nursing major from Worthington, Minn. “There really
wasn’t just one thing that stood out.”
Kremer’s trip began in Beijing, China, where she met her friend
Kuba, from Toronto, Canada, who had backpacked through
Europe the previous summer. When he asked Kremer to join
him in Asia, Kremer didn’t hesitate. So, with two pairs of shoes,
a pair of shorts, a pair of jeans, two tank tops, three T-shirts and
some socks, the five-week excursion began with three days in
Beijing. After that, it was a matter of “just keep going.”
Stops in China included the cities of Pingyao and Xi’an before
going to Chengdu to see the pandas because, she joked, “that’s
what you do there.” Kremer and Kuba eventually landed in
the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, where they visited Potala Palace
and Lake Namtso, the highest lake in the world. They also
saw monks of the Sera Monastery debating scripture, one of
Kremer’s favorite moments of the trip.
“(Lhasa) is so high up in the mountains, and the sky is so blue.
It’s just an amazing part of the world,” recalled Kremer, whose
sister, Lisa, is a freshman at Briar Cliff.
Kremer described the people she met as amazing. From China
to Kazakhstan, Kremer noted how people were “curious but
friendly,” especially near Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan.
While hiking without camping gear and expecting to find a
yurt camp - the rustic version of KOA - the lingering darkness
and the night chill started setting in as Kremer and Kuba grew
weary for shelter. Fortunately, they came upon a camp fire
with people - a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses - who were happy
to lend tents and food to the travelers. “They pretty much
saved our lives,” she admitted.
Getting around cities was easy as Kremer and her friend rented
bicycles, but traveling the terrain of mountainous countries
like Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan was done by hitchhiking and
by taxi, where it wasn’t uncommon to share rides with local
women, children and even sheep.
“We waved down a bus,” she recalled, “and negotiated a price,
which is what you do when you want a ride. The driver took
us back by this compartment, opened it up and inside next to
the luggage was a sheep. It just looked at us, ‘baaed;’ and the
driver shut the door. I couldn’t help but laugh.”
While most people would be relieved and exhausted after such
a long journey, Kremer wanted to continue backpacking
through Russia, but that’s for another adventure, which might
be sooner rather than later.
“I was never homesick,” she explained. “Having been to college
for a year at Briar Cliff helped, and I was more mature and
prepared for a trip like this.”
The Briar Cliff University Magazine
5