trails

..63.. amish auction

2011-08-31T04:23:00.016+07:00

lanesboro, mn

..62.. bwca

2011-08-31T02:54:00.014+07:00

a rare return
to the past,
exceeding expectations.

home, sweet home.

..61.. honeymoon new zealand

2011-01-04T16:37:00.122+07:00

..60.. honeymoon big sur

2011-01-04T16:15:00.023+07:00

...59... life partners

2010-09-28T14:23:00.003+07:00

a journey begins seven and a half years after it began...

nishant told me once that chris and i were only pretending not to be married. prabhakar once said we were together before we met. and danielle knew from the minute she met chris that he was my partner.

what emerged from the writing of our vows - our own personal definition of marriage - was the importance of our community --> the friends and family that have shaped and continue to shape who we are. we are extremely lucky, happy people.

...58... married!

2010-09-28T12:25:00.003+07:00

i am humbled by the power of love - from chris and from all our friends and family. the wedding weekend was more incredible than i ever imagined it could be, thanks to the hard work, thoughtful touches, and pure love from our favorite people in the world.

...57... israeli wedding trip

2009-06-05T11:45:00.068+07:00

fulfilling a nearly 10yr-old promise, we showed up in israel for a grand tour and an incredible wedding! thanks to the guez family and our dearest ruth for the unparalleled hospitality!

1) girls' roadtrip to the dead sea!

2) bedouin settlement + sunset picnic

(taken by kay)

3) jaffa + dr shakshuka

4) earning our keep

5) jerusalem

(whaling wall)

6) bahai gardens in haifa

7) danielle gets married!

8) brunch at the beach

congratulations mrs barber and mr guez!!

...56...kolkata

2009-01-16T06:10:00.011+07:00

possibly my favorite city in india. delicious bengali sweets, friendly people, pristine (by indian standards) sidewalks for exploring the city on foot - my favorite.

a cow admiring his work, according to dad. check out this cycle: the cow eats the garbage on the streets - essentially waste food & wrappers that people can't digest. the cow pies are shaped into regular sizes and dried. they are then burned for cooking. once they've been burned, the ashes are used as fertilizer in the gardens. badass. still, i'm glad i don't have to shape and dry cow pies.

...55...indian portraits

2009-01-16T06:02:00.018+07:00

...54...bodh gaya

2009-01-16T05:54:00.011+07:00

the city holding the tree under which siddhartha was enlightened draws buddhists from all over the world.

...53...varanasi

2009-01-16T05:50:00.005+07:00

varanasi is an ancient city (said to be the oldest continuously inhabited city - 5,000yrs) with many religious pilgrims. on the banks of the ganges, people come to bath in its sacred waters and burn their dead and sprinkle ashes into the river. there is a minimum of one temple per house in this city.

...52...hindu wedding

2009-01-16T05:46:00.014+07:00

there aren't words to describe this event. high quality all around - people, flowers, food, music.... it simply couldn't have been any better.

...51...agra

2009-01-16T05:35:00.027+07:00

m&d in their ridiculously cute indian attire.

in akbar's palace at fatehpur sikri - akbar promoted harmony between religions and set an example by taking 3 wives - a hindu, a muslim, and a christian.

dad's favorite indian, raja.

...50...xmas in india

2009-01-16T05:33:00.009+07:00

...49...portraits with the bachelor in his final hours

2009-01-16T05:31:00.008+07:00

this was the last we saw of single prabhakar.

...48...kerala

2009-01-16T05:17:00.051+07:00

from the tea plantations to the backwaters to the coast, kerala was breathtakingly beautiful, and the rivest family roadtrip was a blast.

...47...tamil nadu

2009-01-16T05:09:00.016+07:00

kanniyakumari at the very southern tip of india was filled with religious pilrims and beautiful views.
trichy was a crazy bustling city with the loudest horns and busiest streets. catherine and i risked our lives on 2 rickety rental bikes in order to reach some great temples.

auroville is an international community with a golden epcott center to meditate in. catherine and i briefly considered joining this intriguing cult, before heading back to pondicherry for some delicious kesar lassis.

...46...mumbai

2009-01-16T04:23:00.009+07:00

a painfully short weekend in mumbai to visit nish brought me to one of the best birthday parties i've ever been to: a party at an orphanage where the birthday girl's guests helped by handing out party hats, pizza, and cake, not to mention participating in an impressive dance party.

...45...farm

2008-12-07T02:42:00.010+07:00

...44...namibia

2007-08-09T13:32:00.000+07:00

to me, namibia was the most hopeful place we visited. people were friendly, races appeared to mix easily, and infrastructure was great. i insisted upon coming to namibia because the San people (the original people on earth - see Journey of Man) lived and still live here. unfortunately, to get to the ones who are living in their traditional way (small outfits, hunting with bows and arrows, speaking in click languages), we needed a 4-wheel drive car and a gun to fend off lions. this required more planning than we had done, so we'll have to go back.
namibia has some of the craziest and most desolate landscapes i've ever seen.

...43...victoria falls - livingstone, zambia

2007-08-09T13:28:00.000+07:00

in zambia, we visited nish and road tripped to victoria falls. pretty!

...42...south africa

2007-08-09T12:59:00.000+07:00

south africa was a delightful introduction to the african animal kingdom, and a depressing introduction to the ramifications of so many years of apartheid and repression. the beautiful and very affluent city of Cape Town is within easy sight of the shantytowns (read south african: informal settlements). it's easy to understand why people get robbed at knife-point, with such a stark separation of wealth. my time here made me appreciate the incredible freedom we have at home. walking in a well-kept city park, we never have to think not to wear sunglasses (let alone bring a wallet) for fear someone will relieve us of them.

...41...mozambique

2007-08-09T12:46:00.000+07:00

after a brief visit in the uncomfortably dangerous and comically named capital of mozambique, maputo, we took a full-day busride to the beachtown of tofo. we lived in a bungalow, lounged on the beach, and swam with whalesharks for a handful of days. (thanks to Rob Hughes for this badass whaleshark pic)

..40.. republica dominicana

2006-02-22T09:35:00.000+07:00

chris and i took advantage of the long weekend and the cheap jetlbue tix to fly to the dominican republic. our trip was a much-appreciated bit of relaxation mixed with just enough excitement. a whale-watching tour and a beachside horse ride balanced out our hours of reading on the sand and playing in the waves.

..39.. onward

2006-01-29T08:03:00.000+07:00

i guess i'm not exactly *travelling* right now. not physically. but journeys exist in all dimensions, and if one dimension suddenly becomes still, the rest have a way of moving faster for a time.

the end of my southeast asian journey left me temporarily satiated with international exploration. booting up my brain again took only a few days, and it feels great to be fully using it in its analytic capacity once again.

i've started my new job at evergreen solar. it was a whirlwind of adjustments to move to boston and start a job. finding a new apartment, buying my first car, living near my sister and boyfriend, and adjusting to employed life.

i can feel the arrangement of my new life beginning to stabilize, so i'm finally able to step off the carousel and watch for a moment. and i see a very happy existence!

i simply can't say enough good things about my relationships with chris and nikki, the people at work, the nature of the work, old buddies in town, and the homey feel of cambridge.

..38.. phuket

2006-01-28T12:07:00.000+07:00

phuket was picturesque and relaxing, as expected. we didn't see hurricane damage, but we did see a lot of fish on this incredible snorkling trip.

..37.. chiang mai

2006-01-28T08:32:00.000+07:00

our full-day cooking course was hysterical.

..36.. treehouses & ziplines

2005-11-09T12:07:00.000+07:00

unbeatable. certainly the highlight of the trip, the program we just did ( http://www.ecotourismlaos.com/activities/gibbon_trk.htm ) was three days of such adventure! first, we took a 4 hour busride from Huay Xai in Laos, near the border of Thailand, into the Bokeo National Reserve. we switched vehicles then, and the 9 of us partipants plus a handful of workers and tour guides piled, with luggage, into a truckbed and drove through a waist-deep river, and over beautiful steep roads through the jungle. when the road ended, we hiked for an hour or so further up into the jungle. we eventually arrived at a bamboo hut where we were outfitted with Petzl harnesses. climbing up a bit further, we came to the first zipline platform, which zipped about 100 meters across to a treehouse 120 feet off the jungle floor! it was such a rush to be careening through the jungle like that, and then crashing gently into the treehouse landing platform! i'm several years away from being ready to have kids, but i'll be ready anytime for a good excuse to build treehouses!!!! that day we explored the network 12 ziplines and 4 treehouses. the tiny local villages get paid to help build and maintain this network, and to prevent poachers from coming into the nature reserve.

as the sun went down, we were fed a tasty dinner of unidentifiable jungle vegetables and buffalo meat. then nish and i sat around egging each other on about how we were gonna go night zipping. and before we knew it, we were donning our harnesses, neither of us willing to admit our bluff. amy joined us, and the three of us zipped away through the night, flying up to 400 meters at a 5 percent pitch, crossing our fingers that our headlamps would illuminate the landing platform in time for us to brake. this must be the best thrill i've had in my life - when i got to the landing platforms, i was laughing so hard i couldn't stand up. so the three of us explored the night jungle in hysterics, and could hardly fall asleep at the end, we had so much adrenaline pulsing through our veins.

the next day we hiked to a waterfall for a few hours, tearing off leeches that grabbed on in unfair places. after a picnic lunch, we headed back, and the guides decided to take us the creative way. we found ourselves bushwhacking through a creek lush with spikey plants and fallen trees. after an hour of that, we headed straight up a mud cliff, praying that our bamboo walking sticks wouldn't snap at the wrong time and let us slide back down to the bottom. this was easily the most hard-core trek i've done, and straight through the lao jungle no less! the cheerful group we were lucky enough to have made the whole experience at once a comedy and an adventure.

day three found us up early, getting in our last zips before we had to hike back to the truck. this was such an amazing adventure, and leaving was sad. i would love to go back and volunteer for them, building treehouses and making trails through the jungle. though they only started a year ago, this program is so well run. at the end of the program, we headed across the border, back into thailand. even after a full 3 weeks in northern laos, it was very sad to leave. and definitely the place i'll come back to first.

..35.. muong ngoi

2005-11-02T12:46:00.000+07:00

as a 3-day trip out of luang prabang, we took a 4-hr busride to Nong Khiaw, a very small town north of luang prabang, sitting on the Nam Ou river. from there, we took a 3-hr boatride upstream to reach a village called Muang Ngoi, which is only accessible by longboat, which is essentially a motorized canoe. the river is too small to take even a small speedboat up (if there were speedboats in laos, which there definitely are not!), and it is completely inaccessible by road. there aren't even bicycles in the village - just dirt paths! it's amazing how isolated laos is from the rest of the world. much moreso than any other place i've been. we stayed at riverside bungalows and got electricity from 6-9pm - luxury! paths from muang ngoi took us walking for hours, leading to other villages along smaller tributaries of the nam ou. the kids in the villages didn't even notice us coming through, they were so intent on their games - how fulfilling to watch joyful kids play. for the most part, the people all seemed healthy and happy, though surely at the subsistence level. it's hard to find a fair balance between having curiousity about them and their way of life, and staring at them like we're in a zoo - is it bad that i take pictures of them? of course i ask permission, but it still feels weird. there are albino-looking water buffalo here that look so unlikely to be anything but cartoons! they are huge and goofy and thick, just like a regular water buffalo (mix a pig & cow & hippo), but they have pink skin and very light translucent hair. seeing one forces your sense of humor to surface.

on the busride from nong khiaw to luang prabang, passed over a bridge and looked down in the wide shallow stream it breached to see it speckled with silhouettes of women washing laundry against the brilliant shimmer of sunlight dancing on the surface. the pang of realization that my camera was buried was instantaneously overpowered by awe and elation at having seen such a glorious moment in time.

..34.. luang prabang

2005-10-29T20:57:00.000+07:00

luang prabang, ancient capital city of many kingdoms, glows with comfortable laotians and nice french colonial architecture. it's an easy city to be a tourist in, and we've used it as our home base for the last week, from which to take excursions. the food here is so good we can hardly stop ourselves from eating constantly - big leaves wrapped around tasty eggplant mix, springrolls with perfect peanut sauce, and coconut pudding everywhere! this city is known for having many temples, and it's fun just to walk or bike around and look at them all - hilltop temples, forest meditation temples, and urban temples. it's hardly possible to walk for one minute without seeing a monk in his bright orange getup.

we went to a waterfall today that ran right through a forest - trees in the middle and everything! i've never seen anything like it before - so beautiful and strange!

..33.. vang vieng

2005-10-28T11:36:00.000+07:00

after a surprisingly nice 24 busride from hanoi to vientiane, we boarded another bus to vang vieng, 6 hours north. we took a truck to the much-awaited organic farm, where we were planning to volunteer in exchange for room and board. well, it turned out that program no longer existed, which was pretty disappointing. but just as we were being told that, a thai family we had met on the busride to vang vieng showed up. they invited us to tour around with them & the tour guide they had hired. with ample time and nothing better to do, we accepted, curious to experience a day in the life of a thai family on vacation. the day was great. we drove around the countryside, occassionally stopping for photos and excursions. we went to a buddhist temple where they were about to feed and worship the village monk. monks eat 2 meals a day, both before noon, and they're not allowed to eat after that (yikes!). we sat with the villagers, listening to the thai dad translate things for us (thai and lao languages are similar enough that they can communicate, and the dad had great english). after the monk was done eating, the food was brought out to us to sample. it was sticky rice in bamboo baskets and various dishes of things to dip the sticky rice in. you'd grab a handful of rice, roll it into a hard ball, and use it to grab something out of one of the dishes. the food was only borderline edible, but the experience of eating with all the locals was fantastic. after eating, we were guided to the monk, who said a blessing and tied an orange bracelet on each of us. we continued on to another village, and a cave, and the dad explained things to us the whole way. the wife and daughter were shy about their english, but sat pleasantly with us in the truck and smiled all day. in the cave, the guide hit a stalactite with his fist and it rang out like a bell! the dad spoke with mixed jealousy and distaste for the simple lifestyle of the lao. while he clearly appreciated the luxuries of his affuent thai lifestyle, he envied the time the lao had to devote to religion and peace. he proudly announced that he was the only person at work who had no cel phone. the dad was grateful to have his daughter practice her english, and we were grateful to have the best tour guide we could have asked for. at the end of the day, we exchanged emails and invited each other to visit our homes. we're so lucky. and it pays to be nice to strangers!

the lao people are so sweet. they don't heckle you to buy their products (apparently making any big efforts is frowned upon in lao culture), they just smile and say hi. today amy and i were riding our bikes up a steep bill and lao kids walking along the road grabbed the backs of our bikes and started running, pushing us up the hill. i'm glad we've decided to spend a lot of time in laos. the people are calming.

the one bad thing about vang vieng: if you're not adventuresome enough to bike away from the main strip, you are bombarded by TV restaurants, where people sit for hours on end watching 'friends'. yuck.

i sit in a stilted hut over the river, barefoot and reclined on a cushion, listening to the water dance over the stones. the karst limestone cliffs loom over the river, remeniscent of a time with more powerful waters. my body sings with happiness as endorphins (derived from a morning run) pulse through my blood. calm permeates me & yet i stay alert. from my perch, i'm entertained by each shade of green outside demanding attention. a dozen tiny boys run chattering down the riverbank - bathtime! completely unselfconscious, they strip down to their underpants barely fast enough to keep their clothes from getting we as they scamper into the fresh water now turned white from their splashes. they appear to think of nothing more than the coolness of the water, chasing, catching, laughing. their games crescendo as the sun droops in the sky, threatening the inveitable return to responsibility and good behavior.

everything is beautiful and pleasant at this last fleeting moment of the day. everything the light touches casually reminds me that the world is great. life is summertime. even as the light fades, the world is vibrant in an unpresuming way, like a great jazz song.

roosters crow. light is dim. i move carefully, silently to keep the morning to myself. dreams waft in and out of my head. a change of scenery is impending, and i relax in preparation for absorption. attempts to suppress two sneezes fail. i skulk to the bathroom for audial insulation. movement on the other side of the door delivers my message: one must savor these precarious moments of pre-dawn solitude.

..32.. mount fansipan

2005-10-18T18:14:00.000+07:00

this morning we woke up at 5:30 in preparation for climbing mount fansipan. our tour operator then informed us that we'd depart a little late, and just less than 2 hours later, we departed for the base of the mountain. well, the service isn't great here, but the kind guides and the scenery made up for it.
we hiked a few hours up to the base camp and ate lunch. then we set ut for the top of the mountain on what was easily the most rugged trail i've ever seen. to say the trail was steep was to say i'm fond of chris. the trail was an infinitely long V1 climb, except we were wearing tennis shoes and carrying backpacks. oh, and it was muddy. we used our whole bodies to climb up the side of the mountain, averting our eyes as we climbed along dropoff ridges lined with thick mist - we really may have been at the end of the earth! we'd pull ourselves up using good rock holds or tree roots. luckily the whole group (amy, me, israeli guy, guide, 2 cooks) agreed on a fair pace, and we ascended quickly. halfway up, we were told that it wasn't physically possible to do this hike unless you started at 5:30am. grrr. so we had to turn back to ensure we didn't get stuck on this trail after dark. the descent was equally gruelling, especially after our fatigue with the past 6 hours of climbing straight up! finally, the puppy at the basecamp was on the trail greeting us at last, and we got to sit down and stretch and watch while our fabulous guides chopped up vegetables to prepare dinner. it felt great to be outdoors and active.

last nght we slept in a wooden platform inside 2 thin sleeping bags which barely kept us warm in the high mountain climate. after an enormous dinner, we crawled into our sleeping bags and amy and i layed around chatting until we fell asleep. we awoke at 5am, just before sunrise , to the calls of monkeys - a veritable symphony of screetches echoing through the mountains - really magical.

sitting at the campfire after a king's breakfast of pancakes, bananas, and chocolate sauce. the puppy keeps me company and i try, unsucessfully, to forget what i saw last night. an ethnic minority boy lives at this base camp to protect it. and this is his puppy. this 15yr old boy plays gameboy all day and listens to a radio with poor batteries, which slide the tune up and down, making even a good song sund disonant. apparently to entertain us yesterday after our return from the hike, he bezt this poor little dog. in between the kicks and branch-swipes, the dog wimpered and limped away while the boy left and chased after the puppy to beat him more. he thought our loud protests were a joke. i'm afraid to know the terrible things this boy will do in his life if he is capable of beating a helpless cute puppy and laughing about it.

the second day was a wonderful ridgeline walk, followed by a steep descent into a valley where our jeep was waiting to return us to sapa. our bodies ache, and we can't stop smiling. that was a fantastic excursion.

..31.. sapa

2005-10-18T17:15:00.000+07:00

after being absolutely blown away by the most delicious bowl of pho that could possibly exist, we boarded the night train to sapa. our arrival the next morning was greeted by a shroud of mist and the best temperatures we've felt in months! we had breakfast on the deck as we watched the mist burn off slightly and listened to kenny g :) the ethnic minorities that live here (similar to those in longshen, china) wear funky outfits of jacket/skirts with legwarmers, and smile curiously. the atmosphere here is so relaxed i don't know what to do - like when you touch a surface so soft that you're compelled to keep petting it. mount fansipan stands tall over sapa, staring in our bedroom window and calling us to climb it. what it is about human nature that demands to get to the top of anything high?

we went motorbiking today! the bike was hard to drive, with foot shifters, foot brakes, and hand brakes. it took a lot of getting used to, and i can't say i ever got fully comfortable with it, but it was a thrilling way to see the countryside and a fun thing to learn with amy. we saw piglets and puppies everywhere, mixed in together, with the occassional water buffalo. the misty landscape is nothing less than magnificent, so big and all-encompassing, that my photos are bound to turn out wimpy. i'll definitely dream of motorcycling tonight - splashing through 6-in ponds creeping across the road, dodging pigs and kids that aren't paying attention, and keeping the handlebars steady as we barge through off-road conditions on our street bike. what a wild fun day.

..30.. halong bay

2005-10-14T18:11:00.000+07:00

just got back from a great 3-day boat trip in halong bay, 4 hours outside of hanoi. halong bay is filled with karst formations, which are huge blocks of limestone worn away in unlikely shapes by water rushing by them. we sailed around the bay in this nice old wooden boat, looked at some caves inside the karst islands, went kayaking and swimming, had meals on and slept on the boat. next we went to cat ba island and national park, which is the only inhabited island in halong bay. here we did a strenuous hike to the top of a small mountain, followed by a leisurely walk (right on the side of a cliff!) to the beach.

..29.. hanoi

2005-10-11T18:54:00.000+07:00

arrived in hanoi at 6am after a restless night of getting bitten on the bus. we're staying at a sketchy hotel in the Old Quarter, which is absolutely bursting with activity. the already-narrow streets are made into almost impassable mazes of parked motos, baskets of vegetables, & teaparty tables loaded with pig hooves or bright green jelly. the sun has come out, we've gotten our laos visas, and booked a trip to halong bay! we've also indulged ourselves in a bit of roller skating - we couldn't believe how terrible everyone was (including ourselves!) at rollerskating - even the employees were falling down constantly!

..28.. pagoda

2005-10-11T17:48:00.000+07:00

i went to the pagoda in hue. mist and bonsai trees were everywhere, and the campus of the pagoda was vast, allowing for a pleasant galavant through the drizzle.

as the rain came down harder, i took shelter in a doorway to put my rainjacket on over my backpack. a monk emerged from the dark room inside the doorway, holding a small cup of tea, curious about the rustling outside his door. he smiled at me struggling to get into my sticky rainjacket and helped me arrange it. a small girl in a navy blud polka-dot poncho looked shyly at me from around a corner, disappeared, and appeared again. i walked to the far end of the campus and stood centered in front of an incense pot, and felt....centered. all around me was bright green muted by friendly mist, giving an air of secrecy to this place. i wondered whether the pagoda felt like this because of the fervency of the people who built it, or because i knew it to be a religious place & was prepared for inspiration, or simply because it was misty and beautiful. and i felt compelled to leave, my moto driver waiting at the bottom, but longed to stay - to stand in the rain and feel happy, inspired, comfortable, pure. perhaps the fact that i left allows this place to remain magical to me. or perhaps i should have stayed on indefinitely....

..27.. hue

2005-10-10T17:13:00.000+07:00

a beautiful bus ride, misty mountains on the left, sea on the right, brought us from hoi an to hue today. it rained all day for the third day in a row - we're wet & cold! we went to a lively market, grazing our way through the breakfast hours. the rain let up enough for us to hit the market and the post office to send chris a postcard, and then to duck into a cafe before the next downpour - how wonderful that my only job right now is to plan the next adventure! it makes a rainy day so much more exciting to sit in a cafe, reading travel guides and dreaming up what to do tomorrow!

..26.. hoi an

2005-10-07T22:12:00.000+07:00

the rain comes down in sheets, and streams of translucent pastel ponchos float by, blurred by the rain. we navigate unmarked roads pocked with gas stations consisting of a rack of old Fanta bottles refilled with petrol. we just visited the cham ruins at my son, just outside of hoi an. hoi an itself is charming - feels very european - narrow winding streets packed with french colonial architecture holding cafes & tailor shops, all situated on a misty river. it's great to hang out with amy.

through what can only be understood as a mistake, we've been given a free room in a 4-star hotel! we took a night bus here, which somehow provided a full 8 hours of sleep! we just had a good laugh with the hotel employees, ate pomegranite with them, then returned to our room for a dance party. we found incredible corn-meal-type desserts at the market and ate 4 bowls. then we went shopping for clothes & got sundresses made. my butt is so burnt from snorkling that it hurts to sit down, but it's funnier than it is painful.

..25.. nha trang

2005-10-04T22:08:00.000+07:00

a 7-hour bus journey has landed us in affluent nha trang, which is packed with yacht clubs and dive shops. after exploring the city a bit in the evening, then waking up early for a stroll along the ocean boardwalk, we took a boatride out to the nearby islands for some snorkling. i had a hard time relaxing at first - the sea was dense with jellyfish - like a lychee soup! apparently this kind doesn't sting, but it's disconcerting to feel them squish up against face and arms! after i got used to the jellyfish, it was incredible to watch them luminesce - red & blue disappearing ink stripes!

..24.. mui ne

2005-10-03T22:08:00.000+07:00

camped out in a woven bamboo bungalow on the beach in the fishing village of mui ne. rented bikes with no brakes to visit some sand dunes.

bus broke down outside of mui ne. neanderthals on our bus threw large rocks at tree until coconut fell. they then banged coconut on road until open. later fed us coconut on long bus journey & we inwardly apologized for calling them neanderthals. but only a little bit.

..23.. civilization

2005-10-02T23:55:00.000+07:00

as we progress, orchard trees align, mix, and realign themselves with graceful precision. it occurs to me that the most civilized manner of living is doing more than just surviving. we have the luxury of not worrying about survival on a daily basis - we should demonstrate this priviledge admirably.

..22.. mekong river delta

2005-10-02T18:56:00.000+07:00

the mekong river delta is the 'ricebasket' of vietnam - an agriculturally rich area 2 hours outside of saigon. lots of conical hats, a couple ugly dogs, and some beautiful boating. met a lawyer girl from beijing who said she thought the 3 gorges dam was a terrible idea, but that most young chinese people don't care at all about politics - they just want to be successful themselves. it seemed sad, and then i reminded myself that it's no different in america, which made it much more sad. why are young people, who are so strongly affected by political decisions such as the 3 gorges dam or the iraq war, so apathetic?

..21.. conservation

2005-10-01T22:58:00.000+07:00

people in this part of the world are good at conserving.

but not because they care about the environment - want to reduce acid rain or prevent global warming.

they're good at conserving because they can't afford not to.

no unused computer monitor is left on, no extra square of toilet paper squandered. the method of conservation that seems most logical, and yet most foreign, is that of keeping the same hours as the sun. amy and i are approximating this. and it's nice.

..20.. ho chi minh city

2005-10-01T11:04:00.000+07:00

arrived in ho chi minh city (saigon) yesterday, and found a home to stay at, which rents out the 2 upstairs bedrooms. it's crazy to walk into a tiny alley, past families having dinner in their homes, into a vietnamese home (where the kids are watching simpsons!?!), and go up to my room. this is a good place.

explored the city today. seas of motorcycles flow in unlikely directions, easily navigating around the occasional bus, random-walk pedestrians, or mid-road food stands. with all the transit chaos, one might expect to see accidents constantly, but that's not the case: everyone is fully aware of their surroundings - people are actually paying attention instead of blindly following rules! because almost all people in transit are aboard motos rather than cars, there's a certain intimacy with the strangers of the city in a similar, but faster-paced, manner to a crowded subway. we took a 30-minute ride out to Dam Sen amusement park, which was filled wth families and dates. our driver was a fun lady about our age, and we sat 3 on the moto. we contrasted the park with a visit to the War Remnants Museum (vietnam war). it was hard to look at all the combat and aftermath pictures and to realize how far off-base we had gotten. there were photos of terrified, huddling families, with a caption from the photographer reading "I asked the GIs to wait, took a picture of these people, and heard them shot as I walked away" I'm reading 'Understanding Vietnam' (Neil Jamieson) to get a better idea of how things got this bad.

..19.. pnom phen

2005-09-29T11:45:00.000+07:00

the capitol city of cambodia is bustling with motorcycles and funny bikes with cushy passenger seats in front. food and foul smells are everywhere, and it's possible to get a great bowl of hearty soup for about 12.5 cents! the dessert stands consist of different kinds of rice and beans and sweet potatoes and gelatin things. you point to the bowls which contain your desired ingredients. then they mix it with ice and sweet milk, and it's pretty much the best thing ever. between the two of us today, amy and i consumed 6 bowls...hmmmm, guess we should shoot for more entrees :)

..18.. battambang

2005-09-28T21:34:00.000+07:00

today we woke up at 5:30 to catch the boat from siem reap to battambang, the second biggest city in cambodia. the boat took us through expansive monsoon-season wetlands, first with stilted houses, then, as the water got deeper with entire floating villages. children were everywhere, unclothed and waving furiously at us. there were no touristy shops or restaurants at all, and our boat was filled with mostly cambodians - such a nice change from the Disneyland at Ankor Wat! floating huts - again, the best kid's fort ever, though questionable shelter from monsoons - housed smiling families, lounging in hammocks or fishing out their windows. we navigated this forest canopy (the tree were tens of feet underwater, just peeking out since it's the wet season) dodging treetops and lillypads alike. most of the people we have seen have been children -half of the population is under the age of 15 because of the recent civil war and brutality of the Khmer Rouge.

battambang has no tourist attractions, so few tourists visit, which keeps prices low and salespeople calm. there's a fantastic food market kitty-corner from our hotel, and i think we've given all their desserts a try :) food is such an important highlight of travel for me -i don't understand how tourists could be tempted by McDonald's or Pizza Hut. tomorrow morning, tai chi on the riverbank, breakfast in the market, and a bus ride to Pnom Phen, cambodia's capitol.

..17.. angkor wat

2005-09-25T11:59:00.000+07:00

the most arduous journey of my life so far began yesterday morning at 5am. we boarded a bus in bankok to head to siem reap, near the famous ankor wat in cambodia. one rest stop had a starfruit tree and amy and i climbed it and grabbed some fruit - yum! arriving at the cambodian border around noon, we stood in a very long line while hungry children (whose families lived on blankets on the bank of a river of trash near the border) begged for food and money. we then proceeded to get ripped off for a cambodian visa, and then ripped off at the bank when we exchanged money - it's a crazy experience to be in a place where the government officials are so openly corrupt. we then boarded a bus with approximately wooden seats and started on the journey to ankor wat. we had been warned that roads were bad, but there simply aren't words for the joke of a road we journeyed on for nearly 10 hours. there's no way we averaged more than 3 miles per hour, and even as the bus slowly picked its way along the washed-out roads, it bucked us all from our seats continuously. the shock absorber that was my spine sitting on a hard seat has seen better days :) many buses were stuck in the mud or broken down - we were lucky to get through unscathed. the land along the way was beautiful - seas of perfectly flat, refreshing green rice paddies reached in every direction, contrasted by the red mud road. there were occasional stilted straw huts along the road, which looked like a kid's dream tree-house - very basic. it was quite a contrast upon entering the siem reap area, where the rice paddies and straw huts immediately turned to luxurious hotels and manicured gardens - was there another border crossing i missed?

ankor wat itself is incredible - like a cultural yosemite, you can bike around the main road and see some great sights. by parking the bike and venturing into some of these 11th century temples, you can explore the filmsites of Two Brothers and Tomb Raider :)

..16.. bankok

2005-09-23T17:01:00.000+07:00

amy arrives in bankok! the past few days have been dedicated to getting visas, booking busrides, and otherwise planning the next couple months! tomorrow we head to cambodia for a gander at this 'ankor wat' everyone raves about. it's been great to spend time with amy. today we went to the floating market an hour outside of bankok. am trying to convince chris to test his product-design class project (agricultural tool) in laos with me :)

..15.. beijing

2005-09-20T20:20:00.000+07:00

..14.. resources

2005-09-19T17:03:00.000+07:00

reading The Prize (Daniel Yergin) makes me see the incredible importance of resources - and that oil is our ultimate resource for the time being. resource wars would have started amongst cavement over food. then amongst tribes for the land on which that food lived. then came tools and weapons, then currency. but now oil is at the top of the resource chain - we require it to make or transport every product we buy. we require it for national security. will there be another step up from oil - another ultimate resource?

(nearly) every conflict is over resources, even if not blatantly acknowledged. we cannot stop our need for basic resources - safe food and water, shelter, basic health care. we can reduce conflict over resources by taking a more honest look at what our needs are, and simplifying our lifestyles. less demand for resources means less cause for conflict.

..13..the great wall

2005-09-19T05:17:00.000+07:00

went on an incredible dayhike along the great wall, ending in a zipline to the bottom!

mom is such a great travel partner - and such a tough little lady! i'm sad she won't keep travelling with me.

..12.. mao tse-tung

2005-09-17T16:41:00.001+07:00

many chinese people seem to have great respect for this communist leader whose regime scared its people into submission and outward support.

a frank tour guide said the government makes empty promises and effectively supresses any dissent using fear. in 1989 a group of pro-democratic student protesters in tian'anman square were mowed down with military vehicles and firearms - thousands were killed, but the news didn't make it to china. while the rest of the world knows about this tragedy, the communist government (which controls the media) prevented its own country from hearing about it.

markets sell anything you can imagine - bags, statues, alarm clocks - with Mao insignia - ironic that the antithesis of capitalism seems to be a successful product!

..11.. xi'an

2005-09-15T15:30:00.001+07:00

mom's birthday!
a bike ride around this cute town's walls got our stay off to a nice start. the next day, we headed to the burial site of the Terracotta Warriors (said to be the 8th wonder of the world), buried for a crazy emporer who had killed both of his brothers by age 14 to assure his ascendency to the throne. he immediately started planning for his death: for the next 37 years, he commissioned an entire porcelain army of statues with real weapons, standing in war formation. he actually wanted to bury the living army to protect him, but the people wouldn't stand for this. there was a sword that was still sharp enough to cut cleanly through 20 sheets of paper - it was a bronze sword coated with chromium - a process not developed until the mid 1900s, but apparently known to these people of 300-200 bc. this was a truly amazing place that made me want to take an intensive archaelogy course.

..10.. progress

2005-09-15T15:14:00.000+07:00

a gentle breeze swirls stray hairs out of my pony tail. sitting on the top deck, away from the bar & the gossiping, is refreshing. china is unimaginably beautiful. it's sad to see it growing so quickly, to see their incredible natural resources turned into tools for more quickly accumulating fancy cars and tiny cell phones. it feels selfish to wish for china to remain 'undeveloped', as 'development' has been taught to be a social good. and i'm not worldly enough to know what an 'undeveloped' lifestyle entails, or at least not in its entirety. but could it be that development trades one set of (quite tangible) problems for another set of more elusive ones? surely, people who are starving and diseased cannot be as happy as someone as comfortable as i am. but what about a successful farmer? is there not a way to live simply, perhaps 'underdeveloped', but happily? what makes progress a good thing? no, that's the wrong question. what is good about societally-defined progress? why can there not be a pervasive desire for spiritual and intellectual progress? are these types of progress too intangible to yearn for? does the human mind need an icon of progress, such as the dollar bill or the louis vuitton pattern, to simplify enough for quick processing?

..9.. three gorges dam

2005-09-15T14:49:00.000+07:00

the three gorges dam is the world's biggest hydropower project, producing 18.2 GW, which is a hell of a lot. still, only 5% of China's energy demand by the time it's finished in 2009 (still much construction). the project has been quite controversial - environmentalists complain that it will ruin the water quality and emit tons of greenhouse gases as flooded areas decay. they also say it will endanger protected species, such as the Yangtze dolphin and the Chinese sturgeon. human rights activists argue that displacing a whopping 1.3 million people is a crime. (these people's homes have been underwater since the dam started being built, so must be relocated) the communist government seems to have an affinity for dominating nature, and this truly incredible engineering feat does indeed appear to dominate nature, steadying the rapidly-changing water level and making the river more navigable for ships between Shanghai and Chongqing (which is the world's second most populous city with 32 million people!). i think i've asked everyone who could speak more than 2 words of english what they thought about the dam. most say that it's great, and whatever the government says is true, and they're being taken care of completely. some admit that the older people are upset at having their houses destroyed by the permanently risen water level. they say young people see it as an opportunity to get out of a difficult farming lifestyle. (people who are relocated receive the equivalent of about $1,250 in compensation) one man was quite frank with me, telling me this dam had ruined the water quality in his city and people were angry about it. the government makes empty promises. and he can't protest because he needs a permit for that, which of course the government won't grant. it's very interesting to see the way people grapple with a communist government.

..8.. yangtze river

2005-09-14T11:09:00.000+07:00

the cruise has turned out to be more fun than i imagined it would be. a relaxing 4-day journey brought us to some cute touristy spots.

1 - Pagoda built leaning against a cliff, to grant easier access to a high temple.
2 - Minority fishing village with men who row or pull boats upstream with ropes, depending on water depth
3 - Three gorges dam

The last picture in this series shows a small white square on the hill. As we sailed along, we saw many of these - 175 meter marks, which is where the water level will be by 2009. Sad to see the huts that fall below that mark.

..7.. yangshuo

2005-09-14T11:00:00.000+07:00

a day in yanshuo found us taking tai chi, kung foo, and chinese language classes. and the food here is so delicious!

we took a walk through the live food market, which sold turtles, snakes, frogs.....and dogs. these dogs looked much too cute to be eaten!

..6.. tree-hugging in poverty

2005-09-09T12:01:00.000+07:00

at the start of a long walk, one can step lightly,
gently navigating paths with boulders and fallen trees.
as the altitude rises and the walk becomes increasingly grueling,
footsteps are placed less carefully,
mud collects on the insides of the ankles,
and boot toes occasionally catch tree roots.
how can a people struggling to feed themselves tread gently through the world?
or a new york businessman striving to fulfill societal ideas?
is the answer to lower our progressive ambitions and exist simply,
or is the answer a fatal self-consummation?

..5.. Longshen

2005-09-07T15:58:00.000+07:00

Longshen is a beautifully terraced fairy-tale land, with women growing hair to their feet, and a safe, small-town feel. When we arrived, tiny thin women carried most of our group's bags up the mountain - they're so tough! In the afternoon, I hiked to the tops of peaks for good views, passing by tons of chiles drying in the sun. At night, the women sang and danced for us, while feeding us rice wine and teaching us about their culture.

..4.. hong kong

2005-09-05T15:31:00.000+07:00

after quick stops in boston and san francisco, i have arrived in hong kong. this place cannot be captured in a photo, but here's a cute one of mom and another of some turtles in the pet market.

hong kong is an incredible mix of wealthy urban establishments and rustic bartering stands. in the alley behind the armani store, knockoff prada bags are sold en mass for about a dollar.

my friend fong, who i met during my year at cambridge, lives in hong kong and showed us the sites - great fun!

..3.. road tripping across america (and getting a job)

2005-08-27T22:26:00.000+07:00

i've arrived in minnesota after 10 days of driving. chris and i stopped in santa barbara, jackson hole, grand teton, yellowstone, devil's tower, badlands, the minnesota state fair, and are now at my parents' farm.

the road trip has been so much fun. we're listening to great books on tape, seeing beautiful and hilarious scenes, and enjoying our time together before i'm whisked away to another continent!

most beautiful scene: devil's tower in wyoming

most hilarious scene: badass goth man at state fair with miniature horse (dog-sized) on leash

all this time, i've been juggling phone calls from the solar companies i've interviewed with, trying to finalize an agreement.

and...

i will begin working at Evergreen Solar in Boston in early december! i'm excited about the people i'll be working with, and that i can help out in the solar industry. i'm also nervous about what it will be like to have finite vacation time and to have to get up early all the time :) i'm sad to leave cali, but i will be back! and i can't wait to hang out with my east coast friends.

one final note: you absolutely must read or listen to Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins. really thought-provoking and important. discusses the corporatocracy of america and how business and governments and banks work together to bankrupt and essentially enslave developing countries.

..2.. road trip pics

2005-08-27T22:02:00.000+07:00

..1.. welcome to my blog

2005-08-24T11:10:00.000+07:00

as a friend of mine recently pointed out, i have just departed from the tracks i have been on my whole life, and am free to go in any direction i like. considering i will have many adventures in the coming months (moving away from berkeley, road tripping across america, traveling southeast asia, and moving to boston for my first job), i figured i'd spare my buddies from mass emails, and let them check up on me when they felt like it - sans spam.