Barden Begins

Ecuador Pictures!

2011-01-05T22:06:00.002-05:00

Happy 2011! I have been meaning to write, post anything...from what I had for breakfast to my thoughts on the state of the union. At any rate, Aunt's PhD graduations, Christmas and New Years plans all got the best of my time. Alas, here I am again. Quite certain that my readers have given up on me...so to whomever may find this accidentally while surfing the interweb...happy new year! Merry Christmas! I finally got my pictures from Ecuador and the Galapagos posted...they are just incredible, in my humble opinion. Enjoy and a proper post will be forthcoming in the next few days, promise!!

Ecuador

It's Been a While!

2010-11-30T08:18:00.003-05:00

Hello! I'm not quite sure if anyone will ever actually read this post because I have let so much time elapse since last writing. I did promise to keep this blog going and have been very slack in keeping that promise! At any rate, it is what it is and I have been home now for 30 days + 1. It has been quite an adjustment coming home. For starters, I was contained by customs for several nerve-wracking minutes as I was questioned by two officers as to how I managed to travel for 16 months without a job. My answer, though truthful, was surely less than believable to them because they must have been able to see my chest visibly pounding through my shirt! Also, nothing in the 16 months and countless flights that I took was ever taken out of my bag...that is until I landed in Atlanta, Georgia. What a welcome home...a stolen medicine bag and an interrogation as to why on earth someone could possibly not work for 16 months and actually go out and see the world and live life! ;)

Mom, Callie, Stephanie, James and Ashlee were all at the airport to greet me with neon posters, hugs and smiles. It was great to see so many familiar, loved faces all at once! We high-tailed it to the nearest cheap, hole in the wall Mexican restaurant where we ordered queso blanco and margaritas (at 11 AM!). That welcome, followed shortly by Mexican food, more than made up for the slight unnerving the customs guys put me through in ATL!

The last few weeks have been a blur of activity. First, I unpacked. Much to my pleasant surprise, all of the boxes that I shipped home over the 16 months made it to Mom's house. It was fun opening them to see what all I had decided to discard along the way or that I had picked up en route. In total, I think I bought no less than 30 scarves and an entire chest worth of jewelry....my favorite things to buy when traveling, clearly! I spent several days getting settled back into living in the bedroom of my childhood. It was like Christmas going through all of my clothes and shoes...so many things that I had forgotten I even had!! Looking at all that stuff, though, also made me realize how much I have that I truly don't need. After spending 16 months living out of a backpack with limited clothing and shoe options, it became very easy to decide what to wear...limited options = simple and easy. I feel a big purge coming on of everything that was waiting for me at home.

I caught up with old friends, spent time with family, etc. I tried my hand at surfing again in Cocoa Beach, FL. I drove to NC to visit friends and former co-workers and to celebrate my brother's 30th birthday. Friends from college and I met to watch a Florida game together. Friends from NC hosted a 'welcome back to the States' party for me. Thanksgiving. Grandma taught me how to make her delicious fudge! Needless to say, I have been occupied completely since returning.

Am I going through culture shock? Yes. It first struck me during my layover in Atlanta before landing in Orlando. Have you ever actually paid attention to how unhealthy and unnatural food is in airports in this country?! I was shocked by not only that but by the 30+ people in line for their Starbucks fix. (keep in mind that for the cost of one of those magnum size caffeine drinks, I could eat well in Asia for an entire day!). Also, everyone at home seems so preoccupied with their phones. I stood in the middle of the terminal as the sun was rising, watching and appreciating how wonderful a day it was starting out to be while everyone around me chatted or banged away on their phones, completely ignoring the beautiful sunrise. Finally, I am amazed by how much I have changed as compared to everyone else around me. Life went on here, same thing, different day. It makes me ever so grateful that I did take the time out of my life to go watch those sunrises, to meet those people, to just wake up and see what each day would bring. I miss those moments very much.

As for what's next....that's still a mystery to me as well. Quite honestly, I don't feel that I am in the right frame of mind to make any long-term decisions about what to do, where to go just yet. It's amazing how 16 months away from 'normal life' can alter your perspective on what is important! I really want to be sure that whatever comes next for me, it feels right from all angles. Time will tell. In the mean time, I hope that you and your family are excited for the holiday season! I am looking forward to all those traditional things which make being at home with friends and family so special.

The End of the Beginning...

2010-10-28T21:55:00.002-04:00

...I board a plane in 2.5 hours bound for the USA. It is bitter sweet to see the end of this magnificent journey come to an end. I had hoped to write something very sentimental, very poetic to summarize what this trip has meant to me, but I find that it is hard to put into words. Let me just say that I regret not a single second of walking away from my previous life and setting out to the unknown. I am returning a changed person. I am excited about what the future holds and of course to see friends and family again. I also am excited to use a hair dryer (have not since February) and not using a bag which I carry on my back to hold everything that I possess.

Next, I'll be posting pictures from Ecuador. As for the blog, I have really enjoyed writing it, so I am considering continuing it and challenging myself to approach "everyday life" like I have been this trip...seizing each moment, going with the flow and finding opportunities to make an ass of myself and laugh a bit along the way. Thanks to all of you who have continued reading it...your support has meant the world to me. With that, I will finish my last swig of chocolate caliente, throw my bag on my back one last time and board yet another airplane this time destined for Titusville, Florida. Zai jian! Ciao! Namaste! Love, Jamie

Galapagos!

2010-10-26T22:59:00.002-04:00

The last five days cruising around the southern islands of the Galapagos rank among the most incredible days I have spent on this trip. I have never been so close to animals in the wild, never been able to observe them for so long in their natural habitat. The landscapes on each island are so diverse, alongside the amazing variety of birds, mammals and plants. The Ecuadorian government and the Charles Darwin Research Station are doing a fantastic job of preserving and protecting such a precious area of our little planet.

There were 10 of us on the boat, all under 35 – 5 Germans, 2 Canadians, 1 Irish, 1 Dutch and me. We all got along fabulously which always makes a trip even more fun. The second afternoon between hiking and snorkeling, as we were making our way to the next stop, I was laying out on the rooftop soaking up some vitamin D when I got pooped on by a frigate bird. Forty two minutes later, I got pooped on by another one. Did you know that frigate bird poop can stain bathing suits? I won the award on the boat for “Most Times Pooped on by a Bird”. Lucky me.

We stopped at one or two islands each day for a hike with our naturalist guide where in broken English with silly sexual colloquialisms about animal mating rituals, he explained the different animals, plants, etc. We saw sea lion cubs nursing, blue-footed boobies doing their mating dance, albatross babies. We watched sea lions surfing and killing its lunch (this consists of whopping fish from side to side on the surface) and iguanas nearly inhale cactus fruit as it fell to the ground. I saw so many different birds that I stopped trying to remember their names…except the boobie one, that one’s easy. Ha ha…

I honestly have fallen in love with sea lions. I could watch them sneeze, roll in the sand, waddle around and make noise all day long and never tire of it. On a beach one afternoon, I was lying on my sarong about 8’ from a colony of sea lions. After about 10 minutes, one scooted over to smell and nudge my beach bag. Ten minutes after that, one came right up and smelled/ kissed my calf. It was incredible!! They just looked at me with their huge brown eyes to make sure I wasn’t going to eat them or to confirm that I wouldn’t be a tasty snack and then went about their business. It is honestly surreal to think about how close I came to them and how the sea lions and I actually made a connection. Of course, I was talking to them like I talk to our dog, Chance…very baby-meets-puppy-kind of squealing girl voice, so maybe that helped the bonding process!

Snorkeling was also incredible. Again we were playing with the sea lions. I saw two white tip reef sharks, one over 5’ which is quite big for reef sharks! I lost count of how many turtles and eagle rays. A school of about 20 eagle rays and a few turtles swam right under me and I had to pinch myself to make sure I was really seeing what I was seeing! Unbelievable!

On the boat back to Santa Cruz Island yesterday, a few dolphins started following us, jumping, twirling. Of course, I got super excited and basically sprinted to the front of the boat, tripping on a part of the boat that was sticking straight up in plain sight, breaking a toe. I can’t believe I almost made it this entire trip without seriously hurting myself after all these falls and trips, but watching the dolphins in the perfect blue water was well worth the pain I now feel ever step!

On a completely unrelated note: I ran into an Aussie couple that I sailed with when we went to see the Komodo dragons in Indonesia back in April! What a wonderful coincidence that we should meet again on the other side of the planet and how incredibly small the world really is!

Hung out at Tortuga Bay this afternoon with iguanas, trying to be sure that my tan is dark enough so that it actually looks like I have been away when I get home! Tonight those of us from the boat got together for some delicious street seafood. The grill master allowed me to flip and blow dry some of the marlin and prawns (in Asia and S. America they use hair dryers when grilling to speed up the process...pretty genius and entertaining!) I decided against doing any more laundry since I am so close to going home now. I’m sure that my neighbors on my flights won’t appreciate it…everything I own definitely has acquired a ‘traveling scent’ after 16 months. Back to Quito tomorrow where I am meeting up with Eva, my dive buddy from last week, for one last night on the town before packing up and heading back to the USA! Ciao from the Galapagos!

Down Where It´s Wetter

2010-10-22T00:16:00.005-04:00

Diving in the Galapagos is INCREDIBLE! During our buoyancy check the first morning out, sea lions were less than 10’ away sunning on nearby rocks. On the way to our first dive site at Gordon Rocks, I frightened all the passengers by screaming when I saw a 4’ manta ray shoot straight out of the water chasing something. Luckily, he surfaced again so that all the other divers didn’t think I was hallucinating.

Eva, my dive buddy from England, and I became fast friends. My favorite thing she said, “women need men like fish need a bicycle.” (She was joking!) She is a very experienced diver and so I felt really comfortable with her, as I had to tell a few little white lies to convince the dive shop to permit me to dive Gordon Rock. The conditions at Gordon Rock are extreme – 15 degrees Celsius, very rough waters, back entry, strong currents. It was well worth the tiny fib about how many dives I have under my belt because within the first four minutes under, we saw a 4-5’ manta ray. I was also the only one who actually saw a hammerhead shark, 6-7’, feet swimming above us because I refuse to just look down when I dive, I like to spin around like a carousel. ;) We saw two green turtles and another manta, in addition to loads of amazing fish. It was a really tough dive, though, and I was spent after it!

We did our surface interval near some rocks where sea lions were chilling out. I snorkeled up to them and they put on a show…twirling, swimming less than 2’ away from me, smiling at me, waving at me…it was amazing…truly, something I will never forget. I watched 7 sea lions perform until I could stand the cold no longer. Our second dive was the worst of my life…very challenging, horrible visibility and freezing water. The dive instructor felt bad, so he gave us a free tank for the following day which was awesome!

Today was great…three dives total. I saw tons of reef sharks, much larger than any in Thailand or Malaysia. We saw two turtles, sea lions came down and performed again, dancing and twirling in our bubbles. We saw several manta rays, eels and loads of schools of fish. The Galapagos is by far the best diving I have ever done!

Tomorrow, I jump on a budget cruise ship bound for the south islands of the Galapagos. I will spend the next 5 days and 4 nights snorkeling and animal watching and I can’t wait! Coming here to wind up my trip has been one of the best decisions I have ever made! Countdown to home: 8 days!

The Daily Show, Starring Mendy and Me

2010-10-19T21:45:00.005-04:00

Mendy and John arrived just as I was dozing off on a park bench outside their quaint little French/Ecuadorian home away from home. It was so great to see familiar faces! After not seeing John for nearly 16 months and Mendy just over 12, it really doesn't seem real that so much time has passed us by! We shared a nice dinner and a few Ecuadorian pilsners talking about all that has changed back home, all that hasn't. All of us being exhausted by a day of traveling, we hit the proverbial hay relatively early compared with what we are all capable of!

We ventured out into Quito on Friday. John and Mendy particularly enjoyed the exhaust fumes and crazy driving. I guess there are some things I've gotten immune too since being in Asia for so long! We climbed a steep hike up Itchimbia, a great viewpoint overlooking the city. We walked through some parks and to La Basilica cathedral, a stunning place that reminded me of St. Andrews, where Diana & Charles wed a long time ago. After a set lunch at a very local cantina that cost us a whopping $6 total, we gave up on sightseeing and decided to prepare Mendy for her upcoming South American Wine class by sampling bottles of Chileans finest. We talked politics, insurance, global warming, religion and other topics which I have not discussed in depth with anyone in a very long time...how I have missed that!

Saturday, I gave Mendy and John a taste of a foreign bus system as we boarded a local bound for Otavalo. They were impressed with the food, drink and ice cream salesmen and ladies that boarded the bus periodically selling their goods. Also, I fed a baby pull and peel twizzlers (one of my favorite candies that Mendy brought me!). In Otavalo, we ate, drank and shopped at the absolutely massive market, half targeted for tourists, half for locals. We ate fantastic tres leche at a small coffee shop...that might be my favorite dessert, next to my Grandmother's key lime pie (hint, hint: Grandma, I'm coming to visit you on November 1st or 2nd!!) and June's chocolate cake (hint, hint: June, I'll be home whenever you and Bob get home!). We had dinner at the Hacienda Cusin, Mendy and John's amazing hotel in a small village called San Pablo. A great day outside of Quito!

Toured San Pablo, rode the bus, walked through Old Town in Quito on Sunday. Sunday night, we went to a fabulous restaurant up the hill overlooking the city of Quito - breathtaking views of the cityscape...the lights twinkled like golden stars all over the place. The hot wine, red wine, brandy, whiskey and amaretto was good too, we thought.

Monday we woke bright and early and rented a car to make the trek to Mindo. Mindo is a small village tucked away in the Andes Mountains with beautiful views of the cloud forest along the way. We toured a butterfly garden. It truly is fascinating how many sizes, shaped and colors of butterflies there are! After that, we went zip lining through the cloud forest. It was so fun! Mendy and John stretched their comfort zones and strapped up along with me, helmet and all. We did 10 lines total, very far, very high up. We went backwards, forwards, upside down. It was awesome!! On the way home, we ate ice cream at the equator and took some silly pictures at the Mitad del Mundo. In the one I uploaded, I was trying to get Mendy and John to pretend like they were lifting the world - like John Galt, sort of. It didn't work out so well! We had a lovely dinner in La Mariscal, the new town of Quito, to wrap up a great few days together! Mendy and John - thank you so much for making the trek south of the equator to hang out with me...I love you guys!

I made my way to the Galapagos Islands this morning as Mendy and John made the trek back to Winston-Salem. I rented a bike today and hung out with a sea lion on the beach while watching iguanas surf in the Pacific. This place is simply amazing. I'll be diving the next two days, then I board a boat for a 5 day cruise around the Galapagos. Keep your fingers crossed that I see a boat load of hammerheads tomorrow at Gordon's Rock! Ciao from the Galapagos!

Hola de Ecuador!

2010-10-14T17:18:00.001-04:00

Hola mis amigos! After 31 hours in airports and airplanes, I finally made it back to the western hemisphere! My body was stuck in Asia time for several days...it is the first time I think I've really experienced jet lag, despite all of my previous travels! Spent Friday buying clothes for cold weather. I suppose it would have been helpful to look up the weather in Ecuador this time of year before shipping all my warm stuff home. Oh well. Got some stuff organized for the next couple of weeks, napped. While shopping, I got hit by a bus. I was standing on a very narrow sidewalk with my back to the street, looking in a shop window. The next thing I know, I have been jolted sideways. The bus was coming to a stop, so it wasn't that bad but when I turned around to see what had hit me, I was quite startled to see a massive bus to say the least! The shop owner came out screaming at the driver. My back has been a little tight, but all in all, my first bus hit went okay.

I met an English bloke, Johnny. He and I traveled from Quito to Banos on Saturday. We explored the night life that evening. Sunday and Monday were pretty relaxed...the weather was rainy and cold and I was frankly just exhausted. Tuesday, Johnny and I hiked to a statue of the Virgin Mary mid-way up a mountain overlooking Banos, then he talked me into going to near the top ridge with views of the Tungurahua volcano that erupted in 2006 destroying a part of the outer ring of Banos. It was really cool to see the way the lava flowed down into the valley, destroying everything in its path. Nature is awesome! My body was in complete shock after all that exercise. Back in the city, we went to the local market for lunch where we dined with the locals on tripe soup and congealed cow's blood. I learned, after eating it, that tripe was cow's stomach. (For those of you who don't know me well, I don't eat a lot of red meat, so this specific dining experience was quite a culture shock!). We went to the thermal springs with the locals...it was very hot and very relaxing after a day of hiking and eating cow parts.

The next morning, despite our better judgment, Johnny and I rented bikes and cycled 17 km to Rio Verde. We were told that it was all downhill. Those people lied! I thought I was going to die, ended up walking a bit of the way. I had heartburn and already I could not feel my legs from the hike the previous day. We were pedaling into the wind, dodging pot holes and oncoming traffic. All in all, it was exhausting! The scenery, however, did make it worth the effort. Beautiful mountains, waterfalls and villages. The Ecuadorians plant their crops up the mountains which makes for a stunning patchwork of colors. After the biking, we went back to the market for lunch numero dos. This time we were in for a treat - an ocho piece band was in the market playing and people were salsa dancing! It was fantastic. A woman kept looking at me watching and smiling at all that was going on, so she waved me over to dance with her little group. I did a rueda with the woman, her husband and possibly their mother who was half my height, had two teeth and was dressed in traditional dress, bowler hat and all, not 25 feet away from dangling pig's feet, chickens, fruits and vegetables. You could not have wiped the smile off my face if you tried.

I am going through a bit of a culture shock after spending so much time in Asia. For one thing, there aren't any Asians around. Like Asia, the dogs still roam the streets. Unlike Asia, children juggle and twirl flaming batons at red lights to earn dinero. Like Asia, they don't speak much English. Unlike Asia, Ecuadorians are meat-eaters. In Asia, I saw a lot of gold temples, Buddha statues, Hindu Gods. I almost forgot what Jesus and Mary look like...but they are everywhere here! The wine here is excellent. People in Ecuador also like to make noise and dance anywhere, anytime! There is music playing constantly, whether from a truck with massive speakers driving around the city (the South American version of low riders, perhaps?!). While in Banos, I saw no less than 5 small parades where a band would march around the square and people would follow them carrying roses. There is such a live in the moment attitude here...I absolutely love it! Made my way back to Quito this afternoon where I am very excited to greet Mendy and John, two great friends from Winston-Salem, NC! They will be here in less than 2 hours and I cannot wait to see them! Ciao for now!

Pictures!

2010-10-12T16:30:00.002-04:00

Click on the link below to view pictures from my time in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand! Ciao!

Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand!

Bottle Beach - Part Deux!

2010-10-06T08:27:00.004-04:00

My little write-up on my stint at the silent meditation retreat was obviously a little daily dose of my random thoughts/experiences. In reality, the whole experience was incredible. I felt so at peace, so calm, the entire time I was there. I also have never felt more as if I am living in the present moment with a more focused or more concentrated mind. I think it is an experience that would be good for everyone to go through once, even if only for a day or two. There’s something beautiful in silence…

I spent the last week in Bottle Beach, Koh Phangan, Thailand. Seriously, this is my definition of paradise on earth – white sand, palm trees, mountains, greenish/blue water, amazing food, lovely people, simple bungalows on the beach with a hammock hanging on the front porch. I returned to the beach where Gerad and I had such a great time, and slept in a bungalow three huts down from where he and I stayed!

Here is a list of what I have done over the last few days:

- Read in hammock
- Slept in hammock
- Read on beach
- Slept on beach
- Ate
- Drank
- Wrote
- Slept in bed
- Ran
- Swam

I finished Northanger Abbey, The Zahir, and The Life of Pi (glad I wasn't stuck on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger!). I hung out a bit with a really chill Israeli couple and an Austrian guy. I survived two absolutely terrifying storms. The first had such fierce winds that the entire bungalow shook and I covered my head with my pillow, after quickly quieting my fears that I was on the side of Thailand that suffers from tsunamis...I, luckily, was not. The other storm had lightning striking so close that I could feel the ground shake, the room was brighter than during the day with the lights on and so incredibly loud. Nature is wild! From my hammock, I observed a man catch a bird with his bare hands. Also from my hammock, I saw a man walking a monkey on a leash. That about sums up my week.

I took a boat then a bus back to Bangkok yesterday. We arrived at 3 AM this morning. For the third straight time, I was crammed in the back of the bus against the window. Clearly, I am paying for sins in a previous life by this curse of public transportation I have experienced lately! I got ridiculously sunburned on the boat because I was too engrossed in my book to apply sun screen, so heat was radiating off of me and the bus was not cool. My feet couldn't touch the ground because the back of the bus is higher. I didn't drink anything because we all know where that leads, so needless to say, I was hot, swollen and crammed in the back. There were nice people, entertaining conversations...so that occupied an hour of the 9 I had to endure. I hope there are no buses in South America...ha ha!

I fly to Ecuador in less than 12 hours. For most of my readers, we will share a few hours together in the Eastern Standard Time Zone during my Atlanta layover en route to Quito. I looked at a calendar for the first time in a long time the other day…do you know that I landed in Beijing on September 14th last year?!! How crazy is that?! Over one year in Asia! And it just keeps getting better…

I Can Move Things With My Mind

2010-09-28T07:22:00.004-04:00

Day 1: Made friends with the baby lizard and ants in my room, which consists of a 3 inch thick pad on the ground and 3 blankets. Nothing else. Broke the rules already by taking two naps. Feeling hungover and tired from getting in at 4 AM after more than one tequila shot off an ice luge. Not the best way to start 10 days meditating in silence and wondering what I am doing here.

Day 2: A cat jumped in my lap while sitting 'meditation style'. It completely broke my concentration and I busted out laughing. Spent the rest of the day sneezing with watery, itchy eyes. During our silent breakfast, in which I was supposed to be mindfully eating my noodles with tofu and veggies, watched dogs propagating their species in the garden. Sleepy and thinking it will be a long time until the 28th.

Day 3: A shih tzu puppy humped my leg throughout breakfast. How are you supposed to mindfully eat with that going on?! Not as sleepy, feeling very relaxed. Sitting meditation going better. Glad I'm here. It's good for me!

Day 4: Played with the puppies before breakfast. They are adorable. Dogs were at it again during lunch...this girl gets around because it's with a new man. A cat rubbed on me during my walking meditation this afternoon and tried to get in my lap when sitting. Didn't want to sneeze, so didn't let her. Broke the rules by talking to two of the others...a Swiss woman and a Bulgarian lady. Feeling at peace, struggled midday with focusing. Feeling like my mind and heart are more connected.

Day 5: Puppies licked my face today...not sure if they have their shots or not. Oh well...too cute to resist. Had some good thoughts/insights come my way today. After the evening chanting session with the monks, a man came up to me and wished me good luck in finding goodness and the light. Touching. Very content right now. Heart/mind connection growing stronger and happy to be here. Also, all the monks seemed to have shaved their heads today. Hair cuts all around!

Day 6: Changed rooms last night because Buddha Day is today at the temple...lots of activity here! Woke up in this new room with bug bites all over my back. Not so clean, these temple floor mats. Also, broke the freezing cold shower...and all this before 6 AM! Carried a lotus flower around the stupa 3 times with all the monks chanting...what a beautiful experience. It is so meditative and soothing to listen to them chanting. Joined in on a few that I could find in my chant book...very cool that I've learned some Pali! It hurts my knees/legs to sit in the lotus style to meditate. Distracted today, some good practice but not much. 4 more days to go!

Day 7: New puppy joined the other 4...a beautiful Siberian husky. Cat jumped in my lap while meditating again. Armed with antihistamines, I let her sit in my hands and tuck her head under my arm and purr away. I still sneezed. There are going to be a lot of new puppies around here as the girl was at it again...another new partner. She's been with almost every male dog in the temple I think. Not feeling well. Stomach hurts. Skipping evening chanting. Bored. Home sick. Going to bed early.

Day 8: Skipped breakfast and slept in. A man slept in the women's dorm building last night. I have never heard such incredibly loud and irregular snoring before. Remarkable. Hard to focus today. At lunch, the Bulgarian lady broke the silence by saying, "I am so sick of this f*ing chanting". I busted out laughing. Absolutely hilarious. The Swiss woman whispered to me after lunch that she admired how slowly I ate. That's one I haven't heard before, and I guess it's better than she admired how much I could eat. This afternoon, walking meditation finally clicked. Feels good to be getting in control of my mind and aware of my body. I feel at peace and like I am glowing inside. I also feel like I might be able to move things with my mind.

Day 9: Finally went to the bathroom. All of this non-activity, non-stress, no food after noon stuff has wreaked havoc on my digestive system. Another husky joined the mix. 5 puppies now. The Swiss lady gave me candles and incense to use in my room because the stench from the temple's garbage pile is terrible on my side of the building. Best meditation yet was tonight during the evening chanting. Had to literally walk through the clouds to get to the temple. Meditations are going deeper than I've gone yet...wow. Had the thought that I should stay longer, but not prepared to stay longer. Will definitely continue this when I leave. Wow.

Day 10: Meditated during the morning changing session with the monks for the first time...finally got up early enough. Powerful stuff. Played with the puppies. The poodle/shih tzu mutt is my favorite. Read on the balcony this afternoon. Watched a beautiful, cloudy day float by over Chiang Mai below. A beautiful rainbow appeared. Evening chanting with monks, writing by candlelight, burning candles and incense, listening to the rain, drinking hot chocolate...the perfect ending to a wonderful and peaceful journey into myself.

Good Afternoon Vietnam!!

2010-09-16T13:14:00.003-04:00

I bet you were thinking that I was going to title my blog from Vietnam "Good Morning Vietnam" but I didn't want to be that predictable. ;) Getting to Vietnam was a bit long; what I thought would be a 6 hour boat and bus journey down the Mekong, into Vietnam at Chau Doc and onto Ho Chi Minh (formerly known as Saigon, although everyone in Vietnam still calls it Saigon!) ended up taking 14 hours. I missed the bus for tourists, so they literally squeezed me onto the local bus. My knees were basically in my chest for 6 hours in the back row of the bus, shared with four others. It was fantastic (read: a whole bunch of sarcasm) and I wish I could say that it was the last bus trip that I will ever take in my entire life, but alas, that is not likely.

Seeing Trent and Keira again and meeting their friends was so great. They have a two bedroom flat with air conditioning, hot water, a couch, a microwave and really comfortable beds. It was heavenly! I was so excited to do the dishes and was ecstatic to wash my clothes in a proper washing machine...Keira and Trent laughed at me! We slept in, went to brunch and dinner at fabulous places, did some shopping, swam in a rooftop pool overlooking the Saigon River and that was Saturday! On Sunday, we went to brunch again and then Keira and I spent the afternoon at a spa...for $12 each, we got one hour hot stone massages, facials, manicures and pedicures. I love Vietnam! We ordered pizza and sat on their couch and watched movies on Sunday night...again, heavenly!

I took a quick flight up to Hoi An from Monday to late Wednesday afternoon, after refusing to take one more bus ride in Vietnam. I left my big pack with Trent and Keira, so it was nice to travel light for a few days. I hoped on the back of a motorbike and was dropped in the old city center with no map and not a clue where to stay, what to do, etc. I met a lovely Vietnamese girl who took me on her bike to a guest house she knew of and quickly got settled in and rented a bike. I biked around the city, then went to a tailor to finally get something made...a process that everyone should go through once in their life! I spent two hours visiting fabric shops, looking at styles and getting measured. I ended up ordering a total of 5 dresses and a pair of pants...one of the dresses alone would easily go for $150+ at home, so I did not feel bad at all dropping $70 total on my purchases. However, after three fittings on Tuesday and two more on Wednesday, I realized that having clothes that fit perfectly (and are super cute if I might add!) is a lot of work! If getting a wedding dress fitted is going to require so much effort someday, I'm just going to wrap a sheet around my body and call it a day!

On Wednesday, after fitting #1, I took a cooking class with a street food vendor. The lady didn't speak much English, so her 16 year old Vietnamese friend named Cuong translated for me. The 'class' was very impromptu but the food we made was delicious, and that is the most important. After fitting #2, Cuong joined me for a bicycle ride to the beach closest to Hoi An. Her English was really good, so we talked about things that 16 year old girls like to talk about - boys. It was so adorable and opened my eyes to the many cultural differences between Vietnamese and the West. Also, I was the only person on the beach in a bathing suit after two other foreigners left. At this beach, all of the Vietnamese swam fully clothed. A group of female monks (do we call them nuns?!) all went swimming together...I got some great pictures of them splashing about in their modest brown attire. I took Cuong out for dessert and dinner, in that order...her choice! I let her pick the places and she was giddy walking into the touristy, much more expensive places than she is used to eating as the fourth child of a fisherman in the village. As we talked over dessert then dinner, I mentioned that I was going to rent a motorbike and head to My Son, a very old Hindu temple at the base of the mountains, the next morning. She said something to the effect of wow, that's cool...I've never been more than 15 km away from home. So, I invited her to come with me and I will never forget how her face lit up when she realized I was serious.

Cuong and I jumped on the motorbike and headed out to My Son, a 60+ km drive from Hoi An first thing Wednesday morning. It was so neat to hear her comments as I drove...she had never seen mountains up close before, not seen water lilies and she was smiling constantly when I repeatedly checked to make sure she was still on the back of the motorbike. She saw a lot of corn and rice drying on the side of the road and in front of people's very modest homes and said, 'wow, those people must be rich...look at all their corn and rice'. That statement instantly grounded me - hit me at my core - and again made me feel so thankful and blessed for the opportunities that I have had in my life. Very humbling. We stopped at a very local place on the ride home and Cuong told me that they never see foreigners and that I was in fact the first to eat at this particular restaurant, which explains why everyone in the neighborhood kept stopping in front to watch me eat. Meeting Cuong made my time in Hoi An, most definitely, and I look forward to staying pen pals with her via email!

Keira picked me up at the airport and I got my first taste of rush hour traffic in Saigon...it was insane. Motorbikes everywhere, a suggestion of which side of the road to drive on which is generally ignored, several roundabouts where it is an absolute miracle anyone actually gets remotely close to the direction they actually want to go...incredible! Thankfully, Keira is an excellent driver. She, Trent and I had some excellent wine at a rooftop bar overlooking the city - what a contrast Vietnam is! Trent made his way to football practice as it began to downpour. Keira and I had another glass of wine hoping the rain would pass, but it did not. We had one poncho that I insisted Keira wear because she was in work clothes but it honestly didn't matter. We were both 100% soaked to the core...I could wring buckets out of my clothes when we finally arrived at the restaurant. Keira's friend Mel joined us for dinner and we had amazing Lebanese food for my last night in Vietnam...go figure.

One more thing on Vietnam - it is now the only country in the world where I will drink the coffee, which is a miracle because I never drink coffee! I had one iced Vietnamese coffee every day and loved it (I also had trouble sleeping because of all the caffeine!) They make it with sweetened condensed milk and it tastes very similar to hot/iced chocolate..fantastic!

This will be my last post for at least the next 11 days...I am sure that all of you could use a break! On Saturday, the 18th, I start an adventure of a very different nature...a vipassana. For 10 days, I will be in silent meditation at the Phradhatu Doi Suthep temple in the woods north of Chiang Mai, Thailand. Here are some of the rules I must adhere to during my meditation retreat: no talking, no reading, no writing, no music, I must wear white clothes, no food after 12 noon, sleep only 6 hours a night, up at 4 AM, do not steal, do not kill (even mosquitoes), etc. It is going to be like boot camp for meditating. Just so we're all on the same page, I'm not into this stuff. I can count on one hand how many times I've done yoga and fewer times I have tried to meditate. I first learned of vipassanas from a guy I met in Africa and was instantly intrigued and knew I wanted it to be a part of this trip. It is not religious-based, although it will be held at a Buddhist temple. It is really a 10 day retreat to silence the noise and distractions of life, to listen to nature, to listen to yourself and be mindful of the present. I am very nervous about it but also looking forward to the journey itself and what things I might discover along the way. So, I'll be back in touch on or after the 28th...until then!

The Orphanage

2010-09-09T22:23:00.002-04:00

Oh my goodness, children have A LOT of energy! After spending four days at the New Futures Orphanage, I think I need to schedule a vacation from my traveling! I spent six to seven hours a day with the children and went to bed most nights by 9 PM without the energy to even shower, almost. Despite my severe energy drain, I had such an incredible and rewarding time with the children.

There are 52 children currently at the orphanage, ages 8-17. Some of them are orphans in the true definition of the word; others are there because their parents could not afford to keep them. They live on a couple of acres with the following: swing set/playground, two outdoor yet covered classrooms, an arts/crafts room, a farm with pigs and chickens, a lake with fish, a workshop and a beauty parlor practice room. They all sleep on mats on the floor of a two-story place. After meeting and talking with each of them, I can tell that several of them would benefit from some kind of therapy which simply doesn’t exist over here. They have little to no structure, aside from the few hours a day they spend in school. They are all pretty good in English; they take lessons everyday. The children have hearts of gold and smiles that will melt your heart. I have given and received more hugs in the last four days than in the last four years of my life, so that was wonderful. Walking into the orphanage and having 10-15 little people run up to me, say ‘hello, how are you’ and be so excited to talk to me and hold my hand and have me join in their little adventures….what a feeling!

I was busy non-stop while there. I learned how to play chess (kind of), I taught some girls how to do a few line dances, I had my hair braided twice, and I went to English class at the local school…and that was day one! On Tuesday, I was joined at the orphanage by two other volunteers, a great couple from France named Stef and Thomas. Stef and I spent the morning cleaning out the arts and crafts room which previously had looked like a tornado had blown through it! That afternoon, we put on a fashion show. I helped dress up about 20 kids in all kinds of fabric and garland, set up a stage complete with a backdrop and the kids paraded around on the stage. We had three kids playing bongos and guitar to set the mood. It was hysterical and, wow was I tired by the end of that day!

Wednesday was filled with games of simon says and hangman, teaching an English class and a Chinese class. I taught about 15 of the kids basic phrases in Chinese and the rest of my time there, they kept running up to me and practicing…so cute and impressive how quickly they pick languages up! We were begged to put on another fashion show, so we had day two of prancing and parading around in pseudo dresses, capes, togas, etc. Today, my job was to push girls on the swing set, next came singing/teaching every nursery rhyme my poor memory could recollect, then I sat and had girl talk with some of the older ones….who likes who, teaching them the correct pronunciation to the song ‘All the Single Ladies’ by Beyonce…the important stuff! ;) I taught Chinese again and then braved day three of fashion week without Stef…we gave cookies to everyone beforehand to celebrate one of the little girl’s birthdays and they were absolutely wired on sugar! Fashion week was crazy!

I learned one very important thing about orphanages in Cambodia: string is to orphans as cigarettes are to prisoners. Colored string is traded whenever you lose at volleyball, chess, soccer. Girls and boys lobby and push for anyway they can get their hands on more string in order to make bracelets and other little things like it. I quickly recognized this, went to the local market and bought them out of string (a whopping $6 out of pocket). You would have thought I was the King of Cambodia with how these kids thanked me and went crazy as I was handing out the string. As a result, I was blessed with all kinds of homemade things. I now am proudly sporting 5 string bracelets, two string rings, one anklet and four things to dangle from the zipper on my purse. So cute!

My days at the orphanage were fantastic. It is incredible how attached you can become to children, and they to you in such a short amount of time. It was hard to say goodbye to them all. One of the many things I learned through this experience is that there is no way I could ever be a teacher and for those of you who are or were, God bless you! I am spent!

Today, I will jump on a boat and float down the Mekong River into Vietnam. I’ll be in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) by Friday night and will be spending the weekend with Keira and Trent, an Australian couple that I traveled with in Africa last year who are now living there. I haven’t been in an actual home since September 2009, so I am excited for some of the comforts of home and to see some old friends! Until next time...!

Angkor Wat!

2010-09-05T10:17:00.003-04:00

The Angkor Archaeological Park is by far one of the most impressive places I've ever been. I have always heard of Angkor Wat and wanted to visit - it's the largest, best preserved of all the Angkorian temples. What I didn't realize is that there are tons of other temples from other kings and other times in the area. I spent the last three days, at least 5 hours a day, touring a total of 18 temples...there are way more but honestly I didn't have the endurance to visit them...I am templed out!! I hit all the contemporary favorites though. My personal favorite, second to Angkor Wat of course, is Ta Prohm, aka the jungle temple. They have intentionally left quite a bit of it in ruins. Nature is taking it back...massive trees growing in, around and on the temple. I felt like I was in one of the Indiana Jones movies, or at least some Playstation game where there are guys jumping over sandstone rubble and swinging on trees. Very, very cool. The bas-relief carvings on most all of the temples are so detailed. It is incredible to think of the craftsmanship and labor put into the making of these massive structures. Formerly Hindu, then converted to Buddhism like all of the temples, Angkor Wat is believed to hold the ashes of King Suryavarman II, making it the largest ever building to hold a corpse. Five million tons of sandstone, incredible carvings and detail and all completed in 40 years...unreal! The sunrise this morning overlooking the reflecting pond was yet another moment on this trip causing me reason to pause and be eternally grateful for what I am seeing and experiencing.

Cambodia is a very poor country and people here learn the art of selling (hustling!) at a young age. Outside of every temple, there are children selling all kinds of things - books, bracelets, stuff. It is difficult to look into their beautiful brown eyes and not give every one of them all the money you have. Unfortunately, giving to children just promotes the cycle and so I do not support it. It can be trying to be constantly followed, begged, tugged on to buy something. So, I came up with what I consider cute little responses. Actually, I've been doing this since Bali, where the people are incessantly asking you to buy stuff too. It's the only way I've been able to keep my sanity when walking the streets in Asia! Here are my responses to various questions. 1) Where are you from? I reply, "My Mom and Dad". They always giggle. 2) Do you need a taxi/tuk-tuk/motorcycle/ride? I say, "No thanks, I can fly. Or, no thanks, I want a helicopter." This is really funny only when their English is good enough! 3) Do you want a book? "No thanks, I can't read." It's a lot of fun to actually laugh with the people instead of just constantly saying no!

On my first day touring the temple, actually the first two days, it poured rain off and on. I was wearing flip-flops (aka thongs, as my dear Aussie friends would call them!) and ventured back to a temple that few tourists get to. On the way, a cute little boy started walking with me and kept telling me "lady, be careful, it's wet". I quietly applauded his observational skills and then completely wiped out. Cambodian mud is very thick...it covered me from my shoulder to my toes on the left side of my body. This marks the first official fall since arriving in Cambodia. If I think back on it, I am quite clumsy. I have fallen in basically every country since Indonesia. In Bali, it was off the motorbike into the rice field. In Malaysia, it was climbing up a mountain...I went in the wrong direction! In India, it was down a small flight of stairs in the rain. In Thailand, as Gerad and I were walking on the beach, I didn't see a volleyball net tied onto a tree and walked right into it and kind of fell backwards into the sand in slow motion. Now this. It is truly remarkable that I have not broken anything!

After spending the days playing on temples, I spent the evenings in the very pleasant city center of Siem Reap. Hung out with a couple of German guys I met for two nights. Last night, my tuk-tuk driver, Kuonn, whom I hired for my three days of templing, took me to a very local place. He ordered. This is what we got: sliced, raw carrots, beans, cucumber, some types of grass(!!) and parts of a cow that we dipped in some kind of clearish sauce. I have no idea what parts they were and so I asked Kuonn. He said the inside parts. Again, very observant. I think the only reason I did not get violently ill is because of the Angkor, Cambodia's finest and only beer.

Made it back to Phnom Penh tonight. On the bus ride, a woman played music aloud for the bus to hear from her cell phone, this is also common on local buses in Asia! She sang quite loudly to her music. She was also tone deaf. I could not withhold my laughter. Sing like no one's listening I suppose rings very true to her! Tomorrow, I will figure out a way to get to Ta Koe, a tiny village about 79 KM from here. I'll be volunteering at the New Futures Orphanage for the rest of the week...can't wait to meet the kids! Happy Labor Day!

The Smiling Country

2010-09-02T07:49:00.005-04:00

I am in love with the people of Cambodia. They are incredibly friendly, always smiling (hence the country's nickname and title of this post!) and so helpful. I landed in Phnom Penh on Sunday afternoon. I shared a tuk-tuk to the city center with the guy sitting next to me on the plane. Gilbert (he goes by Gil) is from the NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana). His job since Katrina hit is playing online poker. Apparently he isn't so good at poker because he freely shared that he was $20K in debt. He also mentioned no less than three times how upset he was that his peanut butter had been confiscated from the Thai airport security. It takes all kinds to make this world go around. May you get a full house or at least a flush Gil!

Didn't do too much but walk around the city center after settling into my room. It is quite a strange feeling to actually have a bed all to myself again...I've kind of gotten used to having someone around over the last two and a half months! Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is a nice city. It's obvious that I'm inching closer to China though, as the markets here sell all sorts of bugs, dog, frogs, birds and such. On the other hand, due to the French colonization, the city was planned with wide boulevards, lots of parks and green space and a really nice boardwalk area next to the Mekong River. Makes for good people watching!

I ventured out on Monday to Wat Phnom, the temple of which the city is named for. It was a-okay as temples go, lots of cats, kittens and an elephant. With all due respect to my Buddhist brothers and sisters, I have seen enough Buddhist temples to last a lifetime, so this one didn't stand out in any particular way to me. The only real highlight was a man who forgot to say his prayers to himself and was literally shouting to the point that he drew a crowd around him. Of course I joined in to watch the spectacle unfold, although I had no idea what the poor guy was praying for because I don't speak Khmer! That evening, I was again reminded of how much closer I'm getting to China by the fact that at 5 PM sharp, the largest park turned into an outdoor aerobics and dance studio. It was awesome. One group that I watched for a really long time had about 100 people jazzercising in the park...hilarious! Mom, you would have fit in perfectly! There was another group of 5 guys dancing...Cambodia's up and coming version of N Sync. It made my day watching these guys try to dance all together. Smiles all around.

On Tuesday, I headed to the killing fields and to the now Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (aka S-21), the former high school where torture and interrogation was conducted during the Khmer Rouge regime. Pol Pot and his followers were brutal and merciless. It was very sobering to be walk among the fields where over 9,000 were buried in mass graves. The field I visited is only one of 380 killing fields in Cambodia...a total of over 19,400 mass graves in all. The estimated 2 million, or 25% of the Cambodian population, that perished during the genocide is unthinkable to imagine having happened less than 32 years ago. It was a very reflective, quiet day after that. What strikes me more than anything is how the Cambodian people have rebounded, how they are today...happy, peaceful and friendly...to go through something like their country did and to be so positive after is truly inspiring.

Wednesday I hung out in my room, having come down with a nasty little stomach virus. Shockingly, my room had a TV with HBO. Has anyone seen United States of Tara? It's hilarious and makes me wish that I had multiple personalities too. Today, Thursday, I'm feeling slightly better. I had enough energy to survive a 6 hour bus north to Siem Reap. The Cambodian girl next to me works at a bank, so we chatted about that and had a nice ride up. She fell asleep and rested her head on my shoulder for the last two hours of the ride...very cute. The next 3 days I'll be touring Angkor Wat. Very excited to see these temples...very likely the last on this trip, so at least I'm saving the best for last!

Pictures from Our Time in Thailand!

2010-08-31T11:27:00.002-04:00

To view, click on the link below:

The Dirty Princess and Mr. I Need a Toilet 10 Steps Away in Thailand!

Happy 65th Birthday Mom!!

2010-08-28T23:42:00.004-04:00

Gerad and I survived our last week together in Thailand, all in one piece, basically! Koh Phi Phi was rainy all day Monday when we arrived, which provided us a great opportunity for some good afternoon napping and post-Patong Beach recovery! Tuesday and Wednesday were spent on the dive boat. Incredible diving around Maya Bay (where The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed - breathtaking limestone cliffs, white sand, teal water!). On Tuesday, we saw at least 7 hawksbill turtles, black tip reef sharks, lion fish, box fish and giant pufferfish. We did a surface interval in Maya Bay...Gerad and I jumped in and swam to a beautiful, secluded shore. Unfortunately, as most waters in Asia, a lot of garbage had drifted to shore. We did our best to pick up what we could. It is a shame that more people do not dispose of their waste (plastic bags, plastic water bottles, cigarette butts, etc.) properly because it is truly destroying our beautiful oceans and marine life. (Sorry for the tangent...but it's really sad to see so much pollution in paradise!)

Wednesday, we headed farther out to Shark Point and a wreck (an old car ferry that is over 200' long...so cool to swim through it and, yes, we saw the toilets!). Here, we saw at least four more turtles, two leopard sharks, black tip reef sharks, cuttle fish (they swim like aliens!), moray eels and sting rays. Phi Phi is by far the best diving I've ever done. It was a tiring and wonderful way to spend two days on the island. The picture of Gerad and I with some other folks were our diving buddies (dive masters and another couple!)...please notice how Gerad is forcing a six-pack in the picture! ;) We celebrated Phi Phi's version of the Full Moon Party on Wednesday night. Lots of fire twirling, whiskey buckets and sauntering about. Good times!

The rest of our time was spent in an absolutely breathtaking part of the Krabi province called Railay Beach. We stayed in the cheapest bungalow on the island, a bit away from the few tourists and resorts in the Bay. The area is known for rock climbing because of all the limestone cliffs. We climbed up to the viewpoint overlooking the bay. I did it barefoot, in a sun dress with my beach bag slung over my shoulder. I wouldn't recommend that! Regardless of the extreme effort it took to climb to the top, the views were breathtaking! The beaches here are beautiful, and the two perfect sunsets we saw were a great ending to our time at the beach!

We spent Saturday night (14 hours total!) in an overnight bus bound for Bangkok. Gerad had the brilliant idea that we would grab the back of the bus in the hopes of spreading out for the journey. That would not end up being the case. He and I were on opposite windows, and a family of three nestled in right between us. The father of this little Thai family is perhaps the largest Thai man we've ever seen....more like a sumo-wrestler. Needless to say, it was a very long, sleepless night for us!

Today, August 29th, is our Mother's 65th Birthday! We got to talk to her this morning to wish her a happy birthday! She's celebrating in NYC with extended family in the NY area since Gerad and I aren't there to celebrate with her in style! We love you Mom!

Gerad flies home late tonight. It has been awesome traveling with him. He is an amazing human being; he makes more noises than most humans that I know, he makes me laugh more than most humans that I know and he is in general an absolute joy to be around (except when he's hungry, thirsty or tired). Seriously, it has been fantastic...we've had some great conversations about life, love, etc. We made some memories that I will cherish forever. It's going to be weird for me to transition back to traveling alone after spending time in India with Gundula and Thailand with Gerad. I catch a plane to Cambodia 4 short hours. So my next update will come after I spend some time in Phnom Penh visiting the killing fields. And so on...Gerad's last commentary below!

Thailand has been an amazing experience. I am so glad to have been able to come over here and enjoy this interesting and exciting place with my sister. It has been a memorable trip and I wish it could last a little longer. However, I am not going to frown because its over, I will smile because it has happened.

Our last little trip was to Railay Beach, which is known world wide for its rock climbing. We did not partake in any rock climbing ourselves due to our slothfulness, but we did manage to climb up to a very breathtaking viewpoint. I even managed to climb down to a lagoon, which was quite a feat in itself. I saw a few barefoot French girls climbing up from the lagoon, so I decided I could also go all the way down and back up. It was very slippery, but worth the trip. Railay Beach is very beautiful, but I do have to say that the food was way over priced and not very good, really only the bad food we ate on the whole trip. On our last night in Railay Beach we ordered a spicy shrimp soup, you have to say Thai spicy or it will not be very spicy. However, this way WAY more spicy than we expected and had to send it back to be cut down with coconut milk. The good thing is that it did not cause havoc on our stomachs but it did make the wait staff laugh at us. We packed up from Railay Beach and headed to Bangkok on our last overnight bus trip.

If anyone ever has to take an overnight bus, do not pick the very back of the bus. It was not a good call. Basically, Jamie had a tiny child and woman in her lap and I had the father sitting in mine. It was definitely a character building experience, all you can do is laugh.

Overall, Thailand has been a blast and we have made memories that will last a life time!!!!!

From Thailand With Love

2010-08-23T08:34:00.002-04:00

Pai is a soon-to-be way too touristy little village in NW Thailand. The village, Pai River and surrounding mountains and rolling hills were made famous in two Thai movies. Locals began to flock here and now the backpackers have taken over. Regardless, it’s a wonderful little place that will easily lower your blood pressure. For two siblings who needed a break from partying, it was a perfect addition to our itinerary!

We rolled into Pai on Wednesday afternoon after staying out until way past a reasonable hour yet again. Needless to say, we were pooped when we arrived in Pai. We laid down for a power nap at 6 PM and didn’t get out of bed until 11 AM the next day...17 hours of solid sleep. It’s incredible that a 31 year old and nearly 30 year old can log that kind of sleep time, isn’t it!? We woke up groggy from so much rest but quickly rejuvenated when we rented scooters. Accident insurance purchased (thankfully!) and a rough idea of a map and we were off! We did a nice little loop around Pai and surrounding villages…saw a waterfall, a WWII bridge, a beautiful temple overlooking the city, elephant camps and watched the sunset over the mountains from Pai Canyon. It poured briefly….the eldest of the two of us was wise enough to bring her rain coat. As she was in charge of directions that afternoon, she kind of quickly pulled off the road during the rain to catch cover from a tree and check the map again. Gerad got overly anxious at this move and fell off his bike. Luckily for all of us, he wasn’t hurt too badly, just a little bit of blood and a wicked bruise on his hip…I am suffering the most because I haven’t heard the end of it yet!

We spent almost all day Friday gallivanting around on scooters. This time, we visited a bigger waterfall and then head off in a northwest direction with no destination whatsoever. We saw some beautiful landscapes, lush green rice fields, quaint little villages. I love riding on scooters with the wind and occasional bug hitting my face. It was amusing to watch Gerad crouch down on his “hawg”, as he liked to call it, when he was speeding up…as if the 110cc scooter would go faster if he made it just that much more aerodynamic. Ha ha…

Friday afternoon, we were recovering by the pond at our guesthouse when I ran into a girl from Uruguay that Gundula and I had dinner with back in crazy ol’ Kibber in India! What an incredibly small world – we met her in one of the tiniest villages in Spiti Valley in the Himalayas and I run into her again staying in the same guesthouse as us in a village with only 3,000 people in northern Thailand! Unreal! We chatted about India travels and then she joined us for a fantastic Thai dinner. Have I mentioned that I am in love with Thai cuisine?

I spent most of Saturday in massage school. I took a Thai foot massage course and a shoulder/back massage course. My lesson started with me receiving a foot, shoulder and back massage…talk about experiential learning at its best and a great way to start a day! Next was the lecture and demonstration phase of the course, then I had to perform the back massages twice on a poor Thai girl. She flinched in pain only a couple of times and physically moved away from me only once, so I guess I didn’t do that bad!? She spoke no English, so I’m really not sure. The foot massage went about the same way, except Gerad got to be the guinea pig for my last practice run. He said that aside from my giggling, I did an average job. At any rate, I am now the proud owner of a foot massage stick and a certificate saying that I took massage courses. I wonder if I could add that to my resume?!

Sunday we landed in Phuket and spent the evening exploring the night life of Patong Beach – ladyboy shows and another traditional Thai show that I should not write about on a public website…crazy stuff! Now, we’re on Koh Phi Phi, one of the western islands of Thailand to do some more diving. I can’t believe how fast the time has flown since Gerad has been with me…3 weeks gone already! I’m going to miss having him to carry some of my things, to punch in the face while sleeping (he has accused me of doing that this week) and to talk and laugh about everything under the sun with. Gerad, go:

Pai was an excellent little break from the big cities. It’s a small little town in the mountains. We were going to try to do an elephant trek, but decided against it because there was just not enough jungle. Pai is beautiful, but it has a bit more agricultural fields than actual jungle. We saw an elephant ride happening on the same road as we were riding our scooters and thought it would be a better experience in the deep jungle. So, we made the decision and did not ride any elephants on this trip. However, we did ride scooters….

Jamie did briefly mention our little accident. We were riding to a waterfall just outside of the city and it started to rain. Not a torrent, but a good steady hard rain. I was following Jamie because she had the map and was leading for the afternoon. I was close behind her when she all of the sudden without warning cuts a hard left, almost at a 90 degree angle (editor’s note: this is an exaggeration of the truth). I slam on the hand break, momentarily forgetting which one is the back break, and jam down on the front break. With the roads being slick, this sends me over the front of the scooter and down on the pavement. A little shocked and surprised by what just took place, I jumped to my feet and angrily growled at her a “Damn it Jamie” much like my dear old Dad would have done. We were laughing about it later on because it was exactly as he would have sounded. A scrape on my elbow and a rather large bruise on my leg are the only things left over from the scooter accident. Other than that, Pai was mellow and relaxing, the people are laid back and nice and the countryside is breath taking.

We packed up again and decided to head to Phi Phi. It took longer than we had initially planned and had to stay in Phuket for the evening. After taking a few nights of drinking off in Pai we made the decision to go see what the Phuket night life could offer us. So, we had a few “firsts” on my Thailand trip: Our first buckets and Lady-Boy show. For those not in the know, a bucket is literally a bucket filled to the brim with cheap booze and a Lady-Boy show is, as you would imagine, boys dressed up as ladies. After tearing up the not so quiet beach town of Phuket and a 6:40am wake up after a night of drinking, we finally made it to Phi Phi. It has been raining all day, so we booked a diving trip for tomorrow with the hopes that the rain will dissipate and we will have clear waters. The diving is supposedly much better here than in Koh Tao, but we will see………

Happy Endings

2010-08-19T09:30:00.004-04:00

We arrived in Chiang Mai after an early morning start from Koh Samui and took a little rest. For the remainder of the day, we toured temples and walked the city center of Chiang Mai, a bustling city in the north of Thailand. We got fantastic hour long foot massages for $4 – Gerad’s first but not last! We visited the residence/office of a local in hopes of booking a jungle trek. Unfortunately, the rivers were way too strong and the cost did not justify the journey, so we decided to save that for Pai. In the trek owner’s home, we discovered that he actually went to the University of Florida to get his Doctor of Philosophy. They welcomed us into the living quarters and were so excited to show us his diploma, UF coffee mug and license plate frame. Very cool! We ran into a guy that we dove with in Koh Tao that night, not expecting to see him! Such a small world!

On Sunday, we lounged around and then set out for the bustling Sunday Walking Street Market. It was absolute chaos in every direction…vendors selling all kinds of things, lots of Thai people everywhere, Westerners sprinkled throughout. We ate delicious street food, bought some stuff and things and then decided to people watch from a nearby bar. There, we met a fabulous couple, Alex & Gino (picture) and chatted with them about the Price is Right, mostly. They own a flower business in Hawaii and supply the show with all their flowers. I almost felt like we were personal friends with Bob Barker and Rod Roddey (RIP) afterwards. You can’t make stuff like this up! We went out Sunday night really late (home after 4 AM…yikes!) with the owner of our guesthouse, Kung, and some of her friends. Lots of fire twirling, Thai whiskey and dancing. My life passed before my eyes a few times, once as the fire stick landed on our table and again as kerosene was accidentally sprayed all over my shirt. Luckily, I never burst into flames!

We took a fantastic cooking class all day Monday, completely exhausted! We did a market tour and then headed to the school for a day of cooking and eating. Between the two of us, we made: pad thai, green curry paste and green curry, chicken w/ cashews, spring rolls, fried bananas w/ ice cream, sticky rice w/ mango, hot and sour prawn soup, prawn and coconut milk soup, chicken with basil leaves….incredibly delicious food and boy were we stuffed by the end of the day! Needless to say, the Barden children were well fed on Monday and slept like babies Monday night!

We lounged around, still sloth-like from overindulging on Thai food, for most of Tuesday morning. That afternoon, we more than made up for it by taking a three hour Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) class at an outdoor gym. I was sweating and exhausted before we finished warm-ups!! The class was a lot of fun. I was, not surprisingly, the only girl. There was a chubby 10 year old English kid…I had just slightly more stamina than he did to get through the class. We learned lots of punching, kicking, blocking, kneeing…great fun! That night, we went out with Kung and an Irish guy at the guesthouse. Amazing Thai food and then a live show performed by Thai women dressed as women and Thai men, some dressed as women, some as men. It sounded like cats dying and the whole time I couldn’t stop thinking of nails down a chalkboard…it was horrible. Oh well, they looked like they were having fun trying!

Could barely move on Wednesday what with more exercise in the 3 hours of Thai boxing than I have had since leaving Beijing in January! We took a bus to Pai, in the northwest part of Thailand. We’re staying in a bamboo hut for $6.50/night. It’s a village with only 3,000 residents and judging by what we’ve seen of it so far, will likely become my favorite city in northern Thailand!

I’ve learned the following things about my brother: he has frequent dreams of leading an army against oncoming zombies, he thinks I hog the bed (yes, unfortunately we have had to share a bed more than once on this little adventure), he likes to have a toilet nearby at all times, just in case, and he gets cranky when he’s hungry or thirsty or tired. ;) That’s all for now!

Sibling update from Gerad’s view: My sister does not like to carry ANY of her own things, definitely likes to hog the bed, and can only sleep on the outside of the bed because she has to use the bathroom during the night, of which she has not done so far. Other than that we are getting along fine and have not gotten on each other’s nerves too much.

Chiang Mai was an excellent change of pace from the beach. It was nice to be in a bigger city for a while. We stayed at this little six room hotel close to the city center. The owner was this tiny cute Thai girl named Kung, she was an excellent cook and a great hostess. We did a Thai cooking class, which was actually a lot of fun. It was very well organized, but too much food. We literally ate all day, the class was from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM and we stayed out until about 4:00 AM the previous morning with Kung and some other people from the hotel. So, needless to say it was a bit hard getting out of bed, but it was well worth it because I am officially a certified Thai chef. Do not fear, I will not be opening up a Thai restaurant anytime soon.

After being complete gluttons, we signed up for a Thai boxing class scheduled for the next day. I have taken a few of these classes in the States, but this one was a little more authentic. Our trainer was a Thai boxing champion with a totally of 287 fights under his belt. It was a cool experience to see where and how the Muay Thai fighters train and the moves they learn. If you have never done a Muay Thai class, you might need to give it a try. Believe me; you will be carved out of wood in a few short weeks. These guys are bad asses. It was funny because I could tell they were going SOOO slow when we had to try to block their kicks and punches, it was almost silly. They are professional fighters trying to train out of shape foreigners, it was funny. We even took a few short videos and a bunch of pictures; however I hope none make it on here because they are kind of embarrassing. We survived our first Muay Thai lessons in Thailand!!

We packed up from Chiang Mai, said goodbye to our new friends and headed to Pai, which is a little town in the mountains. We already have an adventure to tell on our second day in Pai, which involves a scooter and me falling off said scooter. Do not worry Mom, I am not hurt in any physical way. To be honest the fall was not entirely my fault, as any man with wounded pride would try to put to blame on someone else. I will tell you next time and let you decide who is at fault. The rider or the person he is riding with??

Bottle Beach

2010-08-15T01:41:00.002-04:00

We occupied the remainder of our time in Koh Tao by doing one of the following things: eating, sleeping, lying on the beach, enjoying Singhas and/or diving. The diving, although visibility could have been a bit better, was still really good. I saw my first wreck and the whole time I was swimming around it, I kept thinking of the Titanic. We did a deep dive, around 90’ or so. Saw some cool fish: trigger, a massive sweetlips (I love that fish’s name!), giant grouper, etc. Also, saw a cool white/hot pink jellyfish and a moray eel. At one dive site, there were a lot of swim throughs – kind of like caves – which was awesome! All in all, a great time was had in Koh Tao.

On Tuesday morning, we said goodbye to our new diving friends and took a 45 minute ferry to Koh Phangan. We met an Austrian couple, Laurenz and Lena, on the way from Bangkok to Koh Tao and kept in touch throughout our week diving. They made their way prior to us to Bottle Beach on the north side of Koh Phangan, so we decided to meet up with them. You can only access the Bottle Beach bay by boat (that’s a lot of b’s!!). If there is a more amazing beach on the planet, I’d love to know about it because Bottle Beach is truly paradise. There are three restaurants and three ‘living quarters’ on the bay. The living quarters go like this: on the far left, the budget-conscious (aka poor) bungalows. In the middle, the average bungalows. On the far right, the fancy (aka pricey) bungalows. One shop. No roads. Hardly any people - nothing but white sand, teal water surrounded by mountains and palm trees. Paradise.

Obviously fitted for the slums, we suffered through a very basic bungalow right on the beach for 250 Baht a night, roughly $8 USD. We had a balcony, so we immediately purchased and hung a Gator blue hammock. The food at the restaurant on the slum side of the beach was incredible…by far the best green curry I’ve ever had, as an example. They had a very chill bar with lots of fun experimental drinks like an Oreo & Jim Beam shake and other magical treats. Each night, they had a bon fire and live music along with fire twirlers. It was amazing. We didn’t raise our heart rate above resting other than to swim, play volleyball, snorkel or jungle trek (Gerad did that without me…the hammock was calling my name that particular morning!). If you happen to be in the market for a honeymoon spot…Bottle Beach is number one on my list! We met a cool Israeli couple on their honeymoon and spent the majority of our time hanging out with them, Laurenz and Lena. By far the best beach I’ve ever been to!

On Friday, we pulled ourselves away from paradise and took another ferry bound for Koh Samui. I’d always heard that Koh Samui was really paradise…but in my humble opinion, it is a little overdeveloped and too touristy, not too mention more expensive. We enjoyed our day by the beautiful beach and ate our weight in food for dinner – for $32 USD total, we had beer, an entire sea bass (Gerad ate the eye ball!!), calamari, massive tiger prawns, crab, soup, salad and rice…a fantastic end to a great time in the islands of Thailand! Up early on Saturday, we flew from Koh Samui (which, incidentally, is the most impressive, tropical, open air airport I’ve ever seen!) to Chiang Mai to begin our jungle adventure!

Sibling update: Gerad and I are getting along fantastically….laughing and making fun of each other a lot. It seems there is a battle of wills going on to see who can be the laziest of the two of us. For example, we argue over whose turn it is to go up to the bar to buy the next round or who’s turn it is to walk the 200’ to the shop to buy toilet paper. In the end, we sided with just borrowing some napkins from the restaurant to save us from all that silly walking. Gerad’s turn!!

I am officially an Advanced Open Water Diver. I am not even too sure what that really means, but it sounds pretty cool. To get the advanced certification I needed to complete five more dives in a day and a half. I got to do a deep, navigation, wreck, fish identification, and multi level dive. We were supposed to do a night dive, but were never able to because of bad weather. Another important note is that I had no more major melt downs under water after my first little episode. The advanced course was much easier, as we actually got to dive and did not have to do any under water safety exercises. I will definitely be diving when I get back home; it is quite an amazing experience. I hear Boynton Beach has great diving and the Keys. Mom we need to get down there again and dive this X-mas. After completing all the diving and having a little party with our new friends, we left Koh Tao and headed to Koh Phangan to meet up with a couple we met earlier in the week.

The couple was staying at Bottle Beach, which is a beautiful place. If heaven exists and it’s anything less than Bottle Beach, you will not find me there. Bottle Beach is by far the most amazing place I have seen or been to yet. It is the epitome of the term “No Worries.” We stayed about 50 feet from the beach for about $8 a night. The beach is surrounded by mountains and a ten minute walk from the beach puts you in the middle of the jungle. The Thai people at Bottle Beach are so friendly, nice, and laid back they definitely put things in perspective for me. They do not have medical coverage, car insurance, a dental plan, 401ks, any type of investment portfolio, fancy degrees, a four bedroom house, a luxury car, designer clothing, or any of the other material possessions that are often confused for necessity items in the Western World (America). They have none of these things and yet are happier and more relaxed than any other people I have ever met. All they have is beautiful surroundings, delicious food, amazing families, and great friends. I am not saying that everyone has these items as the most important things in their lives. I guess I just forgot about what is really important to me and spending a few days at that beach brought it all up to the surface. It was a great time and a wonderful life experience.

We just got to Chiang Mai and are going to get into the jungle and see some animals. Talk to you later and I will try to be funnier on the next blog.

A Whole Lot of India Pictures!!

2010-08-07T22:11:00.000-04:00

Click on the link below to see way too many pictures from India!

A Whole Lot of India Pictures!!

The Bardens in Bangkok

2010-08-06T03:41:00.004-04:00

I am not in India anymore, and Gerad made it to Bangkok in one piece! It was awesome to see him turn the corner into the hostel and give me a big ol' Gerad hug! We celebrated his arrival by sampling some Thai beer, catching up and listening to a Thai guy try to sing Western music, of which he should get an A for effort! Gerad had some trouble sleeping and was wide awake at 8 AM…I could have slept until 6 PM because I got no sleep my last night in Delhi partying with Gundula, Shive (the guy from Belgium that we survived the strike with happened to be in Delhi at the same time!), two Italians and an Indian! I sucked it up and we went out to explore Bangkok.

Our first stop was the Wat Pho temple. I had been before, but Gerad seemed to enjoy seeing the massive reclining Buddha in gold leaf, the other hundred+ Buddhas and other Buddhist temple things! From there, we took a river boat taxi and the sky train out to the weekend market. It was crazy hot, ridiculously crowded and overwhelming. We walked forever looking at all the random things for sale and got lost trying to escape! A tuk-tuk took (ha ha) us to the boxing stadium where we watched seven Muay Thai fights (Thai boxing in Thailand). The fights were actually awesome to watch…lots of punching, kicking and kneeing involved. We picked winners…I won 5 of 7…should have joined the Thais in gambling! Gerad had to suffer through a fish foot massage for losing. The jet lag caught up with him and he slept through most of the championship fight. Very funny to see him passed out on the concrete floor in the middle of a boxing match!

We made up for lost sleep, got Thai massages and did a little shopping on Monday. We were lying next to each other in the room while getting our massages. Every time I looked over at Gerad, I started giggling. That evening, we took a 10 hour overnight bus ride south. Then, we jumped on a ferry for a couple of hours, final destination: Koh Tao. On the way, we somehow managed to lose/have stolen 6,000 Baht (roughly $200 USD). Not a great way to start off our island adventure, but our hope is that whoever found or took the money needed it more than us and will use it for something good. We’ll also be more careful with our money going forward!

Koh Tao is a small island, about 3 hours by boat north of Koh Samui…aka paradise. Koh Tao (Koh means island in Thai) is a great island for diving. Gerad started his open Water dive certification training on Tuesday. Despite a minor freak out he had 12 meters underwater yesterday, he graduates tonight! We have spent most of our evenings with his classmates…two Aussies guys, an English guy, and an Irish girl...they are a lot of fun! While he’s been in class, I have been thoroughly enjoying the beach, fantastic Thai food and good books….what a drastic change from a week ago in Varanasi! He’s going on to do his advanced certification, so we’ll be here a few more days. We’ll be able to dive together once he finishes his advanced!

All in all, the Barden children have not caused too much trouble as of yet. Gerad has been a diligent dive student. Something tells me we’ll make up for it after his graduation tonight! Mom, you’ll be happy to know that the Junior Mints and Oreos that you sent me were enjoyed by everyone on the overnight bus with us. Thank you. Also, we are eating well, all bodily systems are functioning and we haven’t killed each other. Gerad will now provide some commentary of his own on the first week of our little adventure together…!

Hello folks. Thailand has been an amazing experience so far! My flight was a little on the long side, but it was well worth it when I saw Jamie. As she said, we had a few beers when I got there and finally went to sleep after a 24 hour flight. Bangkok was pretty interesting, a lot different smells and people selling anything you can imagine. I gave some thought to buying a few new suits for the job I do not have. All in all Bangkok was nice, but I was ready to get to the beach!

Koh Tao is amazing. I have enjoyed getting my open water scuba diving certification, of which I finished today! Tonight my classmates and I will have a few hundred beers and enjoy our accomplishment. Then, on Sunday I start my advanced certification, which is the next level in the diving world. It has been an awesome experience to be able to learn how to dive on the other side of the planet. Yes, as Jamie so graciously mentioned above, I did have a little melt down on my first scuba diving experience of my life. Scuba diving is MUCH more mental then I thought. I started breathing too fast, which sent my mind into panic hyperventilate mode. At the same moment, I decided to go up and see how things were going on the surface no matter what happened, which can be extremely bad. I gave the "there is something wrong" sign to the instructor followed by the "I'm going up" sign. I thought my scuba diving career was over before it started and at that moment it was fine with me. However, my instructor, which is an amazing individual from Israel, grabbed me, pulled me down to him and looked into my eyes. Now that does sound like a romantic moment, but it was not. Believe it or not it actually helped. He calmed me down and my scuba diving career was back on track. I love it and should have done it a long time ago. So far, Thailand is beautiful, the people are very nice, we have meet a lot of people from all over the planet, and have not gotten sick!! Mom, we are fine and safe, you have nothing to worry about!! Hello Rage!! I am sure there will be more to come as the adventure continues......

Last Stop in India ~ Varanasi!

2010-07-30T00:38:00.004-04:00

Varanasi is India on steroids. We arrived after a 13 hour train ride in the heat of the day. The traffic, horns, dust, rubbish, cows, horses, goats, heat and smells welcomed us and were way too overwhelming considering the bout of ‘Delhi belly’ that I was fighting. I spent the remainder of Saturday locked away in my room pretending that I wasn’t in India. The only English channel on the 12” TV played the Hannah Montana movie and The Day the Earth Stood Still. In my humble opinion, Keanu Reeves was really only good in the Matrix. Sunday was also spent in recovery and trying to clean laundry, a seemingly simple yet impossible task here. I have added a washing machine and dryer to my list of things I really miss from home.

On Monday, we got up with the sun and hired a boat. The man rowing our boat was adorable. He was three rows away from having a heart attack, which is why I quickly tried to recall the steps to CPR, just in case. He had the most remarkable ear hair, in both length and quantity, which I’ve ever seen on a human. He also liked to repeat the four English words he knew over and over through his almost toothless mouth...I loved him!

Varanasi is the spiritual heart of India. The Ganges River runs right through it, and the waterfront is buzzing with activity 24 hours a day. The elderly population of India make their final journey to Varanasi to die. I was not really prepared, emotionally speaking, for what that might mean for people like us out for a sunrise cruise on the Ganges. Before I continue, if you’re eating right now, you may want to read the rest of this later on!

The Ganges, the holiest of holy rivers, is the lifeblood of India. Here’s what I have seen the river used for: drinking, bathing (humans, monkeys, dogs and buffaloes), laundry, disposing of waste, disposing of bodies (human, cow, dog), prayer and worship. Depending on your caste, age, etc., you are either burned or placed in the river once deceased. We eventually made our way to one of two main burning areas. Here, we smelled hair and flesh burning, saw corpses burning on logs. It was surreal. I was overwhelmed with emotion at the seemingly non-ceremonial way the bodies were disposed of….feeling the heat from the fires, covered with ashes of the dead...it made me uncomfortable and even more sick to my stomach. I spent the remainder of the day in quiet contemplation and shock.

The next day, I went off on my own to the second burning site, determined to face what I was uncomfortable with and to attempt to understand it…to observe with an open heart and mind, now that my stomach was better prepared to handle it. I saw two corpses, heads uncovered, go through the process from start to finish. There is actually a ceremony, simple yet respectful, involved for those whose families are present. I came to accept that this is the way it is for this culture. The Ganges and all that it symbolizes is the conduit to heaven for the Hindu Indians, therefore, the way that the dead are disposed of, while shocking to Westerners like me, is exactly what those who follow that belief system hope for all their lives. I found peace with it when looking at the situation from their perspective.

We tried banana lassies at the infamous ‘Blue Lassi’ shop. I took a cooking class, where I learned how to make a delicious mango and coconut soup and rice pulao (rice with vegetables). I had a Reiki treatment done to cleanse my body of bad energy. The Yogi performing the treatment on me said that I was itchy (allergies), that I was thinking too much, and that I had a bad stomach. Not too bad of a diagnosis!

Gundula and I have done some shopping...bought some cool scarves and wood carvings. I ventured off into the city on my own yesterday, first to the post office, then to the ‘mall’. The post office was like a step back in time. They put my stuff in a box, tied the box with string, wrapped the box with cloth, sewed the cloth up, then put hot wax seals all over it. I burned my finger on one of the seals. At the mall, I was elated to find a McDonald’s. I tried the McVeggie burger. It wasn’t great, but the French fries were delicious...it was like I had found a long, lost friend in the unhealthy yet comforting food from home! There are no hamburgers at McD’s in India, in case you were curious, only chicken and fish. Interestingly, they also have ‘Pizza Puffs’. Sadly, no McFlurries! I went into a proper clothing store where there was air conditioning, Western music and proper dressing rooms. Also, no one was hassling me and I didn’t have to negotiate on the price. It was WONDERFUL!! I restocked on tops…nothing that I came into India with is coming away with me…it’s all too filthy. Later this morning, Gundula, who has been learning how to give Reiki treatments, will give one to me as her graduation. Then, we fly to Delhi. We plan to hit the clubs to celebrate our last night in India together. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to Gundula…our relationship has blossomed into a wonderful friendship and the experiences we have shared together and memories we have made here and in Bali, I will always treasure.

As this is my last entry from India, allow me please to share my thoughts on my whirlwind tour of Northern India - 12 cities in just over 6 weeks! India is incredible; drastically diverse in landscape, climate and culture. It is one of the most accepting countries I have visited, tolerant of all belief systems and people. The people are beautiful, leading colorful, disciplined lives. India is intense - it has stretched my comfort zone in many directions, which is a good thing. I have learned to go with the flow and accept the way things are in a way that no other experience could have taught me. Most of all, India has taught me that you always have a choice in how you see things. You can choose to smell the cow shit and the rotting garbage or you can choose to smell the sandalwood and incense permeating the air. You can choose to see the pollution and the chaos or you can choose to see the beauty and the order within the chaos. You can choose to love it or you can choose to extremely dislike it. I choose love! I wanted to come to India for some hard core traveling...I definitely got it and so much more!

I am so excited about seeing my Brother tomorrow in Thailand that I can hardly sit still or hold a thought in my head (to paraphrase Shawshank Redemption!). ;)

What an Amazing Week!

2010-07-23T08:52:00.012-04:00

It has been an incredible and busy week!! We spent most of Monday on a train from Rishikesh to Agra. The scenery was amazing...lots of corn and rice fields, small villages, beautiful women wearing brightly colored saris working the fields, wild peacocks, men going to the bathroom on the side of the road (what impeccable timing!)...ha ha!

We were the first two tourists into the Taj Mahal on Tuesday. As soon as I saw the largest dome, I got the chills! The Taj Mahal is mesmerizing and such a beautiful expression of love. I always had the idea that the building was pure white marble. There are actually little grey and brown swirls in the marble which look amazing with the different angles of the sun, clouds, etc. Inside, the marble inlays are so intricate and colorful. We stayed in the grounds for over 5 hours and took hundreds of pictures. While I was taking one of those hundreds of pictures something/someone came up and aggressively reached into my pant pocket. I turned and wondered what on earth Gundula could possibly want so quickly from me when I realized that it was a monkey!! We've heard that monkeys are sometimes trained to steal from tourists...luckily all it got out of my pocket was lint!

I went on my own to the baby Taj Mahal, older, smaller and more detailed than the famous one. I hired a guy to pull me in a rickshaw by bicycle. He was the skinniest man alive and he had to get off the bike several times to pull my fat ass up hill. After touring the baby Taj and going through a small village to view the Taj from the opposite side of the river, the monsoon started. We pulled into a tunnel to avoid the rain where I bonded with all the other bicycle and motorbike guys. Twenty minutes later, it lightened up. We moved on and three minutes after that, it came down so hard that I was completely drenched from head to toe within seconds. I've never seen rain like it. I felt so bad for the poor driver but I paid him double what he asked (because of the rain and the size of my pants!). ;)

We spent Tuesday night on a train from Agra to Khajuarho. I was really excited to see this city because it is known for it's erotic carvings on the temples, where the Kama Sutra came from. There were 85 temples in the past, now there are less than 20 left. In reality, there are only 5 or 6 graphic carvings on each of the temples we saw. Pretty cool but I wouldn't recommend the city just for the carvings to anyone else. However, my time in Khajuarho has been the highlight of my time in India so far because of the people we've met.

On Wednesday, I made friends with a 13 year old boy named Suneel. He wanted to practice his English and we were hungry, so we invited him to join us for ice cream. He is a very bright, friendly kid with an infectious laugh. Two of his older, much 'cooler' friends, Guloo, age 17, and 'Tony', age 22 also joined us. We spent the next 6 hours talking and laughing, playing cards and drawing henna on each other. Suneel wrote 'I Love My India' on my right hand and on my left arm 'I love you' in Sanskrit. So precious!

Thursday, we toured the temples and then I spent some time in the afternoon playing cards with Suneel and his friends. We went to a local ceremony at a Shiva temple that was beautiful...blowing of conch shells, banging of gongs, lighting of incense, lots of kissing and bowing and praying to the lingam in the center of the temple.

Today, we tried to meet Suneel when he got out of school but he had already left on the bus. His teacher showed us around the school, I met with the principal to discuss important things like where I was from, if I was married or not and if I wanted to teach or not. The kids went wild seeing two foreigners at their school grounds. We took a ton of pictures of them (they love seeing themselves on the camera screen!) and had a blast letting them practice their English with us! Some of the older boys were playing cricket, so they let me take a few swings. I think they were impressed that I actually could hit the ball! It was so fun!

Once all the children had finally taken the bus home, the teacher invited us to his home. We met his wife, daughter, son, niece, nephew and the 5 people renting the room adjacent to his. Their home consisted of one room, maybe 15x20. They all sleep together in the same bed. He volunteered that he made 2,000 rupees a month, annualized to $480 a year. What different lives we all lead...very humbling indeed. His daughter liked to dance, so the Mom turned on music and she grabbed my hand and away we went. Gundula joined us and the three of us were putting on our best versions of Indian dancing...everyone was laughing, clapping. Tears started streaming down my face...such an incredible, unique and touching experience. Amazing!

I'm writing this in our room...we have tapped into an unsecured WiFi signal which is so nice to have. It's incredibly hot...I've never sweat so much doing absolutely nothing. There's a mouse in our room with us...she seems friendly enough and thankfully hasn't eaten all of our crackers on the shelf. So with that, Gundula, the mouse and I will say Namaste!

The Ganges

2010-07-18T06:56:00.003-04:00

We ended up staying in Shimla for one more day…it was way too comfortable what with the enclosed toilets, paved roads sans cows and power. On Thursday, we boarded a bus at 5:15 AM for an 9 hour journey out of the Himalayas bound for Rishikesh, the world capital of yoga and the city the Beatles made famous back in the day by visiting an ashram. Eleven exhausting hours later, Gundula and I vowed to not set foot on a bus for the rest of this trip…something worthy of celebration! We celebrated by treating ourselves to a rickshaw ride into Rishikesh. Rickshaws, it turns out, are even louder, bumpier and dustier. Scratch those too.

The Ganges River runs through Rishikesh. It is a massive, brown and powerfully flowing river. At this point of the river, pretty fresh out of the Himalayas still, it is relatively clean. We each went up to our knees yesterday. I even splashed water on my arms and forehead so that maybe it would qualify as ‘bathing’. Bathing in the Ganges, considered by Hindus a holy river, is supposed to wash away your sins. It felt cold and wet to me….my fingers are crossed that what I did counted as bathing and that my sins are far downstream by now!

Rishikesh is real India. There are sadhus everywhere. Sadhus are the holy saints of Hinduism who give up their families and all of their possessions to devote their life to God. They wear either bright orange or white and seem to be very chilled out people. The sadhus share the riverside with hundreds of people bathing in the Ganges, cows who have free reign of the place and flies who follow the cows. Not to brag, but I have become quite adept at watching what’s going on all around me while sidestepping cow poop. Also, my fly swatting skills have quadrupled since arriving…Grandma, you’d be proud! ;)

We checked into the Parmarth Niketan Ashram which came highly recommended. The room is basic, as most have been, but it’s surrounded by beautiful gardens and sculptures of Shiva and hundreds of other Hindu Gods. We completed a Panchkarma treatment at their spa Friday and this morning. Friday's treatment consisted of Abhayanga (an ayurvedic massage with oil), Shirodhara (hot oil that dripped on my third eye for 30 minutes) and an ayurvedic steam treatment. It was heavenly and oh boy was I greasy! This morning, I got another oily massage and this time they put oil in my nose and ears. I have been hacking and spitting like a true Indian ever since. Also, my hearing and sense of smell seems to be hypersensitive....not a great day to fight the car horns and smells at the local market! I met with the ayurvedic doctor to get some insight on my health. Unfortunately, I have come down with yet another rash (thank you body!). This time, my rash is from Indian vitamins that I purchased to help offset the severe lack of protein I’ve had since arriving here. The doctor was pretty insightful. He told me to stay away from cheese. I followed the advice by ordering a brownie with ice cream for lunch. There’s always tomorrow.

In other news, I have made a major move and booked a flight home. My brother and I will turn Thailand and Laos upside down here in a few weeks, then I’ll have a few weeks to explore Cambodia and visit some new friends in Vietnam. From there, I’m heading to Ecuador to sail around the Galapagos Islands. Then, it’s home, sweet home. I’ll be Stateside by Friday, October 29th. For a lot of reasons, it is time and I am ready. It’s a bittersweet feeling to know that this trip has an end in sight now, but I am ready for a different kind of purpose in my life. I will happily accept any offers of couches to sleep on while I look for gainful employment!!

To close this entry, I’d like to share a passage from a book I’m currently reading called Holy Cow – An Indian Adventure by Sarah MacDonald. Sarah is an Aussie girl who traveled and subsequently moved to India. It is hilarious. My favorite line, talking about the traffic which could apply anywhere in the country really…’It’s as if Delhi is blind and driving by sound – except it seems many are deaf.’

Better Late Than Never!

2010-07-13T09:28:00.004-04:00

Gundula and I passed those words painted on a sign next to the ‘road’ somewhere in the heart of the Himalayas. We cracked up laughing. We also got a good chuckle out of reading ‘Good Luck’ painted on the side of a mountain that we inched by. At least the Indians have a good sense of humor when it comes to their ‘road’ signs in the mountains! I’m using ‘’ around road because it’s a bit of a stretch to actually call it that.

The last week has been the most trying of my entire time away from home. We ended up being stuck in Kaza until Thursday morning when the roads opened up. It was rainy and cold the entire time, minus about three hours of sun on Wednesday afternoon. We took advantage of the sunny skies (still cold!) and went for a walk down by the river. The scenery in Spiti Valley is simply breathtaking. We spent the majority of Tuesday and Wednesday playing cards, watching the quarter finals of the World Cup and watching the rain fall.

On Thursday, we boarded an early bus towards Rekong Peo on what we thought would be a 10 hour journey. At 4 ½ hours in, we hit a road block. The Kissan Union, some sort of farmers/ag union we learned, was striking. The strikers put up logs at the end of the only bridge across a river and sat on a tarp on one side. For the first few hours, we sat by the river enjoying the sun, reading and writing. When it became clear that the strikers had settled in for a long day of protests, we started to get restless. Two Belgian guys, Nico and Shive, who are doing the Himalayas on motorbike, also got stuck in the strike. We spent the rest of the day and night hanging out with them. I asked the strikers if we could join them on the tarp to play cards because the roads were filthy. For the next hour, it was almost like we were playing in the World Series of Poker because about 40-50 men gathered around to watch us play. Once they realized that they couldn’t figure out what game we were playing (called Kabo, a game from Peru), they dispersed and we were left alone on the striker’s tarp. I am thinking that my next career should be peace mediation and conflict resolution through card playing.

As it got dark, we realized that the strike wasn’t going to end and we settled in to the only restaurant in town. Gundula and I were seemingly the only females out in public that day, and certainly the only ones in the restaurant. Once we finished our second whiskey and black tea, the men started swarming. They serenaded us with amazing Indian songs and dances...I was laughing so hard I was crying. Then, they begged us to sing and dance, so I quickly taught Gundula the words and the moves and we performed a great rendition of I’m a Little Tea Pot. Upon finishing, they clapped and cheered for us like it was the most incredible thing their eyes had ever witnessed. Awesome. A small group of Indian Army soldiers were also stuck in the strike, and they loaned us a sleeping bag and a mat. Nico also had an extra sleeping bag. The kindness of strangers can be so wonderful. With our borrowed bags, we nestled down on the concrete of the second floor balcony of a guesthouse and passed out watching shooting stars. All in all, not a bad day for being stuck in the middle of nowhere!

After 28 hours, we finally made it to Kalpa where we had views of snow capped mountains that exceeded 6,050m – so beautiful. We spent Friday afternoon and Saturday recharging batteries after a week of no power, enjoying the mattress and hand washing laundry (a lot of my stuff is now what I like to call India black…covered in dust…and they don’t have washing machines here that we have been able to find!). Sunday we made our way to Chitkul, another 6 hour bus ride away. On the way, we had to stop for a few hours so that they could blow up some huge boulders that had fallen on the road. Dynamite is loud! I went across the rubble to another village to try and find food. I could not find anything, but a wonderful woman gave me apples. Chitkul is the closest village to Tibet and we hiked as close as we could get through a valley full of wild flowers...amazing. The village reminded me of a living museum except it's real life. It's the kind of village where no one has an email address and only three or four of the cool guys have cell phones. It is an incredibly peaceful and remote way of life.

Another 9 hour bus ride, where this time we only had to stop for an hour to fix a tire problem. Gundula and I passed the time by dancing on the street. She taught me the waltz and I taught her the ever classic grapevine. The men tried to learn but were slow to pick it up! Made it to Shimla, the capital city of the state of Himachal Pradesh at 4 AM today. It's so amazing to be back in civilization. I almost did a back handspring when I saw a Subway. That's where I'll be having dinner tonight! Today, I needed to buy a new umbrella and camera bag and the shopowner and I went round and round on the price. He finally ended up giving them to me with my promise to send him something from the States someday. Amazing kindness.

My thoughts on bus rides: Imagine a bus ride you've taken where it was pretty crowded. Triple it. Now ride over dirt, rocks, boulders, inches from the cliff that falls straight into a ravine. If you picture yourself covered in dust, cramped and bouncing all over the place, you've almost got it. Now, picture a woman's handbag banging you in the head, a book falling on your lap from the storage racks above and a man's foot resting comfortably on top of yours and you can't move at all. That's a local bus ride in India. I spent a lot of time trying to guess which direction the bus driver would dodge the boulders, cows and oncoming traffic. It seems logic does not always dictate reality! If you don't laugh, you'd go crazy!!

On Top of the World

2010-07-07T01:59:00.002-04:00

The bus ride to Spiti Valley was bumpy, dusty and amazing. The scenery we saw as we wound our way up, over and down the Himalayas was indescribably beautiful. I must have said ‘wow’ a thousand times! For the first three hours, the bus was packed full and we were crammed in – we were lucky enough to have a window and middle seat (yes, in India some of the buses have middle seats- just like a 747). Our knees touched the seat in front of us. The ride was made much more pleasant by the fact that apparently there were Indian comedians on board…about every 5 minutes or so someone would say something in Hindi pretty loudly and then the entire bus would start laughing. It was hysterical. We had no idea what was being said, but their laughter was contagious. So, we laughed and bounced our way up the Rohtang Pass. More than half the bus got off there, so the remaining 7 hours was much more comfortable!

After three hours with no stop, my bladder was about to burst, so I asked the driver if he could pull over. On this journey, I’ve gotten accustomed to using the bathroom in the great wide open. I jumped off the bus, ran towards the back and dropped my pants just behind the bus, out of view to anyone who might want to peak out the back window as there were no rocks, trees, etc. for me to hide behind! What I didn’t realize is that the entire bus also had to use the restroom. It was kind of embarrassing to spend 4 more hours on a bus full of men who had seen my white ass. Better luck peeing outside next time Jamie!

We finally arrived in Kaza when the real fun began – altitude sickness. I had a slight headache for the majority of the ride as we ascended and descended pretty quickly. Kaza is 3740m high and the fact that my body is used to sea level caught up with me quickly and painfully! I went to bed at 5 PM and didn’t wake up until 10 AM the next morning. It was horrible. Gundula is an angel for taking care of me!

On the 4th, we made our way to Kibber, about 4100m high with a population of less than 350. As we walked around, I noticed that the children all looked malnourished – glassy eyed, poor skin, etc. There seems to also be a lot of inbreeding going on. We saw three girls using down electrical lines as a swing and a lot of boys riding and hitting donkeys. It’s another world up there. Nevertheless, we received the biggest smiles imaginable. We had dinner with a French man, a German man, an Austrian guy, a girl from Uruguay and another girl from the States. To celebrate the 4th of July, we split a Kit Kat bar seven ways.

After dinner, the scariest night of my life began. Gundula and I were the only two staying at our guesthouse. There was no power (they sometimes get power for a few hours every other day, but we hit on an off day) so we sat in the room and read by candlelight before falling asleep. About 1 in the morning, I woke up to someone banging like crazy on the wall next to us. For the next three hours, a very disturbed, probably drunk and/or drugged man banged on the wall and door, stood outside our window and talked through the walls trying to get us to come out and talk to him. It was frightening.

We had planned to do a hike down to the Ki Monastery but the weather had turned miserable – very cold, rainy and foggy. It was almost like a white out – maybe 100’ of visibility. Luckily, we were able to hitch a ride with a South African guy and made it to the monastery. The Ki Monastery is over 1100 years old, built on the side of a mountain. Boys aged 8 or 9 come to the monastery to study Buddhism and stay for a lifetime in most cases. We stayed for about five hours in the prayer hall listening to their chants and music with horns, drums and chimes. It is a great place to meditate. The dedication of the monks fascinates me – for six or more hours a day they sit Indian style in the prayer hall and recite prayers. I got uncomfortable after twenty minutes sitting Indian style on the floor with them!

One of the monks took us around the grounds – first for chai in a kitchen with no lights, then to the small, brightly colored and somewhat kitschy temple, then to a room where the Dalai Lama stays when he visits. Within this room, they keep a prayer book that is over 1,300 years old and a lot of old Buddhist tapestries that were smuggled out of Tibet. We were lucky to see this room, as tourists are not invited in that often. Another hitch hike back to Kaza, where we spent another freezing night in a room with no power. I’m apparently trying to go for a record of days without showering…the water is too bloody cold to even consider it!

We have been stuck now for two days in Kaza due to the unrelenting rain. In either direction, the roads have been washed out. I've been killing time by learning awesome new card games with some Israelis that are staying at the same place and watching World Cup. We have spent a lot of time at the bus station, where I met an adorable girl who wanted her hair braided like mine...so precious!

Hope you had a great 4th! Go Germany!! Please hope for dry, warm, sunny weather, safe roads and no crazy men in our future!

Manali

2010-07-01T06:55:00.004-04:00

The last week – I can’t believe a week has gone by already! – since our Himalayan skiing adventure has been wonderful. Gundula and I have been hiking almost everyday. Yesterday, we went on a long trek into the woods. An adorable golden retriever, who I named Copper, came along with us. For a good ½ km, a cow also joined the walk. It was hilarious – Gundula, a black cow, a golden retriever and me walking through the forest!

We went to a small carnival in New Manali…yak rides, alpine bunny holding, snake charmers, a carousel, cotton candy. We were by far the most popular visitors, judging by how many people wanted to take pictures with us! We went to the Harimba Temple where a chicken had been sacrificed just before our arrival – fresh blood and feathers still littered the floor. I saw a black scorpion just before I stepped on it and witnessed a parade to welcome an Indian dignitary, not in that order.

We went to a hot spring bath house in a nearby village. The men went to one side, women to the other. I wore my bathing suit and had intentions to get all the way in, but after dipping my toes in I realized that it was way too hot! Also, on the women’s side, only very small children were actually getting all the way in and showing skin. I have heard that Indians, men and women, are never nudes…but haven’t gathered the nerve to ask anyone if it’s true or not just yet. Maybe Tobias could start a spin off from Arrested Development in India!? (I’d be curious to know how many of you have a clue what I’m talking about!?!)

Jindu, the guesthouse owner where we are staying, and his wife come and chat with us everyday on the balcony. We talk with his wife over chai about the fact that neither Gundula nor I are married or have children and that we’re both over 30! Our lives seem to fascinate her…she is with Jindu through an arranged marriage and she has been living there for over 25 years. Definitely a different path than I have taken! Thankfully, they are happy in the marriage and have had three beautiful children. Jindu and I sit on the balcony and share local charas…we talk about Western vs. Indian culture, education, politics…so great to get talk with a locals and learn their perspective.

I went across the river strapped in a harness…freezing glacier water and a great ab workout! We have done a lot of reading, journal writing and gazing into the mountains. I have spent a lot of time in the Magic Forest, a nature park nearby. The trees are so tall and the effect on the lighting from below is truly magical. Tomorrow morning, despite our better judgment probably, we are back on a bus for what we’re told is a 10 hour bus ride to the Spiti Valley, farther north still into the Himalayas. The pictures I have seen look incredible…looking forward to seeing it with my own eyes!

One Year In!!

2010-06-29T10:48:00.001-04:00

One year ago today, I boarded a plane bound for South Africa. My dream of traveling the world for an entire year has come true. It has been an unbelievable journey and by far the best year of my life.

In the last year, I have been cage diving with great white sharks, watched lions hunt gazelles and zebras, snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef, climbed the Great Wall of China, trekked with Komodo Dragons, skied in the Himalayas and smiled and laughed with countless strangers. I got to share precious time and China with my Mom and got to watch her dance in the People’s Park in Chengdu. I saw my first opera in the Sydney Opera House with my dear friend Mendy. It is amazing to think of all that I have seen and experienced. More importantly, I have met incredible people, who I am now proud to call friends, from all over the world. Above all, I have gotten to know myself and that has meant more to me than words can express.

Before leaving, a lot of people asked me what I wanted to accomplish or said something like ‘I hope you find whatever it is you’re looking for’. The truth is that this trip was always about the journey, about the experiences, whatever may come. In doing so, I have found so much more than I initially hoped to discover about the world and about myself.

I hoped that time would slow down – no alarm clock, no real schedule. Time, unfortunately, does not slow down. My pace is slower now and I am a lot calmer. I can appreciate down time now, even times of boredom, and no longer have the feeling that if I’m not doing something, I’m wasting time – that it really is okay and even really healthy to slow down, even stop, to smell the proverbial roses!

I have learned to be more patient with people and situations which I cannot control. I have learned to be more trusting and to not be so skeptical. I have realized that I need to open my heart for the possibility of love and am excited about the future, whatever that might bring. As much as I am excited for the future, I have and continue to try to focus on being present in the moment – fully conscious of what is going on around me. It is a wonderful thing to experience ‘now’.

I have observed that the people with the fewest things are the happiest and the most at peace. Sitting Sunday night watching the Germany vs. England game and cheering with people from all over the world, I was struck by how borders seem such an antiquated notion and how much the same we really all are. We all want joy in our lives and the best for our friends and family... peace, friendship, laughter and love. I have learned to be grateful for these and so many other things.

On the practical, day-to-day side of things, I’ve learned a ton too. First, my thoughts on essential items to pack on a round-the-world trip in 365+ days: a head torch/flashlight, MP3 player, Swiss army knife and sewing kit. I would not have survived without them. Good shoes are really important, so is a good jacket! Sometimes, it’s better to fly. If it gets wet, it will eventually dry. Traveling without a schedule and without a guidebook is absolutely the way to go – just let things happen, flow and see what happens! Urine can be used for a lot more than meets the eye. Never enter a bathroom without your own tissues. Always say yes! Follow your heart…

Writing this blog has been such a rewarding and enjoyable exercise. I appreciate you taking the time to read it and share in my experiences! To everyone who talks to my Mom about my blog: thank you. She never fails to mention your thoughts on my latest escapade when I talk to her! Writing it makes me laugh and I hope it has made you laugh at times too.

Three months ago, I never imagined that I would be in India at the one year mark. As I write this, I am sitting on grass next to the Beas River, which flows with so much power. I am surrounded by green trees, mountains, blue skies and can feel a cool breeze. I continue to be amazed by how beautiful our planet is, how precious life is and how happy and thankful I am to be a part of it.

The Himalayas...Wow!

2010-06-26T07:32:00.003-04:00

Namaste! The bus ride from Dharamsala to Manali, which we later found out should only have taken 8 hours, ended up taking 13. Tuesday was a very long night! Gundula moved to another seat to stretch out and give us some room after a stop where a lot of locals got off the bus. Five minutes later, we stopped again and a few more guys boarded the bus. I was lucky enough to have the Indian version of Santa Claus (sans beard) who reeked of liquor sit next to me. The bus broke down twice, so those were the only times that I was able to doze off…the roads are way too bumpy for anyone who is not on drugs to actually sleep! Gundula and I are seriously evaluating whether or not we have it in us for anymore overnight bus trips in India!

Arriving in Manali more than made up for the sleepless and crammed journey to get here. I am living in a postcard, literally. I am writing this blog from the balcony of our room which overlooks a wide and rocky river and huge mountains are all around us (picture!). It is truly breathtaking. The sound of the river is so meditative. Last night, we watched the nearly full moon rise over the snow capped mountains…incredible.

We spent most of Wednesday lounging by the river in a café, reading, taking cat naps, eating delicious food, enjoying the incredible temperature and scenery and watching World Cup. Go USA and Germany!

On Thursday, Gundula and I went off on a small hike which turned into a five hour trek. It was so great to be out in the woods again smelling the fresh mountain air. We passed through several small villages, apple orchards, etc. We kind of got off the main trail and ended up in the middle of a small cow pasture. One of the calves and I instantly bonded, meaning that he came up and started trying to eat my backpack. He was licking me (cow tongues are like sandpaper!) and then started to eat one of my braids. It was so funny! I had cow saliva all over me...first time for everything.

We got up really early on Friday and hired a taxi driver to take us up to Rohtang Pass, a famous pass about 52 km from Manali. On the way, Petra (the German girl we met in Bhagsu), Gundula and I hired ski clothes and ski equipment. The ski clothes were hilarious – all from the early 1980’s…lots of great neon colors. My ski pants looked more like M.C.Hammer pants from my 5th and 6th grade years at Apollo Elementary School. The skis were not any newer. The 3+ hour ride up to the pass was terrifying. I am not a fan of narrow, winding mountain roads mostly because I tend to get car sick and am afraid of tumbling down the side of the mountain. The road was rocky and broken, sometimes intermittently paved, and there were spots were waterfalls were literally running over the dirt. ...the whole place is one big avalanche waiting to happen…luckily it didn’t happen yesterday! No reinforcements or guardrails, blind turns, hairpin bends…stressful. On top of that, you have to share the road with other cars trying to pass you on the single lane, random fallen boulders, horses, cows and goats. Oh, and it was raining the whole way up. I am very thankful to be writing this blog today.

The ski area in Rohtang Pass was what I imagine Tahoe looked like maybe 100 or more years ago. There were tents strewn about haphazardly with people selling grilled corn, chai tea, noodles. There were horses to pull you up the mountain, a few snowmobiles and people who pushed sleds up the mountain…no ski lifts! I skied down the bunny slope and only fell once when the binding on my ski broke. Therefore, I didn’t actually get to ski that long, but for all technical purposes; I have skied in the Himalayas! Even the little bit that I did was challenging as I had to navigate around plastic bottles, corn cobs and other bits of trash. India could really use a waste management system. We took pictures, I made a snow man and by that time we were all freezing. We warmed up with some chai tea and then headed, slowly, back down the mountain. The skies had cleared up for the ride down and the views were simply stunning. The highlight on the way down was seeing a goat riding a horse. Great times in the Himalayas!

I Never Finish Anyth

2010-06-22T07:26:00.003-04:00

I saw that saying printed on a t-shirt and it made me laugh. It is rare in Asia to find a t-shirt that is spelled correctly (almost!), makes sense, and that is actually really funny. It’s the little things…

The last few days in Upper Bhagsu, about 1.5 km north of McLeodGanj, have been very peaceful. Friday we heard rumors that the Dalai Lama was still in town and so went on a mission to find him, asking every Monk, tourist, Tibetan and Indian along the way whether or not the rumor was true. He had already left for Japan, but that didn’t negate his presence that could be felt at the largest Tibetan temple outside of Tibet. We spent a few hours at the temple listening to the Monks and worshipers doing their prayers 108 times over. It was a beautiful thing to witness; such dedication and focus…it gave me goose bumps then and still does when reflecting on it.

Leaving the temple, Gundula made friends with a Monk named Nga Wang Jikmet. We walked with him across the mountainside to a place where the Monks go during breaks from their seven hours a day spent worshipping in the temple. It was magical – Tibetan prayer flags in yellow, red, blue and white flying everywhere, maja bells ringing, blue sky, a cool breeze and mountains all around. We watched Jikmet get his head shaved by another Monk. We dodged the cows who were roaming freely amongst the flags (cows can go wherever they want here and everyone gets out of their way). We sat under the flags on the side of the mountain, breathing slowly and taking it all in. We talked with Jikmet about our lives back home, our wishes, etc. He also wrote prayers for us. It was amazing. I was kind of startled and then had to laugh when Jikmet turned and punched a cow in the ribs that had gotten too close to us. We walked back with him so that he could resume his afternoon prayers and along the way got to see where the Dalai Lama resides.

Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, my stomach was adjusting to India which means that I didn’t venture out too much. I did have the strength to visit the Tibet Museum which was a really eye opening experience. I did not realize that since China invaded Tibet in 1949, that over 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a result. Their environment has been raped of resources and their culture has been virtually eliminated. The Tibetans have such a peaceful and compassionate way of life; it hit a lot of emotional chords with me to realize that China continues to destroy it today.

On Sunday, I had enough strength to venture out into the foothills of the Himalayas alone to do a little hiking. The air was so fresh, the trees so tall and green – it has been a long time since I’ve been in the mountains, and I didn’t realize how much I’d missed them! I saw a Monk sitting on the ground in a remote area reading alone. I came across a pack of baboons, about 20 of them, hanging out in the trees. I stood as still as possible and watched them for at least a half an hour. I kind of felt like Jane Goodall, with my subjects being baboons instead of chimpanzees. A mother baboon ran after me, teeth showing and hissing, when I got a little too close to her baby (picture!). That got my heart rate up and made me a little more aware of where the baboons were in relation to my exposed limbs.

The rest of my time tucked away in a little Tibetan village in the mountains has been spent eating good food, watching the World Cup, reading and sleeping. The monsoon season has started to sweep north, so we’ve had a few lazy afternoons watching the rain and hail pour down. Although I am technically still in India, it feels a lot different here with all the Tibetans around. I am reminded, though, that I am in India when I smell the smells of the street and hear the car horns. My olfactory senses have been overloaded since arriving in India…some of the most disgusting and potent smells imaginable! The Indians also seem to enjoy installing ridiculously loud horns, and for extra fun, horns that play little tunes. They seem to find pleasure in using their horns about every 10 seconds or so. Patience, Jamie, patience.

Tonight we take a 10 hour bus ride from Dharamsala to Manali. We’ll be much higher in the Himalayas after arriving…hope that we adjust to the altitude okay! Looking forward to a lot of hiking, possibly some paragliding and some beautiful landscapes….until next time…Namaste.

Can I Snap With You?

2010-06-18T10:37:00.004-04:00

I could write a novel on my first 3 days in India. At 4:30 AM on Monday, we headed to the airport in Kuala Lumpur. After 6 hours, we found ourselves in the Chennai airport with a few hours to kill before our connecting flight to Delhi. My first impression, while sitting in a café at the Chennai airport is that I had traveled back in time to the mid-80’s. Men here love mustaches. The music videos involve a lot of line dancing by men and what seems to me very cheesy story lines. I was reminded of the TV show Chips, specifically Ponch, for whatever reason. It was great. We arrived in Delhi late and as Gundula waited for our luggage, I went to the pre-paid taxi stand to sort out a ride to the train station – we had to catch a train in less than 1 ½ hours and traffic in Delhi is supposedly horrendous. I bought our ticket and left, but realized about 15 minutes later that the guy had taken too much money. I went back and said that I was afraid that in the rush/confusion of trying to figure out which train station, that he had actually taken 500 Rupees (about $11) too much money. I figured it was a lost cause, but figured it was worth asking about. His reply was, “no problem, ma’am. Here is your money. You are a guest in my country and I don’t want you to worry.” No questions, no argument. It was a great way to start off our Indian adventure.

We made it to the train station with just 10 minutes to spare…the taxi driver got pulled over on the way there! We climbed to the top of the three tier bed sleeper train and settled in for a 12 hour train ride to Amritsar. The people were very friendly and curious about the two Western girls who joined them in the second class. As soon as the train pulled away from the station, I put on my mp3, stood by the car door and listened to MIA’s Paper Planes song….I know it’s very cliche, but it was awesome to be riding through India looking at the shantytowns, the trash, the filth and the chaos listening to that song!

After 6 AM on Tuesday, we arrived in Amritsar – no where to stay, no map, only a goal of getting to the Golden Temple. We boarded the bus which was overcrowded by about 50 people. We each climbed in over the driver’s seat. I didn’t realize that my backpack was resting on the horn….there is a lot of noise pollution here!...until a lot of the locals started yelling and laughing at me. Oops. On the bus ride, a woman started a chant and the rest of the bus recited after her. Incredible. Luckily, the pilgrim’s dormitory in the Golden Temple had two beds left, so we gladly claimed them and set out to visit the Golden Temple. The temple, built in the 1600’s, is made entirely out of gold plates and marble and surrounded by a small lake. It’s breathtaking.

It was hard for us to walk a total of ten steps without being stopped by someone who wanted to ‘snap’ with us or who wanted to practice their English or who wanted me to hold their baby. The people are just lovely here. We ate lunch at the temple…did I mention that food and lodging at the temple are free? We sat on the floor, held our plates and men carrying dhal, curries, chapatti and rice scooped them out. We dined with literally 500 other Indians and were the only tourists. It is amazing how efficient the temple is – it feeds and houses people 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – and most of the work is done by pilgrims who volunteer as part of their once in a lifetime journey to the temple. The Golden Temple was a perfect way to start our trip in India.

After a well-deserved nap, we boarded a taxi bound for the Mata Temple and the Pakistan-India border. At the Mata Temple, I felt like I was at a fun house – lots of monkey and elephant statues, lots of mirrors, tunnels to crawl through. I received a blessing of sweetened puffed rice (tasted almost just like Rice Krispies!) and an orange mark on my forehead. The temple is for women who want to conceive children…we’ll see if it works someday!

The Wagha border between Pakistan and India holds a ceremony at the end of each day to officially close the border and lower the flags. We got there early, so had plenty of time to watch the Indian women dance to techno music that was blaring on India’s side. Pakistan also blasted some sort of Arabic techno music…I actually liked theirs better, but no one was dancing on their side. I wanted to go down and dance, so I asked Gundula to join me and off we went down to the street (foreigners are ‘protected’ in a VIP area) but once we made it to the street, guards escorted us to front row seats literally 15’ from the border! Awesome! There was music blaring on both sides, chanting and shouting on both sides, lots of flag waving and patriotism going on. The Indian military guys were all very tall compared to their peers and could do high kicks that would put most women to shame. They did a lot of kicking, knee raises, and stomping during the ceremony. Also, both the Indian soldiers and the Pakistani soldiers wore tall feather-like things in a mohawk shape on top of their helmets. It was a great thing to witness and as close to Pakistan as I’ll likely ever get.

On Wednesday, we went inside the Golden Temple. It was beautiful to hear the sheiks performing the mantras and to see the very ornate temple and the people reading their scriptures all over the place. We dined again in the temple and spent the afternoon walking around the city of Amritsar.

Thursday was a travel day – 7 hours in a ‘semi deluxe’ bus to Dharamsala, just south of Mcleod Ganj, the home of the exiled Tibetan government and the Dalai Lama. I spent a considerable amount of time on the bus pondering what part of the bus would have been considered deluxe. I never figured it out. We arrived hot, dusty and sweaty and excited to be at the foothills of the Himalayas…saw the snow-capped mountains on the ride up…amazing. I’m sitting on our balcony right now looking at the mountains, drinking a Kingfisher beer and listening to the Germany – Serbia World Cup game that Gundula and our new German friend Petra are watching in the room. We missed seeing the Dalai Lama by two days…despite that, life in India is very good. I hope that life is good wherever you are reading this too.

Third Time's the Charm

2010-06-13T03:23:00.004-04:00

I made it back to Kuala Lumpur for the third time this month on Tuesday, just 15 minutes before the India visa office closed for the day. Luckily, my visa was ready, so it's good news that India is letting me in! ;) Gundula and I made arrangements for flights on Wednesday. Since we really don't have a travel itinerary, only a list of places we'd like to visit, we had trouble deciding which city to start with. So, Gundula literally flipped a coin down in Bali to help us decide...and off to New Delhi we go! (it was between Delhi and Jaipur...we'll get to Jaipur eventually!). I love that we're going to let fate decide our path in India, in more ways than one! Gundula arrived in KL today, and we fly out early Monday morning. It is great to see her again and I am really excited for the culture and chaos that India is sure to offer!

I went to dinner with my Father's Brother's Wife's Brother, Mark, and his two adorable daughters, Jada and Jasmine on Wednesday night. We went to a fantastic Malaysian restaurant with live music and dancing. Mark works as a geologist for a US petroleum firm here in KL. It was fascinating to learn how he goes about finding oil 5-10 miles below the surface of the ocean, and it was fun to be around children again. They have so much energy and reminded me that they are the ones amongst us who are best at living for the moment.

I found out this week that my brother, Gerad, will be able to come visit and travel with me. He lands in Bangkok on July 31st. I am very excited to see him and be able to share this experience with him. Thailand and Laos will not be the same after the Barden's visit. ;)

I spent some time shopping around town in preparation for India, and I went to the movies. I really wish now that I had watched A-Team back in the day. I don't know if it's just because I really miss watching movies or what, but I thought the movie was great! I have also eaten two Oreo McFlurry's since Tuesday. I'm trying to stock up before 6 weeks in India! And, I keep meeting people from Europe who have never had them, and so I feel it is my duty as an American to introduce them to one of the most amazing desserts quite possibly ever made.

On Friday, I went to the Batu Caves, just outside of KL. On the way, I met a German guy, Ruben, and a guy from Iraq (I can't spell his name, but I think it's something like Hairim??). We walked around the caves and the largest Murugan statue, a Hindu deity, in the world at 140'. Inside the caves are several Hindu worship areas. Unfortunately, like a lot of tourist areas in Asia, the caves were a bit too kitchy and not maintained, which is sad because it is a sacred area in sects of the Hindu religion. Every February, hundreds of thousands (some say millions) of people travel to the caves for the Thaipusam Festival. Here, they do some rituals involving hooks, needles and skin. Too bad I wasn't here in February. Hairim absolutely cracked me up when he insisted on having someone take photos of the 3 of us. He wanted the pictures to be titled Hitler, Hussein and Bush. I couldn't stop laughing at that for several hours. ;)

That night, as I was waiting for Hairim and Ruben to head out to watch the opening ceremony and first game of the World Cup, I ran into Ron and Karim, friends I made in the Perhentian Islands. It is such a small world! This added a lot of momentum to the evening, and I finally made it home at 5 AM after two football matches, some dancing, some shisha and a 'few' cocktails. I love watching the World Cup in other countries. They get so much more into it than we do back home.

I've posted pictures of my time in Malaysia and Singapore. Click on the picture below if you'd like to see them!

Malaysia & Singapore

in

Next update from somewhere in India! Selamat jalan!

Chicken Perfume & Fish Eyes

2010-06-09T02:48:00.006-04:00

Malacca, Malaysia has made it to my top 10 favorite places in the world. As is always the case, it's not where you are but who you are with that makes the difference. In this case, it was both. I met two sisters from Newcastle, England on the bus ride up from Singapore last Saturday. Ashleigh and Christie also happened to be staying at the same hostel - Discovery Cafe & Guesthouse - and so I was fortunate to have met two great girls to hang out with and to share a room with! I love it when things work out like that. Immediately upon our arrival, Bob, the hostel owner, gave us beef rendang, rice and beer. He was Malaysian-Chinese, so it was great to be able to speak Mandarin with him and his friends! Ashleigh, Christie and I went sightseeing around Malacca for the remainder of the day. We watched a search & rescue team recover a motorbike that had fallen in the river...such drama! We walked through Chinatown and it was fun negotiating in Mandarin again, especially when they weren't expecting a Westerner to be able to speak their language! That evening, we had dinner by the river that runs through the heart of the town and watched people singing and dancing on the streets. After dinner, boats decorated with more Christmas lights than I've ever seen paraded by. June 5th is not only the birthday of the King of Malaysia, but of Allie, the daughter of one of my best friends, who turned two last weekend! Happy Birthday to Allie and to the King of Malaysia!

On Sunday, we did more walking around the city. Malacca has been controlled over their 600 years of history by the Portuguese, Dutch, British and Japanese, therefore, the architecture of their buildings is quite charming. Once a thriving port city, the area has been redeveloped and has become a hopping tourist destination for the Chinese and Singaporeans. Ashleigh, Christie and I were among the handful of Westerners I saw the entire weekend. We were stopped very frequently to take pictures with locals and other Asian tourists. So funny! There was a food festival going on (free food!) in celebration of the King's birthday. I ate so many things that I can't identify that I won't even try...best left to say that I only ended up purchasing fresh mango juice and banana chips. The good news...I didn't get sick! That night, Bob and his childhood friend, Simon, took us to a restaurant to eat some local Malay-Chinese dishes. The food was incredible and it was great to get off the beaten path of the Lonely Planet warriors (of which I am not a fan because the planet, in fact, is not lonely at all!) and to hang out with Malacca's finest!

That night, back at the Discovery Cafe, everyone twisted my arm and I ended up singing on stage. The husband/wife performers and I serenaded the crown to a really awful version (my fault!) of Amy Winehouse's song Rehab (fitting for me to sing that in a lot of ways actually...ha ha!). A table of locals next to us brought in a bucket of KFC chicken (they love chicken here!!). One of the couples brought their precious 8 month old little girl with them...I offered to hold the baby so the couple could dance. The little girl was clutching a drumstick with a death grip. As I was holding her, she proceeded to rub the chicken all over my face, neck and chest. She was too adorable for me to be upset or to try and take it away from her, so I just went with it. When I gave her back, everyone at my table was laughing at me and complimented my chicken perfume for the remainder of the evening.

Monday morning, we went with Bob and some of his friends to a local dim sum restaurant. I've never seen or tasted so many different kinds of dim sum...literally over 50 different types carried around the joint by women on trays. It's like a roaming buffet...you don't even have to move! I ate chendol, an Indian dessert soup made of shaved ice, coconut milk, red beans and some kind of green noodle, under a big tree by the river while making predictions on the World Cup with an old Malaysian man. That night, Bob, Simon, Nikki, another Malay guy and I went to a Portuguese restaurant. We had steamed fish that was incredible. I accidentally picked up the fish eye with my spoon and immediately dumped it back on the serving dish thinking that surely no one ate that part of the fish. Bob caught me and told me that I should try it...he said it would be good for my eyesight! So, I ate it. The 'clear' part of the eye kind of popped in my mouth. I spit the rest out. They told me to put it back in and chew/suck the white residue off. This part tasted like chalk, and I am proud to say that I did a great job controlling my gag reflex. I got it down to what you see in the picture...that little piece of the eye is currently residing in my wallet until I figure out a way to get it mounted onto a ring or pendant. I have seen the world in 3D ever since.

Tuesday, I again had fish for breakfast...this time, Bob had me eat the heart and reproductive organs. He said that it would make my future husband very happy...we'll have to see about that! Meals with such generous and friendly people, chicken perfume and fish eyes....it's easy to see how my time in Malacca was such a wonderful experience!

Made my way back to Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday afternoon. Currently getting all the last minute details finalized before I head to India! ;)

Slingapore

2010-06-06T00:58:00.004-04:00

I am feeling a bit lazy today, so titled my blog Slingapore instead of Singapore Sling to save time. Singapore is a model of efficiency in action...must make the Germans jealous! It is very clean. I felt that if I dropped food on the sidewalk, it would be okay to pick it up and eat it. They have queue lines to enter and exit anywhere and rules for everything...the toilet rules are quite humorous! I must admit, that although seemingly simple, my favorite part of Singapore is the taxis. On top of each, there is an LED sign that reads 'Hired' or 'Taxi' so that you know whether or not it's available and saves you from standing on the side of the street and waving your hands around unnecessarily. Genius!

Shay and I arrived on Wednesday and spent the better part of Wednesday evening trying to find a place to sleep...seems that it would have been a good idea to plan ahead and book a room. We settled in Little India, visited a Hindu Temple (very colorful, lots of cows) and ate with our hands at a fabulous hole in the wall Indian joint. On Thursday, we slung our cameras around our necks and hit the town as tourists. First stop, the Quay area...a nice blend of English Colonial meets modern design (Norman Foster designed the new Supreme Court Building...amazing architecture). After our morning tour around the CBD and river, we headed out to the Singapore Zoo. These crazy people dressed like trees attacked us as we were entering and a nice Singaporean gave us free passes as we were walking up...people in Singapore are very kind and gracious. The zoo is reputedly the best in the world...very clean, large, interactive and a boat load of animals. Noah would have been jealous. I was most intrigued by the proboscis monkey, quite possibly the least attractive creature I've ever seen.

Thursday night, we made our way to Raffles Hotel for an original Singapore Sling. The drink was invented by a bartender a long time ago at the Long Bar, then and now part of the Raffles Hotel. The hotel itself is incredibly beautiful, classic Colonial architecture and today also holds every designer boutique you can think of. Long Bar has old fans, antique furniture...very cool atmosphere. The drink, at $25 Singapore Dollars (roughly $20 USD), was delicious. But, my budget and the fact that I can't drink a lot of terribly sweet drinks limited my intake to only one.

On Friday, Shay and I made our way to Chinatown. We went to the Hawkers Market (basically a covered street food market) and I had the best meal I've had in a while - raw cod fish with vegetables, porridge and dragon fruit juice...all for $5. I said goodbye to Shay, who headed to Bali to meet his girlfriend, and enjoyed the rest of the day wandering around Little India and back down to the Quay. At the Quay, there was a group of students performing percussion music (I think Samba!?) which was fantastic. At the MRT stop, about 20 or more teenagers were practicing break dancing. I really want to learn how to do that! The skyline of Singapore is beautiful at night, except for the three towers with a boat on top (behind me in the picture). In my humble opinion, it might just be the ugliest building in the world. Back in Little India, I capped off my excursion to country #14 on this little trip of mine by eating yet another meal with my hands. I am seriously starting to feel that silverware is highly overrated.

Same Same, But Different

2010-06-01T05:48:00.001-04:00

The title of my blog is one of the answers that you get for almost any question you ask in either Malaysia or Indonesia, I've discovered. It makes me laugh every time I hear it.

I spent a total of 11 days in the Perhentian Islands. It was paradise and it was hard to leave. I met some great people and we had a blast snorkeling, watching sunsets, eating and drinking together. I ate every meal but two with my feet in the sand (it was raining for those two meals!). I did some great diving...saw some beautiful and colorful coral, a giant grouper, several stingrays, lots of reef sharks, a black and white spotted eel, several large trigger fish, barracuda, butterfly fish, parrot fish and a lot of clown fish. They are so fun to play with...one of them swam into my face mask when I was trying to tickle it! The 11 days all kind of blur together...it was so relaxing! Medical update: I tried some unconventional methods of curing my rash (ask me about it sometime if you're curious!) and that seemed to help it get better throughout the week.

I spent Sunday night on an overnight bus from the Perhentian Islands back to Kuala Lumpur. The bus we were on did not have shocks, or if they did, they were all broken. The bus literally swayed and squeaked for the entire 9 hour ride. I did not get any sleep because the locals on the bus kept screaming at random points in the night, mostly when we were going around mountains and dodging oncoming traffic at the same time. Hard to sleep when there are those kind of distractions!

Shay, an Irish guy that I met in the islands, and I spent the last two days exploring more of Kuala Lumpur. I spent Monday morning dealing with a surprising amount of red tape in order to start the India visa process, although it probably felt more challenging because I was going on over 24 hours with no sleep! Last night, we went to a fish spa. It tickled like crazy to have the fish eat the dead skin off my feet! We also went to the movies and saw Robinhood...great movie and so nice to do something that reminds me of life back home.

Today, we went to Malaysia's National Mosque (picture) and to Mosque Jamid. As in all mosques, women are required to cover their body and hair. I thought my purple cloak was quite cute! Shay has just come from traveling in India, so we went to Little India for a vegetarian lunch so that he could prepare me for what my travels will be like there. A meal served on banana leaf with no silverware....ate with my hands. The food was amazing and I actually enjoyed touching my food and getting my hands dirty while eating it. I think I'll enjoy India just fine, as long as I can wash my hands before eating!

I've never had any real interest in traveling to Singapore. Shay convinced me that drinking a Singapore Sling in Singapore was a reason, and I could not disagree. Tomorrow, we're heading to Singapore. It's only a 5 hour bus ride from KL and I've got to kill some time waiting for my India visa to process. So, my next update will come after I've had a Singapore Sling in Singapore! ;)

Paradise Found

2010-05-23T22:12:00.004-04:00

I arrived at the Perhentian Islands, two small islands off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia on Wednesday. It is paradise! White sand, lush green trees, mountains, tealish blue water...I'm living on a postcard! From the pier on Wednesday, I spotted several parrot fish, 5 reef sharks, trigger fish...amazing visibility!

I am staying at a resort that is ridiculously nice considering how much I am paying. Built 3 years ago, the resort was developed to host conferences, meetings, etc. Business wasn't going so well in that department so they converted conference rooms into dorm rooms by throwing beds down in the rooms. For $6.50 a night, I have air conditioning, free wi-fi, a bed-bug free bed, private beach and amazing food (seafood buffet for $5). Awesome! It's all I can do to keep myself from drawing a flowchart on the whiteboard behind my bed though...ha ha!

I've met some awesome people here and we've pretty much hung out together the whole time. Trish, a girl from NZ, and I spent Wednesday night hanging out on the beach on the other side of the island (a 7 minute walk over the hill, through the jungle). Drinking beer, sitting on a mat near a bonfire, we contemplated how ridiculous all of the tourists must look to the locals as we spend what is to them fortunes on enough alcohol to be able to get up and wiggle around on the dance floor. Hilarious! I slept through the ABC (Anything But Clothes) party on Thursday night. Oops!

Friday, I finally went diving again! I successfully passed the refresher course and saw some cool fish I'd never seen before. We didn't venture too far or too deep for my first time back underwater, so I look forward to getting out to some better dive sites. Back on shore, as I was turning off my tank I started to feel dizzy. The instructor had to hold me as I basically fell in slow motion to the ground. I've never experienced that feeling before..never lost consciousness, but scary none the less. It took me a good hour to feel like even taking my wet suit off. We decided that I almost fainted because I hardly ate anything before diving and was basically out of energy. I'll be sure to at least eat lunch before I dive next time!

Trish and I went out again Friday night and had a lot of fun (I'll save the details for another blog, another time!). I spent most of Saturday hanging around the resort because it was rainy most of the day. Once the weather cleared, I took a taxi boat to the fishing village to the health clinic. Since leaving the jungle, I have had a rash on my face that has spread and gotten worse since Monday. The boat ride was beautiful..got to see a side of the island you can't walk on. At the clinic, a boy (maybe 26?) wearing shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops was my doctor. He asked great questions, listened to things, poked at things, etc. He gave me an anti-histamine shot, anti-histamine pills, a day time cream, a night time cream, aspirin and a face wash. The entire consultation took 15 minutes and cost me 15 RM...$5, including all the medicines! Incredible! The boat ride to get there ($6) was more expensive than the doctor! I am thoroughly impressed by the health care system in Malaysia...where they actually treat people who need help quickly and cheaply.

In addition to all the medicines and creams, I also can't put my face in the salt water, can't get sun, can't eat seafood and can't drink alcohol. So, my time at the beach has become a little less than what I'd imagined, but nonetheless I am enjoying sitting under the palm trees for hours at a time reading and chatting with new friends. Later this week, I will force myself to leave paradise and head inland in a quest for a visa to India...my next destination! Goodbye from paradise!

Into the Wild

2010-05-17T23:10:00.002-04:00

I survived 4 nights and 3 days in the jungle! Friday, I took a 5 hour bus and 3 hour boat ride into Kuala Tahan, a tiny town opposite Taman Negara National Park (picture). Taman Negara is supposedly the oldest rainforest in the world and it's massive.

On Saturday, I went on two boat rides in the National Park. The first, called ‘rapid shoot’ basically meant that we sat in a little boat and rode up the rapids instead of down them. I got absolutely soaked! From there, we headed to Lata Berkoh which the Malaysians call a waterfall but what I would call a lot of big rocks with some water running over them. Still, a refreshing swim after the hike to get there!

I met four girls from England, all 18 or 19, and spent most of Friday night and Saturday with them. They were hilarious. Some of the funniest things they said: “I can’t believe there are no castles in America!” “My head hurts I think because it’s getting more oxygen than it’s used to.” To the waitress: “Excuse me, but my watermelon juice has too much sweet syrup in it. Could you please add some more watermelon? Oh, and I’d like to order a sugar pancake.” And, “I wish these stupid bees would quit flying around my crotch.” Couple what they were saying, usually all at the same time, with their accents, and I couldn’t stop laughing!

Sunday I headed into the jungle alone. I booked a hide (aka a very basic house in the jungle), took a map and off I went! I got about 1.5km in when I realized that I left my camera at the ranger’s office. So, by the time I got back to retrieve it, I was advised that I needed to hurry because it was at least 2 hours to get to my home in the jungle. I arrived with plenty of daylight left after having to cross nearly waist high water…I slipped on a rock and fell on all fours…soaking wet, but thankfully no leaches! My jungle home was quite nice. No electricity, no fans. Shockingly, there was running water and double bunk beds, made out of wood. I was there not 10 minutes when I spotted a wild boar walking through the field behind the hide!

I finished my pack of crackers and dried beans for dinner, wrote in my journal and watched for tigers (they saw one a few years ago…thought I might get lucky!). The noise in the jungle is amazing…crickets, birds, the occasional monkey, mosquitoes swarming around my head. It started to downpour about 7 PM and didn’t stop until well into the night. Listening to the rain fall down on the tin roof was so relaxing. Around 9, I made my way to bed to read a bit of Joyce’s Ulysses. I dropped my torch while lying on my wood bed, breaking it (how?!?). It was absolutely pitch black so I obviously couldn’t see a thing, much less fix my torch. My heart raced slightly at the thought of going all night without a torch, in the event of any scary noises. I survived, but didn’t move an inch off the bed. I slept off and on, but every time I heard a loud noise I was wide awake. I don’t know why I thought that having a torch would make me feel safe, but I suppose having light does provide some kind of comfort when you’re sleeping at least 1km away from another human being, it’s pouring down rain and you’re in the middle of the jungle. Next time I’ll bring a back up light!

Monday morning I woke up not entirely rested from my sleep in the jungle and started on a trek up a nearby mountain. I basically walked a kilometer straight up, so straight that I had to use a rope to pull myself up for about 70% of the climb. It was nuts! On the backside of the mountain, I walked on supposedly the world’s longest canopy, 550 m, suspended at least 50-100’above the ground. The platform was 1’ wide, hung by rope suspended between trees. It moved a lot from side to side, and if I were afraid of heights, there’s no way I would have been able to handle it. Thankfully, all the ropes held and I made it! On the walk back to the park entrance, a snake slithered just out of my footstep, turned around and jerked its head up in a striking position. It scared me to death!! I screamed and moved far enough away to get a picture of it…it still in striking position and me ready to run as fast as possible if it moved another inch.

Animal count: 3 wild boars, 2 snakes, 4 lizards larger than 2’, 1 monkey, 1 flying squirrel and a lot of birds and bugs.

All in all, a great trek into the jungle. I’ll take the thousand mosquito bites I got over a snake bite or a leach any day! Tuesday, I’ll be on a jungle train most of the day en route to the Perhentian Islands. More from the beach later this week!

KL

2010-05-13T05:52:00.003-04:00

KL is what the cool kids call Kuala Lumpur. It's the capital of Malaysia and home to 6.5 million people as well as 66 shopping malls. The famous Petronas Towers are here (picture). The Menara KL Tower is also here. It's hard to get a feel for the Malaysian culture from KL because there are so many nationalities here - Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, African, etc. I look forward to getting to know more about the Malaysians as I get out of the big city!

I arrived at 3 AM after a delayed flight from Bali and a shuttle bus break down at 2 AM just outside KL. I slept in and made my way to the top of KL Tower which costs money but provides the best view of the city. Like any big city, there are some big buildings, some small buildings, some government buildings and religious buildings. I just wanted to go to the top to get a shot of the Petronas Towers from the air and get a feel for the city, which I did!

As part of the KL observation deck ticket, I got a pass to a small zoo and an F1 simulator ride. The zoo was shocking. There were all kinds of poisonous snakes, spiders, etc...lots of things that crawl and slither and can kill you. I timed my visit just in time to watch a caretaker feed !LIVE! baby mice to frogs and lizards. The frogs gulped them down in two swallows. The lizards bit and thrashed around. Very violent and disturbing nature in action. The F1 simulator was not so violent, but if it had been in real life, I would have killed someone. It was really tough trying to fake drive one of those race cars!

Made my way to the Petronas Towers that evening for some entertainment - a little shopping in the seven story mall and a little movie watching of Iron Man 2. It felt very strange, but refreshingly comforting, to be back in civilization and air conditioning.

Wednesday was hospital and shopping day. I finally got in writing what I've known for quite a while...I can breathe! (Well enough to dive anyway!). At the hospital, I was in and out in under 1.5 hours. I spent less than $42 and had a consultation with the doctor, chest x-rays, a lung function test and two prescriptions filled. Very efficient, very cheap. I am not versed on the new health care reforms in the States, but if it's modeled after the system in Malaysia, we'll be much better off for it. What were the prescriptions for you wonder? That would be bed bugs. It's disgusting. Trust me, I know, I'm the one who can't stop itching these massive red welts all over my body. KL is notorious for bed bugs. I splurged and got a room slightly above my budget in hopes of avoiding it...better luck next time Jamie.

I got up before anyone who isn't working should get up (6:40) and went to the Petronas Towers to wait in line for over an hour and a half to get my ticket to stand on the skybridge for 10 minutes. It was a cool experience, made more cool by the fact that there were 6 Chinese people I was able to chat with in my group. Also, there was a guy cleaning the windows right outside of the skybridge. I kept watching him thinking maybe we were in the middle of a heist like in Entrapment. No such luck.

I finally realized that people in Malaysia don't camp, so I got creative with my desperate attempt to find a sleeping bag liner to avoid bed bugs going forward. I bought a queen sized sheet and paid someone $2 to sew it up like a sleeping bag. Not too bad for 1/3 the cost of a liner you'd buy at home! I look forward to sleeping, bug free, in my sheets for the remainder of this trip!

Heading into the jungle tomorrow morning. Taman Negara is smack in the middle of Malaysia (the west part anyway). I'll be on a bus for a couple of hours and then on a boat for a few more until they drop us in the middle of the jungle. I'm told there are places to sleep there. Hope that's true. Otherwise, I'm armed with my fancy new queen sheet-folded sleeping bag to keep me warm and dry! From there, I'm headed to the Perhentian Islands where I hope to do some diving and turtle watching. I really have no idea how long I'll be at either of the aforementioned places or whether or not they will have internet access. Therefore, this could be my last blog for several days. Until next time...sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite! (That phrase will hold a new, deeper meaning to me for the rest of my life!)

The Festival

2010-05-10T01:21:00.023-04:00

We arrived on Mt. Batur on Friday afternoon after a two hour motorbike ride across Bali. In the rain, we pitched our tarp. I was mistaken because I thought that the festival was actually in the volcano...it was on the side of the mountain. Probably not so hot, what with the lava and all, so I'm glad I was wrong! The side was covered in volcanic rock and very dry vegetation.

The festival began at sundown with a sacred fire ceremony where about 100 of us gathered in a circle, held hands and chanted. I really wasn't feeling it, so I basically looked around while everyone else had their eyes closed and observed that I was way out of place. I felt a little uncomfortable in my jeans and black t-shirt without dreads, piercings all over my faces or tattoos all over my body. I was talking to an American-Israeli guy and told him that I, pardon the expression, felt like the whitest white person at the party. He replied, "yes, you are." Oh well!

The festival had a 'healing section' where people were doing yoga, tarot readings, etc. I didn't spend any time there. There was a chill out section where they played more mellow music. Michael dj'ed there from 5 AM to 8 AM Sunday morning. The main dance floor, where they played trance music from sundown - 2 PM, took a break for a couple of hours, then started up again, was where I spent most of my time. There were more people dancing at 4 AM than 11 PM. It was crazy...awesome music and lighting. I have never danced so much in my life.

In total, I slept 5 hours from Thursday night to Sunday night. The volcanic rock isn't really that soft and it gets cold on the mountain! I had no cardboard, newspaper, sleeping bag, blanket or pillow, so I tried sleeping straight on the tarp, but it was not so comfortable, hence my lack of sleep. No sleep does offer the advantage of being awake for beautiful sunrises over the surrounding mountains. After two nights of partying Gundula and I were ready to leave. We got back to Ubud last night, took a power nap, showered and put on a little sundress. I was so exhausted that on the way to dinner I realized that I had forgotten to wear underwear. Oops.

I posted new pictures, too many of them probably. Click on the picture below to view them!

Bali - The Middle & End

Flying to Kuala Lumpur on a red-eye tonight! Next update from Malaysia!

The Accident

2010-05-06T08:57:00.008-04:00

So I'll be brief on this one because two blogs ago I promised it to be my last written in Bali. Gundula returned from her visa run to Singapore, and we celebrated her return this afternoon by going to our favorite restaurant located in a rice field, Sari Organik.

The path to the restaurant is very narrow, very uneven and on either side a little bit of grass, a canal (at times less than 1' wide) and then rice fields. Gundula was leading and she stopped because ladies were carrying massive bags of rice on their heads on the path ahead of us. I slowed my motorbike to a stop and put my left foot down. The next thing I knew, the entire left side of my body was lying in a rice field and the motorbike was on top of me! Turns out there was no grass, only canal, where I decided to stop! I think Gundula was in shock thinking I was hurt until she heard me laughing. The scene looked way more dramatic than it actually was. I was filthy...wet and muddy. It took 3 of us to get it up. The bike wouldn't start for about 30 minutes. I had to call the guy I rented it from to come rescue me. The horn is still a little sporadic and the blinkers are on hyperflash. Other than that, bike and I are okay. Good times.

Hands & Wind

2010-05-05T00:01:00.003-04:00

Okay, I lied. Yesterday was worthy of its own blog entry, and I don’t want it to get muddled up with the trance festival this weekend! The last real thing on my list to see and do in Bali, outside of going to a 3 day party in the crater of a volcano of course, was to see Tanah Lot. Tanah Lot is a collection of temples built in and on the black cliff shore of the ocean. It was absolutely breathtaking and if you ever come to Bali, I highly recommend seeing it over any other temple.

I left on my two hour journey to the sea without really any idea where I was going. I have given up on my map which was given to me…they have built a lot of new roads since it was published and none of the roads have street signs anyway! So, I made my way by pulling over at every intersection along the way (about 10 turns in all) and asking some kind-hearted soul for which way to go. It was quite amusing to them, I’m sure, to see someone cruising along on motorbike knowing where they wanted to go without a clue how to get there. Luck and the help of strangers was on my side, because I made it!

It was high tide when I arrived at high noon (read: hot) so I could not reach the main temple to partake in the Holy Spring Ceremony which is a supposed highlight of a visit to Tanah Lot. I did, however, spend a long time watching waves crash all around the beautiful main temple. En route to the other temples, I came across an old, bearded Chinese man who was leading a yoga/meditation type thing next to the sea over looking the temple. All of the other participants were Chinese also and I was mesmerized. I stood and watched and snuck pictures for a solid 15 minutes…so peaceful. When it was finished, the old, bearded man came up to me, smiled and grabbed my right hand with both hands and shut his eyes. I followed suit and shut mine too. He held onto me with a firm grip and I could literally feel his presence coming into me. It was awkward at first for me and then amazing. He held onto me, eyes shut the whole time, for a good 45 seconds. Then he opened his eyes, lightened his grip and smiled again. I said ‘thank you sir’ in Chinese. The entire time, he never uttered a word. Maybe he was Japanese?! Heritage aside, it was an incredible experience and something I won’t soon forget. I couldn’t stop smiling the entire ride back to Ubud…

…until tropical storm force winds started blowing strong enough to make Jim Cantore jealous he wasn’t in Bali today. In addition to dodging oncoming traffic, pot holes and dogs, I also had the added luxury of trying to keep the bike vertical due to the wind gusts. I threw on my garbage bag material poncho (compliments of Mendy from the Blue Mountains in AUS!) and braved the wind and rain. I got home safely, slightly unnerved, wet and wearing a poncho that had been ripped apart from all the blowing. Jim, if you’re reading this, I’d say the gusts were easily pushing 34 mph.

It's Hot in Ubud.

2010-05-03T05:13:00.004-04:00

I haven't felt 100% over the last week, partially due to the heat rash. Thankfully, that has subsided. I spent a couple of days laying low...which makes me wonder how low I can actually lay and for how long? I can't believe I've been in Ubud for 3 weeks already, much less away from home for over 10 months! I have become an expert in sleeping in, reading on the porch, lounging by the pool and relaxing at cafes. I must figure out the best way to list it on my resume! In all honesty, I'm ready to get moving again. I had intentions of leaving Ubud and seeing more of Indonesia last week, but decided to remain due to not feeling well.

To quickly summarize my activities of the last week: Wednesday - bed. Thursday - bed, rice field walk (pictures!) and Tibetan bowl meditation. Friday - pool. Saturday - pool. Sunday - bike ride. Monday - reading and cafe (rained all day!).

The Tibetan bowl meditation was an experience. We lied in a semi-circle facing the instructor on a yoga mat. He came around, after tying up his dreads, to rub incense on my 6th chakra (also known as my third eye). Then, he played the Tibetan bowls and walked around with them and played them around my head. I found it quite hard to actually get into a meditative state primarily because the music was pretty cool..you could feel the vibrations from the bowl literally going through your body...and so I kept thinking about how cool that was. Also, I was quite itchy from some previous mosquito bites.

As the bike ride was really the highlight of my week and certainly the most energy I expended, I'll give you an idea of what biking is like in Bali. Imagine the hottest day ever. Picture sleeping in, as you do, and not leaving until the absolute hottest part of the day. Now, bike through traffic to a nice little place you've found on your map which, being two-dimensional and all, looks like it will be flat land and easy sailing. How wrong you would be! You climb and pedal and sweat and climb and pedal and sweat, seemingly never reaching the top. You almost pass out from the heat at least 5 times and are forced to pull over and dump water on your head as the locals laugh at you for even trying. The moral of this story: never ride a bike in Bali. I learned the hard way why everyone here has motorbikes!

This weekend, I will be going with Gundula and Michael, a German guy who worked with us at the Earth Day Festival, to the Kintanami Awaredance 2 Trance Festival held in the volcano of Mt. Batur. Yes, that's right...from Friday until Monday morning, I will be living like a hippie under a tarp, on top of cardboard and snuggled under newspaper (I don't feel like buying another tent and sleeping bag just for the weekend and shipped mine home long ago!). Bucket showers, likely no sleep and lots of fun things will certainly transpire all in the crater of a volcano! I'm very excited! My next update will be from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I fly there on Monday night, assuming I'm still able to function long enough to get to the airport!

On a personal note, I'd like to publicly congratulate my brother and best friend, Gerad, who graduated from Florida International University with a Masters Degree in Construction Management last week. I'm extremely proud of him and look forward to sleeping on his couch and having him buy me dinners once I'm back home and broke! I love you Gerad!

Cat Poop Coffee

2010-04-27T05:02:00.008-04:00

My guess is that more than one of my blog readers think that I have an unusual fascination with poop. You might be right because I do seem to write about it quite a bit. However, for this entry, it is entirely appropriate! Yesterday, Gundula and I rode to a coffee plantation about 40 minutes northeast of Ubud. Our only goal: to drink kopi luwak, one of the most expensive and supposedly best coffees in the world. In Ubud, a cup of kopi luwak goes for $25 USD. According to the research I've done, a cup in NYC can cost between $40-50.

I first heard of kopi luwak in the movie Bucket List (Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman...excellent movie and I'm living my bucket list right now!!). The civil cats (we saw one...kind of looks like a possum) eat the red cherry coffee beans and digest them. The locals pick the beans out of the cat's poop and proceed with processing the beans. I drank it like a man with no cream and no sugar.

I don't like coffee because of the way it made Mom and Dad's breath smell when I'd kiss them goodbye each morning on my way to school. (sorry for sharing that!! xoxo). Once I got old enough to try coffee, I realized that I just didn't like the taste. Other than my love affair with tiramisu, I don't like anything coffee flavored. The cup of kopi luwak was and will remain the only cup of coffee I ever finish. Gundula, who does drink coffee, found it very smooth and delicious. She really enjoyed it! I found it hard to get the last few drops down...you can see what was left in my cup in the picture!

At the plantation, we also sampled Bali coffee, ginseng coffee, hot chocolate, lemon tea and ginger tea. They grow their own tobacco, so I also sampled a hand rolled cigarette. It made me cough. Finally, we sampled coconut wine (45% alcohol...brutal!) and black rice wine (tasted like disgusting syrup). Aside from the absolute monsoon that we found ourselves driving home in, it was a pleasant day.

I got in my first motorbike accident a couple of days ago. I was on my bike completely still waiting for the approaching car to pass by on the narrow, bumpy road and the approaching car scraped my muffler and bent the license plate on its way. Luckily, the bike I have rented for the past week has dents and scratches all over the place so hopefully they won't notice the new ones when I return it! I was completely fine after the scrape and run. My only ailment at the moment is a heat rash that I can't seem to shake. Today, the pharmacist smartly informed me that I should stay out of the sun and heat. Good point doc.

Earth Day!

2010-04-25T06:19:00.005-04:00

The last week has been incredibly busy, relative to last week. Monday and Tuesday it rained quite a bit, so Gundula and I spent a lot of time in cozy coffee shops and swimming in the rain. I also took a lot of naps (okay, so that part wasn't quite so busy). On Wednesday, we had our second silver making class. I made another ring and a pair of earrings…such progress! That afternoon, we started preparing for the three day Earth Day Environmental Art & Music Festival. Our first job: digging holes for the tree planting ceremony. It was great fun to dig holes in the rain and to get extremely muddy!

Thursday morning was the tree planting ceremony with about 50 children from two neighboring schools. I led a group consisting of eight: three pre-teen Balinese girls and five 7-8 year old Balinese & Western boys. The girls were calm, helpful and quiet. The boys were entirely the opposite…wild! It was all I could do to get them to stay focused on planting the tree. They were much more interested in throwing mud on each other, making mud mustaches and seeing who could get the dirtiest. It was a blast…since I haven’t really been around kids in a long time, it reminded me of how much raw energy they have and of how thankful I am that I am not a teacher! ;) The funniest thing that happened related to poop. During the first 3 minutes when I had the group’s attention, I explained the planting process: compost into the hole, some soil, plant, more soil, mulch, etc. One of the more vocal boys said, “I’m not touching the compost. Compost is poop.” I couldn’t stop laughing long enough to explain that the compost we were using, while directly from a compost toilet, had been completely through the composting process to remove all of the “bad” parts of poop. Hilarious to hear five boys discussing holding poop in their hands...

And another thing about poop…for the last week or so, I’ve seen random droppings in my bathroom, way too small for the spider that seems to have moved in. My guess was mouse or rat until I had to move the dresser to retrieve a slip of paper that had fallen behind. There was a massive gecko just hanging out on the wall…I screamed because it was so large and so close to the paper I wanted. The guys working at the hotel where I’m staying had a good laugh at my expense, but, at least I know where the poop has been coming from. Now there are three of us in room 6 at the Swan Inn: a spider, a gecko and me.

On my way home from the tree planting morning, I stopped to look at some art in a shop on the side of the road. They had some beautiful pieces, and as I really haven’t purchased a souvenir from Bali yet, I decided to buy a decent size canvas painting. I noticed, though, that the particular one that I had chosen was not signed by the artist. To get it signed, I had to drive another 20 minutes north of Ubud to the artist’s home. My coming was apparently a big deal as every family member in their family village came to see me. None of them spoke much English, so communicating was a bit challenging, but it was such a wonderful experience to meet the artist, see his workshop and see the way a typical Balinese family lives.

I spent most of Friday afternoon running errands, setting up for the festival and handing out fliers and posters to local restaurants. Saturday was a very long, very hot day! The festival started at 3, but the volunteers arrived by 9 to help with the set up and with organizing the vendors. Somehow, I got put in charge of a whole lot of things and so spent the morning running around like crazy trying to stay on top of everything. My official job title once the festival started was, importantly, Bar Ticket Girl. I strategically chose a job where 1) I could sit down in the shade 2) I was close to the stage (great music!!) and 3) I could meet all of the men who wanted a beer! I also filled in at a booth where people where encouraged to write an idea to help save the earth on a slip of paper and post it on a concept web board. A group of pre-teens from a local Balinese school all came together to the booth when I was there. One of them wrote, “heal the world” on his slip of paper and I started humming Michael Jackson’s song. The next thing I knew we were all singing the song together, loudly. It gave me goose bumps and almost brought tears to my eyes….very moving.

Gundula worked at the kid’s section of the festival the majority of the day. She thought it would be fun to paint a huge butterfly all over my face. For some reason, neither one of us could stop laughing as she was painting me. I was the oldest person at the festival with a Lepidoptera on my face. ;)

Today, we went to a cremation ceremony. In the Balinese culture, they celebrate life by playing music, cheering and having a parade. An older woman had passed…we saw the men lift the cardboard coffin draped in colorful tapestries onto the top of a gold tower to be carried by bamboo. Once the deceased was in place, the parade started. The parade was led by a cardboard bull being carried by bamboo, followed by the Tamalan percussion band and the gold tower. We walked through the streets for about a mile until we arrived at the cremation site where they moved the coffin into the bull, performed some blessings and made offerings. Then, each member of the family/community lit an incense stick and together lit the bull on fire. The entire atmosphere was relaxed. No tears. They had a few people selling food, people were smoking cigarettes and one of the men chanting a blessing answered his cell phone call while he was up with the body. Definitely nothing like any funeral I have been to at home, but in all honesty, I like this one better. It was a positive, beautiful and peaceful celebration.

Author’s note: I had to look up another word for butterfly for effect…I didn’t just know that. xoxo

Lazy Days in Ubud...

2010-04-19T03:08:00.003-04:00

The week following my adventure to the Komodo Islands has been quite relaxing and uneventful, comparatively. Michelle and I made our way back to Ubud last Monday. I don’t really know what I’ve done with my time and a week has already past! It’s amazing how quickly time goes, even when you have nothing in particular to do! Gundula happened to also be back in Ubud, so it has been great to be with her again! The three of us have basically spent the week hanging out and eating our way through Ubud…the food here is amazing…so fresh and healthy!

In addition to eating, Gundula and I took a West Coast Swing class where I volunteered to dance the male role because there weren’t enough men in the class. While dancing, being the male is a lot more challenging than I expected because you actually have to pay attention to what you’re doing and stay on count. I realized that I prefer the female role much better…you can just enjoy the music and get pulled around by the guy!

We took a jewelry making class where I struggled for four hours to make a sterling silver ring. My ring was actually quite difficult to design, cut, hammer, file, weld and polish. After starting over for the third time (thank goodness that silver can be melted and reused!), my teacher paid a lot more attention to me and didn’t let me weld on my own. While using the electric polishing wheel, my ring shot out of my hands and hit the wall no less than 4 times…the teacher promptly took over for me. I’ve got another design that I want to try and make this week, so we’ll see if I show any improvement! Hopefully the teacher will actually let me sign up for the class!

On Saturday, Gundula and I went for a beautiful walk through the rice fields on our way to Suri Organik, a fabulous restaurant that sits above the rice terraces outside of Ubud. The grilled vegetable salad with fresh feta and rambutan (a local fruit) pie was incredible. We spent several hours relaxing on the cushions on the floor, met some nice guys and swatted butterflies, dragonflies and mosquitoes away until dark…it was such a relaxing way to spend an afternoon!

Speaking of mosquitoes, it seems that they have decided to eat no one else but me. Michelle and I shared a room until Friday when she left…each morning she would wake up with no bites and I would have at least 5 new bites. Luckily, my body overreacts to bites of any kind and so I am now covered in red welts. When I cover those welts with the equivalent of calamine lotion, it looks quite fashionable (read: sarcasm). I have been wearing bug spray constantly and it’s obviously attracting them instead of repelling them. I hope it's okay that I am not taking anti-malaria tablets…if I come down with a fever, I suppose I’m in trouble!

Aside from eating, dancing, making jewelry, getting bit by mosquitoes and laying around rice fields, I have done a little bit of sight seeing. I just missed seeing all of the lotus blossoms in bloom at Pura Taman Saraswati, a temple to the north of Ubud. I have taken walks on roads off the map to get a feel for the local’s daily life…the Balinese are such peaceful, happy people. Their smiles are contagious and it makes me happy to just walk around and say hello to them! We’ve listened to great live music every night: reggae, Latin, classic rock covers. I have decided to stay one more week here before I start traveling again. I’ll be volunteering from Thursday-Sunday at the Earth Day Festival they are hosting in Ubud. Ubud is a wonderful place to slow down, relax and enjoy life and I’m doing a really good job at it!

Komodo Dragons!

2010-04-11T02:17:00.003-04:00

First, thanks to all of you for your emails and concern related to the recent earthquake. I was far away from Sumatra where the earthquake hit and since I was on a boat when it happened, I didn’t even know it had occurred until late last night when we got back to shore. Please keep the victims and those affected in your thoughts and prayers….

The beginning of the tour ‘Hunting Komodos by Camera’ that I joined Tuesday started off by driving across the island of Lombok. We boarded the boat after a few stops along the way at a pottery village and a ship building village. 17 people in total were on the tour, and I was the only one from the Americas! We all got along really well from the beginning. Our first stop was a very small island where we attempted to add to the coral regrowth program, snorkeled, played beach volleyball and had dinner by a bonfire on the beach. I got a bit torn up diving for the ball because there were bits of coral in the sand! In the past, the Indonesians used blasting as a means of fishing which destroyed and scattered a lot of coral all over the shore. They are making good strides towards redeveloping the reefs though, which is a great thing. Everyone was asked to sing a song by the bonfire, although only 3 of us actually did. I performed with I’m a Little Teapot for my new friends….not to sound too cocky, but I’m really good at that one. ;)

The first full day on the boat we did a hike to the top of a mountain overlooking a saltwater lake, formed by a tidal wave that filled a crater made by a volcano. It was a 30 minute hike, straight up. With sun screen and bug spray covering me from head to toe and the fact that I haven’t had a proper work out in over 2 ½ months, I swear I have never sweat so much in my life! Hence, I was very excited when I finally made it to the top! We stopped that evening at Kilo Beach, where the entire village came out to greet us. The kids were amazing and very eager to practice the little English that they knew. They absolutely loved having their picture taken. The next time I travel to a third world country, I will have a Polaroid camera with me so that I can give them a copy of the picture too! They had a volleyball net and the locals invited us to play against some local girls. I haven’t played a sport in front of that large of a crowd in over a decade…there were easily over 200 people surrounding the court. Everyone was laughing and clapping, regardless of how bad we played…it was quite embarrassing for 3 guys, 2 other girls and I to be beaten by villagers whose average age was 16. Oh well!

The next morning, I was giddy with excitement as we docked at Komodo Island. As we approached, I acknowledged that the dragons are quite smart to have chosen that island to live….Komodo actually looks like a place where dragons belonged…very barren savannah with few forests. In total, we saw 2 adult dragons and 1 baby dragon. I got yelled at no less than twice by our guide which you are required to have in the park for safety reasons. The first time I was yelled at was because I was swinging my water bottle as we were approaching the first dragon. I was excited! The guide immediately scolded me because movement like that indicates to the dragon that I might want to feed it. I did not want to feed it, so I stopped moving my bottle! The second time, I walked behind one, alone, and stopped to take a picture of the dragon from a different angle…I was promptly yelled at to keep moving.

From then on, the guide didn’t leave my side. I was happy for that when he spotted a king cobra AND a green mamba, both deadly poisonous snakes, in the same nearby tree and promptly warned me not to get any closer! The green mamba was just hanging out and the king cobra was slithering through the tree after two mice that we could see trying to hide in the leaves. We all gathered round to watch…I was closest to the green mamba because he didn’t seem interested in moving. Then, all of a sudden, the mamba dropped down to a lower branch just like that. I screamed and jumped back easily 6 feet knocking down a German guy and an English girl along my way. I didn’t know who I had knocked over on my flight backwards because I didn’t look and I didn’t apologize (until later!) because I was traumatized and wouldn’t take my eyes off the snake!! Needless to say, it took quite a while for my blood pressure to return to normal!

After Komodo Island, we cruised to Red Beach where we did some of the best snorkeling I’ve ever done. The reefs were amazing…tons of fish, a lot of which I had never seen before. We spotted a large sepia (in the octopus/squid family), about 2’ by 1’, making its way along the reef. I also stumbled upon a 1 ½’ crocodile fish chilling out near the rocks. It is apparently extremely rare to see that, so I was excited to have spotted something so unique.

The next day, we went to Rinca Island, the second largest of the four islands where you can find Komodos. You’ll be happy to know that I was very well-behaved perhaps due to the slight hangover I had from drinking arak the night before (arak is a local liquor made from palm trees…40-70% proof but it goes great with OJ and Sprite!). The place was crawling with dragons! We spotted 19 dragons in the first half hour…they like to hang around the rangers station cafeteria. They can smell blood up to 2 km away and so always linger where the humans prepare food.

On our 5 km hike through Rinca Island, we saw a water buffalo that had recently been bitten by a dragon. The dragon’s saliva contains at least one bacterium of 60 that is highly septic. For large animals like the buffalo, it can take up to 3 weeks for the animal to die. Then, the dragons devour its cadaver. This buffalo had already been bitten but still wasn’t dead, and a dragon was close by waiting for its final breath. It was a chilling scene to witness. In all, I saw 25 dragons, just slightly over 1% of the dragon population on Komodo (approx. 1,300 dragons) and Rinca (approx. 1,000 dragons). The largest was over 6’ and the smallest just under 3’. It was an awesome experience to see the largest living lizard and closest relative of the dinosaur alive!

As the sun was setting Friday night, we sailed with a massive school of dolphins, easily 30-40 of them… the most I have ever seen at one time. They were in the mood to perform and put on quite a show for us: they swan under and around the boat, jumped, twisted in the air and followed us for at least 5 solid minutes. With a perfect sunset and dolphins swimming all around, it was definitely one of those moments where you’re left feeling that all is right in the world and you can’t stop smiling.

Gili Islands

2010-04-05T04:48:00.001-04:00

The ferry ride from Bali to the Gili Islands was beautiful. Along the way, I saw my first blow hole in a rock which was, surprisingly, very cool! I also saw a dolphin fully breach the water. Lastly, I saw a small shark jump about 4 feet out of the water chasing a fish who had also jumped all the way out of the water! Lots of activity here in the Indian Ocean!

The Gili Islands consist of three small islands: Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. On all three, there are no cars or motorbikes, only bicycles and horse drawn carriages. Interestingly, there are no dogs on any of the islands…only cats with stubs for tails. Most of the activity occurs on Trawangan, the largest of the three islands. Meno and Air are more for honeymooners and couples, so I stayed as far away as possible from those two for obvious reasons. It takes only about 3 hours to walk around the whole island. The water here has certainly been photographed for every island article every printed because it is a perfect turquoise blue. Visibility is amazing…up to 30’ crystal clear in a lot of places. Basically, I’ve never been anywhere more calming or more beautiful. The biggest decisions I have to make each day are what sort of fresh juice to order and which beachfront restaurant to order it from! It’s really tough!

On my first day on Gili Trawangan, I rented a bicycle and cycled around the island once and then half way around again. I stopped along the way for a swim, nap, etc. I ate lunch in a bamboo hut that sits over the water with breathtaking views of Bali and Lombok islands. A funny thing happened, I was napping on the beach and an Indonesian guy, about 23, walked up and sat down right next to me. He asked me where I was from, my age, if I was single, etc. Then he told me he liked my body. I can now check “be approached by a male gigolo” off of my to-do list. I haven’t mentioned yet that he wasn’t wearing ANYTHING but a small t-shirt. Very interesting marketing strategy I must admit! I was prepared for it though…I had been forewarned that the men on the Gili’s try to make extra money by hooking up with the foreign girls.

On Saturday, I biked again around the island but this time rented snorkel gear. It was by far the most awesome snorkeling experience I’ve ever had! I followed two turtles for over 30 minutes each. I watched them move coral to find what they wanted to eat, scratch their stomachs and backs on coral, come up to the surface for air and just swim around in the water. They are such peaceful creatures! Floating in the water, watching the turtles and listening to the midday Muslim call to prayer from the island was one of those moments in life where you think that it just couldn’t possibly get any better. It did a few minutes later when one of the turtles came close enough to me that I could rub the algae off of its back! Amazing!

Sunday I did absolutely nothing. I got to the beach by 11 and read, slept and swam until the sun went down. I love days at the beach like that! They have an outdoor theatre on the island, where everyone lays on mats. I watched It’s Complicated and Dr. Parnassus last night…coolest movie theatre I’ve ever been to because I got to lay on the ground outside and because they served Nutella milkshakes…why haven’t I ever thought of making one of those at home?!

Today I took a glass bottom boat snorkeling around the other two islands. We saw five more turtles today, although the currents were too strong to stay and watch them for any length of time. There were a ton of beautiful parrot and angel fish. The coral isn’t nearly as impressive as the Great Barrier Reef, but the visibility was way better.

I leave paradise early tomorrow morning to start a 6 day cruise to the Komodo Islands. I am so excited to see a Komodo dragon! I will be even more excited if I see it kill something, preferably not me or another human. Along the way, we’ll be stopping at some pretty remote dive/snorkel spots, so I hope to see a lot more turtles and hopefully some reef sharks too! I’ll be sleeping on the deck each night…it was $100 cheaper and I figured it would be way cooler to do some star gazing as I’m falling asleep. If you don’t hear from me in about 7-8 days, you should assume that I got eaten by a dragon.

Hygiene Update: there is no fresh water on the Gili’s unless you pay for a really expensive room. Therefore, I have, since Thursday, been covered in a thin layer of salt. Add sunscreen and bug spray on top of that and you have an idea of how badly I want, and just might need, a real shower. But, as I’ll be boarding a ship for the next 6 days, I’ll definitely not be clean for a total of 11 days. You know you are in paradise when you completely give up on being clean….right?!? On a positive note, I don’t think I’ve ever had a better tan!

Bali - The Beginning

2010-04-01T20:17:00.003-04:00

I just finished uploading a lot of pictures from my first 3 weeks in Bali. You'll see a lot of sunset pictures that just don't do the real thing justice! Click on the link below to view them and enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jamie1209/BaliTheBeginning#

Cock Fights & Sun Tans

2010-03-31T06:25:00.004-04:00

The ride from Anturan in north Bali to Sanur in southeast Bali was beautiful. Throughout the drive, I saw vibrant green rice terraces, villages with family temples and huge mountains. If Bali itself is paradise, then I’m at a loss for words with how nice the Bali Hyatt is! They sounded a welcome gong when I arrived, placed a necklace of fresh flowers around my neck and looked at me strangely because I was carrying my luggage on my back when I checked in! Apparently the Bali Hyatt does not get too many backpackers!

I met Michael on the beach, along with his parents, his aunt and uncle, and his father’s best friend and his wife. We met in his aunt and uncle’s room overlooking a beautiful garden and one of the pools for gin & tonics in the evening. We ate at a wonderful Indonesian restaurant and then listened to some live Irish music at a local pub. Around midnight, Michael and I hired a taxi to Kuta where we did our own pub crawl until 5 in the morning!

On Sunday, Michael and I recovered by the beach and pool working on our tans for most of the day. That night, everyone came to our room to celebrate Michael’s father’s birthday. I bought a cake and birthday hats, along with birthday balloons and a banner to decorate. I don’t think they celebrate birthdays in Denmark with that much “stuff” so they were all very happy to see how an American likes to celebrate birthdays! We had a wonderful dinner on the sand…all 8 of us ordered snapper ginger which is an amazing dish I’m going to try to make again someday!

We rented bikes on Monday and explored the coast in Sanur. Along the way, we saw the locals watching a cock fight on the beach. Here, they strap a small knife to the leg of each chicken. Then, they chant and play music (drums and bells) to get the chickens aggravated enough to fight. Luckily, I didn’t see much of the fight – only enough to see which chicken did not win. I do not want to see that again. Much like the bull fighting I saw in Barcelona, it is way too violent and cruel. However, in Bali, it’s more of a religious practice as they sacrifice the chickens in the name of one of their Gods.

Along the way, we also saw a much more positive ceremony taking place on the beach in honor of the first full moon in the new Balinese year. Here, every family celebrates the anniversary of their family temple (all families have a temple in/near their home). They also celebrate full moons, the anniversary of community temples and the new year with ceremonies. Additionally, families celebrate birth, marriage, death and birthdays together with the whole community/village. I think their ceremonies are such a beautiful expression of gratitude to their Gods. And, they have such a strong sense of community…we should learn from their example!

Michael left on Tuesday, and I checked into Gina’s Homestay near the beach (from $160/night to $9/night…quite a change!). I spend Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday taking care of ‘errands’. It has been nice to have a room to myself for a few nights…haven’t had but one night alone since Mom left Shanghai! Tomorrow, I’ll take a 5 hour ferry to the Gili Islands, near the island of Lombok to the east of Bali. It’s supposed to be even more beautiful than Bali…not sure how that’s going to be possible, but I’m looking forward to finding out for myself!

How Are You Tomorrow?

2010-03-26T19:54:00.007-04:00

More than once while walking along the beach, Gundula and I have been asked “how are you tomorrow?” It cracks me up. I just say I won’t know until I get there!

We arrived in Anturan in the north of Bali on Wednesday afternoon after a terrifying ride through the mountains of central Bali during a torrential downpour. That evening, we went to Warung Rasta on the beach (picture) for dinner. I had the most massive tuna steak ever – it was at least four times the size of a typical tuna fillet served back home and it cost less than $6, including rice and vegetables with coconut. Amazing! The ride to, and certainly from, dinner was an experience! A Balinese guy named Jack whom we met at the beach offered to drive us to the restaurant on the back of his motorbike. On the way, Gundula and I took turns riding to the restaurant (no helmet, wearing flip-flops!). On the way home, Jack was tired and so the three of us climbed on the motorbike (I’m not tiny and Gundula is over 5’10”!!). Gundula and I could not stop laughing…that is until we all spotted a police car, Jack cut a hard left onto the side of the road and told us to jump off quick. We did and luckily the cop just kept on going. I’ve broken my first law in Indonesia.

Thursday was a beach day…finally finished my journal from my time in China, read and worked on my tan. The most exciting thing that happened was watching a guy climb a palm tree to cut down coconuts right in front of me. Not too much happens in Anturan…a wonderful, local place to get away from it all! After yet another amazing sunset, we sat on the beach with local guys who played guitar and some other tourists. We all gave it our best shot singing the choruses and mumbling the verses of some classics…a great way to spend an evening by the beach in the middle of nowhere!

On Friday, I bribed my first government official. Gundula and I have both decided to extend our visas for another month (only 30 days are granted upon entry), so we went to the local immigration office to see what we needed to do and when. After hearing the laborious and complicated process, I decided to ask if there was an easier way. Turns out, there was…as everything seems to go in Indonesia, if you’re willing to pay, you can get whatever you want. I got another month added to my visa for $15 more than the visa extension actually cost. This is awesome because I wasn’t supposed to be able to submit the paperwork for another 10 business days, was supposed to find a Balinese sponsor, was supposed to have a flight booked to get out of the country and was supposed to have to wait 4 days to have my passport returned. I walked in at 10 AM and by 3 PM I had my visa extension. The best part is that the cashier in the immigration office was the one who “took care of it” for me and all of the immigration officials in the office knew what was going on. I love countries where bribery actually works!

Between 10 and 3, Gundula and I explored the northern coast of Bali on motorbike. We trekked into the jungle (much easier than the jungle temple trek!) to find the Sing Sing waterfall. It was beautiful! I’ve always wanted to go skinny dipping in a waterfall like they do in the movies, so I did. Sorry, no pictures were taken so none can be shared. ;)

I got a massage on the sand with the waves crashing about 25’ away from me Friday afternoon. It was one of the most relaxing places to get a massage ever! However, it did smell a bit like chicken poop since they run all over the northern beaches. I must get those nose plugs!

Tonight was very emotional for me. In addition to the chickens and dogs running on the beach, there are also pigs (in cages, thank goodness!). At 8 PM, one of the pigs went into labor and gave birth to 7 piglets. We were told by the locals that one of them had gotten injured when the Mom stepped on it right after birth causing its insides to come out. Gundula and I were heartbroken looking at the helpless little pig trying to breathe. So, we marched down to a neighboring hotel where we heard two nurses from Holland were staying to see if they could help. At 10:30 PM, the piglet was examined by the nurses. It turns out that its’ heart, stomach and intestines grew outside of its stomach. The Mom wouldn’t let the deformed pig eat, so then we went in search of milk to feed it. No such luck in north Bali as they only have condensed milk. It was decided in the end to let nature run its course. I am so glad I did not grow up on a farm.

To summarize this post: I broke two laws. I went skinny dipping in a public waterfall (very likely also illegal). I tried to rescue a deformed pig. I think it all balances out in the end.

Ubud!

2010-03-23T07:11:00.010-04:00

I decided to stay one more night in Legian enjoying the pool, beach and sunshine. I saw yet another breathtaking sunset from the aptly named Sunset Bar with Van and Gundula. Gundula, Ellen (a 20 year old from England) and I hired a minivan to drive us to Ubud in Central Bali. We found a guestroom on the top of a shop complete with a front porch overlooking the street and a small family temple where they make their daily offerings….very cool for less than $6 a day!

We had a wake up call a lot earlier than I would have preferred by two monkeys who paid us a visit to eat Gundula’s pistachios that were accidentally left on the front porch overnight! The monkeys proceeded to eat every pistachio in the bag and then totally destroyed an aloe plant and some other tropical plant. We tried to intervene, but they just hissed and scared us to death, so we let them wreak havoc on the front porch for the morning. What a great way to start the day!

We spent the rest of the day shopping in the local market. Ubud is the arts center of Bali, so there are a lot of unique things to tempt you! Gundula and I went to the Kecak Ramayana & Fire Dance show Friday evening. It was definitely a show geared toward the tourists, but it was impressive. The first half (the Kecak part) was based on an ancient love story. Over 40 men sang chants for at least 45 minutes while the colorfully decorated actors recreated the story. After that, the fire dancing began. With the guys still chanting, a bon fire was started out of coconut shells. As they turned to a hot ember, a guy dressed like a bird started walking and kicking around the shells. It was nuts!! He apparently goes into a trance-like state and at one point two other guys had to pull him off the hot shells and lay him down on the ground. I’ve never seen anything like it!

Saturday, Gundula and I rented motor bikes and rode up to Mt. Batur, Lake Batur and Mt. Agung. Riding motor bikes in Indonesia is awesome! They basically don’t have any rules. I signed my name on a slip of paper and we were off…no drivers license, no training and a very sketchy ‘insurance policy’. I think I worried the guy we rented the bikes from when I asked what side of the street they drive on in Bali. The worry returned my way when he didn’t really answer me (turns out it is on the left side most of the time)! Luckily, we both survived and it turned out to be an amazing trip! We had lunch in rice terraces we passed along the way. In contrast to the cold, misty and brown terraces in China, those in Bali are a vibrant green. Gazing at the green terraces against the bright blue sky is an image I won’t soon forget.

It was a lot of fun to talk to the locals on the way up…filling up with petrol, if you can call it that, was also an interesting experience. They keep petrol in old vodka bottles or old plastic water bottles on the side of the road and use a funnel to fill up the tank. Definitely not like at home! Mt. Batur and Mt. Agung, both active volcanoes, were fantastic. The area, unlike Ubud and the southern part of the island, is not touristy yet. Since not a lot of people venture up to the lake and mountains without being on a guided tour, we got a lot of surprised looks. On the way back to Ubud, it started pouring down rain. We waited for the storm to pass under trees while all of the locals laughed at us. I was soaked to the core. Luckily, it passed quickly and we dried up almost instantly.

Gundula and I took a Balinese cooking course on Monday morning. It started with a tour of the market where, like most markets in Asia, chaos, stench and unsanitary practices are the norm. It was great to be with the locals seeing the world from their perspective and experiencing what they do. However, as I feel after walking out of every market I’ve entered since leaving the West, I am very thankful for Publix and Harris Teeter.

Back at Café Bali, we made bakso soup, satay (chicken paste with spices on a stick), pepes (fish marinated in Balinese sauce and steamed in banana leaves), ureb (vegetables with coconut and saffron sauce), saffron rice and dadar galang (a dessert pancake filled with caramelized coconut). Everything we made tasted amazing – so fresh, healthy and colorful! I really hope I can recreate it when I have a kitchen again!

I spent Monday afternoon exploring the Monkey Forest. Just as the name implies, there were monkeys everywhere. They swatted my bag, tried to steal the sandals that were strapped to my feet and generally scared me to death, primarily because there is a rabies epidemic on the island at the moment. At any rate, I am still amazed at how human-like primates behave. Their expressions are just like ours! If only we picked fleas & ticks off of each other and ate them every once and a while, we’d be identical!

Yesterday, I ventured off on my own on a motorbike. I went in 3 directions off the map that I was carrying…in other words, I covered a lot of territory. The absolute highlight was the hour long trek into the jungle to see the Jungle Temple (they really are very creative at naming things in Bali). An old Balinese man escorted me through the jungle. I was very muddy by the time we finished and my hiking shoes ripped…it was intense hiking, more like pulling myself up and over slippery rocks and through thick vines...no real trail to speak of. The views were amazing, but the real highlight was sitting alone with the Balinese guy and meditating (I felt obliged to do it even though I was too busy swatting mosquitoes and wiping sweat off my forehead to actually get into the meditation thing!). It was a great day of exploring the 5 villages around Ubud on my own!

Today, Gundala and I plan to venture to the north part of Bali. Not sure exactly where we will end up, but likely near Kalibukbuk – famous for black sand beaches, temples, dolphins and hot springs. On Saturday, I’ll head to Sanur, a coastal city in southeast Bali, to meet up with Michael, my friend from Beijing. His family and I will be staying at the Hyatt Sanur until Tuesday. It will be great to see a familiar face from China and to see how much Chinese I can still remember! Also, it will be nice to have air conditioning. Selamat tinggal from Ubud!

Pictures!

2010-03-19T04:07:00.002-04:00

'The Rest of China and Hong Kong' picture album has been posted on Picasa Web Albums. Click on the following link to view them and enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jamie1209/TheRestOfChinaAndHongKong#

Woke up this morning to two monkey's on our front porch eating some pistachios we accidentally left outside. Ubud is wonderful! Happy Friday!

Shhh! It's Nyepi Day!

2010-03-16T07:12:00.006-04:00

I am in love with Bali: the people, the culture, the food, the beaches. It’s an incredibly laid back place – no skyscrapers, no rush and no worries! I am staying in Legian, a small coastal city in the south of Bali. On Sunday, Neil, the owner of the hostel drove a mini-van full of us to Padang Padang, a small and secluded beach about an hour away from Legian. The beach was nestled between cliffs covered in trees and vines….absolutely beautiful. From there, we went to Jimbaran beach for dinner. After picking out the prawns, squid and snapper and mahi-mahi that we wanted to be grilled by the locals, we sat down at candle lit tables on the beach eating some of the best fresh seafood I've ever had and drinking fresh papaya and pineapple juice – incredible. While eating, we watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. I have a feeling that I will see many beautiful sunsets here…so it’s going to prove difficult to rank them!

Sunday night, Van, a surgeon from Brooklyn, performed minor surgery on a nasty blister that I got from walking an hour to Kuta, dancing all night and walking back in fairly new sandals. I bought these cute shoes in Australia and wore them briefly there before moving to China where the majority of my skin, including my feet, was not exposed to the air for over 5 months! Needless to say, all of the walking and dancing wrecked havoc on my feet...and I’ve been hobbling around the island since Friday! Thank goodness there was a surgeon nearby to help me!

Van, Gundula (an awesome 39 year old German woman who, like me, quit her job to travel the world) and I spent Monday in search of ceremonies that the locals were performing all over the island to celebrate/prepare for Nyepi Day. Around Legian and in Kuta, a larger and more touristy city within walking distance, we saw large groups of Balinese putting the finishing touches on their Ogoh-Ogoh (paper mache representations of evil spirits/monsters for the parade). We went to the Vihare Buddhist Temple where we performed incense offerings to the Gods and received the traditional blessing. The blessing entailed sitting on our knees, drinking water from our hands three times, having water brushed on our foreheads three times and then having rice placed on our foreheads and collarbone. Women also receive a flower which is placed behind the right ear. It was a very moving and peaceful experience.

From the Vihare Temple, we walked to another where hundreds of locals, all dressed in white, were performing their offerings en masse. Some were chanting, some were playing drums and most were carrying baskets made out of bamboo or reeds carrying fruits, rice, money, flowers, etc. In both temples, we had to wear sarongs to cover our legs and had to cover our shoulders. I love observing people performing ceremonies in their own culture….and the Balinese have some of the coolest traditions I have ever witnessed!

After eating some delicious local Indonesian food, we went for head and face massages. I paid less than $6 USD for an hour long head and face massage! After our massages, we did a little bit of window shopping as we made our way to the beach. Again, witnessing one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever witnessed, we made our way to the street where the parade was to be held. At exactly 8 PM, the procession started with children carrying lighted torches. Then, the evil spirits made by different families in the community passed by, carried by children and teenage boys. Bleganjur was being played by teenage boys – a combination of drums, bells and chanting. It was magical! We followed the parade until the end, where they have parked the ‘floats’ until the 17th. On the 17th, they will burn them. Today, the 16th, no one can be on the streets. It turns out you can talk a little, but only in quiet voices. Tonight, we can’t turn on any lights…looking forward to doing some star gazing once it gets dark and eating dinner by candlelight! Since I’ve got a bum foot and a sunburn that is still healing, I’m happy to have a day to rest and relax at the hotel.

Smoothie Watch: the fresh juices/smoothies here are amazing. The best so far: vanilla yogurt, milk, ice, banana, date, honey and cinnamon. The most unusual: avocado and chocolate…an interesting and very thick combination that I’m glad I tried once but likely won’t again!

Next stop: Ubud in central Bali that Elizabeth Gilbert made famous in her book Eat, Pray, Love. I’m still working out the details, but I think the book I write based on my travels will be entitled Drink, Cough, Sleep. I drank a lot in Africa and Australia. I coughed a lot in China and I’ve been doing a lot of napping by the beach and pool in Bali so far! Happy Nyepi Day everyone!

Hong Kong & Bali

2010-03-13T10:59:00.003-05:00

The overnight sleeper bus from Yangshuo to Shenzhen is something I hope I never have to do again! During the 11 ½ hours on the bus, I managed to get a whopping 3 hours of sleep. Here’s what made the bus ride so much fun: I was half lying/half sitting up on the floor. There was someone directly on top of me. I had to take my shoes off. The blanket that I was given had most definitely never been washed, and the Chinese aren’t known for their cleanliness. The driver smoked at least once an hour and liked to honk the horn a lot. I think I didn’t sleep mainly because of the smell. I have ear plugs for noise and an eye mask to block the light. Note to self: add nose plugs to the shopping list before next bus ride! I decided that the smell equated to: 20% cigarette smoke, 50% body odor and 30% feet. It was disgusting and made me gag every time I shifted under the blanket as the stench wafted my way.

I was almost giddy as I passed out of China and into Hong Kong. I took the train into the city and easily found my hostel. I was immediately sketched out by it though…I had to walk through an indoor, crowded market for some reason full of men only. Once I realized that I was in the middle of a porn market, my radar immediately went off that this probably wasn’t the best place for a single female traveling alone to stay. My intuition was right on because the guesthouse was disgusting and it had the smallest rooms for four people that I have ever been in. I stayed one night only and moved to the other side of the harbor into a more traditional hostel, where Grace and Keith (Irish couple) also were staying!

My first day in Hong Kong was great. I went to an art exhibit where every piece was made out of chocolate. It made me hungry, so I got an Oreo McFlurry (yum!). I spent the evening on Temple Street at an outdoor night market and had Singapore noodles on the street (it was wonderful!). I walked around Victoria Harbor (Kowloon side) that night and was amazed at how impressive the skyline of Hong Kong is…it’s one of the prettiest harbors/skylines I’ve ever seen with impressive architecture, awesome lighting and buildings as far as you can see nestled between the water and the mountains.

I checked into my new home away from home and met up with Grace, Keith and another guy, Yassir from France. The four of us headed about an hour outside of the city to see the 1st or 2nd largest Buddha in the world (the other is in Thailand) which sits on top of a mountain. We were entertained on the way by a 3 year old Chinese girl who kept saying “I am 3 years old. I am a big girl” over and over, but she said it with varying inflections or sticking her tongue out while saying it or rotating her jaw/mouth while saying it. We were all crying we were laughing so hard…and because we were laughing she just kept on doing it. A good way to pass the time on the subway! It was great to get out of town…beautiful views of the islands, mountains and water all around. We took the ferry back to Hong Kong Island and then took a tram up to Victoria Peak to view the skyline at night from one of the highest view points in the city. It was beautiful!

Grace and Keith left early the next morning, so I had Thursday to myself to wander around Hong Kong Island. I went to the top of the Bank of China observatory tower and then window shopped in the antique district on Hollywood Road. Went to SoHo (south of Hollywood) and shopped…there’s awesome jewelry in Hong Kong! I took the ferry back over to Kowloon to enjoy the views from the water. While enjoying the views on the boardwalk, I kept seeing people walking with balloons and handing them to a girl standing by herself. Curious, I walked over just in time to see a guy walk up to her, carrying more balloons, a bouquet and a small black box. He walked up to her, dropped to a knee and proposed! They were both crying and she said yes (and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I had a tear or two in my eye too!). Then, they let the balloons go and everyone who had gathered around to watch clapped…it was cool to witness something like that!

After the proposal, I ferried back to Hong Kong Island and did more shopping, this time in the street markets. I ate some great dim sum and egg custard tarts. I had plans to go out with Yassir to party but decided to get some rest instead…my feet were tired from 8+ hours of walking/shopping! All in all, I love Hong Kong. It’s everything I love about China, minus everything that I hate about China.

Checking in for my flight to Indonesia was slightly stressful. Unfortunately, I didn’t read the information that Indonesia requires a definite departure date and flight booked in advance. I didn’t have a departure flight booked, so they wouldn’t let me check in. So in less than 5 minutes, I booked a flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on April 9th….absolutely random and without any thinking through what I’m going to do in Kuala Lumpur or how I’ll get to Jakarta!

I’ve been in Bali for one day and am almost through my second evening. Bali is AMAZING! I haven’t been happier in a long time than I was when I felt the sand between my toes and walked into the Java Sea earlier today! I already have a sunburn! [the sunset picture was taken tonight from the rooftop lounge at the hostel where I’ll live until 3/17…breathtaking!] I’ve met some great people at my hostel – went to dinner and out with 8 people last night. The club scene here is awesome…4 story clubs with different music on each level…fire dancers, laser light shows, free shots...it was a blast! The Balinese people are incredibly friendly, calm, happy and helpful. They set out offerings everyday in front of their businesses and homes. I can’t wait to learn and experience more of their culture.

Wednesday, March 16th, is Nyepi Day (day of silence and first day of their New Year) for the Balinese Hindus. From midnight on the 15th until 6:00 AM on the 17th, no one is allowed outside of their homes, no one can work and no one should speak so that the bad spirits will pass over Bali as they enter into the beginning of the New Year. There are no flights in/out of Bali, no taxis, no shops/restaurants open, etc. We are not allowed to leave the hostel the whole time…glad that the place I booked has a pool on the property! March 15th there are huge parades and parties in the streets and supposedly most people use the day of silence to ‘sleep it off’. I’m so excited to be here to experience Nyepi Day in the Balinese culture!

Goodbye China!

2010-03-08T06:38:00.006-05:00

Xingping is officially my favorite city in China that I’ve visited. It’s calm, quiet, not too touristy and beautiful. It is definitely a place that I’d put on the itinerary if you’re planning a trip to China! I spent most of Friday relaxing – sleeping, reading, writing and walking around the village getting a feel for the place. There was hardly anyone around…one night there were only 2 of us staying at the only hostel in town (at less than $3/night, I felt bad that they even kept the place open at all!).

On Saturday, I met a nice American girl and together we took a bamboo raft from Xingping up to Yangdi on the Li River. Along the way, we saw the mountain range that is printed on the back of the 20 RMB note. It was a very peaceful, scenic and cold ride! After the boat ride, I climbed up to the top of the highest peak overlooking the river. You can see from the picture that the water level is extremely low right now...there's currently a massive drought in the south of China. From the top, there were beautiful views of the limestone peaks, the village and the river. [picture note: my nose looks like Rudolph's because it was/is....I've caught yet another cold and cannot stop blowing my nose...seriously, how much mucus can one person produce?!?!]

Saturday was also 'market day' in Xingping. I've been to several markets in China selling everything from fake bags to pajamas to vegetables. This one sold everything. And by everything, I mean live turtles, chickens, rabbits, geese, ducks, fish and dogs. This area of China is known for eating dog, something I refuse to do for a multitude of reasons. I turned a corner in the market and saw a dead dog, already hairless, being placed on a grill. Behind it, there was a cage full of dogs packed so tight that they could hardly move. It made me sick to my stomach to see such cruel and inhumane treatment of animals. When I am faced with situations like that which are so far removed from what I consider acceptable behavior, I have to take a deep breath and remind myself that this is their culture and how they live, and then run away as quickly as possible before vomiting and/or screaming at them. [picture note: you may not be able to tell from the picture, but there is a guy sleeping behind his pork stand where an entire pig has been cut up and laid out for sale!]

In addition to the market selling everything under the sun but mermaids, Xingping's dentist and doctor offices open right out to the street, patients in chairs. No such thing as patient privacy, or sanitary conditions, for that matter down south!

Waking up in Xingping on Sunday morning, freezing again, I realized that I am completely in charge of where I am going and what I am doing. I have no timeline and nothing forcing me to go one direction versus another. I am sick of the cold, so I decided to completely change my plan of heading to Vietnam. I’m heading to Hong Kong via an overnight bus tonight. This Friday, I land in Bali, Indonesia. I AM VERY EXCITED!

I met up with my Irish friends today for lunch. I also got probably the best back massage of my life for less than $9. She also massaged my knee caps, eye lids and nostrils – very thorough! It has been a relaxing few days…I had grand plans of rock climbing and biking around the area, but the weather is way too cold and rainy for outdoor adventures!

As this will be my last post from China, allow me to summarize my experience here. China is a roller coaster. One minute you love it, the next minute you hate it. One minute you’re a celebrity and everyone wants to take their picture with you, the next minute you’re invisible and people are pushing you in every direction to get ahead of you in line. One minute you’re enjoying the ride, the next minute you’re gripping the seat with white knuckles and saying your prayers as the taxi/bus driver plays chicken with oncoming traffic. One minute you’re walking peacefully along the street, the next minute someone hawks and spits or shoots a snot rocket right in your path. After 5 months and 22 days, I don’t regret coming here at all. China has been an incredible experience, but I’m ready to get off the ride. And one more thing, I’m damn proud and lucky to be from a democratic country.

Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces

2010-03-04T07:17:00.004-05:00

I’ve had an eventful few days since my last post. For starters, I had a great night out last Friday in Shanghai. I went to dinner with Michael’s friend, Julie and seven of her Danish friends. From there, we went to a bar with an eight person Latin band playing – incredible music and delicious long island ice teas (in your honor Mom!). After that, we danced our pants off (not literally!) at a swanky late night club. Very fun night and the best part is that I made it to the airport just in time for my flight!

Guilin is a much smaller town compared to most that I’ve been to lately with stunning mountain peaks that shoot straight out of the ground sporadically around the area and the Li River running to its east. I hiked to the top of the tallest peak in the city on Sunday. Recovering from the hike next to the Li River, I met two Chinese guys, Ma and Chen, who invited me to join them at their university for dinner and to celebrate the Lantern Festival – the last night of the two week Spring Festival to welcome in the Chinese New Year.

I met Ma and Chen at a very local restaurant near their school where we sat on tiny little seats (my knees were up to my chest!) and ate beer fish (from the Li River…I tried to ignore the fact that the part of the river I saw in Guilin was filthy!!). It was actually delicious! After that, we walked around their campus watching people light red paper lanterns and send them off into the sky. It was magical to look into the night sky and see it lined with red lanterns flying through the air. Also, there were fireworks being let off all over the city for 6 solid hours….individuals here can buy the kind of fireworks that cities at home light off for July 4th …so you can imagine that those with money like to show it off by holding their own fireworks show. Multiply that rich family by 30 or 40 and you have an idea of how many fireworks were going off around the river and various parks. It was great to be in Guilin for the Lantern Festival!

I ran some errands (bought back-up shoe laces, restocked on peanut butter, etc....very important stuff!) on Monday and relaxed around the town watching people. I met a great Irish couple, Grace and Keith, who asked if they could join me on my plan to venture north to the Dragon’s Backbone the next day. I was happy to have the company of such fun people, and I think after realizing that I spoke some Chinese, they were happy to be traveling with me as well! 5 different buses with loads of people, baskets of produce and chickens (we think dead??!) later, we arrived in Dazhai. A woman from the Yao tribe invited us to stay at her new ‘hotel’, so we did... not realizing we were going to walk for an hour and a half straight up a mountain to get there! We were the ONLY foreigners in the Tiantouzhai Village which has about 300 residents. It was WONDERFUL to be away from cars, buses, horns and people…I could actually hear the wind blowing through the trees and the water running through the creek. We sat on the balcony overlooking beautiful rice terraces, helped the Grandfather of the ‘hotel’ peel and prepare bamboo shoots for dinner, drank beer and played cards. I learned that the Irish call the club cards ‘cloves’ or ‘shamrocks’…so cute! Also, I think bamboo shoots are delicious – the pandas are onto something!

After a restful night sleep in a lodge made entirely out of wood, we started on our four hour trek through the rice terraces from Dazhai to Ping’An. It was awesome to be so close to the locals going about their daily lives – working the rice fields, hauling logs from one mountain to another, carrying pigs/chickens from one village to another. It was pretty foggy, but we still could see the terraces stretching out almost as far as the eye could see. The harvest was completed in late October and they won’t plant again for another few weeks, so the rice wasn’t at its peak viewing time, but that also meant that there were virtually no other tourists. It was a great workout and a very peaceful trek through what I would consider ‘old China’. That’s the kind of China that I prefer!

I arrived in Xingping, a tiny village nestled between mountains on three sides and the Li River on the fourth, this afternoon. I’ve counted five tourists so far. All of the shops and restaurants close by 8 PM. My next three days here will be a vacation from my vacation…I plan to sleep and read a lot, write in my journal and do some biking around the other smaller villages in the area! Until next time…xoxo.

On the Road Again

2010-02-26T02:05:00.008-05:00

Since Mom flew home on Tuesday, I've moved from 4 star hotels to 4-6 bed dorm rooms in hostels. Instead of delicious meals at nice restaurants, I'm back to eating soup out of a bag or dumplings made out of questionable meat (read: cheap). I miss having a traveling companion too!

I am not too sure what all the fuss is about over Shanghai. Aside from a lot of buildings with interesting architecture and creative lighting to look at, there's not much to do here besides eat and shop! All of the historical buildings were either torn down during the Cultural Revolution (thanks Mao) or have been replaced by massive skyscrapers.

Despite the process to get it the way it is, the skyline of Shanghai is impressive. Mom and I went to Cloud 88 bar on the top floor of the JinMao Tower to watch the sunset over the city and to have cocktails which cost more than the next week of my living expenses! We spent another afternoon walking along Nanjing Road which is the oldest, most famous shopping street in Asia. The little blue guy in the picture is the very classy mascot that Shanghai chose to represent the World Expo which begins here in May. Unfortunately, you can't walk around the Expo sites yet because they are still frantically building all kinds of infrastructure to prepare for it! I said goodbye to Mom at the airport on Tuesday...she was more than happy to be boarding a plane headed for Chance (our dog), Grandma, Gerad and her own bed and bathroom!

I had one of the best meals so far in China at Lost Heaven, an upscale Yunnan Province restaurant in the French Concession District with Julie, a friend of Michael's, and some of her Danish friends. We had coconut chicken soup, eggplant, spinach, a beef dish and a chicken dish, all of which were superb. The restaurant has consistently been voted Shanghai's best restaurant for a date...I can see why. Too bad I had no one to take me there! ;)

It's been cloudy and raining off and on the last couple of days, so I've spent some time wandering around the Moganshan 50 Art District. There has to be over 100 art galleries...I got tired after visiting 30 of them! The graffiti in the picture is on a street within the Art District. I love that they think pandas are cool to spray on a building! On my way to a quaint, over-priced shopping area this morning, I passed a hospital where all of the staff were outside playing tug of war (why?!?). It was hilarious because a lot of patients were looking down on their doctors and nurses working up a sweat on the street. Maybe Obama should try that with Congress to try and get the Health Bill moving in one direction or another? Now, I'm spending a rainy afternoon in a cute coffee shop researching what in the world I am going to do with my time for the next few months!

I am meeting up with Julie again tonight to try out a well-known Italian restaurant and then we'll hook up with some of her friends to try out a few bars/clubs in Shanghai. The night life here is supposed to go all night...I just need to be sure I'm back in time to get my bag and head to the airport! Flying to Guilin in southern China tomorrow morning. After that, I have no idea where I'm headed. Any suggestions!?

Pictures Posted!

2010-02-24T01:25:00.002-05:00

Check out the link below to see a small percentage of the 1300+ pictures that were taken while Mom and I traveled together in China. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jamie1209/MomJamieInChina#

Mom, Jamie and the Rest of China

2010-02-21T09:53:00.002-05:00

Mom and I got our exercise in Kunming. We spent the first day hanging out in Green Lake Park, along with the rest of the city. It was the most crowded park I’ve ever been to! We were stalked like celebrities because we were the only foreigners in the whole area. People wanted me to hold their babies, Mom and I had to pose for pictures, etc. It was hilarious! We found a quiet little outdoor tea house to enjoy some red tea. Mom almost choked, though, because the tea here is served with loose leaves!

We spent the next day on a 10 km (about 6 mile) hike to the Dragon Gate in the Western Hills of Kunming, above Dianchi Lake. It would have been a beautiful, peaceful hike if it weren’t for the thousands of other Chinese who were also hiking and driving (and honking!) their way up the mountain. The Dragon Gate is cut into the side of a mountain, with a small temple accompanying it. It would have been great to sit and soak in the views overlooking the city and largest lake in the Yunnan Province, but we were swept forward in a tide of people. It is wise to follow the travel book’s advice and NOT travel within China during their Spring Festival (basically, the entire month of February, aka the entire time Mom has been here!). Mom and I have experienced first hand the largest annual human migration on the planet! We think they all went to Kunming!

The next day we went to Stone Forest, formed over 270 million years ago when the area was underwater. It was a massive park, again very crowded, but there was enough space to crawl on, between and under the limestone forest! That night, we had our worst meal yet: fried minnows with peanuts and chilies and pancakes with sesame paste and mushrooms. I couldn’t read the menu or understand what the waitress was saying. My bad! Mom enjoyed the minnows, but they were too fishy for me!

After all that exercise, Mom and I took a day off from China and hung out in our hotel room reading, watching HBO and napping on Thursday. We did venture out for a fantastic Thai dinner and dessert at McDonald’s (I love the hot fudge sundaes!). It was a much needed break from the chaos and crowds!

Made it safely to Shanghai…more to come on the next post about Shanghai. It’s a massive (20 million people) city, the largest in China. Of what we have seen, it’s very modern and more Western than any other area of China I have seen. Unfortunately, Mom and I both have caught some sort of stomach bug. (It’s either that or our bodies are starting to physically reject being in China!). Therefore, Mom won’t be adding any commentary this time. She’ll be flying home on Tuesday. I think she’s looking forward to returning to the comforts of home. If I’m honest, part of me wishes I was heading home to those comforts too. It’s been great having her here. We had a great time together, have experienced some amazing things and have made some wonderful memories together.

新年快乐！

2010-02-14T22:08:00.013-05:00

Happy Chinese New Year! Happy Valentine's Day! Since our last update, we've wrapped up our time to Chengdu, spent Chinese New Year's in Lijiang and made our way to Kunming!

We spent our last day in Chengdu at the best of the top four Taoist Temples in Asia, the Wenshu Monastery which is still active. Mom and I burned incense and ate at the only restaurant, a vegetarian one, on the campus. Fresh apple and watermelon juice, eggplant, fried tofu and sweet potato bread filled with red bean paste...it was by far the best Sichuan food I have ever had.

Lijiang is our favorite city that we've been to by far. For starters, when we arrived late in the evening, we could actually see the stars in the sky! I haven't seen the stars since September in Australia! Seeing the stars also meant clear skies, therefore, the air was much cleaner! The old city has three creeks running through it, cobblestone streets, Chinese architecture and the various ethnic minorities still wear their traditional dress to do their shopping, sell their wares, etc. The people are friendly and laid back...not in a rush to get somewhere or make the next RMB ($). We didn't see bikes, hear horns or dodge traffic the entire time - it was so relaxing!

We spent our first day in Lijiang wandering around the old city and through the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Park...the picture is of Mom and I at the Black Dragon Pool with the mountain off in the distance. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny clear day...Mom was in heaven and my forehead got sunburned. I am very excited to finally have color on my skin again because I have been pasty white since September! We had dinner at a nice little Naxi (ethnic minority in the area) restaurant on the edge of one of the creeks.

And that's about all that I saw of Lijiang. That night, Montezuma's revenge struck me hard and fast. I had a fever, chills, etc....it was fantastic (read: sarcasm). I spent Friday in bed and did not leave the hotel room until Saturday evening to feast on a yummy bowl of plain white rice (read: sarcasm). Mom was a trooper and kept the room stocked with flat, room temperature Coke, saltines and water. She also ventured out on her own to see more of Lijiang...I was proud of her for going it alone and not wasting her days watching me trek back and forth from the bathroom!

We did make it out right before midnight to celebrate Chinese New Year. The actual striking of midnight was kind of anti climatic as the city didn't have any sort of countdown. But, there were a ton of fireworks going on everywhere around the city. Everyone was happy, all the red lanterns were lit, red balloons were everywhere!

Sunday (aka Chinese New Year aka Valentine's Day), I finally felt well enough to venture around the city. We watched a bunch of kids in local dress dance on a stage in one of the town squares...they were adorable! I nearly fainted when a mouse fell from the roof and nearly landed on Mom, fell to the cobblestone and scattered away. My scream scared Mom to death and all that activity got my stomach upset all over again! I took a risk and ate noodles & "cheese" for lunch while Mom dined on Naxi yak butter tea, a Naxi potato pancake (aka hash browns) and fried goat cheese. And she wondered why her stomach was upset.

After arriving in Kunming last evening, we went for a walk near our hotel and stumbled upon a couple, both blind, who were doing back/shoulder massages on the street. We got massages while sitting on a stool on the side of a busy road with people, bikes, cars and buses passing us by. Despite the lack of atmosphere, mine was still very relaxing...the lady did a great job on my shoulders, neck, hands, back, scalp, etc. When I asked Mom how hers was once we finished, she said, "that guy beat the crap out of me." So much for Mom and blind massages.

The following is contributed by Mom (aka Pat aka Likes Fried Food and Doesn't Like Massages by Blind Men):

Ni Hao...(I like saying that because it's one of the four Chinese words I can say and people here actually understand me...:)

Like Jamie said, Lijiang is our favorite city to visit and the most unique. The population there is about one million vs the other cities having 7-20 million people. It was wonderful to be in really warm weather with hot sunshine (didn't need our coats during the day). It was so relaxing to meander through all the narrow alleys and lanes, people watching and enjoying the warm weather. I'm so glad Jamie felt good enough to get out on Sunday and see more of The Old Town. The best part of our entire time there (besides the blue sky and sunshine) was watching the children. They are just precious all over China.

We both feel normal again and we're ready to explore Kunming. Also, my next massage won't be done by a blind man on the side of a busy street, and I'm not going to be eating fried food....period.

Zai Jian, (Goodbye...one of the other 4 words I know...:)

[Editor's note: Mom said 'zai jian' to the flight attendant yesterday when she handed Mom water, instead of xie xie (thank you)....she sometimes gets confused about when to say one of those four words. Also, I had to write how to say happy new year (xin nian kuai le) on her hand so that she could remember it!!]

Terra Cotta Army, Pandas and a Buddha

2010-02-09T05:44:00.009-05:00

We've covered a lot of territory and have seen some amazing things since my last entry! I'm going to backtrack a little and write on Xi'An, then our time so far in Chengdu. I posted the video clip of Mom dancing because I couldn't hold onto material like that without sharing immediately!

Xi'An remained cloudy/polluted the entire time we were there and Chengdu has been no different. We haven't seen the sun since we left Beijing. We went to the highlight of Xi'An, the terra cotta army warriors, which were discovered by some peasants digging a well in the mid-70's. It's a massive (56.2 sq km) tomb built for the first emperor of the Tang Dynasty back in the 1300's. It was incredible to see it in person....way more impressive than the pictures I have seen. The level of detail and advanced production methods of the pottery, weaponry, etc. that were buried with the emperor show how advanced the Chinese were so long ago. I commented to Mom while walking around the museum that if I could have seen and experienced stuff like this when I was younger, I might have studied archaeology or anthropology because it is all so fascinating to me now. Mom, my constant source of encouragement, reminded me that I was still young and could still go back to school to study it. I contemplated this as we continued around the park and realized one very important thing: I hate getting dirt under my nails. So much for archaeology!

We rented bikes on our first day in Chengdu. It's known for being a more 'safe' area within China for tourists to bike. After two near misses and hearing Mom gasp, laugh and scream from behind me...I started to doubt the tour books! It was very adventurous, stressful and fun! We rode to The People's Park (see video in post below!). The Chinese love to perform, dance and sing in the parks....they're making up for lost time after being forbidden to have fun in public for so long. We saw at least 5 performances around the park and at least 50 couples waltzing the afternoon away. Very cool. We sat in the famous tea house in the park where Mom got a head massage and I got my ears cleaned (picture). They stuck long, thin wires into my ears with dandelion-type cotton things on the end. Then, they vibrated the wire with some kind of metal tong...it was a very different sensation and I'm glad that when the guy finished, I could still hear!

Monday was action packed. We woke up early to watch the Super Bowl. I was super excited to be able to watch it, although there were no commercials and it was all in Chinese! So happy for Hank A. that he finally got to see the Saints win a Super Bowl! We spent 5.5 hours round trip on a mini-road trip to Le Shan to see the world's largest Buddha Monday afternoon. It is 71 m high and carved into the side of a mountain. Wearing our ever-so-fashionable state required bright orange life vests, we braved the river (where the Dadu, Minjiang and Qingyi converge) to view the massive structure. It was definitely worth the time in the buses, not only to see the structure but to see some of the country side in the Sichuan province. Monday evening we went to a famous hot pot restaurant here in Chengdu. Hotpot consists of a lot of meats and vegetables that you cook in boiling, flavored water (think there's some oil in it too?!). I ordered spicy flavored hot pot...Mom, smartly, did not. Sichuan is known for it's spicy food, and I love for food to make me sweat. I was chugging beer like I was at a frat party trying to prevent the peppers from numbing my mouth completely. There was a deep burning sensation in my stomach for several hours after dinner last night....luckily, I didn't get sick!

Today we went to the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Center. I have never seen a panda before, and I am officially in love with them. They are very active in the morning when they wake up. We saw two cubs and at least 12 older pandas. They were rolling around, pulling down bamboo shoots and eating constantly. I could have stayed all day to watch them...such adorable personalities! Like all the other 7 year old boys in the Research Center, I wore my panda hat the whole time in order to attract the pandas to me. I swear I caught one or two of them staring at me like I was a really strange looking panda (the pandas that is, not the 7 year olds!)!

Bargaining Watch: Mom - paid 25 RMB for one red paper cutting. Jamie - paid 10 RMB for 3 red paper cuttings. I'm winning! ;)

The following is contributed by Pat Barden (aka Mom. aka China Jazzercise Queen):

Ni Hao! The pandas were sooo adorable! Watching them eating bamboo leaves, climbing on their platforms, even just sleeping was one of the neatest things I've ever experienced! I could have stood there and watched them all day!

So far, the most scary experience in China has been riding our bikes around Chengdu among all the traffic. There was a bike path, but motor scooters, electric bikes, regular bikes, cars, taxis and people were there too! It was REALLY fun! We made it back to our hostel in one piece!

Honestly, I could write a book on all that we've seen and experienced these past two weeks! It's just been incredible! Hope y'all are happy and healthy. Think of you often. Zai jian!

Mom Jazzercises in Renmin Park

2010-02-07T06:36:00.008-05:00

Mom joined a crowd of people jazzercising in Renmin Park (The People's Park) in the heart of Chengdu this afternoon. I never thought I'd have a reason to use the word jazzercise in a sentence, and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time! Mom gave it her best shot trying to keep up with the more senior Chinese people! Enjoy and you're welcome.

[to play: click the arrow underneath the picture!]

Zai Jian Beijing, Ni Hao Xi'An!

2010-02-04T07:52:00.008-05:00

Goodbye Beijing, hello Xi'An! I must admit that I was not too sad to be leaving Beijing. I met some great friends and had some fun times, but the crowds, pollution and cold have been wearing on me for quite some time now!

BB&T'ers - I FINALLY wore my hat that you all signed and gave me! When Mom and I were about 80 km north of Beijing on our way to the Great Wall Sunday, I jolted up all of the sudden and remembered that I had left the hat behind in our hotel room! I so wanted to take a picture wearing it on the Great Wall. I suppose one of the next most recognizable spots in China is the Gate of Heavenly Peace, where Mao's famous picture hangs, just across from Tian'anmen Square. I got some funny looks while taking the picture! I thought of all of you and the wonderful friends I made while at BB&T! Thanks again to Steve P, Matt L, Jordan B, Hai F, Scott R, Mendy M and all the others who helped put together my going away party a long 7 months ago!!

Monday, Mom and I toured the Forbidden City and then the Temple of Heaven. Mei Xian joined us for the Temple of Heaven and then we went to a really good Korean restaurant for dinner. A lot of the little Chinese kids were following us in the parks, anxious to practice their English with us. They also laughed a lot at my pronunciation of their language!

Tuesday, we slept in and went shopping! It was fun to watch Mom try to bargain with the people at their various stands. We got 90 minute massages for $10, then headed back to our hotel for a dumpling making lesson. Ours were not that good...poor form! But, it was fun making the dumplings with a Swedish family also staying in our hotel and at least they tasted good once the Chinese girls cooked them for us! We had a fantastic dinner at a very nice Chinese restaurant (thanks to Lance & Lenna for my birthday/Christmas dinner!), then Anna-Lina and I put Mom to bed and met Michael for a few good-bye drinks in Hou Hai!

Mei Xian met us at the airport to say goodbye....tears were shed and promises to keep in touch were made. I am blessed to have met some wonderful people during my time in Beijing. I love that I now have even more friends from all over the world. That's one of the best things about traveling and living abroad!

We made it to Xi'An with no problems. Xi'an is very polluted and there is construction going on everywhere. I lost count after 15 cranes on our way into the city center from the airport! The problem is that, in addition to the buildings under construction, there are so many buildings sitting empty all over the place. The Chinese definitely must believe in the 'build it and they will come' philosophy. I, on the other hand, feel that China is most certainly heading for a big correction in the very near future!

I took Mom to a Wal-Mart last night. She was "impressed" with the displays of chicken feet, whole fish, racks of meat hanging and drying, barrels of rice, etc. that sit all around the store. Our hotel in Xi'An is very Western and high end. I took my second bath in 7 months last night! It was wonderful! I don't feel like I'm in China when I'm in our room, which is a really nice break from the last 4 1/2 months!

Clothes watch: Mom bought a new jacket and left behind the massive, teal jacket which was last fashionable back in the 80's (it had huge shoulder pads!) and a black fleece jacket which she wore to my softball games in high school! I'm really proud of her for breaking with the old and getting something new!

The following is contributed by co-author, Pat Barden (aka Mom):

My week in Beijing was one I will never forget!! The highlights of the week were climbing The Great Wall, walking through the Forbidden City, interacting with the Chinese people, especially the children ,and meeting many of Jamie's friends. Simply awesome!

We have eaten Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean food, and I haven't gotten sick. It all has been very good, but I'm about ready for a big juicy hamburger. :)

If you've never experienced a 'squatter toilet', let me tell you...you don't want to! My thigh muscles are getting in shape!

Mei Lan, the panda in Washington DC, will arrive in Chengdu on Feb. 5th and we will arrive there on Feb. 6th. We hope we get to see her when we visit the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. Wouldn't that be cool?

We think of y'all often.

Mom Does Beijing

2010-01-31T05:53:00.005-05:00

你好!我们很好！我的妈妈觉得北京很多人！

Mom arrived safe and sound Tuesday evening, a few hours after my graduation. It turns out that I, very surprisingly, passed all of my final exams and courses. In short, I graduated from Beijing Language and Culture University! The school requires a minimum grade of 60 to pass each course. I received a 60.3 in my Ting Li course (aka Listening). Talk about putting in the absolute minimal effort in order to graduate! ha ha!

Since Mom has arrived, we've seen and done quite a bit. We broke the law by disobeying all of the 'don't step on the ice' signs when we visited the Summer Palace and stood on Lake Kunming which is frozen solid. Mom is making with friends with anyone who makes eye contact with her, and so we have some cute pictures of her with her new '中国朋友'...Chinese friends! We rode an ice chair around Hou Hai lake and had a hilarious time at dinner (for me, anyway!). Mom didn't realize that there are orange-colored spicy peppers here, and before I could warn her, she had chewed up an entire pepper thinking it was a carrot! Her head started throbbing and her tongue was swollen....she had no taste buds for over an hour either. It worked out well for me because I got to enjoy the entire bottle of white by myself, but I did feel bad for her! She won't eat anything now without an explanation as to what it is before she woofs it down!

We spent an afternoon in Bei Hai Park, where we saw couples waltzing and others performing various songs and dances in the gazebos around the lakeside. A couple was writing Hanzi (Chinese characters) on the sidewalk with a large brush and water. I asked if I could do it too....attached is a picture of me writing my name in Chinese. The couple was very nice to talk with, and Mom thinks that I am the smartest person in the world because I can tell people that I just finished studying Chinese, my name is Jia Li and that I am an American all in Chinese...very funny!

Today, we made the 2 1/2 hour trek to Simatai, my favorite section of the Great Wall. The weather was in the mid-30'sF and on top of the wall, it was extremely windy! We managed to walk on the wall through 5 towers, for about 1 1/2 hours before succumbing to the cold and wind. Yesterday, we went to an acrobatic show where the performers contorted their bodies in ways I didn't know the human body could twist. Mom tasted her first Peking Duck last night with my friends Michael and William, along with some of their family members. Last but not least, we went to the 'weird food street' where Mom bravely consumed 4 scorpions! It must run in the family, because she insisted on having a beer to wash it down!

All in all, I'm pleased with how she's handling the squatter toilets, throngs of people, pollution and cold. She's been a trooper! Thankfully, the weather has been sunny and clear since she's arrived, and it's been slightly warmer than in the last few weeks, so I think that is helping both of us survive! Zai jian! - Jamie (aka 佳丽）

The following was written by Temporary Blog Contributor: Pat Barden (aka Mom)

Oh my gosh, what an experience this has been!!! First of all, I am amazed at how Jamie can converse with all these Chinese people. I listen and wonder what they are saying to each other. They just talk away and laugh and I just nod my head and smile. :)

The scorpions really were not bad at all. The beer was a lot better, though. Our Peking duck dinner was delicious and so much fun with Jamie's friends and their families here visiting, too.

The Great Wall walk was awesome!! I keep pinching myself because I still can't believe I walked on The Wall.

The thing I am enjoying the most is when we are mingling with the people in the parks, on the streets, in the local restaurants , on the bus, taxis, and subways. They are friendly and helpful. It makes me wish I could speak their language.

We are healthy, happy, and staying warm. Hope you are, too.

Off the Grid

2010-01-26T00:28:00.003-05:00

Greetings Earthlings. I'm officially off the grid. My time in my comfortable, luxurious dorm room ends today. I'm heartbroken! (ha ha!). No pictures to post this entry as not much has happened! I finished exams last Thursday and then fell terribly ill (might have something to do with the crazy high pollution levels?!?!). Therefore, I have spent the last 3+ days lying in bed coughing. So lovely! Today I am a little more motivated to be vertical because I have to pack for the next leg of this wonderful journey. 41 lbs of stuff are now on its way to Mom's house, and I am left once again with only my backpack.

A lot of you have asked how I did on my exams. I'm still not sure. Graduation is this evening, and I'm attending, so I guess that's a good thing!?? I might end up getting a 'thanks for coming' certificate as opposed to a 'certified Chinese language studies' certificate. Either way, my time here has been a wonderful experience. I've made some great friends and have learned a lot. So, regardless of what is inked on the certificate I receive, I am happy!

A lot of you have also asked what my plans are now that school has finished. My Mom, Pat, arrives late tonight (barring the snow storms currently hitting Tokyo, one of her layover stops!). She and I will spend about a week exploring Beijing. Then, we'll visit some of the supposed highlights of China: Xi'an, Chengdu (pandas!), Lijiang, Kunming and Shanghai. We will be spending Chinese New Year (celebrated on February 14th, although the real party is the evening of February 13th) in Lijiang. I'm really excited that Mom is coming and am looking forward to our adventure together. I've already warned Mom that visiting China will not be a relaxing vacation. Every day will present a new challenge...I'm glad that she's up for it! Although, based on how many times she's had her friends email me from the airport, I think she's more excited about the airplane ride! ;) We'll be co-authoring blog entries while she's here and since we're seeing a lot of new places, we'll likely have more frequent entries...so check often for updates over the next 3 weeks!

Mom leaves me in Shanghai on February 23rd. After that, I'll spend a few days longer in Shanghai. Then, I fly to Guilin, another Chinese village that I really want to see before leaving. After that, I'm taking a new approach (for me, anyway) to backpacking. I am not going to plan anything. I don't have any hostels booked, no trains, no flights other than to Guilin. I'm going to see where the wind takes me....and I'm super excited about it!

China Pictures Posted

2010-01-21T04:23:00.002-05:00

I just finished posting over 300 pictures of my time in Beijing. Click the link below to view the 'My Life in Beijing' album. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jamie1209/MyLifeInBeijing?feat=email#

My Friend Tom

2010-01-19T07:12:00.005-05:00

你们好！明天，我有口语考试。我觉得学习汉语非常难！I have my final exams this week. Completed listening today, speaking is tomorrow and comprehensive is Thursday from 8 AM -10AM. I can't wait for 10 AM on Thursday! I haven't really been that good of a student recently, what with Christmas, New Years and my birthday....studying has been low on my list of priorities. However, considering that I knew nothing but 'ni hao' (hello) when I arrived, I'm pretty pleased with the progress I have made! I only hope I have learned enough for Mom and I to survive traveling to smaller cities and villages throughout the rest of China!

Mei Xian left China to spend some time back in Korea before her next semester starts. I am lucky to have had some terrific roommates over the years. Mei Xian is one of my favorites because I was able to teach her a lot of new things such as: the Gators are awesome (she does the Gator Chomp on her own, without my asking now, just to make me smile!), that Junior Mints might just be the best candy on the planet, how to say cuss words with perfect inflection in English, how to make popcorn and peanut butter and banana sandwiches, etc. She is by far one of the happiest people I have ever met - always positive, enthusiastic and smiling. We spent our last night in our room together eating Oreos and dipping them in milk (I taught her that too!). The t-shirts we're modeling in the picture stands for 'I love Beijing (BJ)". Neither one of us are crazy about Beijing, so we thought it'd be funny to wear these t-shirts to remind us that we should love it!

I had a quiet Thursday and Friday night in my room enjoying the solitude. I have only had a room to myself about 7 nights since I left the US in June...so it was much needed downtime for my soul! Saturday, several of my classmates and I went to a fantastic Arabic restaurant. The belly dancers were hilarious. I was expecting Middle Eastern women, but no, they were slightly chubby and tattooed Chinese girls (and one Russian!). My classmate, David (English), definitely enjoyed the show (picture)!

On a sad note, Dexter was stolen on Sunday morning. I rode him to the market to buy some cereal and yogurt. I left him alone, locked up, for no more than 10 minutes. When I came back out of the market, he was gone. I hope that whomever took him will treat him well. They obviously needed him more than I did. The truth is that quite a lot gets stolen in China. Mei Xian's moped got stolen a few weeks ago, Ashley's cell phone, Jessica's camera, etc. If you do travel to China, please be mindful of your possessions!

This blog post is dedicated to my friend Tom, from England. He's just started reviewing my blog and did a Control-F search to see how many times I have written about him. He was disappointed that he hadn't been written about more! The truth is that Tom is one of the funniest Brits I've ever met. He has a passion and enthusiasm for meeting women unlike any man I've ever met. Tom is way better at Chinese than I am because he exerts most of his effort in learning pick up lines. Tom will be staying behind in Beijing to continue learning Chinese. Through family connections, he has set me up with a volunteering opportunity with tsunami orphans in Thailand. For that and his friendship, I will be eternally grateful. Is that better Tom!!? xoxo ;)

By the way, for any of you who have been watching the pollution index tracker I put on my blog, it's been relatively low (less than 100) for the last few weeks, which is acceptable air quality. For the last few days, it's been really bad here...dangerous to be outdoors for long periods of time. When I am outside, my eyes sting and I can feel it in my throat. I can't wait to breathe healthy air again!

I'm 31 Already!

2010-01-12T02:28:00.004-05:00

30 rocked and judging by how I entered into my 31st year on this planet, 31 will be just as awesome! I spent my birthday eve catching up with friends from home on Skype. My Mom and roommate sang Happy Birthday to me as the clock struck midnight. I had great Korean food with some classmates for lunch, then we went to get a two hour massage (foot and body!). I took a nap and then got my haircut. 8 of my friends took me to dinner at a fantastic sushi place - it was awesome to be surrounded by new friends, all but one of whom are from other countries! Michael bought me the panda hat in the picture and made me wear it most of the evening. Mei Xian, Masami and Ashley bought an assortment of cakes as a birthday cake, and they all sang happy birthday to me in English and Chinese! Very cool! After dinner, we went to a Korean bar and had several rounds of soju (Korean alcohol). Then, we proceeded to a nearby karaoke bar. Karaoke is not done like it is at home. In China, you get your own room, with u-shaped couches, tv, microphones and song lists. It's a good set up because we didn't sound all that great! We sang for about 5 hours...got home at 5 AM this morning. Not a bad way to start 31 in my opinion!

The only bad thing about turning 30 is the gray hairs that have started to sporadically show up. Bonnie, a co-worker of mine from BB&T, first experienced this as she talked me into coming to work after I found my first one early in 2009. She convinced me that finding a gray hair was not worthy of a sick day. Mei Xian got to experience my horror of finding four (4!!) more late last week. I started screaming in the bathroom and she ran in thinking I had hurt myself. After she stopped laughing at me, she plucked them out for me. I'm just going to have to think of the gray hairs as battle wounds, kind of like my appendix scar.

Last week, Mei Xian and I had street food for dinner. I actually had meat on a stick that cooks in the boiling water you can see in the picture, before I was only brave enough for vegetables. There are skewers of all kinds of different meats, vegetables, tofu and eggs. They cook in spicy water or slightly seasoned water and they are really cheap! We had dinner for $1 each and, although we didn't know what we were eating, it was tasty!

Ashley, Anna-Lina and I attended an all day cooking class in a hutong last weekend. It was great! We did a market tour where the teacher taught us about the spices used in Chinese dishes, explained the different parts of the animals that are used, talked about how to make tofu, etc. Back at the teacher's house, we made three fantastic dishes: gong bao chicken, Canton-style steamed fish and ginger custard. I learned how fish are actually killed (bang it over the head with a mallet) before eating, that you can eat the scales once a fish has been steamed, the proper way to use a wok and that you add salt to a dish to make it taste salty. (After a series of explanations such as, 'add light soy sauce for flavor, add dark soy sauce for color, etc. I asked why we added salt. The teacher turned her head and said, "to make it salty". Probably the dumbest question she'd ever been asked! It was embarassing.) We chopped, steamed and stir-fried all of our own dishes, and I didn't make myself sick! I touched raw chicken and slit my own fish, quite an accomplishment for me. The recipes are really easy and delicious, and I hope that I can recreate them whenever I have a kitchen again! ;)