Danny Does Asia

Final (And Initial) Thoughts

2007-08-16T21:52:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM NEWBURGH, New York, USA!!!!! Hard to believe that it's all over. It seems almost impossible that I was on the other end of the world just one week ago. The past 5 months have given me more than I could've ever hoped for: memories that will last the rest of my life, and new friendships that will also hopefully last just as long. The greatest lesson I can share from my travels is this: learn from others, and always show compassion in your encounters. Every passing opportunity I had to meet someone, whether it was a fellow backpacker or a local shopowner, I was truly enlightened by the kindness of the human spirit. We all share so much, regardless of our ethnicity, nationality, or religion, and it is this underlying human bond that we should embrace. Henceforth, I will make it my professional and personal goal to spread this message. My daily conversations and interactions with new people, however fleeting, always left me a little bit brighter inside, and I could carry on my day as a better person. With a smile, happiness can shine through you to another.

My advice to everyone else is this: Travel. Go. Don't get caught up in the 'rat race' of bustling New York City, don't push off until 'next year' what you can easily do this year. It has been a life-defining experience for me, and I'm neither a superhero traveler nor a wannabe hippy-type who needs mountains and birds and 'kum-bah-yah' to be at peace.. Everyone can do this trip, it was so easy. In fact, if I had it to do over again, I would prepare even less than what I did beforehand. Here's some tips: buy your big backpack in Bangkok at the start (CHEAP), and only bring a carry-on bag so you can buy all of your clothes on Koh San Road. Don't worry about any visas beforehand (except India), as you can arrange all of that once you're there. Don't plan any itineraries beforehand, and don't even get swallowed into the Bangkok travel agencies (in fact, don't believe anything they say about resorts being 'sold out' and it being the 'busy time of the season'). Just show up and figure it out once you get there. Trust me, it's the only way to do it right. Oh yeah, and take everything Lonely Planet says with a grain of salt...a big grain of salt.

I must end my blog with the following: Below is the personal journal entry that I wrote (manually) on the plane ride to Thailand on Sunday, April 8th. Taken verbatim, it's a message to myself in preparation for what was to come.

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Sunday 8 April

Today is the start! I left Brooklyn at 6am and now I'm somewhere over continental U.S. on my way to L.A. then Tokyo and then Bangkok. So excited! (obviously). Don't hold back on this trip--this is where you will become YOU for the rest of your life. After this, I will always say: "When I was in Southeast Asia and India..." Well, now's your chance to finish the second half of that sentence. This trip is a dream come true--my dream! It will be whatever you want it to be. Live it up. No regrets. No fears. No stupid shit either. Make new friends, spend lots of time alone, laugh a lot, cry, get excited, happy, scared, angry -- do what has been foreign to you in the past. You might as well; this will be as foreign a setting as you can get to stage new emotions, feelings, and experiences. Learn more about me -- I'm too cautious & careful and too concerned for others. This is my pass out of that. With no one else around, focus on you. There's a piece of me missing - I think I can find the rest of me somewhere along this trip. Open heart, open mind. The rest will follow. I can do this. Writing in this book is proving rather challenging [airplane turbulence], but this journey, no problemo. Any questions, concerns, doubts, hesitations? 'I've never been away from home for 5 months before' OK - valid, but I'll be so busy and overstimulated and exhausted every day I won't have time to miss home. Make a kick-ass blog. Everyone wants to live vicariously through you, so don't disappoint. Be brave, have fun, fall in love with life.

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How prescient I was. I love you all so much, and I felt you all with me each step of this journey. I couldn't have done it without you. :-) Thank you for reading my blog.

LOTS OF LOVE ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The End of The Beginning, or the Beginning of the Beginning?

2007-08-09T12:23:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM DELHI, India!!!!!!! I am back where I started on June 17th, and I can officially say that I've come full circle on my travels through India...sitting in an internet cafe in Pahar Ganj next to Hotel Namaskar (although I'm not staying there tonight). It is great to be back in my most favorite little grimy neighborhood in all of Asia.

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HELLO FROM NEWBURGH, New York, USA!!! So much has happened since I started this blog entry one week ago (and then left it alone due to the ensuing madness that was the last 7 days). It feels like one year ago that I was in Delhi. Today, Thursday 16 August, I am in Newburgh, NY sitting in my brother's bedroom after having just finished another delicious home cooked meal by my mom. But, before we move back to Newburgh, let's recap everything that has happened since the last blog entry, if only for my own record of events. Going back, I spent my third day of sightseeing the Kathmandu Valley in Patan's Durbar Square, which is most notable for its Patan Museum. Described as 'one of the best museum in all of Asia', it was definitely creating lofty standards for itself. The museum gave an in-depth description of both Buddhism and Hinduism's central tenets and main gods of each religion, all written for a western (novice) audience. Great museum, well organized, clearly laid out, and extremely educational. Do you know the meanings of all 7 different hand poses on Buddha statues? Well, I do. :-) From Patan we went to Swaymbouth Stupa, aka the Monkey Temple, where we enjoyed great views of Kathmandu as well as popping in on the resident monks' daily prayer in the gompa. From there we headed back to Kathmandu for the evening where I met up with Alicia and Bevan before heading back to their palace. The next day Brian and I ramped up for another sight seeing extravaganza, this time at the Boudnath Stupa (yet another stupa)--but this one is the largest stupa in all of Asia (I believe). Highlight of the morning: playing ping-pong with the novice monks at a nearby monastery. Good stuff. That afternoon, Brian and I went to Pashupati Temple, which is a huge temple complex along the Bagmati River, Nepal's equivalent of the Ganges river. Nepali Hindus perform funeral burnings very much like those at Varanasi; there was a funeral going on when we got there, and we saw the husband of the woman about to be burned walk up to the body to pay his last respects. Oftentimes we tourists forget the human side to all of these customs; sight seeing is just another way to rack up photos for the collection. But when the gentleman broke down sobbing next to his wife's body, it reminded me that these are people's real lives. This man will have to go to work the next day, continue on with his daily routines, and wake up to another sunrise without his wife, and I stood right near him and his family - close enough to feel the palpable grief. Yet, near such sadness was joy: just down the river, not even 100 meters away, a group of young kids were doing flips and somersaults into the water, joyously waving at Brian and me and begging us to take photos. Quite a dichotomy to see, young kids frolicking in front of a funeral pyre. We also ran into a group of Sadhus (holy men who wear crazy/scary outfits), so we had to take their picture (for 50 rupees, no less!)

After Pashupati, Brian and I booked a white-water rafting tour for 2 days later. We were thinking of going to Royal Chitwan National Park, but to be honest, I've ridden Elephants (twice), I didn't want to go on a 3-day, 8-hour bus ride to be thrusted on top of an elephant hoping to see tigers, when they were probably hiding in the tall grass. A 2-day rafting trip was scheduled to leave with 11 other med students volunteering at a Kathmandu hospital. We opted for the safer bet for a great time. In between Pashupati day and the rafting trip, I caught up on some rest (sight seeing 4 days in a row is tiring! -- I know, you're hearts are wringing right now over my pathos) and then went into town for some souvenier shopping. Luckily, I'm a man who saves everything for the last possible minute, so gifts for mom and dad were passed over in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and India for the lovely shops of Thamel, Kathmandu. That night I slept at Brian's guest house, since we had to get up for a 5am bus ride to start the rafting trip. Our group of kids was great - they're med students from around the world who have come to Kathmandu to work in a local children's hospital. My only qualm with this noble mission is that the program sounded very laid back and lenient; the kids rarely went to the hospital to work, and spent more time being tourists than volunteers. However, to give them the benefit of the doubt, their experience in the hospital is nothing to blog about. They said that mostly they're shadowing doctors and standing far behind the action.

Day 1 of the rafting trip was great: beautiful scenery, fun company, rapid rapids - it was funny to contrast the lush greenery of the surrounding mountains in Nepal's Trisuli River with the stark desert 'moonscape' of Leh, India's Indus River surroundings I had ventured down just a week or so before. Same same, but very different. I sat in the front seat of the raft all day long, so I got pretty beaten up by the waves. We set up camp on a lovely beach next to the river, washed off in a freshwater stream nearby, and enjoyed a huge dinner before passing out from exhaustion. Day 2 was another epic journey, 4 hours straight of rafting, before calling it a day and heading back to Kathmandu (via a 5 1/2 hour busride, with the last hour consisting of bumper-to-bumper traffic through Kathmandu...ugh). All in all, a great outdoor experience in Nepal, and surely a precursor to my return trip to Nepal later in life where I will conquer Annapurna & Everest Base Camp.

August 7th (day after rafting trip) I went up to Nagarkot, a nearby town about 30 km from Kathmandu that offers stunning views of Everest and the surrounding Himalayas. Most tourists go there for the 5 am sunrise, where the sun rises behind the mountains, but with the monsoon season in full thrust, August provides pretty clouded vistas. Plus, I had a ride from Manik the driver that day, and I was sick of Kathmandu buses, so I decided to go there & back in one day and skip the sunrise. I still had pretty amazing views of the area, even with the clouds lining the horizon. Everest was covered, but it was nice to know that I was standing within (non)viewing distance of the world's highest mountain and I was yet again privliged to see mother nature on a grand scale.

That afternoon I met up with Brian one last time at our favorite coffee shop (Himalayan Java), and said goodbye to him, as he was leaving for Paris the next day. It was such a coincidence that the one friend I meet in Varanasi was also going to Kathmandu afterwards, and ALSO going to Paris after that. It was in the cards for us to befriend.

August 8th was spent vegging...hardcore. I think I watched 6 or 7 movies in a row on Alicia's flat-screen TV. I was pretty much stuck in their house for the day, so I enjoyed a wonderful movie marathon. And then the marathon trip began. On August 9th, I woke up, finished packing, and headed to the Kathmandu airport. After a crazy long line of people ('line' is used loosely), I finally got to the boarding gate and aboard the flight to Delhi. Back in Delhi, I headed to Pahar Ganj for one final night's stay (and where I started this blog entry!). After wandering around the Main Bazaar for 10 minutes, I randomly ran into my Israeli friend Hilla, so I joined her and her friend for dinner. Randomness becomes regular in the life of a backpacker, so I wasn't too shocked to see her. :-) I said my goodbyes to Pahar Ganj that night, and made a promise to be back again in the future. Along with the Koh San Road in Bangkok, Main Bazaar in Pahar Ganj is my favorite street in the world.

I woke up before dawn on the 9th and headed to the Delhi airport. On the way my taxi stopped at a red light alongside the Gandhi statue, which provided a stellar photo op, and a powerful visual reminder of the journey through which India has traveled to get to its 60th anniversary of existence today.

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OK - so, the other reason why I couldn't post any blogs since the last one is because I've been keeping a secret from my father that my return to the US was on August 12th, the day before his surprise 60th birthday! It's been in the works for months, and now that everything went off without a hitch, I can retell everything in full
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I always planned this trip with a penultimate stop in Paris, France. I wanted something in between the Main Bazaar, Delhi and Dogwood Lane, Newburgh (not very bizarre). I arrived in Paris on Friday evening, August 9th and checked into my Montmartre hotel. I quickly headed out towards the Moulin Rouge (underwhelming) before walking up the steps to the Sacre Coeur (outstanding). It was sad, exciting, shocking, etc to be in about as different a setting as I could get from this morning -- walking down a piss-filled alley in Delhi towards my awaiting taxi. But, my weekend in Paris was idyllic - touring around all of the main sights, pondering the last 4 1/2 months of my life from a streetside table at a Montmartre cafe, enjoying the Parisian nightlife among its abundantly beautiful (male) population, and preparing myself for my impending life in Europe just 4 hours away by train. All of this was exactly what I had envisioned, and it's exactly what transpired. A perfect weekend in Paris.

After a long journey to New York via London, I arrived back in Brooklyn to my brother's and Amy's apartment at 11pm, the exact same starting point from the beginning of my trip. Talk about coming full circle; I had flown around the entire world -- LITERALLY -- to come back to Carroll Gardens: New York --> LA --> Tokyo --> Bangkok --> Delhi --> Paris --> London --> New York. Around the world in 127 days!!! The following day I headed up to Newburgh, NY for my dad's surprise 60th birthday party. It was a homecoming to remember. All of my parents' friends, whom I had grown up with since birth, were there. My mom and dad walked in to the room full of friends, and then my mom gave a short speech, the end of which would signal my walking into the room for surprise #2. The look on my dad's face was priceless when he saw me. Stunned, flabbergasted, exstatic, all of the above. Truly memorable.

Ok - I've written way too much for one blog, and I apologize for my verboseness. I wanted to get it all down before I started to forget the sequence of events.

I'll save my thoughts for one last blog entry, coming up shortly.

LOTS OF LOVE ALWAYS!!!!!!

'Good Luck Exploring The Infinite Abyss'

2007-08-02T13:22:00.002-04:00

HELLO (again) FROM KATHMANDU, Nepal!!!

So I just finished watching the movie 'Garden State' (again), a seminal movie for the life of a 20-something American, especially me. Zach Braff's character is stuck in that middle period between adolescence and adulthood, where the concept of 'home' no longer refers to the house in which his parents reside and where he spent his childhood years. The movie teaches us that there's a point when life starts to switch into a higher gear, we grow older, accept more responsibility, and before we know it, 'home' is something new: an apartment in the city, a temporary guest house in a foreign land while traveling the world, or the stability and security of a budding relationship. Once this happens--and once we realize it is happening--we can no longer passively allow life to continue the same way. We then enter a new mindset, one that resolutely captures each interaction with complete authenticity, allowing ourselves to actively embrace and foster whatever 'home' we happen to occupy at that time. Using the movie's analogy of waking up from a lithium-induced fog, a more tangible link to our surroundings arises and we become closer to our truest self.

There's a scene in the movie where Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, and Peter Sarsgaard venture down to the bottom of a mine quarry on the edge of a newly-uncovered 'abyss' that accidentally opened up among the rocks of a construction site. They visit a man and his wife living in a houseboat at the bottom of the quarry, whose main task is to protect the natural 'abyss' by preventing further construction of a new mall at the quarry site, but he also secretly climbs down the quarry at night to fulfill a personal desire. (The man collects antique jewlery and also happened to purchase Zach Braff's dead mom's antique necklace, stolen from the grave by Peter Sarsgaard's character, a gravedigger---random intricate storyline). Anyway, once the three main characters leave the boathouse with the recovered necklace, Zach Braff cheekily shouts at the boathouse owner: "Good luck exploring the infinite abyss!", and just as Zach Braff turns to leave, the boathouse owner shouts back: "Hey! You too!" Right then, it all made sense to me...I think I even teared up a bit. Our life is an infinite abyss, waiting to be discovered. There are unique possibilities everywhere ahead of us, just like the infinitely unique possibilities of discovery upon venturing into an untouched quarry mine for the first time. We hold the light; it is up to us to shine it into the infinite abyss that is our future and uncover it for ourselves.

At 25, I'm about to venture into a whole new chapter of my life: moving to Europe, meeting new friends, and returning to the life of a student. I know that I am ready to embrace each upcoming step without fear and without hesitation. Ever the wanderlust/vagabond/transient soul, I don't know yet what my new 'home' will be, what it will look like, or with whom I will share it, but I do know that the solid foundation of my original home (see previous blog entry)--upon which I have built my solid character--will always shine brightly in my heart.

The movie 'Garden State' will always make me think of Noah Browne...he and I saw it together in DC when it first came out during the summer of 2004 and we were first embracing the post-college, neophyte working life. We shared a new 'home' back then: 1810 California Street, and all of the memorable fun that apartment brought during those 2 years. Until I settle down and recreate the stable home that most closely resembles my parents', I hope that each subsequent new 'home' is as wonderful and exciting as that time on California Street, Washington DC.

Lots of love always!!!

Kickin' It In Kathmandu

2007-08-01T12:37:00.002-04:00

HELLO FROM KATHMANDU, Nepal!!!!!! Another blog entry, another country to recount. I have officially entered the final month of my trip, which is hard to believe, although it feels like I've been away forever.

Leaving Varanasi was surprisingly bittersweet; one would think that after 3 days of cowshit-filled alleyways, dead bodies visibly floating in the Ganges, and incessant heckling from innumerable touts, I would jump at the chance to leave the place. However, all of those things added to the charm and beauty of Varanasi. I must say, along with Udaipur's gorgeous lake setting, Varanasi has been my favorite city in India.

I left Varanasi on Monday 30 July and took a brief yet rocky flight to Kathmandu. Through my lovely friend Kim in DC, I am friends with a couple who are stationed in Kathmandu for 2 years through the US government, Alicia and Bevon. I met Alicia in DC a couple of years ago, and she gladly agreed to host me while I'm in Kathmandu. Being a backpacker for the last 4 months, I've gotten used to crappy living conditions, dirty hostels, unknown sanitation levels of food, water, etc. I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to a place to stay for the night and some food to fill my stomach (I do put my foot down at sickness-inducing food, though). I didn't really understand the level of high living standards to which I was about to be exposed when I joined Alicia and Bevon's foreign service life. Their driver, Manik (pronounced 'Monica' without the 'a') picked me up from the airport and drove me back to the house. Once the security guard opened the gates, I had a full view of the gorgeous grand palace I could now call my home for the next 10 days. Three storeys, marble tile floors, sweeping staircase, plush amenities, furniture, a driver, housemaid, security guard(s), fully-stocked DVD collection, flatscreen TV, etc etc...it's a gorgeous home. To go from the Ganpati Guest House in Varanasi (which was my favorite guest house in India, by the way) to a cozy bed in my own bedroom in a fancy home is quite shocking. I spent the afternoon awaiting my hosts' arrival from work watching "The Last King of Scotland" DVD on their flat screen TV. Great film. Their mini dog, Chi-Chi, was my date for the event. A part of me feels like I am undeserving of such grandeur and privilige, but after being on the road for so long, and staying in places marginally better than squalor (Number 9 Guesthouse in Cambodia, but I'm not naming any names) I think I should answer this opportunity knock. I owe you Kim, big time.

Yesterday I woke up from a recuperative sleep (it felt like the first real sleep in ages), rode into town via 'my' driver, and spent the whole day sightseeing around Kathmandu. Crowded, dirty, old, magnificent, detailed, intricate are a few adjectives I'd use to describe the city. I joined my friend Brian, and we followed the Lonely Planet walking tour of the city, soaking in Durbar Square and then venturing into the intricate maze of streets lined with numerous temples, shrines, stupas, ancient buildings, and shops galore. As you know, walking around cities is one of my favorite hobbies, so I was a happy boy yesterday. Backpacker world in Kathmandu is called Thamel (silent H) -- it's pretty much the Koh Sahn Road of Kathmandu, but spread out over a larger radius and less congested than KSR -- and I spent the evening walking around there stopping at various chotchky stores, ending up at Himalayan Java for a delicious pot of tea before being picked up by Alicia and Bevon on their way back home.

Today was sightseeing day numero dos, and Brian and I headed to the nearby town of Bhaktapur. Starting in their own Durbar Square (Durbar means palace, and every major town/city in Nepal has a Durbar Square), we did another walking tour of Bhaktapur, but the setting was quite different from the day before. Bhaktapur is a quaint, quiet, and quite picturesque little storybook town. It feels like you've stepped back in time and are among a people not yet exposed to modernity...that is, of course, until you realize that the children know how to ask for "1 rupees". The ugly stain of globalization and tourism, ugh. That aside, I had a great afternoon strolling around the town, stopping to watch locals play cards, children play badminton, women knitting something out of yarn, and children walking home from school. Again, the town boasts gorgeous multi-tiered-roofed, pagoda-style temples, priceless stone sculptures, and amazing wood-carved window shutters/frames (one in particular, the Peacock Window, is notorious throughout the town). After a few hours' stroll, Brian and I headed up to Changu Narayan, an exquisite temple situated on top of a hill overlooking Bhaktapur and the Kathmandu Valley that dates back to the 3rd century A.C.E. As one of the oldest, if not the oldest, temple in Nepal, it was quite awe-inspiring to be in the presence of such long-time residents: the surrounding hills and the temple itself.

This evening I treated myself to a delicious Tibetan dinner and then great live jazz music at 'Jazz Upstairs', a dark, smoky, crowded bar [ie, perfect] located on the second floor of a home. I hadn't seen live jazz since Hanoi Vietnam with Brad back in May!!! Brian is quite a jazz connoisseur, so he knew many of the contemporary jazz songs played tonight. I enjoyed my first Nepali beer (Gourka), which was actually my first beer in a few weeks. Quality night to end a quality day.

Tomorrow is more sight seeing: Patan, and a few more temples/stupas in the area. Lots more photos to come!!! Since the weather is not optimal for trekking in Nepal, I will save Annapurna and Everest Base Camp for my next visit during more opportune months. For now, I'll soak up as much as I can, and hopefully I'll get to do some overnight trips to the national park or some other outdoor excursion. Not to worry everyone, I'll be hard pressed not to keep myself occupied while in Nepal (I'm sure this is a major concern of everyone out there). :-)

Lots of love always!!!!!

Funeral Pyres and Bathing Ghats...The Real India

2007-07-28T22:49:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM VARANASI, India!!! I'd like to take this blog entry to explain all about this amazing city. Let's go back to 2 nights ago, right after I finished the last blog entry (and shortly after I arrived in Varanasi).

Here's a quintessential sequence of events for the life of a traveler: I left the internet cafe the other night and headed back to my guest house to have some dinner and call it an early night. Ganpati Guest House is located right on the shore of the Ganges, and sits high up above the river, providing stunning views of India's holiest place. Anyway, I look over the balcony and see lots of people gathered in the nearby ghat (bathing area) with candles and fire highlighting the area a few hundred meters down river, so I ask what's going on. Apparently it's they it's the daily religious ceremony along the Ganges (in Hindi, Ganga Arti). I decide to check it out, postpone dinner, and walk along the banks of the Ganges so I can easily navigate my way to the ceremony. Once I arrive, the place is full of local Indians and westerners, scattered camera flashes artificially adding light to a most unique and colorful sight. The Ganga Arti is basically a fire ceremony, where people dressed in traditional religious clothes hold up fire to the accompanying cacophonous rhythm of drums and horns. While I was trying to capture the scene from a better vantage point, I wind up next to an American guy, Canadian/African girl, and Spanish girl, Brian, Maita, and Alba. We strike up a conversation so I join them for dinner at the Ganga Fuji restaurant nearby, a Lonely Planet-prescribed eatery. All wonderful people, I enjoyed great company before realizing that I hadn't slept in what felt like days, so we all called it a night and decided to meet at 5:30am the next morning to take a boat ride on the Ganges at sunrise. As a solo traveler, I find it quite difficult to remain alone. :-)

7:30am the next day, I woke up and realized that my body was in no condition to get up before dawn with such little sleep. Luckily, Brian and I had agreed to meet at the Indian Airlines office at 2pm that day in case one of us slept through the boat ride (phew). Brian is also flying up to Kathmandu, and I agreed to move my flight up one day so we can fly together. I had a lazy morning catching up on sleep, switching to a nicer room in my guest house with a river view, enjoying a yummy banana porridge breakfast, and then heading out for the day at noon. I walked up river to the burning ghat, as I had heard so much about it and couldn't wait to see it for myself. Varanasi is a holy city in India because it is believed that if you die and are cremated in Varanasi, your soul will leave the reincarnation cycle and go straight to Nirvana. When I got to the ghat, I was escorted by my 'guide' (you can't really go to any city in India without being offered a guide), who showed me around the ghat and explained what everything is. The first thing you notice are the multiple fires simultaneously burning. Basically, the burning ghat is a large cement dock/platform area above the river, with stairs leading down to the Ganges. I walked down to the fire to get some close viewing action (no photos allowed), and you can see the body burning inside the flames. Quite amazing. Before being burned, the body is wrapped in cloth, placed on a makeshift stretcher and covered on top with a multicolored shiny fabric before being carried down to the river to be dipped in the holy water one last time. The body is then placed inside the wood (the 'box' style Greg...BLC rope burning style! same same but different) and then the oldest son of the deceased waves a lighted stick over the funeral pyre 5 times (to signify the 5 elements) before setting the body alight. Each pyre is lit from the 'eternal light', a holy fire that's been going for a long time (they say for thousands of years, but who knows?) There are multiple pyres around the ghat, with some on higher platforms and in a more grandeur setting, depending on the level of prestige/wealth of the deceased. However harrowing and gross this whole process may sound, it's actually quite peaceful and beautiful to watch. Death is very much a part of life in Varanasi, and to see such spiritual devotion to a city and its river is quite awe-inspiring. It brings comfort to the bereaved to know that their loved is cremated in Varanasi. Once the burning is finished (approximately 2 hours), the ashes wait for three hours and are then thrown into the Ganges. Meanwhile, the pyre is cleared away, and the next one is set up to make way for another body. The ghat burns approximately 180-200 bodies every day, 365 days per year. That's 65,700-73,000 cremations per year!!

---The Lonely Planet explains how severly repulsive the Ganges river is. After so many years of dumping waste (human bodies and otherwise) into the water, the water is septic and therefore cannot hold any living creatures. Whereas the normal pollution limit is 500 fecal parts per liter (above that is unsanitary), the Ganges river has 1.5 million fecal parts liter. Yes, you read that correctly.---

From the burning ghat, I followed my guide through the maze of Varanasi's old town narrow streets, stopping at a nearby temple with lots of carved erotic images juxtaposed with various Hindu gods (naturally), and hopped in a rickshaw to meet Brian at Indian Airlines. After a brief stopover there, Brian and I spent the next 4 hours walking around the city, getting lost in amazing places, stopping to talk to shopkeepers, children, police officers, and various passersby. I was yet again reminded how much I love the sensory overload that is India. While the serene isolation of Leh was a most welcomed break, I am happy to be thrown back in the midst of crazy India. Brian and I walked all the way down along the river from ghat to ghat, stopping at a pickup cricket match just beside another burning ghat---smaller, only one pyre, and is available to non-Hindus as well---before turning around and up into the city through the small streets all the way back to our guest house. At around 7:30 pm we hopped in a rowboat and headed back upriver to the main burning ghat (where I was earlier that afternoon). I wanted to see it at night and from the river's perspective, and it was truly a sight to behold. It felt like another world, hundreds of years ago, or how a movie set might portray such a scene. Multiple pyres were lit in various locations across the ghat's two- storied structure (probably 6 or 7 pyres in all), people were chanting prayers and carrying bodies down to the Ganges for the body-washing ritual, and there was a general hum of spiritual routine about the whole thing. It was probably the most otherwordly sight I had ever seen. So beautiful, so incredible, so holy. This is why I came to India.

Brian and I had a great dinner at Hotel Alka and then realized that we were both shattered from the day's activities. We agreed to meet at 5:15am this morning for the boat ride, for which I managed to successfully wake up! What a treat it was to see the Ganges and Varanasi wake up to a new day. From our rowboat, we had a front row seat of the Indians lining the steps of the ghat for their daily holy bath in the Ganges (shudder). The Indians are so happy and joyous to be bathing and swimming in the Ganges; for them there is nothing more sacred, and any health concerns were imperceptible on their smiles. Some people were lathering up in soap, others were reciting prayers and pouring water over their heads, and I even caught some people drinking the water! (double shudder). It was a great opportunity to see such a daily routine (bathing, swimming) taken to a whole new level of spirituality.

Varanasi is the India that I had always imagined, stepping back in time and into another world. I met many fellow backpackers who balked at me when I said I was detouring to get there, however I can't imagine being in Northern India without seeing this place. If you get the chance, catch the movies "The Namesake" or "Water", both of which have scenes filmed in Varanasi.

Tomorrow I leave for Kathmandu to begin the Nepalese phase of my journey. Again, I have nothing planned and no idea what to expect...except that it will be an adventure, of course. :-)

Lots of love always!!!

Bicycles, Buddhas, and Bloody Cold Water

2007-07-26T07:50:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM VARANASI, India!!! I left beautiful Leh at 5:00am this morning, after an incredible 11 days there. After the trek, I relaxed for one day and then gave myself three amazing one-day trips to fill the time before I left today. On Tuesday, I rode a mountain bike down the highest motorable road in the world: over 18,000 feet! I went with Adi and Adam, and we took a van all the way to the top of the pass (where it was snowing!) and then set off on our bikes down the road. With the Himalayas as the backdrop the entire way down, the views were absolutely stunning. I stopped plenty of times and soaked up the view, so it was an enjoyable 2-hour bike ride down a pretty well-paved road (minus some rough spots).

Above: Danny on the roof of Thiksay Monastery with a Himlayan background

Below: Adi and Adam at the top of Khardung La pass, ready to bike down!

On Wednesday, Adam, Omri, and I took a day tour of 5 monasteries in the area: Taktak, Chemday, Hemis, Thiksay, and Shey. We started at a traditional Buddhist festival at Taktak monastery, which showcased Monks performing traditional dances in colorful masks and costumes. Then we moved on to Chemday, where the three of us sat inside the gompa (prayer room) with the monks chanting away and banging on random musical instruments during their prayer session. We enjoyed some tea with the novice monks, and then headed on our way to the next monastery: Hemis. Hemis is the oldest monastery in the region, founded in the 13th century, and is also the largest. The residential quarters are huge, so we walked around there for a while, enjoyed a nice lunch and went on our way. Thiksay was next, and was the most impressive. Built into the hillside, the monastery is a cluster of buildings that is an architectural feat. Once we walked up to the main entrance, we realized that this monastery was more special than the rest: the level of beauty among the artwork, prayer rooms, and surrounding decor was stunning. And, with the Himalayas all around the monastery, it was truly special to be there. Our final stop was Shey Palace, which is an old, huge stone monastery set on top of a hill. The three of us hiked to the midpoint for a nice photo op, but opted not to continue all the way to the top as it had been a long and tiring day of monastery-hopping.

:-)

Above: Danny on the bike ride down the highest road in the world

Below: Traditional Buddhist festival at Taktak Monastery

Yesterday, Adam and I went white water rafting. (Note: Adam is not that much taller than me, he's just standing on a rock in that photo!) I know, I'm crazy for going non-stop every single day, but it's just too easy to do such great trips from Leh, so why not???! The morning started out not-so-great, as we had to endure a pretty miserable 2-hour bus ride through the mountains to get to the starting point (from the very back of the bus, no less). There were about 35 people signed up for rafting that day, and Adam & I stealthily managed to get into the raft without any annoying Indian tourists, or kvetchy Israeli tourists (these Israelis were not like my wonderful Israeli friends...they were pretty aweful). Once we set off, our morning woes were behind us. The mountains towered over us from all sides in the river, and the blue sky made for a perfect, picturesque day. Some of the rapids were pretty intense, and I got to sit in the front of the boat, which made for a wet Danny. However, since the water was super super freezing, I would have preferred a more lazy river-style adventure, and not such a wet-and -wild ride. But, the sun was out enough to thaw our feet and hands, so no lost appendages.

:-)

Above: Omri, Adam, and Danny at Shey Palace (we didn't walk all the way up to the top)

Below: Danny & Adam, about to get wet

After rafting, we rested up that afternoon and Adam and I enjoyed a really great last meal together, and probably the most delicious Indian dinner I've had yet! Omri and I had a bit of a challenge booking a taxi to the airport later that evening, but we managed to get the last taxi in Leh for this morning (nothing like leaving things for the last minute!). I woke up at 5am this morning, said goodbye to Adam (we were sharing a guest house room since the trek ended), and then met Omri to go to the airport. Here's how my day went: 5:30am- arrive at airport, 7:30am- leave Leh, 8:30am, arrive in Delhi, 3:00pm- leave Delhi, 4:00pm-arrive Varanasi, 5:30pm- arrive in Ganpati Guest House, 6:00pm-arrive in internet cafe. (yes, I waited in Delhi airport for about 6 hours or so...luckily Omri stayed with me for about 2 of those 6 before heading into Delhi). Long day, but that's what travel days are all about.

Below: Prayer flags at Hemis Monastery

I was quite sad to leave Little Tibet (Leh) today, but once I arrived in Varanasi, I remembered why I came to India. Seeing crowded streets with people, rickshaws, cows, garbage, etc etc, I was instantly brought back to real INDIA...the experience of a lifetime. I only have 4 days in Varanasi, which should be more than enough, before heading to Kathmandu on Tuesday. Varanasi is famous for being a holy city, as it resides along the Ganges river, and ghats (baths) are used for people to clean themselves, purify themselves, and ALSO to come and die to end the reincarnation cycle to which they are beholden under the Buddhist tradition. It's said that if you die in Varanasi, you will go to Heaven. So, there are lots of dead bodies burned along the river....lovely. I haven't seen it yet, but I will take a boat ride along the river tomorrow or the next day and I'll report back to you all on what I see.

The journey continues...

Miss you all so much!!

Lots of love always!!!!

Conquering The Himalayas? Check.

2007-07-22T06:19:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM LEH, LADAKH, India!!! I have successfully returned from the most amazing 4-day hike...ever. I've uploaded lots of pics on this blog entry, so I hope you all enjoy! At times it was extremely difficult (see the picture of Adi and Chris walking directly uphill at 15,000 feet), other times we were able to relax and have fun, and throughout the entire time, we were surrounded by landscape that was completely new and simply fantastic. The area around

Ladakh is often referred to as a "moonscape", as most of the landscape is barren, dry rock (see

photos). Ok, so here's the scoop on the trek.

Above: Danny at the top of the pass, Day 3

Below: The 5 of us at the top of the pass, Day 3

We left Leh on Day 1 ataround 8:30am, and the four of us (Adam, Guy, Adi, and myself) were joined by a 5th member, Chris, from France. The first day was quite remarkable; we were in the middle of a mountainous desert, and the 5 of us were playing "musical hiking buddies" as we kept rotating among each other throughout the morning in different pairings, making for quite interesting and diverse chat. Our guide's name was Jalak, a 20-year old Nepalase guy who had the most heart-warming smile, and always said "yes please" to everything you said. Such a sweet guy. We made it to our camp at around 1pm on Day 1, and fortunately there was a lovely flowing stream next to our tents for us to cool off under the scorching sun. We enjoyed a huge dinner (all of our meals were amazing and prepared by our wonderful cook...our crew consisted of a guide, a cook, and two porters). The evening consisted of playing cards and telling stories to make everyone laugh. Then we crawled into the tents and called it a night.

Moonscape Scenery, Day 1

We woke up on Day 2 quite early (6am), and after a not-so-wonderful night's sleep. Nevertheless, we set off for our biggest day of trekking. We hiked for about 5 or 6 hours that day, and the last 2 hours before we reached our camp were probably the hardest of the entire trip. As we rose in altitude, each step was more and more strenuous. My backpack felt like it weighed one million pounds. All I have to say is, thank goodness I'm not a smoker. When our camp was finally in sight, Adi and I were in the back of the group and we pushed each other so hard to finish the trek that day. The last uphill stretch was quite difficult, and I was completely shattered and elated at the same time when we arrived. (The picture below of me barely able to open my eyes is right after completing the trekking on Day 2).

Guy trudging along with his walking poles, Day 2

That evening we enjoyed a great sunset and great dinner, and then we all

crashed super early as the high altitude's minimal breathing ability was super condusive for passing out. As Day 2 was quite challenging, I was super nervous for Day 3, which was the steep uphill towards the top of the pass over the mountain ridge (4,600 meters). Luckily, my good night's sleep allowed me to more adequately adjust to the altitude, and I woke up feeling well rested and breathing much more easily. The other reason why Day 2 was so difficult was because we wanted to go as far as we can to ease the burden of Day 3, which was completely uphill for 2 hours. The 5 of us left at 7:30 am and started uphill with the parting words of wisdom from our guide: "slowly, slowly." So, slowly slowly we did (see the photo below of me looking uphill at Chris and Adi climbing the windy slopes uphill). It was tough, but surprisingly less difficult than the previous day's trek.

Lush scenery, Day 2

Finally, we reached the top and were treated with spectacular panoramic views of the Himalayas. After taking lots of photos, we headed downhill for a couple of hours until we reached our camp. We actually got there rather early, so we had the whole afternoon to relax, rinse off in the freezing cold stream nearby, and wait as our crew prepared the biggest dinner I've ever eaten. :-) That night the 5 of us hung out in the tent playing card games and chatting about the differences in movie/TV show titles when US shows are sent abroad (for example, the TV show "Full House" is called "Sorry for Raising Daughters" in Israel. I don't think I had laughed that hard in a long time. Really fun night. We woke up the next morning and hiked downhill to Stok where our Jeep was waiting for us to bring us back to Leh.

Danny just finishing the hike, Day 2 (completely exhausted)

All in all, it was a great experience: the trekking company was wonderful and we didn't have to worry about anything during the entire 4 days, the 5 of us got along great, and I even had multiple Hebrew lessons from Adi (I've learned quite a bit!). Now that I'm back in Leh, I have until Friday to enjoy some more fun before I leave. I am going on a 1-day bike trip tomorrow (they drive you to the top of the mountain, and then you ride down amidst the scenery), and an overnight trip to some nearby lakes which should be quite beautiful (and no hiking involved). So, needless to say, I'm capitalizing on the plethora of outdoor opportunities available here in Leh.

Adi & Guy finishing dinner at dusk, Day 2

Thoughts on the expected 'introspection and ephiphany' enlightenment: Being up in the mountains definitely gave me the time I wanted to think all about me, and my life. What I ended up doing was thinking about all of you guys and how much I love all of you and miss you all so much. One thing I continue to realize is that I am an entangled, multi-faceted, and webbed fabric of my experiences and memories with all of you. My friends and family allow my compassion, happiness, and will to succeed to shine through. Thank you all for that.

OK, the internet in Leh has been most grief-inducing today. I've been trying all day to finish this mega-blog. Speak to you all soon!

Lots of love always!!!
MORE PHOTOS!!!

The Steep Climb, Day 3

Up, up, up we go, Day 3

View From The Top of the Pass, Day 3

Adi Looking Beautiful, Day 3 (and every other day)

Mountains surrounding our camp, Day 3

Danny and Adam

Danny and Guy

Sunset Over The Mountains, end of Day 2

Take My Breath Away, Bollywood-Style

2007-07-18T13:00:00.000-04:00

HELLO (again) FROM LEH, LADAKH, India!!! I'm leaving for the trek tomorrow, and I'll be out of touch for a few days, so I wanted to check in once before the trip begins. Our group grew to 5 people today, but now we're back down to 4 since Omri is now too sick to join us. Very sad. Luckily, my friend Adam whom I met in McLeod Ganj joined our group, so there are now 2 Israelis and 2 Americans...a perfect mix for the trek. Adam is from California, went to UC Santa Barbara, and is halfway through a 16-month trip around Asia. We've had lots of good conversation already, so it should be a very enjoyable 4 days.

----Before I continue, I have to say quickly that I was just at the campfire restaurant down the street here in Leh, and there were these 2 famous Bollywood stars hanging out there as well (one guy, one lady), because they're filming a movie in Leh at the moment. As I was leaving just now, the female star (who is absolutely gorgeous, but I don't know her name) gave me "the look" of all looks...up and down, for a long time (as in multiple seconds, and even when I passed by her, she was still looking at me when I turned around). I think my breath stopped for a few seconds, and maybe my heart. Damn, some things just aren't meant to be. haha.----

My Israeli friend Guy, who is one of the 4 in our group for the trek, has quite an amazing story. He served in the Israeli army for 7 years (he's now 25), and was in the special forces division, comparable to the Green Berets in the US Military. During last year's war between Israel and Lebanon, he was fighting in an area south of Beirut, and he was injured when pieces of a missile shell hit his body, near his left hip bone. He was in the hospital for 3 months, and afterwards, his parents convinced him to resign from the military. He's since gone traveling through SE Asia and India. It doesn't really phase him that he's been through such unbelievably life-threatening and scary situations. When you meet him, he seems like any other 25-year old kid...not someone who is responsible for both life and death. For Guy, he loved his job in the army, and thrived on the satisfaction gained from completing a successful mission. It was all about getting the job done. Now that he's here, it has been a huge release for him to travel through India, despite the fact that he left the army under such undesirable circumstances. Now I know why Israelis travel to India after the army; it is the ultimate escape from a world of conflict and struggle.

Thoughts on the upcoming trek: Throughout this trip, I've had to remind myself that one of the main purposes of traveling around the world by myself is to give myself ample time to focus on me. I oftentimes get caught up in making new friends with fellow backpackers, or getting enmeshed in the local culture through conversations with Indians, which is amazing, and has made this trip so memorable and wonderful and everything I could've hoped for, and more. However, it is the moments of solitary introspection that are invaluable in surroundings such as these. I still have more to learn about myself, and truly become comfortable with me. Hopefully the next 4 days will be that opportunity to explore that a bit further. With each experience out here, I've been able to look back and see how I've grown, or changed, or learned something new. However selfish it may seem, I think it might be time to focus on me for the next few days. I'll let you know what epiphanies (if any) I reach when I'm back. Basically, in order for me to completely open myself up to someone else at some point down the road, I need to first know and love myself completely. Isn't that how it works?

Alright, enough waxing philosophical for now - off to pack up my stuff and get some rest before tomorrow. Miss you all lots, and speak soon!!

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!

Snow-covered mountains

2007-07-17T10:37:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM LEH, LADAKH, India!!!!!!! I am finally in the Himalayas, and it is absolutely stunning. I made it up here via an incredible 2-day bus journey from Manali.

I had a wonderful time in Manali; I was actually really surprised at how much I enjoyed it there. I was expecting it to be a stop-in-transit between McLeod Ganj and Leh, but I had such a great time with my new Israeli friends: Omri (who's here in Leh with me now), Yael, and Hille. On Saturday Omri, Yael, and I hiked to a nearby waterfall in the neighboring town of Vashisht. Very scenic and tranquil, it was a perfect way to spend our last day before boarding the bus for the big journey to Leh. However, the four of us had too much fun drinking beer and playing "truth or dare" until 2am, it was a bit hard to wake up at 5am to catch the bus the following morning! :-) How junior high of us! Fun night, though. (That picture is of Hille, Yael, and Omri, left to right).

Ok, now for the bus trip story. In order to go from Manali to Leh, you have to take a 2-day bus trip through the Himalayan mountains. The road to Leh is only open during the summer, so it's quite opportune that this all worked out for me. We left at about 6:30am on Sunday morning, and drove out of Manali through the mountains for the rest of the day. The scenery on day 1 was lush mountains covered in trees, waterfalls, and valleys flowing with rivers and streams. The bus snaked around the mountains...slowly but surely we made it over one mountain and onto the next. I was pretty tired on day 1, needless to say, so the first day was interspersed between admiring the scenery and catching some shuteye. Every now and then, we'd reach a makeshift village somewhere in the mountains, and we'd all have to get out and register our passport info with the Indian police. It's so archaically bureaucratic, but that's what India is all about. We have to wait in a long line, and then they write your name, passport number, visa number, etc in a big dusty notebook that will probably never get looked at again. But, you gotta do what you gotta do, so just go with the flow.

At about 8pm on Day 1 we reached a bridge that had been broken only a few minutes before (see photo above). So, the bus stopped, we all got out, and it took about an hour or 2 for them to fix it. Finally, at 10:30 pm we reached our tent campsite. When we got off the bus, it was absolutely freezing...probably 30s or 20s degrees Fahrenheit (maybe colder!). Thank goodness I've carried around that big fleece at the bottom of my bag for the last 3 1/2 months - I knew it would come in handy sometime!!! When we stepped off the bus, the cold weather was the first thing we noticed; the second thing we noticed was the unbeliveable amount of stars in the sky. I've never seen a sky so flooded with stars. Shooting stars darted across the sky every few minutes; unfortunately I could only bear such a short time before freezing my ass off, but it was a spectacular sight. I passed out in the tent at about 11pm, and we started Day 2 at 5:30am. Stepping out of the tent that morning was also breathtaking; the surrounding mountains were perfectly lit by the rising sun, it was picture perfect!

The interesting thing about India is that her landscape changes every 100km or so. Coming from Rajasthan back to Delhi, you can see the climate morph from desert back to deciduous forests, into a sprawling city. The same can be said on this ride. While Day 1 was full of tree-covered mountains, Day 2 was the start of India's arid, desert-like northern region of the Himalayas. We left the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh and entered Jammu & Kashmir. The mountains were quite breathtaking: jagged, snow-covered peaks in the distance, and our bus slowly meandered up the rocky, steep, and windy roads. At one point in the afternoon, we reached the second-highest pass in the world! (A pass is the point at which you cross a mountain range). Check out the picture - over 17,500 feet!!!!

Needless to say, the bus ride was an amazing journey, and I'm so glad I did it. Omri is an excellent travel buddy; he's such a nice guy and it's quite advantageous to be travelling with an Israeli in northern India!!! So, we finally arrived in Leh yesterday at 6pm after 2 days, and 26 hours of sitting on a bus. :-) It was definitely the most beautiful bus ride of my life.

Leh is the capital of India's Ladakh region, which is a Tibetan-influenced population. The town is quite quaint, and similar to Manali in that it's surrounded by mountains all over (dry, rocky mountains here, though) and the town caters to tourists in general, Israeli tourists in particular. This morning, Omri and I met another Israeli guy and girl (Guy and Adi), so we spent the rest of the day with them walking around town. This afternoon we went to watch a film at a local non-profit organization called the Women's Alliance of Ladakh. The film explained how western influence and development has severely destroyed and eradicated the traditional way of life of the Ladakhi people. Founded on agriculture and a communal sense of living, modern influences such as monetary systems, imported goods, and government-subsidized industries have wiped out the isolated rural way of living. While Ladakhis villages did most things together: harvesting crops, helping families in times of need, making community-wide decisions, western influences have changed their society from one of interdependence and shared values to one of independence, winner-takes-all, capitalistic ideals. It is sad to say that the development of Ladakh in the last 15 years is a textbook case of one culture's identity being wiped out by the west.

Ok, so now I'm heading to a campfire with my Israeli friends to hang out for the rest of the evening. I'm leaving for a 4-day trek through the Himalayas on Thursday, which should hopefully be breathtaking. I'll update the blog once more before I leave. Until then, miss you all so much, and speak soon!!!

Lots of love always!!!

God Bless Dramamine

2007-07-13T03:13:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM MANALI, India...aka Little Israel. There are tons of Israelis everywhere, in fact it's probably 99.9% Israeli, which has added to the wonderful experience of it all. But, let's back up a bit and continue the story from whence we left it. I left McLeod Ganj yesterday after spending one full week there; I must say, I absolutely loved my time there. Learning from the Dalai Lama (and our "TA" Geishi) was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and the surrounding mountainous scenery created a sense of other-worldliness among such spiritual philosophy. And, I loved getting to know the place so well; it was sad to leave my favorite restaurant Carpe Diem (at which I spent every single meal) and their most-friendly Nepali waiters, Raju and Ramu. But, I boarded a bus on Thursday night, 8:30pm, and headed down the windy roads out of McLeod Ganj and Dharamsala, and towards Manali.

Having had over 3 months' experience of bus riding, I was feeling pretty confident about my abilities to handle a vomit-inducing ride from the second-to-last row of a coach bus. Boy, was I wrong. About 3 minutes after we left McLeod Ganj, the nausea set in (no thanks in part to the Kit Kat bar I munched on as I sat down in my seat). God Bless Dramamine. I reached into my bag, popped one of the suckers, and then held my head in my hands and counted the minutes until those magical chemicals did their wonders. What a relief. I should be in a TV advert for Dramamine: "Even in the most dire of circumstances, like sitting in the back of a bus for 10 hours on the most windy roads imaginable in the Indian Himalayan mountains, I still didn't get motion sickness."

So, I arrived to Manali in a half-sleep stupor at 6am, and the plan was to head to my Israeli friend Omri's guesthouse so we could meet up and resume our trekking-planning activities. However, Omri gave me the wrong name of his guesthouse (grrrrr), so I ended up going to 2 non Omri-occupied guesthouses before finding the right guesthouse (one hour later). However, the "manager" of Omri's guesthouse (I use that term very loosely) didn't have a record of him checking in, so I just said "screw it" and walked next door to find a room for myself where I could crash. Coincidentally, the "manager" of my guesthouse met Omri 2 days before and knew which room he was in (at the guesthouse next door). So, I finally found my friend at 7:30am (waking him up from a deep sleep...but I didn't feel that bad after the wild goose chase I just endured), and I hit the sack for the next few hours. Basically, it was a stroke of luck that I found Omri this morning, thank goodness for that. You gotta love India's random ways of always making things work out.

This afternoon we had a bit of rain, so I hung out in a cafe and watched some movies: Crash, and Alpha Dog. I would say that the only reason to watch Alpha Dog is to see a shirtless and multi-tattooed Justin Timberlake, but I'd also be giving you all a reason to waste 2 hours of your life. Nevertheless, it passed the time this afternoon during the rain. This evening I joined my Israeli friends for Friday night services at the Chabad House. I hadn't participated in any Jewish services since Ross' wedding weekend in March (which is still the most beautiful Friday night service I have ever experienced!) It was so much fun to be super Jewish tonight. The Chabad House is orthodox, so the men sat in the front half of the room during the services, and the women sat in the back (separated by a cloth wall). The service kinda reminded me of 'Fiddler on the Roof' times. Lots of singing and dancing and clapping, and "hey, hey, hey-ing" (with a Yiddish accent, if you get my drift). It's exactly how you would picture an ortho service with a bunch of ortho Israelis. Great fun. There is also a less-ortho service in town, which I'll probably opt for next time, but it was a great experience. We had a HUGE meal afterwards and sang lots of Israeli/Hebrew songs.

It is so interesting to hang out with Israelis simply for the fact that these kids, most of whom are one or two years younger than I, have already completed a military experience that I have not even considered attempting in my life. In the group of 3 Israelis with whom I went out for a beer after dinner, one was an artillery officer (Omri), one was a pilot and weapons systems operator (Amir), and one was a logistics officer (female). When I was talking to Amir about the fact that I admire Israelis because military service is something that most Americans do not have to encounter first-hand, he said that "it's better not to have these types of experiences at such a young age. It's not natural to have fighting and battles and weapons systems management as part of your educational upbringing. It's not human." How true. I often think how different America would be if we had mandatory military service; American citizens would most definitely hold the threshold for 'just cause for war' at a much higher level if they knew their sons/daughters were the ones who would have to fight. The US would instigate less wars, since the American constituent body would be more attune to world affairs with their children in military service, and there would be more of an attempt to create a diplomatic world community, rather than a hegemonic unilateral military force (as hinted today by UK International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander). Then again, would the US ever change its culture to accommodate this? Most definitely not.

It's also funny to hang out with Israelis, because I feel like I have to prove my 'Jewishness' just to be part of the crowd. Once they know I'm Jewish, it's like I'm one of the gang. "L'chaim", my Israeli friends.

I head to Leh on Sunday morning (2-day bus trip, with a camping stop in the tents in between), so I'll hang around Manali again tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will cooperate better so I can get out and enjoy these lush mountains all around me.

OK - now it's after 1:00am and I'm too tired to write any more!!! Miss you all so much! Be in touch!!!

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!

Where Are You From?

2007-07-11T08:03:00.000-04:00

HELLO (for the third time) FROM McLEOD GANJ, India!!!

One of the most common questions I get asked as a traveler is: "Where are you from?" Of course, my answer is a simple and confident "New York." However, I have developed a false sense of attachment to, and have attributed too much personal responsibility towards a city which, although I've had a close association with my entire life, has only been a temporary home for 1/25th of my existence. In my opinion, the question "Where are you from?" cannot be answered by identifying an impermanent location, since we all know that my various residences have proven to be far from permanent. Therefore, I have decided to delve further into this question and find out the real source of Daniel Seth Shapiro.

I am from Stephen and Elise Shapiro. I am from a 3-foot snowstorm on a cold December night. I am from Mama Eda and Papa Jack, Mama Kitty and Papa Dave. I am from Gregory Shapiro. I am from 122 Dogwood Lane, Newburgh New York. I am from Brant Lake, NY, Waltham, Mass, Washington, DC, East Village, NYC, and Park Slope, Brooklyn. I am from Tots-N-Us, Horizons-on-the-Hudson, North Junior High School, Newburgh Free Academy, and Brandeis University. I am from a lifetime of playdates with Ross & Lauren, and countless days at my second homes on Summit Ridge Drive. I am from my grandparents' perseverence and wisdom, my parents' guidance and love, and my big brother's enduring ability to always look after his little bro.

I am from Mama Eda's chopped liver, and Mama Kitty's chicken noodle soup. I am from car trips to Waterside and Long Beach, and I am from weekly lunch visits to 451 South Street. I am from 5 Uncles, 3 Aunts, and 5 cousins, and family gatherings around delicious holiday meals replete with time-honored traditions. I am from Lithuania, and I am from Montreal. I am from Judaism: bar mitzvahs, high-holidays, menorahs, matzah, and mezuzahs.

I am from mornings of waiting for the school bus at the bottom of the driveway, parking the Corolla at Mama Kitty's driveway, and dragging myself out of bed to class on the other end of campus. I am from evenings of little league, hebrew school, piano lessons, JCC basketball, and school concerts. I am from years of baseball card collections, games of 'horse' & 'around the world', endless rounds of Nintendo, and baseball catches in the yard---all with the greatest of mentors, my big bro.

I am from summers at Brant Lake Camp, eternally Gray. I am from winters on the Vermont ski slopes, and springs on the Newburgh baseball fields. I am from back-to-school jitters in September, and end-of-school celebrations in June. I am from America, but I am also from abroad: Israel, Scotland, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and now India.

I am from my parents' daily reminder of what love and success truly are. I am from life, and I am from death. I am from happiness, and I am from suffering. I am from the wisdom that we are given the gift of life primarily to show compassion towards others. I am from all of these things and more, and I am excited for what tomorrow will add to this list.

Now, Where Are You From???

Lots of love always!!!

More Photos!

2007-07-10T00:47:00.000-04:00

Here are a few more photos to entertain you all!!! (Make sure you check out the new blog posting below!)

Danny in McLeod Ganj (taken by self)

Golden Temple, Amritsar (Day & Night views)

Monk Debate at the Dalai Lama Temple, McLeod Ganj

Flag-lowering ceremony, India/Pakistan Border, near Amritsar

Hope you like!!!

Lots of love always!!!

Danny And The Dalai

2007-07-09T02:33:00.000-04:00

HELLO (again) FROM McLEOD GANJ, India!!! What an enlightening few days it's been. ;-) First of all, I'm really enjoying staying in one place for more than 2 days...which is a break from tradition of the last 13 weeks, most likely. It's nice to get to know a place, with your favorite eating spot (Carpe Diem), your favorite cafe (JJ's next to my guest house), and your favorite internet cafe (whichever one has a computer available!). There are tons of backpackers everywhere, which I now realize is both good and bad, but I'll get to that later. I'm sure you're all eagerly anticipating my amazing account of a most auspicious audience with His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. (GREG - another BLC reference for you...Little Nell!)

August 6th was the Dalai Lama's 72nd birthday, and there was a huge celebration planned to mark the event. I woke up super early and headed down to the Dalai Lama temple - a big complex consisting of the temple itself (shrines galore), a large surrounding courtyard, a nearby Tibet Museum, and housing facilities for the resident monks. The birthday celebration was a long program (3+ hours) of traditional Tibetan musical and dance performances, mainly by young children from the surrounding area. I met up with my friends Heather & Morgan (from that lovely sunset dinner in Udaipur, Rajasthan) so I had company during the event. We had to sit on the cement floor the whole time, cramped in among hundreds and hundreds of people (possibly thousands?), so I was a bit uncomfortable most of the time, to say the least. Plus, His Holiness the Dalai Lama (henceforth refered to as HH) did not make an appearance, so in my opinion, it was all for naught. It was nice to see the cultural aspect of Tibetan life, but perhaps it would've been better from a more comfortable theater. That afternoon I had a most relaxing few hours in bed, alternating between reading my book-du-jour (Irvine Welsh's 'Trainspotting'...absolutely classic) and nodding off. I met up with Heather and Morgan that evening again at Carpe Diem (the it spot in McLeod), and got ready for the big date with HH in the morning.

OK - Day 1 of the teaching. I met Heather & Morgan for breakfast at 7am, and then wandered down to the temple entrance by 7:30am. There was a huge line to get in, swinging from the outside gate all the up to the main temple steps. The funny thing is, the security system was divided into two lines: male and female. The female line was the really long one, and the male line was considerably shorter. So, Morgan and I said goodbye to Heather and awkwardly walked past the throngs of women waiting in line towards the end of the men's line (and the almost-front of the women's line!). We got through security and headed upstairs to scope out the situation. HH had already begun his teaching, and when I reached the top of the stairs, I could see a sea of people: Koreans, Tibetans, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indians, and westerners. The areas surrounding HH's temple (and podium spot) were designated for each of these different groups. I found a great seat with an Optimus Prime view of HH, and opened my mind for enlightenment.

HH spoke in Tibetan, which was then restated by a Chinese interpreter, which was then translated into English by another translator. The English was broadcast on FM radio, so the whole audience has headphones glued to their ears attached to mini FM radios. Having practically no exposure to Buddhism (my only other encounter being in Chang Mai when Aly P. and I visited a temple and sat down with a monk scholar for a brief lesson in Buddhist principles). On Day 1, HH focused on basic concepts, which I took to heart and absorbed to the fullest. According to Buddhism, we are all afflicted with 3 main poisons: attachment, aversion, and anger. All other emotions can be cast under these three headings. In order to remove these poisons from within us, we must find a counterbalancing force to directly oppose these poisons. At the root of these three afflicting poisons and the foundational cause for each of these arising within us is self-grasping ignorance. The 'self' is involved in each of the 3 poisons (attachment, aversion, anger), and we must strive to educate ourselves properly to counter this ignorance.

There is a divergence between the way we perceive ourselves and the way we are in reality. This distorted belief creates a disparity between perception and reality, therefore feeding into the self-grasping ignorance that is at the root of our negative afflicting emotions. Once we know that our view of the self is distorted, then we can begin to rid ourselves of ignorance. Buddhism teaches that the self is a dependently-originated being, not an independent being, as we might inherently believe. This creates the distorted belief and accompanying disparity between reality (dependent self) and perception (independent self). In order to understand how we are not independent but dependent beings, Buddhists believe in the step-by-step process of ridding oneself from the self-grasping ignorance, thereby releasing the 3 poisonous afflictions (attachment, aversion, anger), and ultimately freeing oneself from suffering and pain. There are strict techniques to acquire this necessary wisdom. The wisdom that Buddhists seek, however, is not born within us, but must be acquired through reading/training, reflection, and ultimately meditation, so that the wisdom is so strongly inplanted inside that you have the skill and knowledge to spontaneously extinguish any spontaneous eruption of negative emotion.

The necessary mental discipline needed to successfully achieve this wisdom is daunting, so Buddhists teach that physical and verbal disciplines (ethical actions) must be achieved first. With this skill, the mind becomes focused on the path to enlightenment and can eliminate the self-grasping ignorance through 3 trainings: mental discipline, meditative concentration, and training of wisdom.

After HH's lecture on the first day, I went to the Tibet Museum to learn all about the plight of the Tibetan people under the oppressive Chinese government. I didn't really know much about Tibet, except that it's not free, and that Richard Gere is a huge advocate for change there, but it was shocking to see the destruction and death that China has caused this country. Over 1 million people have been killed since China first invaded Tibet in the early 1950s. The Dalai Lama was forced into exile in 1959, and many Tibetans (who were lucky enough to escape) followed suit to various destinations around the world, including Dharamsala, the home of the Tibetan Government-In-Exile. All Tibetans want is their freedom and independence, and a chance at a peaceful co-existence with China. It is a struggle that has been ongoing for decades, and without end in sight.

Later in the afternoon on Day 1, I went to a lecture on "Understanding China", led by a Tibetan refugee who has studied contemporary Chinese culture. It was quite eye-opening to learn how much of a front China is putting up to the western world, in order to cover-up their government's corruption, spying, and un-democratic policies. While the buzz is that China's growing economy will lead to more democratization, this is a major Western misconception, and may lead to further harm if China is able to continue to lead the West down its path of deception.

On Day 2, HH referred to the various world religions and explained the need for such divergent views, due to the divergent types of populations and varying degrees of temperaments among society. While Buddhists do not ascribe to a higher deity, they do not believe in superiority of one religion over another. HH did say, however, that it is harmful to put faith entirely in G-d since it rids oneself of responsibility from problems. All traditions (monotheistic, brahaman [Hindu], and Buddhist believe in the 'self', but the Buddha teaches selflessness in order to reduce the self-grasping mind. Also, love and compassion is stressed in Buddhism as a main source of health and happiness in society. HH also talked a bit about quantum physics and its similarities to Buddhism, namely how there is no objective, independent reality (a parallel to the Buddhist belief that we are dependent people), but I won't try to pretend like I know much more that.

Each day at 2pm, there is a review session (taught in English by a leading scholar of HH) to discuss the morning teaching and elucidate HH's main points. It's very comparable to the 'TA Section' after the professor's lecture. Our 'TA' is great - he's also the English translator for HH during the morning sessions. I was able to more firmly understand these main tenets of Buddhism, and to get a less cloudy picture of the more high-level conceptual ideas that pretty much flew over my head. I finished Day 3 of the HH lecture, and I think I may head down in a few to catch the 3rd (and probably final, for me) day of Buddhist enlightening education.

At the end of each day, HH exits the temple along a path that leads to right in front of my seat! So, for the past couple of days, I've been within about 5 feet of HH! I'm feeling extra holy. :-)

I've thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the HH teachings. I must say, having been exposed to a variety of religions these past 3 months--Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, etc--I have maintained a solid love for my own religion, Judaism. It's nice to find comfort in the familiar in a world of the unfamiliar, so I say the 'Shma' every day, and even sometimes when I'm in other religions' temples, just to make sure no other religion's ideals is getting in the way. haha. :-) My Jewish identity remains strong, perhaps stronger now than ever, even with this single outlet for practice (reciting the Shma daily). Hopefully I'll be able to more firmly reattach to Jewish practice after this trip. (I met a group of Israeli friends who informed me about Jewish houses - Chabad, etc - here that have Friday night services. Unfortunately I think I'm leaving before this Friday, but it's no big deal.)

Speaking of my new Israeli friends, I think my plans have now changed slightly. I'm heading to Manali in a couple of days, as originally planned, but then I'm joining my new Israeli friend Omri up to Leh, Ladakh, for some trekking. Apparently the conditions are unsuitable for trekking in Nepal at the moment (monsoon, abundant leaches), so I'll spend less time there to just see Kathmandu, and more time in the way north of India for proper trekking. Very excited for that.

And that's about it. I'm really enjoying everything there is to offer in this town; I'll make my way to neighboring Bhagsu and Dharamkot tomorrow (small, quieter towns), and head down to Manali Wednesday or Thursday. Yesterday marked the 3 month anniversary of my departure from New York. Three months! Hard to believe.

Oh right - before I forget - there are tons of tourists in this town, in fact, this place is swarming with westerners, Indian tourists, in addition to the heaps of monks that are everywhere in sight. It's great, since I've made some new friends, but it's also slightly frustrating in that the culture here is very tourist-centered and watered-down.

Ok, gotta run, but miss you all lots, and speak again soon! Thanks for getting through this blog!!!

Lots of love always!!!

India Adventure, Chapter 2: Spitirual Journey

2007-07-05T09:51:00.001-04:00

HELLO FROM McLEOD GANJ, India!!! I have officially entered the next phase of this trip; I am sitting in an internet cafe in a hill station town next to a Buddhist monk, if that gives you some context as to the type of environment in which I have arrived. McLeod Ganj is the home of the Tibetan Government in Exile, and His Holiness The Dalai Lama. Coincidentally, I have arrived the day before his birthday, and 2 days before he leads a week-long teaching seminar, so I am about to embark on a whole lot of Buddhist spiritual wisdom.

Let me back up a sec and recap the past few days. I'll be a bit more concise, as I was probably a wee bit too verbose in my last blog. Sorry about that! (but thanks for reading it!) So, while in Bikaner, I was pretty much done with the whole car-tour-through-Rajasthan-thing, and ready for a change. Luckily, right after I finished the massive blog that night I met a group of Indian guys and chatted with them over some chai and Indian sweets for a couple of hours before heading back to the guesthouse. Great guys - they work for an NGO that helps to sell village crafts and provide the profits and outside donations directly back to the villagers. That redeemed my time in Bikaner. The next (and penultimate stop) was JhunJhunu, which is a very old city in eastern Rajasthan. I only had one night there, so in the afternoon I wandered around wonderful narrow, winding streets fulled with shops and their shopowners lounging inside. After the initial shock of seeing a westerner in their town, people warmed up to me, and I eventually had a little entourage of kids following me through the streets. I felt like a celebrity - waving, and saying hello to people as I passed them by. It was fun, but I was exhausted after a couple of hours. Back at the hotel, I met a Belgian girl named Eva who had just started her Rajasthan car tour (headed in the reverse direction), so she and I had a lovely dinner together and I gave her lots of helpful advice on how to enjoy the car tour experience (to the dismay of her driver).

Finally, we ended up back in Delhi!!!! I gladly said goodbye to my driver, walked back to my original guesthouse, dropped off my bags, and then headed to the New Delhi train station for my first Indian train ticket buying experience. For all of the hullabaloo and drama people have stirred up in my mind about buying a train ticket in India, I was definitely let down. It was one of the easier things I've done in this country. Basically, the hardest part of the whole thing is to find the foreign tourist ticket office, and ignore the claims you hear along the way that "it's closed", "it burned down" or "it doesn't exist" from the touts outside the station. Once you're in, you just fill in a quick form, wait in a line on a couch, then go up to the desk to get the ticket. Easy. Done. Let's not waste any more time frightening poor Danny about the horrors of Indian trains, ok?

I met up with my Australian friend Katy (who was also done with her tour) for dinner that night - she was headed to Varanasi, to which I'll head in a few weeks, so we had a nice time and said our goodbyes for good. My train left at 7:30 the next morning for Amritsar, which is in India's Punjab state. Amritsar is like the Mecca for Sikhs; in Amritsar is the famous Golden Temple, to which Sikhs make their holy pilgrims. The temple was absolutely beautiful - a huge golden temple in the middle of a small square lake, surrounded on all sides by a marble walkway and huge columned buildings on all four sides. There were thousands and thousands of Sikhs there. It was a great taste of the Sikh religion, if just for a day.

OH RIGHT - really quickly - when I got to Amritsar I left my 3 British friends whom I had met on the train and tried to find the "great and cheap" accommodation inside the Temple, recommended by Lonely Planet. (I'm sneering right now). It was a huge hassle, and took almost an hour to find the right office, in the right building, etc etc, but I finally got my room, along with 3 American friends I met who were in the midst of the same plight. After hanging out at the Temple for a couple of hours, I joined the 3 Americans (one of whom has been working for Microsoft in India for the last year) in their car to go to the Indian/Pakistani border for the daily flag-lowering ceremony. Here's the setting: on either side of the India/Pakistan border located at Wagah, they have built a fancy gate separating the 2 countries, and huge grandstands on either side for the hordes of crowds that arrive each day. Soldiers from both countries are dressed up in huge elaborate uniforms, lined up and down the street that runs through the middle of each side of the gate. It's a huge spectacle; Indian and Paksitani flags are waving everywhere, and there's an MC on each side that leads chants like "India is the best" (and on the other side of the gate "Pakistan is the best"). It's very comical - people are cheering and screaming, it's like a big sporting event. Then, right at sunset, the soldiers march in ridiculously machismo, bravado fashion, kicking their legs SO high up in the air with each step right up to the 2 gates, each gate is opened, and then with even more ridiculous bravado marching, standing inches from one another, they lower their flags slowly and at the same speed (not to have one flag above another) until they reach the ground. Great show. That's how I spent my 4th of July; a different form of patriotism, indeed.

Happy Belated 4th of July to everyone!!!! Greg, I was thinking yesterday about Bobby G's annual BLC speech every summer. I miss that. hahahaha

I got back to Amritsar that evening, had a nice dinner with the Americans, and decided that I would leave the following morning (this morning, today) for McLeod Ganj. I found out that there are no private buses, and the only way to go is by public bus, or taxi. I was not about to hire a taxi after sitting in a car for 2 weeks, and I wanted the adventure of figuring out the public bus system of Punjab, India, so I woke up today at 5:30 am, headed to the bus station via rickshaw, and boarded one bus to Pathankot (3 hours), and switched buses to Dharamsala (4 hours), which finally called at McLeod Ganj.

Peaceful mountain spiritual bliss. That's a good way to describe my initial feelings about this place. Oh yeah, and 'swarming with tourists' (which I'm not unhappy about, by the way!). So, McLeod Ganj really is up in the clouds! We're way up in the Himalayas, so the views from the town are quite spectacular. It actually looks a lot like Sapa, in Northern Vietnam. The hills have been transformed into rice paddies, so you see the step-shape landscape all around. (Zack, my guesthouse room has the same type of view as ours did in Sapa!!!) After a long day on a bus, I arrived at around 2pm, walked around for a bit, found a guesthouse with a (great) room, and as I was checking in, the monk who runs the place asked me: "have you signed up for the teaching session with the Dalai Lama?" Why of course I haven't, how can I do that?! was my immediate response. :-) So, I grabbed my passport, 2 passport-sized photos and waited in line with the other westerners for a pass to his week-long class. There's big celebrations tomorrow for his birthday, and the class begins the day after tomorrow. I'll keep you all informed on the wisdom I am about to accrue.

This afternoon I met a German guy who's been here for 3 weeks already, and has mucho spirituality to share. I'm all into spirituality and all, but it was a bit much for me to listen to (life energy all around us, breathing exercises to enhance your consciousness, etc) after being on a bus for 8 hours...I didn't really buy into it all yet. But I do want to be open minded here and experience new things, so I will definitely venture into the world of Buddhist spirituality while here. When in Rome....

And that brings me to now - miss you all lots, thanks for being in touch, and speak to you soon when I'm all the wiser!!!!!

Lots of love always!

Singing Silly Songs Under the Desert Moonlight

2007-07-01T09:23:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM BIKANER, India!!!!!! I am almost done with my 14-day marathon Rajasthan tour; Bikaner is the second-to-last stop on the route, before Shekawati and then finally Delhi. I must say, in hindsight I probably should not have done this car/driver tour...rather, I should have gone around Rajasthan by myself. But, hindsight is 20/20, and a life with regrets is rather futile, so I'm grateful for what I've seen and done so far. The added stress from my driver has been slightly unexpected, but not completely off-putting. I'll explain more as we get into the nitty-gritty details of the past 10 days or so. By the way, major apologies for not writing sooner - we've literally been on the go from one place to the next, and in the evenings when I have some free time, I've been so pooped I haven't had any energy to blog. Now that I have some roti and yummy Indian spices in my belly, I've got plenty of energy (and 2 hours before this internet cafe closes), so lets get blogging!

When I last checked in, I was about to leave Jaipur and make my way to Pushkar. I really enjoyed Jaipur - with its overcrowded, dirty, hassle-full personality overflowing everywhere, I soaked it all up. Jaipur is a major city being pulled in two directions - its historic past and the modernizing future - and the ensuing identity crisis is absolutely worth a visit.

Pushkar is very different from Jaipur. Once a relatively unknown village about 15 years ago, Israeli backpackers discovered the hidden gem and decided it was the perfect location to add to their requisite "post-military service India trip." It has since become a major stop on the hippie trail, chabad house and all. :-) The "city" of Pushkar surrounds a holy lake, and there are plenty of priests who are more than willing to bless you and everyone you love with the spirit of the lake. (Don't worry, I got my money's worth out of my priest. If you're reading this blog now, I probably made him include you in the prayer). After blessing you, the priest ties a couple of red threads around your wrist, and you are henceforth considered hassle-free from the rest of the priests in Pushkar for the remainder of your stay, thanks to the almighty "Pushkar Passport" (aka red threaded bracelet), currently located on my right wrist along with a few other bracelets collected in the past 3 months.

After wandering around the old streets of Pushkar, stopping at a bunch of shops and a Brahman temple, I drove over to the huge hill alongside the city and made a fast trek to the hilltop for the Savitri Temple and the amazing sunset view (see previous blog posting for the pic!). Fortunately, I wasn't the only one making the trek up at that time, and I made two new friends: Katy from Australia, and Sindi from London (of Indian descent). Both great girls, the three of us hiked back down together and enjoyed a lovely nighttime dinner in front of the lake with the city of Pushkar lit up all around us. The next morning, I met Sindi for breakfast (same location), and we had such a nice chat for the couple of hours I had before setting of for the next location. Sindi walked me back to my hotel, and we stopped at the gorgeous Sikh temple in town for a short prayer (Sindi is Sikh, so she introduced me to the customs of entering a Sikh temple--eg, how to place your hands near your head, bow to the ground and touch your forehead to the floor, etc). Very beautiful and spiritual experience.

---Here's a taste of what I was referring to when I mentioned that I shouldn't have done the car tour. I would have loved to stay in Pushkar, hang out with Sindi for another day, but alas, I was on a strict schedule and had to get a move on. More frustration-venting to come, stay tuned. :-) ----

So from Pushkar, my driver and I made our way to Udaipur. Even though I was sad to leave Pushkar, I knew that Udaipur was going to be great. As you can see from the previous posting, Udaipur's main attraction is the gorgeous lake surrounded by lush mountains and beautiful architecture abounding all around the water. In the middle of the lake is the stunning white Lake Palace, and there are also a few more palaces dotted across the water. My driver wanted to take me to his guest house of choice, ie away from the old town, away from the lake, and an establishment run by one of his friends (I was starting to catch on to this whole 'Indian tour guide' thing at this point), and so I forcefully yet calmly explained that I wanted to stay in the Lal Ghat area, which is right in the heart of the old city's narrow streets. I got my way, of course, and found the most perfect guest house (thank you Lonely Planet) right on the lake with picture perfect views (again, see previous posting for the evidence). Right after I checked into the guest house, I went up to the roof to soak in the scenery, and I met a really nice couple, Heather (British), and Tom (Swedish), who met traveling a couple of years ago (there is hope for us lonely backpackers!!!!) and are now on their second around-the-world trip. They invited me to join them at the sunset view/restaurant near the city palace (not the one in the middle of the lake, but on the lake shore overlooking the lake). The sun was just starting to set as we arrived, and the three of us enjoyed a breathtakingly spectacular sunset (again, see previous blog posting...hahaha) and delicious food. I had spaghetti bolognese for the first time since Vietnam!!! It was a perfect way to cap off my first evening in Udaipur.

The next day, I slept in and then walked around the City Palace Museum...overall impression: "eh." After a while, all of these Rajasthani museums are all starting to look the same: weapons & armory, heroes & heroine paintings, krishna statues...you get the idea. After the museum, I stopped in the nearby temple (again, refer to the previous sentence for my sentiments on the temple), and realized that Lonely Planet loves to send its backpackers along the requisite routes, checking off all major stops along the way. I wish Lonely Planet would say once in a while: "don't bother with that temple...yeah it's nice and all, but you've seen it 3 times before" I should write to them!! Better yet, I should write for them. haha

The sightseeing of Udaipur's museums left me in a bit of a blah mood. Fortunately, the day was about to turn great. I was walking down the street by myself when four Indian guys called me over to them. My initial reaction was "no thankyou, I don't want anything" (since tourists develop this type of knee-jerk reaction to any form of beckoning). They responded by saying that they didn't want to sell me anything, and asked if I would like to join them for a chat. I happily joined them. --This is an advantage of being a solo traveler: other people are more willing to invite you to join them, and will approach you more regularly if you're on your own.-- So I sat down with the four Indian guys - all around 30 or 35, 2 married, 2 single. I started talking to one guy in particular, Yogi, who turned out to be quite a fascinating person. We chatted for almost 2 hours about Indian life, culture, religion, philosophy. What I am most interested in learning about (and what I've had ample exposure to) is how India has changed in the last 10-15 years due to western influences through tourism and economic cooperation. Yogi explained that 'real India' can't be found in the tourist havens; 'real India' is out in the countryside, amidst the untouched parts where culture and tradition are still intact. Yogi even leads charity work with one of the nearby villages, supplying food and school supplies. He said that if he could eradicate the most detrimental problems in the villages, it would be: adequate food supply, and sanitary funeral pyre systems. Can you imagine??? Most pyres do not sufficiently and completely burn the dead body; therefore, dogs and other animals get into the corpses, spreading disease among the village. Who would've thought that in this day and age, a problem such as this still exists? Another facet of our discussion was about the foundations and societies that collect foreign donations to help fight poverty in India. Skepticism is the key word here; Yogi believes that almost all foundations and societies pocket foreign money and only provide enough help to capture the perfect photo op in order to campaign for more money in their pocket. Yogi does all of his work on his own; he brings tourists out to the village to see for themselves the work that he does. Again, if I had more time, and I wasn't on a strict timetable with my driver, I would've stayed and gone out with Yogi to the village.

After lots of chat, Yogi and his friend Raju took me out on their motorbike for a ride around town. We went around the big lake, out of town, through farms and villages and posh homes outside the city all the way to a nearby lake called Tiger Lake. We came back into town, had some chai and 'chip-things' (I can't remember what they were called), and then we parted ways. It was a completely unexpected and wonderful afternoon. Yogi is a friend with whom I wish I could've spent more time (again, please see previous statements about my sentiments on the car tour timetable), and I've decided to take advantage of every opportunity to chat with local people while I'm here. I am learning more through simple chat with friendly Indian people than any book can teach me. I'm gaining lots of insight for the impending start of school this September!!!

That evening I went to watch traditional Indian dance & live music (picture from previous posting), where I ran into Aussie Katy (from my hike up to the top of the sunset hill in Pushkar) who was also going to watch the dancing. Katy is also on a car tour of Rajasthan, and shares many similar opinions about the whole thing...we shared lots of good chat/venting together. The dancing was terrific, and then Katy and I enjoyed a lovely rooftop dinner overlooking gorgeous Udaipur, the lake, and the night sky. Oh yeah-before I forget, earlier that afternoon, before I met Yogi, I met these 15 year-old boys at the lake who invited me to a hotel party full of food, wine, and 'many other persons your age'. I thought, 'what the hell, why not' and agree to meet them after the dancing to drive over to the party, but the boys never showed up at the meeting spot. When I was waiting for the boys, I met two other guys - one of whom is a Kashmiri 21-year-old boy named Ali who lost his parents and brother at the age of 14 when a bomb destroyed the factory his family was working in, forcing him to move down to Udaipur shortly thereafter. It's amazing the people you meet and stories you hear when you have the time to slow down and engage with your surroundings.

The next day, my driver and I left Udaipur to head to Ranakpur, a small village about 90 km north of Udaipur, where we visited a group of 4 stunning Jain temples (Jain is a sect of Hinduism); 1 of which contains 1,444 unique pillars (ie each of the 1,444 pillars is unlike the other). Lots of gorgeous carvings, statues, etc. From there we went to a really posh hotel (I didn't argue with my driver this time - I got a good deal on the room, and the place had a really beautiful pool, at which I spent the ENTIRE rest of the afternoon under the sun). Later that day I walked over to a nearby hill to watch the sunset. The scenery from the top of the hill was quite gorgeous - mountains, lake, sheep & goats around the lake, birds flying through the sky, and a divine sunset to cap it all off. On my way down the hill, I ran into Aussie Katy (again!) who was just finishing the sunset from another vantage point. So, we grabbed dinner together (again! haha) and she invited me to join her on a hike the following day to a nearby temple-built-out-of-a-cave-in-a-mountain type-thing. The next morning, I met Katy and the tour guide at 7am (after some annoying coaxing from my driver to get him to drive me over to Katy's hotel), and Katy & I & the guide drove to the starting point of the hike, then set foot up the trail to the temple. The walk up was quite interesting: we passed lots and lots of longoor monkeys within arms' reach of where we were standing, which added to the authentic feel of being in the wild. When we got to the village at the top of the mountain, I realized that everything is built around a rather large, cavernous crack in the mountain, which has (supposedly) formed a natural Shiva temple. Katy and I were guided up to the temple where a holy priest blessed me (again), rubbed the ubiquitous orange stuff over my forehead, ears, and neck (which turned into orange goop when combined with my incessant sweating), and said a bunch of prayers for me and my loved ones (again, you're in good shape if you're reading this blog, because I included everyone in that prayer also!) From the temple we hiked in the other direction, through the jungle, along a gorgeous trail back to my hotel in Ranakpur. All in all, a lovely day, filled with nature, spirituality, and great chat with Katy. She's also about to start a Master's course (at Cambridge), so we had lots to chat about during our walk through the jungle.

After Ranakpur was Jodhpur...the blue city!!!! (see previous posting for pics). I arrived into the center of town (and all of its crazy chaos) at around 4:00pm, hopped in a rickshaw to go to the guesthouse of my choice (not my drivers choice), which was absolutely perfect. An old haveli house (beautifully carved stonework), my room in the guesthouse overlooked all of Jodhpur. I literally threw my bags down on the floor of my room, and ran over to the fort in Jodhpur before it closed. Most every major city in Rajasthan has a huge fort around which the city has been built: Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner. Same same but, well, same. :-) I made it to the Jodhpur fort in time, and walked around the luxurious and gorgeous rooms...detailed architecture, fancy artifacts, priceless works of art, etc. When I was almost done with the tour, I ran into 2 Dutch guys: Joep and Berry, and I joined them for dinner afterwards and then we walked around the city for a long while (that was the night I uploaded the previous blog posting and all of those pics!). Great guys, they live in Maastricht, and we already have a standing date for them to show me around Netherlands' southern-most city this Fall. The next day, I woke up early and wandered around the city for a few hours before I had to meet my driver to head for the next town: Jaisalmer. Wandering around old Indian city streets is my favorite thing to do: pretty much everywhere you look is a Kodak Moment. It's hard to capture the beauty and life of India, but I'm doing my best!! The people are so interesting, and what is just daily life to them is, to me, foreign and beautiful.

So, the whirlwind Rajasthan tour continued on to Jaisalmer. Jaisalmer is famous for 2 things: its city-within-a-city Fort (ie, the 'Fort' is not a museum like Jodhpur's, but instead a living community full of hostiles, internet cafes, and shops) and CAMEL SAFARIS! Whereas you can't go to Maine without eating lobster, or you can't go to New York City without seeing Times Square (if you're a tourist, that is), one cannot go to Jaisalmer without signing up for a 2-day, 1-night camel safari. My driver wanted to set me up with one of his friends for a safari, but when we pulled up, a tout was selling his safari, and he had 3 Korean tourists who were already signed up to leave the next morning. Since I didn't really want to be alone in the desert, I decieded to join the Korean tour, much to the dismay of my driver. (He was actually pretty pissed off, and left in a big huff....hence the unnecessary added stress of having a car & driver throughout Rajasthan). I went to the hotel where the Koreans were staying, signed up for the tour, met the 3 Koreans, then dropped my bags in the room and walked around Jaisalmer fort for the few hours I had left of the day.

Safari time: Ok, the safari was great, so let me give you the quickest summary possible (since you guys are all SO great for reading this whole blog entry!) The Koreans are named: Udo, Jerrard, and Minkie. Jerrard and Minkie are 23 and have just gotten out of the Korean Marine Corps, and Udo is 25 and has been out of the Korean Army for 2 years, and is now studying chemical engineering. They were SO nice and friendly and funny. Minkie didn't really speak English at all, but Udo and Jerrard (brothers) did, so the three of us chatted away about American music, movies, Korean culture, politics, world affairs, etc. Going back---We left the hotel at 7:30am, stopped briefly at a small village for a photo op with the kids, then drove some more where our camels were waiting for us. We had 2 safari guides: David and Gadi, 2 villagers from the desert who are now tour guides for camel safaris. Gadi is only 15, and is one of the coolest kids I've ever met. David was super nice, and was always trying to ensure that we were ok and having the BEST POSSIBLE safari ever. The 6 of us (3 Koreans, 2 tour guides, 1 Danny) rode the camels for about 3 hours, then stopped under a big tree for a rest and lunch. Luckily, I had my iPod with me, so it meant for lots of quality music listening time, and lots of time for introspection. After about a 3-hour lunch break/siesta, we got back on the camels as rain clouds in the distance looked at us menacingly, and finally made it to our destination: lush, picture-perfect sand dunes, and our campsite for the night. For most of the day, we were riding on dry, cracked dirt, with patches of bushes here and there for the camels to nosh on. It wasn't the quintessential desert experience you might imagine, but there are a few areas with perfect sand dunes, like in the movies, which we stopped at. The sand dunes were fantastic. The clouds covered up the sunset, but after a lovely dinner, we laid out our beds on a huge cement block (to keep away from the bugs), and we 4 tourists and Gadi, the 15 year old kid, got ready for bed under the full moon. I wouldn't have traded away the gorgeous full moon that night for any sunset; once the moon came out, the setting could not have been more perfect at dusk: camels grazing in the distance in front of perfectly carved sand dunes, and the full, bright moon professionally lighting the scene. Absolutely beautiful and perfect. That evening the Koreans taught me some tae kwon do (and I captured their demonstrations on video on my camera!) And when we were in 'bed' (aka hard cement slab with a few blankets' worth of cushioning), the 5 of us sang Korean folk songs, Hindi songs, and frer-a-jac-a (spelling!???)...you know, the french song!! Some French tourists taught it to Gadi a few weeks before, so we all fell asleep singing silly songs under the moonlight.

The next morning, we woke up and raced back on the camels to meet the jeep by 10 am to be back in Jaisalmer by 11am so I could meet my driver and leave Jaisalmer for Bikaner (no need to reiterate my sentiments for timetables, here). In fact, hurrying back on the camels did not-so-great things for my back, which is sore today and still recovering from the bumpy ride. (I'm fine mom, don't worry!).

OK - 15 minutes until internet cafe close time!!!!!! I made it back to Jaisalmer, met up with my driver, and left for Bikaner, a random Lonely Planet-prescribed stop along the Rajasthan tourist route. This town isn't so great - busy, dirty, crowded - but it does have a gorgeous fort which I went to today. Yesterday we arrived from Jaisalmer around 6pm, checked into the hotel, and I managed to do some emailing and internet surfing at leisure for the first time in a while. Today, I went to the fort, and then to the RAT TEMPLE!!!!!!! Yes, about 35 km frmo Bikaner is the Karni Mata Temple - a temple dedicated to Karni Mata, an incarnation of Durga, but has since been overtaken by a colony of rats. Naturally, the Indians have attributed these rats as holy, and have made no attempts to rid the temple of these rats. There is literally an infestation of rats everywhere - you have to take your shoes off before you enter, which adds to the icky factor of the temple, and the rats are scurrying around EVERYWHERE!!! I didn't spend too long in the temple...my previous experience with rats is watching them on the subway tracks from the platform, and that's about as close as I like to get to them if I can help it! Odd experience - people are praying among the rats...bizarre, yet a great photo op.

THEN - this afternoon was my first Bollywood experience. Bikaner has 1 movie theater, and like all things Indian, it was quite an experience. My driver was good (for a change) about getting me in. Also, like all things Indian, acquiring a ticket required bribery, pushing, shoving, shouting...but we FINALLY were in our seats for the movie, called "Apne". To say that the movie was ridiculous, unrealistic, stupid, and a waste of 3 hours of my life would be a bit understated. But - I loved the experience for what it was. The movie was a huge ripoff of every "Rocky" movie ever made...boxing drama, family revenge, etc etc, but taken to a whole new cheese factor. Plus, since it was a Bollywood film, there were musical song-and-dance numbers scattered about. I have to say, I loved it. :-)

AND THAT BRINGS ME TO NOW - I'm so glad I'm all caught up on the blog. Tomorrow I head to Shekawati, which I think is another Lonely Planet-prescribed stop on the way back to Delhi, but I'm pretty much done with Rajasthan touring by now. I get back to Delhi on July 3rd, and then I head to northern India (Amritsar, Dharamsala - the home of the Dalai Lama!!!, Manali, Rishikesh/Haridwar). At least, that's my tentative plan for now. I'm very much looking forward to being unrestricted by the bounds of the tour guide experience...we'll see where my travels will take me.

MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!! Again, all of this alone time and introspection time has made me realize how much I miss my family and friends, and how important you all are to me. I think about you guys every day out here, so be in touch when you can!!!!!!!!

Speak to you again soon!!!!!
LOTS OF LOVE ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10 Days In India...A Lifetime of Memories

2007-06-27T12:55:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM JODHPUR, India!!!!! So much has happened since I last wrote. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to write all about the amazing things that have happened lately. (It took me a while to find an internet cafe tonight, and they're closing in a few minutes). So, here's the quick update:

Since Jaipur (when I last wrote in), I've been to Pushkar (me at the top of a mountain overlooking the holy lake and city of Pushkar, and also the people preparing their white sheets before going down to the holy lake), then to Udaipur (the incredible sunset photo below, and also the gorgeous Lake Palace in the middle of Udaipur's lake), then to Ranakpur, and now Jodhpur (the blue city!)

Each day has been better than the last. That pretty much sums up my India experience so far. I've met incredible people, learned so much - about India, its people, history, culture, etc...and also about myself. I've had ample alone time and I've made great friends along the way.

OK - I promise to write more VERY SOON - but I had to check in and send my love and let you know that I'm doing great and having the best time ever. Everyone should go to India in his/her life.

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rajs, Pink Cities, and Snake Charmers

2007-06-22T23:28:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM JAIPUR, India!!! Well, I have successfully completed the "golden triangle" of India: Delhi, Agra, Jaipur. All 3 have been absolutely amazing. Jaipur is the capital city of Rajasthan, and has about 4 million people here. The center of the city is the old town - surrounded by a wall - and all the buildings in the old city are painted a red sandstone/pink color. Entering the old city feels like stepping back in time 100 years (similar to Taj Ganj, but on a much bigger and busier scale). There are bazaars lining the main streets, selling everything and anything you can imagine, and in between the main bazaars are these amazing side streets with so much character, charm, color - it feels like a city lost in time. Anyway, after a long and hot drive from Agra, we reached Jaipur by the evening. I went off on my own and walked around the old city during sunset (see the photos!) and had a delicious big ol' Indian thali (big plate of food with lots of different types of Indian food in small portions) Yesterday morning was a big day of sightseeing around the city: Albert Hall (the same Albert as in Royal Albert Hall in London, I believe), City Palace, Ahmer Fort (see picture below), royal crematorium. Lots to see & do in this city. Rajasthan literally means "land of the kings", so each city is named after the Raj that founded it. Jai Singh II founded "Jai-pur", and every other city in Rajasthan is named after its founding Maharaja. Interesting stuff. Lots and lots of history here - Jaipur is more than 500 years old!

Things I've noticed about India: Until now, Laur has been my India guide and motivator. I can finally see with my own eyes what she had been obsessing about for so long. :-) India is basically overflowing with culture, history, religion, and people. Sadly, a huge percentage of India's population is so deeply entrenched in extreme poverty, the situation seems almost impossible to amend. In every city I've been in, poor people line the streets, with nothing to sleep on except the cement block below their head. The Indian government apparently has social networks in place to support the B.P.L. (below the poverty line), e.g. providing 5 rupees per day for lunch/dinner, but it seems that the Indian government is so corrupt that any real attempt at poverty reduction is thrown into diverted into the pockets of politicians. Such a shame. I try to talk to Indian people whenever I can about this problem: auto rickshaw drivers, my guide, people I meet walking around. It seems like the problem is too big to fix now; I guess the only silver lining is that with India now stepping up as a major world economic player, the rest of the world will have to take notice work with India to help the situation. Also, as more Indian people are moving up the social ranks through India's service and IT sectors, families are getting smaller (ie, they are having 1 or 2 children instead of 5 or 6 to support their farms). This will possibly assuage the problem down the road. But for now, Indian poverty is a huge crisis.

Right - enough social action talk for now...I'm sure I'll be learning all about this in September. I'm heading to Pushkar today, which is supposed to be a beautiful and small religious city on a lake. There will be lots more photos to come!!!

Uncle H - so great to hear from you! Thanks for all of the updates on life in Bethesda. Send my love to Lauren & Justin and Aunt Eve. Glad you're embracing Asia more and more into your life!!! :-)

Natasha - I can't make it on the 12th to the concert - I'll already be in Holland by then. If Amy Winehouse/Paolo Nutini come to Amsterdam, do you want to meet me there?? haha

La - When are you back in New York? I can't believe Guat is almost over. Remember walking to the movies in Brooklyn from Park Slope (when we saw The Departed) and you were so nervous about applying to the program!!!!!!! Crazy!!

Greg - I hope the days fly by like you want them to. This last picture is for you. I hope you like it. The guy wanted me to sit next to the snakes for a photo-op, but I was too scared. I hate snakes!!!

MISS YOU ALL - LOTS OF LOVE ALWAYS!!!!!!!

World Wonder? Check.

2007-06-20T10:58:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM AGRA, India!!! Today was the start of my 2-week road trip through Rajasthan; I hired a car and driver/guide from my guest house in Delhi - his name is Shankar, and he's such a nice guy...a genuinely good tour guide. Today, our first stop was Agra. I was completely blown away by the Taj Mahal (see left). It is as impressive as you can imagine; purely spectacular, and probably one of the most amazing things I've ever seen - it definitely rivals Angkor Wat (they're both among the 7 wonders of the world) - did you know that there is a new poll, currently underway, to determine the "new" 7 wonders of the world. Apparently the Statue of Liberty is also in the running, but I think the Taj is a bit more impressive (maybe because I'm from New York and I'm used to seeing it every day from the F train).

After the Taj I walked around Taj Ganj, the neighborhood just outside of the Taj Mahal. It felt like stepping back 100 years in time; I've attached some photos of the street life there. So old, so beautiful, it felt like another world. The photos of the bicycle riders and kids playing ball are from Taj Ganj.

Quick recap - yesterday my friend Josh and I did lots of sightseeing around Delhi: Red Fort, Jain Temple, Jama Masjid (2nd time for me), India Gate, National Museum, and the Bahai Temple. Check out the photo of the Bahai Temple - it's a huge lotus flower! Very unique and spectacular, and the Bahai religion embraces all religions, so I felt particularly welcome in that one. :-) See the photo at the bottom!!!

Indian food - Let me state for the record that I am definitely returning to the USA with the biggest Buddha belly I will have had in my entire life. :-) Indian food is absolutely amazing, and it's hard not to have huge delicious meals at every sitting. In fact, each meal that I've had in India has pretty much been the best meal of my life. And I haven't fallen ill yet!!! (knock on wood). :-) Greg, I hope that answers your question!!! La - thanks for the recommendation, but my driver brought me to another restaurant instead. :-( Great food there, too!

That's about all for now - tomorrow I head to Jaipur which is supposed to be an old city painted pink. It should be amazing. I miss everyone soooo much, but India is definitely an incredible time to be had, and it's only just begun!!!

Be in touch!!!

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're Not In Kansas Anymore, Toto

2007-06-18T11:52:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM DELHI, India!!!!!!!! Well, part 2 of this trip has officially started...in a big way. India is COMPLETELY different from anything I experienced in SE Asia. Everything is much more intense, more crowded, more stimulating in every way than I have ever experienced before. That being said, I had heard all of that before I arrived in India, and it kinda bothered me when people said that, because I wanted to say to them: "What the heck do you mean by that??!!" So, now that I have the forum to delve as far as I want to go, here we go:

I arrived last night in Delhi - the flight from Bangkok to Delhi was great, no complaints. I had pre-arranged with my guesthouse to pick me up from the airport, so I didn't have to worry about haggling a price with the plethora of taxi drivers waiting to pick up the tourists. I got to the guesthouse, which is in the Paharganj area of Delhi - pretty much the backpacker world of Delhi. The area is kinda dirty and crowded and grungy - but it's great. :-) It's such an experience to walk around these streets - people everywhere, cows pushing through the crowds, autos, motorbikes, and rikshaws honking through the streets, and of course people coming up to you every 2 minutes asking you to buy something, or "where are you from", with the eventual aim of trying to bring you to their tourist shop so you can buy an overpriced trip to somewhere. The streets are dirty, but full of colors, smells, sounds. It rained here last night and today, so the weather was actually a lot cooler than I thought it would be. Not too hot at all.

I woke up at around 8am today, walked down the street for some breakfast, and then decided to brave Delhi on my own. I met a really nice Indian guy on the plane, who gave me lots of recommendations for places to go in India, and also how to navigate around Delhi, so I first walked to Connaught Place (where I was stopped by a guy who led me to a tourist office, then I turned around and walked back - sometimes it's fun just to see how far people will go to try and scam you....hahaha....I won't give in!!!!). Since today is Monday, most things are closed in this city, so I guess it was a good introduction to India as it wasn't completely overcrowded today. From Connaught Place I took the Metro to Old Delhi, where I saw the Red Fort (from outside the gates, since it's closed today), and then I walked over to Jami Masad, a huge Muslim Mosque in Old Delhi. The mosque is a huge courtyard area with 3 entrance gates on the north, south & east walls; the western side is the prayer-facing wall, so there are two sets of 5 arches (representing the 5 pillars of Islam and the 5 times of prayer per day) enclosing a pulpit-like platform in between. On top of the arches are 3 huge dome-shaped structures, the same shape of a bishop piece in chess, and similar to what the Taj Mahal looks like (although I have yet to see that). He showed me around there for a little while and then we arranged for him to walk me through the narrow streets of Old Delhi for an hour. What an eye-opening experience. Most of Old Delhi is over 500 years old; the streets are so narrow, each of the buildings has a gorgeous limestone archway with intricate designs all around. The streets are filled with people milling about; whenever a cart or bike drives through, everyone has to jump up on the curb to allow it to pass through. It was an amazing tour - we stopped to watch a guy mold together a gold medallion the old-fashioned way - heating up pieces of gold, then pouring it into a mold casting to set in place. very cool.

After the Old Delhi tour, I headed back to Connaught Place for my first great Indian meal, recommended by the guy from the flight, and then I headed back to the guesthouse to sleep. I was so completely exhausted from the whole experience - so many people everywhere, so much to look at, things to avoid in the streets, people shouting at you and asking you to buy this and that...it was all a bit overwhelming. I definitely needed a nap. :-) After I woke up I went back out around Paharganj and ran into another American guy from California named Josh (another Jewish guy, whoo hoo! haha) and we walked around Paharganj for a while and got a yummy dinner. He and I are going to see the Red Fort tomorrow, which should be good. It was nice to chat to another westerner after being on my own all day - that being said, I am ready for more alone time in India. Where else in the world is more appropriate than India to enjoy alone time????

The difference between backpackers in India and SE Asia - Ok, so here's the deal. Whereas on the Koh Sahn Road, the "hippies" are more wanna-be hippies who are actually rich university-graduates or gap-year kids traveling on their parents' wallet, travelers in India are the real thing. Real hippies. Real dreadlocks. Real body odor. SE Asia is like the Disneyland of backpacking compared to India. Don't worry mom & dad, I'm not really into the whole dreadlock ting. :-) (I think the beard has been enough of a stress factor for my parents already!!)

And that brings me to now - India, Day 1: over. After dinner tonight, I looked up and saw Venus brightly lit and almost engulfed by the mouth of the crescent moon right next to it, appearing almost identical to the Turkish flag. Then I looked down and saw a completely foreign scene on the streets of India. That was when I realized I am not in Kansas anymore (or Thailand, or New York, or anywhere else that has felt slightly familiar or comfortable). This is India.

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Say Hello Wave Goodbye

2007-06-17T02:11:00.000-04:00

Ok, so this is it: my final blog entry from Southeast Asia. I can't believe how fast these 10 weeks have gone. What an incredible time it's been. It seems like yesterday when I was saying goodbye to everyone in New York (at our goodbye party after that Indian meal from the Consulate!!!), DC - (Kim, Natasha, Ray, Heather, Holly, Claire!!!), and of course, my family and friends in Newburgh...plus, the last people I saw in New York - Greg and Amy. Part 2 is upon me now: India & Nepal. But before we say goodbye to SE Asia, I wanted to reminisce on the past 10 weeks, looking back at the memories with my multiple travel companions and now great friends: Aly, Brad, Zack, Hung & Dinh (Easy Riders!!), Nicole & Regi, Matt, and Tom & Leona, (among many others!). It's nearly impossible to avoid meeting amazing people in SE Asia, and I am fortunate now to have so many new friendships that will last a lifetime. Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos - I recommend to ALL OF YOU that you must do this trip sometime in the near future. It's too easy to travel here. In fact, it's much easier than traveling around the States...honestly. In 10 weeks, I had no problems getting anywhere (unless of course you count the rainstorm-eroded rode from The Loop). The people in SE Asia are the friendliest and warmest people I've ever encountered, and I will remember each day of this trip for the rest of my life (thanks to this blog!!!!) :-)

I wouldn't be sitting in Bangkok today if it weren't for my friend Natasha Ward in DC - about 3 years ago, she and I sat at the waterfront of Georgetown, DC, and she basically retold her entire Southeast Asian experience to me, thus solidifying my desire to be a backpacker. Also - Kim!!! I would have never known all things Thai if it weren't for you and your last-minute revolutionary wisdom. Thank you so much. :-) Rob G. - again, pure inspiration based on your travels here. I hope this blog has kept you entertained and has allowed you to relive your experiences!

And that brings me to India: I have no idea what is going to happen over the next couple of months, but then again, I had no idea what these past 10 weeks were going bring. Therefore, I enter India with an open heart and an open mind, and I hope I learn all there is to learn from what will be a fascinating place.

In chronological order, top to bottom:
Danny & Aly P
Danny & Brad McCammack
Danny & Zack
Easy Riders Hung & Dinh
Zack climbing a rope at the waterfalls of Kuang Xi (Luang Prabang, Laos) after our monstrous 32 km bicycle trip
Danny, Nicole, & Regi
Danny & Matt Dallow (The Loop!)
Danny, Tom & Leona

I miss you and love you all SO much!!! Please continue to follow me as I go through India & Nepal, and stay in touch!!!

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!! Muay Thai-Style!!!!!!!!

2007-06-17T00:17:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM BANGKOK, Thailand!!!!! So today is my last day in Southeast Asia; but before I wax sentimental on the past 10 weeks, let's recap the good times I've had in this backpacker's travel hub! I arrived on Friday afternoon and met up with my British friends Leona and Tom whom I'd met in Luang Prabang. They were so kind to reserve a room for me in their hotel on Rambuttri street, which is one street down from the Koh Sahn Road (ALY - this hotel is right next door to our Vieng Thai hotel!!!! hahaha). I arrived in the late afternoon without a problem and we headed right out to enjoy the hustle & bustle of Bangkok's Banglamphu backpacker area, hitting up the Koh Sahn Road for some quality people watching. It is SOOO great to be back here in Bangkok. I think I was too eager to leave this city when I first arrived here 10 weeks ago, that I didn't really appreciate it for all of its unique wonders. The Koh Sahn Road is the center of backpacker world in Southeast Asia. Quite honestly, I don't think there is anywhere else like it in the world. It's crazy - the street is flooded with dredlocks, Europop music, streetside bars, fried cricket vendors (which I DID try - yummy!!!!), "same same but different" t-shirt stalls, cheap neon hotel signs, and an energy that probably is unmatched anywhere else. I love it - it's definitely a surreal southeast Asian experience, especially after coming from lovely Laos, but it's a great way to end my time here.

So - my first night here Leona, Tom and I headed to a GREAT blues/jazz bar away from backpacker world, mixed with both Thai and Westerners, including the band (older western dude was an amazing singer, and the brilliant electric guitarist, bass guitarist, and drummer were all Thai. Even the crowd was completely mixed - great scene. I was pretty wiped out from my day of travels, so I didn't stay out too late. The next day (yesterday), the three of us headed down Bangkok's river to catch the Sky Train over to MBK, the huge mall in downtown Bangkok for some GREAT eats at their food court. (Aly and I discovered MBK's foodcourt in my first Bangkok experience, so I knew where to go!) That afternoon we walked around Siam Square's huge shopping district, (with a minor detour along the way), and then we headed back to our hotel to rest and get ready for our evening activity: Muay Thai Boxing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please let me give you all one bit of advice: if you ever come to Bangkok, you MUST go see Muay Thai boxing. It is so awesome; the technique and artistry with which the fighters display is truly stunning, the atmosphere of the crowd is so much fun, and we saw some pretty intense fights. Luckily, the farang (westerners) all sit along ringside, so I had a damn good view of all 9 fights throughout the night. They were even broadcasting the main event on local Thai TV, and I think the 3 of us managed to get our mugs on camera!!!! Here are some photos from the evening:

The warm-up prayer/dance ritual all boxers perform before every fight

A moment of contemplation before the next round

Fight!!!!!

A massive right hook to the jaw!

Needless to say, it was an amazing experience, and such a fun night!!! The three of us headed back to the Koh Sahn Road for a last celebratory drink, being my last night in SE Asia. And that brings me to now, my final morning in Bangkok. One more blog entry to write, so until next time!!!

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!!!

PS - I finally figure out how to post pictures, as you can see!!!!!!!

PPS - The picture at the top is me and the champion of the main event!!!!!

Forging Rivers, The Motorbike Way (subtitle: The Loop)

2007-06-14T06:37:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM VIENTIANE, LAOS!!! Well, I can officially (or maybe unofficially) say that I have successfully completed The Loop around southern Laos (see previous blog entry below), and it was everything I'd hoped for, nothing I could've prepared for, and something I'll never forget. Ok, let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start!)

After waking up at 5am to grab a tuk-tuk to the bus station in Vientiene, I was pretty much thrown onto the overcrowded local bus heading south that stops in Thakek. By overcrowded, I mean there were people sitting on plastic chairs in the aisle, and any child younger than 12 had to sit on huge bags of something piled in the back of the bus. Fortunately, I had a little Lao boy next to me the whole way (never ONCE complaining about being uncomfortable!!!) who was very entertained by my iPod and digicam photos. After arriving in Thakek at noon, I caught a tuk-tuk to the Thakek Travel Lodge where adventurers begin The Loop.

---Let me take a break from the story for one minute, and acknowledge that I would never have done The Loop if it weren't for my friend Brad McCammack (aka my former American travel budy through Vietnam, part 1). Brad: After finishing the Loop, I have mucho respect for you, since you were able to do it all on your own. Kudos to you, and thanks again for encouraging me to do this!!----

Ok, so as luck would have it, just as I was checking into the Thakek Travel Lodge, a British traveler named Matt Dallow was doing the exact same thing. After a brief exchange, we decided to embark on The Loop together. I originally thought that I was going on this adventure solo, but as a backpacker, one must always go with the flow, and Matt seemed like an easy going person to be around. In retrospect, I couldn't have done it without him. That evening, Matt and I enjoyed lots of good chat & food before leaving the next morning. Earlier in the evening, an Australian couple had just returned from the loop and gave us a full report on the road conditions, so we had some pretty good recon for what laid ahead.

Basically, the loop works like this: on Day 1, you drive east from Thakek along an evolving highway (ie, the road isn't quite finished) that passes a few caves and mountains along the way. You are encouraged to stop and explore some of these caves and rivers before arriving at Mahaxay, a tiny village/town where you can have dinner and then spend the night. On day 2, you are supposed to go north along this horrible highway (70 kilometers of rocky and barely passable roads) ending in Lak Xao. On Day 3, you drive your bike west to the Kong Lor cave, spend the night, and then on Day 4, you head further west and then south back to Thakek, thus creating The Loop. Matt and I basically decided to cut out Day 2 since rainy season is now upon us and that only means that the '70 km of doom' would change from worse to worst.

In order to navigate this multi-day feat, Mr. Koo at the Thakek Travel Lodge has conveniently created a hand-drawn, not-to-scale, and incorrect map of The Loop (would one expect anything less?). Fortunately, Matt had a proper road map of Laos, detailing exact highway routes and road conditions. (This was the first of many saving graces Matt brought to this adventure).

SO - Day 1, Matt and I set off east on Route 12, and since Matt isn't gung-ho on seeing caves, we tried to find Tha Falang, a swimming river just off the highway. It took us about an hour to find the right turn off to Tha Falang; basically we drove too far east, stopped and asked for directions, then we turned around and drove too far west, stopped and asked for directions, repeated the first step, and then repeated the second step, until we narrowed down the possibilities of entry points to just one. Phew. Going down the dirt road to Tha Falang was pretty tough; it was my first exposure to real, gritty, muddy dirt bike riding. My bike skidded a bit, and I almost fell off the thing a couple of times, but luckily I kept my balance, made it through the mud, and reached the river. It's a shame the river wasn't much of anything except a cool respite from a hectic and sweaty ride. On the way back to the highway, I had gained confidence in riding through the mud, and I followed Matt, who was proving to be the more advanced biker out of the two of us, so we made it out no problem.

The rest of the morning was spent driving all the way out to Mahaxy for lunch, admiring the limestone cliffs that lined the highway. We weren't too sure we had reached Mahaxay when we actually did, since the town is a conglomerate of wooden shacks and motorbikes strewn about. BUT - we had a delicious (and rather huge) fried rice lunch in a village restaurant. After lunch, we decided that we'd rather go back to Thakek and spend the night there than risk going northward on the '70 km of doom.' BRAD - I will never know what that road is actually like, but similarly, as you will soon read, you will never know what it was like to experience what we went through on Day 3. :-)

The night back at the Thakek Travel Lodge was great, especially since I was caked in dirt head to toe from the dusty highway ride back. A good shower and a great night's sleep set us on our way for Day 2 - heading north from Thakek (taking the western portion of The Loop in reverse), then turning east at the top of the Loop toward Kung Lor cave. I must say that the 50 km stretch after turning east at the top of the loop was the best motorbike driving I've done yet. Traveling through the mountains, you wind up and down through the rocks and trees, and there are some lookout points offering great views of the surrounding national park. I became quite adept at the whole gear-shifting thing after that stretch. (2nd gear rocks for those steep hills!) Finally, we reached the turnoff to Kung Lor Cave. Kudos to Brad (again) for informing me about the paved road here. After about 35 km of driving on paved road, then dirt road, we reached a river. As this wasn't on either the hand-drawn map or the legit map, we were a bit confused. We still hadn't reached the guest house, so we knew that the road should still keep going. A construction crew was at the beginning stages of building a bridge across the river, and there was no bypass road to get around. Apparently the rain from the previous night had changed the river from a passable stream to its current impassable state. SO, Matt and I left the bikes on the riverbank, crossed the river by foot (the water only went up to our knees) walked the 2km down the dirt road that cuts through a huge plain of rice paddies, and finally made it to our guest house: Sala Hin Boun, $16 per night, and pretty pricey food & drink. But hey, being the only game in town, there wasn't much room for negotiation.

After a fairly decent dinner, we headed to bed after a long and tedious day. Sometime during the night, the rain started again...and it rained....hard....all night. We were scheduled to depart for the Kong Lor Cave at 7am, so at 6:30am, the rain was just starting to dwindle. By 8am, the rain had stopped and we decided to risk venturing down the river to the cave. So, we boarded a wooden longboat (very simple wooden canoe-like boat with a motor attached to it) and headed down the river for about an hour until we got to the cave. The greatest part about that boat ride was that we passed a bunch of villages with all of the women villagers standing in the river performing their daily "fishing" duties. They use a huge square-shaped net, and each of the four corners of the net is held up by bamboo poles, converving into one pole which the women hold. They basically lower the net to the bottom of the lake, and then raise it up quickly in order to catch whatever fish happens to be swimming over the net at that time. It seemed like such a primitive way to collect fish; more often than not, each time they raised their fishing nets, they were empty. Noticeably absent were the men from each of these villages. It is universal that throughout my travels around each of the 4 Southeast Asian countries, the women are the ones who perform all of the backbreaking work: farming, fishing, cooking, cleaning, while the men are nowhere in sight - most likely asleep in their houses. While this phenomenon is extremely shocking and unjustifiable (yet deeply ingrained and most likely impossible to change), the women and children along the river had only the biggest smiles and warm greetings for us as we passed by. Their life exists only as they know it, not how a Westerner may perceive it.

So after an hour-long boat ride, we arrived at a nearby village where we had to change boats and boat crew to head to the cave. This took about an hour, because our first driver had to wake up our new driver to get the boat ready for us (see previous paragraph). Finally we were on our way. All in all, the Kong Lor Cave experience is a fairly tourist-ready attraction; it's just that in Laos, everything takes a little bit longer. :-) The mouth of the cave sits at the bottom of a huge rocky cliff; the rapids were too rough to drive directly into the cave, so we had to get out of our boat, walk around the rapids, and then get into another boat waiting for us inside. Finally we were on our way. Kong Lor Cave was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It's absolutely massive; our boat followed the river into the darkest depths and into huge caverns. Fortunately our 2 boat crew members had flashlights to guide the way. It kinda felt like a Disneyland ride, but a lot creepier. I have to admit, I was a bit scared the entire time we were in the cave...it was completely dark, and the flashlights were racing back and forth as if they were searching for a looming predator around each turn. We stopped and checked out some pretty amazing stalagtites and stalagmites: gigantic structures, and hollow inside which made for some interesting bongo-playing sessions inside the cave. After that, we got back on the boat, headed back out, ate our packed lunches, and then back to the guest house.

OK - here's where the story gets good: the ride home. Once we got back to our guest house, Matt and I decided to journey back to Thakek so we could catch a night bus back to Vientiene, thus saving a night at the guesthouse. SO, after leaving the guesthouse, about 50 meters away was a brand-new river, formed from last night's rainstorm. Completely impassable, we had to walk back to the guest house for them to show us the way around. Ok, river #1: done. We had to walk through a huge rice paddy in order to make it back to the road, and we finally made it back to the original river over which our bikes were happily waiting for us. The bridge construction crew floated us over the river (which was now completely impassable by foot as the water had risen by a few feet) on their longboat, and we were finally back on our bikes, ready to hit the road. River #2: done. After about 5 minutes of carefree dirtroad driving, our smiles quickly faded as we came to an unexpected break in the road in the form of another river. The rainstorm from the previous night had completely eroded through this bypass road (there was a new concrete bridge also going in here, albeit slowly). There was absolutely no way over this schism; the riverbanks were too steep to drive down & up, and we had no idea of any other detour. When we did drive up to the riverbank, a group of about 10 Lao people were in the process of hauling their tractor down and up the riverbank. When they saw us looking blankly into the river, one of them shouted "Ok, now we move your motorbikes over." I was completely shocked. They lowered a wooden plank across the water and, one at a time, they literally guided our motorbikes down the steep riverbank, through the river across the plank, and then lifted it up the steep riverbank, safely seated on the other side. My love for Lao people was only further solidified here. I had heard how nice Lao people are, but being in the tourist centers of Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, and Vientiene, it was hard to discern genuine kindness for ulterior financial motives. This was a prime example of kind hearted generosity, bravery, and 'doing the right thing for another.' I was completely shocked; in fact, I still find it hard to believe that we got our bikes over that river. I have no idea what we would have done if it wasn't for them. Matt and I helped them move their tractors over the river after they finished with our bikes, but I'm sure they expected absolutely no form of compensation. It was the purest form of kindness, community, and humanity I had experienced. So simple: helping another out. River #3: done.

Finally we could get back on the dirt road (which was a bit more slippery than our initial venture in), and made it back to the main highway to head west and then south back to Thakek. The ride back through the mountains was probably the best live video game experience I'd ever had: quick turns, changing gears, avoiding oncoming cars, revving the engine. It was like Cruisin' USA, Ridge Racer, F-Zero, and RC Pro AM all rolled into 1. Fantastic. I'm a pretty damn good motorbike driver now. :-) I'm sure my mom is thrilled to read this. After a lunch break, we realized that we probably won't make it back to Thakek before dark, and so we cruised south down the highway as the sun was setting and turning into night. For about 30 minutes, we were driving in pitch black when Matt's bike slowed to a halt. Matt: "Big problem, I'm out of petrol" (gas) We were on a dark road with no form of civilization in sight...what do we do? This is where Matt proved himself yet again as my saving grace on The Loop. For about 5 km, he rode my bike and pushed his bike (with me on it), which was set in neutral. As if we didn't have enough challenges today, this was one last test of our will to finish The Loop. Fortunately, Matt got pretty good at steadying his foot on the back of the other bike, and I was pretty skilled at keeping it on the straight and narrow. Finally we reached a home that sold gas and we were back on our way toward Thakek. Victory!!! At the Thakek Travel Lodge, we showed them my pictures of the motorbike/river crossing fiasco, and they were pretty shocked to see what we had to do. I hope that future Loopers know in advance NOT to drive down to Kong Lor Cave. We made it home, showered, and then headed to the bus station to get back to Vientiene. Sadly, the VIP (aka non-local bus for westerners) was full, and so we had to endure a very crowded, hot, karaoke music-filled uncomfortable bus ride for 6 hours. Once we got to Vientiene, we headed straight for a guest house and slept for the next 5 hours. That day, Matt and I visited the main stupa in town (Buddhist holy sight), which is actually on the cover of the Laos Lonely Planet guide, in case anyone passes a bookstore. We enjoyed our last night in Laos together with a great dinner and my last night of Beer Lao before calling it a night.

Meeting Matt Dallow - I must say, for having the preconceived notion that I was going to do The Loop on my own, it couldn't have worked out any differently. Matt and I became fast friends; I guess that's what happens when you do something together like The Loop. Great guy - we bonded over our love for Nintendo video games, British music, and, well, all other things British! :-) Safe travels Matt! Enjoy China!!! Stay in touch.

And that brings me to now - (I started this blog entry in Vientiene, but I'm now sitting in an internet cafe near the Koh Sahn Road in Bangkok) I left Vientiene yesterday, had a great flight to Bangkok, met up with my British friends Leona and Tom from Vang Vieng (see the previous blog entry), and now it's the morning of June 16th, and my last full day in Southeast Asia.

Thank you all for reading this entire blog entry!!!!

The Loop was amazing; getting through it when I thought we couldn't proved yet again that being a traveler is the most rewarding experience. I'll save my closing SE Asia remarks for the next blog entry. Until then, I miss you all, and please be in touch!!!

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(This is Zack and me after in the middle of a rainstorm in Luang Prabang!!)

The One Where Everybody's Watching "Friends"

2007-06-09T01:04:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM Vang Vieng, Laos!!! What a crazy little place this is. I must say that, of all the towns and cities I've been to in Southeast Asia, Vang Vieng is one of the weirdest backpacker stops I've ever been to. Zack and I arrived 3 days ago, after a really great and relaxing time in Luang Prabang, and following a gorgeous 6-hour bus ride through the mountains. The views were quite stunning as we zig-zagged around the twisty roads. We got dropped off at the bus station in "town" (I'm using that word very loosely here) and eventually found a nice guest house in the center of town. Basically, Vang Vieng exists solely to serve the western backpackers that flow through it. It's pretty much one big party - everyone goes tubing during the day (which is ridiculous, but I'll explain that in a minute), then watching "Friends" on TVs in every bar in town (I know, you're thinking 'huh?'), and then it's a huge drink fest at the bars at night, and then there are late-night bars for when the curfew closes the main bars. It's all too much. And everyone here looks like they can be on MTV's Spring Break 2007: Laos Edition.

Ok, let me go back a bit: Vang Vieng looks like a scene out of an old Western movie - one main street (that kicks up dust with each passing car), and bars, restaurants, and internet cafes that line up and down each side. There is no special design to the street itself, or to the architecture which was used to create the buildings, so it feels like the town was built hastily to serve the rising Lonely Planet-induced rush to be the next backpacker's circuit hot spot. Each restaurant is a couch potato's dream: the tables are all situated in theater-style benches with pillows strewn about, so that people can recline while watching the TVs in front of them. Every restaurant shows 'Friends' episodes back-to-back.....to-back.....to-back. Quite strange. I saw the one where Ross flies to London to win back Emily, the one where Rachel pretends to smoke so that she can get closer to the boss. Actually, did you know that each "Friends" episode is actually entitled "The One Where...." or "The One With...." (note: blog title reference!!!)

A river flows through the town that is catered toward one activity only: tubing. I know, it sounds a bit strange, but trust me, tubing is the biggest thing in Vang Vieng. On our first day in town, after realizing that we were a bit freaked out by all of the lazy zombie-esque spring breakers drooling over the scattered TVs, we hopped on a motorbike and drove around town. Vang Vieng is surrounded by mountains on all sides, very reminiscent of the jagged rock mountains of Halong Bay. The scenery is quite stunning, and on our first evening here, Zack and I rode along a country rode outside of town and enjoyed a stunning sunset behind the rocky hills. The greatest escape - I recommend it to any/all in need of a break from reality. That night we met a really great British couple - Leona and Tom. I'm actually going to see them again in Bangkok before I fly out to India. We bonded over our shared sentiment for Vang Vieng's bizarre party scene is.

On day 2, Zack and I went tubing. Here's how it works: you rent the tube from the vendor in town (apparently there's a cartel of tube suppliers, rotating each day...how organized!!) and then they drive you a few kilometers up the street where you enter the river. We started with about 10 other kids who arrived at the same time. After you float for about 20 meters or so, you come up to the first bar. Tubing protocol states thus: "stop at each bar." So, we behaved the codes of ethics and got out, climbed up to the wooden platform, and enjoyed our first Beer Lao and Lao Lao (rice alcohol) of the day. Workers are set up alongside each bar in case you float too far away or do not have the manpower to swim in -- they will gladly toss you a bamboo pole to reel you in. Not only do the bars provide a well-needed refreshment in the form of alcohol, each bar has its own swing/jump/zip line extravaganza set up for you to enjoy. Completely insane, exhilarating, and hysterical, the day of tubing was unlike anything other. One of the last bars had the largest swing jump I've ever been on. Basically you stand on the edge of a platform about 40 feet in the air, grab on to the cord (almost like a trapeze artist would do), hold on tight for the rope to swing down, then back up on the other side, and then you let go when you've reached the apex of the rope's line of trajectory...and then gravity kicks in. Lots of fun. Needless to say, there are many bars/jumps along the river, so the day was quite long and exhausting. After the last bar, we floated down the river with the mountains and sunset overlooking us. It was a perfectly relaxing way to end a completely party-filled day.

The next day, Zack and I had our fill of Spring Break Vang Vieng and its tubing maniacs, so we rented motorbikes for the day and drove north for about an hour. We stopped at a remote village (village = 3 houses in a row on the side of a road surrounded by, well, nothing). The kids slowly came out of the house and alternated between acting petrified and amazed by these 2 strange white boys. I showed one of them a digital photo of himself - he looked at me like I'd come from outer space. There is no reason for anyone to stop there, so I have a feeling we were some of the first westerners these kids have seen.

In the afternoon, after a nice lunch break at the Organic Farm Cafe outside of town, Zack and I stopped back at the guest house and were getting ready to begin part 2 of our touring journey when we met an American guy named Austin who was also renting a motorbike and wanted to join our cool caravan. He just graduated from NYU, originally from Florida - solid guy. So, off we went to the caves outside of town, down a dirt road through the countryside until we finally made it all the way to the foot of the mountains. Both Zack and I had flipflops on (forehshadowing: bad idea) and in order to enter the caves one must hike up about 100 meters, which was pretty tough, even with sturdy hiking boots on. We did make it into the cave, which is pretty huge, and a great sight to see. Unfortunately, Zack slipped and hurt his hand, so he stayed behind as Austin and I ventured further down into the cave. Luckily, I had flashlights, so we ventured pretty deep into these gigantic rooms, turning around only when we realized that our memory of the way back was fading fast.

From the caves, the three of us rode south from town (the only direction we had yet to explore), and came across a soccer field with huge game of footie underway. We walked behind the match and sat along the riverbank to enjoy another quite perfect sunset behind the mountains, and in front of the river. It seems I can't escape a day without enjoying nature's way of putting it to rest.

That night, the 3 of us enjoyed a great FALAFEL dinner (I know, falafel in Laos, but hey, Israelis do love to travel!), and then we hit the bar scene for one last hurrah. After the bars in town close at 11:30pm, everyone heads to the island next to town (over the river) for the late-night bars, which stretch until the wee hours of the morning. Remember the scene in "Dazed and Confused" where they're all out in the woods drinking beer, sitting in front of campfires, etc - there you go. Same same, but....same. Since Zack, Austin, and I had our fill of the college party scene by then, we called it a night. The next morning, Zack and I were SO ready to leave Vang Vieng - it's great to see, but once you experience it, there's no need to stay. We had a nice quick (3-hour) bus ride to Vientiane, Laos' capital city. (And I use the word 'city' loosely). It's quite a picturesque place: situated along the river, much busier than your average Laotian town, and there's building going on everywhere. There is a main French-inspired (or colonially-installed) roadway that leads to a big archway outside of the town center, and near the waterfront are tons of bars, restaurants. It was a nice escape from Vang Vieng, and so Zack and I enjoyed a great last meal together, before I have to wake up at 5 AM tomorrow to catch the bus down to Thakek to begin the ultimate motorbike experience that will henceforth be known as 'The Loop'.

Saying goodbye to Zack - As my longest travel companion in southeast Asia (3 1/2 weeks), I had an incredible time traveling with Zack. He is such a good friend, and we've shared some pretty amazing experienecs together. But, the show must go on, and so I continue alone, heading south in this amazing country. Zack - best of luck getting set up in MI, and enjoy the rest of your summer!!!!

Lots of love always!!!!!

Tour de Laos (subtitle: Death By Bicycle)

2007-06-05T04:06:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM LUANG PRABANG, LAOS!!!!!! Being in Laos is like enjoying one deep, long, stress-relieving exhale. Zack and I arrived here 2 days ago - the flight from Hanoi was really easy and great...the views of the mountains when we were descending into Luang Prabang were absolutely stunning. This country is going to be gorgeous.

Luang Prabang is a very small town - there's one main street with a bunch of nice restaurants, shops, travel agencies, and internet cafes. The first noticeable difference between Laos and Vietnam is that you don't here any honking on the streets of Luang Prabang. It's so quiet!!! Which, of course, is such a welcomed change from the craziness of Hanoi and all of the hecklers trying to sell you stuff. Anyway, if you want to picture what Luang Prabang looks like, imagine a main street with a few cars and bikes riding up and down, the buildings on either side are only two stories high, with a balcony on the second story of most buildings. It's a pretty simple place. A block away from the main street is the Mekong River, and longboats shuttle up and down the river carting goods, families, and tourists to and from various locations.

So, Zack and I arrived 2 days ago, and after we found a guesthouse, we enjoyed a lovely dinner on the main street (Lao food is pretty similar to other SE Asian cuisines - noodles, coconut curries, veggies, rice, etc). That night we headed to the only late night bar in town - Hive, which is uber-chic for being in such a foreign place. New York City should be so lucky to have a bar like this! Day 2: Zack and I decided to explore the town and its many Wats (temples). We first checked out the Royal Palace Museum, which is the former home of the Lao Royal family before the were sent into exile in 1975, and the royal government was dissolved into what is now the Lao People's Democratic Republic (communist government). The palace was beautiful - the main reception room for the king was painted a stunning red and decorated with Japanese colored glass mosaic tiles from floor to ceiling, depicting various aspects of Lao life. The pillars in the room were covered with gold leafing, so it made the room look quite spectacular.

After the palace, Zack and I decided to rent bicycles (the pedal kind, not the motor kind), and ride up the main street to check out the various Wats in town. From there we turned left at the end of the main road and rode all the way down along the Mekong river to the edge of town. That's when Zack had the idea for us to bike all the way to Kuang Si, the famous waterfall outside of town, 32 kilometers away. Since our entire bike ride for the morning had thus far been on flat road, I subscribed to the idea like a computer buff (nerd) subscribes to Wired Magazine. It was all easy goings until we got about 7 km outside of the center of Luang Prabang and past the surrounding villages that extend along the main road. When we passed the "25 km to Kuang Si Waterfalls" sign, the terrain acquired a bit more personality, and the road started to go up through the mountains. Since my previous bicycle experience encompasses riding my bike around Dogwood Lane (once) before calling it an evening - and that hobby ended about 15 years ago - my bicycle legs were far from ready to undergo what was to come, needless to say. :-) I must give soooooo much credit to Zack. He had been cycling a bit back in San Fran before he came out here, and plus I think he's in better shape than I overall, so he had hardly any problems with the bike ride. Zack was the ultimate moral supporter in this adventure. When I wanted to turn around (ie, right when I realized that it wasn't going to be flat roads), Zack pressed me to carry on. :-) So, carried on we did, and I struggled every bit of the way. When we were about 5 km to go, I thought I was going to die. I had about 4 bottles of water in a row, but I heard my body was screaming at me "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING TO ME!!!!" I felt weak, cold (even though it was about 40 degrees Celcius and the sun was beating down on my back), and my legs felt like JELL-O. It didn't help that every now and then a van of tourists would drive past us and look at us like we residents of the local insane asylum. BUT - thanks to Zack's motivation, we made it to the waterfalls...me, barely. Our first item on the agenda once we got there - arranging a van ride back!!! Luckily, it was easy to do, and we could rest assured that we would not be biking back, and my life would be spared. :-) (Melodramatic, much???)

The waterfalls were beautiful - we climbed up to a lookout point at the top of the falls, and then we hiked back down to the base of the waterfall where cold water swimming pools awaited us. It felt great. Of course, just after we got out of the pools, a huge thunderstorm soaked us to the bone, and we had gone from scorching hot to freezing cold in a matter of minutes. After we arrived back in town, we celebrated our successful day with a nice dinner and some cold Beer Lao. Let me please remind everyone who does not know: Beer Lao is the best beer in Southeast Asia. If, by chance, you come across Beer Lao in a liquor store in NYC, or elsewhere around the world, please pick some up! (bottles, not cans, of course). You won't be disappointed.

This morning Zack and I went on a longboat ride down the Mekong to check out some nearby caves. After the experience of seeing the caves at Halong Bay last week, everything else pales in comparison unfortunately. But, it was a nice ride along the river. On the way back, however, our boat's engine died, and I thought we were going to be swimming back to Luang Prabang. Luckily, the driver revived the engine by some employing sort of Lao engine water-torture technique, and the little engine that could got us back safely. :-)

And that brings us to now - sitting in an air-conditioned internet cafe escaping the scorching heat. Tomorrow Zack and I get on a bus to Vang Vien, where we'll enjoy the tubing experience that everyone in Southeast Asia can't stop talking about (I'm a bit sick of hearing about it and I'm ready to get it over with already!!!) Anyway, I'm doing great here - Zack and I are having a blast. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that next to the uber-chic Hive bar, there's an uber-hipster tea lounge/bookstore next door call L'Etranger. So, Zack and I have spent every evening at the tea shop enjoying some quality Twinings and conversation, before heading over to Hive. Zack and I only have about 4 more days together!! So sad...but, the show must go on!!!

I hope everyone is doing great back in the Western world. It must be getting pretty hot and humid in NYC, DC, and elsewhere. I hope everyone is now using my infamous "leave your entire work wardrobe at work so you don't have to sweat through all of your clothes by 8:59am" technique. It's the only way to commute in NYC or DC, in my opinion.

Hope to hear from everyone very soon! Please drop me a quick line when you guys can.

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baby Love, My Baby Love (Welcome Baby Hart!!)

2007-06-02T23:07:00.000-04:00

HELLO AGAIN! Before I leave Vietnam, I just wanted to send a big congratulations to my friends Kerry and Gordon in Newcastle, England. Kerry just gave birth to Martha Alice Hart, born on June 2nd, weighing 7Lb and 6oz. Mother and child are doing great - thanks for the update Gordon!!! I can't wait to see you both and meet Martha in a few months!!!

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!

Sapa Don't Preach (I'm In Mud Knee-Deep)

2007-06-01T22:26:00.000-04:00

HELLO AGAIN from Hanoi, Vietnam!!!! I just got back from the trip to Sapa this morning, via overnight train, and had an amazing time up there. Sapa is a small town up in the hills of northern Vietnam, surrounded by gorgeous mountains covered with rice paddies - the views were pretty spectacular. Our room at the guest house opened up onto a balcony overlooking the scenery all around us - it couldn't have been better. Since it was higher elevation, the temperature was a bit cooler and the clouds & fog seeped over the mountains and into the town sporadically, adding to the experience. On our first day, Zack and I went on an afternoon hike down the hill to a waterfall. The interesting thing about Sapa is that there are numerous hill tribe villages that populate the region; many live in Sapa as well as the surrounding region. So, everywhere you look there are local village people in their traditional dress (head to toe in dark colors, with intricate designs embroidered everywhere). The funny thing is, they have lots of goods to sell to you (whether you want to buy anything or not), and are more than prepared to walk the entire length of a 2-day hike through the mountains alongside you in case --- at any given moment -- you feel the urge to buy one of their handmade goods. So, we had about 10 tourists, 2 guides, and about 35 hilltribe people as part of our huge posse. It was quite a scene trekking through the mountains. Since they're so accustomed to hiking the same trails day in and day out, they've gotten to be quite skilled at navigating the more treacherous parts, namely the steep muddy hills. By lunchtime, I was more than happy to buy bracelets and bags from the ladies who so bravely held my hand down the hill and prevented me from falling. :-)

We slept in a village - there were 8 of us in our group, a Dutch couple (with whom I will meet up again this September), a girl from California, a Kiwi girl, and a couple from Singapore (plus Zack and me). Luckily, I had my iPod speakers (THANK YOU KIM!) So it made for a really fun night of music, cards, singing, and lots and lots of rice alcohol. Yummy. For those of you who know me too well, I'm not the biggest fan of taking shots...but rice alcohol goes down nice and smooth. We all had lots of fun, and since we were in the middle of the mountains, we got to bed pretty early for a good night's sleep. The next morning a thunderstorm greeted us with pouring rain, which luckily stopped in time for us to begin our trek for the day. Basically, hiking through the mountains of Sapa is an adventure in navigating up and down through the rice paddies. If you've never seen rice paddies, they're about as scenic as you can get. Picture a mountain cut into stairs; each stair holds water that eventually growns tall green stalks (grass) that contains the rice. When the paddies are filled with water, their metallic-like quality makes them a perfect mirror for the surrounding landscape. And when the paddies are filled with grass, the lush green color is the perfect compliment to the scene. All in all, a muddy, slippery, sliding adventure - I think we were all covered head to toe in mud. Excellent. :-)

Last night we caught the night train back to Hanoi and arrived early this morning (4:30 am). Zack and I lugged our bags back into the old quarter and found a guest house to get a few more hours of sleep before we attacked the day. Today was all about relaxing and getting some last minute things in before we leave Vietnam tomorrow: massages, shopping, internet, etc. All very essential. Especially the massage. hahaha. Tonight we're going to check out the water puppet show, which is unique to Hanoi, so we'll get a bit of culture in before we leave.

SO - as this is the last of my 29 days in Vietnam, I think it's time we embark on our second Top 10 of this trip:

Top 10 Best Things About Traveling Through Vietnam

10. Pho Bo (rice noodle soup with beef) [this was a close one between Pho Bo, Vietnamese spring rolls and Vietnamese pancakes]
9. Seeing the same travelers as you go from city to city on the open tour buses (and subsequently becoming good friends with them!)
8. Crossing the street in HCMC and Hanoi (don't look, just GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
7. Dam Sen Amusement Park in HCMC (totally random, completely amazing - especially the ice sculpture house)
6. "Mot Hai Ba --- YOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" (The Vietnamese way of saying "1, 2, 3, CHEERS!!!" -- and then you drink your shot of rice alcohol)
5. Walking the streets of Hoi An along the river at sunset. (It felt like being back in time 100 years!)
4. Sunset at Halong Bay (stunning, breathtaking, 'nuff said)
3. Learning a country's history and seeing the impact of an American war from the other point of view.
2. Passing children on the street from your motorbike and screaming "HELLO" to them after they wave and smile and eagerly say "HELLO" back (also: playing with the kids when you're on a break from riding your bike)
1. Easy Riders tours (Dinh and Hung as the best tour guides, specifically)

So that's it - I think I've said all I can say about how much I've loved being in Vietnam, and how fortunate I've been to spend 4 weeks here. Next stop is Laos. Tomorrow Zack and I fly to Luang Prabang. I don't really know what to expect, except that Laos is supposed to be COMPLETELY different from Vietnam. I have about 2 weeks or so in Laos. Bring it on.

Speak to you again soon!!!!!!
Lots of love always!!!!!!!!

PS - Zack and I got a kick out of this blog title, for any old-school Madonna fans out there. I hope it makes you laugh!!!!!

Lost Boys In Neverland

2007-05-29T05:50:00.000-04:00

HELLO FROM HANOI, VIETNAM!!!!!! Oh how I've missed everyone terribly, and how I've missed blogging to you guys from the other side of the world!!! It's been one week since my last blog - my largest absence yet. BUT - so many incredible things have happened in the last week, I want to make sure I include every detail, so I hope you all have some time to spare. Before I delve in, let me first say a few things:

1) Vietnam is the most beautiful country (except Israel, maybe) that I have been to. The extraordinary scenery, beautiful people, and---most importantly---ease with which tourists are escorted around from place to place makes Vietnam my favorite country so far.....by far. :-) I strongly recommend that everyone travels to this country. You only need 2-3 weeks to do it right...perfectly manageable on an American work schedule (I think). Each day this country blows my mind. Minor things never cease to amaze me, major things humble me, and everything else in between reminds me how lucky I am to be here.

2) I am officially 7 weeks into my trip, and can now see India (part 2 of my trip) on the horizon. In the last few days I've finally met people who know all about India from their own travels, and I am starting to get excited. Very excited. Even though it's still 3 weeks away, and I have lots of amazing memories to create in the interim, I know that SE Asia is just preparation for what awaits me on June 20th.

3) I am no longer a tourist. While of course I stick out like a tall, white, and bearded westerner in this land of Vietnamese people, I am one among many backpackers living the traveler's life. I have stayed the longest in this country out of the 3 so far (it will have been 1 month exactly when I leave), so I feel a part of the traveler's world in this country. The rhythm and pace that is backpacking suits me - every day is still an adventure, I just am a little more prepared to handle it with ease now.

OK - let's continue on the story that is Danny Does Asia, shall we???

When I last wrote, I had finished Day 3 of the Easy Riders tour from Dalat to Hoi An. The start of Day 4 was most exciting, as Hung and Dinh had promised us that the scenery would be most amazing. In the morning, we drove to see a few couple of memorials around the town of Kon Tum: a suspension bridge built by the French in the 1930s, and from there we went to a wooden church for the local indigenous people's religion. Attached to the church was an orphanage with about 200 children, ranging in age from infants to 16 year olds. Zack and I visited the baby room first, and I fell completely in love with the babies...so absolutely adorable. We played with them for a few minutes - I think they were kinda shocked to see two white boys in their playpen, but they warmed up after a few minutes and their faces lit up with smiles. Apparently that orphange is frequented by European families looking to adopt children, so it was nice to know that there is hope for a better life for these children. Zack and I walked into a classroom of 12 year old girls who sang songs in English for us - very sweet. Their teacher was a translator for the American army during the Vietnam War, and had been working at the orphanage for about 10 years. All of the kids loved him - you could feel how warm his heart is just by looking in his eyes. It was amazing to enter a completely different world yet still feel so attached to these people. It reminds me how universally the same everyone is. Same same but different, of course. :-)

From the orphanage we went to the Kon Tum prison, where the French military held captive North Vietnamese (communist) political leaders. When the French left Vietnam in 1954, the prisoners were released, strengthening the North's military/political power, hence progressing the order of events that eventually led to the Vietnam War. The prison had been turned into a memorial, and what impressed me most was the photo collection from a 1994 anniversary ceremony that honored the living veterans of the prison, who are now (or had been) major political figures in the reunified (post-1975) government. Who knows what they had to go through to survive that prison; it was yet another example of this country's ability to move on from their history of war. One thing I've learned is that the people of this country love peace.

After the prison we visited a memorial for the liberation day in 1972 when the North came through Kon Tum and sent the Americans/South Vietnamese further south. And from there we saw a cemetery for unknown victims of the battle at Charlie Hill, before we drove onto the Ho Chi Minh Trail and stopped at Charlie Hill. Charlie Hill is actually a few hills around a central flat area where the Americans were stationed. A large landing strip for the American military is still there. Basically, Charlie hill was a 3-month long battle that had a 6-month build up (in terms of military strategy and planning). What is now green hills and quiet farmland was once bloodshed and murder. The Americans were at the top of the hills, and the North came up from the bottom. So many soldiers died in the middle. They nicknamed the battle a "hamburger" hill because of the "meat" that formed in the middle of two ends. Carnage. After the battle of Charlie Hill, the US Army pulled out from the central highlands and concentrated its stronghold around Saigon, until 1973 when the US left.

After Charlie Hill, we began our drive along the Ho Chi Minh trail up through the Central Highlands of Vietnam. To say that the scenery was stunning is an understatement. Imagine winding roads through the mountains, green all around you, mountains looming over you at every turn. It was as picturesque as you can imagine. The sun was shining, green farms and hills made me forget all the problems in the world, and for a few hours, this simple and beautiful existence was all that mattered. We kept passing through small villages, passing schools with children leaving for the day, and while it seems so trivial and insignificant, whenever I said hello to someone on the street, it made the day even better - especially the kids. They look so confused when I made eye contact with them from the bike; once I smile and wave and say hello, they light up and scream hello back at the top of their lungs. They love seeing westerners in their small corner of the world. The four of us stopped at a waterfall on the side of the road for a beautiful photo op - then we decided to walk up and hang out at the waterfall. Of course, Zack (who has proven more and more to be a klutz lately) slipped and fell flat on his back going down the rocks back to the bike. Luckily he was completely fine, minus a couple of wet legs and a wet bum. :-) Phew, the road trip carried on.

An unexpected and ultimate highlight came towards the end of our day when we stopped for water at a house on the side of the road. About 10 little kids came out from the surrounding houses to see us, and so Zack and I brought out our cameras and of course they had a field day. These kids were beyond cute. I have some great photos and videos. Of course, none of this would've happened if I were on a bus driving from city to city along the "regular" touristy backpacker route. Riding a motorbike is the only way to experience Southeast Asia. Period.

After what was probably one of the most amazing afternoons of my life, we arrived at our destination, a small Vietnamese town with a small-town feel: a couple of main streets, people walking around, shops lining the streets. It felt almost like an Old Western town. Anyway, the four of us enjoyed a great seafood dinner, ice cream, and then we called it a night. Day 5 was our final day. We visited a family that runs an incense factory, another family that runs a rice paper factory, and then it was on toward My Son. I actually visited My Son with Brad (my American travel companion my first time up Vietnam), so I wasn't in a rush to get back. Fortunately, (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), Hung's bike got a flat tire, so we had to stop for a half hour to get it fixed. Luckily there was a bike repair shop just up the street from where we stopped, so we didn't have to push it that far. Zack and Dinh continued on to My Son, and once our bike was fixed, I asked Hung if we could go back to the roadside store that Brad & I had visited last time (Remember: that was the one where Brad & I hung out with all of those kids and took pictures with them, bought them ice cream, etc?? Same place). The man was out there when we pulled up, and it took him a few minutes, and a viewing of my photos to remember when I was there. Apparently, since I'd left, one of the boys in the group photo broke his nose swimming. But, he's all patched up now and back at school. Another of the little boys (my favorite one) was nearby and walked over to the owner and his wife. I showed him the pictures of him that I took last time, and he said "yes" when they asked if he remembered me. He's 5 years old. So cute. How amazing that I was able to revisit a stop along the way of my travels and see their life 2 weeks later.

Once Zack and Dinh met up with us after the temples of My Son, (Zack was very impressed), we headed into Hoi An. That afternoon we checked into our hotel, ate a late lunch with Dinh and Hung, and then Zack and I went out and got some more clothes picked out for ourselves (I got a suit and another jacket). That evening we had our last dinner and drinks with Hung and Dinh (they were meant to leave for Dalat the next morning). They brought us to a well-known (except to Westerners) restaurant with great spring rolls. They kept bringing out food to us, and when she saw how much food was left over, the owner (this amazing woman who has been running the restaurant for 14 years, starting with no money in her pocket) came over to me, hand-made me a spring roll, and fed it to me, by hand. :-) Mom, you would've liked her a lot. I even said, "my mother would like you a lot right now." I was well fed that night. Not really sure with what type of meat I was well fed, but no need to worry about that.

Hoi An Part II was great - the next morning Zack and I headed for the beach and chilled out for most of the day, before picking up our new clothes in the afternoon. I have to admit, I'm less happy with the clothes this time around than I was last time, but hey, they were cheap enough - not a big deal. Bygones. That night Zack and I went for a walk outside of tourist zone (Hoi An is very touristy) where we found a pool hall full of Vietnamese. From there, we went out for some drinks with a German guy I met the night before, and we met a couple of Americans and an Austrailian girl for a fun night of card (drinking) games. Our last morning in Hoi An was spent picking up souveniers (Zack bought the souveniers, I joined him along the way - no souvenier shopping yet for me! To early!!) and then we headed to the airport to fly up to Hanoi. Our plan was to arrive around dinner time and meet my German girl friends from Cambodia, who were also in Hanoi and were very excited to meet us. Unfortunately, our plans got a little screwed up: our flight time was moved back 4 hours, we were an hour late to the hotel that the German girls were at, and once we did get there, I couldn't find them because I was heckled so much into staying at another hotel Zack and I left quickly. BUT - all ended well when I went out for a well-deserved beer with my German friends to finish the night. It was the first time I actually got stressed out on this trip, and the first time I let the stress affect my mood. I will now chalk it all up to experience...I forgot that not everything goes according to (my) plan, and I also forgot that I get stressed out when trying to coordinate schedules with other people and it doesn't go according to plan. Moving on, I was stress-free by the next day and Zack and I were able to carry on our fun travails. I guess getting slightly stressed out once in 2 months isn't such a big deal. :-)

The following day Zack, myself, Nicole, and Regi (the 2 German girls) spent the day as a tourist visiting the sights of Hanoi. We started out going to see the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum - that's right, Uncle Ho Chi Minh's body is encased in glass for all to see. After waiting in what was probably the longest tourist line ever, we got to walk (rather, we were herded) through the room containing his body. Very impressive. He looks good for a dead guy. That afternoon we walked around Ho Chi Minh's presidential palace grounds (again, very touristy), and then we headed to the Literature Temple, which was the first university in Vietnam, started in the year 1100 AD, or something like that. Super old. From there, we went to the Vietnam Military Museum, where we saw some great photos from the War era (again) and then climbed to the top of an old viewing tower for a picture of the city. Once we were done being tourists, the four of us headed to one of the 2 major lakes in Hanoi for some major (and well deserved) R&R by the lake. That evening, Zack and I parted ways from the girls to buy our flight tickets to Laos on June 3rd. What should have been a quick and easy experience yet again turned into a funny story. We were about to hand the lady our credit cards to pay for the tickets when I heard a crackling sound. I turned around and saw the mass of plugs and wires for the office literally burst into flames in a loud boom, and then the whole office went black. I can laugh about all of this now. :-) Only in Vietnam. That night we joined the German girls and a few other guys for cheap beer in the street of Hanoi (Bier Hoi - 2000 Dong for a glass...aka 10 cents for a glass of beer!!!) and then called it a night.

We left for Halong Bay the following morning. Zack and I booked the trip and our next trip (which I leave for in about 2 hours) with Kangaroo Cafe, in case anyone wants any travel advice. Great company, run by a loquaciously communist, yet well-intentioned Australian man. Halong Bay is at the northeastern coast of Vietnam, and I've seen so many pictures of it and heard lots of great things, but of course, nothing can prepare you for seeing it in person. Zack and I joined an 8-person, 2-day 1 night boat trip around the bay. Our group consisted of 2 Aussies, 2 Brits, 2 Canadians and us. We had to take a 3 hour minivan trip to the coast and then we boarded our junk boat (NOTE: Junk boat is the actual type of boat, not the descriptive word for its state of being - it's basically a large sailboat) and set off for the bay. Halong Bay is a huge body of water containing 2,000 huge rock mounds that just out of the water. Traveling through the Bay is quite impressive. All around you are these huge rocks with trees covering them, dotted all across the water. After sailing for a few hours around the bay, we went to see the caves of Halong Bay. To summarize: HUGE limestone caves, with stalagtites and stalagmites(kudos to anyone who actually knows which is which) highlighted with well-placed colored lights that make the caves look like a yet-to-be-made blockbuster Hollywood movie set. From one of the lookout points at the top of the cave, we could see all of the junk boats in the bay surrounded by the rocks. And then it hit us: we have found Neverland! Do you remember in the movie "Hook" when Robin Williams goes to Neverland? Remember all of the ships in the magical water surrounded by rocks, etc? Well, this is same same but better. Zack and I were pretty amazed and exstatic to be lost boys in Neverland. I so wanted to be Rufio back in the day, and for an hour or so, I felt like him. "RU-FI-O, RU-FI-O" Very cool.

Once we re-boarded our ship, we set off again to another point in the bay just for some afternoon swimming/jumping off the ship into the water. So much fun! The water was beautiful, and it felt great to get wet after hiking around for quite a while in the caves. We ended our swim session just as the sun fell behind the rocks. From the top deck of the boat, we set sail again in full view of the sunset. To be honest, I have never experienced anything quite like watching the sun set in Halong Bay. The sky was divinely lit, the rocks were glowing out of the water, and the water's reflection of it all would've proven difficult for any artist to replicate on canvas. (Luckily I have more than enough digital photos to solve that problem). The 8 of us sat on the top of the boat in silence. It was breathtakingly gorgeous. Yet again, I felt completely lucky to have seen it. After a delicious dinner, we hung out under the moonlight on the top deck and then called it a night. This morning we had a nice breakfast on the ship, and headed to a beach on one of the small rock islands in the Bay. Zack and I and the two Aussies wanted to go kayaking, but unfortunately it didn't work out. We had heard that there's a cave nearby through which you can kayak, but it was apparently too far in the timespan that we had. But, fate was on our side and there was a speedboat next to us, and for the same price as the kayaks, we were taken to the cave, which was actually a cavernous entrance to a hidden cove, enclosed on all sides by 100-foot tall rocks. The 4 of us were pretty blown away by what we had discovered. It definitely felt like a scene out of "The Beach." We swam in the cove for a few minutes, shouted at the top of our lungs to hear our echos, and then headed back in the speedboat to rejoin our group back on the boat to return to shore. Lunch back on the mainland was followed by the 3-hour trip back to Hanoi, which brings me to right now. (Deep exhale). Zack and I leave at 8pm tonight (9am NYC time) for an overnight train to Sapa, which is in the Northwest corner of Vietnam, and in the hills, so it should be a lot cooler up there. We're signed up for a 3-day, 2-night trip: one night in a hotel, one night staying in a village with the indiginous people, and lots of trekking/sightseeing/cultural stuff in between. It should be an amazing time. After we get back on the morning of June 2nd, Zack and I hang out in Hanoi for another day and then fly out to Luang Prabang, Laos on June 3rd. I can't wait to see Laos. As much as I love Vietnam, I know that it's time to go, and Laos should be relaxing and beautiful and a great way to end my SE Asian experience.

So, if you've gotten to the end of this blog entry, I salute you. Thanks for keeping up with my travels. It really has been a superior week of my trip, and I'm glad I got through all of it in the blog. I promise to update you either in Sapa or right after I get back in 3 days, so look out for the next entry. AND - Please be in touch!!! I think about you all so much, so please shoot me an email or add a comment to the blog. It makes me happy to hear from you guys. :-)

Until next time....

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quick update from the road

2007-05-22T10:43:00.000-04:00

Hello from Kon Tum, Vietnam!!! Just wanted to give a quick update - not much else to report today, except that we had a great day of driving through the country. Great views, blue skies with puffy clouds as far as the eye can see. Dinh and Hung (our Easy Rider guides) are still awesome and are showing us the best trip ever. Tomorrow is another 180 km through the Ho Chi Minh trail - it's supposed to be the best scenery of the whole trip, so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. We are supposed to visit the Kon Tum Prison - a political prison built by the French, so that should be very interesting. Today we visited a rubber tree farm and a pepper farm, and then we got to our hotel and had a delicious meal of Vietnamese pancakes...yum. I will gladly volunteer to be anyone's chaperone to a Vietnamese restaurant once I'm back in NY. I know all the good picks.

Quick shoutout: HAPPY 26th BIRTHDAY ROSS!!!!!!!!!!! (I know it's on May 23rd, but I won't be on the internet for a couple more days). Enjoy the day! You're almost 30!!! And you're married!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lots of love to everyone!!!

Motorcycle Diaries, Vina-style

2007-05-21T07:40:00.000-04:00

HELLO from life on the Easy Rider road!!! Today is the end of day 2 of my 5-day tour through the Vietnamese countryside. So far, the trip has been incredible. It is such a difference to go up the country on the back of a bike, rather than on a bus filled with other backpackers. Our drivers names are Dinh and Hung, Dinh is 26, and Hung is 30. They're great guys, very funny, and they take care of Zack and me to the fullest. Yesterday we set off from Dalat (with all of our bags) and headed to a coffee farm, then hiked to a waterfall, then we drove on and visited a silk factory to see how silk is made from silkworms (very amazing process), then we carried on to Lak Lake where we had a delicious Vietnamese dinner and lots of rice alcohol to wash it all down. (Cheers in Vietnamese is "YO" - I like it.) Zack and I talked to Dinh and Hung about life as a Vietnamese citizen. Yesterday was the national "elections" (in quotes because there's only 1 party). Both Dinh and Hung are not in favor of their country's government. Dinh's father and grandfather fought with the South & the USA during the War, and therefore has lots of prejudice against the North/current government/Ho Chi Minh. It was interesting to hear their views on Americans (they love them), and what it's like to live in this country.

Today we rode an elephant across Lak Lake (my 2nd elephant riding experience, and honestly, not as fun as the first. The elephants looked pretty ragged and they didn't seem to be as treated as when Aly and I rode ours in Chiang Mai. They didn't even let us feed the elephants bananas this time!!! Outrageous!) After the elephants, we visited a brick factory to see how bricks are made. The Central Highlands of Vietnam has abundant clay in its topsoil, so bricks are a large commodity. Basically, they push clay through a press (kinda like when you push play-doh through that toy to make it into "food", then they cut it into rectangular form, let it dry, then cook it in an oven until it gets the reddish color. Interesting process. Then we arrived at our current location, Buon Ma Thuon, where we dropped off our bags and grabbed lunch - Vietnamese Spring Rolls. Authentic with a capital A. (We roll them ourselves with rice paper...yummmmmmy) After lunch we drove to see some waterfalls, which were pretty spectacular. HUGE, stretching wide across the cliffs. Today's highlight was swimming in a river at the bottom of a waterfall as the rain was pouring down. It was pretty special - it definitely felt like I was in Vietnam.

The best part of motorbiking up the country is the scenery. Everywhere you look, you can see mountains, farms, small towns - it's all breathtaking. The sky in Vietnam is stunning. The clouds are unlike anything I've seen before...it looks computer generated. I feel lucky to be here and to see this country. We have another 3 days - tomorrow should be a tough one as we have 230 km to cover in 1 day. Our fourth day takes us along the Ho Chi Minh Trail which should have some amazing views. I'll give you guys another update when I can.

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS - Vina means VIetNAm, in case you were wondering. :-)

Guerilla Warfare On Ice

2007-05-19T17:01:00.000-04:00

HELLO from Dalat, Vietnam!!!!! Ok, so there's lots and lots to update you guys on, so I'll dive right into it. It's been a busy few days since I first got back to Saigon, and I apologize for being away for so long!!!
Right, when I last checked in, I was alone in HCMC for the afternoon before Zack arrived that evening. It was great to be back in Saigon. I finally had the time to explore the city at my own pace, seeing all of the major sites in the central area: the market, the War Remnants Museum, Reunification Palace, Opera House, Notre Dame Cathedral (just like in Paris), and all of the city streets intertwining around the whole area. HCMC is extremely crowded, clustered, and chaotic. But, there is so much to see, it's pretty much a sensory overload everywhere you turn!

Zack arrived safely on the night of the 15th, and we met up for a celebratory drink with some British folk I met earlier that day. The next day we set off for some history and culture in the city: we went to the War Remnants Museum and the Reunification Palace. For already being in Vietnam for 10 days, I had learned very little about the history of this country and the wars it has endured. The War Remnants Museum was a very realistic, brutal, and eye-opening account of the horrors of the Vietnam War. My previous knowledge of the Vietnam War was very limited; obviously there is an anti-American sentiment throughout the museum, but justifiably so considering outsiders invaded their country and killed millions of citizens (3 million were killed by the time the Vietnam War was over - over 50,000 Americans died). The museum had vivid photos of American soldiers in battle; you could see the sense of desparation on the faces of the Americans. It seemed like there was no way out of the war, no end in sight, and no sign of victory. This hopelessness must have fueled the rage and violence over innocent lives. There was also a detailed account of the many western journalists who lost their lives in the war - such bravery for the account of history. Many went missing and were never found. Some famous pulitzer prize-winning photos were also among the display, which many of you have probably seen. Harrowing pictures of despair. After leaving the museum, two things occurred to me: 1) I was reminded that war is futile, and for being involved in Vietnam for over 10 years, what good came out of it? 2) The Vietnam War bears striking resemblance to the current war in Iraq (in terms of a lack of vision, misunderstandings of what our goals are, how to exit the war, and why we are there).

From the War Remnants Museum, we went to the Reunification Palace, which was the headquarters for South Vietnam's king until April 30, 1975 when the North Vietnamese came into Saigon with tanks down the main boulevard, right into the palace. The north took power from the south and reunited Vietnam into a single country under a socialist republic (aka communist) rule. The palace was very impressive - everything has been kept as is since April 30, 1975 - all of the furniture is intact, etc, and you can go down to the basement level and check out the war bunker, which is a huge maze of maps, telephones, desks, all left exactly as it was 30 years ago. You got the sense of how the war strategy was coordinated, and you could even follow their markings over the maps directing the armies across the country. Very cool.

After the palace, we walked around the center city and headed back to our hostel to get ready to go out for the evening. Dinner, drinks, and pool with our British friends from the night before. Good times. I'm actually getting to be a good pool player. :-)

The following day Zack and I went to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which is about 60 km from HCMC. We took an organized group tour, so we were on a bus full of people. Luckily, our tour guide was great and gave a complete history of Vietnam since the 19th century up until today on the ride out there. So, I'm pretty knowledgeable about the French colonialization of Vietnam, and how that eventually led to a North/South divide once the French left, which then led to the Vietnam War. Anyway, the Cu Chi Tunnels is an area that was controlled by Viet Cong Guerillas for the entire length of the War - the Americans/South Vietnamese could not capture it. The network of underground tunnels is so extensive, and was so ingeniously protected from invaders. We walked around the grounds, and saw the booby traps put in place for the American GIs. Basically, you didn't want to step foot there if you didn't know where you were going. One wrong step and you could've been killed. They had traps covered in leaves that opened onto bamboo spikes (you get the idea). Very effective, very bloody. At the end of the tour we were able to walk through a section of the tunnel - very small, maybe 3 feet high (at most), and a couple of feet wide. You had to crouch and crawl through most of it. It was an intense experience. These VC guerillas lived down there for years, it's pretty incredible to think how they managed to survive and keep their will to carry on. The most disturbing part of the trip to Cu Chi was a documentary video that we watched of the Cu Chi guerillas explaining how they lived there, how they built the tunnels, etc. Their main goal was to kill Americans. They had an award for the "American Killer Hero" - basically whoever could kill the most Americans. I felt pretty sick from it all - I kept thinking of my country, and the American families who had to hear that their child was killed in Vietnam. And then I see the smiling faces of the guerillas as they prepare the traps and weapons. It was all so confusing. In war, which side is right??? Didn't these people have a right to defend their land??? OH - and, to top off one heck of a troubling day, there was a shooting range right there, so you could buy a round and shoot an AK-47 if you so desire. So there were gunshots going off as we were walking around the place!!!!! Ugh.

Needless to say, after we got back from Cu Chi, Zack and I needed a break from Vietnam War activities. We decided to go to Dam Sen Park, which we read about in the Lonely Planet. We didn't really know what to expect, but we took a motobike out to the park, which was a pretty long ride and it gave us a GREAT view of the real Saigon, outside of backpackerville. So, Dam Sen is an amusement park/zoo/fantasy land - there are roller coasters, haunted houses, ferris wheels, AND an alligator habitat, a bird sanctuary, cobra display, elephant riding AND an orchid/flower garden. The place was huge, and Zack and I were pretty much the only ones there. It was amazing...it didn't feel like we were in HCMC. The absolute best part of the park was the ice sculpture house. Neither Zack nor I had been in one before, so we didn't know what to expect. They gave us long jackets to put on, and we basically opened a walk-in freezer door to enter. Inside, it was like nothing I had ever seen. There was a HUGE room with life-size ice sculptures EVERYWHERE. Houses, castles, people, Buddhas - you could walk through everything, it was pretty magical. There were colored/neon lights illuminating all of it, so it was like a fantasy ice world. Amazing. It felt like a combination of Willy Wonka World and Edward Scissorhands. :-)

After Dam Sen Park, we took a motobike back to backpackerville in the dark - a thrill ride through the city. Saigon is SO crazy busy. So much fun - people everywhere, bikes clogging the streets. It was an amazing experience to drive through it. Once we got back again, we met up with our British friends (again) for some more dinner, beer, and pool. :-) (Can we sense a pattern of activity here????)

The next day (the 18th, I believe), Zack and I boarded a morning bus for Dalat. About 9 hours later, we got here. Dalat is in the mountains, so it's much the climate is much more moderate and cool. The city itself is a LOT smaller than HCMC, which was a welcomed change. There are mountains surrounding all sides, so it's a gorgeous and scenic place to be - the views are spectacular all around. Last night Zack and I walked into town and wandered around the central market, got some dinner, and then walked around the lake that sits in the center of town. (It's a very scenic place, Vietnamese people have nicknamed Dalat the "Honeymoon City", since it has become a romantic holiday destination. No romance for me yet, but I'm still enjoying the city.) We headed back early and got a good night's sleep (for a change!). Today we walked around the city some more, saw some sights (flower garden, former Vietnamese emperor's Summer Palace), and just enjoyed the small city life of Dalat.

Tomorrow we set off for a 5-day motorbike tour from Dalat to Hoi An with Easy Riders. I'm not exactly sure of the itinerary, but I know that tomorrow will basically consist of the sites around Dalat (there are some amazing waterfalls around here, I'm told), and then the following day we head up into the central highlands of Vietnam. Then we make our way further north along the Ho Chi Minh Trail ending in Hoi An on the 24th. We should see some great scenery, soak up some culture, learn more about the history, meet local people, and experience the real Vietnam. From what I've heard from friends I've met along the way, Easy Riders is the best way to see Vietnam. The guides are supposed to be great, and it's a proper break from the backpacker bus route up the coast. I'm sure that when the tour is over I'll have plenty of updates for you guys, but I just wanted to give you the heads up on my impending travels.

Traveling with Zack: So far, it's been lots of fun having Zack here. I think it will take him a few days to adjust to traveling in SE Asia - I don't think he was prepared for the amount of tourists here, and how tourist-centered SE Asia really is, but everything takes some getting used to, and when we head out on the bike tour tomorrow it will be a new chapter on the trip. Good times ahead, for sure.

Alrighty, I think that's all for now - I'm almost 6 weeks done with the trip now, which means that I'm over the hump of the SE Asia portion. Once Zack and I head up to Hoi An on the motorbikes, we fly to Hanoi and then we'll spend a week in the north of Vietnam (Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sapa) before heading to Laos for 2 weeks. Can't wait for Laos, it should be amazing. Then, of course, I move on to India. :-)

I miss you all so much! It's great to hear from you guys via email and blog comments.

Greg - crazy story about the subway!!!! I do miss the insane folks of NYC - remember that time on the F train when that woman almost beat up that other girl with her boot!!! haha

Ross - Kudos to you for the 6-week beard growth. I bet you and I look like brothers now. :-) Best of luck house hunting!!!! Love to Amy!

Lalapantz - Thanks for the guat update a few days ago!!! Miss you and love you. Enjoy the last month or two of the trip!!!!

Aly P - I was looking back over my photos and saw all the ones of you & me. Miss you! Remember the picture of you & the mannequin? I can't wait to post that one!!! :-)

Yefat - I've started searching for post-it notes in the markets. Excellent challenge. I'll keep you updated. Congrats on finishing law school!!! Best of luck in DC!!!

Natasha - I will try to get my pictures online ASAP. I'm sorry it's taken so long. I'll send you Noah's email.

Noah - how's the thesis going???? Miss you bro.

Carrie - Can't wait to hear all about Argentina & life back in SF!!!

Rob - Good to hear from you!!! Cheers for the UKTI updates.

Anna & Lauren - Miss you guys!!!!!!!

Lots of love to everyone else in NYC, DC, UK!!!!!!!!!!

Love to my family in Newburgh (mom and dad, miss you!!!!!!), NYC, DC, Boston

BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Up the coast and back again

2007-05-15T03:06:00.000-04:00

Hello from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam!!!!! Since I last wrote in, I've traveled all the way up the coast of Vietnam to Hanoi, and today I flew back down to HCM (aka Saigon) to do it all over again....Vietnam, Part II!! Granted, I know for sure that my second trip up the country will be completely different than the first time up with Brad, so I'm extremely excited for the next couple of weeks. Ok, before we move ahead with future travel plans, let's recap the past couple of amazing days.

When I last left off, I was waxing fashionisto from Hoi An and the multitude of wonderful clothes I can't wait to wear (if and when they arrive at 122 Dogwood Lane - fingers crossed!) Hoi An was beautiful, so charming and quiet...Next stop was Hue, which is pretty much in the middle of Vietnam, and luckily only a 4 hour bus ride from Hoi An. I didn't really know much about Hue, and heard mixed things from various people, so I didn't really expect much going in. After the bus dropped us off and we found a guest house, Brad and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city, eating pho (great Vietnamese noodle soup!), playing cards, just relaxing. Hue isn't the historical gem of a city like Hoi An is, so I didn't feel the need to make like a tourist and flock around. Anyway, after a great Indian meal, Brad & I booked a motorbike tour of Hue for the next day (we each ride behind a driver, so I didn't have to drive this time, luckily!). That evening we hung out with some Canadian girls who were on our bus ride - beer and cards (which seems to have been a recurring theme of the past 10 days).

Anyway, day 2 in Hue - we wake up to a dissapating torrential downpour, and we hope that it's the last of the rain for the day before we go on a motorbike . (hehehehehe) Brad and I grab our stuff for the day, and walk across the street to meet our bike guides. Let me first reiterate how much I love riding mopeds - I think Vietnam part II will have lots more bike rides to recount....SO - off we went to our first stop, Hue's Japanese Bridge, outside the city in the surrounding rice fields. (We could've easily taken a bus tour of these same sites, by the way, but it is much more fun to be on a bike zooming from place to place!) Driving through the country was amazing, yet again - rice paddies on either side, and the driver is weaving in between piles of hay (or grass, not sure). Fun times. After the Japanese bridge, we headed to a bunker hill used during the Vietnam War. So, we headed back onto the bikes and zoomed back out of the farms, through the city, and into the outskirts towards a big hill. We passed a cemetery on a hill along the way, which I felt lucky to see. Once we got to the top of the bunker hill, the view was pretty spectacular. A river cut through the mountains and curved right in front of us along its path. Our guide told us that in the distance was Hamburger Hill, which was a targeted site for the Americans during the War, and also a huge bloody cost to many lives along the way. The movie Apocalypse Now goes into more detail (which I will have to watch back in the states).
Moving on - the tour kicked into full gear as the rain started up again later in the morning. We went to a huge tomb site where a former king and his family were buried - very impressive grounds, huge column structures, large temples, etc. Very flashy, for its time. Then we headed to a pagoda which contained the car which, in 1950-something, a monk drove to HCM and then lit himself on fire to protest the mistreatment of Buddhist monks in Vietnam by the government. There's a picture of the monk sitting in the lotus position, on fire, and looking extremely at peace - as if only in that extreme, unthinkable pain could he escape the pain of reality.

Then it poured...I mean, poured - but we kept on going! Driving on a motorbike through the rainy streets of Hue was lots of fun...probably not the safest thing in the world, as the puddles started to accumulate into small pools of water, but it added to the excitement to the day! And, kudos to my driver for being able to see the road in front of him, and for getting me back alive. :-) All in all, it was another great day - the tour guides were excellent, and motorbiking around a city is the only way to really do it! Brad and I spent the rest of the day hanging out, playing cards, (the rain eventually stopped), and then we got ready to catch our 6pm bus to Hanoi. Hue was cool, (only because of the bike tour), but I think I'll be ok to skip Hue this time. Now that I think of it, that was my first full rainy day of the whole trip. Not too bad for 5 weeks of traveling, but I know there's more rain to come in the future!

The overnight bus from Hue to Hanoi is 14 hours - on a coach bus. Brad & I were determined not to give in and buy an additional ticket for a "sleeper bus", or even hop on a plane to Hanoi (which the Canadian girls did), since we prepaid for all of our bus trips up the country, so we found some nice meds to knock us out for the majority of the trip (thank you Gravol!). The drugs worked for me, and I was pretty well rested (compared to when I arrived in Hoi An after the overnight trip from Nha Trang, during which I probably got only 1/2 hour sleep!). Vietnam is actually a pretty large country - narrow, but very long. It was about a 2 hour flight today from Hanoi (north) to HCM (south), if that gives you the scope in size. So - GREG - that's why I had to take a 14 hour bus trip, there's really no other stops along the way between Hue and Hanoi to stop at.

What an amazingly nice surprise Hanoi was! If you combine the modernity and fast paced congestion of HCM with the old charm and beauty of Hoi An, you get Hanoi! (Brad was keen to mention that Hoi An is also an anagram of Hanoi.) We arrived in the morning at about 9am, found a guest house, and then went out to see the city. There is a very apparent French feel to the city - there are 2 main central parts, the old quarter, and the more modern Parisian-looking part, where the opera house is located and lots of high fashion stores are going in (Burberry, etc) There's a big lake in between the two areas, so we got our bearings throughout the morning. Hanoi's old quarter is great: narrow streets clogged with motorbikes (organized chaos, of course), old French-inspired buildings with balconies overlooking the streets - store after store, and street vendors all along the streets. That, of course makes walking down the street an adventure in and of itself - everyone's trying to sell you whatever they can, so you start to think of new and interesting ways to say no to fresh pineapples, flip flops, and motorbike rides. We found some pretty amazing little streets with lots of cafes and restaurants, so later that day (after a well-needed nap), we headed back out for some food, drink, and live jazz. I know that I'll be back in Hanoi during part II, so I wasn't worried about seeing everything this time. Great day in Hanoi, a perfect day to walk around and soak it all in. There's a much more uniform look to Hanoi compared to HCM--which seems to be a hodgepodge of architecture, history, and overbuilding. Hanoi, on the other hand, is historic looking, yet clean, and getting more modern without losing its past.

We woke up this morning, and I caught a taxi to the airport with Brad (who was, coincidentally, picking up his father from the airport who has flown out from LA to join him as they go to Halong Bay & Sapa in Vietnam and then on to Myannmar/Burma for a week). The flight down to HCM was easy, and now I'm sitting in the same hostel I met Brad in on May 6th when I first got to Vietnam! I meet up with Zack late tonight when he gets in, and we'll go out and see HCM tomorrow. Phew. I had the best time with Brad the past couple of weeks - it's such a great surprise when you meet someone whose personality so easily meshes with your own. It felt like we've been best friends for a long time, but I guess that's how it is out here in backpacker world...fast friends, lifelong memories (of which we made lots traveling through Vietnam together). He is a great new friend - good times. AND - I'm very excited to go with Zack on my part II Vietnam experience. I'll talk it over with Zack, but I think that we'll do: HCM, Dalat (via bus), then do the Easy Rider motorbike tour through countryside along the Ho Chi Minh trail to Hoi An, then head on up to Hanoi so we can go to Halong Bay and Sapa, before heading over to Laos.

5 weeks done: So, I realized that this is the start of my 6th week on this trip. Wow - the first 5 weeks have been so packed full of experiences, it's felt like 5 months!!! This is the midpoint of my SE Asia trip (10 weeks total here, then 10 weeks in India & Nepal). I couldn't be happier out here - Vietnam is a spectacular country, and I am excited for what will come next. It's super easy to get around this country, and I think after 5 weeks I'm starting to understand the rhythm and pace that goes along with being a traveler. Backpacker life suits me - I haven't shaven in 6 weeks, so I have a kick-ass beard at the moment. Please don't tell Mama Eda though, that'll upset her. :-)

OK - I think that's it for now, it's 3pm here, and I'm going to walk around for a bit and explore the town on my own for a few hours. I love you guys lots - thanks for keeping up with my travels!!! I'll write again in a couple of days after I've explored all there is to see in Saigon!!!

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ice Cream & Photoshoots

2007-05-11T08:50:00.000-04:00

I think I definitely fell in love with Vietnam today. Hello from Hoi An, Vietnam, the most beautiful old-style city one could ever hope of encountering in life. What a welcomed change this is from the beach town of Nha Trang, and the busy city life of Ho Chi Minh city. Hoi An is an old Vietnamese city with quiet streets, beautiful architecture, and friendly faces. The scenery is very French-inspired, so many of the buildings are warm-colored (mostly yellow), with second-level balconies overlooking the streets. Every street corner has the charm and elegance as the next - it's hard to decide where to point the camera! It truly is a picturesque city, this is the Vietnam I've been waiting for!

I arrived yesterday morning (after a long and not-too-comfortable bus ride from Nha Trang), and spent the entire afternoon wandering around the streets of Hoi An with my friend Brad - following Lonely Planet's walking tour of the city. We went through the old streets, stopped at temples, markets, covered bridges, and walked along the idyllic riverfront. Perfect walking day, to say the least! Last night we got some food, and ended up at a Western bar playing foosball, cards, with some beer to cap of the day.

Today was truly special. Brad & I rented a motorbike and drove out to My Son - a famous ruins site located about 45 km outside of Hoi An. Yes - I drove the motorbike for the second time in my life today! Very successful, in my opinion. (No accidents!) The scenery on the way out and back was stunning - we drove through the countryside, passing rice paddies, small villages, and so many people living their lives, apart from the tourist/western influences.

My Son was really beautiful - it reminded me of some of the temples at Angkor Wat. The site is truly a national legacy, and unfortunately most of it was destroyed by American bomber planes during the Vietnam War. We spent about an hour walking around the ruins and then got back on the bike and headed back to Hoi An (I drove about halfway back, so I'd say that my driving skills are pretty excellent right now - lots more motorbike driving for me in the future!!!)

The best part of today was when we stopped at a small village for a water break and were surrounded by about 12 little kids. We started playing with them and then taking their picture - they were obsessed with my digital camera. They couldn't get enough of it. When I videotaped them and then showed it to them, I don't think they've ever laughed that hard in their lives! It was great, Brad & I bought them all ice cream, laughed some more, and then headed off. It's moments like that - stopping and hanging out with the kids - that I'll remember forever.

The man who oversaw the icecream stand told us about he and his father, a member of the Viet Cong, who were living at My Son when the Americans bombed the site. It's amazing to see how one bombing campaign 35 years ago can affect an entire community across multiple generations. It gave me hope that this man can look at me, an American, and treat me warmly just like any other friend - even when it was my country that destroyed his.

The drive back through the countryside as the sun was setting capped off what was a genuinely beautiful day. Beautiful fields, stunning scenery, this is the Vietnam that everyone should see.

Ok - that's all for now folks...OH YES, one more thing: Hoi An is famous for tailored clothing, and I'm proud to say that I have 4 new gorgeous, tailored shirts, and a brand-new tailored gray wool coat for the fall. Watch out streets of New York/The Hague. :-)

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Doin' The Twist in the South China Sea

2007-05-08T08:58:00.000-04:00

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING (from) VIETNAM!!!!!!!!!!!! I've missed writing to you guys terribly. Apologies for this uncharacteristic delay in my blog updates. :-) Right now I am in the beautiful beach city of Nha Trang, Vietnam. The last few days have been pretty hectic, filled with lots of bus rides, border crossings, new currencies, new faces --- but it's all been amazing. Here's the scoop since we last spoke.

After I left Kampot, Cambodia (where I went on the Bokor Hill Station tour), I headed for Sihanoukville - a beach town on the south coast of Cambodia. Lonely Planet calls it the "costa del Cambodia" - well, I might have to rename it the "el crapo del Cambodia". The beach was pretty grimy and trashy, I didn't even go in the water. This beach makes Coney Island look good. I stayed at a fun guest house filled with westerners, which was the only saving grace during my 24-hour stay. That night was pretty entertaining, as our guest house was pretty much the only happening party in town. I played some pretty fun drinking games, and learned all about Vietnam/Laos/India/Nepal from some new friends. Anyway, once I arrived in Sihanoukville, I immediately realized that I was done with Cambodia, and ready to move on to Vietnam. My 3 best friends from Phnom Penh had all left for Vietnam prior to my southern excursion, and I kept meeting backpackers who had just come from Vietnam and couldn't stop talking about how amazing it is. SO, I decided to leave Sihanoukville, go back to Phnom Penh, and then catch the next morning bus to Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) to meet up with my friend Brad and travel up through Vietnam with him. After a great bus ride - with new British Jewish friends from Manchester, England - we arrived at the border of Cambodia/Vietnam. You know you're entering a Communist country when, after passing one rural shack village after the other, you come upon a massive gated fortress with red flags on every visible post, holding both the hammer & sickle and yellow star within view of everyone who dares to approach. Anyway, the border cross went fine, thanks to a stellar bus company (who would have thought!!?) I arrived in Ho Chi Minh (HCM) early afternoon on the 6th, and spent that afternoon walking around the city with my friend Brad. I knew right away that I had made the right decision when I got to HCM. The city is a more modern version of Phnom Penh - cleaner, more western, and great fun to walk around. The streets are filled to the brim with motorbikes - even moreso than Phnom Penh, which is surprising. We only had a few hours to kill before we had to leave, so we walked around the backpacker area of the city, and then headed to Chinatown and walked around there for a while. Everyone kept staring at us, since we were the only white people on the crowded streets, and plus my friend Brad is freakishly tall (6'4).

Right - I forgot to update you on my revised travel plan. Since I joined my friend Brad in HCM, I decided to continue on his rather quick trip up the coast to meet his dad in Hanoi on May 15th, the same day that I will then fly back to Saigon to meet Zack. Therefore I'll get to see Vietnam twice - the second time a bit slower than the first, and a few more destinations along the way.

So, from HCM, I took an overnight bus to Nha Trang - we arrived yesterday morning, found a nice guest house 1 block from the beach, dropped our bags, and headed for the beach. Having been at the crappy beach of Sihanoukville only 2 days (or what seemed like 1 continuous long day) before, this beach is la creme de la creme. Absolutely stunning, picturesque, massive beach stretching along a huge curved coastline with golden sand as far as you can see. The road that parallels the beach looks like it could be the boardwalk in Tel Aviv, or even Miami Beach -- except then you look closer at the main road (once my colorblindness wore off a little bit) and you see an endless row of red flags that stretch all the way along the way. Oh yes, I'm in Vietnam, can't forget that!

You know you're in Vietnam when, after someone asks you where you're from, you hear yourself gulp in your throat after you say "America"...luckily their reply is filled with excitement and eager to here more about our country. Did you know that the US dollar is pretty much the standard currency here, along with their Dong. $16,000 dong/dollar. In fact, Cambodia also uses the US dollar as its main currency. For a country that we were at war with about 30 years ago, things have definitely changed here. This country is on the up-and-up. You see western brands in the cities, development and new buildings seem to be sprouting everywhere, and sanitation systems seem to be more prominently put in place (even though people still throw trash in the street).

Ok - so our first day in Nha Trang was beach bum-tastic. We soaked up some rays, then walked around the town for some good eats and drinks. A couple of highlights from last night: our first stop was in this loud, bumping (yet small) Vietnamese club, and everyone was just seated on couches around the room not talking (since the music was so loud). All eyes were on the two big white guys when we entered, and about 3 different girls (and 1 guy) kept sitting next to us in alternating rotations to practice their sparse English. There was a lot of awkward smiling, but you gotta love the Vietnamese for trying with their English. Later on we found the happening western bar in town - Crazy Kim's - KIM: I took a picture for you! - and enjoyed a game of pool and some beers.

By the way - if you ever go backpacking around southeast Asia, expect to play A LOT of pool. I think my previous exposure to the game was during those random trips to that pool hall in Newburgh next to Big 3 Deli when we had NOTHING TO DO!!! (REMEMBER ROSS - back in the day!!!), and I can't say that I've liked the game so much, but every guest house you go to, every bar you enter, there's always a game to play. And, I'm actually getting pretty ok at the game. :-)

Today was our big boat trip around the islands of Nha Trang. Brad & I were picked up at 8:30 am and were brought to the harbor to board a boat with about 40 other Vietnamese families. (The boat next to us had all of the Westerners, but we realized later that this would be to our advantage). Our day would bring us to 4 different islands, and lots of random fun along the way. First stop: snorkeling off of island #1 (Hon Tam I think?) The coral reef around the island was beautiful, and we saw lots of cool tropical fish. The best part about snorkeling was the tiny jellyfish scattered about that you had to avoid. I think I was stung a couple of times, but luckily it was just a minor prick on the skin...no tragedies today folks, sorry! After snorkeling, we boarded the boat again for lunch - all prepared on the boat by the staff, and it was amazing! There was so much food left over, and for some reason, everyone kept thinking that Brad & I could finish it all. 'Oh, don't worry, those monstrous Americans can finish it for us.' :-)

Once the table was cleared following lunch, one of the crew brought out 3 buckets tied together and placed it in the center of the table. These are no 3 ordinary buckets - this was our very own Vietnamese party boat drum kit! Another crew member jumped on the stage with his electric guitar, and our 2 tour guides came out with microphones and started singing Vietnamese songs. Of course, after the crowd warmer-uppers were finished, the MC came up to Brad and me and asked where we were from, and subsequently dragged us on stage to sing a song from America. (because there is only 1 song that comes to mind when someone asks you to sing an American song). Our MC chose Hotel California, (which is a big fave in this part of the world), and Brad & I got about 2 lines into the song before we went blank. (Aly - you should have been there!!!!!!!!!) The song cut off about midway since we were just standing there blank-faced, but fortunately the band went right into their signature rock song - Chubby Checker's "Twistin The Night Away". Ah, this is a much easier song with which to make a fool of myself, my mind said. So, I began twisting on a boat in the South China Sea while the Vietnamese were channeling good ol' Chubby Checker. We brought the house down. It was quite a scene.

After the dancing, we stopped off another island for some more diving off the boat's top deck/drinking rice wine in the sea (standard operating procedure, I'm sure), and then we headed to an aquarium on island #4. Very cool place, saw some great fish. Then we ended the day back at Nha Trang and were brought back our guest house. Fun times.

The best part about evenings in beach towns are the great seafood you can eat for dinner - mmmmm. Brad and I shared a heaping portion of clams, mussels, king prawns, oysters, fish, and squid, as well as two monstrous desserts - all for about $7 each. Too right. Excellent dinner.

And that brings us to now. I've heard from lots of people from my parents' generation that they find it strange to hear from me in Vietnam when they spent so many years trying to stay out of this country. I think I have lots more to learn about the history of Vietnam, (which I'll do more thoroughly on my second trip up the country - starting in Saigon. The Viet Cong's Cu Chi tunnels and the War Rememberance Museum will be my first two stops when I return to HCM) but for now, I think it's a truly unique place. Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization only a few months ago, and there is a sense of prosperity in the air in this beautiful country. I'm very new to Vietnam, and I will have many more stories to share before I leave, but I think Thailand and Cambodia were just preparation for Vietnam. This is what I've been waiting for - history, culture, landscape, politics. Lots to see and do, and it will be great.

That's all for now - this internet cafe is closing down, so I must say goodbye!!! Please add comments and email me!!!

Lots of love always!!!!!

Same Same But Different - Our First Top 10 of the trip

2007-05-03T07:54:00.000-04:00

Hello from Kampot, Cambodia!!!! I arrived here last night, after a truly spectacular bus ride down through Cambodia's countryside. (One minor mishap along the way, a small bit of smoke pouring out of the front of the bus, but not a big deal) The views were amazing - flat, checkered farmland as far as the eye can see in either direction, and once in a while we'd pass through small, simple towns. Children were walking and biking home from school in their uniforms at the side of the road (little kids riding big bikes alongside passing traffic, one would think that is very dangerous, but not in Cambodia. It's the way of life). Anyway, we arrived at the center of town just as it was getting dark, and just as it started to pour. A British friend that I traveled down from Phnom Penh with and I checked out a couple of guest houses, and then chose one that was right...lots of other backpackers, clean, nice people, and $3/night. I love living on a budget.

Today I embarked on a full day tour of the area. Kampot's most unique attraction is the Bokor Hill Station, which is an abandoned vacation resort town, formerly used during the French colonial period in the early 20th century. Basically, they built this big palacial complex with grand views, a nearby church, and then once France pulled out of Cambodia in the 1950s, it quickly went into disrepair and ruin (to put it lightly). Today, Bokor Hill Station is a national park, and the buildings are eerie, empty, and a stark reminder of chaotic century Cambodia has endured. The buildings are ravaged by fighting between the Khmer Rouge & the Vietnamese army, and the buildings are destroyed and decrepit - it was hard to imagine what the place was like at its prime.

In order to reach Bokor Hill Station, you have to take a truck ride for 1 1/2 hours up the mountain. Easy enough, right? Well, not in Cambodia, and not on this road, which was pretty much destroyed by the Khmer Rouge 30 years ago. To say that the road was plagued with craters is putting it lightly. Hardly any asphalt is left, and it's basically going over large boulders and dirt road all the way up the hill. Plus, sitting on the back of a truck for the ride up and back has left me with a numb bum. Very sad.

After we walked around Bokor, we headed on a mini trek through the surrounding national park. Our trail was originally cleared by the Khmer Rouge to march people towards the cliff and push them off. The cliff is now overgrown with plants and trees, but it's haunting think that it is rooted in so much death.

Our day ended with an hour-long boat ride up the nearby river overlooking the sunset. The boat was very simple, long and narrow, in the shape of a canoe, but much bigger than your average canoe. The Cambodian husband and wife in the back of the boat were monitoring the steering and water pumping (aka - manually pumping water out of the boat), and it was a perfect way to end the day. The river was narrow, with the sun setting on the hills around us. Every now and then, local fishing boats would pass us and it reminded me how simple life is here - the people have very little, but there is always a smile on every face you see. Happiness is not based on material wealth in this country.

Tomorrow or the next day I will head to Sihanoukville, and beach town on the southern coast of Cambodia. There are caves nearby Kampot, so I might check those out tomorrow, but I'm not sure - I'm enjoying each day one by one. Vietnam is the next stop after Cambodia, so I should be there in a few days. Can't wait!

Top 10 Things I Love About Traveling in SE Asia

10. Reading book after book, and then passing them on to a new friend
9. No alarms to wake up to (except if it's a travel day and you're catching the early bus)
8. I'm surrounded by all the British people I could ever ask for
7. The difference between $4/night and $3/night is a big deal
6. The hardest choice I have during the day: "Should I have noodles or rice?"
5. What's a bus trip without a near disaster?
4. Beer Lao, Chang Beer, Tiger Beer
3. Same Same But Different
2. Figuring it out when you thought you couldn't
1. Every day is an adventure

Speak to you again soon, lots of love always!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you think New York is crazy...

2007-04-30T07:20:00.000-04:00

Hello from Phnom Penh - Cambodia's wild capital city. It's been another drastically wonderful change of pace for me these past couple of days. I arrived on Friday afternoon after a 6 hour bus ride - no problemo. The intercity roads have actually improved in the last few years (ie, they now exist), so the bus ride was relatively smooth. A couple of cows almost turned into ground beef, but hey, no big deal. :-) So, after spending a few days in the calm, tranquil city of Siem Reap, Phnom Penh is like a shot in the arm - streets packed full of bikes, cars, tuk tuks, storefront after storefront overflowing with every type of good you can imagine (I'm now convinced that I can walk into any building in SE Asia and get anything I want. Do you want to test it out? Any requests? It's pretty hysterical). Of course, there's lots of poverty everywhere - families with shacks for houses and little more than the clothes on their back and a few things to sell, but there are signs of new building and development in this city.

When the bus pulled to a stop, the tuk tuk drivers crowd around the door screaming at every passenger to board their tuk tuk. Luckily, that gives us the upper hand to bargain them all down. It's like a mini auction, but in reverse. My American friend from Siem Reap and I found the #9 Guest House - right on the Boeng Kak Lake in Phnom Penh. It's Lonely Planet's #1 recommendation, so the place is full of backpackers --- even though this is Cambodia's low season. Great location, our little room ($5/night) opens up onto the huge lake, and the guest house has an extremely relaxed environment. The common area is one big dock with a roof. All day long, people lounge around on the hammocks and couches, watching movies, chatting, eating food, playing pool, reading, etc. It's definitely the ultimate backpacker's haven. Once we dropped our bags, we joined a few Canadians and walked around town for a bit into the Central Market. I love Southeast Asian markets - everything under the sun is crammed into narrow corridors held together by dodgy poles and tarps. The scents of so many types of produce - meat, vegetables, fruit, cooked meals, uncooked meals, food I've never seen before in my life - rivalled the mere sight of it all. We stopped at one booth and ate some fried fish/vegetable cake. For 12 1/2 cents (500 Riel), it was probably the best meal of the trip so far! And it was a great boost to my cholesterol. :-)

On our first full day, American friend Brad and I went out to the Toul Sleng Museum - aka Security Prison 21 (S-21) and the Killing Fields. I've learned a bit about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge so far, but I definitely got a first-hand account of what this genocide was like. The first stop was at S-21, a former elementary school turned into a prison and torture facility. It's so creepy walking into the main courtyard, because it looks like a normal school. However, each classroom was converted into a prison cell and torture chamber, and the place is pretty much preserved as it was 30 years ago. Without going into too much detail, there are pictures of each of the victims before they were imprisoned - 20,000 people were brought to this one facility, with only 7 remaining survivors in 1979 when the Vietnamese army brought down the Khmer Rouge. The faces of the people are captivating and haunting - fear mixed with anger mixed with sadness. And, the "VIP" torture rooms - 14 rooms which held the last 14 former Khmer Rouge officers when the prison was discovered - showed pictures of the dead bodies lying on the metal bed frame mattress. Each of those rooms contained the metal frame beds and torture devices lying on the bed. Standing there was pretty harrowing. And, the fact that this all happened less than 30 years ago is shocking.

From S-21 we went to the Cheung Ek killing field, to which the Khmer Rouge would transport the prisoners from S-21 to be killed. There were hundreds of killing fields all across Cambodia; most of them have been discovered, but there are still many uncovered due to the millions of landmines that are checkered across the country. As of now, there are no official estimates of the numbers killed by Pol Pot. The lowest estimate is 750,000, and the highest estimate is 3 million. The killing field that we went to is a simple farmland with trees and grass all around, with a massive temple structure in the middle of the field. The temple is dedicated to the dead, and the four glass walls of the 8-story structure contains rows of skulls - with clearly visible blunt wounds. The area around the temple is a series of mass graves that were uncovered in 1980. Fragments of bones still lie scattered on the ground. Our guide was there in 1980 when the graves were uncovered (he recalled the horrible smells), and has worked there ever since.

The people of Cambodia do not have a sense of retribution or closure from this era. Pol Pot died in 1998, and most of the Khmer Rouge leaders are dying of natural causes. For some reason, there has been no war crimes trial for the Khmer Rouge. It has been delayed over the years, and now there may be no justice at all. How can this country move forward without closing the past?

The American Point of View on Cambodia --- Prior to the Cambodian Genocide, the US Army was assisting the Khmer Rouge's two rival factions to join together to quell the Khmer Rouge. While the rest of the story may be up for debate, when the US pulled out of Vietnam (as well as its involvement in Cambodia), that cleared the way for Pol Pot to overthrow the US' handpicked rulers. There are further intricacies and details to this plot - many of which I'm not completely sure of, but I was saddened to learn that the US had an indirect involvement in the rise of Khmer Rouge.

Since I've arrived in Cambodia there are certain things that you realize in this culture. First, there are very few senior citizens. Most of the country is about 30-40 or below (most of the Cambodians I've met are in there 20s). Pol Pot wiped out an entire population. Second, there is no real waste management system. Garbage is either thrown on the street, burned, or sent somewhere nearby. It's a way of life here. Third, stoplights are merely suggestive. I just rode on the back of a motorbike to get back to my guest house at 5:30 pm - prime rush hour. I can now say that I've ridden through the most crowded streets ever. BUT - no one is shouting, no one is flipping anyone off - people just meander through the traffic, and it somehow turns into organized chaos. People smile as we drive by them, and everyone gets to where they have to go...eventually.

I've actually enjoyed Phnom Penh a lot more than I thought I was going to. Tomorrow, I'm heading to the southern part of Cambodia for about a week or so - Kampot and Sihanoukville. Slower pace, beach towns, scenic travel, and solo time for Danny. It's been wonderful traveling solo so far...mainly because I haven't been alone yet and it would be hard for me to be alone if I tried. (ALY - the German girls Nicole and Reggie came to our guest house the day after we got here, so it's been great hanging out with them again). I've met some great people here, and learned so much. Every day is a new adventure, it's a privilege to have this opportunity. I hope that you all can get a sense of what it's like over here and then you can all quit your jobs and follow me! :-)

Thanks again for keeping up with the trip. I miss you all! I love hearing from you guys, so please shoot me an email or add a comment to the posting. I'm not sure what the internet situation will be like in southern Cambodia, but I hope to be able to update again in a couple of days.

Mom - HAPPY (one-day-early) BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! I'm sending you lots of love and happy birthday wishes from the other side of the world! Enjoy your day!!!!

Lots of love to my family and friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Sunrise to End All Sunrises (subtitle: Angkor WHAAAAAT??!)

2007-04-26T06:26:00.000-04:00

Hello from Siem Reap, Cambodia!!!! What an amazing little city. I had built up so much excitement before I arrived, and all for good reason! Siem Reap feels like a scene out of a movie - people are going about their daily life, selling souveniers, riding the tuk tuks, bikes, and cars, but there is a much more relaxed feel to the place than in Thailand. Even Chiang Mai, the bohemian red headed stepchild of Bangkok is a lot busier than here.

So, Aly and I landed in Siem Reap two days ago, got our visas without a problem, and met our driver to take us to our guest house, the Shadow of Angkor. Very lovely place; there's a restaurant downstairs overlooking the small river across the street. (There are no windows or walls blocking the restaurant from the sidewalk, so you feel very much a part of the street scene). We toasted our arrival in Cambodia with some delicious Angkor Beer (Happy Hour: 5-10 pm, pretty much everywhere in the city --- $1 big bottle beers. yummy). From there we set off to walk around our area of town, Psar Chaa. The main street is as quaint as they come - it almost feels like the set of a movie. There are really nice shops and restaurants and bars, so much fun to walk around. We went down "Pub Street", (that is its actual name), and found a nice bar to enjoy some good beer and people watch, and also reflect on the fact that we're in Cambodia.

On the morning of our first full day, we headed to Angkor Wat. I've heard lots about it, spoken to people who have been there, and seen pictures, but nothing can really prepare you for seeing it in person. We arrived at the main temple of Angkor yesterday morning; our driver was pretty knowledgeable on the subject and gave us lots of background info. Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in Cambodia; it was built as a funeral temple and tomb for the king. There is a moat surrounding the entire grounds, and from the other side of the moat, you get your first glimpse of the temple. Even from far away, it sends shivers down your spine. When you cross the moat over the causeway, you enter through the stone gated entry, and continue along the path toward the temple. There are three tiers to Angkor Wat, with the center tier being the largest. When you walk up to the temple, you first notice its sheer size and grandeur. The first level is a hallway that stretches around the entire building, with bas reliefs depicting stories of Buddhism and Hinduism (side note: Cambodia went back-and-forth between Buddhism and Hinduism as the national religion due to differing rulers across the centuries. The temples reflect this double identity, with statues of Buddha intermingled with Vishnu/Shiva/Brahma statues). The second level is a maze of hallways, rooms, Buddha statues, all of which can be wandered through, climbed over, and jumped into. The whole place felt like an archaelogical marvel/jungle gym playhouse…pretty surreal. I kept waiting for someone to yell at us for being in the wrong place, but it never came. The top level is a treat. Since it’s perched very high up within the temple, there are VERY STEEP stairs that you have to climb – very steep and ANCIENT stairs, with a “climb at your own risk” sign in clear view. Upon reaching the top, the first thought that usually crosses one’s mind is how the heck you’re going to get down, but that thought is immediately displaced when you witness the view from the top. Stunning, breathtaking, you feel as if you’re almost at the heavens. You can see the whole grounds of Angkor Wat, the surrounding land, and even the city of Siam Reap into the distance. You can get a sense of what it would be like at the time of its peak, when Monks, servants, rulers, and soldiers were wandering around the entire Wat. It was a great way to start the day.

From Angkor Wat we went to a few other temples: Angkor Thom, Bayon (with over 200 faces on 49 towers staring down at you, very creepy), and Ta Phrom, which was phenomenal. Ta Phrom is a large temple within the jungle forest, and over time, the jungle has reclaimed the land that the stones once dominated. Basically, massive trees have taken root right through the stone ruins. Twisted series of roots go right through the temple, and you can literally see the battle between man vs. nature, and how nature eventually won.

Cambodian People: I’ve had a chance to meet a few Cambodian people in the last couple of days, and I can honestly say that they are wonderful. Our first encounters with the children were at Angkor Wat. Since the temple is pretty much the Disneyland of Cambodia (ie – it’s a central tourist attraction), there are children lined up at the entrance gate selling postcards, water, bracelets, etc. They all speak English really well, and have a keen knowledge of US geography, strangely enough. For example, when one boy came up to me and learned that I was from New York, he said, “the capital of New York is Albany.” They knew US states, presidents, governors, countries, and their English is extremely good. Of course, this knowledge usually wins over tourists’ dollars, but I guess that’s not such a bad thing. After a while, we started to have some fun with the kids. One boy came up to Aly, and after she replied that she was from Kazakhstan, the boy scratched his head and said, “whoa, that’s a hard one, I’m not sure I know that one” - with the cutest smile on his face, of course. There is an innate sense of humor that you don’t find elsewhere; even when you don’t buy anything from the kids, you still feel like they’ve opened up their hearts to you when you look at them in the eye.

On our way back from the temple, I talked to our driver about the Khmer Rouge. I wanted to know how the Cambodian people are dealing with the recent holocaust within their country during the 3-year, 8-month, 20-day Khmer Rouge reign between 1975-1979, over where 3 million people killed. Our driver, Paulee, lost his parents as well as his brother at the time. Today, Cambodians do not like to speak about the Khmer Rouge, as it might “reawaken” the past. It took about 20 years for Cambodia to get itself back on track within the modern world (tourism reopened to the West only in 1993, and the Vietnamese army left in 1998). I think the Cambodian people are trying to move forward into the future, slowly mending a huge wound from the past along the way.

After a long day of temple-hopping, we rested up and then went out for a delicious all-you-can-eat BBQ dinner. The way it works over here is, they set up a mini stove at your table, and you get all of your raw foods from the buffet, and then cook them individually at your table. Sort of like fondue, Cambodian-style. The dinner was delicious, and I can safely report that Aly and I are feeling fine 24 hours later. :-) Don’t worry mom.

This morning Aly and I woke up at 4:45 am to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. It’s the thing to do in this town, which we realized on our way over to the temple at 5am and noticed that lots and lots of other people had the same idea. It was well worth the trip. Since the entrance to Angkor Wat faces west, the sun rose exactly behind the phenomenal temple. It was an unbelievably emotional experience, and I felt so lucky to witness it. As far as sunrises go, you couldn’t get much better. The whole sky was lit up in an array of colors (according to Aly, since my colorblindness prevented me from seeing most of them), and the silhouette of Angkor Wat was a striking contrast to the morning glow.

After the sun was fully awake, we walked around Angkor Wat again and then headed about 30 kilometers outside of Siem Reap to another temple, Bantaey Srei. Even though the trip took about an hour, it was so worth it. This temple is renown for its exquisitely detailed stone carvings. I’ve never seen anything like it. The carvings went so deep into the stone, they were basically raised 3-D images carved with such great detail. There were figures of women, men, animals, intricate patterns, writings, it was so amazing to see the work that must have taken years to create.

After the hour-long trip back, we were pretty exhausted and crashed after lunch. And – that brings me to right now. I’m leaving tomorrow morning for Phnom Penh, to explore Cambodia’s wildest city and learn more about the Cambodian history. Aly and I met up with an American who’s heading down there as well, so I’ll have a travel buddy for a couple of days until I officially begin my solo travel. I’m excited to see more of this country; I love riding the tuk tuks through the streets, watching people go about their daily life, and speaking to whomever I encounter. It’s the willingness to speak that is most comforting; I think the further outside of tourist havens I venture, I’ll be able to tap into the true pulse of Cambodia. Until then, next stop is Phnom Penh’s city madness, and also to explore the killing fields and war museums.Much love to all – I actually tried to write this posting yesterday (twice), but of course the computers here deleted it (twice). But, fortunately you now have the sunrise account from today, so that should make up for my delay in writing.

Tomorrow is also the day I have to say goodbye to Aly - very sad...we've had so much fun together the last 3 weeks, I can't believe she won't be with me anymore. BUT - the show must go on, and I will journey onward alone until May 15th when my friend Zack (from Brandeis/DC/NYC) joins me in Vietnam & Laos. Get excited Zack!!!

Ok - that's all for now, thanks for reading and I love hearing from you guys! Keep it coming!

Lots of love always!!!!

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Chiang Mai!!

2007-04-24T03:46:00.000-04:00

...or make that spiders, mosquitos and roosters. Hello from Chiang Mai, Thailand's lovely and more relaxing city in the North. Apologies for not writing sooner, it's been quite an adventure up here. So, I think I last wrote as we were waiting for the train ride up to Bangkok on our journey northward. Well, I must say that overnight trains in Thailand are top notch...Amtrak has nothing against these trains. I probably had the best night sleep so far on that train ride...air conditioned, comfy, etc...you get the idea. We woke up in Bangkok and hopped in a taxi to the airport for our flight to Chiang Mai, all went smoothly. We were greeted at the airport by the driver from our hostel, James, who has an affinity for Americanisms like "how's it hanging dude", and "catch you on the flipside". I think some California tourists had their fun with James some time back.

Upon arriving Thursday evening in Chiang Mai, Aly and I decided to venture out to see Chiang Mai at night. The city's most famous tourist spot, the night market, was our first stop. It's basically a huge outdoor vendor/stall market, with one little stall after the next all lined up and down the streets. It's pretty fun if you like to bargain for chotchkies. Aly and I then went to a fun bar/restaurant on the river, called Riverside Bar. (Thanks for the recommendation Kim!) There was a Thai band playing classic American rock songs, like Simon & Garfunkel, Eric Clapton, and others. Pretty random, but it added to Thailand's random fun. We ate and drank right on the river and enjoyed some lovely music, only to go back to our hostel to get ready for our big departure the next morning.

Our main purpose in Chiang Mai was to go on a 3-day trek around the mountains and visit the hill tribes of northern Thailand. So, Friday morning Aly and I boarded a taxi with 7 other tourists and 2 Thai guides. Our group was great; we had a fun diverse mix of English-speaking folk: English, Welsh, Australian, New Zealand (Kiwi), and us Yanks. Our guide, Joshua, was the nicest and funniest guy, and his helper sidekick Don was great as well. SO - day 1 we drove for a while, stopping at the tourist police office to assure us that they have our information in case of any problems, and we could always dial 11-55 to reach them....as if we were going to see a phone over the 3 days, but let's not worry about that detail. So we finally reached the start of the trek and began the hike. Each of our stops was at little villages for lunch, then dinner and sleeping for the night. These villages are pretty primitive - very little (if any electricity), basic huts for sleeping and cooking, and lots of farm animals running around everywhere - chickens, roosters (that loved to wake us up at 4am), cows, pigs, dogs, cats. After a long first day of hiking, we finally made it to our first village where we enjoyed a delicious Thai dinner cooked by our tour guides and the villagers. Our tour guide Joshua joined us after dinner and we had a really entertaining discussion about his difficulties with learning the English language, and how we all speak English, but each of us is slightly different due to our home country. (Aly gave a great Brooklyn accent imitation - brought the house down). They have a great expression here in Thailand to explain this type of situation: "same same but different". Brilliant. I use it all the time now. Try to use it in your daily speech, it's amazing. Then all 9 of us slept in a big hut - it felt like being at camp again, lots o' fun.

Day 2: More hiking, with a stop at a waterfall to cool off from the oppresive heat. Our village stay on the second night had a huge lovely waterfall with a small pool of water to swim in...so nice! We then enjoyed another delicious Thai dinner (PS - I'm now in love with Thai food) and Joshua, our tour guide, entertained us with riddles and puzzles and tricks. Fun times.

Day 3: This was the day we'd been waiting for. We left our village at around 10am and hiked for about an hour or two - the views from this hike were pretty breathtaking. You could see farms and villages all throughout the hills as we meandered through winding paths. Lots of green everywhere, interspersed with black/burnt patches of land (controlled fires) to control overgrowth and potential larger forest fires. This was my favorite hiking of the trip. We finally reached a taxi which brought us to another stop for a delicious lunch, and then on to elephant riding!! I know that some of my friends are against keeping elephants in captivity for the benefit of tourists, but I don't think these elephants were poorly treated at this place. Anyway, Aly and I boarded our elephant, Tamu, and away we went. It was pretty scary at first, I kept thinking I was going to fall off. Every few steps the elephant sticks his trunk back to you and you have to feed it a banana. It's quite entertaining and slightly gross (at first) to watch the elephant clamp down on the banana with its nostril. So, you follow a path for a while, riding on the thing, and then at the midway point/water break, the guide told me to slide down off the seat and sit right on its head (aka not the normal spot for a tourist). After Aly convinced me I'd be ok, I managed to sit on the back of its neck and rest my legs behind his ears. Here's what sitting on an elephant feels like: their skin is very thick, and they have lots of prickly hairs that stick up. Plus, every once in a while, Tamu would sneeze or clear out his trunk or something, and he would get snot all over me. Gross. At the water breaks, the elephants would all gather around each other and get us all wet and snotty. All in all, a memorable experience. Aly has a professional/touristy picture of her and me that she will bring back to NYC for all to see. It's kinda like when you get off space mountain at Disney and they have your picture ready for you in case you want to buy it. Apparently that technology has made it to Thailand!!

Our next stop was bamboo rafting. Picture 6 or 7 big bamboo poles tied together to form a raft, and we floated down a small river, with a couple of mild rapids along the way. It was pretty relaxing, until we got to the patch of river where the locals like to come and play their favorite pasttime: "drench the tourists!" As the name suggests, everyone lines the river and splashes the passing rafts. Girls are bigger tourists (or garner more points in their game), so I was safer from my vantage point in the back. (I was actually standing in the back with a bamboo pole in my hand to help steer --- the main Thai driver was in the front, and doing most of the work, to be honest. Highlight of the drenching portion: one clever Thai family kept a supply of ice water, not river water, to pour over Aly. Poor girl. Freezing cold water. Highlight #2: Passing an elephant in the river as it was pooping. Large terd, to say the least. Very excellent splash, though. :-)

After the elephants and bamboo rafting, our trip was over. We drove back to our hostel and all 9 of us met up for a beer to exchange emails. Great group. My new Kiwi friends are my faves. They're newlyweds who are traveling for 3 months before they go back to NZ to figure out what to do next.

Today, Aly and I visited a few temples in Chiang Mai, and absorbed a bit of the religious culture of the city. At our last temple visit, which is also a university for Monks, Aly and I met a monk named Silwan (I think that's how one would spell it), and the three of us chatted for half an hour about Buddhism. He was extremely nice and patient and told us the main tenets of Buddhism. It was quite enlightening. Basically, Buddhism is a way of life, more than a religion, and they stress healing the mind before you can heal the body. Their 3 main beliefs are: impermanence, suffering, and selflessness. I learned a lot more from him, but I'll spare you the sermon. It was a very memorable chat, and it made me realize that I already incorporate a lot of the mindsets and attitudes in my life. I will definitely explore Buddhism further. I'm fascinated by monks, so I am a happy boy to be able to sit down and chat with one. I have a picture with Silwan, but I can't figure out how to upload my pictures yet. SO SORRY!!

So that brings us to now. Thanks for reading this long blog...internet is cheaper up here in the north, so I can afford to write longer blog entries. Aly is getting a massage at the moment, so I decided to head off and log on. We leave tomorrow for Siam Reap and Angkor Wat, and I am soooo excited. Thailand was great - beautiful scenery, great people - but I'm ready for another country and new adventures. Plus, it seems like Thailand is the backpacker's starting-off point. Everyone seems to have just started their trips (aka they're not wise backpackers yet). I'm ready to go a bit deeper into SE Asia, and become a true traveler.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREGORY! 28 years old, mazel tov. (I know it's tomorrow - the 25th, but I had to include it here).

That's all for now, I'll write you again from Cambodia - Aly's with me until the 28th of April, so not much time left! Very sad, we're having lots of fun together. It will be quite different to be on my own, but I'm ready for it...and excited.

Love to all my friends - in Newburgh, NYC, Washington DC, Newcastle England, and elsewhere!! And love to my family!!!

Lots of love always!!! Miss you!!!!!!!!!!

Livin' On The Edge...At 30 Kilometers Per Hour

2007-04-19T07:40:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! I'm now en route from Koh Pha Ngan to Chang Mai, about 1/3 of the way there at the moment. Aly and I left midday from our resort, and I think I'm all beached out and ready to move on. We've got some pretty dark tans at the moment, and if we get any more sun we might fry. (still not as dark as you mom, not yet at least).

Yesterday was my first venture in motorbike riding. To start, it's not as easy as it looks. My first turn down the street was pretty hairy (I made Aly stand on the side of the road so I can figure it out and spare one of us in case of emergency). After my first left-hand turn, I ended up in the wrong lane on the other side of the street, facing oncoming traffic. Luckily it was a quiet moment so I didn't have to dodge any big trucks. :-) The guy who rented us the bike was watching me and later confessed to witnessing my lack of motorbike skills. He consoled me by telling me about 2 Japanese girls who were so bad on the bike, plus their feet wouldn't reach the pedals. Great, I'm marginally better than 2 short Japanese girls. Very comforting. Anyway, Aly and I took off on the road up to the northern end of the island and meandered our way from beach to beach, stopping for snorkeling, swimming, and chilling on hammocks. A very relaxing day. Each beach was more lovely than the next, and I got pretty comfortable driving the bike by the end of the day - even though I stayed at 30 km/hour the whole day - I think every bike/car on the island passed me. Oh well, my pride was still intact nonetheless. (Uncle Eric, you would've been very proud of me! I might have to take a turn on your 4x4 when I get back!).

We met up with our new American friends from the Black Moon party the other night for dinner last night on their beach - Haad Yao. We enjoyed the most delicious seafood meal ever - Dad and Greg you would have loved it: shark, barracuda, crab, prawn, red snapper, baked potato, and corn. yummy. We crashed at the Americans' bungalow (their AC was too hard to give up compared to our steamy room), and they drove us back on their bikes this morning (note: they weren't given the memo about my 30 km/hour preferences). Fast trip back, yikes. Don't worry mom, I got home safely.

So that brings us to now, after taking a taxi to the harbor, where we boarded a boat back to the mainland, then onto a bus, followed by another taxi to the train station. Once we get on the train, we'll head up to Bangkok, transfer in a taxi to the airport and fly up to Chang Mai. Just an average day in the lives of wandering backpackers. If only our upcoming elephant trek were part of this itinerary, I'd say that we would've covered all bases, but alas.

Speak to you from the north of Thailand!!!!

Lots of love always!!!!!!!!

1-week recap

2007-04-17T05:06:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I think I've been traveling for about a week or so, so I think it's time to recap what it's been like, what I've learned, what's been good, what's been bad, etc. It's definitely been an amazing start to the trip. Bangkok was furiously insane (and hot), and a good learning lesson for starting out as a backpacker in SE Asia. It's been a very smart decision to hit the beaches right away, as it's super duper hot in the part of the world right now. I hear the weather in the NE USA has been crap, so I'll try to send some of this warmth your way. I've met tons of people from all over the world, and the most interesting thing that I notice (and may have previously taken for granted) is that everyone speaks English. For a German tourist to talk to a Thai hotel worker, they speak English, etc, etc. It makes me wish that Americans got around the world more to take advantage of this useful tool. Wouldn't the world view America differently if we were actually in other countries talking to people about the issues, rather than watching a biased opinion over the world news media. Anyway, it's nice to know that the English language is such an amazing cultural link wherever you go.

Traveling with Aly P: It's funny what you learn about someone when you travel with them. For example, Aly will get REALLY hungry, and then our mission will be to find her some food. Or, she'll get REALLY thirsty, and water will be the pot of gold at the end of a really hot and humid rainbow. Or, she's SUPER tired, and will be in desperate need of a slumber to re-energize for the rest of the day. Urgent bathroom breaks need no further explanation. Basically, Aly loves to live around extremes, so it makes the days very entertaining. :-)

My current state of relaxation: I don't think I've ever gone on a vacation and done absolutely nothing in an entire day....until today. From the minute I woke up until right now, I just lounged at the pool all day. I became friends with the bartender outside and when we got to talking about music, he let me plug my iPod into the speaker system at the pool. So, a full day of Danny's iPod blasting overlooking the beach. I don't think I could've imagined a better way to spend a sunny day. And I finished The Beach today - if you haven't read it, go get the book! The ending is awesome and different from Leo's version.

Last night we had the black moon party, which was really cool. Imagine an area of a beach blocked off, black lights everywhere, cool glowy trees and designs painted on black cardboard everywhere, firethrowers, lots of drinks food and people galore. The best thing about the party was that it was a lot smaller than I thought...there weren't millions of people crammed onto a beach. It was very chill, met interesting people danced to some trance music, and the next thing I knew it was 5 am and our beds were calling us. All in all, a great night...even without the drugs to make all of those colorful paintings and firethrowers look extra-trippy. :-)

Travelers versus tourists: I think right now I'm still a tourist, especially at the resort I'm staying at now...but soon enough I will make the switch to identifying myself as a traveler. (It's pretty hard not to be a tourist on these islands). There's a big difference, and I plan on pursuing the traveler route once I find the right pace to this trip and I learn all of the proper backpacker etiquette. I met some guys last night who gave me some off-the-beaten-path traveler advice, so Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos should be amazing! (Zack, get ready for a wicked time when you come over! Very excited to see you in Ho Chi Minh City!!)

Later today I think we're going to watch the sunset at a bar on the other side of this island, and depending on how we feel, go out to the bars tonight. I want to rent a motorbike tomorrow and ride around the island. The Thais love their mopeds down here, you can't go anywhere without one!

Also - I wanted to mention that I went the environmentally-friendly route when planning this trip. After seeing "An Inconvenient Truth" I went to the website (which is linked on this blog page at the bottom, along with other cool sites) and purchased renewable energy credits to offset the carbon emissions that all of my around-the-world flights will emit. Basically, I gave money to fund the production of a wind energy farm so that the amount of energy that my funds will go towards will equal the carbon dioxide that my planes will emit. Go to the website to learn more, and start living green!

I just read about the Va. Tech tragedy - I can't believe that happened. So sad. I'll say an extra prayer tonight for the victims.

Okay, I think that's all for now. Miss everyone, thank you all so much for reading my blog! I miss you tons, but I'm doing well (as you can probably gather), and each day is more wonderful than the next.

Lots of love always.

Beach Life, Part Deux

2007-04-16T06:11:00.000-04:00

Hello from Koh Pha Ngan!!! We arrived this afternoon after 4 lovely days in Koh Samui. It was sad to say goodbye to our lovely little resort, but the sadness was quelled instantly when we arrived at our new temporary home for the next three days, the Weangtai Hotel. This place rocks. It's more of a backpacker, communal, friendly atmosphere...and there's a bar right at the side of the pool with a bench in the pool. How convenient. This afternoon was spent swimming and reading in a hammock on the beach. Very relaxing...tonight's activity is the black moon party (new moon party), so that should be pretty wild. Still loving every minute of the trip. Pha Ngan island is a bit less busy than Samui, so that's a relief. I think Aly and I are going on a boat tour of the island on Wednesday, since most places are inaccessible due to poor roads. Yesterday Aly and I walked the entire Lamai Beach on Samui - 2 hours down, 2 hours back, and we found some beatiful, well-hidden bays out of the tourists' reach. Except now I've got a lovely sunburn - I never knew the tops of your feet could get that red!!! Anyway, I'm loving the beach life at the moment (not that I see that changing in the next few days or anything). Does anyone out there have any other recommendations for Pha Ngan??? Also - we're heading to Chang Mai next, so please send me your recs for that regions as well (for my fellow well traveled mates). I'm sure I'll have some crazy drunken stories for tomorrow's entry, so I'll leave you all now eager for more. Lots of love to you all!!!!

Paradise (not) Lost -- (because we found it yesterday)

2007-04-14T21:25:00.000-04:00

Hello again from Samui!!!! Apologies for the two-day absence from blogland, two days ago there wasn't much to report, except if you find lounging around all day and the occasional bathroom break interesting. Yesterday, however was pretty spectacular. Aly and I rented a car with our German friends Philipp and Yanna to drive around the island. (stick shift cars meant we had to rely on the Germans for driving, but we love them and they were tons of fun). We had a tiny little sporty trucky car thing, so it was tight quarters for the 4 of us, even with the girls sitting outside in the car's pickup truck. First stop was the Hat Lin waterfall (located near the middle of the island - we went on about an hour hike through the middle of the island to a very lovely waterfall...although by the time we got there we were so sweaty and hot all we could think about was the beach. So - we turned around and trekked back to our car and continued the drive around the island. So, we went searching for a beach we'd heard about - Mae Nam. We had to turn down a random dirt road (I was navigating while Philipp was driving, and we kept missing the left turns down to the beach, causing a few u-turns now and again)...anyway, we finally parked the car, walked through some bungalows, and then we found it - Paradise. Probably the last undeveloped beach on Samui island. As perfect a beach as you can get - private, crystal clear, blue skies, warm beautiful water, views of the other islands out in front of us, small local boats crossing the water. We were all so happy we'd found this beach, it was hard to believe. So we did some swimming, relaxing, and then walked over to a small little restaurant on the water for a delicious Thai lunch ($1 per meal, that is!). From Paradise Beach we decided that we wanted to continue our tour of the island, and headed to another beach that was supposedly also very nice...Chaeng Mon. Turns out our undiscovered beach is about the only one on the island...beach #2 was crowded with lazy beachgoers...oh well. I found one other beach on the map that I thought was untouched, and so we got back in the car in search of that one. (I felt like Leo in "The Beach" trying to find his paradise...we drove around for a while, but it was too rocky and hard to get to...Anyway, after our wanderings around in search of Paradise, we headed to Fisherman's Village for a nice beer on Bo Phut beach (very lovely, quiet) - walked around shops there as the sun was setting and relaxed at a bar overlooking the water. From there we headed home to our hotel for a nice dinner on our beach. A lovely day in all, highlighted by our amazing swim on Mae Nam beach...very different from the craziness of Chewang, especially during the Songkran festival the other day and its crazy waterfights.

Today is our last full day on Samui and then tomorrow we head to Koh Pan Ngan for 3 nights. More beach time, hopefully there will be some more undiscovered beaches waiting for us...Oh, and the Germas are heading there also, so they can drive us around if need be. That's all to report from here, today will consist of beaching, walking on the beach, swimming on the beach, reading on the beach, sleeping on the beach, eating on the beach, etc (you get the idea).

Miss you all - great to hear from everyone!!!!

Lots of love!

Chewangin' it in Chewang

2007-04-12T09:12:00.000-04:00

Hello from Koh Samui!!!!!!!!! What a loooooong strange it's been to get here. Aly and I took the overnight bus from Bangkok last night (sitting in the wayyyy back of the bus - as if it couldn't have been any worse! - and then a boat this morning, stopping at Ko Tao, then Ko Pha Ngnang, and finally Ko Samui, where we boarded a van to take us to our resort. Finally, we arrived after what seemed like one million hours. But, it was worth the trip. Ko Samui is beautiful - we have a great room at a resort with a pool overlooking the beach. The afternoon consisted of yummy Thai lunch, then a full body massage, then a long walk on the beach, and now we're in Chewang, the crazy party area of Ko Samui. Tonight also happens to be the start of Songkran, which is the big water festival here. Everyone is out on the streets getting everyone else soaking wet. Fun times. There's a lot to do on the island, so we might hit up the waterfalls tomorrow, or the fisherman's market at some point. And there will be lots of hardcore chillin on the beach.

Speaking of the beach, I will be reading The Beach on the beach, so that's pretty apropos. The weather is great, partly cloudy and not too hot. We're going to brave the waterfights now and get some grub.

Please keep the comments and emails coming! So great to hear from everyone!!!! I'm doing my best to update the ol' blogger every day...Ross why do you doubt my ability to keep it up???

Mom, Dad, Greg, love you lots and miss you. Love to all the friends and fam who are my loyal blog supporters!!!

Lots of love from Samui!!!!

Bangkok: dizzle with the kizzle

2007-04-11T07:26:00.000-04:00

Bangkok, day 2: much more relaxed and chill. Woke up, had a nice breakfast in the hotel, then we checked out and headed to Jim Thompson's house, who was an American military guy who stayed in Thailand after WWII and single-handedly started the Thai silk trade (or so we were told by our lovely tour guide who smiled a lot). The house was really pretty, made out of teak wood (for you wood lovers out there), and then we had a relaxing drink next to some New Yorkers -- one of whom was a next door neighbor to Alyson in the city. In case you're wondering, they were also scammed by the tuk tuks, as were about every other westerner we met today. YAY we're not so idiotic after all. After Jim Thompson's house, we went to the big mall nearby for a kick-ass food court, recommended by Lonely Planet themselves. Had a delicious meal, then went on the Sky Train to experience a little mass transit, Bangkok-style (you know you're in Thailand when---in New York we see the "please save the front seat for elderly people"---instead you see "please save this seat for Buddhist monks". Love it. Came back to the Khao San for some relaxing beers (met some more Americans who were also duped by the tuk tuks...nice...) now we head back to the hotel to get our stuff and head to the beaches. All of the westerners are so friendly - unlike the bar scene of far-away NYC. Lots of friendly folk here, very cool. Miss you all terribly (not really). Love you all to bits. Heading out now, speak to you from Samui!!!!!

Lots of love always.

PS - In case you're wondering about the title: I find it very humorous that if you speak ill of the royal family, you will be persecuted. SO - my way of safely slandering the king Newburgh-style, or "down with the k!n$", is dizzle with the kizzle...you get the idea.

xoxo

Welcome to Bangkok!!! (subtitle: Evil Tuk Tuks)

2007-04-10T09:44:00.000-04:00

Hello from lovely crazy Bangkok!!! So today was our first day of the trip, and Alyson and I have learned lots of lessons. To begin, let me say that since this was the first day of my travels, I will use that as my excuse for being duped by the scams of Bangkok, aka the Tuk Tuks. (Rob, Natasha, and Kim, I know you are all shaking your heads right now in disappointment, and I apologise profusely). Anyway, Aly and I began the day bright eyed and bushy tailed after a lovely breakfast in our lovely hotel one block from the Khao San Road to head out to the Grand Palace. As we were walking toward the palace, we kept getting stopped by random Thai people asking us where we were going, where we were from, etc. Finally, one seemingly nice guy convinced us that the palace was closed until 1.30pm and he could set us up with a tour of a few other sights around Bangkok in the meantime. Figuring that there wasn't much else to do in this entire city until 1.30, Aly and I hopped in the Tuk Tuk and headed toward the Standing Buddha, which is a really big golden buddha (32 meters high). On the way to the standing buddha Aly and I had an inkling we were being scammed. On the way to the second site, the "Lucky Buddha", aka another random buddha statue in some random little temple, we opened up the Lonely Planet to find the paragraph entitled "Dangers and Annoyances". To paraphrase from the book: "Beware of Tuk Tuk drivers who say that the Palace is closed for the morning and offer a tour of sites around Bangkok, only to lead you to a shady market at the end of the tour from which they receive commission for providing patrons." SO - you get the idea. The funny thing is, the entire population of Bangkok's tuk tuk drivers are in on this scam, and for a while, we actually thought today was the one day that the Palace was closed to non-Thais due to the Buddhist monk morning prayers on this particular day, the holiest of holy days in Thailand. Later on, we managed to leave our tuk tuk driver and headed for a nice long boat ride around Bangkok's river. The tour was pretty much a long narrow stretch that passed through a ton of shanty towns and very poor people, all of whom were enjoying the most of a hot sunny day. After the boat tour, Aly and I finally made it to the Palace, (which was open since 8:30am, of course), and it was worth the wait. Absolutely stunning. Golden temples, beautiful architecture, exactly what you would think of when I say the words Thai Grand Palace. The focal point of the whole thing is the emerald buddha, which is super holy and looked pretty chill up in his little golden crib. After the palace, we walked back to our hotel and booked with a travel agent the next 3 weeks of our trip. We figured we might as well book it all now and not worry about it, especially because the rest of April is super hectic in Thailand. The 12th is the start of a huge festival here, Songkran Festival, where everyone throws water at everyone else for some Thai/holy/festive reason. Anyway, it's also the high tourist season, even for local Thais, since we're in peak summer mode right now (yes...very very hot in this city). The point is, lots of people are traveling, everything is getting booked up, so we figured we might as well bite the bullet and go to a travel agency and spend a little dough. Our plan is thus: tomorrow we head south to Koh Samui and Ko Pha Ngang for a week - lovely Thai beaches, plus we'll be there for the "black moon" party (aka the new moon party). Then Aly and I head all the way up to Chiang Mai for a 3-day, 2-night jungle trek, plus a couple of days to hang out in the bohemian city, and then we fly over to Siam Riep, Cambodia to do 3 days at Angkor Wat. Aly was pretty keen to do a lot while she was here, and I'm right there with her. We'll part ways at the end of April where she'll head back to Bangkok and then NYC, whereas I'll stay in Cambodia and slow things down for myself as I travel solo. If you want to mentally trace our planned adventures below, we're in Bangkok now, heading south (and slightly east into the Gulf of Thailand), then all the way to the north of Thailand to Chang Mai, and finally fly over to Cambodia. It should be lots of fun. A week on the beach starting tomorrow sounds pretty damn good to me.

OK - sorry for blabbing on for so long. Day 1 was definitely a learning experience, and it ended up great. After we booked the trip, Aly and I went swimming in our hotel pool, and now we just finished a nice dinner at a restaurant called Cabbages and condo m s, where the proceeds go to help AIDS patients in Thailand (or something to that effect). The restaurant has free internet, so we're making a quick pitstop before we head out to Bangkok's nightlife for a bit. It still seems a bit surreal that I'm in Bangkok, this city is pretty insane: very crowded, busy, grimey - everything you'd expect from a major SE Asian city. Very much looking forward to the trip down to the beach tomorrow evening. I don't have my camera with me, but hopefully when we get to Ko Samui I'll be able to upload some photos. Aly and I look pretty ed off in most of the photos we took today, but for good reason (damn tuk tuks!) Talk to you soon. Oh, when Aly and I were swimming this evening we met some British kids who were also duped by the tuk tuks, so we didn't feel as dumb.

Lots of love, speak to you from the beach!!!

This is it...

2007-04-08T00:16:00.000-04:00

It's finally here. No more waiting. No more planning. No more packing. No more explaining where I'm going, for how long, with whom...over and over. And I'm ready. I'm as ready as I can ever be. I've gotten all of my shots, bought everything EMS has to offer, waited in lines for visas, talked to everyone who's been there before me, and most importantly, I've stocked up on ample Immodium AD and moisturized toilet wipes.

Five months sit in front of me, totally unwritten, waiting to be uncovered. It's pretty crazy to think that 20 weeks from now this blog will be chock full o' good stuff (wow - that's like 3 Brant Lake summers back-to-back!) I know this trip will be unlike any other in my life; I'm going in with an open mind and an open heart and without any expectations or high standards. I know that the people I'll meet, the places and things I'll see, and the experiences along the way - the good and the bad - will make me a better person. It's all about the journey from here on out, not the destination.

I will miss you all so much - my parents, brother, grandmother, family, friends - and I love you all so much, you have no idea. Everyone in Newburgh - please make sure my mom and dad are ok (especially my mom) :-) I'll always be fine wherever I am - growing up in the streets of Newburgh has prepared me to always expect the unexpected.

I hope you can all check this blog often, and I hope to be able to update it frequently. I've never blogged before, so I hope to make it as interesting and funny as possible, filled with lots of great stories (not to mention as unpretentious as possible!) My first stop is Bangkok, and then I head down south with Aly P. to the beaches of Thailand. So - expect an update from Bangkok in a few days! If you want a preview of my trip, the plan is: Thailand, then Cambodia, then into Vietnam, through Laos, and back into Thailand. I'll return to Bangkok mid June to fly out to Chennai, India where the second half of the trip begins: 5 1/2 weeks in southern India, then up to Kathmadu for 4 weeks in Nepal and northern India. Wow - 5 months condensed into 5 lines of a blog. How convenient.

My goals for the trip: Do not rush from place to place, but do not overstay in one place. Meet and talk to the locals, absorb the culture, learn the history, customs, language, and most of all - HAVE FUN!

It's been a long time in the making, but this is it. My big trip is finally here. And I'm ready.

I'll write again soon from the other side of the world!
Lots of love always.