Traveling the World with Ryan

The end of an adventure

2005-06-17T03:30:00.000-07:00

I wrote this in Rome (subsequent note from Seattle below)

Well this is it. The inevitable finish line has been crossed... the end of my trip and with it the end of this blog... but what a trip it has been. I have spent the last several days sitting next to the Colosseum and doing nothing but thinking back on all that i have done, and seen, and people met and... what an incredible journey i had. It still leaves me speechless about all the places i have been.

My memory goes back to a thousand and one places in time – and i realise that its futile to attempt to share the lessons learned or experiences shared. I feel that trying to describe my trip in a few short paragraphs is like asking Leonardo da Vinci to paint the last super using only stick figures. Yeah, it can be done... but kind of stupid to look at.

People ask me what my favorite place was or something to that extent and well... the short answer is Thailand (I think everyone who followed along with me on my blog should go to Thailand once in their lives) ... but the question is too simple for such a huge and immense answer. its like asking a parent which one is their favourite kid. Every place was great, but no matter where you are… it’s the people you are with that make the huge difference (kind of like life eh? – un oh… Canadian influence sneaking in)

On looking back on what i learned...I would have to say learning how to cross the street in Rome has to be at the top (side note - i have become a street crossing master, if there were a draft for strongest ability to stop traffic and cross the street, i would easily go in the first round... its something im proud of and love helping big eyed tourist timidly standing on the curb waiting for a break -which never comes... ), but this lesson is a little hard to demonstrate on talent night.... this trip has taught me how even incredibly independent and stubborn individuals like myself need others for help every once in a while (though hesitate to admit it). I think learning how to dive and surf were some of the coolers things I mastered on this trip... Im still working on learning how to spell kareokee though. Maybe one day.

Seriously though, if anything... i do feel like i belong to a new found fraternity of people whom have been given a glimpse at the awesomeness of mankind. Above all the observations i have made on this trip, my hope in the future is what stands out most. I look back on ancient ruins i have seen and walked through, i think of all the different religious temples and churches i have knelt at, I think about the ancient artifacts and tombs that i have actually touched and admired and think how incredibly far we have come as humans. I recall all the architecture and paintings and statues that have made my jaw literally drop, i recall the massive pyramids of giza and the majestic Great wall of China and the holy Ankor Watt temple of Cambodia and the simply surreal Taj Mahal in India and shake my head as i think how we can create such beautiful and magical things. I fondly remember all the strangers that have helped me and supported me along the way. From my host families who took in a complete stranger and treated me as a trusted friend, to the every day person on the street who simply pointed me in the right direction, and also to all the people whom read my blog and sent me a simple email giving thanks or encouragement which meant so very much to me.

This being said, my trip has not all been roses. I have been pricked by many a thorn along hte way. Loneliness was a demon that i seriously wrestled with a couple of times. Travelling so fast and in so many cities i was always on the go and it was a lot harder to meet people to travel with than my previous trip through Europe. At the end of this trip in Europe it was a lot easier to meet people (Rome was flooded with recent American college grads) but at that point I was a little burned out and mostly wanted to go home more than go out an party every night.
Journeys, whether around the world, or through the course of a life, end just as abruptly as they start. Like wisps of smoke... one moment its there and readily apparent to all, and the next completely gone. Blink and you miss it. Time, when you have it feels infinite and overflowing; more abundant than you know what to do with so it becomes unappreciated and thus wasted. When its gone, its gone forever, and when looking back on it, it seemed so fleeting and short, if you only had one more second, one more moment. But memories like scares, may diminish or fade over time… but the good ones stay with you forever to remind you where you have been and who you are.
Six months in the span of my life is small and almost unnoticeable… but forever will i remember all the incredibly places that i have seen on this trip. It is said that the more you know the less you know.... in a way i also believe that the more you see the less you see. I have come to realize that there is no way I or any other person for that matter can see everything great and wonderful on the face of Earth... there is just too much how there. The world, while shrinking with modern technology is still a vast and gigantic place filled with wonderful sights and people.

Absolute Highlights
>Climbing the pyramids – took my breath away
>Walking the Great wall of China – gave me chills
>Sleeping under the stars on the Great Barrier Reef
>Strolling through Ankor Watt – incredibly amazing
>Volunteering in Koh Pi Pi was so such a rewarding experience (go karma)
>Egyptian museum – for me, being the person with the least patient EVER, is really a testament to this holy grail of museums.
Seeing Berlin and the remains of hte Berlin wall was really cool actually
>Sleeping on top the ancient castle over looking the city light in Jaislmer India was stunningly tranquil.
>Sleeping under the stars in the Indian desert was very surreal.
>Sun rise at mt siani. I don’t think I will ever see another quite so beautiful again, even though it put me out of commision for a while.
>Jesus' tomb – I mean... how many people can say they have seen that.
>Prague architecture - exquisite and amazing.
>Bali – surfing during the day and partying at night (Bali Bintang is the best beer in world)
>Full moon party – I mean i drank four litter of rum in six days... how is that not a highlight... and i remember most if it too.... even more amazing.
>Having a giant sea turtle brush my leg during a night dive on the Great Barrier Reef.

The wild side
>Koh San Road Bangkok
>Skinny dipping in 7 degree water in NZ
>My Cambodian stalker
>Riding an elephant, a camel, and a 24 hour train
>Partying until 9am in Bali
>Full moon party for six straight days
>Fitting 12 people into a hot tub in NZ
>Bungee jumping off the original bungee bridge

The stupider side
>Initiating an absinth shooting contest in New Zealand (very dumb)
>Drinking whiskey in the dessert which lead to A) who can do the best stunt man roll down the sand dunes... which lead to B) a giant wrestling match at the bottom of the sand dunes, followed by C) who can catch the biggest desert spider with their bare hands (still shaking my head over that one).
>Cutting line at the Vatican( I’m sure I’m going to hell for this one... but since I’m already going for other stuff it seems kind of moot doesn’t it).
>Having to be rescued by the dive instructors from the anchored dive boat after unknowingly getting caught in an under water ocean current and popping up about half a mile away from the dive boat... (at least my buddy and I weren’t the only ones to do this)
>I don’t know how many times I sang wonder wall with a microphone in my hand.

Things I hated
>Monkeys – evil little hairy beasts.
>No money- poverty sucks
>Seeing children playing in the dirt with no clothes
>Autorickshaw drivers – Dante missed these demons in his little inferno book.
>Losing cameras
>Being depressingly lonely – yeah this one sucks a lot too
>Walking around all day with my fly down – I can be such an idiot sometimes
>Sun burns

Books read on this trip
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Victoria wants to die - Coelho
Manual for warriors of the light - Coelho
The Valykeries - Coelho
By the river I sat down and wep - Coelho
Memoirs of a geisha - someone
Angels and demons - Dan ‘repetative’ Brown
Interview with a vampire - Rice
The vampire lestate - Rice
I-robot - Asimov
Well Of Darkness – Margaret Weis
Guardians of the Lost - Weis
Journey into the void - Weis
Mistress of Dragons - Weis
Aquatine Progression – Robert Ludlum
Tuesdays with Morrie
Harry Potter 4
Harry Potter 5
Baudolino - Umberto Eco
The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
Sherlock homes book 1
Sherlock homes book 2
Sherlock homes book 3
Bear island - Alister Mclaine
Guns of Navarone -Alister Mclaine
Ice station zebra - Alister Mclaine
The shadow of the wind <- awesome book ; Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The partner - Grisham
Collection of works by the dalhi lama
The bear and the dragon – Tom Clancy

Back in Seattle
For the last seven days I have slowly and with a bit of struggle, been trying to re-acclimate to what some call reality and what others call my previous life. It has been much harder and more difficult than I would ever have guessed. Its not exactly intuitive… but coming back has felt…. Very foreign and uncomfortable.

Tonight before dinner time, I sat down at the table with my buddy Kjell’s father, whom is going through cancer treatment… and I felt so comfortable and relieved to be able to talk about my discomfort and confusion with him. Maybe because he himself is going through a difficult and confusing process, and I can some how relate (not really but whatever)… but I knew that even though my feeling were a jumbled mess of thoughts in my head, if I could make a stupid and inarticulate attempt at explaining what return was like, he would never judge or think less of me, so it made it a little easier to precipitate my thoughts and concerns from emotions into words (I’m waiting for the heaven sent day that a computer program is made to help men around the world transform emotions into words… ).

I think that I spent so much time some what mentally in seclusion that I had become accustomed to fleeting friendships and solitary travel that when I came home to all my friends… I was a little scared to see them. I still don’t know why but…. Its been really overwhelming. Luckily I have been staying at two long time friends place so that when they are at work I’ve had time to grow more comfortable with the thought of being back. Finally seven days later I feel like im over the initial strangeness and ready to start catching up with all my friends. I don’t know why I wanted to write about this…but I guess it is part of my trip and in a way a personal end to the adventure and start to the future.

At the close of this blog I have to say that doing this (the blog) has been way more fun and enjoyable than I could have ever guessed. But more magical and where my most heartfelt love and thanks goes too…… is all of you. The people whom I, unfortunately, will never met. Thank you for your interest and your emails. I can never explain how much it touched me… as well as surprised me…. that anyone would be interested in my adventure. It was like 20 coaches cheering me on :).

Thank you for your support everyone… I wish everyone the best of luck in following your dreams, but most of all…. don’t forget to get out there and see the world.

Take care,
Ciao for now
Ryan Kuzn

Palentine hill and the Vatican

2005-06-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

Started the day off walking around just kind of getting lost a little.
Here are various pictures of places on the self walking tour.

Bridge over the tiber river

Fountain

I cant remember where this fountain was but you can stop and just chill out at several fountains around town...here is me cooling off

cathedral

dome with spiral column

ruins across from the victor emanuel monument

Then i headed over to the palentin hill to walk through the ancient ruins.

arch at the entrance of the ruins

how cool are these pics

found a small and dedicated band of excavators workign on the ruins that are still burried.

I like this picture.. i call it two old pillars

arch at the other end

that leads to....

looking back at the ruins

the following day i headed out to the vatican city to be spiritual embued.. but got distracted on the way by ...
gelato. to say gelato is magical is like saying the sun is hot. it jsut doesnt quite capture it completly. Heres my lemon and strawberry grande cup...

yum

After finishing off my gelato headed out to the vatican to take a couple pictures.

Upon getting there i found disgustingly long lines. After showing a newly found sense of patience and waiting in the hour long line.... ok not really, after cutting the line and getting in in about 15 minutes... i headed inside.

Me at the holy door.

The door is a special door that during the catholic year of jubalee you can pass through and have all your sins be forgiven... Which i will be stading in line for just in case in the year 2025 (or close there too).

on the other side of the door, and right next to the entrance of the building, is a cement wall the is broken down during hte holy year celebration

Upon first entering the building... you are absolutely blown away by its grandness... its huger than huge.

Directly right of the entrance is the original and incredibly famous pieta by michelangelo.

A pieta is a statue of mary with son jesus in her lap. there are many many different versions, but this one is known around the world is one of the finest ones. The amazing thing about this is that michelango was only 24 when he made this and was relatively obscure. He originially didnt put his name on it, which caused problems because a short while later he found out that another sculptor was recieving the credit for his piece. No one believed him that he was the one that made it becuase he was just a kid. So one night in the dark of night he chisled on mary's sash (in latin) this was made by michelango of florence italy. he later remarked that he was sad his emotions got the best of him and vowed to never sign another sculptor again, and he never did.

its behind bullet proof glass so it cant be touched. The no touch rule was enforced a long time ago when a man came in and took a hammer to mary's face causing massive damage. Luckily it was reconstructed identically to the original thanks in part to a plaster modling that took before the crime.

a clearer view of the pieta

http://www.bkae.hu/~rhegedu/Vallasszociologia/Pieta%20(Michelangelo).jpg

Teh vatican, aside from being a powerful symbol of the catholic church, and a functioning place of worship, its the venue for the remains of every pope that has died. either undergound in teh catacombs, or above ground in elaborite tombs... here is darn... i thought i would remeber his name...

darn it.. well i cant remember... but here he is..

kind of nasty i know.

here is a cool seal on the floor

here is the Baladacchino in the center of the church

my camera took horrible pictures becuase of the really bad lighting inside... here is a better picture of what it looks like

http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~zing/w_rome_photo/largerÐphotos/480-baldacchino.jpg

its massively huge. its 29 meters high... almost a hundred feet tall. Its below the massive dome. Here is a overhead perspective to get and idea of how big it is...

http://www.wilhelm-aerospace.org/Architecture/rome/vatican/baldacchino-down.jpg

this picture is taken by someone from teh top of the basilica which is 119 meters tall...so thats what... times three over 350 feet tall. or 35 floors of a sky scraper. tall.

here is my camera shot of the dome

to get an idea perspectively of how large this place is.... the Baldacchino can fit in the tiny circle at the top of the dome in the last picture posted.
I took picuters of all the paintings which are actually mosaics, made of one square inch tiles.... thouands of them are required to make a single painting.

awesome and just crazy.

perviously in the post, I showed a picture of a glass tomb of one of the deceased popes.. but most tombs inside are incredibly are elaborate sculpted marble tombs and you cant seee the body at all.

one of the funny stories that i was amused by that i read about was a tomb by one pope who wanted a grand tomb. He searched for a great marble scultor but couldnt find one... eventaully he came across a dutch sculptor who was qualified... but he was a protestant... which proved a difficulty for the pope whouch couldnt havea non catholic entering something inteh vatican. So the pope told the guy from the netherlands that he couldnt ever sign the tomb he would make for the pope, nor could he ever tell anyone that he worked on it. ever. The commision was a lot of money so the dutch sculptor agreed. Years went by where the man toiled away on teh marble rock. Eventually the pope passed away and there was a giant unveiling ceremony of his tomb where a sheet was pulled off infront a giant crowd of people. there was a giant gasp fromteh adience.... the tomb was grand and gorgeous... but where the face of the pope should have been was the face of a dutch sculptor instead... which is still int he vatican today

and here it is...

I never got to see the tomb of john paul II (or as backpackers call him - JP2) becuase i didnt feel like standing in the several hour long line to go underground toe the catacombs...

here is a picture of the swiss guards whom are given the task of protecting vatican city

great outfits right?

here are some quick pics of last night athte spanish steps. this is everyone from my hostel room. Three girls form the mid west and texas, and a guy from california...

I love hanging out at the spanish steps..

metro ride out

and a picture of my dream car when i walked by a ferrari dealership.

alright... i gots to go get ready for diner.

i think i will do a couple more blogs before i call it quits so stay tuned.

Quick note

I fly back to seattle on thursday... assuming i get my car back from kyle H and Will's place....

kyle P round some people up for SPICY CHICKEN LUNCH ON FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i have been dreaming of eating spicy chicken for so long now... yummmmmm

later!

The last days of the trip

2005-06-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

One of the places i have been to several times during hte past week to just sit in the sun and chill out is the garden park north of the city and east of the Vatican. Im not sure what the name is but i think itsthe Galoppatoio gardents. one of the entrances takes you through a n arched gate.

one of the statues in the park that is a little freaky....
a headless statue with the head in hand and smiling.

statue

there are a couple differnet places that i have enjoyed going to in teh park. what i do is just pack a little picnic for myself. I get some cheese and bread and wine and other little tasty italian treats and find a place to chill in gh park. one of the places i sat down at is here...

its a small lake with a statue of the god of healing i think... cant recall the name though...

the day that i was there i sat on a bench and talked to an italian girl while we both ate our lunches... she kept laughing at me for all the foot i ate while she just had some bread. after lunch we both watched this swan and duck go out it... for some reason the swan was really pissed off at the duck and kept chasing it around the park

the place i most often entered the gardens ar was outside the Flaminio metro stops... I would walk to the piazza del popolo... and then up to the park.

here is the piazza

two churches off to the side

the fountain in the middle

The other day there was a huge national holiday and a big parade that went through the city center (cita centro). Unfortunetly i ddint bring my camera with me so i dont have pics... the spot that i watched the paradefrom was the cico Massimo or circus maximus arena. its teh spot where ancient (ben huresque) chariot races took place. here are a couple pics the ruins at one end

the ruins across the way

just walkingg around i decided to walk up into a residential neighborhood behind the circo massimo and foun this cool statue of one of the popes.

ad to take a picuterof the roman flag (different than the italian flag mind you)

Just walking around teh area, I totally stumboled across a rose garden that turns out... used to be an ancient jewish cemetery, later on the Roman laws changed to mandate that thae area be turned into a park of some sort. so they moved the bodies and transformed it into a Rose garden memorial for Jews.

a couple pics

heart frame

looking back through to the city

the roses are laid out in a minora shape garden
looking right

left

map

back to the circus maximus... i rounded the corner to find a small chruch

just outside the church is the mouth of truth

story tells if you stick your hand in the mouth and tell a lie the mouth chops your hand off.

small little temple across the street

next I caught a bus to the piazza nirvona, famous piazza with three fountains.
Unfortunetly they were buildign a stage for a concert so i didnt get any good shots.

cool little cafes off to the side

Romantic Devotion

2005-06-04T05:39:00.000-07:00

Roma roma roma...
I love roma. I love this city. Thats why i decided to make it the last city on my trip.

The travel budget has run out so its time to retrun to reality. So living off only my credit card i cme in to Rome for the third time on my trip with a fond romance for the city that is magical beyond words.

I do have a couple complaints though. I remember last time I traveled to europe (which was in hte off season) everyone said oh its good youre going in the off season because its a pain in the summer. I always thought... why is that... lots of people nice warm sunny days... it would be like an all day party. After being here for a little bit in summer.
y recommendation is.... dont go in the summer. Everyone single tourist in the world is in Rome right now i think. Its insane. Additionally the city of roma must be hosting a ton of concerts because at a couple of the more popular piazzas they have concert stages and lighting being erected that is a serious eye soar to the camera snapping tourist, like myself. So while it is possible to cut people out of my camera shots... the scafolding is proving ot be a bit more challenging.

I caught the train in from Munich with no problems...

Ther very first place i went to in rome upon my arrival was head to the famous and one of my favorite places... the spanish steps.

I took the metro out there and i have to show these picture of the metro trains. the city streets here are for the most part pretty clean and graffiti free... but the hoodlems go to town on the metro trains. I think it makes them a little more colorful and festive personally.

these pics are little dark. but you get the picture... hahh, ok bad pun. leaving the metro you enter a little street.

and then you turn the corner to the left and BAMM

the piazza di spagna

to the left again is the steps themselves

top of the steps

at the bottom of the steps is....

well yes a roman soldier possing for pictures.. but better than that is...

the fountain at the spanish steps

get used to fountain pictures because there are lots of fountains in the city and i took lots of pictures of them... be prepared. the greatest thing about these fountains... aside from being very asthetically pleasing... is they also work as actual drinkable water fountains.

its really nice... no buying water.. you just fill it up at any little fountain you find. facing away from the spanish steps is...

the street of dreams. This is Bia Condotti. A world renouned street for shopping. Gucci Prada,dolce cabana etc.... all stores that would be nice to afford...but are not.

so next i headed to the coloseum or coloseo in italiani. quick metro ride and .... bam the coloseo

next to the coloseum which is just as magnificent to admire is the arch

the first inside layer of the coloseum

and the ruins of the palentine hill off to the side

a couple of soldiers on break

So next i headed downt the street to the victor emanuel monument. Memorial to fallen soldiers.

this street (Via del Corso) heads back to the spanish steps and has really great stores also for shopping.

across the street is two beautiful cathedrals

pictrues of the backside of the memorial.

and the clock tower hidden behind it

a smaller fountain across the street vefore the trevi

an incredible column next to the fountain

a block away from the trevi

the upper right hand window where someone commited suicide and they had the window walled up so no one would do it again. some story with the suicide... but i have forgotten it years ago.

That night i was persuaded by soem roommates to go ot to the pub crawl with them. Highly reluctant to go have fun and party i hesitantly accepted their offer.



walking home i hade to get a quick fountain shot in.

Oh my god this is HUGE. prague, berlin, and munich

2005-05-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

Chapter 1: Intro Into the Abyss

Be forewarned, this thing is a book. It may take days for your pc just to load all the pictures. This thing is war and peace with pictures added in. Yes I know I should have done this blog sooner but… lack of availability of compatible pcs hindered an appropriate frequency. So I will try and catch up… but be warned this is going to be massive.

The long and the short of it. Im in Munic (pronounced Munchen in german) staying at my old buddy Enrico’s house (yes his name isn’t very German… but his last name of Gunther is). Well that’s the short of it. The longer version is this.

I finally got my pictures of Prague uploaded. It is an incredibly beautiful city. Absolutely gorgeous architecture. Lets see… I think im going to divide this blog up for ease of reading into smaller modules. Ok this will be a little sort of intro blog

I had to take a quick picture of the Tel Aviv airport (my flight to Madrid and then on to Prague) because it was really nicely layed out. The concourse was more like a lounge area with a massive waterfall from the ceiling, which acted as a hub for the terminal spokes out to each of the gates.

Here is the lounge area

I think i mentioned in a previous blog how i almost mist my flight but totally lucked out… So I made it to Prague.

Now be forewarned the following is simply the most painfully long blog I have ever done, or ever want to do. I broke it into… cutely enough… little chapters so that you can read it at your own pace. Im probably not going to do another blog for several days so… take your time reading this one… youre going to need it.
__________________________________________________________________

Chapter 2: the Prague Peregrination

If I had to sum up Prague in one word… which I cant but had to anyway… it would be….
Stupendously-incredible-city-of-gorgeous-buildings-and-people-and-beer… ok so you wont exactly find that in the new version of Websters…but a good summarizing single word if I do say so myself.

http://www.prague-hotels-site.com/prague-info/prague-map.gif

http://www.ipsl.org/media/Czech-Prague.jpg

http://www.travelia.cz/www.travelia.cz/img/system/albu/PRA_Mosty.jpg

This map of the city is a little blurry but it’s the best of all the ones I quickly looked up… its not to overwhelming with names and attractions but shows the places that I will show pictures of later, like:
11, 12, 13 – astrological clock tower and old town center square and the Tyn Church
6, 7, 8 - charles bridge
1 – prageu castle
9 – Rudolfinum concert hall
14- which I think looks like 11 but it’s the Powder Tower

When I got to prague I discovered that all of the hostels in the city were full. Not one bed available. So I stayed up all night and partied a little and read at all night mcdonalds a lot. After riding the subway for several hourse back and forth along the A line, I called and got a room at the hostel closest to the old town center.

Here is the hostel

and the best part…. I got a bed

it was a strange hostel I thought because the room I was in… had a shower in the middle of the room

strange to have a shower next to your bed but what ever…. I was just happy to have a bed.

Next I headed out to the laundry mat to get some clean close… which I was badly badly in need of.

While there I ran into a nice Canadian girl and in usual backpacker fassion we exchanged information and advice on places that each of us was going to next that the other new about.

Here she is taking a picture of the laundry mat as well…. Bird of a feather I guess

I thought about taking a nap do to lack of sleep… but the city was right there, and I can always sleep later… so I headed out to take pictures of the city for you guys (since I had seen a lot of it that night before while wandering around getting lost at 4 in the morning… bizarre feeling to have a live city feel so quiet and empty...

So at this point… after riding the metro so many times… I had become a master at the three line system. So I took the Musket exit to head out to the old town center square. Here is what the streets look like when you exit the metro both left and right respectively…

It takes a short five minute walk to get to the square and its just hard to describe how beautiful all the buildings are… so I started snapping pictures like crazy.

I love this corner building

coming to an intersection you find a church to your right

walking through the narrow alley streets you can start to see the clock tower in the distance

A cool door I passed on the way

passing under an archway

you enter into the square

the first thing that you see when you first enter the massively visually overwhelming square is the Astrological clock that faces you from across the way.

zoomed in

side of clock tower
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/215/3761/320/SA4001103.jpg

as you face the clock tower looking left

as you face the clock tower looking right you see…..

The Tyn Church

As you face the Tyn church… to your left is a massive bornze statue scene

and more building architecture that is marvellous to just sit and admire.

I love the doorways here

Walking back to my hostel is one of my favourite buildings. Very modern and I love the different angles and shapes and texture.

this building reminds me that once I wanted to be a famous architect - like someone out of the Fountainhead… but decided that there wasn’t any money in architecture and gave it up.
Great building regardless

On my walk back I found something that I think seattle is missing… it’s the difference that Seattle needs…. Naked statues

I mean how cool are they… makes me think of Greco Roman Humanists

Another nude statue adorning a building.

more cool door ways… I think I have a small obsession with door ways for some reason… maybe theres something fruedian there that I should be concerned about… not sure yet.

There were two statues above the doorway that I wanted to focus on because they were just so impressive.

it looks like some ancient theologian or scholar with an astrolabe

this guy looks like he is deep in contemplation about life or maybe just has a headache because he discovered too late that all the hostels are full.

right around the corner from my hostel is the powder tower

different angle

zoomed in on the golden winged statue angles

cool little arched skywalk attaching the tower to the adjacent building.

I thought it some what ironic because there is a giant advertisement for star wars 3 across the street… skywalker… yeah…anyway

A couple building down and closer to the hostel is a building that…. Well I don’t know the name of but its my favourite… I walked by it every day and just marvelled at.

the entrance from the front

wing to the right

some atlasesque lamp post

Im pretty sure that atlas was the guy holding up the world… that or the guy that drew all the street maps… one or the other.

I belive to the best of my memory… which is sort of oxymoronic in its own right… i showed up in Prague on the fourteen and they had just won the semi finals math for the hockey world championship… all the people went crazy..

Two nights later was the finals and I went to the old town square to watch it with all the Czech crazies… I was right at home (minus the cigarettes).
Everyone congregating for the match to be shown on the big screen tv in the square

right after the Czech team scored

the screen from my angle

zoomed in

I think its funny because this picture looks like the old Nintendo hockey game

During the intermition between periods (three periods in a hockey match) they had a really bad band doing queen covers. I think the band was alright… but the freddy mercury look-alike was a little frightening.

*warning side picture that have nothing to do with the Prague experience
me be a ghetto hood on the metro escalader

artistic shot from the escalator banister

ok…. Cool Ive been waiting to write about this for a while.
For those that have never been to a European city I want to talk about the beautiful and magical transformation of the cities. There is a duality of the cities that if you don’t know about you can miss out on when travelling. The major European cities are one city by day… and then a completely different by night. Im not talking about clubs and drugs and partys and such.. im talking purely about the aesthetic and even feel of the cities when sun is up or when the nighttime flood lights are up. Rome is my favourite example of this but… im not there yet so you get Prague (or Praha in Czech).

Here at my night pictures that don’t do justice to how beautiful they really are.

The tyn church in the old town square at night

clock tower

church on the way to the charles bridge

building across the street from the charles bridge entrance

statue at the bridge

The entrance to the Charles Bridge

looking from the bridge to the town center

Praha castle from the bridge

clock tower from the bridge (different than the astrological clock as the square)

Rudolfinum concert hall

Me being artistic with cars driving by at night

and with the tram

the charles bridge from a distance

unknown building across the river

roaring lion statue

another clock tower

I think Czech like to keep time. Or they hate wearing wrist watches perhaps.

That was Prague… next I headed to the German Capital of Berlin

_________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 3: The Berlin Expedition

My trip to Berlin was very powerful. I knew that Berlin was a cool city from hearing people talk about it but it really was incredible to experience the cold war post ww2 history and significance that is found and visible everywhere. Many people know the story of the Berlin wall and et all that insued, but I never really knew the whole entire story and found it fascinating so will recound a little bit here… leading up to the building of the Berlin wall and its use.

Berlin, Germany (today)

http://edition.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/08/17/germany.jews/map.germany.berlin.jpg

Berlin was (and still is for that matter) a German swamp land. The city became prosperous only after the main river the runs through it was conquered and a bear pelt trade route to western Europe was established, bringing in lots of money. Later on (don’t know dates… im going from memory what the tour guide told us here) the Prusian royal family established it as their capital and the rest is history… as they say. Well not exactly… Berlin played a mildly significant historical venue in the late 1900s.

I took a walking tour of the city which talked about Berlin during the post ww2 cold war democratic – communistic cold war standoff.

When Hitlers third reich was defeated at the end of ww2, the four allied super powers; America, England, France, and Russia (however, I think there were thirty or fourty allied countries total) divided the country into four quadrants… and then divided Berlin up into four quadrants as well. The idea of this is that the four allies were responsible for monitoring their portion of Germany so that Germany was abiding by the peace treaty requirements i.e. no army, no military producing manufucaturing plants (incidentally where BMW came from if you didn’t know that… BMW Bevarian Motor Works was a company that built Luftwaffe german military fighter planes during the war but after the war had all this capital and infrastructure… so they turned to automobiles). As the Russian and American alliance and trust deteriorated into what would become the cold war, Russian controlled Germany became east communist germany, and French American and English contolled germany became western democratic germany. A map

Berlin, Germany (during cold ware East vs. West)

http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9708/25/berlin.wall.deaths/germany.map.jpg

Since Berlin was the capital the allies divided the city into four parts (actually they just followed existing city neighbourhood lines) for equal parental observance. As Russia became freakishly controlling it started into motion the construction of actually five Berlin walls. The first wall was an invisible one. As it turned out in the dissection and sharing of germany… Berlin fell into the Russian controlled quadrant. As Russia became more and more freakishly controlling, it not only wanted its section of Berlin… but in fact it wanted all of Berlin. It wanted the entrire capital city. In 1948 France, America, and England started to unification of their section into what would become western berlin. To stop this unification Russia started the first wall… an invisible on it put up a ah ah… oh crap whats the word…not embargo,\not quarantine… come on brain… when youre not permitted to enter… I’ll remember it later. BLOCKADE… haha I knew it would come to me.. It set up a blockade on all roads and rail lines. so no one was allowed to enter Eastern Berlin… which put the other three allies in a very difficult situation… Berlin winters are long and cold and the only way to bring supplies into certain parts is through the closed of Russian controlled Berlin. So the Americans showing their commitment to the fight against communism and its section of Berlin… started something called the Berlin airlift. Where they landed supply planes to bring resources to people. This seems simple and innocuous enough… as I thought… but the number were insane. Quoting from old cnn link I found (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cnn.com/US/9805/11/berlin.airlift/airlift.map.lg.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cnn.com/US/9805/11/berlin.airlift/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;h=436&w=369&sz=64&tbnid=rx8OUn0uylUJ:&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;tbnh=123&tbnw=104&hl=en&start=2&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dberlin%2Bairlift%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D ) “On its biggest day, the "Easter parade" of April 16, 1949, the airlift sent 1,398 flights into Berlin -- one every minute. Before it was all over, more than 278,000 flights would carry 2.3 million tons of relief supplies.” One every minute… that’s absolutely insane… Flying so much on this trip maybe I have a new appreciation but think when you fly into a city how long it takes to land… and then taxi to your gate… it takes at least 15 minutes before you can even stand up to then stand in line since your seat is in the back of the plane. The logistics of landing a plane every minute boggles my mind. So this sort of pissed the Russians off I would imagine. On some night there after (im not even going to guess the date ) in the middle of the night the Russians strong razor barbwire around east berlin and waited to see what the americans would do… which did nothing. With no protest (other than official condemnation Im guessing) a short time later the Russian put up the second wall… a crude wall but affective enough. Thisprogressed to the fifth and final wall… known as the Berlin wall which literally bifurcated the city of Berlin into two parts, East and the west. Contrary to initial common sense and almost every other known use of walls throughout history, the Berlin wall was not intended to keep wester germans from entering the east…but inversely… to keep the east germans from slipping into the evil democratic pig dogs in the west… ok so I added the last bit myself for flavour. But to the Russians thinkings.. what good is a communist society built for the worker… if all the workers keep running away. Funny side story… the guide told us that when the second or third version of the wall was constructed with bricks… the communist government called on its german brick layers to raise a wall… well… when the brick layers got their… instead of building a wall… they ran into west berlin as fast as they could…

A pic of the brick wall

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/image/0,1587,1388326_10,00.jpg

Russian from then on used prefabricated sections of wall that soldiers could install with a crane…There are numerous stories that our guide told us about escape attempts and several of them are either creative or comical… sometimes both. I particularly liked the one of the guy who rented a sports car because it was so low to the ground that he ran right through checkpoint Charlie gates (designed to stop trucks not low sports cars) with his girlfriend in the passenger seat… and future mother in law in the trunk. The darker ominous side of the Berlin wall was the section inwards of the wall called the death strip. A ohh… 20 meter strip of land next to the wall that nothing could be build on nor any person other than a soldier walk on… if anyone man woman or child trying to get into western berlin running through the death strip was seen… was instantly shot without hesitation from Russian soldiers. Lovely I know. Ok…

Here is a picture of what the death strip looked like.. west is on the right and east is on the left

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d0/250px-Berlin_Wall.jpg

Here is a map of Berlin as to where the Berlin wall divided the city.

http://www.wall-berlin.org/cadre/carte03gb.gif

I’ll get back to the wall in a second… I wanted to talk about the tour group. We started on the former eastern berlin side of the city. Near the metro stop of Hackensher Makt.

I could never pronounce it right… I just called it the hackershmack stop.
Friedrichstrassa I refered to as fried rice street stop. I know im horrible… it’s the only way I could remember the metro stops…

Anyway one of the first things we looked at on the tour, and incidentally one of my favourites for its irony and humour was the east berlin radio tour

after the construction of the berlin wall… the communists wanted to show how powerful and amble east berlin and its workers were… a puffing of the chest sort of thing… so they decided to build a radio tower that could be seen by all the west Berliners… well.. they couldn’t quite do it themselves and had to call in the swiss to help build it… but they got it up and it looked wonderful… until everyone noticed something peculiar and ended up throwing the architect in communist jail for two years. Communist… believing in the power of the worker (hammer and sickle symbol recall) and absolutely dested anything of power or stature not in line with that…in addition to hating democracy… the Nazis… the previous prusian rulers… the also hated churches. Crosses particularly were not accepted in East Berlin. Now if you look at the radio tower again… its amazing how the sphere part of the structure (which is made of small metal square) no matter what time of the day… always reflect the sun as a cross. DON’T YOU JUST LOVE IT. Its kind of like an accidental (or not. No one knows) middle finger to the communists right in their faces. I find it terribly amusing. Especially so since you can see the radio tower from pretty much anywhere in the city of berlin.

So next stop on the tour is museum island. Before ww2 it was 3 and being built a fourth museum with all sorts of stuff. After the war the communists… not really caring for the buildings never repaired them. Until now… two of the four museums are open and construction on the others is in progress or design.

Here is a column next to this museum which… has sustained heavy bullet and artillery damage from ww2

Little historical side note for this picture Stalin being in my opinion… a stubborn dumb ass that he was (forgive me please) declared upon encircling the city of berlin during the end of the war… his soldiers were going to raise the Russian flag on the berlin parliament building (the Reighstag) on May 1st. well that gave his forces two weeks to occupy the city. Now you don’t have to be a military genius… forget that.. you don’t even need to be a military novice to know that taking a city… such as berlin was… in two weeks time, no matter what the ratio of soldiers, is going to be insanely insanely difficult and costly to the occupying force. I can only imagine… like much of ww2 how intense some of the city street fighting was. May 1st??? who cares if it was may 1st or may 19th… sheeesh. Waste of lives.

completely useless historical picture.
The new bmw I found during the tour
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/215/3761/320/SA4002093.jpg
Its amazing but all over the city you see buildings like this one
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/215/3761/320/SA4002003.jpg

just now being rebuilt because the communists either didn’t care or didn’t have the resources or currency to repair.

we crossed over a bridge. This pic shows the tour group, the bridge and the previous picture in the back

all around the bridge are these pink pipes.

Berlin being a swamp…to do any sort of foundation construction… the ground needs to be pumped dry for … I think possibly up to a month the guide said, to prep for building.

One of the working museum… which house the gates of Babylon… kind of big deal actually… is a building designed by somebody Shinkle.

Amazon fighting a panther… or some large cat (but not a cougar! GO COUGS!!!)

statues that his students designed

this one may be my favourite statue ive seen. Love it
if anyone ever become disgustingly obscenely wealthy and want to buy me a statue… this is the one. I’ll fit in my living room...
greek warrior fighting a lion

other side

the shinkle museum (that’s named something else but I cant recall it) faces directly out onto…..

dier lust garten…. Doesn’t that just sound great…translated, its
the pleasure garden…
not quite as naughty as something the greeks or romans might build… this is simply a park for hanging out and enjoying the day… which is how its used today. In the background I think they were having a giant gymnastics competition and this stage was for presentations or something… I don’t know… I was told that 150,000 people from all over germany were in Berlin for a huge gymnastics competition. Thousands of young german gymnastic girls from all sorts of small villages, hitting the famous Berlin nightlife… yeah dangerous.

I think dier lust garten is where JFK gave his ‘I am a Berliner speech’ which if you don’t know the story… he said I am a Berliner to show his support and backing of western berlin and said it in Deutch (german) but his grammar was wrong or something and what he said translated as “I am a jelly doughnut” Theres all sort of little touristy trinkets around that you can find a fridgerator magnet in the shape of a doughnut that has JFK’s voice recording when you push a button. Silly

Continuing with our tour… is.. im shaking my head trying to think of a glorifying word that I havnt used a thousand times already… maybe I need a thesaurus… I don’t know… but next to the lust garten… is the Berliner Dome. A cathedral thank god survived the bombings of berlin.. because its beauty is phenomenal… the pictures look great and wonderful but there in person is even more astounding (don’t think ive used astounding yet.. cool )

Check this bad boy out

and at night

I want to find a picture of it on google because it might look better. This building rocks like I don’t know what.

This ones cool with the radio tower in the background… didn’t get that

http://www.cantiamo.org/photolib/Tour%20Germany%202003/June30/images/Berliner%20Dome%20and%20TV%20Tower.jpg

http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/13453/pict0109b.jpg

ok… so I liked this building a lot.

Next building… the dome faces it.. across the little river, is the royal Prussian armoury

Next we headed down Friedrichestrasse. (Prussian kings were named either Friedriche or William or friedrichewillam… so ) Friedrichestrasse = Friedriche street or Fredrick street.

Friedrichestrasse Bridge

which adorns several statues…
here are a couple for perspective

ohhh just remembered

ok so how I write the blog is I upload the pics and then use them to remind me of all the things I saw. This picture of Einstein reminded me of something I want to talk about….
I recognize that being a nerd provides certain eccentric pleasures in things that other… sane and normal people thinks silly or just intellectual accoutrements. But Einstein I think we call all agree was a genius and a bad ass at the same time. In 1905 he submitted… was it three theories? Oh gosh… um well theory of relativity is obvious,, E=mc^2 is the second, and ok I have to look it .

Here is a link to a site the elaborates in detail his 1905 papers
http://www.humboldt1.com/~gralsto/einstein/1905.html

its 2005 now and for remembrance of Einstein 2005 was declared, by I have no clue… whomever are the powers that be that can declare what a year is before it even is, declared 2005 the world year of physics. Granted I have no clue what so ever that mean nor implies, but what I do know is A) that Einstein is a bad ass, B) that Einstein was German, and C) there are picture and quotes of/from Einstein all over Berlin. I think its great.

Ok enough talking about relativity

Continuing down Freidrichestrasse is one of many memorials to ww2.

I think it was called memorial to mother of lost sons, or something like that… it was sculpted by a german woman who lost a son and grandson in ww1 and ww2 respectively

The entrance

inside… very simple but very elegant and respectful I thought.

quick reminder… all the building I have named so far and for a while until the pictures reach the wall were all in the former east berlin

further down the street is
dang it… cant recall the name
it’s royal university and I believe (could be wrong) first univ. in berlin.

Einstein taught here (before moving to the states)… plank taught here I think… couple of scientific names I recognized but cant recall.
Im guessing its either friedriche university, or William university… or possibly friedrichewillam university (just a guess though).

What is interesting about here historically… aside from the great minds that taught and learned here… is this is the university that Hitler famously pulled all the books on or by homosexuals, jews… etc etc etc and threw them all into a huge pile….

And burned them in this square

the square is under construction because of a underground parking garage being installed… but the guide told us in the middle of the square… or somewhere is a plaque that's from a quote over 200 years ago "When you start burning books, people will be next."

damn this blog is hellishly long. Going on 14 pages. hmmmmmmm

Continuing down the street. We stopped at the Russian embassy.

So this was built when the Russians had control of East Berlin and East Germany… so of course they had to build one of the tallest buildings around here for an embassy and the Russian flag still stands higher than most german flags today.

Next we stopped at what was once a ghost station. The metro system was in operation all throughout the war (ww2), when the wall came up, they (the communists) obviously didn’t want people to leave East berlin under the ground through the metro station… they had just build a big wall… whats the point of a wall if you can jump on the train at any of the east berlin metro stops… so they closed down the east berlin metro stations… cutting off access to the west but also cutting off access to the metro completely. These stations were ghost stations because west Berliners traveling to other parts of west berlin would pass these closed station without stopping and just be empty deserted platforms.

When the stations were reopened after the fall of the Berlin Wall… the stations were in perfect working order… and still had the ugly green tiles that Hitler picked out to line the station walls before ww2.

A now in operation former ghost station

the station sign

under der Linden translates as under the linden… I guess there was a bunch of linden trees planted on the streets before the war that were a famous area… this station was the metro stop under the linden tree area.

A pic of some Linden trees

http://iet.open.ac.uk/pp/a.little/web/photos/berlin/IMG_0042.jpg

Next we headed to the Brandenburg gate, located in Pariser Platz (Paris Plaza)…. Where… my batteries died and had to stop taking pictures…. I was really pissed with myself, so sorry for all the borrowed pictures that are going to ensue.

The Brandenburg gate.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/22/Berlin-brandenburg-gate.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/298px-Brandenburg_gate_sunset_quadriga.jpg

It’s the only one remaining of a series of gates bombed during the war. A tribute to peace and triumph… which ironically has been a venue for some most historic military fighters of the late twentieth century.

Napoleon, took the adorning statue back to paris after conquering berlin. Hitler and the Nazis used it for marches and as a symbol of german power. The Russians stormed the gate right before taking the capital building upon seizing the city. Then later had the Berlin wall running right by it. Not exactly an olive branch in history.

It finally returned to a symbol peace when the wall fell and the reopening of a united germany when the west german chancellor and the east german prime minister mate at the gate for a hand shaking ceremony.

In addition to the Brandenburg gate located at the Pariser Platz… also is located the newly opened French embassy and the currently underconstruction American Embassy. There are several banks that came in to take up residency and help finance the repairs to the platz. One bank, designed by an American architect is a bit of a scandal. The bank hired this architect… don’t know his name sorry… to design their bank, being a bit of rogue designer he decided… you know what… I want my building to look like a fish. Well the germans didn’t like that and said no… so… he built his fish inside the building and then put up square walls. Kind of random and unbelievable… but it’s the last picture my camera took before the batteries went kaput.

The fish

it serves as a conference room for the directors im told. I think its ugly as all get up… but whatever.

After the platz we took a quick look at the capital building… the Reichstag.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2d/Berlin-reichstag.jpg

And then off to the remenants of the Berlin wall.
The wall as it looks today

http://www.wholeworldwindow.com/0212berlin/medium/09%20the%20wall%20today.jpg

All that’s left for the most part of the wall in the city is the double wide bricks laid into the street the follow the path exactly of where the wall once stood. Which is really weird when you cross it in the street to get to the other side to think that it once stood there

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/image/0,1587,1388318_10,00.jpg

One part of the wall still standing as it did back then lies down the street from the Reichstag and looks like this

http://photos.mehlhop.de/berlin_alt/Berliner_Mauer.JPG

This is the east side of the wall facing into western germany. The brick ground in the foreground is the deathstrip that was patrolled by guards. The graffiti (which the Berliners have perfected to a super artform) wasn’t sprayed on this side of the wall until after it was torn down around the city.

Quick side detour. The graffiti in this city is absolutely amazing its everywhere and its beautiful I think. It like walking in a never ending constent everywhere gallery of spray paint. Quick couple of pictures from the net to example the quality.

http://graffiti.netbase.org/news03/53/2.jpg

http://www.interglotz.de/albums/wa_images/n_ritze2_jpg.jpg

http://www.scummagazine.com/backissues/issue26/pic/graf03.JPG

http://www.scummagazine.com/backissues/issue26/pic/graf07.JPG

http://www.scummagazine.com/backissues/issue26/pic/graf05.JPG

http://www.interglotz.de/albums/wa_images/einf_wh_jpg.jpg

http://www.interglotz.de/albums/wa_images/eggert_jpg.jpg

http://www.interglotz.de/albums/wa_images/chip_jpg.jpg

http://www.interglotz.de/albums/wa_images/bozen_jpg.jpg

Back to the tour.
Next we walked to the location where hitlers bunker once stood and where he killed himself.
I looked on the next for a while. This is the closest I can get to what it looks like today. There are more and nicer building around the area…but for the most part it looks like this

http://www.martnet.com/~agendel/pics/trip/Europe/Berlin/HitlerBuriedHere.jpg

The communist found the bunker and blew it up with tnt. Afterwards they destroyed his chancellor building (that I was told was almost a kilometre long) and started putting up nice east berlin communist housing apartments directly next to the Berlin wall. The bunker was covered with a grassy park which is how it looks today.

For the most part that was the end of the tour

The rest of the time just kind of hung out at the pubs and walked around a little.

If you’ll recall the city animal is the bear, and you could find bears painted by different companies around the city, much like Seattle does with its pigs thing. Different companies buy a blank animal statue and then paint it in their own design to raise money. In addition to the company ones… Berlin had country ones. Here are a couple of my favourite bears I found.

USA and England

Thailand and Turkey

Slovenia and Slovakia

Peru and Philipines

Nambia and New Zealand

Kirgistan and Kazacstan

Indonesia and Iran

El salvador and the Dominiquan Republic

all in a circle

Then walking around… found… the most random thing ever.
They were playing a breakdancing competition on a projected image onto one of the buildings. Sat there and watched it for an hour or so.

Here are some pics

here is the guy that one it. Named Layloo from France.

He was awesome… spinning and jumping and dancing and just crazy stuff.

I really loved Berlin… it was so amazing all the history that happened here and to see it first hand made it much more interesting than out of a book. With all this walking though… I was ready to chill out and drink some good Bavarian beer at Enrico’s… so I headed to Munich
________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 4: The Munich Mission

Caught a ride… oddly enough with a German teacher out of Berlin to Munich. Where I found Enrico… and headed back to his place. I finally met his girlfriend Christine who is really sweet and I like her a lot. She plays competitive hand ball and was fun to hang out with.

Here is Enrico and Christine.

Here is Enrico’s place where I have been for the last… what four days…

The neighbourhood

The house

New patio that Christine and her father built (in two days she was proud to say)

front door and entry way

living room

dining room

kitchen

me getting arts with the three floor staircase

guest bedroom… that’s me

upstairs bathroom

The office
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/215/3761/320/SA4000877.jpg

Enrico has a small watch obsession so I took a pic of one of his security boxes

his motor cycle which I thought about riding…but didn’t feel like going to the hospital so I passed.

our transportation

he has a bmw roadster… but his mom took it to Hungary to visit their retirement house because she wanted a car with a convertible top… im my selfish ways I was disappointed we didn’t have the bmw.

I took a picture of he cars plates because if you havnt seen European plates…their kind of funny.

The next day we headed out to see the Burghausen castle near by… but on our way… we stopped at the new Popes old house. Pope Bennedict the 16th (I think???) whom was formerly cardinal radzinger whom lived… here

I found a rock in the front of his house… which some how accidentally made its way in to my pocket… so I have a pope rock

Enrico thinks I need to take it to vegas.. I was thinking ebay personally. Maybe after a quick visit to vegas maybe….

So Burghausen castle: link http://stronghold.heavengames.com/history/cw/cw50

http://www.fidella.com/photojournals/Neal2000/images/jimpics/strube180.jpg

beautiful place.
This picture is taken from Austria looking in to germany. The border is the river but we only stayed on the german side.

The castle is actually the longest castle in Europe. Its very skinny and follows the river but its over a kilometre long…

From above

http://stronghold.heavengames.com/history/cw/pix/bur-panorama.jpg

pics Enrico gave me

Here is the walk through of the castle
The start looking down below towards the german side of the castle

A rampart room line

looking down at the town below

little door

one of a couple bridges

zoomed in on the building

about half way is an old stable building converted into a restaurant

passage down to the town below that we came back to after the full tour to take lunch… the food here is so good… I had sausage with Bavarian sourkrout and mustard with a nice Helles beer.
Back to the stairs down to town

another bridge

looking down at the town again…
crazy roofs

big german and bigger german doors

canon balls and tree

towards the museum area and the above lookout

one of the rooms inside totally empty

from below

Freaky view I found of 360 degree from the top of the main part of the castle… kind of trips you out a little

Munich is in Bavaria which is southern germany. Bavaria is the financial powerhouse of germany and where all the famous german cars are made: bmw, Mercedes benz, volk wagen, audi the biggies. In addition to cars it is hugely popular for its beers… I wont name all the big ones because… well it will take way to long. Munich is the site of ‘THE’ Oktoberfest…

this is a view of the city from a panoramic view

http://www.panos.at/D/200403271153_MOS-Marienplatz(x600)s.jpg

… well it will take way to long. Munich is the site of ‘THE’ Oktoberfest… which I went to last year Unfortunately I didn’t get in to Munich this trip. I spent more time just hanging out at the house and…. Writing this damn thesis paper of a blog (currently on page 23 in MS word without pictures… which is why I want to finish up). The most exercise I’ve gotten is we went for a walk yesterday around a small resevouir near the house.
Here a some quick pictures.

Kids playing at the lake

me being artsy again

half way around we stopped for a quick break… where I got a….

Helles bier

me being MC Esher

and me being Michael Schumacher

and then me just… well… being me I guess

That’s pretty much it wrapping up… I had great food, even better beer, and the best company. Next I’m off to Rome. I’m thinking about wrapping my trip up and heading home some what soon. Im almost completely out of money and living off my credit card is proving less reliable than I initially thought. Im going to just sort of end because I have spent several hours on this thing and im kind of tired of typing… and I would imagine Enrico wants his pc back which I have held hostage for the last couple of days.

So until next time…
Take care…
Ciao
ryan.

czeching in

2005-05-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

I really want to do a full on blog tonight but i cant get adminstrator privalegs to download the software necessary to upload my pictures.... i cant do a blog of prague without pictures.. its so amazingly beautiful here... the architecture is just jaw droppingly wonderful. poop... im in hte hostel right now, but really dont want to go out and scower the streets for an internetcafe were i can upload my pictures.. its really cold outside.

well i will do what i can with words and then do picture blog later... pulling ot my little note pad...

So back in Tel aviv I stayed up all night with Sharon and did hte bar hopping thing which was a fun... The last bar we went to was having a huge 80's music night which was nastalgic. however when they played 'informer' it was time to leave. She dropped me off at the airport and caught my flight at 6.30am with no probablems. I slept like a baby the entire five hours in fligh. then when i got to Madrid i crashed on one of the couches by my gate... well thought it was my gate. when i got in to the airport i was so much earlier than my connecting flight to prague that they didnt have my flight information on the departure listings on the tv's around the airport. So i walked up to an Iberia (airlines) information booth and asked the guy what gate i would depart out of... he told me B28 so I headed there with full confidence in his information.. passed out asleep on the coach... I woke up and sat up to see what time it was... it was 5.30. my flight was at 5pm... oh no i missed my flight... i looked over at gate b28 and saw helsinki or some other city listing as the destination instead of prague... which was weird... because even after the flight they usually leave the information up for a bit. So i grabbed my small backpack and headed out to a departure listing board.... i found my flight... iberia 3751 (something like that) to prague... GATE B18... final call.... i took off in sprint down the hallway... i just barely barely made the flight in time. luckily i woke up when i did and luckily the flight was delayed half an hour.... talk about divine intervention.... so made my flight to prague (asleep).
I got in to the airport around 7pm, and when i started calling hostels.. they all were full. I mean all of them. I called 15 hostels that i had numbers for and all were full for hte night.. so thinking i could make lemonade out of lemons... i checked my luggage at a storage facility on the metro line and decided to stay awake all night long and check into a hostel the following day. this is a lot hardy than it sounds like on paper.
the first bar i went to was purely by accident. I had met an american guy on the flight in and he gave me a number to contact him since he and his buddies were going to be a having a huge party. so i called them and was told they were currently at the astrological clock tower (huge meeting place in prague... great pictures if i could show you). so i head off to the clock tower. when i got there i called them and was told they were at a bar called molly mayon or something like that ... when i started asking locals where to find it... i think they misunderstood me because they all directd me to a bar called my meloun bar...
purely by mistake i went in to this bar...but i liked it so much that i didnt leave until hours later.
so the czech national hockey team just won some championship tonight.... but last nighty the won their game to enter the finals... so everyone was going crazy. At the meloun maybe most of all. I think i was the only non czech speaking person in the bar and everyone was singing czech songs and going crazy... flag and face paint were the norm. after partying there for a while i headed to an all night club that i was at unil four in the mornig... after that i hung out at a 24hrs mcdonalds and watched the drunk people and read my book... thats really god and im getting into massively. around 7am this mornign i got really tired of sitting in a booth at mcdonalds by myself so i set to walk around the city... kind of a bad idea.. there was nothing open and it was really cold so i just froze my butt off while walking around the city. it was pleasurable to see all the buidlings and get lost in the totally empty streets...but i think i caught another cold from walking around shivering so much. around 9am i wanted to warm up so i sat on the metro and rode it back and forth for an hour and a half until the hostels started check ins.

So now im at the hostel and really want to show the picture of the city when i walked around this mornign and all day today. but i cant.

tonight they had the hockey finals and i went to the old town center where they played the game on a large screen tv and watch all the locals go crazy over the victory... iwould love to show the pictures but... i cant.

im a bit tired and have a scratchy throat so im going to head in for bed for hte night.
i'll write more later when i have more energy and more pictures...

till then take care
ryan

The good, the bad, and the super hot model

2005-05-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

Ohhh so much to write about….

Well I have been in Tel aviv for what… three days. And I have good news and bad news to report… since there is no way for you to choose which one I give first… I'll give the bad first.

Bad news bears
I discovered nights ago, much to my disappointment, that the two schools which I wanted to attend law at most… well I wont be attending.
I got a rejection letter from Pepperdine (punks), and American U. couldn’t complete my application even though I faxed them the signature they required when I was in Delhi. Poopheads. This is really disappointing news because… well I planned on deciding which of these two I wanted to attend. East versus West coasts… well my decision on which of the two to choose from IS a lot easy now… Neither. That’s simple enough. I have already received a rejection letter from Georgetown… I have several outstanding responses from other schools… but to be honest I don’t know if I want to go to most of them even if accepted. I was really banking on pepperdine and american. So Im left with the cold hard realization… that law school might not be starting up when I get back, as planned. I was kind of upset when I found out and made Ron and Sharon take me out to get my mind off it. And after thinkgabout it for a while have come to the conclusion that… well im really no worse off than when I started… I mean its not like I got kicked out of law school. Its just been postponed if its something I really want to do. Its kind of amusing because during the duration of my trip I have constantly been contemplating whether law school is the right decision for my future… and finally I had come to the conclusion that right now… at this moment in time law school is the right choice… that if you choose what you think is the best option at the moment it was presented… then you are doing the right thing. Now… looks like my options have slightly shifted. Im hoping the kuzn curse, as my father calls it (theory goes - even when things go wrong or unplanned, they tend to work out for the best somehow), helps with the next years decision gates of what to do and where to go. I was lamenting to ron over a really bad beer, that its really stressful being in a position where all my friends have stability, and foreseeable futures, and starting to build families or marriages… and I have…. creditcard debt and dirty laundry. Ron very simply and quite eloquently told me that I was being an idiot. Thanks ron. Well he did have a point. So after thinking about it for a while have tossed my worry of the future and of my age pertaining to dogmatic social timing and patterns out the window. I'll figure out what to do next when the time presents itself. Untill then carpe diem baby. That was the bad news…

The good news is that I absolutely love Tel aviv and have had such a great and memorable and splendid time here. Ron has continued the unbroken steak of incredibly stellar and considerate hosts.

So I came in one the day of memorial day in remembrance of the soldiers that have given their lives to the defense of Isreal, and the eve of independence day.
Memorial day is really quite exceptional here. On one major television station… they show the names and dates of every soldier killed for three seconds since what… 1940 something (I think). Ron told me that they started a couple days prior so they can fit them all in.

Here is Ron sitting with me watching the names of the deceased go by every three seconds.

He laughing because of me joking with him not because of whats on tv…. Had to clear that up.

The kitchen

Then that night… independence day (at midnight) everyone goes crazy and have hug street parties. Ron and his friend Sharon took me to several street parties. It was wild.

Here is us heading out.
Ron locking up his bike

the beast

ok it’s not a Yamaha (like I previously called it) but a Kawasaki.

Here is Ron and Sharon as we arrive to the first (and largest) street parties.

the stage

they were playing excruciatingly painful 'traditional' Hebrew/jewish songs… that I didn’t understand a word of…but tried to tune out none the less.

A super blurry picture I took… I really like it because it looks like xray of a human heart…if you cant figure it out….im not going to tell you what it really is of.

Some crazy guy in the crowd

ok… so I don’t quite understand the significance…but don’t think there is any so its ok… but at the street parties… people (mostly young kids) run around with foam cans and spray eachother in these juvenile foam wars
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/215/3761/320/SA4001013.jpg>

I avoided the little hooligans like the plague… if I saw even a single bubble of foams I skirted around the area like a human detour course.

It was really…. Hmm what is the word….combative… that’s as close as I can get…. The kids walked around in these little foam wars… and gangs of them hunted through the crowd for other combatants… like a soldier hunting for the enemy. I cant describe nor get in picture some of the combative gleams these kids had in their eyes… I told Ron and Sharon that I think Israeli kids learn war and fighting at way to young an age… They were like mini hunters stalking their pray… hunched over so they could get low and become unseen to pop out and have huge 10 kid foamy melees. Combative I say.

While avoiding the frothy hot spots… I continued to take picture of the area

Here is the stage head on.

here is a picture…some what dark of the crowd… people as far as the eye can see

as you walk along you find slippery reminance of a previous battle

if youre not paying attention you walk along… hit one of these super slippery spots and do an accidental foam induced Fred Astaire, try to keep your balance, right there in the street.

Here is a wall covered in foam tagging (graffiti)

which lead to this discovery

more permanent tagging in ink and spray paint that the government has put protective glass over.

explanation and historical significance.
Much to my ignorance of the Isreali history… the area that we were currently walking around at is called Rabin square. It is where…. Oh boy lets see if I can come close to spelling this… icsack rabin… icksack… this isn’t going to work… sheeesh wasn’t even close… yitzhak rabin (thank god for google). Ok, yitzhak rabin was a israeli prime minister that was assassinated by a jewish extremist. The people apparently really loved Rabin… so when he was shot… graffiti was left about…. 10 meters from where he was shot saying 'we love you', 'you will be remembered' etc… sayings (as translated for me). And the government didn’t erase it but embraced it and put protective plastic over it for posterity and remembrance… I think it’s a really classy move to embrace the feelings and sentiment of the people in the moment.

Next to the graffiti wall (actually closer to the foamy graffiti wall) is a more official memorial for Rabin's death…

The darkness doesn’t show it but… its supposed to resemble pieces of concrete sidewalk that have been torn up and displaced (akin to an earthquake or some ground shacking scene) with red underlights…resembling or mimicking fire or flames or hell or I don’t know what but something.

Behind the memorial is small circular metal markers in the sidewalk… each one marking significant people… like Rabin, the assassin, body guards (their dots are in the wrong place you can scoff) etc.

this is as close as I could get since it was roped off….

As we were headed back to the middle of the crowd (the memorial is off and behind the stage – to the right as you face the stage) we heard a huge explosion go off… ordinarily large explosions going off is a very very bad and scary thing in Israel… everyone ducked down and looked startled… luckily it was only the fire works…

Man were they close. We were at the base of the building they were shooting them off at the rooftop from.

I got these shots of them.

Yeahh……. That’s the special 'fireworks' function on my camera that made those so good…. I have a love hate relation ship with my camera… it takes great pictures and I love it and them…. I hate this this bad boy is my third camera…. Grumble grumble.

I was trying to capture the moment nad get people staring up at the fireworks… but the punk on the right wasn’t looking

heres a great picture of a girl working on here star with the foam as spray paint… while no adults int eh background pay any attention to here… how symbolic

Ron getting creative of Sharon and me as we watch the fireworks

The fire works were almost straight above us… so we were being deafened by the explosions… blinded by the lights… and pelted on from above by the exploded little bits of firework wrapping and casings…all you could smell was that burnt blackpowder smell. It was really quite sensational… haha pun… get it…yeah … sorry.

Anyway… after the fireworks were over we headed back away from the stage through the crowd towards the next street part a couple blocks over.

Lots of people

I really like this picture of ron

I don’t know how I got him focused and the background blurry but I think it looks awesome…

Mas pico diablos

me being silly with some girls hat that I was talking to (talking to the girl not the hat)

an exclusive all female gang of little rebel foam freedom fighters…

ok I absolutely love this picture… as we walked up the streets… that were blocked off by massive buses to prevent someone from driving their cars through a crowded pedestrian street (they treat their defense and cordoning-off a little differently than we do) we came across this little girl that was dancing in the foam on the ground… ordinarily I don’t find children cute in the least….but come on… look at this darling little girl cutting a rug with here little foamy shoes

So next we headed to another street party… that was filled with old people and playing more 'traditional' Hebrew/jewish songs…but these were even worse so we quickly left this spot and headed to the next.

At the third street party we found a giant circle of people dancing in traditional jewish fashion. The music was really good so we stayed.

The dancers

(I honestly took this picture for the group not the girl in the front like Ron jokingly tells me)

they dance in a weird…. How do you describe it if you’ve never seen it… its kind of like a cross between country line dancing… and oh geees….god I don’t know… some high school dance squad… I don’t know… but instead of being in a grid or line like line dancing… they make a circulating wheel of people with a hub in the middle as the focal turning point… you mainly rotate lets see it was… counterclockwise… sometimes dipping towards the center or spinning or side stepping outwards… then clockwise then counterclockwise… it was really wild… and of course… me being the idiot that I am… could resist partaking even though I had absolutely no clue what I was doing… or anyone elses doing for that matter.

Ryan going the wrong direction

ryan looking incredibly stupid

ryan checking out the girl in front of him

(side note… Israeli woman are incredibly gorgeous…. Rival Scandanavian and Italian… easily)

Ryan trying to get Ron to stop taking pictures and start dancing (i was hoping he danced as bad as I did so he took a little bit of the attention off me…. Didn’t happen)
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/215/3761/320/SA4001413.jpg

Im sure I looked like a fool but a lot of people gave me props from my effort… or were just feeling really sorry for me and gave me sympathetic props… either way… I had an absolute blast. I had so much fun dancing for about an hour or so… but it wasn’t like dancing really.. there was no touching or what I think of as normal dancing.. it reminded more or felt more like…. when I first started going to my gym back in seattle when you started an aerobic class for the first time it was hard keeping up with everyone in the class because you didn’t know the instructors instruction or cadence or timing… dancing out there trying to follow along and dance only by observing other people and trying to mimic their leg and arm and body motion felt like joining a new aerobics class… The only way I can describe it. Never the less it was a lot of fun… bumping in to people and laughing and getting assistance.

After we left this street party… we headed towards a main street where there would be lots of people and good bars…

While we were walking along… we came around a corner and found the absolute greatest thing (well second greatest thing of the night… watching a crazy Israeli guy pop a wheelie with a moped all they way down the street about a 100 yards… was the greatest thing of the night… it was amazing… cirque du soleil amazing)… we came around the corner… and found this group of religious jewish guys… dancing in the street and ont op of vans that were pumping great house/trance techno music… they were going crazy…

I took some video with my camera but I cant find a way to put in on my blog…. You just have to trust me that in the moment it was awesome. Eveyone walking on the street stopped and took pictures.. and clapped and danced and just went wild.
I took this great picture that I love

religious and non religious people getting along and just enjoying the night and the music.

After that we headed out to a couple of bars and had a great night.

The next day was independence day… which is a great day here in Israel… everyone goes barbecuing… much like back in the states… but I mean everyone goes… The parks will filled with thousands and thousands of people… thank god Ron had a motorcycle because the streets around the parks were turned into instantaneous and immovable parking lots.

He drove us up to the top of a hill right in front of the University (Univ of Tel aviv… dotn know) and we had a great view of the city…

Looking towards the left

towards the right

(apparently this picture is of tel aviv… everything to the left is another town but it has been assimilated into tel aviv much like Los angeles is an assimilation of several different cities making one giant big singular city… giant big singular… I really shouldtn do that to the English language…. Anyway)

After the viewpoint… we headed to ron's aunt and uncles house for breakfast (before heading out to a barbecue …. I love food)… The family was hilarious… half the conversation was in English (for my benefit) but I understood more than half the dialogue… It was nice after being gone from home and by myself for so long to remember what the feeling of a family sitting around the table laughing and joking is. Here is the crew… minus Ron and I since I took it as we were headed out)

Rons uncle, in orange, was telling me he was planning on going to Beijing for the Olympics… I jokingly asked him what he was competing in and he kept the joke going by saying the high jump… so I called him the jumper for the rest of the meal. I wont tell each persons relationship because it would take too long… and im the only one that cares but… there is mom and dad and aunt and uncle and brother and sister and husband and girlfriend…oops never mind.. one brother and his girlfriend left before I took this picture so they are absent.

After the great breakfast… god I love food… we head to ron's friends house for a barbecue… god I love food.

I was really… well disconcerting to say the least about being there because… all of rons friends have children… so there was kids everywhere… which makes me uncomfortable because I dotn know what to do with the little heathens… but then ron took off for the airport for his filming in Turkey… yeah… ron left. He gave me the keys to his apartment and told me to drop them in the mailbox before I left for the airport… talk about incredibly trusting…

So he left and im there at a barbecue with a bunch of strangers… and even worse a bunch of stranger's babies…
Thank god there was food! :)

Here are a couple pics of the crew.
I cant remember any of their names (sorry everyone)
But heres me and some guy

some lady and two little ones

some more people

great picture description huh?

Dang it…. The girls are going to be here in half and hour… I havnt taken my shower yet or packed…. Ok how fast can I finish this… another rush job… damn it..

Where was i…. U,mmmmm oh barbecue… yeah so hung for a while then got a ride from some one back to Rons apartment where I have been by myself for a day… last night I went out by myself…

Woke up this monring and went to the beach… such a colorful sentence wasn’t that… ok here is what I wrote early about an hour ago when I got home from the beach (I write my blog originally in varying chronological order)… im going to add the pictures, Formate the images for the blog, and then take a shower and head out….

Have a good night and im off to Prague tomorrow morning… going out with Sharon and her sister tonight and they are going to drop me off at the airport when we finish the evening sometime tomorrow morning. I have to pack my pack to store in her trunk for the night…
Talk to you in Prague.. lots of love everyone.
ciao

I spent the day at the beach today…. I - love - the ocean. I woke up pretty late but still had plenty of time to enjoy the sunshine. I headed down to the bistro that Ron took me on the first day for a little brunch (don’t know if 2pm constitutes brunch…but it does toay). The food there is delicious and my pasta cost about five dollars. Good stuff.

I headed back to ron's apartment for beach supplies (towel book cd player camera… the essentials) and got well slightly lost. I thought I would try and take a short cut back to his place but where I thought the road would come out… turned out to be a dead end… so had to do a little backtracking… but found it no problem. Then I was off to the beach.

The beach in Tel aviv is splendid… I would say top five for a resort feel beach. It doesn’t compare in beauty or privacy to the beaches of Thailand or turkey or Greece. But for a beach with lots of people and big buildings behind you… it is really great.

[intro pics]

my backpack and towel

The sand is soft and warm… with no garbage which is so nice. The water is a little tempet but once youre in it warms up fast. The people all around you are so friendly and nice. I easily found a couple Frisbee pick up games, and there was beach soccer I could hav joined (if I had wanted to completely destroy my ankle for the day). In addition to the people being super friendly they are also incredibly trustworthy. There were several times when I walked off down the beach to play Frisbee or went out swimming… leaving my bag and towel unsupervised for half to a full hour at a time, which is a cardinal sin for backpackers (especially when your much cherished passport, cd player, and camera are in the bag). I felt very comfortable leaving them on the beach… something ordinarily im paranoid about.

I sat on the beach for the rest of the day watching the sun go down… listening to my music… and reading my book.

[Sunset pictures]

sailboats in the distance… reminded me of shilhole marina where I sailed out of back in seattle.

As the sun was setting, the tide was coming in, so I had to get up and move. I started walking down the beach and came across this guy.

[Juggler pics]

I watched the last glimpses of the sun.

[Sun setting ]

And then head back to get ready for going out tonight. I had to take pictures of this beach front memorial. I thought it was incredibly good use of space… so if any of you out there are beach front architects or designers… take note.

This is a memorial as well as underground parking… why doesn’t California do stuff like this… Its so much more beautiful then a parking lot.

*there are better picture description of these pictures at the site I upload all my pictures at if you care to know what these pictures are
www.ryankuznpictures.blogspot.com
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http://photos1.blogger.com/img/215/3761/320/SA4001296.jpg>
[Park pics]

I wanted to show some pictures of me heading back to Ron's place from the beach.

Here is the Mexican restaurant that I always use as a landmark… the street in front leads to the beach and then heads into the city and is a major road with lots of happening bars and shops and such.

[Mexicana]
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The street into town

damn I wanted to explaing this one… ok really fast

this picture shows two food shops in it… jewish religioun has this weird set of rules called kosher. Very fast.. cant eat meat and diary at the same time is one rule.. cant eat shellfish or scavenging fish another rule. And you cant work on the sabath is another rrule. Sabath is Friday night and Saturday morning.. the buses stop working… the trains stop running and several stores and shops shut down because it’s the sabath… very strange and annoying (hence why Sharon is taking me to the airport instead of taking a bus or something). Damn five minute till they get here… grrrr

this pic is of a shop on the left that is kosher and closed down… the one on the right is not kosher and is open… well it’s a hot dog shop so in and of itself it isn’t kosher…
no eating pig another kosher rule. Well hot dogs may or maynot be considered pig… it’s a mystery but another story…
ok bye

So I turn up this street to the next street and turn left at the hot model at the swimsuit shot. Sorry for the gratuitous scandalous picture… but hey sex sells. I love the fact that there is absolutely no words used in the advertisement…

[Model.]

Here is rons street and apartment building.

[Steet building]
I had set up a place to stay with another host in Prague but she emailed me today that she has the flu and is going home to her parents house for healing… so I will have to find another place to stay… Im not worried… im sure I'll find something.

Let me tell aviv

2005-05-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

Shalom from Tel Aviv,

http://www.bildungsstaette-dialog.org/Bilder/Tel%20Aviv%20-%20Panorama.jpg

I love Tel Aviv.

I thought it would be just another city without importance or significance…. Well im not sure if I have proven those points wrong…but who cares it’s a great place.

I arrived in Tel Aviv… and Israel for that matter at a wonderfully exciting time. Last night and today was the nation memorial day… and tonight and tomorrow is the independence day. So the last 20 hours have been very somber and quit… tonight is supposed to be wild and uproarious, i.e. a huge party tonight. I left Jerusalem early this morning… in was a nice city… but uber… hmmm maybe I should keep the German down to a minimum… not sure… the city is nice but very very religious, which I am not. It was incredible experiencing this religious significance and seeing such historical and ancient places… but the city itself at night was about as exciting as a wet mop. I dragged a couple people out last night from the hostel to a tiny little pub for drinks. Tim an American from San Francisco and… a girl whos name I forgot from France doing NGO work ( non governmental organization work… i.e. non profit Palestinian stuff). After talking to the two of them… it turns out that the hostel I stayed at (remaining unnamed) was a common meeting place for a Palestinian…. How do I describe it… kind of like Greenpeace of the palestinian world except politically instead of environmentally…. Does that make sense? They are a network of people that when phoned and activated…they go out to accumulate in masses for protests and I have to assume in extreme cases riots. Don’t know. But the owner of the hostel is a member so he magnetically draws a lot of other members… It explains a lot because the hostel had a very weird vibe to it. So this all was explained to me last night… so I wasn’t heart wrenchingly torn about leaving this morning. This is because…Jerusalem is a powder keg with a super short fuse on a hot hot day. I was in Jerusalem for what…. Three days three nights… and during my duration of residence at the hostel (I read in the paper) that there were three minor riots while I was there on the other side of the old city. I mean actual proper bottle and rock throwing people in the hospital riots (incidentally one riot at the Lions gate entrance put the police chief in the hospital…. Yeah). And these were moderately normal days. On any given day around here there can be fighting in and around Jerusalem or the gaza strip. Its absolutely mind boggling the level of hostility and turmoil. I joked with Ron (the person's house im staying at that I met on the globalfreeloaders website… more about him later) that Isreal is constantly at war… it just doesn’t realize it because it thinks its so normal. Walking through the bus station… you see more kids in uniform that not. Absolutely surreal. That being said….. I caught a bus to the great city of tel aviv today…

After getting lost and bad directions a couple of times… I found the mini bus slash taxi cab location that drives about 10 people at a time from Jerusalem (Jaffa gate) to Tel aviv (central bus station). The ride was easy enough. When I got to the bus station I called Ron (whom I emailed about staying at his place) on his cell phone. I caught a quick cab (taxi number four… again a mini bus not a car) to a certain neighborhood of tel aviv. I got out and found Ron standing on the curb waiting for me… Ron is a great guy and one of those people who I bond with instantly some chemistry thing… unexplainable… but we get along great. Before I knew this thou… as I was shaking his hand and seeing him for the first time… he looked at me and said… is that all you brought with you….. I remained calm and he commented later that he was surprised at how calm and peaceful I took the question… but my insides were yelling at the top of there little not existent lungs 'holy f'ing shit'. I left my back pack on the taxi at the bus station. All I had with me was my little day pack that carries my passport, plane tickets, cd player, camera, and toothbrush. I lost everything. I mean underwear… shampoo…. Small traveling library…. Clothes…. Everything. Well as my mom taught me… theres no point in stressing out because it doesn’t help the situation but only makes it worse… so I told Ron… its reallyl nice to meet you.. I really appreciate you letting me stay at your place… sorry for being rude but I have to run back to the bus station before I lose everything that I own at the moment.

Ron took this debacle in stride… this is when I started to realize that I like him. We dropped off my small bag at his apartment (quick glance it looked nice) grabbed my passport for ID and all my cash (Israeli sheckles) and we grabbed two helmets and headed back to the bus station on his Yamaha motorcycle at breakneck speed. It was actually really good that he drove so fast and weaved in and out of traffic like a slalom skier on a suicide run becase A) we got to the bus station super fast and B) I was getting such a rush from the ride it took my mind of the cataclysmic contemplation of backing with only what I was wearing and my small pack. Granted I coddle my camera, cd player, and passport like my only children and would rather lose a toe than them…so underwear and shampoo are replaceable…. Children are not. Well unless they're really annoying bad children… no no, not even then. So if you can imagine it… We are flying through downtown tel aviv, which is beautiful by the way… and Im sitting behind Ron (about my size with 5 years tacked on) and his golden oldy Yamaha is tilting left and right all over the place and he... bless his heart, is trying his best to give me a guided tour… "here on our left is…. "Vrrrrrrrrrrrmmmm "well that building that we just past in a blurry flash of concrete was the something something theatre…" with a motor cycle helmet on I only understood the very last part of the name because I saw theatre written on the side of it…. "And this street up on our right…".vrrrrmmmmmmmmmm "well that street way back there by that taxi that I cut off… that something or other street and has really great shops"… I didn’t even reply because I figured I would be inaudible over the roar of the engine… Before I realized it, we were cutting of metal creatures large than normal cars… buses… big ones… and lots of them…. My Sherlock holmes like deduction concluded that we were close by the bus station. We cut up and hopped the curb to park about a foot from the main enterance and the security lady with hand held metal detector. After walking around about a million young kids (guys and girls) dressed in military uniform totting rifles… we found the taxi cab dispatcher and after some great translation from Ron got my taxi tracked down and my backpacks location…. Well apparently my backpack enjoyed Jerusalem a whole heck of a lot more than I did…because it was headed back there for a short day trip… maybe walk around take some pictures… and would be back in tel aviv in about two to three hours. Oh thank god… at least they know where it is… I was so super relieved … I think if I had anything left in my tear ducts after the wind blinding motorcycle ride… I might have wept a tear of joy. But there weren’t…. so I didn’t.

To kill some time I asked Ron to give me a continued guided tour of tel aviv. I was definitely more interested in the motorcycle ride than the information… but I didn’t tell him that. We cruised up the beach and into… well its not downtown per say… but the location where all the sky scrapers are and then back to his neighborhood for some lunch. I wish I had taken pictures of the area… the neighborhood that he lives in is a perfect hybrid cross on something like New york and southern California. The city streets have such an incredibly great and thickly charactered (yes I just made up a word) feel to them. You know how a New York city street is super long and each block has its own identity and community and feel and personality… the streets are like that here… with tall building and busy intersections and local shops… but it has a chilled out west coast –three blocks from the beach and everyone knows it feel. Ron and I sat and ate lunch at a little bistro (with Rachel a girl ron knew and ran into on the street) and just talked and laughed and joked and watched beautiful people walk by and a beautiful blue sky and that certain cool breeze blowing that only comes from the ocean…. It was simply splendid. Maybe I was slightly euphoric from the knowledge that my backpack was safe… maybe it was the beer at lunch when I havnt imbibed alcohol in over a month… maybe it was from all the sugar I had a breakfast… I dotn kwon what the secret ingredient was… but I just absolutely loved it. I could easily live here without a seconds hesitation. After lunch, we said good by to Rachel (might meet up with her later tonight for the celebration party) and picked up my backpack. I was very relieved… but gave my backpack a firm scolding for leaving to Jerusalem without telling me. I expect at least a phone call next time mister. Backpacks now a days…. I tell ya.

Im back at Rons place, it’s a quant little apartment with all the furnishings that make it a comfortable home. Some strange twist of fate… Ron is a freelance director and video photographer for amongst other thigns… travel televistion shows. His most recent trip was to… Prague. Where I am going next. So he played for me his home made video and audio composition of all the great sights and sounds of Prague. Its like my own little video lonely planet right here at his apartment. It was great and now cant wait to see all the things that he had clipped together. I think we are chilling out here for a couple of hours and then around 8 or 9 we are headed to the down town square (I think its where Rabin [spelling? – Israeli P.M.] was assassinated) for a huge fireworks show and then who knows after that. Israel is know the world over for huge techno dance clubs… the Israelis are fanatical about house and trance music… even more so than the Germans… so im in musical 7th heaven for me. I have three nights before I fly to Prague… I'm fairly certain im going to go clubbing all three nights. :).

Ok, well im sure I'll take pictures tonight and will post some of them if they are for public consumption. Take care and happy independence day….

Ciao
Ryan

Side comment... how weird is it that in Tel Aviv I can get the Seattle San Antonio basketball game... the home town just keeps following me ( i saw a picture of one of the mariners baseball players in teh sports section of the Jerusalem newspaper).

A Jewish feeling

2005-05-09T03:01:00.000-07:00

I am in Zion. No not the underground society in the matrix. Im talking about Israel.

My time and escape from dahab was very strange. With the trip to Mt Sinai… the next following days my body decided to act abnormal. And by this im under the assumption that awake during day light and asleep at night time is normal. I think coming down from the mountain I returned to some freaky lost episode to the twighlight zone. My body desired greatly to be asleep when the sun was up and so I was totally wide awake at the hours when no one else was. I woke up the first night at midnight.. which was bizarre. The second night I woke up at 10pm. I did get a whole lot of reading done though. I’m sooo sick of Alister Mclain. I find that reading the first sentence of every paragraph is the best way to read any of his books. Talk about verbose… sheesh. It was kind of like I had the entire beach to myself though… everyone went to be early so all night and morning long I had the entire beach to stroll down by myself and could sit at any of the little gazeboes that lined the shore.

I really loved to sit by the shore and watch the water in the moonlight and just read my book under a tiny little lamp. Or to just sit there and watch the sun rise with my cd player playing my favorite tunes

Here is the water front about the time that I woke up each day… kind of blurry but you get the idea

sun starting to rise

I love these two pictures. Its that perfect moment in the morning when the sun is just starting to change all the colors of the sky and water and you get a thrill of being there and to just sit and soak it up

Here is the beach at 8 am

On the third and final day I was committed to catching the one and only bus to the Israeli border. It ran at 10.30 am which is… well normally by bed time… so it proved to be a challenge to find motivation, but I managed. I caught the bus to Taba which is in Egypt and you basically walk half a mile to cross the border into Israel… which transpired easy and painless enough. The security checkpoint people had a little too much fun search my pack however. I mean there comes a point when you have to ask yourself… was it really necessary to remove my underwear from my backpack and set it on the aluminum examining table. I think that suffice to say that there isn’t anything being smuggled in my drawers. Swallowing my pride and holding my tongue I patiently agonized through their exhaustive search. Punks!

After getting my passport stamped I left customs and im sure a giggling security search team behind to make my way Jerusalem. I caught a quick bus from the Israeli border to the town of Eijat, and then a connecting bus to Jerusalem on a 7 hour journey up along the dead sea. The bus ride was…. Interesting to say the least. You can get (as I did) an entire Israeli experience just from riding the bus. It should be noted first that I firmly believe the bus driver forgot he was driving a large oversized bus and instead he thought he was Michael Schumacher or some other race car driver…. Anyone but a bus driver responsible for the safety and preservation of its passengers. The guy was a maniac at taking corners… we joked in the back that he probably had a mistress or someone he was late to see because we were just flying down the road… while he was driving like a mad man… I was trying not to get sick in the back. That being said… we weren’t but five minutes into the bus ride when I looked out the window and saw something totally normal and no big deal… I mean its all the time back home that I drive down the street and see a series of surface to air missile batteries lined up and pointed at the border… I said something out loud like holy crap and the guy next to me smiled and said welcome to Israel. No kidding… it was quite and induction into military presence and deterrence. It wasn’t over however for about 20 minutes into the ride the bus pulled over and a (rather young looking I thought) soldier got on the bus… and made his way back to sit directly to my right (we had the back row so there were five seats and four of us sitting there). I looked at him and said some smart ass remark about is it ok that he bring a gun on board and he said yeah like it wasn’t a big deal that he was sitting there with a m16 in his lap. Shortly after this… with my new bodyguard keeping me safe ( I thought about suggesting he threaten the bus driver to slow down… but thought it better to just endure the ride since it was a normal speed I was informed) the fourth guy in the back seat started stated undressing. What is going on here… I got a bus driver trying to kill me, a soldier with a loaded weapon next to me.. and another guy taking off his clothes. It turns out he was getting ready for out rest stop at the dead sea and he was going for a swim. The dead sea is super concentrated salt water. Its so dense that you don’t need to swim to stay afloat because your bodies bouyance just holds you up in the water. In addition to high salt content it also is high in other minerals which is really good for your skin. It’s a very popular thing to go for a dip in the rejuvenating water or a black mud skin bath. (im going to do a day trip to do just this tomorrow). We all got back on the bus and luckily the guy got redressed… still it was a bizarre bus ride. The last half of the bus read I switched seats to get away from the all guy back seat and sat next to a girl. She was really nice and wanted to talk a lot… but I was feeling so sick from the driver that I mostly just sat there and tried not to be sick.

We got in to the bus stop late in the evening. I shared a cab with a couple of Polish guys and we followed three Danish girls we met on the bus to the hostel they were staying at. Which was really nice because A) I didn’t have a clue where to stay at… and B) it had great location.

Here is a pic of my hostel from outside.. it’s the tallest building in the picture

The hostel location was great because of its proximity to the Damascus gate entrance to the old city

Jerusalem is the only place that I have been to where ancient city walls are still used for security purposes. The wall encloses and securse all of the old city (where all the holy sites are at).

You have to show your passport at a security checkpoint to get into the gate (I found out that this was just set up over the last two days because [I believe] that yesterday was a religious holiday and there were reports of terrorist attacks).

Here are some guards posted over the gate entrance

here is another… almost every person in this picture is for security… either police (navy blue) or army (dark green)

here are the steps down into the gate entrance

the entrance

once inside you find cobble stoned streets lined with all sort of shops and stales.

here is a produce stand for buying veggies

and well… not a stand for buying anything … but more guns

I had to take a picture of this because I thought pigs were against Jewish cuisine…

so I was surprised to see them hanging for purchase.

The old city streets are wonderful and confusing at the same time. I thoroughly enjoyed just getting lost and walking around aimlessly without a map… but the streets are just that… confusing and easy to get lost… I found it as difficult to navigate as Venice. What you think would be a shortcut left and over turned out to be a dead end or looped you back around to where you started. Also, some times in order to make you way east you had to go west and then up and over the street you were just on… regardless I enjoyed walking around and taking pictures of some nice architecture… you would be walking around on a street filled with shops and stales that looked like this

and then you turn a corner and bam… wonderful architecture…

Usually I set out with a goal or destination in mind that I want to eventually find… today I started out looking for the tourist information both. Israel is the first country that I don’t have a lonely planet guide for so… I don’t have any maps or really any idea where to go or what to see. I found a map back at the hostel (after exchanging four or five books for three or four new ones) but unfortunately the map is torn into two equal parts and when you put them together its all in Japanese. So needless to say… I needed to find a new map. After a half an hour of walking around… I was rather proud of myself at finding my destination….

Go me at finding the information building

I loved the area around here… the building reminded me of Amsterdam with the lovely building along het canals…. Just a fun and vibrant feeling neighborhood

See what I mean?

And across the street is the tower of david

I walked out of the Jaffa gates (near the tourist information center) to look out at the city.

it’s a good picture because you can see the towering defensive wall on the left hand side.

Looking back at the Jaffa gate entrance from just outside

So now I was set up… I had a map and best part is that it was one piece and in English. Good stuff.

I set off for the wailing wall (or western wall as its called here).

Some picture of my walk there.

a band of soldiers getting lunch

soldiers roam the streets in packs of 15 to 20… I think the proper term is platoon or squad or something. I know names designate how many people are in it… but I don’t know military stuff. I took this picture of this band of hooligans by sitting on a bench and taking it some what around the corner of the building… I didn’t think it wise to take openly take picture… im sure its fine..but just to be safe… I mean they all had m16 rifles and hand guns… I had a map in English and sandals… it didn’t quite seem like an even match.

To enter the area where the wall is you have to go through another security checkpoint. This one had a metal detector and xray machine.
]

through other side you have to pass down a long tunnel

It opens into a giant open area where the wall and people prayer are

I got a better picture from an elevated position (hanging around people with guns all day has me speaking like some military strategist).

Now it should be said that I am completely ignorant of the Jewish religion… I know they have Hanukah instead of Christmas… and that they wear funny hats… that’s about the sum total of my knowledge… so I imagine I looked like a complete tool when I walked through the prayer area snapping pictures. I tried to be respectful… but I probably was crossing the line since everyone there was praying and I was taking their pictures..

Heres a group of men around a table all praying

I guess I should say for those that are as ignorant as me… they way the jewish people faith is by bobbing their heads up and down and chanting in low voices. It reminds me of the bobbing bird that dips its head into the glass of water so that its head tips back up…

what looks really funny in my opinion… (sorry if I offend anyone but…) is when they face the wall and bob up and down… it looks like theres a line of people trying to smash their foreheads against a stone wall. Really bizarre to watch

Theres a wall running down… well not the middle… but offset to one side… where the men and woman are divided into their appropriate genders section of the wall
Men on the left woman on the right

an informational sign

I broke the second rule and forgot to put a little hat thingy on my head…
Even though they had paper temporary ones.

oooops sorry everyone.

Here are a couple soldiers who remembered to wear the disposable little paper hats

Heres a table with all the praying tools

the funny Amish looking hat in the top corner isn’t for praying its for putting on your head during normal times… Im guessing the books are the torah but don’t know because it was all in Hebrew.. and then the little box thingies…. Don’t know how to explain this one… it’s a black plastic box with leather straps that they put on their heads and wrap around one arm… totally strange. ‘Walkie talkies’ to god is what one person described it as…
some people put their hands together… other put boxes on their heads and bob up and down… to each their own I guess.

A close up of the wall

no its not crude mortar… they are little tiny pray notes shoved in the cracks.

Off to the left hand side there is a tunnel area where you can pray at the wall in darker area…

I think its for people with either sensitive eyes or just don’t like being in the sun that much.

I found courage to touch the wall in the cave where no one would see me and I wouldn’t be jostling for position to stand in front of the wall and then not to pray and look like an idiot tourist.

you’ll notice no watch in the picture.. it has gone to the big time piece in the sky… I still have the watch in my backpack for REI will replace it free when I get home… god I love that store.

In the very back of the cave tunnel area is… what im guessing is a school for children because they were doing their little prayers there too

back outside looking at the building facing the wall

looking over the woman’s only section is a giant structure with flags

I never figured out what this (what looked like) newly constructed structure is.

The dome of the rock in the distance

It was really cool in the middle of the square all of a sudden a couple of guys started playing drums and every9one around them spontaneiously burst into clapping dancing and chanting all the to rhythm. Kinda wild and fun.

I sat there watching people for a while and then headed out to the next venue

Its so strange to be in a working city which is so densely populated with incredibly ancient and religious monuments, but that is Jerusalem for you. Cutting right the middle of the old city are points of interest pertaining to Jesus’ path during his crucifixion. They are called stations and there are like fourteen or fifteen or something, i.e. where he was condemned, where he collapsed from the cross… where some lady (Victoria) whipped his bloody and sweaty face… etc. I didn’t get any pictures of these.. but they are all over the city.

Next I headed to the holy church of…. Ok I have to look it up to spell it….hold on… the holy church of sepulcher. Where jesus’ tomb is located.

Here is the entrance… surprisingly simple

I found it a little odd to find actual crucifixes outside the entrance

I have to apologize ahead of time… these pics are really dark because… well it was really dark in there.

Here is the upstairs alter of jesus

a close up

A little shrine off to the side

There are a lot of pictures that I had to delete unfortunately because they were such dark exposures.. but here is a series of some of the paintings in the church that I snapped.

left half

right half
ooops its not there… that must have been when the program crashed earlier today when I was uploading with downloaded software… and I deleted all the pics on my camera… well there was a second half but…. Oh well

that last pictures leads up nicely to the tomb of jesus…

its under a beam of light oddly enough

it’s a little tiny building within the church

here is a pic of above the entrance

you entered through this low arch into another little room… then you go under another little arch… like this guy

in the next little room is the tomb of Jesus

above

picture of mary (I think) next to the tomb looking down on it

back outside I sat and joked with a couple of monks for a while…

Then I just walked around and explored the church for a while.

tile floor

there were a lot of little alters that I think had historical significance… but I don’t know it.

this alter had a window onto rocks… I think its about the old temple or something (I read it somewhere but cant remember… sorry)

The last picture is of some guy walking around the city.

I had to wear a skirt so I could get into the church (they frown on shorts… but on such a beautifully sunny day… how can they expect me to put pants on… I mean really.

The old man and the mountain

2005-05-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

I have decided that I am a complete idiot. Literally, rhetorically, metaphorically, dumbfoundedly… I overcame one illness to fall face first (or knee first I should say) into another. Dumb ass.

I was making a speedy recovery at chris’s apartment.
Here are some pictures of me on an expedition to get boxes of orange and carrot juice (yummy).

His place that I stayed at

A park near by that may be the only park under a bridge that I have ever seen that was a nice place not some seedy nasty place to run away from (go islam).

A group of school girls that were enamored with the concept of a digital camera

before I talk about my bus ride to dahab I want to go back in time to the Egyptian museum tour I took.

The Museum

Yeah it’s a boring and dusty old musing about as fun on the surface as any other in the world… but it houses some of the oldest known artifacts (which was the reason I kept accidentally rubbing up against them – I touched old dead people tombs, how cool is that). It was incredibly disappointing but they wouldn’t let me take my camera inside. I had to relinquish it to some supposed keeper of valuable items at a table whom looked about as responsible for safeguarding items as a kid in a candy store…

After fretting and having a small coronary I eventually handed over my precious treasure and headed inside. Damn im going to have to do a lot of google image searches for this…. Ok hang in there with me I’ll make it moderately painless…lets see…

One of the most historically significant items in the museum is without question….
The victory palette of king Narmer

http://www.online-relics.com/acatalog/NarmerPlateLge.jpg

Namer… the first Egyptian pharaoh is shown pictorially as uniting (symbolically) upper and lower Egypt. It constituted as the first recognized empire. Kind of a big deal.

Ok… I like this guys web page so im going to borrow a couple of images (all from http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~ancient/museum.htm)

The view from the entrance

The damaged crystalline limestone head of generalissimo Nakhtmin

Unfinished quartzite head of Nefertiti, the beautiful wife of the heretic king Akhenaten

Egyptian pillow

They have a huge collection of items from Tutenkhamun
Nothing else, in my opinion, was more hair raising or inspired more awe then tutenkahmen’s mask. Everyone has seen in on tv or movies… its just awesome.

to just stand there and stare at it gave me the creeps for some reason… not the creeps but was just really powerful, and usually im not moved by inanimate objects. The detail is remarkable if you think about the fact that it was made thousands of years ago.

There were also a ton of tombs and small everyday artifacts… but no need to include all of them…

I got outside and was happy to retrieve my camera so I took a some snaps from outside.
Ancient tomb

column and guard

two old relics

wow that seems like forever ago to recall those memories… ok well at least I have them documented now….

Fast forward to a couple of days ago… I caught a night bus around midnight for Dahab.

Here is Dahab.

http://image.hospitalityonline.com/e/2019/2019173.jpg

This is supposed to be a picture of out bus at a rest stop somewhere but its too damn dark.

Somewhere in the night we passed the suez canal… which would have been cool to see. But oh well.

I got in to the city around 9 in the morning and it was simply beautifully and sunny. On the bus ride over I met some (interesting) girls that were traveling together. So I followed them to an hotel. Here are some pictures of the rooms we had on the water front…

We got in pretty early… and while although I hadn’t gotten any sleep on the bus ride (what with all the passport checkpoints and all…they played this painfully awful egyption movie over and over on the bus until 4:30 am…. Excruciating) I was feeling really refreshed to be in the sun and open air. I got an extra thrill just from the thought that looking across the sea was Saudia Arabia… How far have I come on this trip? I mean there is hte middle east. I decided to go for a snorkel since the sun was so hot and Dahab is a snorkeling/diving paradise (no diving after my cold… don’t feel like blowing out my eardrum like last time). Here are all the reefs near by

http://www.oduvanchick.ru/images/div_egypt_daily_dahab_map_b.jpg
(I’m staying at the ell garden area in the middle of them all)

It was outstanding…. Freezing cold… but beautifully clear water and vibrant active fish… saw four lionfish

http://www.affiliate.viator.com/graphicslib/3590/SIAttractions/lionfish.jpg
(very poisonous)

Several unicorn fish (really funny looking with their little snouts)

http://www.taatohdivers.com/images/j-sites/UnicornFish-med.jpg
(way more colorful and about the size of dinner plates)

And tons of baby moray eels hiding in the grass… sneaky little devils

http://www.diveboat.com/images/mm/img0021.jpg

There not as bad ass the sea urchin that are in the grass but you cant see them until you step on it…
If you don’t know… they look like this

http://www.explorecrete.com/nature/fish/sea-urchin.jpg
(yeah… painful as hell)

The spot I was snorkeling at had a little valley that opened into a wall drop off… so your floating around… using your arms a little to adjust here and there… cruising along the valley floor looking at everything then… BAM freezing cold water and dark blue dropoff so you cant see the bottom. I always expect some shark to come swimming out of the dark. Never happens but always in the back of my mind. Apparently some guy I was talking to had just that same thing happen to him… about a 2 or three meter, gave him a total heart attack. Said he never swam back to the shallows so fast in his life… I laughed.
I got out of the water and was freezing cold… you know that feeling when your skin is icy cold but the sun feels so warms and pleasant… ahhhh I love that.

One of the girls kept taking my picture when I had my shirt off… which was really annoying, but she got kind of a fun one of me in the action of defrosting.

Had a wonderful little lunch. Don’t know if anyone has heard of chicken Portuguesee… but it’s a lovely little dish the tasted like cinnamon and orange and other spices… yummy. It was so good I had to take a picture.

here is me with the other girls.

I shared a room with the one of the left (yes… im a horrible person but I only knew one of their names… ). The one that I shared a room with was a gypsy girl from canada that was currently working for cirque du soleil out of Paris and was moving with the tour to mexico… the people you meet while traveling… I tell ya.

After lunch I went for a walk when the tide was out to see what little creatures Icould find in the pools…

The only picture I really liked is of this purple jelly

I was feeling really high spirited from the sun and the sand and the swim. So I decided to join Tina (the one girls name I know) on hike up to the top of Mt Sinai to watch the sun rise. I was really excited because there are 3750 steps up to the top known as ‘the steps of repentance’ which served as a place to perform penances. So not that I think I have been massively sinning lately but I just really wanted the exercise and the thrill of climbing the mountain… I thought hey…im in ok shape and can handle myself… this will be a piece of cake and fun. WRONG.

Ok this little treasure of a hike first of all was in the dark. I thought ok… their steps I mean you pick up one foot take a step and then put it down… even if I dotn have a flashlight (lost it in Thailand and never replaced it) everyone else does so I can walk the steps with someone… I borrowed (not stole but borrowed) a hotel blanket (for the top of the mountain) and packed some water and headed out with Tina a 11pm. We drove about 3 hours to the bottom of the mountain and thought… this is going to be fun and great.

here is me happy and smiling… we shall submit this as peoples evidence exhibit A.

So we headed out…. In the pitch dark… and I would say 1 in 3 had flashlights… and we couldn’t find the trail head…. And got lost.

Our lost flock in the dark

Without a flashlight I was forced into submissive following mode, which I hate, and the people in the front with flashlights were idiots and didn’t know where to go, which I hated even more. We never found the steps… but after half an hour we found ‘the camel trail’. I was just glad the smell wasn’t me.

Heres a pic of the resting beasts

So we decided to abandon the steps and just follow the heard (in all several hundred people made the trek that night I would guess). Now, you should know that Tina and I were absolutely dependent upon other peoples flashlights… Tina was struggling to keep up… so if we lagged back and out flash light guides didn’t wait up…. This is what the trail looked like

now if this were some nice well maintained trail like back home it would have been nice… this was rocky bumpy blind-man’s-hell of a trail. Tina and I just held hand so that if one would stumble the other would be there to help from falling. At first I mostly assisted here… but several times she helped prevent me from eating it. Out of no where would come a small rocky step and one of us would trip over it. I thinks its kind of funny in hind sight, but whenever Tina stumbled she would say ‘oh my god’ or later on the trail ‘oh my god I cant go on anymore’ and I would give her small words of encouragement like ‘you can do this’ or ‘keep going we’re almost there [even though I had no clue where the top was]. But when I stumbled or tripped she kept yelling at me ‘ryan pay attention’… for the love of god woman, what do you think im doing… staring up at the stars… ok yes I was more often then not, which would result in me tripping over a rock. Ok so she has small grounds for her demands… but the stars were phenomenal. Super super bright.. and the tiny little sliver of a moon was like a giant white hot neon curve up in the sky. It was really exquisite.

About ever quarter mile or so would be a small little hut that served drinks and snacks. Here is us trying to warm up inside one

It was about oh… ten degrees out so we struggled to keep warm… but struggled even more to stand up. Eventually after what felt like an eternity… we made it to the last little hut… we stopped to catch our breathe before the final push…

The snack stand

the seating area

We set out to make the last 750 steps to the summit. It was massively difficult. The stone steps were more like roughly strewn, mildly flat boulders upon which you stepped without handles or guard rails… with sharp drop offs on both sides… with a strong cross wind… in the pitch dark. How the hell I, and every other idiot out there, didn’t die is way way beyond me. Tina was really struggling and the last two hundred steps I was just like high school coach giving a pep talk on a player about to throw in the towel. I talked her all the way up the rest of the way. I was very empathic having just gone up before her.All I could see was pitch dark but I heard her a short distance… eventually we made it to the top. I was surprised to find a tiny little church at the top. The wing was really blowing hard without dilly dallying about quickly ushered the two of us around to the leeward side of the church for cover and found a place to sit on the ground. It was 5 am and the horizon was just about turning a faint hew of red.

We sat up there for an hour and absolutely froze our buns off. But with all my bitching and moaning about how hard and painful it was… the sun rise. Was like nothing I have ever witnessed.

I would say it was spiritual… but it was too cold to be anything other than a warming experience.

Here is the sunrise (some time in this series it changed from night mode to day mode that’s why the colors change)

here is when everyone started cheering.

Tina and I thoroughly enjoying the sunrise

looking down from where we sat.

looking out on the world

Once the sun was up… there really wasn’t anything else to do but go down…I mean there was no burning bush or anything nearly that exciting… there was a church

but nothing special.

There was this one special person there

that is the smile of someone freezing there pattooty off and giving the biggest fakest smile thinking hurry up damn it as ever.

It was really amazing to be able to see everything once the sun was up… it was like discovering the mountain for the first time.

Steps down 1

steps down 2

steps down 3

looking back

the camel trail down from the mountain

at the base looking up (the peak is on the other side)

walking down the valley

the monastery at the bottom of the valley

back at the minibus

people evidence exhibit B thoroughly tired and exhausted.

I had planned on catching the 10 am bus to Jerusalem… but missed it do to miss information on the timing of the return. Which was alright, because I got back and fell asleep for 13 hours. Waking up a midnight was a real trip for my body and have spent the last 24hours trying to get it back on schedule.

The climb up mount Sinai was incredible, and most likely never to forget that sunrise for the rest of my life… but my knees feel like all the bearings have seized up. So im going to spend another day here enjoying the sun and now trying to recover my body and knees from the hike. I spent all day today reading my book and sleeping. Tomorrow I think im going to do more of the same but throw a couple snorkeling excursion in now that my body has returned to 98.5.

I hope you enjoyed the picture of the sunrise… being able to enjoy them over the internet and not having to climb that god forsaken… or god enshrined mountain is well worth it.

im alive.... but barely.

2005-05-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

The last three (or is it four) days i have been held up in bed from a horrendiously bad attack of, what in my excellent medical expereience, belive to be the flu. I have never had something that bad come up and hit me so quickly. The day i went to the pyramids i was some what congested and slight runny nose but thougth it only because of the smoke I have been inhaling from Chris and Lisa and my natural antiaffinity allergic reaction. The next morning i woke up sick as a dog. My symptoms included shivering and constant sweating, complete congestiong cough and massive headache and body ache. whenever I got up i had really bad nusea and lose of balance... after taking a giant bag full of medicine (no clue what I took - but it ammassed to a whopping 60 cents) I think I slept for about 18 of the next 24 hours. Lisa was sweet... she tried to help by getting me orange juice... but her illogical diduction that my symptons were spurred on becuase of "too much sun at the pyramids" was really annoying, but I was in no condition to argue. I put up a valiant front by... sleeping. Late yesterday i started feeling better... atleast i didnt have a subconcious nagging me to go to the hospital. I still have mild symptoms of a light cold... but I am so absolutly going stir crazy from being indoors for .... to be honest i dont even know how many days its been. The first two days... i was so massively high on drugs if someone were to ask me how many fingers they were holding up i would have likely answered purple.
Its about... 9pm at night and I woke up an hour ago (bi internal clock is all screwed up right now). I think I'm going to pack my stuff up and head out by all night bus to a city called Dahab. Its east of Egypt across the Suey canal on the Sinai pannensula. Its supposed to have to have some good relaxation and sun worshopping coastlines. Also, its naturally on the correct path to Taba which is where I plan on crossing into the Israeli border towards Jerueselum..... yuck... think i just coughed up one of my lungs there... oh well thats why you have two i guess.
I think Im going to get on the bus and then highly medicate myself for the bus ride but now that my clock is messed up i'm more likely to be awake and wrestless the entire time. Delima.
Hopefully i have better luck crossing into Isreal at the border as well as better luck with my health. When i got off the plan at cairo and came into passport control i found, what I thought... incredibly humerous and peridoxical andicdot about entering the country. You have to purchase passport visas at a counter befor you can pass through customs. But the visa counter only accepts Egyptian pounds for payment and the only ATMs are on the other side of the customs... so its just a massively hysterical catch 22. I just had to laugh because the obvious idiocy of the set up just makes you have to laugh. You cant enter the country unless you buy a visa but you cant buy a visa unless you enter the country. Eventually some just gave me money and i repaid them on the other side... but i had a good chuckle at the security guards trying to explain the process.
A quick note on Egypt... its really a wonderfully hospitable country. So many strangers on the street have gone out of their way to make sure i understood which metro exit to take or which train is the correct one. One time i was headed onto the metro train platform to go to the egyptian museum when i heard the train comming so I started sprinting down the stairs and around the corner so that I could get on... I just barely squeezed through the clossing doors and looked up to ask the person "Sadat station yes? - as I pointed down to indicate this train" the girl said yes with a small chuckle and it took me two seconds and a quick survey of the trains passengers to realize why she was laughing... apparently there are guy only train cars... and their are girl only train cars... I was the only guy out of about 40 passengers on this particular car. Everyone smiled and had a little laugh... I quickly got off at the next stop and into the appropriatly gendered car. I still find that one funny.
Another enjoyable passtime I have been trying over the last couple of days since my appetite has returned (well sudo returned sudo forced consumption of nutrients) is... ordering food over the phone. You can have anything delivered to your house if you order over the phone... pizza hut, mcdonalds, even the grocery store. So I have been playing a fun game called lets order something new that I have never heard of before over the phone and see if it tastes good or needs to be thrown out before I gag. Its actually quite entertaining if you have a lot of time on your hands. Its like what i would imagine russian ruellet would be only with egyption cullinary bullets.
On a brighter note... my really good friend Enrico from germany whom I met a couple of years ago FINALLY emailed me and asked when I would be coming. I thought something had happened to him since he has dropped of the perspective email radar... but I guess he just has been playing incognito with me. So hopefully we get our crossedwires figured out and I can drop over to munic for a quick hello.
Ok well i should probably go becuase it take me a while to process intelligient thoughts nowadays and wont to make sure that A) I dont forget any items here at Chris' flat or B) i end up getting on the wrong bus... which would be a slight inconvenience...
I have to take the metro to ramsees bus station and then catch the 11pm bus to Dahab arriving at 8am. I took me a while and several delete buttons to get that down... Ooooh boy this should be interesting.
Take care all and wish me luck

A giant blog for the giant pyramids

2005-04-29T16:01:00.000-07:00

The Pyramids

Sorry that i havnt written in so long. I was in recovery mode from India… Had to spend a couple of days just vegging out and re-balancing my brain… if that makes sense.

So much to catch up on… I think im going to chronologically work backwards because I went to the pyramids today and A) they are fresh on my mind and B) they were so kick ass. I know horrible parlance… but it just kicked ass. First you have to know the significance and importance with which I held the trip to the pyramids… really with vast majority my trip and desire to travel around the word was precipitated by an email from a friend from South Africa whom sent me a picture of him and his friends with the pyramids in the background… I vividly remember thinking… that’s something I want to do… so I made it happen. So after a year of anxiously awaiting and hightened expectations… I went to Giza (for the second time in three days – I went the second day I was here… but after making it all the way to giza found out that Vladimir Putin (Russian Prime Minister) was visiting and closed the entire area down… punk)

Security gates for putin`s arrival

so close… yet so far

So I set out this morning at nine am (which is impressive in its own right because I was up till 4 in the morning drinking with Chris and Lisa (a backpacking russian girl that’s staying at Chris´ house as I am). So while they were both asleep I headed out to the El Maadi metro station bound for Giza (tickets cost 1egyption pound = 1/8 of US$)…

Thank god for signs in English…. I love Egypt

(Arabic on right if you were wondering)

You pop up out of the metro at Giza station and take a quick cab ride to the front of the pyramids….

Traffic

I just really like this building on the way there and took a pic

Its really wild but you come around the corner and up a hill and…. wham
Its right there

(this picture is actually of the second pyramid – of three big ones- but I put it in for affect so you know what it feels like to walk up on the street and see this mammoth pyramid staring at you right in the face…

I didn’t have my camera readily available at the entrance because… well I was sneaking it in (unnecessarily as it turns out). The reason for this is two days prior (which I´ll get to later) I went to the Egyptian museum and they didn’t let me bring my camera in and instead had to leave it with a lady guarding 20 or 30 other cameras while I went inside… needless to say that when I went in the museum I was absolutely throwing a nutty that someone would mistakenly or purposely take my camera and I would be out of my third camera… so I was stressing. As I approached the pyramids I saw that people were queuing up to walk through a metal detector and a bag search station… well I will be damned if… out in the middle of no where.. with no place to hide my camera were they going to make me leave it with someone else again… so I took the batteries out (put them in my bag) and threw my plastic camera into my pocket to go through the detector… I snuck it through just fine… but wasn’t necessary since they allowed cameras in (I know this all sounds massively paranoid… but I am massively paranoid about losing my camera… I sleep with it under my pillow at night… no not really…but it isn’t a bad idea). So I headed through the security entrance and walked up to the base of the pyramid where I found A) the entrance to enter inside…

and B) some Canadian girls that took my picture next to a massive block of the first pyramid

how Herculean is this bad boy… its huge. One single square block… DAMN!

Here are the steps up to the entrance to the inside… but I found out that it was closed until 1pm

So I headed out on foot (camels and horses are available… but I have had my share of riding stinking butt bruising animals in the desert)

Ok quick note… for lack on knowing any better… I named the pyramids very creatively… 1 through 3. One being the first one I saw and two then three respectively.

So I walked around the backside of the first pyramid and quickly saw the second pyramid looming ahead.

I like this action shot… I call it security camel on the run (pun intended)

Myself and the two Canadians were sort of haphazardly wandering around like the blind leading the blind no really knowing where to go or more exactly how to best see the pyramids…

At the base of the second pyramid I started getting really thirsty (my boyscout like skills failed me in preparation of water). I ran into two Americans who were there as it turned out as a team from the state department on an ongoing partnership between the US and Egyptian military to modernize the Egyptian military and security… I thought they could working on their camera smuggling security but thought best not to bring it up…

(ohhhh. Change of plans… Lisa (the Russian girl) and I were going to leave tonight for a bus ride to Dahab but… apparently while she was out searching for a watermelon she ran into a bunch of fellow Russians from St Petersburg and we are invited to a house party later tonight instead of the bus ride… well that makes it easier for me to write this blog because now I have as much time as I want…(incidentally I think Lisa is going to provide me a written invitation to get a Russian visa… so I might be able to get into st Petersburg and Moscow after all… we shall see how that fairs.

Tangent

So the two guys whom I was talking to told me that I could find some water for sell on the far side of the third pyramid on a plateau. It was about a half mile hike so we set out…

Along the way and off to my right we passed this weird (I thought an eye soar) of a construction site.

Wondering what it was… I found it’s the opera Aida…
for those cultured and knowledgeable about such things you probably said “oh sensational… how simply splendid”
if your as ignorant and sheltered as I am about such things … you probably said as I did “huh?”

Apparently its some very famous (I got several scornful looks of contempt for not knowing) opera thing that’s going to be, well here:

Opera Aida will be performed in Giza,
in front of the Great PyramidSeptember 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21

I always thought the opera was for people whom couldn’t fall asleep… but apparently is a well like thing.

We made the hike all the way to the plateau and found an incredible view of the pyramids…

(this is where my friend took the picture that he sent to me)… isn’t it just an amazing backdrop… stupid Aida ruining my picture.

While enjoying the incredible view… I started chatting it up with a couple of guards that were… well doing anything but guarding…
They were hilarious and I joked with them for about half an hour.

A complete side story… after sitting there for a while… one of the guards offered me a tomatoes. In and of itself its well…A) kind of weird to randomly offer produce to people B) even more bizarre to randomly offer produce to people in the edge of the desert and C) one of the best damn tomatoes I have ever had… maybe its one of those when your hungry things taste better concepts… but that juicy red delight rivalled some of the Italian greats that I have had. After a while I kind of got in a mood to be by myself to just sit and enjoy the pyramids so I headed out to the middle of no where to find a little hill to sit atop. One just like this…

just chilling… looking at something that is almost five thousand years old and the single remaining wonders of the ancient world…. Five thousand years old. I mean wow… wow.

I had what I found on the internet (http://wonderclub.com/WorldWonders/PyramidHistory.html):
The monument was built by the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty around the year 2560 BC to serve as a tomb when he died.
(It) ranked as the tallest structure on Earth for more than 43 centuries, only to be surpassed in height in the nineteenth century AD - 481 ft
…Consists of approximately 2 million blocks of stone, each weighing more than two tons

In case you wondered what the wonders are….

The Seven wonders of the Ancient World
(chronologically – pics from http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/list.html)

The Pyramids of Giza

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus - (which I have been too)

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

The Colossus at Rhodes – I wish I could go back in time to see this one

The Lighthouse at Alexandria

The seven modern wonders are: (http://wonderclub.com/WorldWonders/ModernWonders.html)
Channel Tunnel (England & France)

CN Tower (Toronto)

Empire State Building (New York)

Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco)

Itaipu Dam (Brazil/Paraguay)

Netherlands North Sea Protection Works (Netherlands)

Panama Canal (Panama)

I probably spent another hour just chilling out and soak it up. I even enjoyed the camels riding by

Heres me on my hill

Look at that smile….tell me im not loving the pyramids… I dare you.
I had to pull out the old camel riding scarf for protection from the sun.

Here is looking back at the touristy area where they sell water and souvenirs that… even I succumbed to buying a couple wall hangings… a two stone bookends that weigh about a ton and are going to be cheap to mail home.

Most people took buses or horses back to the main pyramid area… but I wasn’t in a rush and was living in the moment so I decided to walk back to the pyramids…

what I refer to as one, two and three from left to right respectively.
I want you to note the size and height of the third pyramid and stow it in the back of your mind…

A close up of 1&2

Thinking that I came around the pyramids (on my now) left side… I decided to pass them on the right to see all sides. So I started making my way to the right side of the pyramid…. Where I found three smaller pyramids… kinda cute little guys

dwarfed by their bigger brother

and again

As I rounded the back side… I noticed some people climbing the smaller pyramids… so I decided… hey why not… I mean yes its illegal and all.. but hey im only going to be here once.
So I headed out to show the labouring older business what a really boulder climber can do… when… I got yelled at… I was told that wasn’t allowed… I fained ignorance “sorry, I didn’t know”. The guy then quickly changed his tune… “you know pyramids is a business” he said… I smell a bribe coming. So I asked him how much does the business at the pyramids cost nowadays… “50 dollars” (to climb half way up the small one pyramid)… “oh my god that´s so expensive” I said aloud as quick a reaction as pulling a burned finger away from a hot burner… while simultaneously contemplating hmmmm how much really is it worth to climb a pyramid. Yeah its small but… it’s a pyramid.. then my mind shifted gears and had delusions of grandeur. “how much is it to climb the big one”. Oh that one is 200 dollars… Long discussion short…. I talked him down to taking me to the top of the big pyramid (# 3) for ten dollars… now for any authorities or disapproving parents out there…. I really didn’t climb the pyramid and im just being creative for my blog to make it interesting… for everyone else…. $10 baby.

We headed up to the base and… I have to call back this picture that I already posted so you can appreciate this scaling task.

these are not stair steps… they are not even steps… they are simply…massive stone blocks. Try to conjure up an image of a little cute furry puppy trying desperately to climb the carpeted stair case for the first time… straining and clawing and struggeling. Well replace the puppy with me doing the same thing but replace carpeted staircase with stone pyramid… and you have a pretty good idea what it was like. I cant remember how many I climbed up….

how many is that… it doesn’t matter it was hard. And the guide taking me up set a blistering pace. I had to set down my back… laden with heavy stone book ends and kicked off my sandals. I mean I am pretty athletic and in fairly good shape… and I was giving it about 90% to keep up. Once again my rock climbing experience came in handy for cracks and crevasse for handholds.

I quickly discovered why he was going so fast… I heard one of his friends from down below something… and he literally hit the deck and told me to get down… about ten seconds passed while he looked like he was passing kidney stones or something… we were apparently hiding from someone… I started wondering what I got myself into this time. I wonder what the food is like in the Egyptian prison… Cant be any worse than the Indian food I had on the desert safari… alright lets push on. I don’t know what the go signal was… but he hoped up and whispered “come” and we were off. We hit the deck so to speak about four or five times on the way up… we were pushing so hard that I didn’t even stop to look around… just focused on my balance and my hand and foot holds. Before I realized it… really what felt like a matter of seconds… he stopped and said “ok sit down take picture”… I looked up and saw…

I was two stones away from the pinnacle stone. Pardon my French but I remember looking up and quietly uttering… “holy shit”

The city of giza starting at the very fringe of the pyramids

The three smaller pyramids below

and the vast desert from here to as far as my eye could see

(the small building about half a mile out is the camel and horse stable – I’m guessing)

And then…. There is this guy…

just call me the little puppy that could… ok don’t really call me that because its quite stupid really. For all the people that just tried to look up my shorts… sham on you. I think one thing that I like about this picture… that I notice before anything else… its my enjoyed release from my cotton shirts only prescription laid down by Rhona in India… and my long awaited return to 100% all natural synthetic polyester… praise Allah.

After about… oh a minute or two we headed down… again he pushed fast… but I wasn’t having it… slow and steady wins the race… and even if it doesn’t win the race it prevents me from falling and most assuredly breaking my neck. He busted down and stressing out like an over paranoid schizophrenic. I went down with the speed and consistency of molasses. I got to the base and started noticing that my hands were shaking from adrenaline when… a guy came out of no where and started harassing me in Arabic… I was guessing that he was more interested in trying to get money out of me then get me in trouble… when my guide and his two surface level watchmen came up and started talking (equally in Arabic) in very louded voices… obviously some sort of confrontation was going on… but I didn’t understand what… not did I want to hang around to find out… I circled around the group until I was behind the initial instigator and then with his back to me, I turned and quickly but quietly made my escape… escape has the connotation like I did something wrong… I made a hurried departure to the sights of the next venue. Yeah that sounds better.

I know im a horrible person and fortunate I didn’t get in trouble…. But wow what a rush. I havnt gotten an adrenaline pump like that since bungee jumping in New Zealand. I quickly made a coulpe of turns and got behind some view obscuring obstacles until I turned to take a picture of conquered foe.

http://photos1.blogger.com/img/215/3761/320/SA4000871.jpg>

Now mom and Don… before I get another email like the time I cut out on paying my emergency room bill in Australia… please see the aforementioned paragraph stating that I in fact did not climb the pyramid and the pictures are fake.

With that declaration aside… it was absolutely incredible and still get chills when I think about it.

I kept on going with my original circumnavigating plan and headed to the other side of the third pyramid where there are the remains of several unearthed ruins.

(zoomed in)

ohhh just remembered this picture… when I was first heading out to the place where they sold water… The Canadian girls (whom I separated with back at the place of the tomato bearing security guards) and I walked along the road (where as coming back I walked in the sand).. when I was walking around curve in the road to the left… a tour bus came from behind and …. Swear to god… swear to god… drove by me on it way into the turn ( I was on the inside of the corner)… it passed me no more then four inched from my elbow… One of the Canadian girls screamed and jumped to the left….by the time we realized how close we came to being road pancakes… the bus was already passed… but when I came back to the parking lot… I found it… the evil road raging green bus.

imagine this thing tearing by you…frightening.

I wrote down the license plate to write a complaint… but don’t have a clue who to send it too.

While I was there I had to take a picture of the ugly side of tourism

most of the people were only at the first pyramid and the sphinx… so two and three were uninhibitedly enjoyed… but I was back amongst the masses now. Which on the good side, does provide safety from buses I guess.

On my way to the front of the first pyramid… where I wanted to go inside… I passed several ruins that were quite delightful in there appearance and preservation..

nice little cross section to see the cuts

A mini tomb for one of the many kings:
Entrance

small statue at entrance

I wasn’t supposed to take pictures inside but… the guy said… you American… no problem… I smell a bribe coming.

wall hieroglyphics

more

and umm… is that what I think it is?

it might take a little bit of creativity but this a picture of a miniature woman at right and a man from the waste down… yeah… kind of phallic. So I took a picture.

In the back of the room is a small tunnel leading down…

half way down

here is when I realized that my camera still had been on the landscape setting so that’s why the color is different.

At the bottom is simply a tomb

looking back at the stairs leading down…

I headed out and around to the front of the first pyramid… towards the entrance to inside.

Here is where I absolutely completely am still kicking myself… idiot. I forgot to try and sneak my camera in… the metal detector caught my batteries and I had to fork over my camera and have the guy watch over it… Luckily it was still there when I got back… but oh man I wish I could have shown you the pictures from inside… its just so amazing – any description I give will not do it justice… nor do I think picture will but more so than words… let me search the net real quick to see if I can find any pics on what I thought it looked like….

Ohhh yeah… here are a couple good ones. Ok so you head in to this flat weaving tunnel (that is well lit)

to a couple of steps
http://www.virtual-egypt.com/newhtml/pyramids/giza/gp/gpentr98.jpg>

then you step on to a platform that leads up….. and up and up and up

this passage way up was just high enough to bend over and climb up.. I had to shuffle my back over to my side to make it fit… the fun part was when someone was coming the opposite direction on this one way passage. Its so long that you couldn’t wait… you had to a little wiggle turn dance thing for both of you to get by… it prompted a couple stepped on toes and several good laughs.

At the top of this passage way you climb a couple rungs of a ladder andd…. Up and up and up.

I like this picture… the color is crap.. but you can see how awesome the open expansive of the interior is…It’s a pretty good climb… made even more enjoyable by the fact that the bottom of my sandals are about as smooth as a babies butt. Well the up part wasn’t bad… but I think I stubbed my town or nearly fell on my face about 20 times…
At the top here… there a couple of obstacles to duck under… and then you enter into…

A completely empty room except for a solitary opened tomb… It was some what of an anticlimactic chamber… but was impressive again to think that I was touching something that was four thousand and something years old.

Outside again… I made my way to the sphinx…
Its really weird but there are fenced around pits all over the grounds on this side of the pyramid… obviously serving some purpose at one time.

after making my way through the throngs of people… I came to a good spot for…
me… and the sphinx

Damn its 2 o’clock.. by the time I finish editing the photo links and proof read it its good to be around 3. I’ve been here for almost 6 hours and have obviously missed the house part… oh well… maybe next time. I just layed down for a couple minutes to “rest my eyes” like you want to do when pulling an all-nighter… but forced myself up like a champion… Im going to finish this tonight

We’ll I think its pretty apparent that I loved the pyramids and lived up to everything I expected… sorry for the novel but they pyramids are just the awesome…

I will pick it up tomorrow… im stone cold tired (are cold stones ever tired… anyway). So I’m going to finish up and head to bed.

Forget it, im not going to proof read it…

Much to write about tomorrow so see you then… or ‘write’ you then anyway…

Ciao for now
Ryan

Indian cave in

2005-04-25T01:14:00.000-07:00

They say that there is no place like home-
Which is true I suppose… unless you don’t have a home… then I guess youre just left with “theres no place like”, and then its really easy to adlib any darned place you like. As for me this week, theres no place like New Delhi.

Its soooo good to be back at my host family’s house. A) because Rhona pampers me endlessly, and B) NO RICKSHAW DRIVERS yippppppy! Which honestly is kind of sad because I finally started getting good at dealing with them. The trick I have learned is to give them a healthy and vigorous shove in the chest. I know, I know it seems incredibly disrespectful, rude and inappropriate… but I assure you its none of these things. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. I’ve found it really a panacea for all sorts of rude people. Whenever I try to get off trains with my big backpack on my back, in the past I have struggled because people rush onboard the train before everyone gets off. Now when I get to the door and someone tries to step up and run in to get a good seat… I put my hand on there chest… look them in the eye, say “NO!” and push the backwards… its amazing how after that people part a path for me. Like Moses and the red sea. Just as I feel I have finally mastered the Indian train and rickshaw transportation debacle… I return to Delhi for my last couple of days before leaving for the pyramids. Oh well. At least I feel like I finally figured it out and it didn’t get the best of me. It was touch and go for a while there. But vini vidi vici.

Oooop I’m being beckoned… I think we’re going some where… be right back.

Rhona and Allwyn took me by Rhona’s school (private catholic school) to meet a couple of teachers and pasters (I think he was a paster… Im actually really ignorant of the church’s hierarchical titles – I don’t know the difference between a priest, a pastor, or a pew [but I do find them all equally engaging – just kidding]). He was a hilarious old Irish guy and we related travel war stories about India (hes been traveling to different cities around india since the sixties so he had a lot more). I told him about my strategy of unabashed pushing technique and he gave me kudos, but told me his strategy works much more efficiently without having to make physical contact. When rickshaw drivers bother him he says “leave me alone or I’ll rob you”, I laughed at the thought of this five foot, super white irish father trying to mug anyone one. He was actually quite an amazing guy. He joked that when he worked in Calcutta he and the other members of the church were getting tired of mother Theresa out saving people, while they did all the work of taking care of the people she brought in.
On the way home we stopped at the fish market and watched them chop up fish on wooden blocks. I didn’t say anything but in the back of my mind I worried how fresh the fish was since Delhi is so far away from the coast.

Well my travel stories in and around dehli may be mildly amusing… the ajanta caves are what I really wanted to write about.

20 hour train ride south east of Jodhpor is the Ajanta caves. The only way to get there is take a train from Jodhpor to Jalgaon… and then a day bus out to Ajanta where the caves are located.

Heres is the best I can find to show where its at

http://jalgaon.nic.in/images/world-map.gif

Ajanta is right next to Ellora… this map gives good perspective of Ajanta/Ellora with respect to Delhi and Jaipur… fyi Kolkata is Calcutta.

http://www.travelershub.com/images/maps/Ajanta-ellora.gif

At Ajanta; there are thirty some caves created between 200BC and 650AD, which is needless to say – a long time ago. It was rediscovered by the British some…. time…. thereafter… (sorry – im not a historian… im going off memory here which isn’t looking to good for those that may actually be interested in facts). I do know for a fact that the caves are phenomenal and… hot as Hade’s, and in the middle of BFE.

Here is my favorite picture I took at the caves:

how awesome and eeries is that???

Inequality I say… damn the man,

Indians 10 rupees – foreigners 250 rupees.
Bunch of punks

After evading the tours selling postcards and crystals and other such items like the skill of a cat, I headed out towards the caves.

Here’s is a picture of the map showing the horseshoe canyon where all the caves are located.

I was expecting there to be a river but instead found a dry river bed. However it didn’t detract from the incredible specatacle of all these caves lined shoulder to shoulder.
From afar.

Here is what the entrance of the first cave looked like

At the entrance you have to take off your shoes (sandals) and are not allowed to take flash photos… so I tried out the night mode option of the camera… I think it turned out really good but some of the lighting turned eerily green. I think it added to the ambiance of this ancient religious venue.

Cave 1

the walls are adorned with ancient painting that have cracked and chipped leaving a vague impression of what once must have been something worthy of a great majaraja or king

(the night mode keeps the shutter open for a couple seconds… so if I couldn’t rest the camera on an object to sturdy it you get the blurring affect from the minute movement of my hands moving)

Here is a pic of the ceiling… it totally reminds me of the Sistine chapel. They way the pictures look very… grid like… if that makes sense.. the Sistine is divided into (if I recall) equall sized squares and looks like giant graph paper with colorful pictures inside… that’s what these ceiling reminded me of

If you look through all the pictures you will quickly discover a common pattern, every single cave had a statue of Buddha in the rear [for prayer I can only guess]…here is the first of many

the door frame is innately carved with football sized figures, surrounded by paintings on all sides. Inside, sitting next too and below Buddha are other statues, but I couldn’t get close enough.

Cave 2

Here is a picture of the overhead structural beam connecting the structural columns… but has incredible carving detail

notice also how in the background it is almost pitch dark inside the cave… hence the necessity of the night mode for the camera…

How cool is this. The room is filled with massive columns and just look at the ceiling…

structural column… with shaky hands

I probably threw out half of my pictures I took because they were too blurry… too bad.
Heres an example

another column with backlighting from below

and of course… what cave is complete without….
Da Buddha

looks very similair to the first cave (and many subsequent caves as well).
Notice all the detail and artwork.

One thing unique about this cave is it had some exceptional side statues (of what I don’t know)

Here is a picture of a floor painting outside the second cave. Each cave has someone standing by the door (the one at this cave said that this picture is significant because of the opposing colors of clothes [i.e. blue sox vs white sox]… but he didn’t explain the meaning)

Cave 4
Here is the entrance to cave 4 (there is no cave 3)

I think it just amazing how this… and all the other entrances just come to life right out the rough rock canyon walls. They really are beautiful. I regret that I didn’t get better picture of the façades in hind sight. But the walkway was so narrow and the entrances are just so massive that it wasn’t possible to get them in perspective. Hence the 45 degree angled shots.

Here I was trying to show that each cave was watch over by hawk eye workers stationed to yell at people if they used flash photography… also, I tried to capture the exquisite detail encompassing the modern wooden doors… but shaky hands reared his ugly head. I’ll make sure I take some protaxc next time I whip out the camera.

I have this picture downloaded consecutively next in line (I upload all my pictures to an online repository)… but the doors in my eyes don’t look the same… oh well I’ll fake it… its not like anyone is going to call me on it and say hey that’s really the door to number 18… what kind of a blog are you running here mister…. So… here is a picture of the entrance to cave 4 zoomed in… if it looks different than the one zoomed out…. Its because you’re on drugs.

it is a good example of the door carvings though.

Cave four I think was one of my favorite… its massive, huge, gargantuan… you get the point.

theres no way to scale this for distance and size… but trust me when I say its big.

Down the side with the structural columns in line (the column were oh….3 feet in diameter… I couldn’t wrap my arms around them even if I tried). In total there are 28 structural pillars.

Alright im going to whip out my lonely planet and see if I can back fill some interesting facts….If you could see how bet up this book is… its amusing. When I go to a place and leave I rip the pages out of my lonely planet travel guide to save both weight but also space (India book was originally two inches thick, its now half an inch).

Nope didn’t find anything that wouldn’t bore you to tears.

Allwyn and Rhona are cracking me up while I type this blog up… there arguing over the air conditioning being on or not.. she keeps trying to turn it on and he keeps secretly turning it off… all of a sudden she’ll yell ‘ah ha there you turned it off again’ and start searching him for the remote control [A/C are remote controlled all over asia ].

I just realized the lighting color is different in these pictures because … well…they used different colored lights.

Again…
Giant Buddha

Its like thirsty feet tall… I was feeling inadequate dwarfed in comparison… so I took a picture of my shadow at thirty feet tall by standing in front of the floor light

Im kind of proud that I affectively made my shadow look like it wasn’t some yahoo taking a picture with my elbow sticking out to the side…

Off to one side are statues depicting people running from … let me check my book… ‘the eight great dangers’. I don’t know what the eight great dangers are but I’m guessing Indian rickshaw drivers are one of them… and I’m guessing right now Allwyn would scoffingly vote marriage as another. I think I just made up a word… scoffingly… well anyway.

Here are two statues ‘running from the eight dangers’ that I call the twins…

I love their lighting from below that makes them look like deities (which I doubt was the Buddhist intentions.. but I like it).

Here are some identical statues on the right hand side of the entrance to Buddha just to show you the scale and size of this room and statues… at the bottom are three peoples heads

heres a cool one

I wish I could have gotten one of me in the entrance but felt like it would be too much trouble to mime out to someone to take my picture and then only to find out that they took a picture of the top of my head (like someone did for me before).

Theres no cave 5 and cave six had about, as Rhona described them on the train ‘a million smelly indians’.

So I jumped over to seven to get ahead of the herd.

Cave 7
Here is the magnificent entrance from the side perspective.

for some reason I got photo happy to show people having to take off their shoes to enter… don’t ask why, because I honestly don’t know

And then there are these two beauties…Diesel sandals… S E X Y

Ok, funny side story. As you may recall I bought some expensive nice leather sandals in Australia… that I absolutely loved. Well they met their demise when I had to kick down a hotel room door. Yeah, it would be a lot more cool to say I busted it down to save some young lady from a house fire… but in reality… my hotel room door’s hinges weren’t vertical and I got tired of using my shoulder (as instructed by the hotel manager) and decided out of ire to kick the stupid thing open… well it opened, and so did my sandal strap thingy (that goes next to your big toe).

Ok I’m being called by Rhona.. I guess she needs my help… we’re going to go run errands and then go to the ‘dirty market’ as she eloquently and probably appropriately described… I’ll pick this up later
Ciao…

Im back, im sure you missed me in my unnoticeable absence.
One small errand turned into several long ones… but they took me out to a really good Chinese food restaurant…. So all is square.

So for a little background on where we started off on our errand trip; this morning the colonel thought he was going to be hosting an old army buddy (turn out later he went to some other city)… but in preperation for his arrival Allwyn and myself went up to the roof top to get down a mobile air conditioning unit (but I didn’t see a condensor or an evaporator… so I don’t know what it really was – maybe a big fan… anyway). As we were getting it down… it well, sort of slipped out of Allwyns hands and…. Bang… the thing dropped and busted like an egg…

Well that was earlier this morning… for the errand we headed out to the repair place (which turned out to be a shop on the side of the road… errr… let me correct that… it was a couple of guys with a tarp over their heads on the side of the road). As we were there having them check out the busted air whatevermabob… it started raining… Now first off I should say that all day there had been a horrible dust storm blowing dust and dirt. When we got out of the car and were standing on the side of the road – it was dusty dry and windy one second, then next second… it was like someone flipped a switch and turned the water works on… it poured… No it didn’t pour…it flooded from the sky. One of those totally utter downpour that soaks you to the bone in about .35 nanoseconds. It was spectacular… people couldn’t run for cover fast enough… There must have been a starting gun that went off somewhere and I didn’t hear it because it was a mad dash and they were off…. I just stood there with a giant grin on my face thinking….. thank god….. RAIN!!!! I mean… it was sooooo soooo sooooo… well wet. OOOOOh it was delightfully wonderful –sugar, spice and everything nice. India has been so hot and dry, so much so that my skin resembles a hybrid animal crossed between a Nile crocodile and a 40 grit piece of sandpaper… rainnnn, glorious marvelous, wet… ok I maybe going a little over board on the rain… but after acclimating to washingtons perpetual wet weather… the drops just felt so damned good. I remember when I used to have to run in the rain what felt like every single day for cross country, wrestleing and track I used to think while rivulets poured down my face that I never wanted to run in the rain ever again… when I was standing there in the rain, with everyone hiding under dripping cover… I had such an urge to go for a run… It’s the little things in life I guess…
Well after the rain relented and we transferred the air cooling box out of the car we were off to the next destination… well it was a little less exciting… we went shopping for a new water heater for the new house. Riveting, I know.

However, when we finished with that rollercoaster ordeal, we went out to dinner. I tried to sneak some money to the waiter again… this time I tried to be more sly… but they caught me and yelled at me. I think Rhona actually slapped my hand… not sure.
Wow tangent… caves ryan… caves.
Well back to my ajanta story… Im at a cyber café down the street right now (since I would rather do my blog here and let them sleep in peace and quiet without little keyboard clickings), so I’ll have to guess where I left off at before…. Oooooh I know… the shoes…
Yeah, kicked a door in and had to buy new ones… so here are my five dollar diesel rip offs that turn my feet completely black when they get wet… kind of nasty but really fun to watch people get freaked out when I show them the bottoms of my feet. I tell them I have a rare form of Inidiandryskinitis… they usually don’t get it.
Ok cave number whatever it was….
Here is a closer shot of the carvings around the entrance

above the door

all the pictures from insider were too blurry… well there were paintings and pillars and a big Buddha in the back. Sarcasm aside they were really cool.
The next cave was just a little tiny guy

Cave number 8

locked and im guessing that’s where the hidden treasure is!

Cave 9 (I think its nine… could be ten)

this ones really dark inside but it’s a long hallway lined with columns on the sides with a 3m high dagoba in the rear

your probably asking yourself what exact is a 3m high dagoba…. Well just keep asking because I just read it out of the book and really don’t have a clue. It looked like a giant bell… except for the fact that it was not a bell. Go figure.
A closer shot of the columns

I like the design on this column… its simple, elegant, and artistic in a way that even I could do it and not screw it up too much.

Another shot of the bell shaped bagoda

cave 10 (this ones definitely ten so the last one was definitely nine)
the front of cave ten made me think that I should be expecting to find a fulling functioning movie theatre inside, I mean look at it

I didn’t find any new releases or snack stands… but did find another bagoda thingy

this ones a little better lit to see…
the left side

looking back at the entrance

if you look at the bottom right this picture looking back you’ll see a little sign board…

this is what was on the sign board

There was no cave 11…

But at cave 12, I had a stroke of genius… or complete capitulation to the fact that my mind is, as one girlfriend politely described it… an aluminum sieve….

I decided to start keeping track of the cave numbers by…… wait for it, wait for it……
Taking pictures of them with there numbers

Aaaaah genius - its so simple, yet so affective… (well affective until my camera ran out of batteries… but we’re not there yet)

Ok it’s a little tacky aesthetically but… who am I Ansel Adams. As an engineer I get ten points for efficiency from the Romanian judge.

Cave 12

not much to hoot at…but they cant all be spectacular right? Need a little contrast - or something like that.

Cave 13

ok I only get a 7 from the Romanian judge on this one… but at least I started documenting them…

this one had steps up… kinda cool

reminds me of my apartment (that was nick named the rugby house the year before) in college.

Cave 14

The entrance of 14

As I stepped in I was a little surprise. I think my exact words were ‘hey what is this’.

Apparently they set up a little tourist information center in one of the caves…. Aren’t they just creative little marketing devils!

“Put down that 10 Romanian judge….”

It comes complete with pictures (I love pictures… because they’re not in Hindi language – the fact that they arent in any language is inconsequential).

There is even a little model of the canyon horseshoe

Unlike the buckeye horseshoe…

http://www.myteamprints.com/images/college/osu/lrg/1107.jpg

Sorry for the shameless plug but I’ve been initiated as an honorary buckey’s fan…. Michigan sucks, GO BUCKS! [that was for the Mad Rhinos out east]!

GO COUGS!!!

ok back to the caves

oooh and of course… the buddha

The guy stationed at the information booth… this guy

Was absolutely enamored with my digital camera…. I showed him how it worked and he even took a picture of a super overheated tourist [110’F that day]

I think he wanted to give me his email address so that I could email him his picture.. but neither of us had a pen so…. Sorry guy.

No cave 15

Cave 16
As documented

inside

there were pretty cool looking little figures on the ceiling… but couldn’t hold my hand stead enough

damn it…. They’re closing… guess in going to have to pick this up tomorrow… this blog is taking seriously about 4 days to make…
pictures one day
train the next day
uploading pics third day
writing fourth day
and now tomorrow… ok 5 days. Blah!

Ok I’ll get it out tomorrow before my flight to cairo….

See ya on the flip side… ooop he just turned off the lights… it feel like im in first grade again…. “Class be quiet… “
Gotta go.

Oooooh so tired. I didn’t sleep very well last night… really hot, and so I just stayed awake reading my new book till about four in the morning… It really isn’t that bad I reckon because if I’m flying east im going to be set up for adjusting to the new timezone…

Ok now that I got this set up… im going to take a shower and get some food because most likely my ability to write in complete and coherent sentences is about as likely that my blog doesn’t have a spelling or grammatical error. I know…. not good odds.

Just finished showering, eating breakfast, and am totally packed for tonight’s flight… its not for another twelve hours… but im set.. now I just need to hammer this bad boy out….

Lets see last left off at…. Ah yes

Cave 17

Great painting on the walls here in this cave.
This one is blurry… but you can easily see all the complex detail.

here is a painting of buddha’s wife… apparently it’s a big deal because the guy stationed at this cave kept pointing too it…

He actually removed the chain and let me walk back there and take close up pictures… and then quickly asked for money in compensation. Yeah, right!

Painting of Buddha

statue

Cave 19

beautiful looking door entry ways…

inside upper left

upper right

ceiling from below

This was the very last picture I took of the ajanta caves before my battery died… but what a picture

sign me up national geographics…

I headed to a couple other caves but was feeling so hot that towards the mid twenties I decided to go back and get some lunch since I hadn’t eaten anything that day yet.

After lunch I headed out to the main road…. Where I was told to stand there until the bus came by… I wasn’t sure when the bus would come… but was assured it would come eventually…. So I sat… and I waited… for the bus.

I eecked out a couple more volts out of electricity from the batteries and managed to take one more picture of me sitting on the cement road sign waiting… by the side of the road… in the sun… for the bus.

To say it was hot is like saying getting kicked in the shines hurts… not only is it painfully obvious… but you sound like an idiot saying it.

It was like 45’Celcius which… who knows in Fahrenheit… but hot. I saw a goat walk by that looked like he was sweating badly and breathing heavily…

Behind me in the picture.. on which im sitting… is a road sign. I think it said… “Jalgaon 55 miles… unless you’re an idiot American tourist sitting waiting with blind faith that a bus will pick you up… then it will be a lot further”.

I started doubting the dependability and promptness of the bus service after a while because… well I have riden them in the past. So I started flagging down any truck, motorcycle, or thing with a motor [I wasn’t going to ride a cow back…] on the side of the road. I actually got a couple trucks to pull over… One I didn’t feel like sitting with pigs in the back of the truck (pride kicks in everyonce in a while), another I didn’t feel like cramming in with what looked like 20 – 30 people in a jeep (people were hanging out the side and sticking out windows and the back door… it looked like a circus car where when it stops fifty colorful clowns pile out amazingly… I asked if I could ride up on top and they said no so I passed. Luckily I had a really good book so I was actually more interested in reading then staring at the deserted road waiting to see a giant galoppy bus appear on the horizon. Eventually the bus did come … and I found a seat on the floor to sit and sweat the ride back. But I did get back to Jalgaon.

My 24 hour train ride back to delhi wasn’t until 2am. So I rented a hotel room… took a shower, caught some dinner and chilled out to read… until, the power went out again… Its really annoying trying to ready by candle light.. but I managed. As I was about ready to leave… about an hour before my train… I wanted to walk to the station and check that the train was on time… (no point waiting at a trainstation when I can wait in a room with a high powered fan). As I headed toward the main door… and steped over the sleeping night watchman whom was passed out on the floor… I couldn’t unlock the door… I had to wake the sleeping guy up and ask him to open it for me… he told me it was locked by the manager and couldn’t be opened…. Uh uh…. This isn’t happening… I started telling him he better open the door or I would open it for him. I think he understood me pretty well because he called the manager on the phone… after talking with the manager for a while (whom I talked to earlier in the day and told I hate a late train… and he assured me there wouldn’t be a problem) the night watch men hung up the phone and pulled the keys from his pocket to open the door…. Locked by the manager my eye… I stepped out into the still hot and still pitch dark street (because the city power was still off) and walked to the train station. My train was on time so I headed back to my room…. I got everything prepped… changed into my (what I now call my) camel riding outfit (white tops and bottoms) because they are so damn comfortable. I headed out to the station again and… punk was asleep again and the door was locked. I woke him up with a not so gentle shake and he stood up… I looked at him and pointed to the door ( I think with my giant backpack on my back and pointing at the door this would be some what obvious towards my intentions) but he just looked at me as if wondering what I wanted. Can I leave please… I asked. He had to call the manager again and ask permission to open the door.. after he opened it I said several snide and smart-assed remarks that I could care less whether he understood or not. I finally escaped my hotel confines and walked to the station… again… in the dark… again… sweating in he heat….again. I got on the train just fine… (I finally figured out how to figure out where my reserved seat and car number is [small bulletin board marked by a tinny blue sign] and how to determine how many cars from the engine my reserved car is [a different bulletin board marked by…. Well its not marked you just have to look for it until you stumble across it]. I got on my train and found my bench/bed just fine… had to kick a guy out of it… but was quickly asleep and on my way to Delhi.

I think I slept about 10 hours which was enjoyable to catch up on… Talked to a couple people on the train… a nice guy form Nepal that just finished up he grad school and was traveling around India for a month… and met an English couple who were in India to shoot a non profit informational movie.

I got off the train in Delhi about an hour late… but was thinking… I cant wait too see Allwyn (who we planned would pick me up next to the wimpy burger stand at platform 12).. and I knew he would be there… the colonel is dependable like that… after not finding him… I called him thinking he was sitting in the car somewhere since my train was an hour late…
“hello…. Hi allwyn its ryan, im at wimpys… ryan old chap, is today the day you were supposed to come back… yes im here at the station… oh man, sorry we’re out to dinner with some friends, we’ll be there in about an hour”
ok well maybe not be that dependable….

The last couple of days I have just been chilling out and enjoying staying in one place longer than a single day. I tried working on the blog from time to time.. but never got a chance to really work on it until last night… and then got cut off.

Well I think I have written enough to bore most of the known world, and im feeling pretty sluggish from lake of sleep... so I’ll sign off and say good bye.

Tonight I head to Cairo, via London Heathrow (don’t ask… it the around the world ticket …). I think I get in tomorrow night, and some random person from the internet is picking me up at the airport… so hopefully that goes well. His name is Christian and goes by chris. If I recall his email address said something like the @germancorner.com or soemthign like that… and all he asked me to bring with him is a bottle of jack daniels because he cant buy any there… so it should be a really interesting trip.

Take care all, have a great week and I should be posting pics of the pyramids with the next blog. Theres no place like Cairo… theres no place like cairo…

Lots of love…
Ciao for now,
Ryan

Nate I never could send that email to you so, hi to you and Kyle and the rest of the psd people!

Post Script
A funny side note… I figured this out a week ago but I feel dumb for not getting it sooner. When an Indian nods there head yes… they shake their head from side to side… like in the motion of touching their left ear to left shoulder then right ear to right shoulder… instead of the forward backward motion that is typical to our non verbal confirmation… well this seems really strange yes… but is incredibly incredibly confusing at first when you are trying to ask questions and get this weird side to side motion without a verbal confirmation.. “it’s the train station this way”.... shake shake… “um so is the train station this way”… shake shake… “do you know someone who knows where the train station is”… shake shake… “ok thanks a lot buddy… im going to wander around some more since you cant help”… yeah!

Post post
I have a little extra time since im all packed and Rhona and Allwyn went to go look at bathroom tiles for the new bathroom… I chose to stay home an chill out.

I wanted to some what summarize my India experience because it was so much more unique in my mind than any other country I’ve been to this trip, and even previous trips to Europe for that matter. People have told me that India is the hardest country to backpack around… and from my experience.. they are right.. Its… just so… different. How do you describe it… I think of India having a split personality or a bipolar disorder. I could say that it has a wide spectrum of experiences… but its not a spectrum… there is no grey middle… is completely bifurcated into ‘the great’, and ‘the gross’. Its two countries at the same time. It’s a land of the grand and beautiful taj majal… and a land where you cant find toilette paper anywhere, nor soap at any sink… but everyone eats with their hands. It’s a land that has a magically tranquil desert serene with beauty and mental solitude… and a land of nightmarish and almost intolerable traffic and crazy mad drivers, that make you want to pull out your hair and cover your ears at the same time. Allwyn and Rhona have been saints amongst saints opening their home and literally and figuratively taken care of me, I mean.. they have been so invaluable.. and I cant thank them enoughuable. out your hair and cover your ears at the same times on to items and tastes that are familiar and re… but I find people on the street that, on a consistent basis, fill me with ire and loathing and disgust. I’ve been to ancient spiritual caves that are so well protected and respected that you cant even take a flash picture (which is understandable) but the ground of any AND every city is littered with litter, garbage and trash everywhere. I hate to be saying such harsh criticism and don’t feel comfortable making such statements when maybe peoples only impression of India will be through reading this (and other) blogs… but… well… lets just say I’ve been ready to go to the next country on my trip for a while now.

I hate leaving on such a downtrodden mood - so I’ll share with you a revelation I have had about traveling… While in India I have quite taken to ice cream. In any form… milk shakes, cups, cones, etc. The extremely weird thing about this.. that close friends have questioned about is…. I hate ice cream. I hate almost any and every kind of sweets. I cant recall, with the hardest of concentration, the last time I had ice cream in the states.. years. But I eat it like mad here in India. Equally outstanding to my memory is I recall when I was traveling around Turkey for a month… I was addicted to Doritos and Cocacola. Every meal and snack almost. After thinking about it for a while, I have come up with two opinions about this phenomenon… In times of unfamiliarity and extreme change, the pallet as does the mind, grasps on to items and sensations that are familiar and reminiscent to home as to provide a sense of consistency, commonality, and thus security and comfort. Its either that… or I’m just pregnant and crave ice cream. Dear god please be the former and not the latter.

Ok, im out of here. I’m going to go play cards on the internet for a while.

Delightfully deserted

2005-04-18T23:57:00.000-07:00

Have to thank mom for teh pep talk the other day... after writting my last blog (which was a nightmare becuase the computer kept freezing and losing files and text)and then a horrible rickshaw driver who kept trying to screw me over... was feeling really stressed and moody. You know when you throw pizza dough up in the air too much and the center gets really thing and starts making holes in the crust... that was me. She always Dale Carnegies the hell of me - which I love. so grazie mile madre.

Last night, after writting my blog like a mad man... it wouldnt post. So Im going to just copy paste it in like I posted it last night. It actually is better this way because now I have time to add in more details and comments that I left out last night due to time constraints.

Just got in to Jodhpur from my three day desert camel safari… WHAT A BLAST. It was hot and stinky and sticky and the food was really bad and it uterly it rocked!

So I caught a midnight train from Jaipur to Jaisalmer… lets see if I can find a map real quick so you have a clue what im talking about.

Here is the Region (State) of Rajasthan

http://bpujos.free.fr/PagesPhotos/Photos/Autres/india_map.gif

I made my way from Delhi to Jaipur, then on to Jaisalmer, and now im ad Jodhpur (I take a train to Jalgoan tonight - it way farther south on the map).

http://www.indiatraveltours.com/rajasthan-map.jpg

The train to Jaisalmer was supposed to be at 00:05 (or five minutes past midnight). I have come to learn that when a train in India is listed to leave at time x, it really leaves at time x plus two and a half hours. I was in a foul mood but finally caught the train at around three in the morning. Got a sleeper car with no air-conditioning and 8 people to a section. With all the windows open and going towards a desert… you wake up with a fine dusting of desert sand EVERYWHERE. However, its not that much just a little appetizer for the main course of actually being in the desert itself.

Here is what the start of the Great Thar Desert in Western India looks like from the train.

For those that don’t know, India and Pakistan are mortal enemies. Its some what akin to Israel and Palestine… less religious background, but equal animosity. Its really bad in Kashmir.. to the Northern tip (where they even today shell each other with artillery fire). We passed several trains carrying these:

All heading out to little outposts near the pakistani border... like this one.

It's really strange to see tanks just sitting there in the sand… when have you seen an american tank on US soil in a public place? I’ve never seen one. Its no big deal here.

Rolled into Jaislmer at around 3 in the afternoon and was instantly bombarded by rickshaw drivers. My tolerance and patience has been utterly exhausted and abused. I had one guy tell me he would take me to my hotel the I told him for 10 rupees. We were on our way and he started to say something about it really was going to cost me 30 rupees. I told him no 10, he said no 30… So I opened the door and jumped out of the still moving jeep. See ya fella. Another rickshaw driver pulled up and said yes I can take you to Simla hotel for 10 rupies… I got in. about a minute later he said it would cost more because its inside the fort instead of outside the fort.. so I said ok see ya, and jumped out of the second jeep within ten minutes. Decided screw it, im tired… im just going to walk. I mean I could see the fort on the hill. About a quarter of a mile. On the way up the hill a guy on a scooter drove up behind me… I asked him if I was going the correct direction for the entrance to the fort and he said yeah, hope on I’ll take you… This man saved my opinion of Indians that day. Drove me up to the gates of the fort and took off in another direction… I have determined I like Indians so long as they don’t drive rickshaws or work in a hotels. The fort is really beautiful and this is what it looks like as you approach it from below

The streets of the fort are really confusing and luckily a young boy decided to be my guide and show me the way… and refreshingly he didn’t beg for rupees when he showed me the way… We did have to over come some street obstacles… namely cows blocking the path

and little cow land mines all over…

Eventually I made it to Simla Hotel, I was recommended this place by some Canadian girls I met in Jaipur and it was absolutely beautiful place. Here is the room

kind of a fun bed.

Here is the view from the balconies…
(left)

(right)

That night, I bought my camel riding gear

1.cotton long sleeve shirt
2.cotton pants
3.cotton scarf to cover your face..

Then modified my hat that allwyn gave me. Basically I think it was a little kids hat because there was no way it was fitting on my head. So I had to cut the top off it…

After that I went and got a hair cut. My hair is super easy to cut… you just shave as much as you can off and call it good. I always find it so fascinating how… just a buzz cut can be so different around the world. I was a little gun shy from the horrendous ameature school of one day we would like to learn how to cut hair barber shop in new Zealand. But It was getting long and heading into the desert I wanted it short. I found a barber that wasn’t going to charge me quadrouple what the locals pay and jumped up in the seat. He actually did a really good job and made it look nice. But when he was done he started spraying me in the face with the water bottle. I thought ok that’s a little weird but it feels cool and refreshing so…what ever.. then he started rubbing some lotion or cream or… I dotn know what into my face… I started to think ok this is getting really strange since all I wanted was a hair cut and that has been finished. Just as I was thinking that… he started smacking me in the forehead… … … … ummm what the hell are you doing dude. All I can grasp for a guess is that it was maybe anti wrinkle cream or some such because I have a monster stress wrinkle horizontally across my forehead. That’s all I can guess.. he wasn’t chatnign and yelling ‘demons be gone’ while he smacked me so I don’t think it was an exorcism… he repeated this process of spraying, lotion, and smacking a couple of more times… then he started shooting the water bottle several times right up my nose…. That’s when I sat up and said, thank you this has been a great hair cut but I gotta go. Bizarre.

After that little expereience I traded in some books for new ones and headed home to chill out and rest for the unknown next day… One small problem… My room was just cooking hot. I couldn’t sleep or anything.. about one or two in the morning I was just fed up with sitting there sweating… so I headed up to the roof top… It was so beautiful and pleasant temperature wise… that I hauled all my bedding up to the roof and slept there.

Here is the view of my new roof top bedroom

the picture doesn’t do it any sort of justice… it was really beautiful and even more so to think that this city has been here for hundred of years and some king or prince or someone may have looked out on the city from the rooftop one hot summer night a long time ago…

Heres a picture of me chilling up on the roof to terrace

Next morning I woke up and met my new camel safari group at 7:30am. There were two American women (married art professors at different universities), North (a crazy Canadian that reminded me of stiffler from American pie… if you know the reference… but a lot more annoying), and lastly Jordan from England, whom I ended up hanging and talking with the most… well maybe because we were the only ones that stayed up all night the first night sharing a bottle of whiskey, while everyone else slept.

We all got in a jeep and drove about 10 kilometers out to the desert where we met up with our camels for our adventure…

Heres the handoff

the first day I got Gaga (prenamed must to my disappointment)

We quickly got on and headed out….

Now getting up on a camel is not the easiest thing… when they stand you go from sitting flat to all the way leaning forward (holding on for dear life) then to all the way backwards (again holding on for dear life) and then balances out flat. If you have ever riddin a mechanical bull….its exactly the same feeling… except you flying higher up into the air while your body is undulating like a rag doll.

Heres Jordan taking the lead

he’s ridding Pepsei (whom was the alpha male camel and bite all the other ones on the rump when he was pissed off – I got him the second and third day and loved him… )

the group behind me

we rode about half an hour to the first of three villages. The distance was good because it was short enough to not feel overwhelmed but long enough for us to experiment with handling the camels (which a real pain in the ass because they are super stubborn animals… even more so then me). Heres the first village

North showing his video camera

kids posing for a picture

We came back to where we parked our camels and there they were just chilling out

Camels are really hard to make them get down on the ground from standing ( for mounting or dismounting… ) but once you get them down… they usually stay there for however long you are off of them.

Had to get a picture of the bagpiper whiskey – I think it cost four dollars … and killed all the bacteria in my stomach.

later in the day we came to our first of two watering holes and just had to get a picture of them drinking…

me

At about noon we came to a giant tree in the desert which provided ample shade for us to chill out for lunch and a little siesta nap (between noon and 3:30 its too hot out). Here is the camel guides making lunch

here is them making something called chipate (spelling… I have no clue… pronounced ‘chip’ ‘potty’… something like that)

it or something like it is used at almost every meal (same when I was living with the host family) and you use it to scoop up soups and sauces and stuff… here is lunch

some people really liked it… I was left wanting a little more.

For lunch we just let the camels wander….

I’ve described India to people as really hot and really dirty… you can easily understand hot… simple enough but to describe what I mean by dirty… there is never soap any where… there is never toilet paper any where (im not going to describe that process because its just nasty - lets just say thank you whom ever created purell hand sanitizer) but this did it for me… cleaning the dishes with dirt…. That’s a first for me

Back on the trail again… and I had to take a picture of what I thought was incredibly amusing to peak over my book and see a camels head bobbing up and down…

Riding a camel is actually really easy which I why I was afforded the ability to read and ride at the same time. Most especially these camels which are trained to just basically play follow the leader. The just kind of shuffle along and don’t really respond much to any sort of command give on the reins… so we just sat back and enjoyed the trip.

Watering hole number two

heres the well the guides had to get water out of

When you enter a village its customary to dismount your camel at the edge of the village and either leave them there and walk in… or hold the reins and walk in…

Heres me walking three camels tied together

repair work to one of the huts

As we walked in to the village we joked… wouldn’t it be nice if they had cold drinks here… well they did… I don’t think I have ever in my life drank a 7- up that fast and enjoyed it as much. I had two just because the first was soooo good.

Heres the guy selling drinks for 50 cents

After enjoying our tasty snacks and beverages.. we headed out for where we would make camp that night….

The sun was setting… .and oh my god were the sand dunes insanely picturesque. I went gonzo on the wind lines in the sand.

Approaching

reaching the sand dunes

art series

So the sun was setting and I wanted to climb the highest dune to watch it from. Heres my climb.

heres looking down on our camp from the top of the dune

zoomed in

me

my mantra

Here is the sun setting.

Camping the world over.... when the sun goes down there are two options. sleep or party. As per our groups dichotomy... everyone else went to bed early except Jordan and I who had a date with a bottle of whiskey. I laughed so hard hanging out with that guy and by far had one of the best nights in memory. After contemplating this for a while I realized that I haven’t been enjoying India as much as other places I have been to because I haven’t been hanging out with other people whom I enjoy being with. For the most part the people I converse with are the same people trying to rip me off, whom I loath and avoid like the plague. This has caused me to not enjoy the places some times. Thinking about it that night I have been trying to act like the rock in the stream. Trying to make things work my way even though the stream is flowing with or without me. My step dad told me once that some times its easier to ‘pull than to push’. I’m going to give traveling around India another chance and try some new methods that will hopefully make the experience less stressful and more enjoyable.

The next day, I broke away from the other four (bye Jordan) since they were only doing a one night trek where as I had booked another day. It was actually really nice because it was just myself and one other guide instead of a big group. It made the desert seem even more solitary and magical… Also, I got to talk to the guide more and learn how he got in to camel treking and what his favorite(american and dutch) and least favorite (German and Isreali) tourists are.

My lone camel guide

my and my camel

Here is me sporting the proper riding attire and correct wrapping technique. Please notice the styalish convertible hat I have on. Its from my own line of hats with my patented cutting technique. I call it the ‘Im going to use this tiny swiss army knife because it’s the only one I have even if it takes me all night to cut the top off this hat’ cutting technique. Its really catching on in Italy I hear.

I only wrapped my face like this when teh wind was blowing the sand, which really stings as you can imagine. The rest of the time I just let it hang down. If the sun was on my left side... i would pull the left side of my scarf down to shade my face... and vice versa if the sun was on teh right. If the sun was in front of me I just pulled my hat rim down lower... ghetto style... took me back to my hat donning days in high school.

After ridding out for a couple hours we came to a huge sand dune and a nice big tree for shade.
The dunes don’t look big in the picture.,.. but they are incredibly huge and expansive. Here is the dunes next to our lunch spot.

I woke up to find a small army of goats surrounding us (eating things) and the camel getting a grab of food from above.

I was just sitting in the shade reading my book... when all of a sudden... a bird pooped on me... I mean come on. The guide said it was good luck so... what ever.

The desert safari was really great and I loved getting away from the crazy cities and honking and people selling or wanting money… its was surreal and beautiful.

Because I love making list (I have the worst memory in the history of mand kind)... I made a list of desert animals that I saw... to show how much life is in the middle of no where...

I saw:
-1 big ass spider
-tons of dung beetles (they love camel poo)
-of course... camels
-flies
-different sorts of birds (size of finches and some magpies)
-1 caterpillar that was trying to hide in my shirt for shade
- crazy little desert ants that run super fast
- Goats, goats, and more goats
- some village cows
- some feral village children
- wild dogs
- saw about 6 or 8 antelops or gazelles or something
- couple rabbits
- coupe lizards
Supposedly there are scorpions and cobras... but i didnt see any unfortuntely.

After getting back in town... i grabbed a refreshing and much needed shower (stinky) and quick lunch, then I caught a bus from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur. I chose bus because mainly I wanted to avoid using the trains and try and new way of transportation… it wasn’t that bad. I got my own seat and used my elbows to defend my space like a champion.

Once in Jodhpur, I got a hotel pretty easy…
I employed a new trick to avoid the evil rickshaw drivers. When I got off at the bus station... i sheewed away all the guys like one does to annoying flies... I walked to the major street and flagged a rickshaw down there... it worked much better at getting honest service. Also, I have learned another nicce little trick. I walk on the wrong side of the road so that the traffic next to me is oncoming.. that way if a rickshaw drivers pulls next to me and tries tries to get me in his cab I just keep walking and instead of him following me like they usually do.. he has to go the opposite direction because of the flow of traffic. Simple... but very very affective and helpful.

Here is the Judhpur fort as seen at night from my hotel restaurant… it’s the largest fort in all of India I heard.

This mornign I woke up... and was stressed at check out because i was hoping to book a train reservation with the hotel so I could avoid the hellacious lines at the station. I found out that they dont do reservation (which I was told that yes they did do them the night prior and told to book in the morning - liars! ). So I took off expecting nothing short of a malestrom of pushing and stepped on toes and unnecessarily induced stress. I walked in and started filling out my reservation slips, when I guy walked up and started being all friendly (alarm bells went off). Minding my own busineess he started asking where i was going and the usual banter used to invock an unwanted and undesired conversation which most assuredly would involve some sort of payment or service... and I was right. He started telling me that the train I was goign to take was already booked. Yeah piss off guy im not listening... I walked up to the window - with the guy standing next to me because I couldnt shake him and was told the train was booked... As I walked back and pulled out my train schedule guide to think how the hell i was goign to get to Jalgaon for the next day. When my new best friend (whom had been trying to talk to me the entire time but I only gave hime 40% attention.. commented that he could get me on the train i wanted if (with his generous and selfless assistance) I give a bribe to the person at the counter. I swear to god this is what happened. So I said fine... im tired and need to get to jalgaon tomorrow (20 hour train trip) so taht I can stay on my schedule to catch my prepurchased jalgaon to delhi train ticket. It cost me almost 40 dollars (which should have been around 10)... including price of tickets and greasing of the wheels so to speak to get both my conecting train tickets. Fine what ever, it sucks but i need to go.

After that small hemorage of my wallet I walked (repeating 'no I dont want a rickshaw I'm walking, please go away - about 9 thousand times) to a small ice cream shop that I saw on the way in. I had the tastiest icecream shakes (im going to got there after i finsih writting this blog). I was sitting there drinking one of the four different flavored drinks that I got (they were very good) and I realized suddenly like a flash of lightenign why i have been so pissed off with india... Its becuase of the blatant and obvious discrimination that tourist recieve. Yes i understand that usually tourist pay higher costs for things than locals... supplie and demand... what not. But Indias open abuse of tourist is what bugs me. I jsut want equality. for example... to see the taj mahal it costs an Indian 50 ruppees or seomthign like that... I paid 850 ruppees. what is that 1700% increase... another example is on the bus ride.. to store suitcases and luggage on the bus is free... to store backpack style bags (that only tourists use) cost 100 rupees.. And again at the train station today.. im not sure... but Im fairly confident that I got set up by the guy and the girl at the counter (tourists can only use one counter even if the other 6 [indian only lines]are open. But there is nothign I can do... its like a tourist tax. If you are not indian... you pay a tax... Maybe it was the icecream shakes or maybe it was the realization of thinking about it as a tax instead of being scammed... I started feeling a little better and just goign to have to accept that fact that A) I'm white and cant hide the fact that I'm a tourist and B) its just goign to cost more than anyoen else I'm around is.

Well I'm going to head off... I want another ice cream shake and need some supplies for the 20 hour train ride ahead of me.

Lots of love to everyone... miss you all very much, more so now then ever. I wish I could take a star trek teleporter and just come home for a couple of days and then Scottie could beam me back... but doesnt work like that.

Think of me and everyone eat some home made macaroni and cheese for me because im absolutely craving it, but cant have it. I think thats the first meal i want to have when I come home... that and Mikou's spicy chicken for lunch....

Ciao for now…
Ryan the camel man kuzn

After notes:

My skin has finally decided to return to the correct operating procedures and doesnt itch uncontrolably any more. thank god for allergy medicines.

Just a note for myself... I want to keep track of the books I read on my trip so im just going to write down the ones I have finished thus far so I dotn lose them... like i do everythign.

- The Alchemist
- Victoria wants to die
- Manual for warriors of the light
- The Valykeries
- Memoirs of a geisha
- Angels and demons
- Interview with a vampire
- the vampire lestate
- I-robot
- Well Of Darkness
- Guardians of the Lost
- Journey into the void
- Mistress of Dragons
- Aquatine Progression
- Tuesdays with Morrie
- Harry Potter number 4
- Baudolino

Jaipur photo bonanza

2005-04-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

I went absolutely buck wild on the photo scene today all over Jaipur… but before we get there I have to comment about my stupid antics last night. I finished with the blog around midnight and headed back to my room. My room is one of three rooms up on the top of the building that has a view.. and easy access to the roof top pool. I decided that after a monstrously long and grueling train ride I deserved a dip in the pool. Ok here is the confessional part of my blog. Forgive me father for I have streaked. For those that don’t know me… well and mostly those that do know me for that matter… I am a freak about skinny dipping. I love doing it. I have to clarify and nip any rumors or bad thoughts in the bud… its nothing sexual and most of the time I’m by myself. I’m a naked baby. You know those little kids at the beach that no matter how many times there mom puts there diaper on them… the kid takes it off and is playing in the surf naked. That’s me… minus the diaper. Around the globe I love skinny dipping in memorable places [side note: best place ever was Pamukkale in Turkey under the entire milky way and overlooking the city lights at the ‘cotton castle’ thermal pools – absolutely gorgeous place if you ever make it to Western Turkey – easy bus ride south from Istanbul].

http://www.yusuftuvi.com/slides/Hierapolis%20-%20Pamukkale,%20Turkey.jpg

http://www.mymarmaris.com/sightseeing/resim/pamukkale/pamukkale.jpg

http://www.tomyturkey.com/images/Pamukkale.jpg

Anyway... I was up on the roof top… went for a swim and no one was around so…. Foooop off went the short and then a couple lengths of the pool. It really was brilliant since its one of the highest buildings in the area, so noone could see me and all I could see were the stars and all I could hear was the sounds of the babbling fountain at one end of the pool. Went for a nice swim, and then headed back to the room. Instead of putting my shorts on and walking back… I decided to make a break for it and run back to my room before anyone else was stupid enough to go swimming at midnight. I made it to my rooms private entrance on to the pool and cut left to go into the room but my scientific brain failed to grasp the utterly complex concept of wet feet, forward moment, and marble floors. My feet went the right direction but my body decided to keep going… slipped and fell right smack on my ass. Thank god no one was around to see me… but I did slice the top of my foot open on the metal gate. I don’t know why but it always is my left foot (my bad wheel as I refer to it). Did a little repair work… but lefty isn’t doing to good today.

That’s why I decided this morning to rent an auto rickshaw and have him drive me around the city instead of hoofing it like I normally would. The disadvantages are A)it cost money and B)you don’t get quite the same feel for the city since you zoom by most of it. The advantages are A)I get to rest my foot and B)you cover a lot more ground (hence the visual smorgasbord that will subsequently ensue).

The first place we went to was… ok bare with me for a second here… a crystal healing specialist. That is healing people with crystals… not healing crystals themselves. I am by no stretch of the imagination a gem touchy feely earth science zin energy person.. Some people may be in to that… and that’s cool. I’m a cold hard facts kind a guy. But I read it in the lonely planet and just sounded whacky and wild to do. So I went. After a couple of other people in queue (line but everyone else in the world calls them queues so Ive gotten in the habit) before me went through. Then it was my turn and I went in to his little office. He was a middle aged man with a little rotund belly. He asked me to put my hand on some little machine thing and then placed a card next to my hand and pulled out a plum bob (a weighted pointy piece of metal on a string to indicate a point on the ground perfectly below the raised point). He placed the bob over the card and swing it into motion (like a pendulum in three dimmesions), then when it set into a fixed forward backward motion (not circular) he read the ailments that were aligned with the swinging pointer.

My ailments according to him are:
1) Unwanted stress about the future (law school… ok I can see that maybe).
2) To much drugs or toxins in my system (not recreational drugs but I have taken enough pills for my rash – which I still have by the way *see footnote about this below if interested in prognosis).
3)And I’m repressing anger (what the hell punk! Who do you think you are… I’m not angry – kidding).

Im an engineer by education, ergo im a skeptic by default. Clever and accurate in there own right given a certain perspective… but i’m not sold. i mean who doesn’t have those three ailments in there life. i could have foretold that those three. and a backpacker with drugs in there system… wow now there is a mind blowing revelation. i mean the percentage of backpacker who smoke weed is equivalent to the number of seattle mariners fans who think we’re going to suck this season. its just a given. he did this with a couple other cards and here is my prescription that the cards told (for whatever its worth):
Things that will help cure my ailment is:
My gemstone - is the moonstone from Sri Lanka
My aroma - concentrated grapefruit
My Bach…I don’t know what that is (im guessing its not my dead classical composer that will help my ailments, anyway my bach) - is the crab apple (if anyone knows what bach or crab apple is… feel free to let me know)
My word – is ‘Alhung’ which means the third eye. The all seeing eye in the middle of the forehead or also the eye on the top of the pyramid on the one dollar bill.

So yeah… interesting experience, and very entertaing… but not going to run out and by my bach crab apple just yet.

After that my rickshaw driver begain his tour of Jaipur. We headed to statue circle where we saw… a statue… I don’t know what its of but… kinda cool looking

I walked across the street from the statue and took a couple pictures of The Birla science building. It has really nice looking façade so I took a couple snapshots.

From the side entrance

From the front entrance

Front doors

Walking back I took a picture of my auto rickshaw and driver.
I don’t know why but I thought of my driver as my own little Sancho Panza (Don Quixote’s faithful squire).

From there we headed out into mass traffic. Here is a gate we drove through to get into the inner city.

Next he dropped me off at Jantar Mantar, an ancient astronomical observatory. It was created by Jai Singh (a king and some what of a renaissance man) in 1728.
Here is the view from the entrance.

The giant triangular looking thin is actually a massive sun dial, its 27meters/80 feet and accurate up to 20 seconds… in 1728, amazing.

Here is a smaller sun dial

The shadow of the peg in the center measure A) time as it moves around the circle, but also B) the equinox by when shadow touches the yellow concentric circle.

Another sun dial… the center stairs acts as the center piece to caste a shadow onto the circular curves below

The stairs going up

Get the Lead out! ….Stairway to heaven?

From the side – kind of cool artistically.

Towards the center of the area… is… how do I describe it… its two half spheres (one for the half year) sunken into the ground and two wires crossing at perpendicular angles centered above the spheres. The sun casts a shadow on the wires intersection and where the shadow lays indicates the time of the year and points to the specific zodiac signs for that exact day.

Its really quite phenomenal if you think about it.. that they could track the seasons and zodiac signs and everything back in 18th century. I cant imagine how long it took them to track the movements of the sun and come up with an exact instrument with lines of movement and everything. I don’t know how old stone hinge or other astrological sights around the world are… but its just blows my mind that someone invented this tool. Tracking it for several years and documenting and how many iterations over and over and over till you got it right.

Next to the two spheres are 12 unique sun dials. One for each zodiac sign.
Here is the best one… LEO

As well as telling the time it indicates the location of the zodiac constellation in the sky, by looking down the length of the block on top.

And then there’s me (yes I’m sill wearing the ugly JP Morgan Chase t shirt – its clean… but its ugly)

Again with the artistic geometric perspective

Here are the stairs to climb up to the monster huge sun dial. I think it looks like a really cool picture.

The shadow creeping down the sun dial around 1pm

View from above

you can see the sunken spheres in this picture

Next we headed out to an ancient royal mausoleum. Forgive me but I don’t know the name of the place. Here is a picture of the gate we drove through on the way…

Other pictures on the way to the mausoleum…

An abandoned water palace

and what’s a water palace without….

A water buffalo

the face only a mother could love. And the smell that no one could ever really love.

The Jaipur ‘Tiger Fort’ Atop the hill.

Finally made it to the mausoleum
Here is the front entrance

Here are some floor tiles that I had to take a pic of to keep with the whole Leo theme.

A side crypt. You can see part of the stone wall leading up to the cliffs over the city in the background

I really like this picture. Its of entering the second tier crypt. I like how I framed it with the door frame.

Once you start you cant stop!

Trying for a cool picture with the reiterations in the back

Second tier crypt from the side... jungle style

Another side crypt

The third and final tier, sight of the grandest of all the location’s crypts

The stone carved designs were really beautiful and intricate.

Some kids running around asking for rupees…

The last thing I went and visited for the day was the Iswari Minar Sarga Sal minaret. It’s a really tall minaret that you can climb up to the top from the winding inner walkway. I never got a picture of the minaret itself… but here are the pictures of the city from atop the minaret.

I just chilled up top for about 20 minutes watching the city and relaxing in the shade as a cool breeze kept me company. It was really delightful after all the hustle and bustle of getting around the city and walking around all the sights.

So because I was sitting on the rickshaw kind of bored as we drove from sight to sight. To amuse myself (only children are phenomenal in this capacity) I decide to play a game called ‘take pictures of things on the side of the road’. It started out as just animals to document the weird animals that line the road… but then it turned into a photo documentary thing of what you see on any given street in India.

Here is my series titled ‘the wild streets of Jaipur’

The first and maybe my favorite.

Wild animals at a stop light

Precocious pachyderm

This guy again

Rickshaw packed full of the family

A drive by tree

Small market selling grains (I think)

tiny horse drawing an overloaded cart

drive up vegetable market

Drive up garbage heap next to the vegetable market :(

Pig in the bottom right corner, saw him at the last second

People pee freely on the side of the roads…. Nasty

Storage and warehouses

Maybe the best for last… the violin sales man playing while basket atop his head. I saw him walk by while I was waiting to get into the crystal healer guy and ran after the violin player to take his picture… So cool!

I have to comment about how horrendous the rickshaw ride around town is. In one of my Delhi blogs I talked about how pot hole riddled the streets are… they were horrible here, and without suspension… it was like torture… literally. When I was in high school I loved riding my bike up to Battleground lake. The lake is elevated from the surrounding area…almost like a mini volcano with a lake instead. It was about 10 or 15 miles to the lake on the road… but once there… I want ape over the downhill single track trails. When it rained in Vancouver Washington (near Portland Oregon), and it almost always rained it seemed like, the trails were just absolutely filthy muddy. Which I loved the most. But when the summer season came, all the trails would dry up and form really hard and bumpy trails. Sometimes the local horseback riders would smooth out some of the trails, but sometimes they were like riding on a Martian crater. I recall one such time I think I was really dehydrated because my kidneys were absolutely killing me. Ever bump I hit would jostle them around and make me wince in pain. Imagine half a mile of this stuff (once you started a downhill single track trail… theres no going back). Riding in the rickshaw today reminded me of that ride… only worse. I think I through my shoulder out while surfing in Bali and it has been fine for a couple of months. But the really big bone jarring bumps today felt like someone trying to rip this same shoulder apart. The bumps were so bad sometimes that I felt my lungs hurt from the impact. Just an awful ride. Here is a picture of one such bump. The rickshaw driver has to take it at full speed (which isn’t very fast but fast enough) because if you slow down for the bumps about 4 cars or motorcycles behind us would maliciously lay on the horns without remorse.

It may not look like much but it’s a good two inch dip stretching right across the road. Totally unavoidable.

Well I think I have written enough of a novel to help everyone fall asleep at their desks by now, so I’ll say adieu. I catch the midnight train from Jaipur to Jaislmer tonight. In Jaislmer I’m signed up for a 2 day one night camel safari through the desert where we sleep under the starts at a desert oasis. How cool is this going to be. I hope there’s lots of water. Apparently I get my own camel to ride the entire time…. I wonder what I’ll name him… or her if it’s the case. What do you think of ‘humpy the camel’? I can call him humps for short… maybe there is a sexual connotation that I might want to stay away from. I’ll have plenty of time to think about it on the train. Good night all, or good morning as your case may be.
Until next time
Ciao for now,
Ryan

* The latest diagnosis is that my skin rash is caused from an allergic reaction from being too dry. The doctor gave me some drugs and suggested that I cover my skin in olive oil. I have put about a gallon of lotion on in the last several days. After every shower I have to rub my body down completely with the stuff. I feel like such a girl! She also suggested a body gel instead of soap… that’s where I draw the line.

The train ride from deHELLi

2005-04-13T11:16:00.000-07:00

What a day what a day… wow. Im exhausted… and tired too. The sad thing is I really didn’t do anything… Go figure.

The previous couple of days had been uneventful. I stayed home (at the apartment) mostly both days. I did a ton of internet work which was great, and finished off everything on my to do list (which always feels good).

Here is what I wrote for the blog the other day but got distracted by something that I cant reacall at the moment…

Monday the 11th of April
Free at last free at last, thank god almighty my car is free at last. Dilip and Mike did a tag team on springing my car from the joint. We think keeping it with Kyle and Will is best for preventing towings in the future. which is 6 in one, half a dozen in the other because last time I left the Honda at their house when I went to Europe I found out later that they practiced learning to drive a stick with it on trips to the grocery store and so im conrned for my little audio coche.
Wehad a nice dinner tonight. Rhona made an omlette type thing and then the usual tortilla-ish thing with a couple different types of suaces to dip it in. its really funny but all the food you eat here is with your hands. i use a fork about 10% of the time. i dont know how they do it but everyone else stays clean. no one uses napkins or paper towels or anything. i get the food running down my arm and mouth and all over the table. i have started to have to eat with a plastic place mat under my plate because i always without doubt spill something on to the table. I mean its not like im a slob but you dip this stuff in sauce and its just running everywhere... i dont know... maybe its like riding a bike. once you get the hang of it its easy, but for now i'm a mealtime disaster.

Had to fax american law school part of my application that apparently i didnt complete fully. i dont know why they make it a big deal that i didnt answer number 25 which asks if I've ever commited a federal crime. i dont see all the hoopla about someone going to law school with a sketchy criminal past!!!. ooops.

Today I spent most of the day doing internet research and catching up with FAFSA regulations (student loans for those lucky enough to escape the clinging grasp of college debt). But rhona and Allwyn did take me to see the new apartment that they are buying, in order for them to check and see how the refurbishing is coming.

It’s funny how a simple task like driving across town is filled with amusement around ever corner. On our way to the car from the current apartment we passed about a couple of cows, whom were happily eating... i dont know what. it looked like they were sifting through the local compost heap or something. we got in the car and headed out. On one of the major streets we found about eight cows laying down in the median divider… just chilling (it’s a 2 lane road in each direction - which means that its used by Delhi drivers as a 4 car wide each direction road). The problem is, when a cow or two decides to stray in to traffic all the drivers have to move out of the lane. the cow literally shuts down whichever lane it happens to be standing it.. which happens more frequently than you would imagine. This is because A) cows are religious symbols and considered sacred and B) its a cow... what are you going to do honk at it and ask it to move over... it just stares at you with a stupid smirk on its face. So as we drove to the new apartment we paced numerous cows… and cow closed lanes. [now adding to the unfinished paragraph]. We got to the new apartment and the neighborhood is so much better. The streets aren’t made of dirt with crumbling buildings all around. Allwyn commented that the area had better educated tenants… what struck me was there were no cows milling around the parking areas (for better for worse.. not sure yet). We headed inside the place (Rhona later mentioned that the previous tenant was murdered mind you… yeah… I didn’t know what to say, so I said something incredibly intelligent like ‘sheeesh’…) we went inside and pretty soon two sets of contractors met up to do some assessments for refurbishing the place. I asked Rhona what she was going to do and basically in short… she is turning a bedroom into the kitchen and the kitchen into a bedroom…. I don’t know ! On the way back from the apartment I was thinking… its really horrible to be a passenger on the left hand side of the car. I feel like it should be in the drivers seat and keep wanting to slam on the breaks (traffic here is abysmal).

Later that night I went out for a walk around the neighborhood after dusk to get a little exercise and because I heard that a store down the street sold corn flakes and was badly jonesing for a good breakfast. I have come to realize the complete pathetic state in which my taste buds are when I start having cravings for cornflakes like a pregnant women for pickles (ok I have no clue about that last part but I think I heard it in a movie once). This may have been induced by the 8 slices of toast with butter that had been my normal breakfast for the past several days. So I headed out and after stumbling on a couple speed bumps in the dark I made it to the main street… If you’ll indulge my temporary digression in the story to talk about Delhi speed bumps…. I don’t know if I have previously mentioned them but they are one of the stupidest and completely superfluous additions to the delhi infrastructure. First off… there are enough pot holes on any given road to act as speed bumps in their own right, second there is so much bumper to bumper to bicycle tire to bumper action that the speeds never get past 40km/hr (30m/rhr ? total guess) anywhere in the city. I mean doing 40 k in delhi mean you are on a straight away with no cars in front of you with a good strong tail wind… No one goes that fast. Not even close. Thirdly the size. I don’t know what kind of off road vehicles the person who invented these monstrosities was thinking of… but Delhi speed bumps are like the mt Kilimanjaro of the speed bump world. The colonels jalopyesque vehicle bottoms out every time we go over one… which incidentally is about every kilometer. Ok… got that off my chest… I feel better. So in the dark these speed bumps are man killers. They are evil because they’re not painted or anything… and in the dark they are stealthy little buggers. I want to show you some pictures of some snaps I took while walking down the street that are just quintessential ‘Delhi’. Things just so weird or whacky that they can only happen here:

Ok it made my pc freeze two times.. try a different pc:
Here is a picture of a neighborhood shrine.

Its set up right on the street for everyone to pray to. The picture doesn’t do it justice but it’s the tackiest little set up with flashing xmas lights. I shouldn’t mock it… but if you saw it on a dirt street with no color anywhere and then BAM like Emerall if he made neighborhood shrines.

The next is the tread mill area above the gas station over looking a busy street. Cracks me up!

This picture is at night and using the night exposure option.. pretty steady hand work eh??? (sorry for the ‘eh’ I was hanging out with Canadians in Thailand and I have been infected).

Ok the other weird ones aren’t uploading for some reason and Im not going to take another hour to figure it out.. one was a cow with its head on a motorcycle seat just chilling [oh that reminds me.. this morning on the way to the train station I saw a cow cross the street in the crosswalk. No joking,… it walked up the side walk… looked both ways, and then stepped out right on to the dashed walkway… This place is nuts.

Side tracked again: Just got an email from a guy in Cairo that offered a place for me to crash while im there and also aksed if I wanted a pick up from the airport. God I love the internet. God bless Al Gore. The internet is the greatest invention ever. Ok electricity is pretty useful.

The rest of last night was spent working up a full proof train and traveling itinerary for the next two weeks. I did it on excel spreadsheet (which YES, IS A DATABASE) like a good little organized engineer.

Today I woke up and had a great bowl of corn flakes (and a couple pieces of toast). The colonel and I headed out to get my train tickets for today and a couple other ones that go really fast in advance. We went to the tourist reservation office at the train station thinking we could avoid the myriad people in lines (which we did successfully). But, in typical Indian fasion… there is a salient detail that is vital but impossible to know unless you stand in line forever first. I didn’t have to wait in line that long (though some Canadian guy from whisteler absolutely talked my ear off and couldn’t escape him).. but when I submitted my perfectly correct reservation forms and went to pay in Rubies (local currency) I was informed (rather matter of factly – like I was an idiot for not knowing) that if a tourist pays for reservation tickets (only in this office) I had to have a copy of my atm withdrawl. Who… I mean who in the WORLD keeps there atm withdrawl receipts. I mean maybe someone out there does it… but your talking to a guy that the longest stretch of balancing my checkbook in highschool was a matter of days. And since the advent of the debit card… forget about it… as long is the number is black not red.. I’m happy (great mantra for someone traveling on a tight budget right!). So I had to go track down an ATM, withdrawl more money (which I think is ther sinister play the entire time) and take the receipt back in hand.. whti the reservation forms… uggg anyway eventually got my tickets. I told allwyn that I was fine at the station by myself, since the train would come in about 20minutes… sohe took off. The train (god I hate the Indian train system) was two and a half hours late. I finaly got on board… which required about a much force as moving an elephant to push myself and my backpack through the flow of people. This train didn’t have reserved seating so you just had to find a seat. Luckily I found one on an upper bench… but soon the upper bench which comfortably sat three a side became crowded with four or five a side. I sat there for a while thinking I could endure the discomfort… and did for about two hours (of the six hour trip) but at one point I just got sick of the horrible smell of the guys next to me and decided to make a break for on of the doors to stick my head out. I got down gingerly from the upper bunk with book and cd in hand and came to realize… that the train was full. When I mean full I mean… oh my dear god where did all these people come from full. From my hindered viewpoint of the upper corner seat I couldn’t see the tons of people lining wall to wall and sitting on all avaible floor space. I made it down only to realize the utter futility of my abilty to move about. I had just gotten down and absolutely everyone who could see me was watching me… so to keep my pride intact and not look like a complete fool I pretended like I had to use the toilet. But it was totally blocked. Kids and old ladies and young men acted as a human barricade to get to the end of the car. It was like les miserables of the Indian world and I was Jean Valjean; grossly out of place. “Do you hear the people sing, singing the songs of angry passengers because we are all trapped like rats on this god forsaken train trip” Ok slight adaptation to the song. But it was bad. Luckily im dexterous and have rock climbing experience because I seriously used that train like it was a climbinb wall. Window ledge as a foot hold. Over head fan as a hand hold… luggage compartment to the right I used a hand jam… It was bad. But I got by them all and eventually used the toilet. Then had no clue where to go… Someone got up to form an open spot at the door and I jumped on it… sat there for a couple of hours watching the country go by and wind blow through my hair… it was loverly… I decided to check on my bags to make sure, well… they were still there… bad mistake. Yes the bags were there… but now there were no places to sit or move or do anyting… so I stood there. In the middle of the train car… like a complete dumb ass. Talk about out of place. I was a fish out of water. The kids started pointing at my earphones, and so I let them play with my cd player for an hour… that was a huge hit. Instead of being the strange outsider that didn’t know where to sit. I was the cool outsider that didn’t know where to sit. That was fun playing with the kids and letting them listen to the tunes for a while.

I eventually made in to town. Only to be accosted by taxi drivers again. I was convinced to find the hostel by myself and walked around for half an hour until I realized that my stubburness to find the place myself and not use the incredibly greedy rickshaw drivers was only hurting myself. Pay a dollar and have them honestly take youto the hostel instead of keep pointing you in the wrong direction (damn they piss me off though). So made it safe and sound and am going to get a good night sleep before (just realized didn’t tell you where I am) tomorrow I see Jaipur, ‘the pink city’.

Ok the computer supervisor guy is kicking me out. He told me there closed four times but I keep telling him im real. Close. I think hes made at me.

Love to all.
Ciao for now,
ryan

The Taj in Majal it's glory

2005-04-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

Ok this is going to be a horse race. Its almost mid night and the internet café is only open for another hour. I have to compile the written text that I worked on this morning… and over lay it with the pictures I just downloaded for the past three hours… I so badly want to get this out tonight. Focus… you can do this…[putting cold play on the cd player] fast fingers fast fingers fast fingers….
Ok, lets rock.
Lets see where did I last leave off. My brain seems frazzled and fried. Someone told me I have travelers brain… I just feel stupid. I introduced myself and another American I was with at the train station yesterday saying I’m ryan from Washington state and this is Edya from Boston state…. She laughed at me and it took a minute to figure out what I said wrong. Luckily the 4 Indian guys (that I asked to help me buy banana so I wouldn’t get ripped off) didn’t know any different. You know when your computer has been left on too long and programs just start acting funny… you just need to restart the pc to clean it up… I need to reboot my brain it feels like.

I have to apologize for some of the pictures being sideways. I seriously tried my best to rotate them. This piece of crap computer [and the others here equally] have absolutely no imaging software worth use at all. There is the standard micrsoft image program you find under the accessories folder in the start menu but it doesn’t save to jpeg and the software I use to upload pics to the blog only take jpeg… seems like a government run job doesn’t it… I will rotate and replace the sideways pictures at a later date, but in the mean time (couple of days maybe… maybe more) you just have to cock your head to the side and look funny while checking out the pictures.

Lets see… Here are some pics of Delhi that I took when the colonel (Alwyn) drove me around the first day.

The Presidents house outside of the fenced gate.

Presidents house with my camera stuck through the gate.

The Parliament building (just right of the flag atop the building is a gun turret installed after a Pakistani terrorist attack some years ago.

Looking down from the presidents house and the parliament building up on the hill down to the Arch of remembrance. The street from this distance totally reminds one of the Champs elyse (minus the buildings and white lights)

Remembrance Arch

Mini arch behind the larger arch. It once had a statue of King Henry (don’t know which one so don’t ask) because if you recall India was a British colony with Viceroys and the lot. The Indian government removed the statue of the king and replaced it with one of Ghandi but apparently the statue was so ugly looking that they took it too down and never replaced it with anything.

Rhona’s (my host mother’s) school. All boys and dressed all in white, I think they’re playing either soccer or cricket (a sport which I have started to enjoy eerily enough…)

The start of my head tilting pictures… I just really like the architecture of this building… made me think of my soon to be rich and famous architecture friend Kjell Anderson (Kjell I would link your projects webpage here but don’t have a clue what it is - sorry).

Two days ago, Friday (for me) I got up early and the colonel drove me to the train station to head out to the city of Agra, where the Taj Mahal is located.

It was a slow and uneventful three hour train ride. I fortunately got a window seat so I was hoping to enjoy the Indian country side and maybe get a couple good pictures… I was drastically mistaken when all I saw the entire trip with slums and ghettos lining the train tracks only too be followed by wheat fields being burned (as well as the smoke burning your nostrils). Needless to say it was as magical as I had hoped. It was even less magical when I finally arrived in Agra only to learn that the Taj Mahal is closed every Friday (the one day of the week I was there). Ok… well slight change of plans. I called the colonel and told him I would be spending the night in Agra and that I would be back in Delhi the next day.

Pics of the Agra train station, note the style of the car in the foreground.

Traffic leading out off the train station (all taxis and auto rickshaws)

So I had to change my train ticket from that evening to the next. What a delightful little wait in line that was. So I have heard prey tell that most places in India where a queue (line) forms its less of an organized line and more of a mad bum rush of people all elbowing and jockeying for position to get to the window next. Thank goodness the line for me to exchange tickets was more of the sane and less of the insanity. I had been in line for two hours and was about the second person from the window when…. The guy behind the counter went on lunch break….. crap. Now so you know lunch breaks here can last between half an hour and three hours… Don’t you wish that were the case back in the states??? I just pulled out my book and sat on the ground to wait it out, which turned out to be the wise decision, because everyone else in the line left… leaving me at the front. And when the guy came back after 40 minutes I was first up. :) After exchanging train tickets I found a little place to crash for the night that had both A/C and hot water. I have to confess that my standards for luxury rooms have drastically declined. If I get A/C, hot water, and a toilet that flushes…. I’m a happy man.

The next day I headed out to the Indian tourist agency which is a government run organization providing tours of sites around India. I signed up for the full day tour which visited Fatehpur Sikri, Agra fort and then the Taj. I waited for the bus to come and just chilled on the street to watch the people go by. Here is the mad busy streets of agra during rush hour.

all the people assembled and piled onto the bus, I thought it surprising, strange and somewhat symbolic that out of about 15 people or so on the tour group… I was the only non-Indian aboard. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but I felt a little ostracized when the tour guide would occasionally break into Hindi instead of English.

Fatehpur Sikri was once a huge city and the location of the king’s palace. However there was really bad water supply problems and when the king died the city was abandoned and all is left is a ghost city and ghost palace.

Here’s some pics of the palace:

The throne room of the king

Believe it or not this is the throne of the king which he sat atop

The king had 365 women in his harem. Three of them were queens. One queen was a Christian, one was a Hindi, and one was a Muslim (Islamic). The base of the column which made the throne of the king depicted from the top squiggily lines which represented the gods or god, then (oh I hope my memory does this correctly) icons representing Muslim, then icons for Christianity, and then at the bottom was Hindi… Maybe I have those in wrong order.. cant recall. Here is the base of the pedestal column.

Me with something in the background… (the throne room is off to my left).

Now isn’t that one sexy looking J P Morgan Chase white T shirt… Yes, I think so too.

Me next to some water fountain thingy… I think its just for aesthetics… I don’t know it was hard to understand the tour guide. Side not the tour guide kept calling me ‘gentleman’ because I think its what we would us as sir… “excuse me gentleman… follow me”

Next to the area in which I was sitting (the center plaza kind of thing) is another plaza where the main mosque and mausoleum ( I think for the king.. not sure) is. Look how tall it is compared to the people. Behind this gate in the background is an even bigger gate that faces right into the mausoleum and mosque.

Close up of small entrance

For some reason we had to take our shoes off and cross the (whats the word.. I want to call it a piazza in Italian but don’t know the English word…. Giant square… anyway this thingy)

Me in front of the mosoleum..
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/215/3761/320/Sa400067.jpg
I wanted the guy to take a picture of my skirt thingy… I had to wrap a large piece of cloth around me to hide my legs because I was wearing shorts. I tried to tie it like a towel out of the shower but it kept falling off. The woman were trying to instruct me the proper way of tying it off so it wouldn’t fall but A) they only spoke Hindi and I only speak English, and B) woman are not allowed to touch men in India… So all they could do was point. Trying to learn how to tie something by an instructor only pointing and not speaking is utterly impossible. Try it if you don’t believe me. After a while I just gave up and held it up with one hand while trying to take pictures with the other… I must have looked like an idiot. Oh well, thats about par for the course with me.

Here is what I’m guessing is crypts of very important or significant people.

The mosoleum and mosque as seen from across the square.

Here is the south (I think) gate. It faces the mosoleum and mosque and is absolutely completely undeniably massive. I mean its collosul. The people below it are all standing up.

Why someone needs a gate that big is beyond me… maybe its compensation for something… I don’t know. But its uber big.

The tour guide suggested we take a picture of the gate from the outside to show how big it is… but failed miserably in telling us how hot the floor tiles are that have been sitting in the sun all morning. Granted its only 11am, but I’m bare foot and those tiles were smoking hot. I walked out, took the picture and walked back and thought I was going to gnaw my own feet off from the pain. I was the only one brave/stupid enough to brave the heat but here is what I got

I know… kind of a waste isn’t it…

Here is the red fort (got to hury ten minutes left.. might at more text later..)

my tour group

taj from afar

security check point for the taj

plaza for the commoners to come and sleep out at every year for the queens birthday (after she was dead) in rememberance

Here it is… The Taj Mahal

theres so much I want to talk about but no time….grrrrrrr

had to take shooes off to go in

corner spire
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Someone told me the other day that the Taj Mahal is kind of boring and over hyped. After seeing it myself… I feel sorry for someone whom doesn’t see the incredible beauty of the Taj. It really is quite breathe taking. Maybe its me and how I love things symmetrical and thing simple beauty is so much more elegant than gaudy beauty. Like a diamond ring, one incredibly great diamond is much better than a multitude of mediocre ones.

I got off the train and wouldn’t you know it… the colonel was waiting for me at the end of the ramp and drove me home. I hadn’t eatin anything since lunch and it was 11pm at night… so I asked if he could drop me off somewhere so I can get some dinner and then walk home. Not only did he drive me there, and then help me order, but he wouldn’t let me pay for it. I think secretly Allwyn is trying to win the very secretive buy highly coveted mr. nice guy award… because he just keeps being the greatest host ever.

Have to end it with …. Cows

In a superfluously vain attempt to keep this blog filled with honesty and integrity I need to amend a couple of previous statements that lovely Dan ‘the encyclopedia’ DelVeccio kindly informed me of. First off, hummus is middle eastern not Indian, and India doesn’t have a third the earth population like I wrote because “According to cia.gov (I know...they have a recent history of being incorrect...see Iraq), World Population 6.4 billion; China 1.3 billion; India 1.1 billion”. Good engineers are always sticklers for the facts. So good on ya Dan and thanks for helping me out! Say hi to the east wing peops for me!

New Delhicatessen

2005-04-07T07:38:00.000-07:00

I made it to Delhi safe a sound. I tried to put a blog posting last night here at the Pereira’s apartment saying I made it and they’re not homicidal maniacs housing me only to skin me alive, but the computer didn’t like me and wouldn’t post it even though I tried four times. I’ll try again (I’m at the apartment now) but if it doesn’t work I’ll have to mail this to myself and go hunt down a computer café and copy paste.

Yesterday I got on the flight easy enough… as should be expected since its my second time flying out of the same gate (good old gate 34). We flew a 747 (Go Boeing!) but at about ¼ capacity so I had an entire row to stretch out on. At one point (after sun had set) I looked out the window to see a lighted city below which looked just like a snowflake. You know when you see a magnified image of the crystalline structure of a snowflake how it has six or eight main branches away from the center and little spikes shooting off each branch… the city lights looked exactly like that. Aside from that nothing too exciting happened other than I read the entire Alchemist before we landed. I seriously think it was written exactly for me… It’s a story of a Shepard boy whom has a dream of finding treasure hidden in the pyramids. He learns through his adventures that continually striving to reach what you want that the ‘soul of the universe’ conspires to help you achieve your dreams. That if you never give up… you will overcome all obstacle to eventually attain that which you most desire. So if I try really really hard and focus with all my might … I just might… I just might …. maybe… be able to not lose my stinking camera again!!!!

After snowflake city and uplifting motivational stories (which are my favorite – great oratory should life you up by your bootstraps [quote from the west wing]). I landed at Indira Ghandi (not related to Mahatma Ghandi) International airport where I was to met with my host family (I was really hoping they didn’t forget to pick me up). After waiting about twenty five insufferable minutes, my luggage finally appeared (I was stressing out since I thought it got lost… seriously thought I was going to have a heart attach at the age of 22…. Just kidding 24… ok ok… 27 but lets not go there). I picked up a bouquet of flowers as a thank you gift for Rhona, and headed out toward the exit. I had emailed with Rhona and she told me to go outside and wait at the curb and her husband would pick me up… I thought simple, piece of cake, how many times have I done or received such a service in Seattle. I walked out of the baggage claim and found that there was a giant yellow sign pointing and indicating that there was three different exits. I didn’t recall in the conversation which exit to take… uuummm ok. So image…if you will… imagine me… the only single white person in the entire airport… with a giant green backpack… carrying a giant bouquet of the most brightly neon fluorescent blue orchids ever… walking from one exit… looking around… back inside…. to another exit.... look around… back inside… another exit… look around. It must have been like some three stooges comedy. I kind just see it like a movie in fast forward the faces of all the people watching me… to the left… to the right… to the left… to the right. I was just waiting for Moe to stop me in the middle of my second trans-terminal crossing to poke me in the eyes or hit me on the head or something. If for one second you don’t think that every single, I mean EVERY single set of eyes was on me… your crazy. I cant remember the last time I was embarrassed but I felt damn well close to it. I just kept telling myself… Im never going to see any of these one hundred people ever again…keep walking straight and for the love of god don’t trip on your sandals. I now know what it feels like to be a model on the catwalk. Finally after going to the exit to the right for the second time, I walked out to a sea of taxi cab drivers to see a lady off to the left on her tippy toes waving her hand. I pointed at myself and she nodded her head… I was so relieved. It wasn’t relief from finding my host family as much as the relief of knowing that I wouldn’t have to traipse across that gawking peanut gallery of a terminal foyer again.

The Pereira’s picked me up in their car and Rhona quickly started talking about all sorts of things relating to India. I was so overwhelmed with the new environment, the traffic, and hadn’t eatin all day so I cant recall one single thing we talked about… I have come to learn that Allwyn was a colonel in the Indian army for 38 years. Secretly I have come to call him the colonel. In my blog I will refer to him by that name, since I do so in my head. Rhona, is a sweet lady that acts as a mother to both me. When I got to the house she had an entire itinerary printed out and itemized from least to most important to see. Some what anal and dictatorial… but with good intentions so its alright.

After they picked me up we headed out to a traditional Indian dinner. I was quickly educated on the differences between northern southern, western, and eastern Indian cuisine. However, this information was lost on me because it was quickly forgotten because a plate of food was set in front of me and my Pavalovian response to alienate the rest of the world when I’m hungry and food is available kicked in. We split a crispy potato filled pancake in three equal parts, along with a grainy doughnut that wasn’t sweet but kind of creamy, accompanied with (thi is one of my favorite phrases in all the world) ”all you can eat” rice and curry… It wasn’t the best…but there was lots of it. I think I eat three times as much as both of them combined. It probably wasn’t the most polite thing in the world to gorge myself with rice and curry… but I was starving so I really put on a show.

Ooooop, I have to go take a shower apparently… I’ll pick up later.
[ten minutes later]
I just told Rhona about my rash that has spread in the last week. People keep telling me its heat rash or something the locals call prickly heat. But I don’t know. Do rashes spread?? It moves and itches like when I had a super colossally bad case of poison oak in high school. I thought maybe it spread by contact so I washed all my clothes several times and stopped wearing jungle juice (REI’s 100% deet insect repellent). Anyway, I told her about it and showed her my stomach and legs and she made me instantly take a shower. After my shower, she made me put baby powder on my entire body, then dress in on of the colonel’s oversized cotton shirt and a super short pair of khaki shorts (its missing a button too). I feel like I have been dipped in flour and then dressed in geek attire. I’m having flashbacks of the people on the high school chess club with me. There’s no way I’m going in public like this. Prickly heat you say…. Hmmmmpf.

Anyways where was I….
Oh I was going to talk about there place. It’s a quant small apartment close to what I call downtown delhi (they call it south delhi). I do have to say it was really weird as we drove up to pass a couple pairs of cows. Rhona gave me a quick briefing on what I would be doing the following day and where I would go.

[interruption]
The colonel just came home and we all are having an argument. So im my travel I have lost a couple pairs of clothes. I now only have two pairs of shirts and one pair of shorts. Rhona and the col. are trying to push on me to keep the geek attire I’m currently wearing. They think its some sort of dastardly crime that I only have two shirts and a pair of shorts. I wash them all a couple of times a week. They are going through his old clothes of what to give me and I keep trying to convince them that I don’t want them.. I think they think im crazy. I looked at Allwyn and told him “I cant let girls see me like this” he laughed out loud and left the room… I think I won him over to my side. Rhona is going to be a little more difficult. I might have to resort to good-old-fashion American stubbornness. Sheeesh where was i?

Oh, I was going to talk about the flower rating… All through the one sided discussion on what tomorrows events would be, back at the apartment after dinner, I kept mentioning that Rhona should put the orchids that I gave her in water. I mean it was a half hour drive from the airport… then dinner… now this discussion. Here is where I talk about the flower rating. The flower rating is based off of A) how quickly the girl puts the flowers given into water (the quicker the flowers reach a vase of water, the higher the rating) and B) where the flowers are located once on display (is it a center piece or in the bathroom). Granted the flower rating doesn’t directly indicate anything. Its just something I have always done for personal amusement. I think I got the lowest flower rating ever. Not only did they take an eon to get into water… but when I came out after my nightly shower… I noticed that Rhona put the orchids in the corner of the living room, behind some boxes. I only happened to notice them because a couple radioactive blue buds were leaning out sideways as if to say… “hey, we’re over here”. Sorry guys… you’re on your own, I have to find a way to get out of the next days timelined agenda! Note to self: no more fake dyed flowers from now on.

The place is actually really great. I get my own room with my own bathroom and all jokes aside, Rhona is incredibly helpful in what is worth seeing and what is a total waste of time. Last night I was laying in bed looking like I was reading, but I was spacing out. You know when your eyes read a page 3 or 4 times but you couldn’t even guess what that page was about. I was thinking about on my last blog, that I referred to the act of calling my parents as a road block. I was thinking that it was a cute inside joke for one person whom I shared the conversation with me… but my parents might think that a road block my be seen as a negative connotation… I was thinking that I should remedy the mistake and it wasn’t very nice of me… when… ZAP all the power to the building went out… The fan stopped turning and I was just laying in bed with my book in hand… in pitch dark. Apparently it happens a lot but…. Talk about omens. Sheeeeesh.

I woke up the next day to find a note on the table simply saying “Ryan, call me when you’re ready. Col Allwyn phone#” (now is when I started referring to him as the colonel). I gave him a call and he picked me up and acted as the perfect tour guide for the entire day. We drove around the presidents house, and parliament, and other various buildings and sights. All the while he would pull over, let me get out and take some pictures. Later, he dropped me off and I walked around town for a while. Several hours later, I called him and he picked me up to take me back home. How great are these people?

When I was out on my own… I finally got my ‘around the world ticket’ back on track since I deviated from my preplanned itinerary. After that I went to walk the mad streets of Delhi. I’m back in traffic chaos hell. Also, I think I’m the only white person in a tri city area so am stared at everywhere I go. But its alright, I put on my sun glasses and put on the earphones and the tunes… and all of Delhi is my oyster. Ok, well maybe its just my fledgling clam, but im on the right aquatic path.

While, it about dinner time so I got to take off and say good bye for now. Hopefully I can have better luck uploading the picture from my camera at the internet café than I do at this pc… take care all and make sure you call your parents!

Tomorrow I’m off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Should be back late in the evening so I’m not sure if I’ll get online.

Take care,
Ciao for now,
Ryan

Goodbye to the Thai

2005-04-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

My last day on Khoa San road.... (tear).

Last night kind of wrapped up in my mind how far I have come to experiencing... and well trusting new and unknown things. I was walking along with some friends, when an obvious rookie backpacking couple approached. they started asking us question of where to go and what to do... which is pretty standard for the backpacking network... But the guy was absolutely appauled that I was eating meat off a stick which I bought from a street vendor... and the girl screamed out loud when a cockroach crawled across the street. I recall when I first showed up creepy crawlies made me jump and mystery meats (as I call them) were absolutely taboo for my diet. Fortunetly I have been very lucky with my health (knock on wood) and safety (minus that damn camera). Delhi (from what I hear) is the ultimate test to you GI track, so I'm going to have to go back into uber paranoid backpacker mantality.

I have to tell somethign that I just thought was the greatest idea ever last night. So Thailand is a terrifically great place in its beauty and hospitality... but the tuk tuk drivers are unbarrable (lets see if I can find a pic of a tuk tuk on the internet for you....)
traditional tuk tuk (they're everywhere and super loud)

So Khoa san road is a super long one block street with bars and lights and backpackers and just uproarious partying. Now both ends 'T' into other streets... and the tuk tuk drivers just sit there waiting like sharks for chum which they know will be thrown to them. As you walk out of the street your accosted by about 10 guys yelling "tuk tuk" ..."tuk tuk". Its really incredibly annoying. They are so bad that I've had to learn the Thai turn for "piss off" [pronunced 'my owe' if you care] becuase they dont listen when you say no the first time... or even the sixth time for that matter. So I was at one of the ends of khoa san road heading home to go to bed and I noticed a guy (I think he sounded french but not sure) and he had a water gun... whenever one of the tuk tuk drivers got too close he would spray them in the face with teh water gun. It reminded me of when you spray a dog or a cat in the face for being bad. 'Bad tuk tuk driver... bad"! I saw that and just busted up laughing... shook the guys hand and walked home. Ahhh Bangkok... you crazy city you...

Alas thougth its time to move on, I'm off tonight to India. So when you read this in the morning I will be sleeping in New Delhi at the house of rhona and allwyn pereira. Through the recommendation of Rob Grey, a Boeing co-worker I used the www.globalfreeloaders.com webservice to find someone living in Delhi that would let me stay at their place for free. It seems to be most affective with major cities since you're more likely to find someone from that city offering a place then small places (which is why I havnt used the service till now). I logged on to the sight. Looked up India... looked up Delhi and found about 25 or so people with various living quarters (verrying from a couch or floor to sleep on to an entire room). About five people replied and the Pereira's offered a entire room with it own private locking door entrance (so of course I went for that over the couch or floor). So here is a pic of my host family whom told me they'll pick me up at the airport (which is a huge service because getting into a city and finding a place to stay and how to get there logistically is by far the most stressfull part of traveling).

rhona and allwyn pereira:

She assured me that they dont dress this formally, but were at a wedding. so it should be really cool. Already she said she has made plans to and from Agra, to see the Taj Mahal! It might seem a little risky staying with someone totally unknown... but I'm confident its safe (crossing my fingers).

Good news..... I have a digital camera again. It was easy picking it out this time since I bought the same exact camera from teh same exact same store as before... So soon I should be getting pictures posted and documenting all my adventures visually instead of exclussively by word. Speaking of words... I picked up 'The Alchemist' by Pablo Coehlo, since it came highly recommended so hopefully its good.

Side note, I have been getting heckled by a certain person from San Luis Obispo to call my parents... I called both this morning... one didnt answer and the other the phone was busy(its called call waiting mom!)... but I still consider my 'Amazing race road block' completed.

Im so pumped and excited for India and honestly cant keep still.... maybe thats the ADD instead... not sure. I cant even imagine what a country with a third of the earth population looks like.... delhi must be huge. I'm going to staple my camera to my wrist so I dont lose it... so dont worry pictures are on the way.

Ok, well I got a couple things I need to wrap before my flight so I will be off. Take care and talk to you soon.

Ciao for now,
Ryan

Boomerangkok

2005-04-02T17:28:00.000-08:00

I'm in Bangkok. Again. For the third time. I feel like its some sort of blackhole whose gravity I just cant escapre from.... sigh. Well, if things go well this should be my last stint here. The bus ride last night from Phi Phi (via Krabi) was as to be expected. Crappy. This time was the first time that they gave out preassigned seating... and wouldnt you know it. I got the very last seat in the corner (again). I mean of all the dumb luck. The one row of seats that doesnt recline and is super hot because its adjacent to the engine compartment... Aditionally I left my two books onboard when I arrived in a 5:30 am groggy mental state. Luckily I finished Memoirs of a Geisha, but dont get to resale it... If you'll indulge me the opportunity to continue with my whining session... Im not looking forward to buying my third camera, and I've had a heat rash on both my arms for hte last 4 days ( I think from working in the sun - but not sure) that I cant get rid of (there are not pharamcies in Phi Phi and pretty sure I just need some hydrocortizon). Arent I just pleasant company! On the positive side.. I've gotten some emails from friends that are in bangkok and am looking forward to catching up with people and exchange stories. Also, Im really pumped for India and cant wait to get into a totally new cultural environment. I had hummus for lunch yesterday in preperation!!!

As I was wasting time this mornign waiting for a hotel room (everywhere is full and check out is at noon so you have to time it so that you grab a room as someone checks out) I was reading a Time magazine in an airconditioned 7-11 (which was nice because its hot even at 6 in the morning here). Granted it was the international Time magazine so I'm hoping its similair to teh States version... but there are some great pictures of an article on tsunami relief areas. If you get the chance open one up and take a look at the pictures. theres a spread that (minus the mosque) looks very identical to Phi Phi.

So a funny thing about my hotel room. I have been sharing rooms with other backpackers to save money for so long that I cant remember the last time i had my own place. So I was determined to get an aiconditioned place all for myself today... After walking around for an hour and a half.. the only place I found that even had an A/C room was a triple twin bedroom. I asked to see it thinking it would be three twin beds scattered around a small room. When I opened the door it was three twin beds side by side to make one big shaq daddy bed. "I'll take it". Hot shower.... heck it has a shower head... Ive had so many showers out of a bucket that I was a little confused what the spiket sticking out of the wall at 6 feet up was.... Yes it cost seven dollars more but I'm feeling like royalty so... its worth the splurge.

Wow.... just saw news of the Pope. I wonder what the feel of Rome is right now.

Well, Im going to log off to go spend absorbanent amounts of money on something I should have kept better track of...

ciao for now and have a great week end!

Voluntary termination

2005-04-01T04:03:00.000-08:00

They say that all good things must come to an end… Im not convinced if this is always necessarily true…but my volunteering time in Phi Phi certainly has come to an end. We paid the bill for the room tonight and was astounded to find that I have been here for five nights. Time truly does fly when you’re having fun.. and throwing shovels full of wet cement.

Yesterday the brick wall thing fell through but I did find a team to join that was mixing cement for a hotel patio. It was a great experience. I learned several things on the ‘hotel cement floor’ job. One, always have a translator on hand when the cement mason is an old grouchy french man that doesnt speak english and all the workers are North American english speaking peons. Two, when you dump water into the cement mixing hopper, don’t stand there staring at it from the front to see if its mixing correctly otherwise you get a face full of sloppy wet cement water.... (yeah that one was a fun one to learn). Three, leaving three alpha males in charge of making cement unsupervised and without directions, whom have never made cement before is going to take a three times longer than expected and result initially in some ‘experimental’ batches. And Four, you get fed and serviced upon like a famous celebrity at a five star resort when you walk in to the free food restaurant, covered in dried cement from head to toe. I put my initials in the corner of the drying cement so I can try and find it whenever I come back. I really think it would be amazing to come back some day when its all rebuilt and see it at its best… well not best… because I think right now… its at its best… a beautiful island filled with beautiful people. I found out that the name of the bar that the boat will be in is called the sunset beach bar. So if anyone comes over here and sees a bar made out of a wooden long boat… think of me.

I really am going to miss this place. The people are so great and always seem happy. More so than anywhere else in Thailand. Why that is is a really curious question to ponder. I like having a little fun (taking the piss as the Aussie slang goes) with the locals. There is only one street that’s paved and in drivable condition… it snakes around the island to the main areas.. in several places it really narrow, so I play chicken with the motor bike guys… getting down in a sumo stance only to jump out of the way at the last minute… for some reason it always makes them laugh without fail. Another thing I do… which is some what selfish… the tool shop is next to the pier for simplicity of unloading supplies. The job sites where I have been working at are on the other side of the narrow middle section of the island. So when I need to get out to far away job site (where I have been working) I’ll set out walking… but when I hear a motor scooter coming…I jump onto the little side cars (all the scooters here have side cars because their used exclusively for moving supplies around not for conveniance of transportation). For example I was caring 6 six packs of bottled water (water is free for volunteers) out to the cement mixer site yesterday… the water was incredibly heavy as you can imagine. So I walked to where the main road is and then just stopped and waited for a motor bike to come… when one approached (after about a 15 second wait) I asked the guy to stop… threw my water bottles on top of his supplies and then jumped onto the side and took off. I tapped him on the shoulder when I arrived and said thank you in Thai (pronounced cup con cup) - he smiled, said thank you back, and took off. Simple as that. I figure make the most of the local transporation, right?

So I mentioned before that today was the 100 day rememberence of the tsunami… I was wrong. Its in a couple of days.. I think Tuesday (Monday in the states). Yesterday was just some religious holiday. We all met on the beach at 8:30pm to light small paper balloon which contain a wooden candle that provide the hot air to lift it away… it would have been amazing to see the 100 or so ballons lift off together… if not for the temporary gail force equivalent winds that decided to thwart our efforts. I think someone managed to get their ballon of the ground long enough for the wind to slam the balloon into a tree and almost catch it on fire… I tried twice to get my balloon to launch but without success. I did succeed on catching the second one on fire if that counts for anything…

This morning the group I have been hanging out with and I rented a long boat to drive us to phi phi Leh (the southern island – which is actually where the movie ‘the beach’ [which you should watch to see how beautiful it is] was filmed at). The movie is accurate in its potrail as a absolutely gorgeous bay. We swam in the bay for a while then went to a couple snorkel sites. I finally saw a Nemo. I saw five in fact.. as well as a sea snake, a leopard shark (I think it was… it had spots so….), huge spiky sea urchins (which look incredibly ominous), various reef fish, and swam amongst about a million 1 ½ inch long anchovies as they were feeding… really quiet beautiful to watch them shimmer and move together like a cloud swirling around itself. I actually kind of have a funny story. So with snorkeling you can instead of dwelling on the surface the entire time… you can hold your breath and dive down below to get up close views. I’ve gotten quite good at holding my breath and diving down so that I can stay under for about a minute (which is actually impressive if you have ever snorkeled because as you got deeper the pressure builds causing the volume of air in your lungs to decrease i.e. at 10 meters/33 feet depth [which is how deep I can swim too] you have half of the volume of air in your lungs to use… ) [sorry for the science lesson]. Anyway, so I was diving under to get about half a foot away from the sea anemones to look at the little nemo clown fish when I saw a two foot sea snake dart out from under a grouping of coral. I went up for air and then went back down and followed it. As I camed upon the new area of coral that it was hiding under…WHACK…. got hit in the head really hard. I thought at first that maybe another snorkeler had hit me with his/her fin accidentally… but as I rolled over to look up I didn’t see anyone… then WHACK I got hit on the top of the head again. I rolled back on to my stomach and looked ahead to see staring at me… eye to eye, a little fish… I dotn know what kind he or she was but was straight on staring me down. I remember thinking ‘you little punk’. It was about 3 inches long with black and white vertically stripping tipped at both the snout and tail with orange. I went up for air… filled my lungs and went back down… and he/she faced me down again… granted im bigger than it is so… [ok I’ll finish this story later and then copy paste it in..]. I shooed it away continuously so that I can get down low enough to seee…. Several itty bitty tiny little fish with the same color patterns. I decided I wouldn’t antagonize the little family alone so I saw away…but was some what equally amused but impressed with the shear idiotic tenacity and unabashed disregard of danger to protect its family.

I was just typing when… for no real apparent reason. The girl next to me touched me on the shoulder and pointed to a picture of a girl she had on her email. She said ‘this is my friend when we were right here the day of the tsunami… well absolutely intrigued I broke into a conversation with here. Thus far on my blog I have tried consciously to stay away from describing the tsunami because tell a story that I heard second had from someone else who heard…. Well doesn’t seem the most factual way to describe something. But I want to write what she said as I asked her about it… she said that (as we all know now) everyone watched the tide go out and was amazed and didn’t really know what was going on… she said then they saw the first (of three) wave between 5 and ten meters come right in at them. She was thrown through a glass window and then after getting pounded by the second and the third wave eventually ran up into the mountains… Absolutely amazing and now can see why the locals were so scared and reacted so quickly when on the first day here when we had the tsunami warning… wow. I couldn’t imagine. She said her friend in the picture still suffers from nightmares and random panic attacks. ….

Well, that kind of took the wind out of my sails… Not much in the mood for talking about silly clown fish now…. Hmmmphf.

Well im off to Bangkok for a couple of days before my flight to India. So I don’t know the next time I’ll write.
I’ve been informed that I can fax my notarized car ownership authorization so there may be hope for preventing my car from indefinitely being seized.

Take care all and ciao for now,
me

a wee Phi Phi update

2005-03-30T23:14:00.000-08:00

Another day in a place that will once again return to paradise.Yesterday morning I joined the dive team that went out to clear wreckage from the bay. There were more divers than snorkelers (since a group of dive masters came in yesterday) so they chose people with more experience to do the diving. So instead of diving I snorkeled as a surface support member. Basically there are three functions. The divers go down attach a cord to junk at the bottom and then float up a green plastic bag. When the bag surfaces... snorkelers swim over to the bag... wait till the divers are clear of the spot (for safety pursposes – you know they are clear by giving them 2 meters/6feet between where the cord goes down to where the divers air bubbles are comign up) and then pull what ever is attached to the end of the cord up. Usually I pulled up pieces of sheet metal or old metal gallon canisters. When the snorkelers pull up the garbage, we would swim it over to a floating barge and hand the cord to a person there, whom would pull the metal out of the water. The system worked pretty well and we spent about 3 hours in the water. After lunch, although I love being in the water... i decided to do something a little more physically demanding since there were plenty of snorkelers and not many people doing the really hard backbreaking work. So I dug a ditch for a couple of hours that was used for layign electrical conduits in.

Every lunch and dinner Its really nice because the volunteer’s food is subsidized, so I eat lunch and dinner for free (and today found at the nurses station... free toothpaste which im not embarrassed to say i took two tubes of). So every meal I eat with a group of Thai people at their crude temporary restaurant (until it gets rebuilt… now its plywood walls with simple wooden tables and chairs). The food is incredibly good. Its as authentic thai food as its gets. I seem to be the only volunteer that can eat it because its so spicy.… Thank god I spent the last six months before my trip eating really spicy food (just in preparation for Thailand) because the flavor is incredible but usually my lips are numb for about an hour afterwards. It’s that hot. Later that evening to cool down I took my book and a plastic deck chair and just sat in teh serf and enjoyed the beautiful blue waters with the massive stone cliff faces across the bay.

Oh my goodness.... I just got an email from Dilip... he's alive. Now I need to read it and see if there is any law school stuff that he received in the mail on my behalf. AAAAAAAAH man... I just realized the insect repellent in my back pocket broke and am sitting in a puddle of repellent. Great.... well I wont be gettign bitten on my backside anytime soon I guess. Sigh.... ok so the background with my car is this.... I was contemplating selling my car for money to help finance my trip. I wasnt sure if I was going to need the money or not, so the day before I was to leave I was goign to sign ownership over to one of my best friends Dilip. We got there too late the DMV had closed. We had emailed back and forth a couple of times about mailing the appropriate papers back and forth internationally so that I could sign ownership over just in case I needed the extra money. We decided to pass on this plan and he would just lend me some money if need be and repay him with the sell of my car when I get back (if necessitated). Well i just found out that the car as it was sitting in front of his apartment (while he was in chicago for business) was towed. Now dilip needs... what was it.... 'a notarized authorization for release of the car within the next twenty days or so'.... Well given that Im on an island that barely has internet and restaurants... Im guessign i wont be finding a notorization service anywhere soon... This should be interesting...

Well... I'll have to wait and worry about that when I get back to civilization in a couple of days. Im here through friday. Friday is the 100 day celebration/remeberance of the tsunami fatalities on the island and its supposed to be a really big religious deal for the people. Im curious what it will be like.

FYI everyone... when you email me directly from the weblog it enters your address as a anonymous address so I cant send replies. Carol Bellamy of Charlotte North Carolina sent a really sweet email but when I replied (and forgot about the anonymous thing) I got the email returned. If you're goign to write me please write you address in so that I can reply I love talking to people that read myweblog but dont know your addresses. Carol, because your email was so sweet im goign to post my reply i sent you below. Thank you everyone else that sent an email expressing your relief for my safety. You're all too kind!

Well I really got to run. Hopefully I didnt misspell too many words... but I have to meet a group to build a brick wall in 2 minutes and then have to meet another team at 3:30 for some 'beach clearing' thing at the beach thats supposed to be really tough and needs lots of strong arms. Then its off to soccer again at 5pm... Yesterday I scored a goal.... I was totally ecstatic.

Take care everyone and lots of love. By the way if anyone reading this owns a car storage compound in seattle with a green audi in it... feel free to release it at no charge... Consider is community volunteer work :)

ciao for now,
ryan

Carol, Thanks so much for you praises as well as your prayers. I'm glad that you're enjoying the blog. I am having such a blast writing it. As for the volunteering thing in phi phi, its such an incredible feeling and enjoy partaking. Representing America wasnt my intent, but myself and the other americans here try and show a side of the states that isnt politically driven. Please keep reading and I'll keep writing :). Thanks again and take care! Ryan

Tsunami scare

2005-03-29T08:12:00.000-08:00

Im not sure what the atmosphere and level of concern at home was… But last night’s tsunami warning was quite a scare. However, I’m starting in the middle of my story not at the beginning, which is where I should start.

After getting into Phucket I found that the diving trips to the National park of Similain was really expensive and decided to pass on it. I was hoping to catch a bus back to Bangkok where I was going to meet up with some friends and then later catch my flight to India... But it wasn’t in the cards. All the bus trips were sold out. The extreme reduction in tourism has completely thrown the normal bus schedules off kilter. So that the one bus available a day is completely full a couple days in advance, but not enough people want to make the trip to precipitate a second bus running. Im going to take a quick tangent to talk about the damage we saw at phucket…. Phucket is a large island as well as a city on the eastern side of the island. We stayed at the beach area on the west coast of the island, the sight of where the tsunami hit and absolutely obliterated the beach front. From the water line of the beach to about 200 meters inland all the buildings were destroyed. However, the thai people are incredible at persevering not only mentally but in their infrastructure as well. The strip is almost completely redone in entirely new buildings. Its only been… three months… and all the shops are almost redone… amazing. Back to my story. The three people whom I had met and shared a room with were on their way to koh phi phi in a couple of days to do some volunteer work. I heard through the proverbial backpacker grape vine that they were looking for divers to volunteer to clean up the water around the island, so I decided to hold off on Bangkok(i.e. flight to India) to do some volunteer work.

Some people believe in signs and omens that indicate some sort of prognostic ability…. Well the start of the day yesterday had even us none believers starting to question. We were supposed to catch a bus from the beach area we stayed at to the local ferry terminal to catch a boat to phi phi. Heres a map so that you know how far out of the way we went

(bus from west side of phucket island to the east side of island and then boat southeast to phi phi island)

well the bus driver had other intentions…. He drove us all the way around the bay to krabi. Instead of a 45 minute ride. It was a 4.5 hour ride… Never try and get into a direction arguement with a bus driver that doesnt speak the same language... I guarantee you that you wont win. Then when we got to krabi we had to wait three hours in a restaurant waiting for another shuttle to the ferry terminal. The shuttle came a little early and Chase was still down the street getting her digital camera images onto a cd. We finally got on a boat but reflected on how absolutely crazy the day was. Unknown to us… it was going to get even more crazy.

Side note, we spent the three hour wait watching to move 'The Beach' with Leonardo DiCaprio... you want to watch a movie that is as close to backpacking in the darker side of Thailand.... watch this movie. Also, the location of where the movie was made..... was Koh phi phi.... where Ryan is right now (im staying at the north phi phi island.... the movie is filmed on the south phi phi island - i'll be taking a boat ride out there in a couple of days when my volunteering is done)

Back to the story...We got into the island’s pier and found nothing but giant piles of rubble and debris. A quick background of phi phi’s tsunami impact. The island which is shaped like this….

the island to the north…. Phi phi don.

The main beach and tourism area were located in the narrow skinny part of the middle of the island (between the two anchors). The tsunami wave came in from the north and exited to the south…. So it hit the island the hardest where all the people and shops were. To put it simply and undescriptively…. It annihilated everything in its path. I wished among wishes that I had my camera so I can show you how much devastation is on the island. Well that night when we got in… we all signed up for various volunteering duties. That night, I went to bed early because the dive team I signed up for was meeting at 8am the next day.
That night… around midnight, I was woken by Ed and Luke (from England - two guys im sharing a room with) and at first really annoyed. You know when you first wake up and you’re really stupid. Nothing makes since and you struggle to figure out whats going on… well I woke up and was like what are these two guys doing and why aren’t they shutting up and going to bed. I pulled my earplugs out to try and hear what was going on. Ed was yelling something about a tsunami and wasn’t making much sense. I slowly started to realize that something isn’t right and all the cylinder in my brain started firing… Ed’s father had sent him a text message that there was an earthquake…. Luke was talking to the hotel manager at the door whom was asking us to gather all our small valuable possession and head out… I literally jumped out of bed and started to gather my small backpack… I don’t know why but for some reason I thought my memoirs of a geisha book was valuable because I started packing it…. Ed was frantically reading his phone’s text messages and I yelled at luke to go wake the girls and get back here as I gather up my sandals. After a what was later told to be a incredibly freitenting and bad way to wake up someone… the girls and Lincoln ammerged from their room… Now I have to say in all honesty that I was skeptical there was a tsunami but when I stepped out of the bungalow room and saw people frantically running about while the hotel manager was knocking on the door next to use… I became really nervous. We all started running in the direction that we were pointed to… We were literally heading for the hills. Everyone once in a while as we jogged ed would read off another text message that his father was sending with a frantic and urgent pass. It only fueled the fire of panic.. people were running around asking whats going on, Laura began to really panic. I was become a little crazy… I had ed slow up his pass because we were starting to all get lost amongst the other people doing the same thing we were doing. I thought the most important thing was to stick together and not go crazy… I took Laura’s hand to keep here from loosing it (she was starting to hyperventilate or something… breathing really erratic) Ed kept up with his trailblazing speed and flash news reports, so I told Lincoln (whos really really tall) to keep making sure he sees everyone from our group and to tell me if he didn’t see someone. Ed continued to be awesome. We reached a little plateau where people were starting to migrate and ask whats was going on… Ed took point and kept pushing people to higher ground. He lead a group of about 40 people up to a look out point atop the hill. Everyone was on phones calling and texting trying to figure out what was going on. In hind sight… as all of you know now… there wasn’t a wave and Thailand wasn’t in any kind of risk, but you can image that a community of people that was trying to rebuild itself after a tsunami struck 92 days prior reacts incredibly more sensitively than normal. It wasn’t pandemonium… not by any stretch… but that is the most panicked a mass of people that I have ever seen. It’s a bizarre feeling not knowing what’s going on…. We all stayed ontop of the look out until about 3:30 in the morning and then headed down to sleep. The walk home was incredibly ominous. Not because of the scare but because we walked back down to town through an area that the locals were currently inhabiting. I the freight of the moment… the surrounding buildings were invisible and completely superfluous. But as we walked back you can see the ramshackle houses that people were living in. Using any material available to form walls and curtains. Signs, posters, plastic sheets, plywood, anything was used to make a livable house…amazing that these people can live like this and still have smiles on their faces in the morning.

I awoke today even more charged up to do some volunteer work after the previous nights scare. Knowing what the local Thai people went through was incredibly powerful motivator to help them recover their community. I headed down to the dive center only to find that in the middle of the morning, a vast majority of the local thai people that were remaining (most are still gone from there homes here because… well there are no homes to live in) had left the island from fear of the tsunami scare…. Including the local divers and support team. There was nothing we could do because of a shortage of people. I headed back to our room feeling disgruntled and dejected. Luckily the others weren’t meeting up until nine to do there clean up… so I followed them instead. I thought clean up would be mops and brooms with bottles of cleaning solvent….. no it was cleaning up the local reservoir from all the debris and carnage. I wish I had my camera to show you what I saw… we headed to the back side of the island hidden from the beach… It was the location of numerous shops and bungalows and other touristy buildings…. What I saw was massive piles of wreckage and destruction. Bulldozers had been working on cleaning up the area but… still it looked like a war zone. It looked like a giant had take several sky scrapers… put them into a giant blender… then poured the contents all over the ground.

However there is beauty even in destruction and chaos. I have to describe the volunteers that work every day to help out this community. They are angels. All of them. In this made crazy world of ours I have seen horrible evil people… and I have seen remarkable and incredibly angelic people. The backpackers here are the latter of the two. They have come from all over the globe. People like me who have come for a couple of days to see for themselves… but have ended up staying for weeks and even months. The night before… at 7pm every night… there is a meeting organized and tasks that need to be accomplished for the next day are issued and people one at a time sign up for the volunteering duties. As I walked out to our volunteer sight at the reservoirs…. it touched my heart to see them all in action. There were people mending the road that we pushed our wheelbarrows down. There were people painting a building that the carpenters to my left had just finished raising. It was a colony of people… working tirelessly together to accomplish something that would never bring them a dollar, or fame, or anything tangible… only happiness and pride.

For several hours we cleared a path around the small water reservoir… It was backbreaking… but even more heart wrenching when you had to pick up a picture album or child’s toy to toss into the center area that would be burned in a couple of days. After that we transferred a load of sand bags and cinder blocks from a boat to a building being constructed. I was absolutely dripping in sweat from tossing the sand bags around. I had tied a shirt around my head so that the sun would be off my shoulder and neck, I think I must have looked like Lawrence of Arabia… I was hoping not to go crazy like Lawrence though. After the sandbags it was really touching when old Thai ladies would come up and offer me bottles of water, and young thai men would come up and ask my name and tell me thank you. After that we heard that a guy was hoping to get some assistance moving a boat. I asked around what was up with a guy moving a boat. Apparently the tsunami had taken his wife, two children, and destroyed his bar that was his only business. He wanted to take the remnants of two fishing boats that were cut in two and use it as the bar for his new establishment. I told the group of guys that I was working with….’he have to do this’. I don’t know why… but I wanted our team of people to be the ones to move the boats. So I rushed everyone to the supposed meeting point. Let me tell you those boats were not light…. In fact they were incredibly incredibly heavy, and we struggled carrying them from the beach over mounds of debris and trash the entire … but you better believe that ever step…. every nick and cut and scrape was absolutely worth it to see his smile and the tear in his eye as he described how he was dedicating certain sections of the boats to different people. I thought about it later and am absolutely amazed by the endurance and tenacity of humans. That this one man can lose everything… completely everything… family, friends, and business…. And pick up the pieces with a smile and carry on. How did this man not kill himself. How did he not say… I give up….Phenomenal. After that, our little band of one day warriors was heading back to the beach to go for a swim to cool off, when we were ushered in by some local thai people to have lunch/dinner (4:30 pm) with them. The old ladies made us wash our hands… then served us up plates of rice and fish curry. Then the men sat around and told jokes and laughed…. Honestly I think it was the best meal I’ve had on this trip…. It was so incredibly good. Maybe it was the hunger of not eating all day, maybe it was the euphoria of moving a mountain, maybe they slipped happy pills into my water….. But damn that food was good.

We eventually escaped the rounds of thank yous and good byes and got that refreshing swim. We had just enough time to get out and change clothes for our teams soccer tournament. We had signed up for a soccer tournament and even though we were exhausted… it felt like a great way for us to celebrate the days accomplishments together as a team. All the others are English and Ausie guys so they are much much better at soccer than I am…. So I was goalie :). My new nickname is ‘the wall’. I went unscored upon in five games…. My team kicked bootie big time. As we walked back from the beach I couldn’t help but think of the parallel between apocalypse now… There is a scene in apocalypse now that… just after some marines (maybe different branch…don’t know) cleared a beach from a battle... while bombs are still going off… some commanders chopper in and pull our their surfboards because the waves were good (trying to represent the craziness of the war)… but the parallel was so apparent… I was walking through the remnants of a war zone… with destruction and carnage everywhere… as I walked back from a soccer match. I know its silly… but the parallels stuck with me for some reason. Well….. four pages…. Another novel… how I tend to blab….

Well. I really need to check my email since I haven’t done it in about a week. So Im going to end here. Tomorrow hopefully the dive group heads out to clean some wreckage sites, and I can get in the water. I’ve been lugging my mask and snorkel with me across half of Southeast Asia…. Maybe I can use it now.

Miss everyone very very much. After last nights scare I just wish I can see everyone for a nano second to give a hug and say hi.
Ciao for now….
Ryan

Bad Bus Blues

2005-03-26T07:33:00.000-08:00

well my voice has returned to normal and the ringing in my ears has finally stopped... the only residual signs of koh pangan are the sand still stuck in my hair and the body paint I cant get out of my shorts.
Hopefully the hair cleaniliness will be solved tonight when I get to take a shower. The bungalow we had been staying at only had a bucket... Im not going to descrie the humility involved when taking a bucket shower with a hangover because its just too sad. But yeah, we have the five star resort tonight. I say we since I'm sharing a room with three new people that I met on the bus ride and have known for all of... 6 hours.

The timing was some what appropriate for the bus ride today. I was thinking to myself that I really wanted to write in my next blog all the random and crazy things that the thai buses have done and how strange the experience is when all of a sudden the bus pulled to the side of the road... told everyone to get out.. and we had to stand beside the bus and hunt down our bags from the undercarige while cars zoomed by us flashing their light and honking their horns. I had to have a chuckle to myself. First off, thai buses are natoriously late. The ongoing joke amungst backpackers is if you ask what time the bus gets to the destination... you add 2 hours. It drives the German backpackers absolutely nuts. The italians are right at home! The next most ovbious nusance about hte thai buses is.... i dont know if they need to re-teach math in thailand but their in ability to count seats on a bus and match that with the correct number of occupants of said bus is painfully inaccurate. Several times either people have ended up sitting in the center aisle without a seat or they cram backpacks in the center aisle so that you have to laborously climb over the mound of hardware to get out the front door. Speaking of bounds of backpacks... let me tell you how much I love getting off the bus to find the bus driver pilling backpack after backpack into a giant heap either in the middle of the road or on the dirt off the road. There will be twent or so backpacks and it must be what the referees have to deal with trying to find the football after a fumble amongst a pile of bodies. Is that my backpack nope not that one... is it underneath or over there... It wouldnt be so bad to find your backpack if you were the only one doing so, but there are nineteen other people wanting their bags. Every once in a while 'group think' will kick in and people on the immediate fringe of the circle will start moving backpacks out of the concentric cirlce to make it easier to find... must other times its dog eat dog. Luckily green isnt that common of a backpack color and I can find mine pretty fast. I would say 80% are black.... Note to all future backpackers.... dont get all black! Another small complaint I have is once... just once I would like to get an air conditioned bus thats actually got air conditioning... I mean, I understand if it doesnt. Just tell me.... Ryan... you're going to get a big over crowded hot piece of shit bus that the driver will try and make you nausious from his driving only before he attempts to lose your backpack.... and I'll be fine. I'll understand and accept my fate. But the ' Super excellent V.I.P A/C tour bus' hoax is getting really freaking old. The single redeaming quality of the bus system is you meet lots of people. Today I met... oh crap lets see..... Laura from toronto.... ummmm... Chase from Brisbane (australia) and... oh whats his name.... Lincoln from Goldcoast (australia). I ended up sharing a room with them tonight because well. the bus dropped us all off in the wrong place and i didnt really know where else to go. Tomorrow Im going to look into the diving thing. It was supposed to be today but the bus took 3 hours longer than it was advertised. Tongiht though... im living like a king. I have my own bed.... Glory to the bed gods.... that actually have sheets on them.... swoooon. Im going to have a shower from an actual shower head.... ohhhhh mighty bathroom fixture diety... we have a television.... i dont really know what that is anymore but supposedly we have one.... but the best part... the creme de la creme... the piece de resistance........ AIR CONDITIONING...... AAAAAAAhhhhhh Alleluiah. I'mmm speachless. Its not going to be sweltering how when I sleep tonight.

alright the girls are rushing me.... gotta go.
love all.
bye ryan

Party petered

2005-03-25T05:58:00.000-08:00

I’m never drinking again. Ever. I cannot conceivably quantize how much rum I have drank in the last five nights. But I’m sure I just helped some local producer put his kids through college. I’m actually really glad last night was the full moon party because I just don’t have anything left for another night. I feel like a sand punching bag that had a tiny tear at the bottom, and after every punch a little bit of sand comes out so that now its completely empty and abused.

The full moon party, and the days leading up to it are…a giant orgy of hedonistic dancing and drinking. It’s a do loop of cyclical ‘sleeping… recovering…. partying’ from which you just cant escape. As I sit at the computer at…8 pm at night on the 25th I still am covered in smeared pink body paint mixed with salty sweat and a fine dusting of sand…. Also, I havnt eaten in over 24 hours. To say I’m a wreck is to say the sun is bright. Maybe my analogy should involve the moon instead…

Last night the group of about 10 people or so that I have been partying with got started on the buckets at 9 at our bungalow. We headed out to the beach at midnight and was absolutely amazed to see just a sea of dancing writhing people. Seeing 10,000 people all dancing reminded me of the wheat fields in summer on the drive out to WSU… it all moves and flows together like its one entity. Much like how a school of fish move together. The beach is pretty narrow… from waves to the bars is about….100 feet. And the beach is about a third of a mile long… but every inch of dry sand is covered with people. As soon as we hit the beach we bought body paint that glows in the black lights. For my chest I had a giant lighting bolt in honor of ‘the dead poets societ’ CARPE DIEM…. YALLLLLLLLLLP. On my shoulder I had a superman symbol because when you take the boat ride over form the mainland they give you colored stickers to put on your shirts, different color designates different island destinations. My sticker kept falling off so instead I put it on my shoulder (wasn’t wearing a shirt) and got sunburned really bad so that when I pulled off the triangular sticker I had a giant white trangle where my skin didn’t burn… so I got nicknamed superman.. so superman symbol on my shoulder. And then two American girls from Boston College put football strips under our eyes because…. Well it seemed like a good idea. It was kind of funny but one of the girls said it wasn’t the most patriotic thing she had ever done… So if you can image me in my bright pink body paint…dancing ontop of a 6 foot tall speaker with a tiny plastic bucket… you can get an inkling of an idea of what the party was like. Another funny part of the night is everyone is bare foot so there are giant piles of sandals everywhere… But you cant find your because there are too many and your are probably lsot. So me in my infinite creative genius decided to burry mine in the sand so that I could find them later at the end of the night…. (I think there is a correlation between drinking rum and becoming incredibly dumb). So throughout the night… whenever I needed to go to the bathroom I would just grab two sandals out of the pile and head into one of the bars. But the never were the same two sandals twice. Half the time one would be too large and one would be too small. I did display a small glimpse of maturity and discretion when I decided to not partake in the drunken flaming limbo bar. After taking a small nap in the sand at about 7 in the morning… I woke up and decided it was time to go home. As I left there must have been a couple thousand people either still dancing or past out in the sand. It was a strange mix of people that partied too much with people that partied too much.

heres just an idea

The people I have been partying with are mostly English and Australian. I’ve been sharing a room with three others that I met from the boat ride over. Wes from Australia, Steph from Australia, and Annemaree from Holland. It’s a lot cheaper to share rooms, but there is four of us and only two beds. So it makes it interesting. Annemaree made a promise to her boyfriend that she wouldn’t share a bed with a guy, so initially wes and I shared a bed and then the two girls got the other one. But on nights that Steph and Wes get drunk and hook up (which is most nights)… I usually end up in the hammock or on the floor.

I ran into this girl from New York again.. Its really crazy but we just keep having chance encounters. I first met her in Sydney… then again in bali, then again in Bangkok and then here... Its funny because we both just keep updating each other with our travels and friends at home.. Her sister just got accepted into lawchool at….. Harvard was it…. Or maybe NYU… cant remember.

Oops. I just got an email forwarded from my weblog… I got slapped on the wrist for using someones picture without using proper referencing. I guess that’s the problem with people reading it that I don’t know… Sorry anonymous person.

oh before I forget.... the first full moon when I get back we are having a bucket party and everyones invited. It will be at Dilips because I think we should trash his place since he doesnt know how to use email anymore.

I was contemplating not buying another camera to save money... but luckily Monsignor Jeff Kane reminded me how important it is... so thanks Jeff for the nudge in the right direction.

Ok, well im starting to feel nauseous again and havnt checked my email yet so that it for now…. Next stop is Phucket for scuaba diving. I think I’m going to buy my airplane ticket to India tomorrow. We’ll see. Oh…. Real quick. In a bit of personal news. My buddy Will’s wife got accepted into medical school in Houston so good news that Heather got accepted but bad news that its so far away and we’re loosing Will. I may never get to see a grown man in a Halloween Bud Light costume dancing to techno ever again. Sad.

Ciao for now,
ryan

i just looked over at the guy's monitor sitting next to me and scanned his email... it started 'hi dad, sorry i havent emailed very much, but i have had litterally no time'....

I'm glad Im not the only selfish person that hasnt kept up there emails with important people.... :(

Atleast im honest in the recognition that time isnt exactly in short supply on an island designed for partying at night and sleeping during the day.

lots of love to everyone... Miss you all.

candid camera

2005-03-21T05:31:00.001-08:00

Cursed. I’m cursed I say. I think I’m perpetually being followed by traveling demons and guardian angels, because I keep having incredibly great luck accompanied by annoying problems. I lost my camera…. I don’t know if it got stolen on the boat ride from mainland Thailand to the island of koh pangan or I left it aboard when I was taking pictures of fishing boats.... but.... its gone. Im so incredibly disappointed and frustrated. I dont know if I want to buy another one... I cant help but think of my dichotomized fortunes in such a way because.... yes I lost my camera (agian)... but I just saw the single most incredible sunset but 10 minutes ago. It unfolded into what a great renaissance master might paint if he/she wanted to paint a sunset… So the backdrop of this is me laying in a hammock, Wes and Steph (both from Australia) sitting in chairs, and Jack Johnson or something like that is playing on my cd player with some borrowed speakers. The sunset as I look at it is through two large palm trees that are leaning towards each other making a perfect frame of the sun. At first I thought it would be nothing special because it was going behind some clouds way way off on the horizon. But as it sunk down below the horizon, it revealed itself to be something truly awesome. The light shown upwards onto the clouds from below, illuminating their puffy bumps and ridges with a vibrant red-orange huge. It was really visually confusing, because it looked like I was looking at a sea of clouds… except I was upside down. I kept wanting to tilt my head over to make them right side up…Then as I was looking, I noticed the peculiar formations of the clouds. There was a cloud front moving in from the left hand side, some clouds were reaching out ahead of the rest like giant fingers groping across the sky where the sun just dropped below. The affect was incredible. The cloud front to the left was a thick dark blue since the light from the sinking sun couldn’t penetrate it. To the right hand side were wispy clouds and open space which glowed a golden yellow. In the middle where they both met... looked like a fiery melee between the left and the right. Both wanting to occupy the same space at the same time. A heavenly battle unfolding before my eyes... between blue and yellow... between dark and light... between good and evil… between traveling demons and guardian angels…

Stupid camera - One good thing about my camera is I uploaded all the pictures off it the other day so I didn’t lose the Angkor temple pictures…

[While doing my blog I often do emails at the same time and jump back and forth… just got an email from mom saying I made the USA today paper. How cool is that? Maybe I can get sponsored by a camera company…]

Ok enough babble about silly sunsets Ryan… down to business. All the stuff I need to catch up on is daunting… ok I’ll give myself a time limit. Ok its seven thirty at night…and am meeting the Swedish guys (that I met in Bali) at ten for food. Ok two hours is all I’ll let myself type. I’ll have to do email replies tomorrow.

I have to comment that I had one of the craziest twenty four hours of my life in phenom penh. This is more for historical documentation for myself more than for you guys to read…. But here goes. The last time I did a proper blog, I walked out of the internet café and saw a guy on a motor bike get in an accident. He looked like he had some serious head wounds but nothing serious. I note it only because it surprisingly is the first accident I have seen. I think I heard in Siagon that they average 1500 traffic fatalities a year in the city. So you get an idea how crazy the streets are around here.. Cambodia is just as bad. So going so long without seeing an accident it rare (or so I’m told)… that being said as I was on a motor scooter going to the bar that night with some friends I thought to myself that I was starting to understand the chaos of the asian streets. Once I learned to let go of my preconceived conception of American rules of the road and accept their way… it made since. I don’t think it’s the best system but it works in a weird sort of way. I realized that most streets (outside the heart of major cities) don’t have any sort of stop light or even stop sign system. People turn a corner and drive on the wrong side of the street a ways not because they feel reckless but because there was a large truck coming up on the right hand side that I didn’t see at first and once the one coming traffic has lessened the scooter will drift over to the correct side of the road. And in intersection when there is a free for all…. stop lights just aren’t provided so the people do what they have always done… make do with what they have… Its probably obvious to other people of why they drive they way they do… but I liked realizing I saw a culture in a different way then I first started. That night I could have used some of my cultural insight and reasoning when I almost got in a fight and had to scare off a psycho Cambodian girl that was stalking me. I almost got in a fight because this one guy kept grabbing the ass of one of the girls I was with and didn’t stop after I and others asked him to stop several times. He did it again when I was dancing with her and I shoved him off the dance floor… bouncers came up and after explaining it they kicked the guy out. In hind sight not the smartest thing to do… I could have used some help though with the Cambodian girl that wanted me to dance with her and after turned her down she went crazy. I cant fully describe her antics and hostility… but to quickly summarize she followed us home on her motor bike throwing beer bottles in the street, screaming at the top of her lungs. Completely strange but we all had a laugh at her as we watched the sun rise from our lake porch hammocks…. Good ending to a crazy day.

The next day I missed my bus into Siem riep so I spent the day walking around. Around sunset I came across the US embassy. I have never seen an embassy before so it was kind of cool. When I saw the flag though… I don’t know why… but I got really patriotic. It was just really nice to see the red white and blue… don’t know why. I decided I wanted to take a picture and right as I was taking out my camera, a guy out of no where ran up and yelled at me that I couldn’t take any pictures. Of course it seems obvious now but at the moment I really wanted to take a picture. I wouldn’t say we got in an argument but we tried our best to convince the other person they were right in a civilized manor. He absolutely wasn’t going to let me take the picture but being stubborn that I am wasn’t giving up on the idea. So I found his supervisor at the embassy entrance and after talking with him for a while and showing my passport I got permission to take a picture of only the flag… I had two soldier with sawed off ak47’s accompany me but…… here it is

of course it would have been more sunny and visible if it had not take 20 minutes and four phone calls to get permission.

The bus trip from phenom penh to siem riep was excruciatingly how with a fully loaded bus and no air conditioning. Being the genius that I am… I chose the back sets right next to the engine… That night in Siem riep in my hotel room’s bathroom I had a harrowing battle with a spider that was no kidding or embellishing… larger than my fist. I found it in the bathroom and it freaked me out… It was up high on the wall and didn’t want to leave it there to crawl around while I slept. So I decided he had to go. The bathrooms in asia aren’t equipped with toilet paper. Instead they have a water hose with a trgger valve spray nozzle. A little messy to use… but affective. Anyway, I used this water hose to spray down the sucker… I succeeded in knocking him off the wall but he ran out the door and into the bedroom…. I cornered him in a quadrant of the room, but I couldnt get a killing blow on him… he moved like lighting and I couldn’t ever get a sandal on him… After about ten minutes of chasing him around the wall, I eventually called in the security guard who… to my shocked bewilderment… walked up to it and picked it up with his fingers… took it outside… and tossed it on a plant. I don’t know if he was some sort of talented spider charmer… like the pied pipper of the eight legged world… but he just walk right up and grabbed it… astonishing.

But not as astonishing as the Angkor temple in Siem riep. They are absolutely amazing. I felt like Indiana jones walking around and through these stone behemoths that were built in the 11th and 12th century by powerful kings. I kept waiting to find a giant stone to roll down after me from behind. I spent the entire day touring the temples. I hired a motorized tuk tuk driver to drive me from temple to temple (they cover about oh….. a 8 square mile area. He would drop me off and I would spend about an hour or two at each one. Here are the pictures…. If someone at boeing could send this link to Andy Cox (ex psd manager I think he moved to 7E7 after I started my trip…. I cant remember his middle initial… but he was the one that told me about Angkor wat and probably wouldn’t have seen it if we hadn’t talked about it…

approaching byon gate from the south

series of figures allong path toward gate

close up of four sided faces at gate.

east facing entrance of Byon

relief

preah kahn entrance

I call this one ‘two old pillars of the temple’…. I know, bad humor

someone told me this is called the tree of light … im looking straight up at it from a whole in the temple ceiling… from which the tree grows out of..

I love pictures where the tree is growing out of the temple ruins… I call them my man vs nature series… when I look at things like this at the temple I feel like a get a perspective of the inifinty of time. I mean, when the people building this temple finished… they must have thought this would last forever… like the pyramids…. But everything man makes on a long enough timeline with diminish and only nature will remain…

see the little man inside this picture?

crap… apparently I don’t have my Angkor wat pictures…. DAMN IT. I could have sworn I uploaded them last time…. Crap. Well that just sucks. Oh well. I’ll see if I can find some on the internet…

The bus ride from siem riep to Bangkok was 12 hours and incredibly hot.. again no air-conditioning. Then next morning I caught a bus to koh pangan at 7am from Bangkok that took 18 hours. But once I got checked into my bungalow and hit the beach it was all worth it. The miles and the heat and the sweat all melted off my body in the most exquisite and heavenly paradise on earth. The sand here is a soft yellow white and so soft and fine its almost dust. The water is so warm and nice that I spent 4 hours body surfing. I absolutely love it here. I ran into the Swedish guys from Bali. Stephen, David, Ralph… and I’m assuming the rest are somewhere… I wasn’t really in a capacity to hold a conversation (drank a little too much.... rum buckets are evil...) so we didn’t really talk... but I ran into them again today on the side streets and I’m meeting them for dinner on a floating barge called ‘the boat’. I wish I could show you picture of how beautiful it is here....

Wow got it all in under two hours. I felt super rushed and probably missed a ton but oh well…

Time for some food and dancing...
Take care all,
ciao for now ryan

No time to rhyme

2005-03-19T00:03:00.000-08:00

There is a ton of stuff that i need to write down thats happened in the last however many days (i've lost the capacity to estimate duration of days or know what day of the week it is), but I dont want to rush through it. The last couple of times that I wrote a blog in haste i recalled later that i missed things. its about 3:30pmnow and I'm catching a bus to Koh phangan (Thailand) at 6pm (three hours isnt enough for a blog... I think the last one I did took my 6 hours to write... pathetic). I get in to koh phangan at noon the next day (18 hr trip), but way in advance of the full moon party on the 24th(the biggest beach party in the world - estimated 10,000 people). So I should be able to still get a hotel room. Im really looking forward to the party. Supposedly, there are goign to be a couple of really good European DJ's. I think Im goign to pull an act out of 'Dead Poet's Society' and paint some Nuandan symbol on my chest (I wonder if anyone will get the reference)... I mean why not, right? After the full moon I'm going to hit phucket (tsunami hit region of thialand - pun not intended) for four or five days and do some boat live aboard diving ( i hear the coral is still intact). Then its off to india. I've emailed some people through the globalfreeloaders.com website and am planning on staying with some families in Delhi so I'm not so overwhelemed.

I should have more time in koh phangan so I'll catch up on my blog then.... just wanted everyone to know im still alive. Quick note. I'm sorry for not calling everyone more often... or at all for that matter. I have been incredibly deficient on calling and sending postcards.... I feel bad but hope that my blog makes up for it a little bit. ...

personal note for kyle peterson... I tried to reply to your email about 9 times... literally 9 times. It keeps rejecting your address... dont know why. I'll try again in a couple of days but didnt want you to think I was ignoring you... Good luck to the DAWGS for march madness.... did I just say that??? I need to wash my mouth out with soap. GO COUGS!!! ok I feel a little better!

Also... I want to put an All Points Bulletin out for one DILIP MUJUMDAR!!! Are you alive dilip? I've emailed you about 15 times (in the last three weeks) and no responses. Mike mentioned that he's talked to you recently but.... nada. Hope your alive and well starting your new position in Chicago (that better be the reason why you arent emailing... punk... you better email me or I'm selling all your stuff when I get back to recover my credit card traveling debt that will start accruing in a couple months (by my estimation).

heres one picture of me at one of the temples in angkor (cambodia)

ok, I gotta do some internet research and then off to catch a 18 hour bus... yippy!
lots of love to everyone
ciao for now,
me

Notes for myself for the next blog

[since last post]
-wildest 24hours:
>saw my first motor scooter accident
>finally figuring out the chaos of the streets
>getting access granted to take a picture of the u.s. flag at the cambodian embassy
>heart of darkness bar
>my psycho cambodian stalker
>sunrise and breaking hammocks
>missed my bus
>free vodka drinks for nudity at fu-bar
-bus ride to siem riep
-my duel with a giant massive man eating spider in hotel bathroom (im lucky to be alive)
-angkor, angkor, angkor (a day of temples)
-nonairconditioned bus ride from siem riep to bangkok (H to the O to the T)

On a Mekong mission

2005-03-14T01:12:00.000-08:00

Hopefully this computer treats me better than the last one (too many crashes). I think I wanted to drop kick the last one out the hotel lobby. So last I left off, I had just got into Saigon... I dont think I mentioned the people I had met the night before. Lets see I flew into Saigon on the eighth, thats... (pulling out my travel calendar) Tuesday (Monday evening in the states). So tuesday night I had met a couple people. It turns out that Roberto the Italian, was dating a Vietnamese girl, whos father owned one of the local bars. So the following two days were nights of free alcohol and all night dancing... The two days following my last blog were a bit a blur... but I do find it some what ironic (or symbolic) that I was partying at the “Apocalypse Now Bar” and the guy that we knew called himself ‘the doctor’. If anyone has seen the movie you’ll understand why its so freaky.

On friday morning, I went out to Cu Chi (pronounced coo-chee). It was the sight of one of the Vietnam war’s tunnel system areas. The tunnel provided both a living environment away from the B-52 bombs’s and artillery shells, as well as guerilla war tactics of hit and run. There was both an informational seminar on all of the booby traps employed during the war as well as an actual tunnel to walk through and see how they felt. The traps are brilliantly designed in simplicity and effectiveness but completely gruesome in the outcome and carnage.

Here is a picture of what a tunnel entrance looked like during the war (only imagine a lot denser jungle…. Virtually invisible)

The tunnels were really amazing. I couldn’t imagine living in them every day. They are dark, small, and... did I say dark? Dark isn’t an adequate description. The blackest, darkest, well of emptiness completely void of light would be a start. Its like walking through ink. There are tiny lights along the floor of the tunnel every twenty feet or so… but they aren’t bright enough to illuminate the tunnel, just enough to know which direction to walk towards without running into a wall (which everyone did anyway… especially around corners). Around corners you cant always see the lights, and there are branching tunnels that you cant see, you only know they're there because your hand touches empty space.

Heres me entering the tunnel the easy way (made after the war).

Here is a picture of the guy in front of me. You have to make the entire way squatting down on your haunches. Shuffling along. The tunnels were intentionally designed small for A)less digging and B) restricting the movement of large/stronger American GI’s (brilliant way of turning a military weakness into a strength). You can see one of the tiny yellow lights that light the path next to his right foot. Looking at this picture I'm still amazed at how dark it is... given that my flash is super bright and this picture still is dark... See how you can bearly see his head and absolutely nothing of the straight tunnel in front of him. Imagine being in this during the war... frightening.

Heres a picture of an ambush point where you had to stand up and onto another level where there would either be a tunnel trap (spikes swinging down onto your head) or a guy at the end with a guy…. Evil.

Theres a couple places where you have to crawl on your back…remember its pitch dark.

The Cu Chi tunnel isnt straight, but more like a web of branches, and the main chamber we went down had three exits, two where people could leave the tunnel if the were freaking out or coudnt do it. The tunnel passage got more difficult after each exit. Its funny now but in hind sight really stupid. I was way more interested in the tunnel and taking pictures and sticking my head down branching tunnels that I didn’t give 100% of my attention to the person in front of me, and since I was the last person to enter the tunnel, no one was behind me. I could hear the foot steps of the person in front of me a ways ahead, since sound carries really well in tunnels, so I was confident I could find them again by sound. Then we came to the first of the three exits and the people I had been following left the tunnel through the exit. Since I wanted to continue on, it meant that I was doing it by myself and couldn’t see or hear the people ahead. I yelled out ‘HELLOOOOOO’ but no response…. Oh well, they got to be up there somewhere right? I continued ahead on my own, and luckily I took all the right turns, but…. In hind sight if I had taken the wrong turn or didn’t see one of the tunnel floor lights….. yeah. (apparently someone always gets lost in the tunnels ). I chose my turns wisely apparently. Gold Star for Ryan! Out of oh…. 25 people, only five of us finished through to the 3rd exit.

(sorry for the angle of the picture… it was referred to as artistic flare… artistic flare makes my neck hurt).

Its really strange but it was a really physically intense expedition. You walk a half a mile squatting the entire way…. And when we finished the five of us were drenched in sweat. So what did they serve to there hot sweaty tunnel champions…… HOT TEA! Good thinking guys… nothing quenches my thirst like a cup of steaming hot tea after working out….. sheeesh.

After that I started my three day Mekong Delta tour. This is why I have been out of touch with civilization for so long. Here is a map to show the area I was in.

Vietnam is in dark green. Hanoi – the capitol is in the north. Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC also known as Saigon) – the second biggest city and referred to as the capitol of the south, is in the… well… south. The Mekong Delta (which is in Vietnam) is colored red. The tour leaves Saigon, travels through the Mekong delta – along the Mekong river, west into Cambodia and deposits me at phenom Penh. The trip is great because you get to see all the little river villages all along the river

The first day we headed to My Tho and took a boat trip up a beautiful canal.

Then visited a coconut candy manufacturing facility, and a quick stop for lunch at a bee farm. Where while showing us a honey bee hive panel of wood, the guide accidentally dropped the panel and hundreds of pissed off honey bees swarmed around us… little freaky. They had two boa constrictors in cages, so… I had to try one on.

This is the smaller of the two (probably six inches in diameter), the bigger one (about oh…. 10 inches in diameter) could easily kill someone if it wanted to so I left him/her alone.

The second day, we headed out to the floating market (where my new camera decided to stop working) and passed a line of houses along the river.

Next we stopped to change groups (between the two day group and three day group). To waste away the waiting time, we entered a small monkey zoo.

Now, it has to be told here so you fully understand… I HATE MONKEYS. I like snakes, I got over my childhood fear of spiders… Lions, tigers and bears… fine, bring em on. But monkeys freak me out. They are so unpredictable. They can go from happy sedate quiet little guys to enraged, jumping, clawing, teeth baring little demon animals in like point two seconds. If they know you have food and are withholding it…. You better run. If you have sun glasses or any loose jewelery or accessories… Yeah stolen. Did I mention they carry rabbies? I loathe the little beastly abominashions. So what better to waste the time away than visit monkeys, right? But they’re in a cage. Tons of people go through here a day. Stop being such a little girl, buck it up and walk through and see whats up…. Wouldn’t you know it… I mean wouldn’t you damn well know it… as soon as we walked up… a little skinny sucker squeezed through his cage... The hair on the back of my neck rises. I saw him pop out, run on the top of his cage to the edge, perch, and started looking us over. Next I swear to god... I mean I swear to god... I saw him look at me and grin. He looked at me and grinned his evil malicious little monkey grin. Then... he jumped. He jumped right at me… right from the roof top. But I was ready for him. I anticipated his demonic intent and with cat like reflexes….I pulled one of the Norwegian girls in front of me. Ok, not exactly the model of chivalry and bravado… but I successfully dodge his first attack. He landed atop her head and after trying to steal her necklace without success, crawled down her arm and with that evil primitive malice that is so typical of there species, he attacked her water bottle with a gnawing gusto… Now you probably don’t believe me do you… you probably thinking im making it up… oh no. the proof is in the pudding my friends. Here is the little devil in the flesh.

Now for those of you out there that just went… ‘oooooooh how cute’, what you cant see is his frothy rabid Kujo slobber going everywhere…. Ok there was no slobber. But he was eating her plastic water bottle. Which... in all honest... was fine with me. I mean lets be honest. Rather her than me right? But then his primitive pea sized brain finally grasped the whole plastic doesn’t equal food concept and grew bored. He looked up and started searching for his next victim. I have no clue why, but he chose me. Its like my cats and small children theory. The things you have a strong personal aversion too … end up liking you the most. Cats and small children love me…. I would personally rather have nothing to do with them. But they are drawn like moths to a flame. So a long story short. I spent about ten minutes jumping over bushes and running down varying paths, while the little evil menace to civilized society had a field day chasing me. All the while I can hear all the girls laughing... my pour pride. I think he eventually got distracted by some shiny object a Japanese girl had and left me alone to wllow and lick my shrub torn wounds alone.

Later that day I met up with another (and final) group… It was the three day to Cambodia group (versus the three day back to Saigon group that I split from). The night that ensued is just the quintessential traveling evening. It epitomizes the random events and encounters that you have while traveling in a nutshell. I separated from the people I had been with for two days, and met up with – Matt from Australia, Melissa from Norway, Clowey from England, and Jes from Canada. We all traveled by bus to Sand Mountain (a Buddhist temple) to watch the sun set. It was absolutely beautiful. We hiked up to the top... some five hundred steps. Not that difficult but it was 40 degrees celsius at 6pm. Whats that... times two plus thirty... 100 -110 degrees farenheit. Not that hard of work, but you're just dripping with streams of sweat down your face. The view was well worth it though. The farmers were burning their fields and so the horizon was just a mass of gray. You couldnt tell where sky and earth met. The sun just loomed as a giant perfectly round firery red/orange circle. It was like someone took a round stamp and punched an vibrant electric orange dot onto dull grey paper. After checking in to our hotel we all headed out to dinner, where we nwere befriended by a gang of between 12 and 16 year old girls. There were six of them and never left our dinner table. I cant describe it… but its just so much fun and incredible how people can laugh hysterically and have a great time... even if they don’t speak the same language. After leaving the girls, we headed back towards the hotel… but on the way… Matt spotted a Karaoke bar. The five of us decided... what the hell. We headed in and discovered it wasn’t so much a karaoke bar as much as it was a karaoke studio with a tv, two microphone, and a huge leather couch. We were there singing songs and drinking Vietnamese beer till 5 in the morning…. I think it was the perfect last night for Vietnam. One thing I learned... a singing career is deffinitely not in the cards for me...

The next day, the last of my three day tour was spent traveling the remaining way up the river, crossing the border, and taking a bus into Phnom Penh. Which was a perfect day of relaxation and watching the country go by. For the first of the two boat legs, everyone else got stuck in hot uncomfortable seats. Not me.

I ended up on the bow...just laying back - contemplating life, love, and career all while working on the tan.

In the picture you can see the backpacks stacked up next to me. As we headed to the dock, and I moved out of the way, you can see about 15 swarming kids. I just thought they would try and sell us something like they always do in every town. But as the boat got closer… the swarm started reaching a feverish pitch. Lord of the flies was unfolding right in front of my eyes on the dock. They began pushing and shoving. There faces weren’t smiles of perfectly innocent little salesmen. But firery hatred spurred on by competition. Yelling and vulgarity could be understood regardless of what language it was in. Right as the boat came up… the mass surged forward and one of the boys went into the water. The bow of the boat just crested over where he went it... Did we run him over? Is he ok? Whats going on? Right as the boat bumped into the dock all the kids poured onto the deck in a flood of seething greed. They started grabbing backpacks left and right. Ruck sacks were fought over like, starving children over a crust of bread. Then these skinny boys of year years old turned into Herculean titans. They started hefting the backpacks on top of themselves. My pack is small compared to almost every other backpacker I meet and mine ways 28 kilograms (62 pounds… I know because they weighed it at the airport). They lugged these bags on there slumped over backs up a steep dusty dry embankment. After the calamity had disembarcked our boat, I sat and anchored myself on the bow to help everyone with a hand getting off onto the dock since it was pitching all over in the waves, so I saw my bag crest up and over the rise, just hoped it was going to be recovered later on… It turns out they wanted to carry the bags for payment, but for a moment it was one of the most frenzied confusing moments I have ever witnessed with my eyes.

The border crossing was pretty uneventful, which is very good in my book. I have to show a picture of these two guys that I hung out with on top of the last boat ride (from the Cambodian border into Phnom Penh).

Normally I don’t talk about the people I meet because, well no one cares but me… however these two guys from spain (don’t recall they’re names) we biking all around south east asia. They were super cool and just had some of the most amazing stories about they’re trip. The guys on the left’s goal for the trip was to eat as many crazy things as he could… ranging from worms to scorpions to pig fetus and on and on…

That night after we eventually found our hotel, we all had a beer to shrug off the event and to celebrate the nice more relaxing aspects of the day. Aside from the dock pandemonium, it was a great day.

Today I was supposed to go to the killing fields, where some 8000 dead bodies from Pol Pot’s (arguable one of the most evil person to ever exist) rein were exhumed. But I spent the last five hours doing bill paying online, and writing this, so im not going to make it today. And well not ever since im leaving for Siem Riep tomorrow morning. I guess its ok. Seeing piles of human skulls, and a museum to tortured prisoners can take a back seat to most anything. On a happier note, I finally figured out what was wrong with my digital camera on got the second one working again. Apparently the batteries that come in the box are temporary, and the researchable Nickel Metal Hydride batteries are meant to be used. I had been throwing away the disposable batteries as soon as I opened up the camera box, because I don’t want to be totting around an extra recharger. Well apparently those types of batteries are all the cameras use…. Ooopsies. Wish I new that before I dismantled my last one. Ok well I think I’ve written a small novel, which has got to be too much to read. So I will say good bye and catch ya on the flip side.
Ciao for now,
Ryan ‘The Cambodian Camera Killa’ Kuzn

Oh had to throw this in. Heres a pic of one of the statues I made an incense offering too at a pagoda. I made several offering to other statues… but this guys my favorite… Have no clue who he is…I hope someone good. Maybe hes the great ancient monkey slayer….

Damn you Microsoft, damn you!

2005-03-09T04:43:00.000-08:00

Last time I left off I was awaiting a bus from Chiangmia to Bangkok. What a bleary eyed adventure that was. The bus stopped every couple of hours (in a 11 hour trip) so you would just be nodding off to sleep when we would pull over again. The bus was absolutely full. Luckily I had a good seat companion. A guy named Or (pronounced ‘oh’) from Israel. He just finished his mandatory three year army service. Every Isrealy citizen serves in the army (even woman) and than are forced to leave the country for travel (I think 9 month he said). So he plans on doing 4 or 5 months in India and I really began to think why I had cut India out of my itinerary. Well long story short… I think I’m going to change my plans and try and hit northern India in April, instead of southern thailand, malaysia, and singapore. Travel, like life, is a series of compromises I guess.

So the bus rolled in to bangkok at around 5 am. Unloaded our stuff and literally was gone. We were about oh…. 30 backpackers just standing there looking at each other thinking…ok now what. Nothing is open…. People slowly broke off in search of hostels or food. I stuck around for a little bit and asked some guy to let me use the toilet in the back of his shop. Which led me to asking to take a shower in the back of his shop. Yes a little weird but definitely necessary.

I got another camera. This time I’ve kept the receipt and warranty information… hopefully I wont need it. Here are some notes I took down at lunch about my walk to find a camera.

Oddities of Bangkok: on my way to get a camera I saw:
-6 shrines
-9 7-11’s (they are everywhere)
-A guy defrosting pigs legs with a blowtorch
-And as I sat and read my book waiting for the store to open saw 6 motorbikes drive by on the side walk to bypass the traffic at the red light.

Damn it. The pc just crashed twice now and I’m going to retype this for the third time... grrrrrrrrr..

I got into (save button) Saigon airport at (save button ) 7:30 in the evening…. (save button). I was really surprised to discover that there wasn’t a hoard of accosting taxi cab drivers, like I was expecting. Instead I had one guy that followed me like a lemming. He walked up and asked if I wanted ‘taxi’, which I replied no and walked away. Apparently I miss communicated and instead of hearing no he interpreted it as ‘can you please follow me around the arrival’s terminal while I use the toilet, go to the atm, and then outside of the building. He followed me right up to the point where I got into another cab that was sitting at the side of the road.

Weirdest thing … everything is in dollars here. American dollars. I get dong from the ATM and then have to convert the cost of things so I can pay. I hear Cambodia is the same way, so I might need to track down some dead presidents somewhere.

Crash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok that’s four. Piece of shit. I see this is going to be an exercise in patience. That mythical thing that everyone keeps telling me I need and is supposedly important….

After convincing the cab driver to reset his meter from 120,000 dong (16,000 dongs to the dollar – how easy would it be to insert a crude joke here) to zero we headed off. The ride in from the airport to the pham ngu lao area (where I’m staying) was entertaining to say the least. The road is two steps away from complete anarchy. Even the yellow line in the middle of the road doesn’t command respect. The number of motor scooters to cars is about a 10:1 ratio. But what the cars lack in number that make up for in shear unabashed horn honking. I mean lean on that bad boy until they get out of the way or become deafened to the point they need to pull over and insert ear plugs honking. Even as I sit here at my piece of (save) crap computer all I hear is motor bikes and car horns (save). Somehow, through some divine intervention I made it to my hotel. In addition to no lines in the road, more than a couple of times, stop lights become superfluous pieces of aesthetic decoration. It’s like playing chicken but with 8 motor bikes and a cab. Whomever seems to get into the intersection first has right of way.

This morning I missed my 8am bus to the DMZ Vietnam war tunnels (or the American war as referred to over here), so I decided to get some laundry done, appease my milk craving, and get some breakfast. What actually happened was, I dropped off my laundry, then proceeded with the most skillful navigational proweess possible, I got totally lost. However the upside with not having any agenda is… I left my map in my backpack and just roamed around the streets for a while. Eventually I found a place that sold milk (in tiny child sized squeeze boxes and needed to buy two packs of four)…. PC just crashed again….. sigh. So then I stumbled upon a vegetable market and ….. PC just crashed AGAIN. I think this thing hates me. Ok, I’m throwing in the white towel.

I need to take care of my leg. I burned it on the muffeler of a motor bike earlier today. A local standing there suggested putting toothpaste on the burn so I have been sitting here typing with a smearing of colgate on my calf. I feel kind of stupid… but hey at least my leg is minty fresh. Now I need to wash up and get ready to meet some people for dinner in half an hour.

Ciao.
~The pc cursed one

Star Trekking

2005-03-07T02:44:00.000-08:00

Three days of Thailand's highland trekking is like a crash course in backpacking, whitewater rafting, and oddly enough elephant riding.

I just got back and took a shower and feel like a whole new person.

The first day the entire group of people met up and was introduced to our guide 'jungle jim'. We shuttled by two dilapidated trucks up to northern Chiangmia (apparently its one word, not two). We had a quick lunch of fried rice and headed of on our four our hike to the village we would be sleeping at. at first the hike was relatively flat and simple, but about half way in we hit two massively steep hills. The first hill was called 'oh my god' and the second was 'oh my Buddha'. These hills werent that bad on their own, but with all the fallen leaves there was absolutely not traction which made for an incredibly difficult hike. there was one girl from england whom had a particularly difficult time hiking. she had never been hiking before and was.... well afraid of heights. which without saying made for some an interesting first experience. she was really struggeling for the most part so I carried her pack for her and walked behind her so that when on the switchbacks I could grab her and push her into the hill when she slipped on the downhill part. She was a trooper though and was impressed with her tenacity.

That night we stayed at a village high up in the hills, and it was quite the experience. There was no electricity, no toilets, we slept on the bamboo floor, and we froze our butts off. It was so cold. One was because of the elevation and two because the hut was right on the ridge of the tallest hill so the wind blew right threw us. I think I was the only one that slept that night, everyone else was too cold. I slept in everysingle article of clothing i brought with me and the four blankets i was allocated. No pillows. Chickens, pigs, and dogs ran freely through the village and made such a cacophony of noise. At night we had a huge dinner and then the village kids put on a singing/dancing show. We didnt understand a word they said but they were really cute and we applauded their talents. then we were asked as a group if we could sing something for the kids. No one could think of anything so I led the group in a rousing rendision of rudolph the red nose reindeer since its the only song i could think of that everynoe would know all the words. we were a hit.

The second day our bifurcated into the two day trekers and the three day trekers. The three day group consisted of myself, Joe from England, Carl from Vancouver BC, and three girls from western canada.... but i never learned their names.... sorry girls. Since we had lost the slowest hikers from the first day, our group went pretty fast on our second day hike. We hiked down from the hills into a ravine and followed a small creek downstream. This hike was must more enjoyable since I got to do some bouldering (jumping from boulder to boulder) while the others walked on the dirt path. Also it didnt involve any 45 degree angle climbing.

That night we stayed at.... well it wasnt even a village it was a single family area with two huts. the families hut and our hut. At night we had an excellent dinner of rice withcurry and after played cards by candle light. Its funny but when we all walked into our hut we saw that all of us would have a couple foam mats and extra blankets; all of us thought we were in the lap of luxury. Its amusing how quickly the simplest items become a luxury. Foam mats.... go figure.
the third day, today, was the best day by far. We hike a little ways to the elephant camp and actually got to ride elephants around the hill side. It was absolutely incredible. Joe and I jumped on the first one... which was a large female and we quickly took the lead of the other two elephants. We walked down into and forded the river that we had followed from the highlands. It was amazing how dexterous and agile the big behemoths actually are. The walked and treaded of rock on the smallest and most precarious of paths. I can see how (a little bit) Hannibal took his elephants up into the alps. They use their trunks and eyes to size up the terrain and loose boulders. After crossing the stream, I asked the guide if I could sit ont he elephants neck (we had been up in a harnessed bench atop its back). Riding its neck was even more awesome. I took my shoes and socks of and could feel the huge massive muscles churning through each step. Now I have ridden horses and motorbikes but the feeling of riding an all be it slow moving elephant, we to ride real power. You are so high up and watching its trunk easily push aside a small tree is nowing that youre riding an unstoppable creature. If the thing every decided it wanted to lose its passengers, there was no question I would be on the ground in seconds. Even its ears are strong. the seat of the neck is the perfect riding spot. You wrap your legs around its giant neck, tucking your legs behind its ears and lean on the top of its massive flat head. Its ears flap everyonce in a while to shoo off flys and when they came back would push my knees in closer to its neck.

Unfrotunetly the ride had to stop. However another awaited. We left the elephant paddock if I can call it that, and strapped on helmets and lift vests for the white water rafting portion. We had two boats with three peple (plus a guide) in each.

I have rafted the dueshuts in Oregon, the snake in washington, a couple in austria but these were the best. The rapids were awesome and the girl next to me in the front kept falling over into me... I just kept yelling at her 'stay in the boat, stay in the boat' because I knew if she fell out she could get really hurt. Becuase this was the dry season there were a lot of exposed rocks and we got high centered three times. One time we got so stuck that the two girls got on one side and the guide and I had to get out and stand on rock to push out off.... then quickly jump in before the boat left without us. I loved it. Did a couple back flips off the bow in the deep waters and had the necessary water fight between the two boats. About an hour later we got off the rafts and onto a traditionally made bamboo raft and floated down the river the rest of the day... just laying in he sun and soaking up the atmosphere and the trees cruised past us.

I got back about an hour and a half ago... took a shower and have been typing ever since. I have a bus ride to Bangkok at 6:30pm, which will last through the night into Koa San road (the backpacker are of Bangkok) at 6am. Then I catch a flight at 6pm to vietnam.... so most likely the next time I'll write I'll be in Vietnam.... ummmmm pho...cant wait.

Hope all is going well with you....I'm exhausted and dont feel like rereading this so sorry if there are an immense amount of errors. Take care and talk to you later.... ciao, ryan

tribute from the trail

a people veiled in mystery
hidden in mountains no more
a people of an infinite smile
willing to open up their door

a village of bamboo and dirt
chicken and pigs run free
a village in the high thai air
trees as far as I can see

a region of a simple life
customs of traditional ways
a region retaining it's identity
succeeding in modern days