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A Moment of Silence for Danielle Yeager
I apologize for the lag in posting, but a recent tragedy has immobilized me from doing much of anything. Two days ago, a friend gave me some terrible news: my friend–a beautiful, funny, creative, free-spirited girl, and briefly my roommate this past summer–Danielle Yeager, passed away. My heart is breaking over and over again for her wonderful…
Brunei Darussalam, land of lovely surprises
I heard the alarm, but refused to open my eyes. “You wanna shower first?” I said, half asleep. This is my sneaky way of stealing a couple extra minutes of sleep. “I showered last night. You can go ahead and take one,” Kate replied, already up and moving around the room. Damn. It was 6:30,…
Road Trip to Kinabalu National Park
Kate and I had had enough excitement for a lifetime while adventuring in Banggi. I should have warned her, in retrospect, that traveling with me might not be what most people think of as a “normal” or even “pleasant” travel experience. I tend to find myself in really unusual situations rather frequently, and I somehow…
Trials and Tribulations on Banggi Island
It all started with an intriguing story, over some iced lemon tea with just a little sugar, please: …”my Couchsurfer took a boat to an island, where no foreigners have been…camped on the beach…my friend Jimmy took care of him…” Fiona was telling us about this place we could go if we wanted to see…
Well Hello, Borneo
Never in the span of my 25 years of this sometimes unpredictable existence have I booked a plane ticket departing the next day. That is, never before yesterday. Yesterday, I was feeling spunky. Yesterday, I was bored. Yesterday, I was feeling a little too lazy in Kuala Lumpor. Yesterday, I was tired of things. So today, I…
Iranians, Iguanas, and Islam
The past week has been inadvertently dedicated to learning. My mind has been filled, literally. I can’t quite keep track anymore with the different names, dates, places, flavors, and concepts floating around within the borders of my skull. Bottom line: Malaysia is wonderful. I am growing like a jungle tree here (minus the fungus and…
Thoughts from the jungles of Penang, Malaysia
I was in the jungle for four days. I slept on a wood floor with geckos and jungle insects, falling asleep to the sounds of the jungle, which at times elicited PTSD-like reactions from my Amazon days. The “jungle house” was surrounded by a fruit and rubber tree plantation, in an area ruled by king…
Reflections on Thailand
My optimism about “layers of culture” in Ko Tao quickly disintegrated as soon as I started trying to access those layers. Overall, Thailand didn’t win my heart. The places I visited–the places that most people visit–were not, in many ways, very different from any other beach destination or tourist spot in the world. Thailand is…
Ko Samui, where the livin’s easy
A cockroach the size of an oreo just crawled across my white bedsheet, which smells either like laundry detergent or embalming fluid, I can’t decide. I am writing this post with one hand; the other is holding fast to my shoe to launch a defensive strike against the next cookie sized roach that comes my way. This…
Diving on Ko Tao
Sorry for the lull in blog posts: it’s rough here. I couldn’t really find time for computer-world, with the packed schedule I’ve been adhering to: Wake up Eat delicious Thai food Go diving Sunbathe Eat more delicious Thai food Socialize Sleep Repeat It’s been tough. Finally, I’ve been able to pull myself away from the…
Once upon a time, on the streets of Bangkok…
…four silly Couchsurfers went out in search of food. The travelers, each from a distant land far far away, all agreed on one thing: they were hungry. They were really quite hungry, and decided to venture downtown to a night market. It was closed. So they searched and searched, and finally found some squid-on-a-stick, which was…
Service Announcement
**I have uploaded and embedded videos from my trip in Myanmar, so if you go back through Myanmar posts, starting with “The Train. The zoo,” you will see video clips from my trip. Sorry the clips are so short sometimes, but when battery-charging capabilities are limited, so too are my recording-intervals. I am still in…
Bangkok, Thailand
I certainly was not prepared for Bangkok. Not in the least. I think this is what they call “culture shock.” Coming from the States to Myanmar, I somehow dodged the culture shock that everyone said I would encounter upon arrival. Perhaps it’s because my friends and family tried to prepare me that I was immune…
Reflections on Myanmar
“People must consume to survive, and the world’s poorest will need to increase their level of consumption if they are to lead lives of dignity and opportunity.” Life in Myanmar is something I couldn’t have imagined from my home back in the U.S. Before I left, I was cursing the country as I struggled to…
Inlay Lake
Well, I can’t say much about the lake, because the last couple of days are a complete blur in my memory…and in my memory, all I can think is I hate Inlay Lake… So if you want to know whether or not Inlay Lake is a nice place to visit, don’t read this. I’m biased towards…
Barack Obama has arrived in Yangon
Today, US President Barack Obama is in Yangon, giving a speech about democracy and praising Myanmar for the steps they’ve taken to achieve democratic change with the NLD (National League for Democracy, which elected their current president Thein Sein in 2011, thus ending a half-century of a brutal military dictatorship). It is a very exciting…
In the Mountains of Myanmar
The rain was jamming me up. I had ridden in a packed pickup truck up the mountains for 6 hours, in the pouring rain, to get to a little mountain town called Nam hsan. My new friend, Dima, from Israel, and I, were going to walk for three days from Nam hsan back to Hsipaw. It…
From Mandalay to Hsipaw
Pronounced, Sih-Poh, this place rocks my socks. I refuse to leave. Or to do anything today, besides sit on the deck of my guest house, reading, thinking, smiling. I keep forgetting that I don’t have to go somewhere new each day. It’s tricky because in Myanmar, I have a time limit. In order to enter…
I’m in love with a MANdalay!
What a day. I thought when I got back to my hotel that I was definately going to collapse. After eating street food all day, forgetting to drink water, and sitting on the back of a motorbike all day, my body had pretty much had it. I knew I was gonna get the runs eventually,…
My very first earthquake
It’s gettin’ real. We were eating breakfast on the roof of my seven story hotel in Mandalay, my friends from Holland and I, when my tea cup started rattling on its saucer. The tea was spilling over the rim of the cup, and I wasn’t touching it. I looked at it curiously, at first, but…