Amazing news!
I am officially part of the World Race, a yearlong missionary program and trip around the world. Starting in September, I will be living out of a backpack and traveling through 11 different countries in 11 months: Zimbabwe/Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, India, Philippines, China, Ukraine, Moldova, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica/Panama.
I started a new blog for the trip and you should check it out. I would love it if you could join me on this upcoming journey! :)
isaacberg.theworldrace.org
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Photos of Southeast Asia
When I got home from our trip I uploaded pictures to my computer but not anywhere online. I put some Thailand pictures on Facebook a couple weeks ago but I recently remembered that I have not added any pictures from Cambodia. As I was going through them on my laptop and piecing together a selection, I realized I have not shared any of them on this blog. Throughout all my travel entries in May I promised some pictures, so here are (finally) a few to look at.
Street food and temples in Bangkok
Monkey incident and cave, the Thai coast
Chaing Mai, Laos, and eastern Thailand
Scenes from Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Other pictures from Cambodia
More pictures can be viewed here:
“Welcome to Thailand, Have a Nice Day!”
The Kingdom of Cambodia
These two albums are selection of trip photos. I like to go through them and pick a small sample so the resulting albums are closer to photo-essays. Looking back, I see that I took 1539 pictures and videos in Thailand and 826 in Cambodia. I am always seeing things I like to photograph, but the high numbers are skewed from using a multiple shot continuous mode.
My summer so far has been slow, but as it continues I will write about interesting things that happen. The weather has not been so great here, but I have still been able to see a lot of island beauty including the stormy sunsets. I'll end this blog entry with a picture I took from our deck last week.
Cloudy sunset over Saltspring Island, British Columbia
Street food and temples in Bangkok
Monkey incident and cave, the Thai coast
Chaing Mai, Laos, and eastern Thailand
Scenes from Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Other pictures from Cambodia
More pictures can be viewed here:
“Welcome to Thailand, Have a Nice Day!”
The Kingdom of Cambodia
These two albums are selection of trip photos. I like to go through them and pick a small sample so the resulting albums are closer to photo-essays. Looking back, I see that I took 1539 pictures and videos in Thailand and 826 in Cambodia. I am always seeing things I like to photograph, but the high numbers are skewed from using a multiple shot continuous mode.
My summer so far has been slow, but as it continues I will write about interesting things that happen. The weather has not been so great here, but I have still been able to see a lot of island beauty including the stormy sunsets. I'll end this blog entry with a picture I took from our deck last week.
Cloudy sunset over Saltspring Island, British Columbia
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Siem Reap & Phnom Penh
My last blog left off at Sisophon, the city we drove to after crossing the Thai/Cambodian border. After I wrote it there was a massive thunderstorm in the area and our hotel flooded in the middle of the night. Each floor had a section open to the outdoors and soon there were a bunch of hotel workers in their pajamas running up and down the floor to wipe it up. The lightning was incredible to watch and the thunder rocked our hotel throughout the night.
The next day we left by bus to Siem Reap, the city near all the Angkor temples. The bus ride was only a few hours and the driver was booking it too. We got pulled over on the highway for speeding and our ticket was 10,000 riel. That sounds like a lot, but in US dollars that's only $2.50. The riel is weak by itself and Cambodia uses it with the Thai baht and US dollar. It is confusing to use three different currencies because you pay with American and Thai bills and get back change in riel. They do not accept or use any coins and the riel bills start at 100, which is less than three cents. These quickly fill up the wallet but I found they can be lifesavers as emergency toilet paper.
The Angkor temples were probably my favorite part of the trip. They are the remains of the Khmer Empire that lasted between the 9th and 14th centuries. A lot of them are in the same area, which was the largest pre-industrial city in the world. I can't even describe how beautiful everything was. Our group visited Angkor Wat, the Bayon Temple, and Ta Phrom. Afterward, I stuck around with a couple guys and we visited Ta Keo and a few others I don't remember the names of. It was really fun getting off the tourist trail and exploring these lesser known places. We hiked, crawled through broken rocks, and climbed steps that were over a foot high and only a few inches long. We even had our pictures taken with monks we met on the trail. We found a tuk tuk driver to drive us around and bring us back to our hotel for $10.
In Siam Reap we also visited a giant culture center which Lauren lovingly referred to as the "Disneyland of Cambodia." There weren't any rides, but there was amazing scenery and interactive exhibits that included housing complexes and an underground museum of horrors. There were also a lot of dramas that took audience participation to a new level. One guy on our trip was married in a traditional Cambodian wedding, another guy went courting and danced around in his underwear, and another pulled a bow out of stone and became king. These were really amusing to watch.
The food in Cambodia is slightly different. It is like a combination between Thai and Vietnamese food and it is a lot less spicy. There are still a lot of soups, rice, and noodle dishes, but there are also plenty of weird options as well. One interesting delicacy is the fried tarantula. I was skeptical to try one at first but they aren't bad. They have a nice crispy and chewy texture that is really juicy. I ate three of them for a snack, but Lauren wouldn't let me sit next to her afterward. My "spider breath" made her gag so it took a piece of gum and some convincing to get my seat back. Insects are popular here too. I tried grasshoppers, crickets, and silkworms, but none were as good as the tarantula. The silkworm is chewy and gross tasting.
Another thing I noticed in Cambodia is how intense the street vendors were. They all know English and follow tourists around like zombies. They wait by buses and will hound people to purchase anything from handicrafts to fruit. In the most touristy of places there are a lot of kids that beg you to buy from them in repeated, broken English. The vendors in the markets were less intense and the prices were cheaper than in Thailand. I knew pirated movies and music were commonly sold, but I never knew you could pirate books. Guidebooks and other types of reading are sold on the street for cheap, wrapped in plastic to disguise their poor quality. Another thing common in Cambodia are bands of land mine victims that sell music CDs.
The last city we visited in Cambodia was the capital, Phnom Penh. Here we did some last minute market shopping and visited two genocide areas. Cambodia experienced a period of genocide between 1975 and 1979 under the regime of Pol Pot, and two million people died in the killing fields. We started at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Known as S-21, this was a high school that was turned into an interrogation center and prison. Next we visited Choeng Ek, a killing field just outside of the city. There are lots of mass graves and the rain is constantly washing up more bones and fragments of clothing. This was by far the most impacting part of the trip.
Update: Friday, May 27
We got back to Oregon this week after three flights and layovers in Taiwan and Seattle. The weather seems freezing cold here, but it is welcomed after weeks of uncomfortably hot and humid weather. I also got back to my island last night. It's hard to believe our trip is over. Three weeks is plenty of time to travel and experience new cultures but I wanted to keep going. Nevertheless, going to Southeast Asia was a great way to start the summer! I will upload pictures from the trip soon.
The next day we left by bus to Siem Reap, the city near all the Angkor temples. The bus ride was only a few hours and the driver was booking it too. We got pulled over on the highway for speeding and our ticket was 10,000 riel. That sounds like a lot, but in US dollars that's only $2.50. The riel is weak by itself and Cambodia uses it with the Thai baht and US dollar. It is confusing to use three different currencies because you pay with American and Thai bills and get back change in riel. They do not accept or use any coins and the riel bills start at 100, which is less than three cents. These quickly fill up the wallet but I found they can be lifesavers as emergency toilet paper.
The Angkor temples were probably my favorite part of the trip. They are the remains of the Khmer Empire that lasted between the 9th and 14th centuries. A lot of them are in the same area, which was the largest pre-industrial city in the world. I can't even describe how beautiful everything was. Our group visited Angkor Wat, the Bayon Temple, and Ta Phrom. Afterward, I stuck around with a couple guys and we visited Ta Keo and a few others I don't remember the names of. It was really fun getting off the tourist trail and exploring these lesser known places. We hiked, crawled through broken rocks, and climbed steps that were over a foot high and only a few inches long. We even had our pictures taken with monks we met on the trail. We found a tuk tuk driver to drive us around and bring us back to our hotel for $10.
In Siam Reap we also visited a giant culture center which Lauren lovingly referred to as the "Disneyland of Cambodia." There weren't any rides, but there was amazing scenery and interactive exhibits that included housing complexes and an underground museum of horrors. There were also a lot of dramas that took audience participation to a new level. One guy on our trip was married in a traditional Cambodian wedding, another guy went courting and danced around in his underwear, and another pulled a bow out of stone and became king. These were really amusing to watch.
The food in Cambodia is slightly different. It is like a combination between Thai and Vietnamese food and it is a lot less spicy. There are still a lot of soups, rice, and noodle dishes, but there are also plenty of weird options as well. One interesting delicacy is the fried tarantula. I was skeptical to try one at first but they aren't bad. They have a nice crispy and chewy texture that is really juicy. I ate three of them for a snack, but Lauren wouldn't let me sit next to her afterward. My "spider breath" made her gag so it took a piece of gum and some convincing to get my seat back. Insects are popular here too. I tried grasshoppers, crickets, and silkworms, but none were as good as the tarantula. The silkworm is chewy and gross tasting.
Another thing I noticed in Cambodia is how intense the street vendors were. They all know English and follow tourists around like zombies. They wait by buses and will hound people to purchase anything from handicrafts to fruit. In the most touristy of places there are a lot of kids that beg you to buy from them in repeated, broken English. The vendors in the markets were less intense and the prices were cheaper than in Thailand. I knew pirated movies and music were commonly sold, but I never knew you could pirate books. Guidebooks and other types of reading are sold on the street for cheap, wrapped in plastic to disguise their poor quality. Another thing common in Cambodia are bands of land mine victims that sell music CDs.
The last city we visited in Cambodia was the capital, Phnom Penh. Here we did some last minute market shopping and visited two genocide areas. Cambodia experienced a period of genocide between 1975 and 1979 under the regime of Pol Pot, and two million people died in the killing fields. We started at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Known as S-21, this was a high school that was turned into an interrogation center and prison. Next we visited Choeng Ek, a killing field just outside of the city. There are lots of mass graves and the rain is constantly washing up more bones and fragments of clothing. This was by far the most impacting part of the trip.
Update: Friday, May 27
We got back to Oregon this week after three flights and layovers in Taiwan and Seattle. The weather seems freezing cold here, but it is welcomed after weeks of uncomfortably hot and humid weather. I also got back to my island last night. It's hard to believe our trip is over. Three weeks is plenty of time to travel and experience new cultures but I wanted to keep going. Nevertheless, going to Southeast Asia was a great way to start the summer! I will upload pictures from the trip soon.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Chaing Mai to Cambodia
Thailand has been awesome and we saw a lot of the country. Last week the overnight train into Chiang Mai turned out to be a good experience. The beds were a little small, but we were blessed to have second class tickets with air conditioning. Chaing Mai turned out to be a really cool city and we did some neat things. Our group visited a missionary school, a temple, and a palace, but best of all was an elephant sanctuary where we rode elephants and saw them perform. They are really smart animals and can even paint pictures!
We also did a lot of touristy shopping at the famous night market, where I bought some artwork and other souvenirs. I went to a tailor with friends and we had suits custom fitted. I got a three-piece, gray cashmere suit with pinstripes for 6600 baht, which is about $200. I also got another shirt ($22) and pants ($30) from the same place. It's hard to find good stuff in my size and this would have easily cost a couple thousand in the US.
On a free morning I visited the Chaing Mai Zoo with some friends, and that was a neat experience. We were able to feed a lot of animals, including hippos, giraffes, elephants, and leopards, with raw meat attached to a pole. The aquarium there is the biggest in Asia, and it has the longest underwater viewing tunnel in the world. We also briefly stopped by Tiger Kingdom, where you can play with tigers and get pictures. But unfortunately we didn't have enough time to do that.
The north part of Thailand is really rural and we've pretty much road tripped the entire country by bus. Two of the trip legs were over 12 hours long, which is an uncomfortable amount of time. The bus travel didn't exactly start off on the right foot either...
As we were leaving Chaing Mai I was in the back of the bus and fell asleep smelling what I thought were the brakes. Later I woke up to people yelling and realized smoke was spreading from the back of the bus. In panic, I tried to get my seatbelt off and it took a few tries. (I was laying on my side and wrapped myself in such a way where I wouldn't roll out of my seat.) I took off toward the front of the bus and fell over on the way out, but once I got outside I realized I had taken my shoes off before I fell asleep. It turned out the air conditioning on the bus busted. It was right under me and the smoke spread through all the vents. This was scary, but looking back on this we can all laugh now. We waited near a swamp on the side of the road until another, less-comfortable bus came.
One of the professors traveling with us lived in Thailand for five years, and this is her first time back in twenty years. It has been really touching to see her reconnect with old friends and we were able to visit a couple of the small villages where she lived and worked. I loved seeing this third-world aspect of the country and we have met some really generous people. I like interacting with the villagers, especially little kids, but it is hard not being able to communicate with them.
Our trip took us along the Mekong River which is the border of Laos. Originally we were going to spend a day there, but the visas became too expensive. We were still able to take a boat along the river and we saw some of the country as we drifted through it. It was cool to see Laos even though we didn't get to physically go there.
This morning we reached the Cambodian border after an overnight bus trip. The crossing itself was fairly easy and only took about an hour. Cambodia will be a really interesting experience. It is completely different from Thailand and it feels completely third-world like India or the Middle East. There is a whole new language to learn here and the food is a lot weirder, which excites me. One thing I've noticed is bathrooms here are "water rooms". There is no shower curtain and the whole floor drains, so you can be using the toilet and sink as you shower.
Tomorrow we are taking a bus to Siem Reap, which is next to Angkor Wat. I have always wanted to go there because it looks so awesome. We have another six days in Cambodia and then we are heading home. I am excited for the last few days, but it will be good to get back home to cooler weather.
Until later! (However you say that in Cambodia...)
We also did a lot of touristy shopping at the famous night market, where I bought some artwork and other souvenirs. I went to a tailor with friends and we had suits custom fitted. I got a three-piece, gray cashmere suit with pinstripes for 6600 baht, which is about $200. I also got another shirt ($22) and pants ($30) from the same place. It's hard to find good stuff in my size and this would have easily cost a couple thousand in the US.
On a free morning I visited the Chaing Mai Zoo with some friends, and that was a neat experience. We were able to feed a lot of animals, including hippos, giraffes, elephants, and leopards, with raw meat attached to a pole. The aquarium there is the biggest in Asia, and it has the longest underwater viewing tunnel in the world. We also briefly stopped by Tiger Kingdom, where you can play with tigers and get pictures. But unfortunately we didn't have enough time to do that.
The north part of Thailand is really rural and we've pretty much road tripped the entire country by bus. Two of the trip legs were over 12 hours long, which is an uncomfortable amount of time. The bus travel didn't exactly start off on the right foot either...
As we were leaving Chaing Mai I was in the back of the bus and fell asleep smelling what I thought were the brakes. Later I woke up to people yelling and realized smoke was spreading from the back of the bus. In panic, I tried to get my seatbelt off and it took a few tries. (I was laying on my side and wrapped myself in such a way where I wouldn't roll out of my seat.) I took off toward the front of the bus and fell over on the way out, but once I got outside I realized I had taken my shoes off before I fell asleep. It turned out the air conditioning on the bus busted. It was right under me and the smoke spread through all the vents. This was scary, but looking back on this we can all laugh now. We waited near a swamp on the side of the road until another, less-comfortable bus came.
One of the professors traveling with us lived in Thailand for five years, and this is her first time back in twenty years. It has been really touching to see her reconnect with old friends and we were able to visit a couple of the small villages where she lived and worked. I loved seeing this third-world aspect of the country and we have met some really generous people. I like interacting with the villagers, especially little kids, but it is hard not being able to communicate with them.
Our trip took us along the Mekong River which is the border of Laos. Originally we were going to spend a day there, but the visas became too expensive. We were still able to take a boat along the river and we saw some of the country as we drifted through it. It was cool to see Laos even though we didn't get to physically go there.
This morning we reached the Cambodian border after an overnight bus trip. The crossing itself was fairly easy and only took about an hour. Cambodia will be a really interesting experience. It is completely different from Thailand and it feels completely third-world like India or the Middle East. There is a whole new language to learn here and the food is a lot weirder, which excites me. One thing I've noticed is bathrooms here are "water rooms". There is no shower curtain and the whole floor drains, so you can be using the toilet and sink as you shower.
Tomorrow we are taking a bus to Siem Reap, which is next to Angkor Wat. I have always wanted to go there because it looks so awesome. We have another six days in Cambodia and then we are heading home. I am excited for the last few days, but it will be good to get back home to cooler weather.
Until later! (However you say that in Cambodia...)
Monday, May 9, 2011
Dolphin Bay and Monkey Island
Saturday we drove down to Dolphin Bay, which was about a three hour trip. It's a picturesque little vacation spot on the coast that overlooks the Gulf of Thailand. There's not much here except for a few local resorts and small shops on a road that traces the shoreline. Right now I'm sitting in a small internet cafe on the beach. It is still really hot here, but it is bearable next to the water. The green seawater is surprsingly warm like a bathtub and it's really shallow. Our hotel has a pool which is colder and nice to lay around. My farang skin is definitely getting darker. We've been able to do some cool things here like kayaking, boating, exploring, and eating amazing seafood.
Our kayaking experience was interesting. Lauren and I rented some with Brandon and Danika and we all decided to paddle out to a nearby island. The boats were 50 baht an hour, which is less than two bucks. Once we made it to the beach, a huge male monkey found us and the rest of his family joined him. Brandon and Danika had their boats taken over and we all retreated to the water, trying to figure out how to get them back. Meanwhile, the monkeys were playing in the captured boats, grooming each other, and trying to eat the plastic seats. We managed to get Danika's boat back, which had been pooped in, but Brandon's was a challenge. I ran up the beach to distract the monkeys but I was chased off. We didn't know if they were friendly or not, but they were acting somewhat aggressive. So we watched them explore the kayak, hoping they would leave. Gradually, they left one by one and we escaped the island with our boats intact.
The next day we went back to Monkey Island, which turned out to be it's actual name. Our whole group went in local jet boats, and the drivers brought bags of mangoes to keep the monkeys busy while we explored their beach. They were a lot nicer than we thought, but once they ran out of fruit, they went for our water bottles and cameras. The boats also took us through the islands, which were lush and beautiful in contast to the green sea. They had a really primative feel, like Jurassic Park. We also went to a giant cave off the beach, which is a national park. We hiked up the steep mountain and then went down into the giant, collapsed cavern. One of the kings had a shrine built in the middle of the cave, which was quite the site to explore. This has been one of my favorite parts of the trip so far.
Another thing that has been memorable here is the amazing food. We found a couple small restaurants on the beach that served some of the best meals I've ever had. One night I ate curry on the beach in a bamboo chair, and another I ate crab, squid, and coconut soup in a tiki-style lounge. The seafood was so fresh and caught by the fishing boats that frequent the bay. Finding good food has become a hobby, and I definitely plan on learning to cook Thai food back home.
Another night rode in the back of a truck to Hua Hin, the nearest town about thirty minutes away. There was a night market there, which had some pretty cool things to buy. I'm realizing that all of the markets have the same stuff though. It's just like in Ecuador where the street vendors are the middlemen. Our last few hours in Bangkok were similarly spent at the enormous Saturday market. We witnessed a monsoon storm there, with crazy rainfall in between spurts of 90 degree weather. I bought three really cool watercolor paintings, but afterward realized I'd been ripped off. I bartered them to a low price, but when I got out in the light they looked pixelated. What a cheap printing job!
This afternoon we're heading back to Bangkok and taking a night train to Chang Mai, a city at the far north of Thailand. I'm hoping there will be enough legroom, and room in general for me to sleep. That and air conditioning.
แล้วพบกันใหม่ (Laaeo phohp gan mai)
Until we meet again!
Our kayaking experience was interesting. Lauren and I rented some with Brandon and Danika and we all decided to paddle out to a nearby island. The boats were 50 baht an hour, which is less than two bucks. Once we made it to the beach, a huge male monkey found us and the rest of his family joined him. Brandon and Danika had their boats taken over and we all retreated to the water, trying to figure out how to get them back. Meanwhile, the monkeys were playing in the captured boats, grooming each other, and trying to eat the plastic seats. We managed to get Danika's boat back, which had been pooped in, but Brandon's was a challenge. I ran up the beach to distract the monkeys but I was chased off. We didn't know if they were friendly or not, but they were acting somewhat aggressive. So we watched them explore the kayak, hoping they would leave. Gradually, they left one by one and we escaped the island with our boats intact.
The next day we went back to Monkey Island, which turned out to be it's actual name. Our whole group went in local jet boats, and the drivers brought bags of mangoes to keep the monkeys busy while we explored their beach. They were a lot nicer than we thought, but once they ran out of fruit, they went for our water bottles and cameras. The boats also took us through the islands, which were lush and beautiful in contast to the green sea. They had a really primative feel, like Jurassic Park. We also went to a giant cave off the beach, which is a national park. We hiked up the steep mountain and then went down into the giant, collapsed cavern. One of the kings had a shrine built in the middle of the cave, which was quite the site to explore. This has been one of my favorite parts of the trip so far.
Another thing that has been memorable here is the amazing food. We found a couple small restaurants on the beach that served some of the best meals I've ever had. One night I ate curry on the beach in a bamboo chair, and another I ate crab, squid, and coconut soup in a tiki-style lounge. The seafood was so fresh and caught by the fishing boats that frequent the bay. Finding good food has become a hobby, and I definitely plan on learning to cook Thai food back home.
Another night rode in the back of a truck to Hua Hin, the nearest town about thirty minutes away. There was a night market there, which had some pretty cool things to buy. I'm realizing that all of the markets have the same stuff though. It's just like in Ecuador where the street vendors are the middlemen. Our last few hours in Bangkok were similarly spent at the enormous Saturday market. We witnessed a monsoon storm there, with crazy rainfall in between spurts of 90 degree weather. I bought three really cool watercolor paintings, but afterward realized I'd been ripped off. I bartered them to a low price, but when I got out in the light they looked pixelated. What a cheap printing job!
This afternoon we're heading back to Bangkok and taking a night train to Chang Mai, a city at the far north of Thailand. I'm hoping there will be enough legroom, and room in general for me to sleep. That and air conditioning.
แล้วพบกันใหม่ (Laaeo phohp gan mai)
Until we meet again!
Friday, May 6, 2011
Reflections on Bangkok
Bangkok is awesome. We made it to the Thai capital on Tuesday after 28 hours of travel. It took three flights, including a 12-hour plane ride from Seattle to Taipei (Taiwan). The first thing I noticed in Thailand was the heat. As soon as we stepped out of the airport, the 90+ degree temperature and humidity just about knocked me over. My last semester in Oregon was sun-deprived and this change was extreme, but I love it now that it's tolerable. Most places have air conditioning, including our hotel. This luxury is wonderful beyond words.
My favorite part about Thailand so far is probably the food. It is unbelievably better than the Thai food I thought I knew in the US and it's much spicier. I have finally found a culture that likes it's food as spicy as I do! Street food in Bangkok is both amazing and cheap and brings many spices and flavors together. There are a lot of delicious meats, stir frys, and soup combos that are blowing my mind. With the weaker baht currency you can get just about anything for less than a dollar and a full plate of food won't cost more than two. I've found there is nothing like eating really spicy food on a hot day. It's quite an experience to be sitting outside in the heat and sweating profusely while you're digesting fire. Fruits are also popular as well and there are lots of different tropical varieties. The most (in)famous is the durian, which the locals say "tastes like heaven and smells like s**t". Vendors cover it up so it doesn't reek up the streets and there are signs that tell us not to bring it into buildings. It reminds me of mushy onions and old cheese.
One big part of Thai culture is massages and foot massages are perhaps the most popular. Lauren and I went to get one together this afternoon and it was awesome. While her masseuse was gentle on her feet and legs, mine was really rough. I learned how soft my legs were and many knots my feet had, but through the pain I enjoyed it. The best part: an hour massage only cost me 220 baht, just over $7. The girls tried to speak English to us and were hilarious. One said I looked like an army soldier because I was "big sexy man". I have had some interesting encounters and Lauren calls me Asian meat. Another type of massage is from fish. You put your feet in a tank of feet eating fish that like to nibble on dead skin. They swim over and suck on your toes until they are smooth and clean. I found this to be a unique experience that tickled like crazy, but I won't do it again after hearing why they aren't allowed in the US.
The transportation in Bangkok is fairly modernized because it is such a big city with 10 million people. There is a sky train and new subway system, but the old school way to get around is in a tuk tuk, a three-wheeled motoried taxi that flies through the streets. These are really mobile and fun, and the drivers have great personalities. Taxis are popular too, but they can scam tourists. The other day, I went to hand a taxi driver some change and he dropped it under the seat. Then he got mad and made us pay him more while the meter was still running. Here vehicles drive on the left side of the road.
Thai is an interesting language to say the least. The alphabet has 44 consonants and 15 vowels and looks like a bunch of squiggly lines. It is hard to speak but I have picked up words here and there. I know a handful of Thai phrases including 'how much does it cost?', 'I like spicy food', and 'it's very delicious'. I like to try and learn new words, but I am still very much a farang (gringo). I also learned a few Mandarin words when we were in Taiwan.
So far we have visited the urban downtown, some temples, and the riverfront. We also went to a resort with elephants. There are a lot of street markets too and I've been bargaining for good deals. At night it is easy to see the effects of the prevailing sex trade industry. There are some sketchy streets and just about anywhere people will try to get you involved. This is really sad to see as such a big part of the culture.
Tomorrow is our last day in Bangkok. We are going to the Saturday market in the morning and then travelling south to Dolphin Bay. This is on the coast and we'll be spending a lot of time at the beach. I am stoked for this.
แล้วพบกันใหม่ (Laaeo phohp gan mai)
Until we meet again!
My favorite part about Thailand so far is probably the food. It is unbelievably better than the Thai food I thought I knew in the US and it's much spicier. I have finally found a culture that likes it's food as spicy as I do! Street food in Bangkok is both amazing and cheap and brings many spices and flavors together. There are a lot of delicious meats, stir frys, and soup combos that are blowing my mind. With the weaker baht currency you can get just about anything for less than a dollar and a full plate of food won't cost more than two. I've found there is nothing like eating really spicy food on a hot day. It's quite an experience to be sitting outside in the heat and sweating profusely while you're digesting fire. Fruits are also popular as well and there are lots of different tropical varieties. The most (in)famous is the durian, which the locals say "tastes like heaven and smells like s**t". Vendors cover it up so it doesn't reek up the streets and there are signs that tell us not to bring it into buildings. It reminds me of mushy onions and old cheese.
One big part of Thai culture is massages and foot massages are perhaps the most popular. Lauren and I went to get one together this afternoon and it was awesome. While her masseuse was gentle on her feet and legs, mine was really rough. I learned how soft my legs were and many knots my feet had, but through the pain I enjoyed it. The best part: an hour massage only cost me 220 baht, just over $7. The girls tried to speak English to us and were hilarious. One said I looked like an army soldier because I was "big sexy man". I have had some interesting encounters and Lauren calls me Asian meat. Another type of massage is from fish. You put your feet in a tank of feet eating fish that like to nibble on dead skin. They swim over and suck on your toes until they are smooth and clean. I found this to be a unique experience that tickled like crazy, but I won't do it again after hearing why they aren't allowed in the US.
The transportation in Bangkok is fairly modernized because it is such a big city with 10 million people. There is a sky train and new subway system, but the old school way to get around is in a tuk tuk, a three-wheeled motoried taxi that flies through the streets. These are really mobile and fun, and the drivers have great personalities. Taxis are popular too, but they can scam tourists. The other day, I went to hand a taxi driver some change and he dropped it under the seat. Then he got mad and made us pay him more while the meter was still running. Here vehicles drive on the left side of the road.
Thai is an interesting language to say the least. The alphabet has 44 consonants and 15 vowels and looks like a bunch of squiggly lines. It is hard to speak but I have picked up words here and there. I know a handful of Thai phrases including 'how much does it cost?', 'I like spicy food', and 'it's very delicious'. I like to try and learn new words, but I am still very much a farang (gringo). I also learned a few Mandarin words when we were in Taiwan.
So far we have visited the urban downtown, some temples, and the riverfront. We also went to a resort with elephants. There are a lot of street markets too and I've been bargaining for good deals. At night it is easy to see the effects of the prevailing sex trade industry. There are some sketchy streets and just about anywhere people will try to get you involved. This is really sad to see as such a big part of the culture.
Tomorrow is our last day in Bangkok. We are going to the Saturday market in the morning and then travelling south to Dolphin Bay. This is on the coast and we'll be spending a lot of time at the beach. I am stoked for this.
แล้วพบกันใหม่ (Laaeo phohp gan mai)
Until we meet again!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Thailand & Cambodia
Wow. It’s crazy to think the school year is already over. It feels like it just started not too long ago. Now summer is officially here, and I am going to travel a little bit again, this time to Thailand and Cambodia. I’m leaving tomorrow! :)
Our school has a program called Juniors Abroad, where juniors can travel in May. I’m going with a group of 25 students, including my girlfriend, Lauren. There are a bunch of trips offered, but this one sounded perfect for me because (a) I want to go back to Asia, (b) I want to see more third-world countries, and (c) I want to go somewhere warm. Check out this week’s forecast in Bangkok: all the highs are in the 90s and all the lows are in the 80s, with thunderstorms. This part of Southeast Asia is between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator.
I really enjoyed blogging last fall and now I kind of miss it. I realized that I don’t need to be abroad to have fun and awkward experiences. For example, on my third day back at school this semester my backpack snagged the fire alarm in the cafeteria. A couple hundred people had to evacuate outside in the pouring rain until the fire department got there. Awkward experiences tend to find me wherever I am. I was able to do some fun stuff too. This semester I went on a few hiking trips, a beach trip, spent a weekend in Seattle with Lauren, and went home for spring break. On the less fun side of things I ended up with both Salmonella and Giardia, complements of Ecuador. These brought some unfortunate complications with the health department before I could start working in an elementary school classroom.
Speaking of bad things that happened in Ecuador, I will not be bringing my computer on this trip. I don’t want to have to learn that lesson again. I might not be able to blog while I’m down there, but I will try and reflect on some experiences whenever I can. I’ll have a notepad with me so I will keep track of thoughts, awkward experiences, and the crazy culture. The first two weeks are going to be in Thailand and the last week will be in Cambodia.
แล้วพบกันใหม่ (Laaeo phohp gan mai)
Until we meet again!
Our school has a program called Juniors Abroad, where juniors can travel in May. I’m going with a group of 25 students, including my girlfriend, Lauren. There are a bunch of trips offered, but this one sounded perfect for me because (a) I want to go back to Asia, (b) I want to see more third-world countries, and (c) I want to go somewhere warm. Check out this week’s forecast in Bangkok: all the highs are in the 90s and all the lows are in the 80s, with thunderstorms. This part of Southeast Asia is between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator.
I really enjoyed blogging last fall and now I kind of miss it. I realized that I don’t need to be abroad to have fun and awkward experiences. For example, on my third day back at school this semester my backpack snagged the fire alarm in the cafeteria. A couple hundred people had to evacuate outside in the pouring rain until the fire department got there. Awkward experiences tend to find me wherever I am. I was able to do some fun stuff too. This semester I went on a few hiking trips, a beach trip, spent a weekend in Seattle with Lauren, and went home for spring break. On the less fun side of things I ended up with both Salmonella and Giardia, complements of Ecuador. These brought some unfortunate complications with the health department before I could start working in an elementary school classroom.
Speaking of bad things that happened in Ecuador, I will not be bringing my computer on this trip. I don’t want to have to learn that lesson again. I might not be able to blog while I’m down there, but I will try and reflect on some experiences whenever I can. I’ll have a notepad with me so I will keep track of thoughts, awkward experiences, and the crazy culture. The first two weeks are going to be in Thailand and the last week will be in Cambodia.
แล้วพบกันใหม่ (Laaeo phohp gan mai)
Until we meet again!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Galapagos Islands
Tortoises, Seals, Blue Footed Boobies, and Sally Lightfoot Crabs
---More pictures can be found here.
Well, I am officially at home and have been for almost three weeks. It is definitely good to be here, but it feels super cold. I think spending the first part of December in the Galapagos gave me false expectations of what I was coming home to. I left our island during the peak of summer and have successfully escaped the cold until now.
I wanted to blog earlier, but it’s been hard not having a computer. (I’ve been sneaking time on my dad’s MacBook when he isn’t using it.) I wasn’t even able to upload my Galapagos pictures for a while after getting home. I had to find a cord to borrow since mine was stolen. Here is what was taken, and it was pretty random: my suitcase, computer and carrying case, camera cord, toothbrush charger, mosquito head net, and parts from my water filter (carrying case, sponge, rubber o-rings, and silicon lubricant). The hardest part was losing the computer though. I like to take pictures and lost about 3,500 from the trip. Thankfully I’ve been uploading handfuls in blogs and on Facebook so I still have a few of my own.
Anyway, I thought I’d end the blog off by sharing some of the highlights of our last week in Guayaquil and the Galapagos. This was another group trip that was part of our study abroad package, and it’s pretty cool to have a Galapagos cruise paid for.
We flew out of Quito early on Saturday morning and spent the whole day in Guayaquil, the main coastal port city in Ecuador. There we visited a giant outdoor museum, saw a city park full of iguanas, strolled the modern boardwalk, and spent the evening hiking at a lighthouse park. The Ecuadorian coast feels like it's in a different county; the climate and culture are completely different and so are the locals and spoken Spanish. That night we stayed in the sketchiest hotel I’d ever seen, complete with loud traffic and rowdy neighbors.
The next morning we flew out to Baltra, the main airport in the Galapagos. There we met up with our tour guide and caught a bus to the harbor. Our boat, the Yolita II, was about 115’ long and had nine other passengers, who were from Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, and Australia. Our cruise was a five-day tour of the southern islands and we went to six of them, including the small ones below. After Baltra we went to Santa Cruz and the Plazas, then we did a circled around Santa Fe, Española, and Floreana.
The Galapagos seem like normal islands, but the crazy part is the plants and wildlife. Each island has it’s own character and unique flora and fauna, and four main ocean currents all end up there. Everyday we visited parks and beaches on different islands and we were able to do a lot of snorkeling. We saw lots of fish along with turtles, rays, and sharks. My favorite diving spot was the Corona del Diablo (Devil’s Crown), a giant rocky circlet in the middle of the water. Other highlights included spelunking (cave exploring) up to my neck in water, running into a pod of dolphins, and enjoying seal-infested beaches. The hikes were short but they were still a lot of fun.
I didn’t realize how strict the rules and regulations would be though. You have to be there with a guide and the number of visitors per day is limited. The schedules are set so islands can only be visited on certain days and you can only stay on marked paths. This was disappointing at first, but it makes sense. The islands are full of gringo tourists and it’s sad most Ecuadorians have never even seen them.
Beautiful Island Scenery: Floreana and Santa Cruz Islands
(More pictures here)
We flew back to Quito on that Thursday (12/2), and that’s when I first realized my stuff was taken. The last couple days were relaxed and just involved final meetings and (procrastinating) packing. I wanted to go to a bullfight with a couple friends, but that didn’t work out. Saturday (12/4) was the day we left and I had an interesting time getting out of the airport in Quito. Among other things, I couldn’t carry my three paintings on the plane because of a no-glass rule, so I had to call my bags back to pack/wrap everything and I went through a scuffle with the guys who claimed to sell “insurance.” I finally rechecked my odd-shaped 49.8 lb bag with 24 bright orange fragile stickers, and my paintings miraculously made the trip unharmed. It was good to see everyone in Seattle when I landed, and I made it back to the island on Sunday evening.
I remember on the first day of class our teacher asked us what our goals for the semester were. My response was that I wanted to be less of a gringo, and she just laughed and said that wasn’t possible for me. But now after everything has happened, I would definitely consider myself less of a gringo. The experience of living in a foreign country was both powerful and life changing. I met a lot of cool people from all over South America and had some great opportunities while living in Quito. It was good to be able to spend time focused on Spanish studies, and it was challenging to live and build relationships without any English. I learned a lot, had some great travel opportunities, conquered some pretty high elevations, and redefined my definition of awkward. Overall it was a good semester.
Thank you for reading my blog! :)
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Shell and the Amazon
Happy Thanksgiving! Well at least that’s what you’ve been celebrating in the US. We just got back from our Amazon trip today so I’ll go over some of the highlights:
Sunday we left Riobamba, but we had to make a lot of stops including the doctor. A lot of people forgot to bring sunglasses to the mountain so they needed their eyes checked afterward. Yoan’s eyes were the worst, and I feel bad that his first snow experience included a few days of snow blindness. (On this trip all of the guys got really sick at one point, and my stomach hated me after a big burger from a street vendor in Riobamba.) We drove east to Shell, which served as our base for the rest of the trip. We had a wooden hostel that was really cool looking, but it was frustrating when our bathroom light broke and we ran out of water.
Left: Eating Jungle Ants. Right: Yoan and I.
---More pictures can be found here.
We had no idea what our schedule would be like in the jungle because everything was planned around our flights into the Amazon. Monday the weather prevented us from flying, but it was really nice in Shell. Instead we rented a nature guide and headed into the jungle by car. We started off at an Arapaima fish hatchery, then we went trekking into the jungle. We headed out along a river and did cool stuff like tribal face painting, eat ants off of leaves, and make clay masks from river mud. Along the way we say a lot of cool plants and wildlife, including giant spiders). Finally we reached a tall waterfall at the end that we could swim under. Afterward we floated down another river in handmade wooden canoes, and visited an indigenous tribe that gave us some chicha (the fermented corn drink). Then we went to a monkey refuge and got to see a bunch of monkeys. This was scary at first because some were demonic looking, but I eventually gave in and played with them.
Left: Holding. Right: Petting.
---More pictures can be found here.
Tuesday was our day to fly into the jungle and after being weighed and sorted into two groups, we were set to head out first. We got in the Cessna and went through the preflight check with the pilot, but after he started the engine we weren’t cleared for take off. The weather was too cloudy out where we were headed. We were disappointed but headed into Puyo, a nearby town for shopping. There were a lot of tourist stores there, but we were able to kill some time. Our next attempt took us through the whole process again, but right before we were cleared to take off, one of the gauges in the plane wasn’t working. So instead of two planes flying out into the Amazon together for a few hours, we had to resort to one plane flying each group out for just a few minutes.
This was still really fun though, and we got to visit a Waorani village that wasn’t too far away. Our Cessna flight took us just over thirty minutes each way and all we could see were green trees and scattered villages. Our group was the second to go, and when we landed a bunch of villagers came out to greet us. They painted our faces and put grass crowns on our heads, and we met their leader, Dyuwi (pronounced ‘Dewey’). Dyuwi was one of the original men from the spearing party in 1956, during Operation Auca. This was the first attempt for outsiders to reach the isolated tribe, who were known for brutal violence. It’s a really touching story and was also made into a movie: The End of the Spear.
Left: Waorani Villagers. Right: The Children.
---More pictures can be found here.
Wednesday was a more adventure filled day and we started out river rafting nearby on the Pastaza. The Rio Pastaza is a river that runs through Ecuador and Peru and is a large tributary to the Amazon. There were some pretty sweet rapids, including one called ‘King Kong’s Hand’. I was put in a group with Jenna, Kelsey, and Amy and we had a crazy guide. During one of the small rapids he called his mom on his cell phone and at one point he just jumped out of the boat for the heck of it. He let us tip the raft too which was really fun.
Left: Getting Ready. Right: Padding Downstream.
---More pictures can be found here.
Afterward we visited the Paillon del Diablo (the devil’s cauldron), a huge waterfall we hiked down to. We were also able to crawl up to the top in a small cave, where we got soaked! Then we rode a terabita (gondola) across a valley to another waterfall. (I forgot my camera on this trip.) We also had some free time in Baños so Thad and I walked over to the famous thermal baths. But we were bummed out when we found out they were closed. (The only hour they close each day was the hour we were there!) So we just walked around town and visited the big cathedral.
Well, that’s the gist of what we did. We left early this morning and got back in time for a Thanksgiving meal with some of the other missionaries. That was really cool, and better than the food we ate in the jungle. Tomorrow is graduation (and Yoan’s birthday) so we’re just going to hang out here in Quito. Apparently we are going to have a feast too (hence the live sheep tied up outside of my dorm room). Saturday morning we fly out to Guayaquil (a coastal city) and then we head for the Galapagos on Sunday. I am really excited for that. It’s so crazy that I’m already flying home in nine days. Well, hasta luego!
Sunday we left Riobamba, but we had to make a lot of stops including the doctor. A lot of people forgot to bring sunglasses to the mountain so they needed their eyes checked afterward. Yoan’s eyes were the worst, and I feel bad that his first snow experience included a few days of snow blindness. (On this trip all of the guys got really sick at one point, and my stomach hated me after a big burger from a street vendor in Riobamba.) We drove east to Shell, which served as our base for the rest of the trip. We had a wooden hostel that was really cool looking, but it was frustrating when our bathroom light broke and we ran out of water.
Left: Eating Jungle Ants. Right: Yoan and I.
---More pictures can be found here.
We had no idea what our schedule would be like in the jungle because everything was planned around our flights into the Amazon. Monday the weather prevented us from flying, but it was really nice in Shell. Instead we rented a nature guide and headed into the jungle by car. We started off at an Arapaima fish hatchery, then we went trekking into the jungle. We headed out along a river and did cool stuff like tribal face painting, eat ants off of leaves, and make clay masks from river mud. Along the way we say a lot of cool plants and wildlife, including giant spiders). Finally we reached a tall waterfall at the end that we could swim under. Afterward we floated down another river in handmade wooden canoes, and visited an indigenous tribe that gave us some chicha (the fermented corn drink). Then we went to a monkey refuge and got to see a bunch of monkeys. This was scary at first because some were demonic looking, but I eventually gave in and played with them.
Left: Holding. Right: Petting.
---More pictures can be found here.
Tuesday was our day to fly into the jungle and after being weighed and sorted into two groups, we were set to head out first. We got in the Cessna and went through the preflight check with the pilot, but after he started the engine we weren’t cleared for take off. The weather was too cloudy out where we were headed. We were disappointed but headed into Puyo, a nearby town for shopping. There were a lot of tourist stores there, but we were able to kill some time. Our next attempt took us through the whole process again, but right before we were cleared to take off, one of the gauges in the plane wasn’t working. So instead of two planes flying out into the Amazon together for a few hours, we had to resort to one plane flying each group out for just a few minutes.
This was still really fun though, and we got to visit a Waorani village that wasn’t too far away. Our Cessna flight took us just over thirty minutes each way and all we could see were green trees and scattered villages. Our group was the second to go, and when we landed a bunch of villagers came out to greet us. They painted our faces and put grass crowns on our heads, and we met their leader, Dyuwi (pronounced ‘Dewey’). Dyuwi was one of the original men from the spearing party in 1956, during Operation Auca. This was the first attempt for outsiders to reach the isolated tribe, who were known for brutal violence. It’s a really touching story and was also made into a movie: The End of the Spear.
Left: Waorani Villagers. Right: The Children.
---More pictures can be found here.
Wednesday was a more adventure filled day and we started out river rafting nearby on the Pastaza. The Rio Pastaza is a river that runs through Ecuador and Peru and is a large tributary to the Amazon. There were some pretty sweet rapids, including one called ‘King Kong’s Hand’. I was put in a group with Jenna, Kelsey, and Amy and we had a crazy guide. During one of the small rapids he called his mom on his cell phone and at one point he just jumped out of the boat for the heck of it. He let us tip the raft too which was really fun.
Left: Getting Ready. Right: Padding Downstream.
---More pictures can be found here.
Afterward we visited the Paillon del Diablo (the devil’s cauldron), a huge waterfall we hiked down to. We were also able to crawl up to the top in a small cave, where we got soaked! Then we rode a terabita (gondola) across a valley to another waterfall. (I forgot my camera on this trip.) We also had some free time in Baños so Thad and I walked over to the famous thermal baths. But we were bummed out when we found out they were closed. (The only hour they close each day was the hour we were there!) So we just walked around town and visited the big cathedral.
Well, that’s the gist of what we did. We left early this morning and got back in time for a Thanksgiving meal with some of the other missionaries. That was really cool, and better than the food we ate in the jungle. Tomorrow is graduation (and Yoan’s birthday) so we’re just going to hang out here in Quito. Apparently we are going to have a feast too (hence the live sheep tied up outside of my dorm room). Saturday morning we fly out to Guayaquil (a coastal city) and then we head for the Galapagos on Sunday. I am really excited for that. It’s so crazy that I’m already flying home in nine days. Well, hasta luego!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Riobamba & Chimborazo
Wow, it sure feels good to be done with classes! Tuesday was our last day and we finished up with our final presentations on Wednesday. After that on Thursday we had a field trip to one of our teacher’s houses in the country (yes, her family has a lot of houses) and we cooked an American meal together for our roommates. Now we are just travelling as part of a two-week travel practicum and it will be 8 weeks before we have classes again. It’s like having a half summer in between semesters!
We’ll have two weeklong trips, with a short stop back at the Seminary in between for graduation. Both Gustavo and Yoan (my roommates) are graduating so that will be cool to see. Our first week trip is to Riobamba and the oriente (Amazon Jungle), and our second trip is to Guayaquil and the Galapagos Islands. A few other people came along with us on this trip, and I’m really glad that Yoan is one of them. I decided to bring my computer with me, so I’ll try to update my blog more often than I have been. Sometimes we have wifi at our hostels.
Anyway, we started our first trip off by heading south to Riobamba, the city below Volcán Chimborazo, the tallest mountain in Ecuador at 20,565 feet. It was a long van ride, but we stayed in the sierra so there weren’t any crazy elevation changes. On the way down we stopped in Latacunga had chugchucara, a traditional (and random) mixed plate of fried pork, potatoes, and bananas, corn, popcorn, and sweet meat pie. Then we had homemade ice cream and I chose avocado, which had an amazing creamy texture. After we got to Riobamba, we went to a giant fruit and vegetable market, which serves as a distribution center for the rest of the country. That was the most produce I’d ever seen in one place and the food was being sold in bulk for rock bottom prices. The guys walked around town afterward and we found a meat market, a bakery with pineapple pie, and an old-fashioned soda fountain where we had some good batidos.
Left: In Front of Chimborazo. Right: NILI Jumping Pic.
---More pictures can be found here.
This morning (Saturday) our whole group headed up to the base of Chimborazo and trekked around below the refuges. Overall we started at around 14,700’ (when the van couldn’t make it any higher) and Thad, Yoan, and I hiked up just beyond the first refuge at 15,800’. It was so nice out with no wind or clouds, and it was really sunny and warm. I spent most of the hike in a t-shirt and shorts, and had to keep reapplying SPF 30 so I wouldn’t burn. But my favorite part was playing in the snow with Yoan, who had never seen it before in his life. He’s from tropical Venezuela and it’s funny how we can take things like that for granted. Like a little kid, he was so excited to see it and really liked throwing snowballs. Plus he could throw them pretty well since he played pro baseball back home as an outfielder. Thad and I had fun showing him how to make snow angels and other snow activities. And when we got far enough ahead of the group, he had a crazy awesome idea: take all of our clothes off and take pictures. (You won’t find those on Facebook.)
Left: Yoan and I. Right: A More Appropriate Picture.
---More pictures can be found here.
Tomorrow we head east to Shell, and there are a lot of activities planned on the way into the jungle. We are also flying small Cessna planes into the Huaroni village sometime early next week. (Those are the fierce people with spears and blowguns who became infamous after attacking a missionary party in the 1950s.) I’ll try to write another update in the next few days, but I doubt there’s a whole lot of places to connect to the internet in the Amazon. Hasta luego!
We’ll have two weeklong trips, with a short stop back at the Seminary in between for graduation. Both Gustavo and Yoan (my roommates) are graduating so that will be cool to see. Our first week trip is to Riobamba and the oriente (Amazon Jungle), and our second trip is to Guayaquil and the Galapagos Islands. A few other people came along with us on this trip, and I’m really glad that Yoan is one of them. I decided to bring my computer with me, so I’ll try to update my blog more often than I have been. Sometimes we have wifi at our hostels.
Anyway, we started our first trip off by heading south to Riobamba, the city below Volcán Chimborazo, the tallest mountain in Ecuador at 20,565 feet. It was a long van ride, but we stayed in the sierra so there weren’t any crazy elevation changes. On the way down we stopped in Latacunga had chugchucara, a traditional (and random) mixed plate of fried pork, potatoes, and bananas, corn, popcorn, and sweet meat pie. Then we had homemade ice cream and I chose avocado, which had an amazing creamy texture. After we got to Riobamba, we went to a giant fruit and vegetable market, which serves as a distribution center for the rest of the country. That was the most produce I’d ever seen in one place and the food was being sold in bulk for rock bottom prices. The guys walked around town afterward and we found a meat market, a bakery with pineapple pie, and an old-fashioned soda fountain where we had some good batidos.
Left: In Front of Chimborazo. Right: NILI Jumping Pic.
---More pictures can be found here.
This morning (Saturday) our whole group headed up to the base of Chimborazo and trekked around below the refuges. Overall we started at around 14,700’ (when the van couldn’t make it any higher) and Thad, Yoan, and I hiked up just beyond the first refuge at 15,800’. It was so nice out with no wind or clouds, and it was really sunny and warm. I spent most of the hike in a t-shirt and shorts, and had to keep reapplying SPF 30 so I wouldn’t burn. But my favorite part was playing in the snow with Yoan, who had never seen it before in his life. He’s from tropical Venezuela and it’s funny how we can take things like that for granted. Like a little kid, he was so excited to see it and really liked throwing snowballs. Plus he could throw them pretty well since he played pro baseball back home as an outfielder. Thad and I had fun showing him how to make snow angels and other snow activities. And when we got far enough ahead of the group, he had a crazy awesome idea: take all of our clothes off and take pictures. (You won’t find those on Facebook.)
Left: Yoan and I. Right: A More Appropriate Picture.
---More pictures can be found here.
Tomorrow we head east to Shell, and there are a lot of activities planned on the way into the jungle. We are also flying small Cessna planes into the Huaroni village sometime early next week. (Those are the fierce people with spears and blowguns who became infamous after attacking a missionary party in the 1950s.) I’ll try to write another update in the next few days, but I doubt there’s a whole lot of places to connect to the internet in the Amazon. Hasta luego!
Monday, November 15, 2010
A Weekend of Mountaineering
This weekend Thad and I had our trip to Cotopaxi and it was an amazing experience. We decided to climb this mountain for a number of reasons. It’s the second tallest mountain in Ecuador at 19,348 feet, but it’s not as technical as other huge mountains. (You don’t have to know a whole lot about mountaineering, you just have to be in really good shape.) It’s one of the highest active volcanoes in the world, and because of the equitorial bulge, it’s also one of the farthest points from the center of the earth. Also, it’s an Ecuadorian icon and the most climbed mountain in the Andes because of this and it’s easy accesibility.
Volcán Cotopaxi: (Not my picture, it was too cloudy.)
Saturday morning we met up with our guide in Quito and headed down to the national park. Segundo was cool but he didn’t really remind us of a mountain guide. He spoke barely any English (except for swear words and glacier commands) and talked more about hot girls than anything else. But he was hilarious and fun to be around.
First on the itenerary was to climb Volcán Rumiñahui, a fifteener inside the park for more acclimation. We drove up to a lake at about 12,600’ and started trekking uphill toward the mountain. It was cloudy and we could barely see the peak but the surrounding area was still really pretty. We hiked through a lot of páramo grass and wound our way up part of the crater rim, but unfortunately we had to turn back at the rocky part of the mountain (just over 13,800’). It was raining pretty hard and there were some thunderstorms, which are dangerous in climbing that kind of rock. Originally we were going to rope up and scramble to the top, so that was disappointing.
Left: Nearby Rumiñahui. Right: Hiking.
---More pictures can be found here.
During the hike Segundo kept asking us if we needed any breaks, but we felt fine with the altitude. He told us we were in a lot better shape than most people, and our first forty minutes of hiking can take others up to two hours with the elevation. Meanwhile our clothes were getting soaked and I realized the jacket they gave me was really cheap because it was soaking wet on the inside. The last part of the decent turned into a slippery swamp and it was hard getting back to the car.
Afterward we headed for a lodge in the park that was just over 12,200’. We had our own cabin, but there was no heat or electricity and it got pretty cold. We tried to dry our clothes with a fire in the fireplace but this didn’t work out too well. Finally we resorted to sleeping with our wet clothes because we didn’t bring very much. That wasn’t too fun, but at least they were somewhat dry in the morning. The lodge had good food and we were served coca tea along with our meals. (It’s popular in mountanous countries and apparently it can help altitude sickness.)
After breakfast we took off for the José Rivas Refuge, on the side of Cotopaxi. It’s really popular among park visitors but it’s mainly for climbers staying the night. We parked the car in a parking area at about 14,700’ and then we made the hike up to the refuge, which was over a thousand feet higher. This took about forty minutes, and we had to carry full backpacks with gear and full summit packs. This was a lot of weight and it felt good to get to the top. There were a lot of interesting people there from all over the world who were really into mountaineering. We were supposed to hike up to the glacier and learn some techniques for crampons (spikes for ice and snow) and ice axe, but there was a rainstorm and we weren’t able to. We didn’t want to be stuck with a bunch of wet clothes again. Segundo told us it was easy enough to figure out, so we felt alright about it. At least we'd have a guide with us on the mountain.
Left: Finally Made It! Right: Refuge Trail.
---More pictures can be found here.
It was cool staying at the refuge but insanely hard to sleep. On top of trying to sleep in really high altitude, there were probably 40 people staying in the same room and there wasn’t a whole lot of personal space. Plus we had to go to bed super early so we could wake up around midnight, which is the best time for climbing before the snow starts to melt in the sun. By the time the first alarm clock went off around 11 pm, I barely got over an hour of sleep and I couldn’t get much more with all of the noise of people getting ready. We stayed in our sleeping bags until Segundo woke us up around midnight, and after breakfast we found out we would be the last group to leave the refuge.
We started the climb at about 1:15 am and trudged uphill in the snow with our headlamps. It felt good to get going, but it was hard on such little sleep. We had a pretty good pace though and even passed a couple groups in the beginning. After about an hour, we arrived at a glacier where we had to put on our crampons and a lot of other people were there too. We roped up quickly and passed them while they were still starting on the ice. It wasn’t too hard walking in the crampons, but it got more and more challenging as the mountain got steeper. It got really steep, but we didn’t need a whole lot of rest and kept passing groups. The glaciers and crevices weren't too hard to navigate, but I lost my balance a couple times trying to toe in with the crampons. Finally we passed the last group and were leading the way. I was sucking air big time at the top, but kept plugging away. It’s crazy how hard altitude gets as you keep getting higher and higher.
We finally got to the summit at 5:45 am, just as the sun was rising. It was cloudy though and we couldn’t see much. (I made a snow angel at the top too.) Our ascent only took four and a half hours, which was crazy fast. (My guidebook says that route takes 5-7.) I still couldn’t believe that we passed everyone because some groups left almost an hour earlier than us. This felt really surreal and we had no idea we would do so well. Other people were impressed and congratulated us as we were coming down, and that felt really good. A couple of guides were even surprised too. There were people with a lot more mountaineering experience than we had, but we were in better altitude shape. It helps living at over 9,000 for three months and running and hiking a lot.
Left: At the Top! Right: Snow Angel at 19,348 feet.
---More pictures can be found here.
The descent wasn’t so fun though. I got altitude sick on the way down and had a horrible naseua headache. (I figured this was a combination of the fast ascent and little sleep.) Because of this I had to take a lot more breaks going down. It was cool to see everything in the daylight though and there were a lot of ice crevices that we couldn’t see at night. I wanted to take a lot of pictures, but my hand went numb everytime I took my glove off. Finally we got to the bottom of the last glacier and decided to slide down to the reguge. We did this sitting down with our ice axes as brakes and we were able to go pretty fast. Afterward we hiked back to the car and drove back to Quito. We got back at noon and still had the whole day!
It’s crazy how fast the semester has gone. Tomorrow (Tuesday) is our last day of class and we have our final presentations on Wednesday. After that we have a field trip on Thursday and two weeks of travel after that. The first week will be to Riobamba and the oriente (Amazon), and the last week will be in Guayaquil and the Galapagos. This will be a lot of fun and it’s hard to fathom that I’m flying home in 18 days. Anyway, hasta luego.
Volcán Cotopaxi: (Not my picture, it was too cloudy.)
Saturday morning we met up with our guide in Quito and headed down to the national park. Segundo was cool but he didn’t really remind us of a mountain guide. He spoke barely any English (except for swear words and glacier commands) and talked more about hot girls than anything else. But he was hilarious and fun to be around.
First on the itenerary was to climb Volcán Rumiñahui, a fifteener inside the park for more acclimation. We drove up to a lake at about 12,600’ and started trekking uphill toward the mountain. It was cloudy and we could barely see the peak but the surrounding area was still really pretty. We hiked through a lot of páramo grass and wound our way up part of the crater rim, but unfortunately we had to turn back at the rocky part of the mountain (just over 13,800’). It was raining pretty hard and there were some thunderstorms, which are dangerous in climbing that kind of rock. Originally we were going to rope up and scramble to the top, so that was disappointing.
Left: Nearby Rumiñahui. Right: Hiking.
---More pictures can be found here.
During the hike Segundo kept asking us if we needed any breaks, but we felt fine with the altitude. He told us we were in a lot better shape than most people, and our first forty minutes of hiking can take others up to two hours with the elevation. Meanwhile our clothes were getting soaked and I realized the jacket they gave me was really cheap because it was soaking wet on the inside. The last part of the decent turned into a slippery swamp and it was hard getting back to the car.
Afterward we headed for a lodge in the park that was just over 12,200’. We had our own cabin, but there was no heat or electricity and it got pretty cold. We tried to dry our clothes with a fire in the fireplace but this didn’t work out too well. Finally we resorted to sleeping with our wet clothes because we didn’t bring very much. That wasn’t too fun, but at least they were somewhat dry in the morning. The lodge had good food and we were served coca tea along with our meals. (It’s popular in mountanous countries and apparently it can help altitude sickness.)
After breakfast we took off for the José Rivas Refuge, on the side of Cotopaxi. It’s really popular among park visitors but it’s mainly for climbers staying the night. We parked the car in a parking area at about 14,700’ and then we made the hike up to the refuge, which was over a thousand feet higher. This took about forty minutes, and we had to carry full backpacks with gear and full summit packs. This was a lot of weight and it felt good to get to the top. There were a lot of interesting people there from all over the world who were really into mountaineering. We were supposed to hike up to the glacier and learn some techniques for crampons (spikes for ice and snow) and ice axe, but there was a rainstorm and we weren’t able to. We didn’t want to be stuck with a bunch of wet clothes again. Segundo told us it was easy enough to figure out, so we felt alright about it. At least we'd have a guide with us on the mountain.
Left: Finally Made It! Right: Refuge Trail.
---More pictures can be found here.
It was cool staying at the refuge but insanely hard to sleep. On top of trying to sleep in really high altitude, there were probably 40 people staying in the same room and there wasn’t a whole lot of personal space. Plus we had to go to bed super early so we could wake up around midnight, which is the best time for climbing before the snow starts to melt in the sun. By the time the first alarm clock went off around 11 pm, I barely got over an hour of sleep and I couldn’t get much more with all of the noise of people getting ready. We stayed in our sleeping bags until Segundo woke us up around midnight, and after breakfast we found out we would be the last group to leave the refuge.
We started the climb at about 1:15 am and trudged uphill in the snow with our headlamps. It felt good to get going, but it was hard on such little sleep. We had a pretty good pace though and even passed a couple groups in the beginning. After about an hour, we arrived at a glacier where we had to put on our crampons and a lot of other people were there too. We roped up quickly and passed them while they were still starting on the ice. It wasn’t too hard walking in the crampons, but it got more and more challenging as the mountain got steeper. It got really steep, but we didn’t need a whole lot of rest and kept passing groups. The glaciers and crevices weren't too hard to navigate, but I lost my balance a couple times trying to toe in with the crampons. Finally we passed the last group and were leading the way. I was sucking air big time at the top, but kept plugging away. It’s crazy how hard altitude gets as you keep getting higher and higher.
We finally got to the summit at 5:45 am, just as the sun was rising. It was cloudy though and we couldn’t see much. (I made a snow angel at the top too.) Our ascent only took four and a half hours, which was crazy fast. (My guidebook says that route takes 5-7.) I still couldn’t believe that we passed everyone because some groups left almost an hour earlier than us. This felt really surreal and we had no idea we would do so well. Other people were impressed and congratulated us as we were coming down, and that felt really good. A couple of guides were even surprised too. There were people with a lot more mountaineering experience than we had, but we were in better altitude shape. It helps living at over 9,000 for three months and running and hiking a lot.
Left: At the Top! Right: Snow Angel at 19,348 feet.
---More pictures can be found here.
The descent wasn’t so fun though. I got altitude sick on the way down and had a horrible naseua headache. (I figured this was a combination of the fast ascent and little sleep.) Because of this I had to take a lot more breaks going down. It was cool to see everything in the daylight though and there were a lot of ice crevices that we couldn’t see at night. I wanted to take a lot of pictures, but my hand went numb everytime I took my glove off. Finally we got to the bottom of the last glacier and decided to slide down to the reguge. We did this sitting down with our ice axes as brakes and we were able to go pretty fast. Afterward we hiked back to the car and drove back to Quito. We got back at noon and still had the whole day!
It’s crazy how fast the semester has gone. Tomorrow (Tuesday) is our last day of class and we have our final presentations on Wednesday. After that we have a field trip on Thursday and two weeks of travel after that. The first week will be to Riobamba and the oriente (Amazon), and the last week will be in Guayaquil and the Galapagos. This will be a lot of fun and it’s hard to fathom that I’m flying home in 18 days. Anyway, hasta luego.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Random Awesomeness
This weekend turned out to be a relaxed weekend without any plans, and it’s our last free weekend of the semester (not counting mountaineering or group travel). I’m still recovering from a sinus infection so it was definitely good taking things easy. But we were able to do some cool stuff this week as well.
I have been thinking a lot about what I still want to do here in Ecuador, and while skimming through a guide book I found a phone number for a paragliding school. Jenna and Kelsey wanted to go too and we were told over the phone that two pilots would be availiable to fly us on Sunday morning. But we found out the spot in South Quito is hard to get to by city bus. One of the pilots lived close to us so we were told to meet up with him. Our instructions: take a taxi to a nearby cross street and some dude named Carlos would be waiting for us in a VW van. (Now, that doesn’t have sketch written all over it…) He turned out to be really cool though, and he was a good pilot: he’d been flying for fifteen years and is training for the world championships in Columbia.
Above: A Great Day for Paragliding...
The park is a grassy field on a large hill and a really popular place for paragliding. There are lots of people who go there to watch during the weekends, and we saw a lot of other paragliders, including the inexperenced. (One took off uncontrollably in the wind and another sent the crowd running away from his landing.) It was a bummer though because Carlos was the only tandem pilot that went. He had the girls to go first because they were lighter and each of their flights lasted about fifteen minutes. However, they didn’t have organized transportation to get back and they had to find their own ways. He and Jenna found a truck (after landing in a field of thorns), but after Kelsey’s flight they had to wait a long time for a city bus. I ended up waiting five hours at the park but by the time it was my turn, it was too cloudy and the wind had died. I was disappointed but I’m glad the others had a good time. I guess I saved $60, but that is super cheap compared to tandem flights anywhere else.
Another thing that I had wanted to do here was puenting. This is usually translated as ‘bungee jumping’, but it’s more of a type of bridge swing. (Instead of a giant stretchy cord, a cable is attached to the top of the other side of the bridge; creating a giant swing after the initial freefall.) Earlier in the semester I found the company that does puenting in Quito, but learned that they only set dates for groups of five or more. After waiting a long time, they contacted me this week with an invite to join a group on Tuesday night. Jenna was down and Josué and Thad wanted to come along too so we could all eat somewhere else for dinner. (We ended up going back to that amazing Mexican restaurant, for the third time.)
When our taxi brought us to the bridge, two guys were getting everything ready and it was a pretty good set up: two harnesses, lots of locking carabeaners, and good rope. They’ve been operating for eight years without an accident, so this fact alone made the $15 price tag more assuring. The bridge was about 120 feet high and in the middle of the city, so the traffic and city lights created an intense atmosphere. I was the first one to go and had a lot of adrenaline flowing. The only scary part is looking off the bridge leading up the jump, but I went backwards and afterward wished I’d gone forwards. My lower harness wasn’t exactly comfortable but overall it was a good experience. Unfortunately, it was too dark, rainy, and cloudy to get good pictures or video, but here is a YouTube video of what we did:
Wednesday we had a field trip to a museum of colonial archives, and there were a lot of paintings, sculptures, maps, and plant species. It wasn’t like a traditional museum, it was more like something you would see in a National Treasure movie and there was a lot of great hidden stuff. Afterward we went to eat lunch a traditional restaurant that had some interesting food choices. I put together the weirdest meal I’ve ever eaten: roasted guinea pig, intestine soup, a side of dried blood, and Sierrian chicha (a fermented corn drink). I shared the cuy (guinea pig) and got a nearly meatless sections of the head, back, and arms; which were really good but I didn’t like the skin. Also I like fried intestines, but the soup was funky. I only made it halfway through and was glad to finish someone’s pork fritada instead. The dried blood had the texture of sun-dried tomatoes with barely any flavor, but the chicha was good and a lot smoother than the homemade stuff I had back in August.
Left: Our NILI Group. Right: My Interesting Lunch.
That night we went to another Liga soccer game in the South American cup quarterfinals. This time it was against “Newell’s Old Boys” from Argentina (so random that their name is in English) and the stadium was a lot more crazy. The first match in Argentina was a 0-0 tie, so both team’s hopes of a championship were riding on this game. It was scoreless and intense throughout, but finally the Liga pulled through with an emotional goal in the 79th minute. This was a great game and now they advance to the semifinals, but I doubt we'll have time to go to anymore games.
This afternoon Josué, Thad, and I decided to head back to Colonial Quito once again. Our main goal was to check out the Casa de Alabado, a new Precolumbian art museum, and that turned out to be really cool. We also found an awesome handmade candy store, enjoyed batido smoothies (avocado, carrot, and mango), and got ripped off by a volunteer worker in the San Francisco cathedral. (He offered us a private tour for a small donation and after a lame five-minute walkthrough he asked us for five bucks.)
Sorry my blogs have been getting long. I’ve been getting in the habit of only writing every week. Anyway, this is our big climbing weekend so I’ll make sure to post when we get back. Here’s a rough itenerary of what’s going on: Saturday morning we’ll climb Volcán Rumiñahui (15,459’), Sunday we’ll hike up to Cotopaxi’s second refuge (15,748’), and Monday is our summit attempt (19,347’) starting at 1 am! This will be fun and I'll try to take some good pictures. Anyway, hasta luego!
I have been thinking a lot about what I still want to do here in Ecuador, and while skimming through a guide book I found a phone number for a paragliding school. Jenna and Kelsey wanted to go too and we were told over the phone that two pilots would be availiable to fly us on Sunday morning. But we found out the spot in South Quito is hard to get to by city bus. One of the pilots lived close to us so we were told to meet up with him. Our instructions: take a taxi to a nearby cross street and some dude named Carlos would be waiting for us in a VW van. (Now, that doesn’t have sketch written all over it…) He turned out to be really cool though, and he was a good pilot: he’d been flying for fifteen years and is training for the world championships in Columbia.
Above: A Great Day for Paragliding...
The park is a grassy field on a large hill and a really popular place for paragliding. There are lots of people who go there to watch during the weekends, and we saw a lot of other paragliders, including the inexperenced. (One took off uncontrollably in the wind and another sent the crowd running away from his landing.) It was a bummer though because Carlos was the only tandem pilot that went. He had the girls to go first because they were lighter and each of their flights lasted about fifteen minutes. However, they didn’t have organized transportation to get back and they had to find their own ways. He and Jenna found a truck (after landing in a field of thorns), but after Kelsey’s flight they had to wait a long time for a city bus. I ended up waiting five hours at the park but by the time it was my turn, it was too cloudy and the wind had died. I was disappointed but I’m glad the others had a good time. I guess I saved $60, but that is super cheap compared to tandem flights anywhere else.
Another thing that I had wanted to do here was puenting. This is usually translated as ‘bungee jumping’, but it’s more of a type of bridge swing. (Instead of a giant stretchy cord, a cable is attached to the top of the other side of the bridge; creating a giant swing after the initial freefall.) Earlier in the semester I found the company that does puenting in Quito, but learned that they only set dates for groups of five or more. After waiting a long time, they contacted me this week with an invite to join a group on Tuesday night. Jenna was down and Josué and Thad wanted to come along too so we could all eat somewhere else for dinner. (We ended up going back to that amazing Mexican restaurant, for the third time.)
When our taxi brought us to the bridge, two guys were getting everything ready and it was a pretty good set up: two harnesses, lots of locking carabeaners, and good rope. They’ve been operating for eight years without an accident, so this fact alone made the $15 price tag more assuring. The bridge was about 120 feet high and in the middle of the city, so the traffic and city lights created an intense atmosphere. I was the first one to go and had a lot of adrenaline flowing. The only scary part is looking off the bridge leading up the jump, but I went backwards and afterward wished I’d gone forwards. My lower harness wasn’t exactly comfortable but overall it was a good experience. Unfortunately, it was too dark, rainy, and cloudy to get good pictures or video, but here is a YouTube video of what we did:
Wednesday we had a field trip to a museum of colonial archives, and there were a lot of paintings, sculptures, maps, and plant species. It wasn’t like a traditional museum, it was more like something you would see in a National Treasure movie and there was a lot of great hidden stuff. Afterward we went to eat lunch a traditional restaurant that had some interesting food choices. I put together the weirdest meal I’ve ever eaten: roasted guinea pig, intestine soup, a side of dried blood, and Sierrian chicha (a fermented corn drink). I shared the cuy (guinea pig) and got a nearly meatless sections of the head, back, and arms; which were really good but I didn’t like the skin. Also I like fried intestines, but the soup was funky. I only made it halfway through and was glad to finish someone’s pork fritada instead. The dried blood had the texture of sun-dried tomatoes with barely any flavor, but the chicha was good and a lot smoother than the homemade stuff I had back in August.
Left: Our NILI Group. Right: My Interesting Lunch.
That night we went to another Liga soccer game in the South American cup quarterfinals. This time it was against “Newell’s Old Boys” from Argentina (so random that their name is in English) and the stadium was a lot more crazy. The first match in Argentina was a 0-0 tie, so both team’s hopes of a championship were riding on this game. It was scoreless and intense throughout, but finally the Liga pulled through with an emotional goal in the 79th minute. This was a great game and now they advance to the semifinals, but I doubt we'll have time to go to anymore games.
This afternoon Josué, Thad, and I decided to head back to Colonial Quito once again. Our main goal was to check out the Casa de Alabado, a new Precolumbian art museum, and that turned out to be really cool. We also found an awesome handmade candy store, enjoyed batido smoothies (avocado, carrot, and mango), and got ripped off by a volunteer worker in the San Francisco cathedral. (He offered us a private tour for a small donation and after a lame five-minute walkthrough he asked us for five bucks.)
Sorry my blogs have been getting long. I’ve been getting in the habit of only writing every week. Anyway, this is our big climbing weekend so I’ll make sure to post when we get back. Here’s a rough itenerary of what’s going on: Saturday morning we’ll climb Volcán Rumiñahui (15,459’), Sunday we’ll hike up to Cotopaxi’s second refuge (15,748’), and Monday is our summit attempt (19,347’) starting at 1 am! This will be fun and I'll try to take some good pictures. Anyway, hasta luego!
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