Around the world in 180 Days

Home sweet Home

2009-04-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

Hello! I'm home!!!!
it's so good to be back. i've been drinking tap water like there's no tomorrow. sadly, my water filter is broken and the water coming out of the kitchen sink is brown from rusty pipes. gross. but still drinkable...
so far i haven't done much at home, just cleaning the house after 6 months of joon's bachelor life revisited. i love him, but he sure is messy.
i don't think i'm having culture shock in a bad way, so far i've been pleasantly surprised by things i forgot about, like how cars will actually stop for you when you cross the street. a giant MUNI bus let me cross the street yesterday and that was a huge shock! i'm so used to crossing crazy traffic and risking my life every time.
it's nice to walk around the street and understand the conversations i hear and actually know what the hell is going on.
i went to get coffee and a bagel on my first morning and the coffee guy gave me coffee on the house as a welcome back present. i really missed bagels, too.
we had fantastic weather the first couple days- 80 degrees and sunny. today it's back to foggy sf weather though.
i saw a guy washing his car and looked at all that drinkable water wasted on the sidewalk and wondered why we use drinkable water in our toilets and garden hoses? especially when the rest of the world doesn't even get drinkable water in their kitchen sinks.
also, i'm having a hard time putting toilet paper into the toilet, which i haven't been able to do anywhere on my trip. does anyone know why the us and europe can flush tp when no one else can?
so far i'm missing the indian head wiggle (which means yes, by the way), cheap everything, and warm weather. but mostly i'm happy to be back home.
i thought joon bought new pillows because they are so fluffy and soft, but then i realized i've been using 3 inch, rock-hard pillows for the last 6 months.
this will be my last blog so i guess i should just say once more that it's great to be home, and my trip was amazing. i am one lucky ducky to have been able to take so much time off to travel and see our beautiful planet. i met a lot of people who reminded me that traveling is the sort of thing that anyone can do with a little planning and saving, and that it's a choice you make. it is great to get out there and see what other people are doing, especially in countries like india where everything is so different from home that it seems like the world is upside down and backwards. after a while you realize that they have their own system and ways of doing things and if you pay enough attention, you see that it actually does make sense.
just want to say thanks to everyone for following my adventures. all the comments and emails made me feel closer to home in the lonely times and i appreciate it. with that i will sign out and hope to see each of you soon.
Love, Jenny

beijing with joon

2009-04-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

Here we are at Tianamen Square. Behind us is the building with Mao's huge photo portrait on it. Look at that smog!!!

We went to a snack street where they have all kinds of strange things to eat, mostly on a stick (Beijingers seem very fond of food on sticks). They had scorpion, testicle, octopus, all kinds of weird stuff. Needless to say, I didn't try any adventurous foods because they're all animals, but here is a shot of Joon eating scorpion. He liked it.

The other day we visited the Great Wall. It was a lot of up and down steep wall. As you can see from the photo, it's in a beautiful setting- gorgeous mountainside and smog-free. We hiked 20 towers, about 3 hours of walking. It was a lot of fun but we were really tired at the end.

At the end of the portion of the wall that we climbed, there was a zipline that took you to the bottom of the hill (where there is a Hostelling International, by the way; always in the best locations!). Here's Joon zipping down.

We're staying in the Hutong district. I'm pretty sure hutong means alley in English. Beijing used to be all hutongs but a lot of them have been destroyed to make room for the super modern skyscrapers. The hutongs are cool because they give you an idea of old Beijing. Lots of small shops, homes, courtyards, and markets.

Joon goes home tomorrow and I follow the next day. It's been great to be in Beijing with him. It helps a lot to have another person you trust to try to figure out what is going on, especially when you have no clue about the language. A lot of people in Beijing do not speak English at all, and sadly I have neglected my roots and don't speak a word of Mandarin. Well, I can say hello and thank you...

I am completely ready to go home. I miss everyone and everything about San Francisco. I can't wait to be in familiar surroundings, speaking my native language and knowing the customs. Feeling like an insider, basically. My only fear is that after a week I'll start to miss the adventure of world travel. It has been a great trip, and I feel so lucky to have had the chance to see so many different countries and meet so many wonderful people.
Well, the next time you hear from me, I'll be stateside. Until then...

Beijing part 2

2009-04-09T05:11:00.000-07:00

These blossoms are all over place! It's springtime in Beijing... I came at exactly the right moment. The weather is warm but not hot and humid, and all these pretty flowers are everywhere.
Here's a gate in Behai Park. It is not far from my hostel and I walked over there the day before yesterday. I was just getting over the Night of Terror (food sickness) and I walked very, very slowly. There's a big lake there and it was a peaceful place to sit around and enjoy being outside.
This is the face my stomach makes when i get food poisoning. Probably also what my face looks like during food poisoning, come to think of it.
Peking duck. (not the eating kind)
Yesterday I went to this really cool outcrop of art galleries. It's called 798 Art Galleries or something. It used to be a factory but has since been converted and there are over 200 galleries there now. There was a lot of cool sculptures and graffiti outside, as well as cool art inside (but I couldn't take photos of any of that).

Today I went to the Summer Palace but I'll save the pictures for the next blog. It takes a really, really long time to upload photos in China. I'll just say that it was quite crowded but also very pretty.

Tomorrow Joon's coming! Obviously I'm really excited, since it's been over 4 months since we saw each other. He will be featured in the next blog. Until then...

Beijing is pretty

2009-04-07T05:12:00.000-07:00

Hi! I just arrived to Beijing yesterday. Here are a couple pictures I took when i first got here. They are all from the street/alley where my hostel is. I'm staying in the Dong Chen district, which is an historical Hutong (alley) district.
Up there are some candied fruits.
Here's the outside of a restaurant under construction on the inside.

A Chinese rickshaw thing?
Really cute public phones.
Here's the Sprite that accompanied my only Beijing meal so far. It was pizza, which to me seemed like a safe bet. They put it in the oven, all the bacteria gets cooked to death... right? Well, I was wrong apparently because I got a pretty bad case of food poisoning. I was up all night throwing up and doing other unpleasant things. It was doubly bad because I opted to watch movies on the plane instead of sleep a full 8 hours (I couldn't resist- it's been forever since I saw a movie or tv in English! Plus, you don't really sleep on the plane anyway) so I was super exhausted anyway, just from the travel. Today i stayed in bed until 3pm and slowly walked to the store to find Gatorade and crackers.
I'm feeling a bit better now and hopefully I'll be ready to hit the town tomorrow. On the ride to the hostel from the airport, I was surprised at how clean all the streets are. The air is also wayyy cleaner than the air in Kathmandu. There are lots of blossoms blooming and it just looks like a really nice city.
Well, I will write again in a couple days. Hope everyone is doing well at home.

Kathmandu Part 3

2009-04-04T02:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a prayer wheel- as promised. This one is a big one (about 2.5 feet tall) and in the left of the picture, there is an inset in the wall with some cloth covering the top. You can see it, but there are a smaller prayer wheels. The Boudhanath stupa has many of these lining the wall along the outside base of the stupa. You are supposed to walk around it clockwise and you can spin the prayer wheels.
Hello! Yesterday I went to Boudanath, which is where the world's largest stupa is. It is really big and beautiful. It looks a lot like the Swayabunath stupa, only it's not on top of a hill, and the dome part is much larger. It's one of the holiest places in the world for Buddhists and there were many, many monks there. I joined them for a few laps around the stupa. A lot of the monks were elderly and it reminded me of mall walking because some of them were walking pretty fast, almost like they were trying to get exercise at the same time. They carried wooden beads with them and they were praying. It actually felt like a pretty holy place even to me, agnostic that I am. I think because everyone there was giving it so much respect. There were still restaurants and trinket shops around the stupa, but it didn't feel as touristy as some other places I've been to lately.
Today I visited the Royal Palace, which has just opened to the public as a museum about one month ago. The royal family was murdered there in 2001 and it was pretty scandalous. There are a lot of Nepali people who I've met who are really curious about the palace because it's been closed for so long. They don't let you take cameras in there so I don't have any photos, but it was a pretty impressive building. In the back of the palace, they had signs explaining where the royal family was shot or found dead, and this fascinated me the most. (I know, kind of sick but you have to admit that it's really interesting.)
The best part was that I met a group of four cousins in the line waiting to get into the palace, and they sort of adopted me and translated signs for me (even though the signs were also in English). At the end of the palace tour, we sat around in the grass and talked about stuff. They were really sweet and cute, especially because they were a family of teenagers hanging out together on a Saturday. They were just really genuine and kind and they made me realize that I am sort of in love with Nepalis. Some of the people I've met here have been so nice to me and just really gone out of their way to help me out, just because I'm a guest in their country. It seems like this is a characteristic ingrained in people and I hope that when people come to the US they find that we are that kind to strangers too.

Tomorrow I am leaving Nepal for Beijing, the last stop on my world tour. Joon is going to meet me in one week, and I'm so excited to see a familiar face and hear about home. We'll be there for a little over a week, then we head home (on separate flights, sadly). I'm pretty excited to see Beijing and try out their street food. Also, seeing the Great Wall of China has been a dream of mine for a long time.

Well, the next time you hear from me I'll be in another country... talk to you soon

Kathmandu Part 2

2009-04-02T05:01:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Kathmandu, again.
The other day I went up to a stupa on the edge of town called Swayabunath (I think) at the suggestion of my friend Anni who's been to Nepal a few times. It wasn't very far from the neighborhood where I'm staying, but after a half hour walk, the rest is almost vertical. There are 365 steps that you have to climb to get up to the stupa, but it was totally worth it. From up there I had a nice 360 degree view of Kathmandu, and the stupa itself was really cool.
I just realized that I didn't choose the best pictures to represent what the place looks like. Behind this lion statue there is a big dome with the Buddha's "all-seeing eyes". There are four sets of eyes which point in the four cardinal directions. There are also a lot of small shrines all over the place, as well as prayer wheels. You're supposed to walk around the temple counter-clockwise and spin the prayer wheels as you go along. I will get some pictures of prayer wheels in the next blog for those who don't know what one is.

I realized recently that I really don't know much about the religions in India and Nepal, even though every place I go is spiritual and almost every person I meet has some religion and feels deeply connected to their spirituality. Maybe I'm not ready to think about things in so much depth?... I've met quite a few westerners who seem like they're looking for answers on their trip, and I have to say I can't really relate to that. Mostly, I came just to see stuff and be in awe of how we're all so different and so similar at the same time. I do think all the religious symbolism is beautiful, mostly because of the way people light up when they teach me about it. I have to say I am starting to be more interested, and maybe the next time I come to this part of the world I will pay more attention.

Ooooh-look at this!!!! It's people getting water out of an ancient fountain! I'm not kidding- the guide book said that this fountain has been working for over 6 centuries. This picture's a little far away, but you can see all the ladies lined up with their water containers, waiting their turn for water.
And here we have the Golden Temple. Today I went to Patan, the town just next to Kathmandu. I visited the museum which had a lot of stuff about Hinduism/Buddism symbols in Nepal (probably what got me thinking) and their Durbar Square (yep, more temples) and then the Golden Temple. Isn't it pretty? It's actually a small courtyard with this gold stupa in the middle. There's a lot of interesting stone carving in the walls of the courtyard, as well as prayer wheels and bells that you ring (I think after you're done praying). There's even a monastery upstairs where I saw an old man making candles and muttering to himself.

Ghorka

2009-03-31T05:37:00.000-07:00

So, this is Ghorka. it is a very rural place which is lovely for the peace and quiet and lack of air pollution (except around the bus park of course). Also, i only paid 100 rupees for my room! That's like $1.25! Ridiculous. The only people in the family who spoke English were the exceedingly charming children of the family. They had the biggest smiles and most open faces I'd ever seen in my life. The down-side to a $1.25 a night room is that the sink and shower are one, which is a cold water spigot coming out of the wall above a squat toilet which was pretty gross. But for $1.25 I don't think I have the right to complain.
The other thing about Ghorka being so rural is that it is filled with villagers who seem like they've never seen a foreign person before in their life. Everywhere I went I was stared at and laughed at. It's a very alienating feeling. I'm not talking about curious glances, I'm talking about hard-core staring. On my first day there, I went for a walk around town and I was reposing on a stone wall, smoking a cigarette and writing in my journal, and a woman coming up the hill stopped dead in her tracks and stared at me for a full 30 seconds. I got kind of wierded out, so I smiled and said "Namaste", to which she smiled back and said "Namaste", then took 3 steps up the hill and turned around and stared again. She didn't stop until I got up and walked away.
That being said, Ghorka is a beautiful place. I hiked up to the top of the hill to a temple at the Ghorka palace. The climb nearly killed me but it was worth it. Apparently twice a month they sacrifice goats and chickens up there and there was dried blood all over the place. I also saw some villagers skinning a beheaded goat in their front yard on my way up the hill. By the time I was headed down, they were hacking up the ribs. It reinforced my vegetarianism.

Here is Rani Pokhari (Queen's Pond). You can't see them, but to the right of this picture was a group of 4 girls staring and laughing at me.

The neighbors beautiful garden just before a crazy hail storm.

I was going to get some food, and it had just started sprinkling. I was standing in the doorway of my guest house watching the street and it got real windy and everyone was running around like crazy, closing up their shops, running home, the portable ice cream stand guy was hauling ass down the road and I didn't get it. Why are they all freaking out? It's just a little wind. So I set out. I made it about 300 yards away when it starting hailing stones the size of golf balls. I was stuck out in the hail with another guy, getting pelted, when a nice watch repairmen let us into his shop to wait it out. When it was over, I went back to the guest house and kids everywhere were ecstatic. The kids of the house brought me up to the roof to look at more hail, and their neighbors were having a rooftop hail war from opposite sides of the street. It was classic.

The ride back to Kathmandu took forever but here is an awesome shot of a goat on the bus. Three of them came on mid-journey.

I am back in Kathmandu. I'm here for 5 days, then I head to Beijing. Joon's going to meet me after about one week. I'll be doing some day trips from here; there's lots to see in the Kathmandu Valley. So far the weather's been nice- raining in the afternoon/evening and sunny with clean air in the mornings.

Pokhara

2009-03-27T05:02:00.000-07:00

Strange inedible fruit outside my hostel room.
This is the lake in Pokhara. I don't know for sure, but I think that Pokhara means "lake" or something like that in Nepali. The tourist part of town is along this lake, and as you can see, it's very pretty.
Yesterday some new friends and I hiked up to a Peace Pagoda on top of a big hill. You have to take your shoes off, or Off Your Shoes, or F your shoes, before going up to the temple.
On the way back down, we walked through this little village on the side of the dam. There were kids swimming in the river and mommas washing clothes. We got to cross over this cool suspension bridge.
Pokhara is beautiful! It's mainly a town for starting treks, or if you're lazy like me, sitting around relaxing and watching other people plan their treks. I am definitely coming back here one day to do the Annapurna Circuit, which is a cool trek that takes about 3 weeks and you get to walk through all these small villages in the Annapurna mountains. I've been walking around town and up the lakeside mountain, and eating and reading a lot. It's been very relaxing to be out of the chaos of Kathmandu.
Tomorrow I leave for a town called Ghorka, which is where the republic of Nepal was started. It sounds like a small town with nothing much to do but read and walk around. I'll stay there two or three nights, then head back to Kathmandu. Only a little over a week left before I head to China. Once again, I am amazed that my trip is almost over and I'm trying to enjoy the last bit of nothing to do but read and relax and enjoy. I am looking forward to getting back home, though. Can't wait to see everyone and catch up on what's goin on in SF!

kathmandu pt.1 and chitwan national park

2009-03-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

There are about 8 million temples in Kathmandu, which is wonderful and beautiful- and confusing. The other day i went for a walk and thought i'd be able to find my way back, no problem because of all the temple landmarks, but i just got horribly lost in the rain (of course it started to rain) for an hour or so. Eventually I hopped into a cafe for tomato soup and momos (did i tell you about momos yet?) to wait out the rain.
The photo above is the house of the living goddess. According to the guidebook, Nepal has a living goddess who is chosen as a child and has to meet many requirements, including certain measurements of her face. When she hits puberty or if she loses a certain amount of blood, she ceases to be a goddess and just becomes a mere mortal and another girl is chosen to be the living goddess.

These two photos are taken in Durbar Square- it's a pretty big square with many temples. It's great for sitting and people watching because some of the temples are tall and you can climb up to the top of them, which i did in order to escape the rain and take these photos.

Ha- I thought this was funny. It looks like this is the place where Mischa Barton gets her hair styled when she is in Kathmandu.

OMG!!! Can we all just take a moment out of our day to appreciate how fucking CUTE this baby elephant is? Some people were feeding it cookies and I think it ate 4 or 5 packages of cookies in the 10 min. i was standing there.

I spent the last couple of days in Chitwan National Park. I had a pretty fantastic time. I was one of two people staying at the lodge and I got a lot of individual attention from the staff. They were all really great people. My guide was hilarious and he loved to speak American English. I taught him some slang and he taught me some basic Nepali.

Here's me with the baby elephant. Notice how uninterested he is in taking a photo with me. I didn't have any cookies.

The first thing we did was visit the elephant breeding centre. It was great to see pregnant elephants and their babies (obviously), but the life of the captive elephant is pretty depressing. There are some working elephants who carry tourists around the park- it's pretty much the only way you can get really close to wild animals like tigers and rhinos without risking your life. The sad thing is that they work so hard, and they have to be trained in a way that isn't exactly humane. There's a certain amount of cruelty that has to happen in order to "tame"(break the spirit of) an animal that is way more powerful than you. The mamas at the breeding center were chained up by their feet to a post. That alone is enough to break this vegetarian's heart.

Afterwards, we walked home through the village. The indigenous people who live in the area are the Tharu people. They live in huts made of elephant grass, mud and dung. They do a lot of farming- rice and wheat mostly, and...

marijuana! The stuff is growing everywhere, mixed in with the wheat or on it's own. My guide said it's not for everyday use, just special occasions.

There's an underground spring in the area and the water is pretty clean. Apparently the use of pesticides in the farms is gaining, and my guide said that in about 50 years time, the groundwater will be too polluted to be safe to drink. Here's a shot of water being pumped up to irrigate the rice fields.

A photo from my jeep ride into the park. Probably the dustiest 5 hours I've ever experienced, by the way. The jeep was open in the back where everyone sits and they haven't had rain in awhile. When I got out of the jeep I was covered in a layer of dust and my lungs hurt today from all the dust I inhaled. Gross.

The one-horned rhino! These guys are huge! way bigger than I expected. They can run 40km per hour, and if they get spooked they will charge you. We saw two on our jungle walk and got close, than sort of trotted away when it looked at us, then snuck back, then ran away when it started moving. I was questioning my purpose in the jungle as my heart was beating out of my chest.
When we got back home, my guide showed me a gnarly scar above his ribs where he was mauled by a rhino years ago.
These rhinos can only be found in Nepal and in one area of India that used to be Nepal. There back is really weird. You can't tell in the picture, but it looks like a suit of armor.

Today I took a bus to Pokhara. It was so beautiful! We drove alongside a big river most of the way, and of course it reminded me of California. Looks like the Trinity River up by Hoopa. Pokhara is a really pretty town. There's a nice lake and lots of mountains. A lot of folks start their treks from here.
I will email again in the next few days. I'm planning to stay in Pokhara 3 or 4 days, then maybe make my way back to the air polluted Kathmandu from which I will do a bunch of day trips.

welcome to nepal

2009-03-19T07:26:00.000-07:00

i had the longest journey to kathmandu, ever. first, i went down the hill from darjeeling to a town called siliguri. then i had to take a taxi to the border town of panitanki (india side) to cross to kakarbhitta (nepal side). there are supposedly buses from there to kathmandu, but there's some sort of strike going on. which entails people protesting against the government by blocking all the highways between kakarbhitta and kathmandu. i'm sure there is more to it, but this is the most information i could get out of anyone.
so, i was stuck in kakarbhitta. which is a dusty town which has nothing but tourist offices and hotels, and their main square is the bus stand. also, no atms, no electricity for 16 hours a day, sometimes no water, and dodgy phone lines that were never working at the same time as the electricity or when i wanted to make a phone call. i was only there for one night, but i was starting to feel as trapped as the indian tiger i saw at the darjeeling zoo. it was only a matter of hours before i started pacing back and forth down kakarbhitta's only street. so this morning when i woke up and the hotel people told me the strike was still on and could be for another 7 days, i decided to take drastic measures to get the hell out of there.
this involved booking a plane ticket from the nearest airport (4 hours away), jumping in a shared taxi and driving back into india and around the nepal border to a different shithole border town, using the atm machine, and making my plane 10 min. before it left.
but i am here, in glorious (by that i mean dirty and big) kathmandu!
actually, kathmandu doesn't seem terrible. i've seen much worse on this trip. like delhi. also, nepali people are really nice. they are amazed that i'm not nepali and they all seem to feel the need to tell me that i have a nepali face at least 4 times after realizing i'm not from nepal.
tomorrow is a new day and i will have a look around the city and then the next day head to chitwan national park in the south, where i will hopefully see tigers or some sort of wildlife.
ok, goodbye for now

Darjeeling is the Humboldt of India

2009-03-16T04:23:00.000-07:00

Hi from Darjeeling. It's pretty different here from the rest of India. In fact, i feel like I'm in a different country. First of all, the faces are more Nepali and Tibetan than Indian-looking. That's good for me because i feel like i fit in more. The climate is cooler- you could say freezing cold at night if you've been sitting still for a while. It's a welcome relief from the scorching, sweaty heat of the south.
The picture above is a temple on the top of the hill near Central Darjeeling. I wandered up there and there were millions of prayer flags all over and a lot of small shrines.

Today i visited the Happy Valley Tea Estate. This is tea. It doesn't look how you'd think, huh? I took a lame tour (lame because the factory was empty- it's the start of the season but nothings happening yet). It was explained to me that the tea gets picked and dried and rolled and dried and some other stuff. It wasn't that interesting for me; I only went because my friend Cassie is really into tea and I thought I could learn something and tell her about it. Sorry Caxie!

But the tea plantation is really pretty, isn't it?

Here are two photos of the toy train. The toy train is really cool because it's very very old and when it was built it cut the travel time to Darjeeling from one week to one day. Of course nowadays we have jeeps and buses so the train is the long way to go (7 hours vs. 3 in a bus) but being enamored by old-timey things, I had to take the toy train.

It's called a toy train because it's really small compared to normal trains. It's on a narrow guage rail and when it pulled up in the station it really looked like a toy. It moves about as fast as Lance Armstrong going uphill, and some of the turns are too tight so they make a path like a "Z"- which means they have to go backwards in some spots. You can see in the pictures how it crosses the road. The tracks were there before the road, and the cars just wait when they here the train horn.

Today after the tea estate I went to the Darjeeling Zoo, which was kind of depressing when it came to the leopards and tigers, but here is the red panda, which is adorable! Just look at that face! It's also called a cat bear because it looks like a cross between the two. This one was pigeon toed when it walked across that branch and it made my heart feel like it was going to burst with the cuteness.

Oh! I almost forgot- Darjeeling is the Humboldt of India because there are all these trees here that look a lot like Redwoods, though they are not. I got up close and inspected. It's also really quiet here (relatively speaking) and there is more fresh air than exhaust fumes.

Well that's about it. I have all day tomorrow in Darjeeling, then i head down the hill and cross over to Nepal. More on that later.

slowest computer in all of india.

2009-03-15T03:14:00.000-07:00

hi, i'm in darjeeling now and i've been in the process of uploading photos for the last hour, but i give up. I will just say that it is beautiful here and it reminds me of home because it is hilly (though a different kind of hilly from sf) and cold. i walked around a lot today and ate lots too. i will do more of the same over the next few days. i will take pictures and find a decent computer to share said pictures.
i've been thinking about home a lot as the trip is winding down, and i must say: i am really excited to go home! at first this was mixed with regret that my trip isn't longer, but today while i was taking a "shower" with my one bucket of hot water for the day, i was really wishing for a real shower and maybe a bigger towel. it's cold here!
also i can't wait to see everyone back home (esp joon). i have big plans to spend more time with friends when i get back, especially since i'll be unemployed and i'll have plenty of time on my hands, so watch out! anyways, i miss everyone and i will see you all soon (5 weeks and counting).

Kolkata (Calcutta)

2009-03-13T04:19:00.000-07:00

Hi! I'm really excited because for the first time ever, I was able to upload a video onto the blog. It's on the bottom. Hopefully it works.
Well, I'm in Calcutta now. It's pretty hot here but not humid, so i am happy. (I can take heat, just not the sweaty, sticky feeling of humidity.) I have done very little here in the last three days. The first night, I arrived by plane from Chennai. Took a taxi into town- there was a lot of traffic and I could feel the stress emanating off my poor taxi driver.
The second day was Holi- a big festival where people run around throwing paint at each other. Everything was closed, and I woke up at 9am to loud drums in the street. I went out there and there were pink, purple, and blue people everywhere. I managed to stay out of the paint throwing (pretty boring of me but I only have one pair of pants) but did get to watch. Looked like fun. The next day I saw people stained different colors on their faces, necks, arms, hands, legs and feet. Today is the 3rd day and some people still look faintly orange, like oompa-loompas.

Yesterday I walked around and went to the Victoria Memorial museum, a big building built by the British (?-don't quote me on that). There was a lot of interesting information in there about the history of Calcutta and about when the British came and how things changed.

Tonight at 10pm I take a night train to New Jaipalguri. From there I take another train to Darjeeling. I'm really looking forward to Darjeeling because I've heard it's beautiful and it's actually going to be cold there! I can't wait to use my hoody again. After Darjeeling I head into Nepal.
Tough, mean old alley cat outside my hotel window. Apparently it's their favorite place to hang out at night, because they like to fight under my window every night at 11:30pm onwards.

See that big lump? That's my jacket and some other stuff I mailed home yesterday! Here you have to wrap parcels in white cotton or else they won't send it. Hopefully it gets there! there's no box or anything...
The Victoria Memorial Museum. It's made from the same marble as the Taj Mahal.

This is just pretty. don'tcha think?

And here is the first video on the blog ever... It's just the view from my taxi window as I came into downtown Calcutta. Hope you like it.

Kerala

2009-03-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

So the story starts in Cochin. I flew there from Mumbai (flying! so wonderful!!) and it was air conditioned and great. I got off the plane and was met by a cloud of humidity that followed me around the entire time I was in Kerala (which is a state, by the way; at the very south end of India, on the west side).
Here are the Chinese fishing nets. They have been around for quite some time, since the Portugese? French? were in India. I watched them pull up some fish but they only seemed to get about 5 fish at a time, and the seagulls flew off with half.

The plants in Kerala amazed me. The dirt is red and all the plants are a lush green. Everything is cleaner because there is less city (at least in Cochin) and it was very beautiful.

Here is an Enfield bullet. I'm seriously considering buying one and upgrading Gladys. They only cost a couple thousand dollars here, but apparently are hard to find in the US. Maybe on my next trip to India, I can buy one and ship it back?...
I went to Alleppey (about 1.5 hours by bus from Cochin) and met these two guys on the bus ride over there. They were Tom and Adrien from London and France, and they were good company. We stayed the night in Alleppey and then caught a backwater tour. It was 8 hours of views like the one above. The cool thing about it was that we went through all these little villages where people's backyards basically were right at the water. There were about a million kids waving at us and screaming "One pen! One pen!". Tom wondered what the kids would do if we actually threw them a pen, and the next day he went out and bought a couple but of course didn't see any kids who wanted a pen.
Our boat ended up in Kollam, which was a dusty little town with zero English speakers. There were lots of big structures strung with lights being set up, here's one. I'm not completely sure what the occasion was, but I think it may be Holi, which starts tomorrow. It's a holiday where people throw paint at you. I'm not particularly looking forward to it, but hey. When in India...

So yesterday I hopped onto a train for 17 hours, took another train to the airport in Chennai, then waited 7 hours (in air conditioning) for my flight to Calcutta. I arrived here not too long ago, and it is hot! but not as humid, so I am happy. I have a lot of errands to do while here, like laundry, mailing stuff, and booking tickets. Hopefully I'll do plenty of walking around town in the process and I'll get new stories and pictures to share.
In a couple days I'm headed to cooler climates in Darjeeling. I am really looking forward to being cold. Until next time...

Mumbai (Bombay)

2009-03-02T22:53:00.000-08:00

India Gate- You can't tell in the photo, but the ocean is right behind it.

The Taj Hotel, where there was a terrorist bombing a couple months back. It seems like it's up and running again. The only difference is that there's guards and barriers all around the perimeter and a big chunk missing out of the top side- well, it's covered up by something so I don't really know what's going on there, just guessing. My hotel is a couple of blocks away from here but not nearly as glamorous.

Flora Fountain- Just about every novel I've ever read that's set in Bombay refers to Flora Fountain. As you can see, it's very pretty even though it's not on. I would like everyone to appreciate that I stood in the direct sun in ridiculous humidity to take this picture.

Here's a funny bus- they are everywhere all over India.

A paan-wallah! I bought cigarettes from this old man and he was mixing a bunch of stuff together (see all his ingredients?) and I watched him for a bit. Paan is like a chewing tobacco that a lot of men walk around with in their mouths. I think it's got beetle nut in it? I'm not really sure to be honest, but it turns the teeth red from the juice and people are spitting it out in this impressive arcs. It really seems like an art the way they spit so far. You can see red streaks on the streets and sidewalks everywhere you go and that's what it's from.
So, I was watching the paan guy and I started asking him what stuff was; he didn't speak English but he made me a little bit to try. It made my mouth tingly and when i spit it out it felt like I brushed my teeth to the 80th power. Apparently there is regular paan and sweet paan. Sweet paan comes in a leaf (look on the left of the pic. under a red cloth) and the regular stuff just goes straight into the mouth.

Here's a shot of one of the crumbling mansions in the neighborhood I'm staying in. Doesn't it look like New Orleans? The weather is really hot and really humid, just like New Orleans in the summer. There's a lot of big trees with vines hanging down, and in the Colaba neighborhood at least, there's a lot of giant houses that seem to have been converted into different stuff. My hotel, for instance.

Yesterday I went to the Hanging Gardens in the middle of the day- stupid idea with the heat. I guess I thought with a name like Hanging Gardens, there'd be a lot of big trees but as you can see, there aren't. So I found a spot in the shade and waited out the sun for a bit. It's a really pretty garden and it was nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city.

You can't see it, but to the east of hear, there are these things called the Towers of Silence. It's Parsi tradition that when someone dies, they put the body in a tower, stripped of their clothes, and let the vultures eat them. So there were tons of vultures in the sky in this area. I kind of like the idea- no embalming with chemicals and you go back into nature. There has been some controversy over the tradition though, because of course this is taking place in the middle of a major city and people are worried about the possibility that the vultures will drop pieces of body in the city. I don't know if there's much to that, though.

And finally, the Gandhi museum. It's in this house where he used to live and work. There was a photo gallery and a bunch of dioramas that demonstrated the important things in his life. It was kind of nerdy but cool. I learned a lot about Gandhi, like: he lived in South Africa for 25 years. Also, he has said that if he had to die by the bullet of a madman, he would have an open heart and the name of God would be on his lips. So when he was assasinated on the way to a prayer meeting, he actually bowed to his assasin.

Yesterday I saw Slumdog Millionaire and it was really good. I recognized a lot of the places in the movie. A couple funny things about going to the movies here are: there is an intermission in the middle of the movie for 5 min. or so; before the movie starts, they play the national anthem and put an image of the Indian flag waving up on the screen. Everyone has to stand up for the anthem; and you get assigned a seat in the theatre. Also, apparently it's cool to bring your 3 yr old to a somewhat violent movie, because the people next to me did it. The kid of course wasn't interested in the movie at all (despite the Oscars) and instead babbled and knocked the seat around throughout the course of the movie. Luckily I was so mesmerized by the dancing images on the screen, having not watched tv for four months, that it didn't bother me at all.

Today is my last day in Mumbai, then I fly to Cochin in the state of Kerala. I still have a long way to go before I get to Nepal so I'm going to take a couple flights around India. It's relatively cheap- only around $100 for a domestic flight. I can't believe I only have a couple months left in my trip, and even more that I've already been gone for four! Well, until next time...

Ellora "caves"

2009-02-27T04:09:00.001-08:00

Hi, now I'm in Aurangabad. I took a 7 hour train from Mumbai which was hot and extremely uncomfortable. It probably would've been fine if I wasn't hemmed against the wall by a family of four. The mom and dad had seats, and their 3 yr old daughter pranced around on the fold-down tables and the baby laid/squirmed on mom's and my lap. They had redeeming qualitites though. They were extremely nice people and shared their food with me. The kids were just about the cutest kids I've ever seen in my life! (Cuter than Mexican babies, if you can believe that) Everyone was quick to smile, and even though we didn't share a language, we communicated well enough. Still, I am hoping on the way back to sit next to grown-ups.
So today I went to see the Ellora "caves". There are quotes because the caves are actually carved out of stone cliff faces. It was beautiful and amazing and extremely hot. It's really, really hot here. But I saw some nice stuff and took pictures to share with you all.

The first picture is me and a class of 4th? graders. The teacher saw me and made me stand with the kids so he could take a picture. Don't know if I've mentioned it, but I'm quite the oddity here in India. Everywhere I go, people stare at me and people ask me all the time if they can take their picture with me. I am not kidding! Unfortunately. It kinda makes you feel special, but it kinda makes you feel like a freak. Usually I say no to pictures, because they're always teenage and 20 something yr old men and I'm not really sure what they're doing with my picture (are they bragging to their friends that I was their girlfriend? Am I gonna end up on the internet?). It sounds egotistical and paranoid, but if you were a girl traveling by herself in India, you would understand what I'm talking about. Sometimes men and boys can be really rude and say some really gross things.
Anyway, back to the story. This is my first picture with complete strangers. I figured it was a teacher and his kids, so what the hell. Probably the first time they've ever seen a foreigner- sounds like a Kodak moment to me if I ever saw one.

Seven Buddhas supposedly in different poses.

This was cool. You can't really tell the height of it in the picture, but the buddha sitting is twice as tall as me standing. All the ribbed stuff on the ceiling is supposed to look like wood, and there are intricate carvings of stuff along the bottom of the ribs.

Whoever carved this one has never seen real breasts.

A picture of some of the caves from faroff with a dried up stinky pond in the foreground.

Lemonade stand outside of the cave area.

Weird random horse procession in the middle of the street. You gotta love India for moments like these.

I am here in Aurangabad for another day and then I head back to Mumbai to buy linen pants, drink city coffee, and watch Slumdog Millionaire. I was only in Mumbai for one night but so far I like it. The streets are wide and clean and people don't stare as much. When I get back there I will take lots of photos so everyone can see.

Udaipur Part 2

2009-02-23T21:42:00.000-08:00

Fake Gladys.
Funny Hindi/English sign outside of a temple.
This is the guest house I've been staying at in Udaipur the last few days.
My pretty new hand- all the tourists get their hands henna'ed and it was just a matter of time until I succumbed. I'm happy to say though that I have not traded in my actual clothes for "tourists in India" clothes, like every other foreigner.
The peacock dance- I went to a Rajasthani dance thing. It was really cool. Hard to show how neat it was through a picture, but at least you get an idea of the beautiful Rajasthani clothes.
A temple thing decorated for yesterday's holiday (forgot the name, sorry).
Sign outside the Jain temple in Ranakpur. Please note that "revealing clothes" means any part of the leg and/or shoulders. If you wear shorts or capris, you have to rent a weird nightgown thing to wear over your clothes.
Inside the Jain temple.
Me and Pablo- a nice Spanish kid I met on the sleeper bus on the way to Udaipur.

Just a shot of a peaceful street in Udaipur.

Hello- I am still in Udaipur. It's my 5th day here but I am leaving on a night train to Bombay tonight. There are only trains to Bombay three times a week which is the real reason I have been in Udaipur for so long, although it is also very pretty and peaceful. I may have already mentioned it, but the town is wrapped around a lake which is pretty, kind of. The lake is half dried-up so there's a lot of smelly trash around the banks. If it were full, it would be really pretty. But it's only half-full, so it's ok.

I have done plenty while here in Udaipur. Mostly I have been laying around in the shade (it's really hot here) and reading. But- I have also explored the city far and wide on foot as well as scooter. That's right, I rented a scooter. I saw the shop and I went in to check prices- only 300 rupees (6 bucks) for a whole day of scooter! Then I thought about what a terrible idea it is to drive here because everyone here drives like a maniac. I still hadn't completely made up my mind when I got into the shop and the next thing I knew, I was scooting away. I got lost several times- really you could say that my adventure was just a series of getting lost. I got stuck in a traffic jam caused by a stubborn cow who wouldn't move out of the street. My hand started hurting because I haven't used a clutch in over 4 months. But it was fun! and I made it back to the shop in one piece.

Yesterday I took a day trip with a new friend to Ranakpur, to see the Jain temple out there. It is 3 hours away and in the middle of the desert. I didn't realize that there really is nothing else to see out there. The temple was pretty cool, though. It is made of marble and it is extremely ornately decorated with thousands of carvings of deities and animals and dancers. So pretty!

On the way home, I had the craziest bus ride of all time. I think something like this has to happen to everyone at least once in India. The bus heading back to Udaipur pulled up, and it was stuffed to the gills with people going to some festival. I managed to cram myself on there with five other people (not sure how) and we trundled off southward. I was being pushed in pretty much every direction, and my knees weren't lined up with my feet. At one point a little kid a couple of people away from me barfed because it was so hot and the road was windy. He couldn't help it but he puked all over some guys pants as well as the floor. These nice Indian ladies took a liking to me and kept talking to me in Hindi. I didn't understand a word that wasn't translated for me, but they were so nice and smiley. They invited me to their festival. I wish I could've joined them, but I was not about to get stuck out in the middle of the desert for the night.
After a while some guy passed out from the heat and all the bodies pushing. He looked like he was dead because his eyes didn't close and everyone freaked out, but they didn't stop the bus. Oh no! They stood him up and smacked him a couple times and eventually after some very interesting shuffling around, got him a seat.

Well, that is about it for now. More adventures in India to come later.

Oh yeah! If any of you faithful blog-readers wants something specific (and small) from India, send me an email telling me what it is so I can start to look for it. I haven't bought anything so far, because I can't really carry much, but I'm planning to start buying stuff in a few weeks when I'm around Darjeeling and Calcutta. If no requests, I'll probably just bring back a box of crap and let people choose from it. Sorry, but there is a lot of stuff here in India and while it is all cool to look at, almost none of it is actual useful in daily life. So anyways, let me know...

Pushkar & Udaipur

2009-02-20T01:42:00.000-08:00

Holy Cow!

Here's a horse all dressed up for a wedding parade. There were at least two weddings every night. There is a big procession of people walking through the streets, clogging up traffic, with a group of young men dancing in the middle and lots of people walking around them, small boys holding weird lanterns plugged into a very loud generator at the back, a band and loudspeakers, and a serious man (the groom?) sitting on a fancy horse.

A big Hindu shrine in Udaipur (above).

Below: all shots from the city palace in Udaipur. Udaipur was the Mewar capital. The Mewars are the only part of India that never caved in to the British.

Sun God

In case you haven't guessed it, I'm in Udaipur now after a couple days in Pushkar.

Pushkar was a small little place with a holy lake and lots of western tourists. It was a pretty relaxing place to hang out. I got to meet up with my friend Jody, who I met in Varanasi. On our first day we walked up a big hill to the Sunrise Temple. The temple itself wasn't much, but the view of Pushkar was great.

Last night I took my first sleeper bus (kind of gross- smelled like pee everywhere in the bus) to Udaipur. Surprisingly, I managed to get a little sleep, despite the frequent stops with families jumping on and making a big raucous each time. I have been keeping myself going with chai tea all day and will probably crash soon.

I plan to be here for a few days, then I start the move southward to the heat and humidity.

Jaipur

2009-02-15T04:40:00.001-08:00

this elephant is carved from a single stone. it's one of a set and is inside the city palace walls, in front of one of the great gates.

a silver urn, taller than me. it was made to hold holy water from the ganges river. it was the only water that the maharaja would use (for everything).

My favorite part of the city palace was a courtyard that has 4 gates, one to represent each season. This one with the peacocks represents summer, then you have monsoon, spring and winter.

The photos below are all from Amber Fort, north of Jaipur.

Hello from Jaipur! I have been here a few days and will leave tomorrow for Pushkar. I have mostly been taking it easy here, seeing a few sights, eating plenty of curry and naan, and resting. Jaipur is called the "Pink City" because the original part of the city is inside a walled area and the wall and all of it's buildings are painted pink. The architecture is really nice and in the center they have the City Palace Museum, which is where the maharaja lived, once upon a time. It is now a museum, which is great, because I was able to go in there and have a good look around.
Today I took a bus out to Amber Fort, which is about 11km north of Jaipur. It is set up in the hills and it is stunning. It's better than other forts I've seen so far, because it was actually used as a residence and not only a fort.
I am staying in a guest house in the new city (which is the expansion outside the pink city walls). It's pretty modern- there are stores like LaCoste and United colors of benetton- but it's still India, which chai shops, stands along the road, men randomly pissing in the street. Jaipur seems to have it's fair share of pushy sales people. I've been approached more than once in the last few days by men pretending to want to have a normal conversation for the sake of cultural exchange, claiming they're not selling anything, and then within 2 yards trying to sell me something. In the last couple of weeks I've gotten pretty good at feigning deafness, which sometimes makes me feel guilty, but is also a survival tool.
I have also met a few really great people. Like the guy working at the restaurant where I had dinner yesterday. When he found out I am half Hungarian, he told me that his first English teacher was a Hungarian guy. We had a really great conversation about Obama and the Indian government and crazy Indian guys in the street. Another was the bus driver on the way back from Amber Fort. He didn't speak English and I don't speak Hindi, but he was really set on making sure I knew when to get off and which direction to walk in. So for all the jerks that I meet, there is at least one great person.
India is really growing on me. When I first got here, it was a little too much for the senses. But as I get used to the craziness, I realize that I really like it.

Well, I'm off to Pushkar tomorrow. I will post pictures again soon. Hope everyone is enjoying the rain back home!

Varanasi

2009-02-10T03:21:00.000-08:00

Hello from Varanasi! I arrived two days ago, and I loved it right away. The train ride was long and cold- I used all of my warm clothes to cover myself, and somehow i managed to sleep. I arrived to Allahabad at 5am, then went to book my onward ticket to Varanasi but the guy at the counter didn't understand and made me a ticket for right away. It worked out perfectly though, because I wasn't too keen on hanging out in Allahabad anyway, so I hopped into the ladies car of the next train.

I checked into my hotel, took my first hot shower in a few days, and went out to explore. The main attraction is the ghats along the Ganges River- these are the steps facing out toward the river. It is a major pedestrian thoroughfare and great for people watching.
The Ganga is very holy for Hindus, and everyday there are people bathing in it and washing clothes. If you die in Varanasi, you are very lucky because you will be released from the cycle of death and rebirth and you finally get to rest in peace. There are hospices around the ghats where people come to die. After they die, their body is covered in flowers and dipped in the Ganga. Then a funeral pyre is built on the banks and they are cremated. After about 3 hours, the oldest son puts the fire out with water from the Ganga and the ashes are spread in the river.
Yesterday I saw a few funeral processions and pyres.

In the old part of Varanasi on the other side of the ghats, there is a network of alleyways lined with homes, shops, restaurants and guest houses. It's pretty fun to wander around here and look at stuff. My guest house is in one of the alleys. You'd think you would get lost, but if you can find the river, you can always walk to the nearest ghat and take the steps up. From there, it's a familiar path.

These last few days I've been adjusting to India. I've been eating and walking as slowly as possible, trying to look around and take it all in. There are constantly people moving every which way, and it's easy to get overwhelmed. There are still a lot of touts trying to sell you stuff, but I am learning to feign deafness.
There are a lot of Korean tourists here in Varanasi. So far I have met only one American person, a guy who is from LA but now lives in China. There aren't a lot of solo travelers out here.

After Varanasi I am heading to the state of Rajasthan, which is supposed to be very beautiful. The guidebook says it's the picture perfect India that most people expect to see. I bought a shawl that can be used as a blanket for the 15 hour train ride, so it should be a bit more comfortable. Well I hope everyone back home is doing alright. I'll post pictures again soon!

Taj Mahal day

2009-02-07T01:54:00.000-08:00

Here is a cow just randomly standing in the road. There are a few of them around town. They do whatever they want and people just move around them.

This is Agra's main hub. My hotel is around the corner from here.

A shot of the mosque within the Taj Mahal grounds.

There's me! in front of the Taj Mahal!! It looks fake, doesn't it? It is much more beautiful in real life than it is in this photo. The sky is kinda dirty so that doesn't help. The entire thing is made of marble bricks and when you get up close, you can see the amazing inlay work. Stones for the inlay were brought from all over Asia and the Middle East.

Agra Fort

2009-02-06T03:40:00.000-08:00

50 rupees to anyone who can tell me what this is!

Giant bathtub, possibly used by an empress.

Hello, I'm in Agra now, home to the Taj Mahal. Sadly, the Taj is closed on Fridays so I will see it tomorrow, but today I walked over to the Agra Fort. It was built by an emperor in the 1500's and was the home to a Shah at one point. The grounds are really big, there is a lot of marble and red sandstone and it's really pretty. The Mughal emperor who had the Taj Mahal built for his wife was overthrown by one of his sons and imprisoned here at the fort where he eventually died. You can see the Taj Mahal from the fort (sort of, it's pretty smoggy) and the trusty guidebook says that he spent his last days "gazing wistfully at his Taj Mahal".

The room where I'm staying is larger than the last one, but there are a lot of mosquitoes. I spent the better part of yesterday evening murdering them one by one with my hefty guidebook. There is a nice rooftop with a view of the Taj though, so I can't complain too much.

Tomorrow evening I will take an 11 1/2 train ride to Allahabad. I requested a lower berth this time, because I had an upper berth on the last trip and it was comfortable for the first couple of hours, then I just really wanted to sit up without crouching. Or look out a window.
Maybe tomorrow I will have time to post pictures of the Taj Mahal, since there isn't much to do in Agra. I walked around town today and there are a lot of cows and pregnant dogs, monkeys climbing all over everything, dirt roads and rickshaw drivers. I did have a fantastic banana lassi yesterday and will probably have another later on today.

I think I am adjusting to India. When I first got here, I was a little overwhelmed with culture shock. Now that I'm a few days in, I can reflect and see that is what was going on with me. Traveling in India isn't so different from traveling in South America, actually. The one huge difference is that I can't speak Hindi, but then lots of folks speak English.

Well, I hope everyone likes the photos. I will try to put some of the Taj Mahal tomorrow.

day two in delhi

2009-02-04T07:42:00.000-08:00

Hi! I actually left the guest house today, so i have pictures. Above is my room at Sunny Guest House. Pretty basic as you can see, in other words it is a closet. It is clean though, and i am able to sleep in it, and the door locks so i am happy. My one complaint would be that there is some animal living inside my ceiling and it moves around a lot at night. It doesn't keep moving like a mouse, and it sounds a lot bigger. I did my best to ignore it and it helped when i turned on the light and looked for any holes it could escape through. I think it would be my worse nightmare if a giant Delhi rat came into my room while i was sleeping and i woke up and it was in there with me. Ok, i don't want to talk about this anymore.
The rest of the photos are of the Red Fort in Old Delhi. It was really beautiful in there as you can see. It used to be the palace of a Mughal emperor in the 1600's.

Getting there was... interesting. It is about 8km away from where I'm staying, so i took a pre-paid auto rickshaw to a gate near it so I could walk the rest of the way. The rickshaw ride was an experience in itself- I don't know how they do it! We almost hit a dog and i shrieked in the back seat. The driver thought that was pretty funny. Anyway, we hit some major traffic (i think we were where Old Delhi began) and the driver tried to tell me in Hindi that he couldn't go in there and I would have to take a bicycle rickshaw. I was pissed off and told him in English that he should have said something at the pre-paid stand. We argued for a bit, him speaking Hindi and me speaking English, and eventually I won (success!) and he paid the bicycle rickshaw driver to take me the rest of the way.

I probably sound like a big jerk, arguing with some poor driver over 10 rupees, but you have to understand how tired i get of arguing over every little thing that has to do with money. I would be happy to pay a little more to not have to deal with the hassle of getting ripped off or having to pay a hidden fee that wasn't mentioned from the beginning.

Anyway, the Red Fort was nice and peaceful compared to outside. After that, I went out into Old Delhi and wandered around. Remember yesterday when I said that India wasn't as crazy as I was expecting? It's because i was in the quiet part! There is all kinds of stuff going on in Old Delhi. You should see the wiring- AMAZING. It looks like a bird's nest. I really wanted to take more pictures, but I was already drawing enough attention to myself being a western woman alone in a bright red hoodie, so I decided to just take it in. Maybe next time the nest o' wires will make it to the blog. It was fun walking around. I found a nice mosque with some steps outside. I sat there for awhile and people-watched.

Tomorrow I head off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. I am taking the train there. The journey takes about 3 or 4 hours. After Agra, I think I'm going to Varanasi. At this point, the itinerary is very open, so if anyone has any suggestions, please email me and tell me what it is.
Until next time...

welcome to india

2009-02-03T04:59:00.000-08:00

hey- i got to Delhi this morning around 5am. As the plane hit the tarmac, everyone started getting up out of their seats and taking their luggage out of the cabinets. The flight attendants had a mini freakout for everyone to sit down, because the plane was still moving. Everyone ignored them and i swear i was the only person still in my seat. just a little glimpse for me of the organization of the indira gandhi international airport...
at the customs area, everyone had to get the NEW form, because the one they passed out on the plane was the OLD form. all the passengers huddled around where the new forms were being passed out and started filling them out right there, instead of getting the form and getting out of the way. after i finally elbowed my way into the mass for my form, i realized that it was almost identical to the old form. figures.
then i go out to get a pre-paid taxi, as the guidebook advises. my taxi driver was really nice but he wasn't sure exactly where my guest house is, so we pull over and ask a "tourist office" for directions, but as soon as the guy tells me to have a seat, i know something's up. i refused to sit down and kept asking the taxi driver why we were there. the tourist office guy tried to tell me that my map was old and that the guest house isn't there anymore. he asked for the phone number and called and put me on the phone with someone who said that they were full and that because they are full, he can't give me the address. then i hung up and the tourist office guy said he wants to help because i am new to this country and there are lots of scammers out there. when i asked him why i should trust him, he said he works for the government.
then i left and got back in the taxi. i told the driver a different hostel and he ended up taking me to the first one i asked for because "it will be better for you". so much for not knowing where it is.
remember that all this was happening at 5am and i was really grouchy and not having it, so of course i was fuming at the time, but now everything's ok. i got to my guest house, slept till 2pm, walked around a little.
tomorrow is a new day and i'll probably go see the red fort and the craft museum.
i already saw a cow walking across the street like it really was a god and traffic better stop.
i almost got ran over because they drive on the opposite side of the street here. that's something i wasn't expecting!
well that is all for now. i don't know when i'll next blog but hopefully it will be soon, and with pictures.

istanbul

2009-01-31T09:18:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, here I am in Istanbul... my friend Molly joined me the day before yesterday and we've been seeing all there is to see in town. There are too many beautiful, historic buildings here. Above is the Blue Mosque, so named for the tiles inside. It's a pretty impressive building- it has 6 minarets which at one point rivaled the mosque at Mecca. It's a functioning mosque so although tourists are allowed to go inside and take pictures, you need to take your shoes off and be respectful if you are in there during prayer time.

This was one of my favorite things we saw- the Underground Cistern. It is about one foot deep with fishes swimming around there and everything! It's a little creepy, but really beautiful. Strangely, it doesn't smell bad under there at all. The pillars all have different textures and as you can see, it is lit really nicely.

Here's a pillar with an upside-down Medusa head. There is another one, with the head turned on it's side. It is a mystery why they are upside down and sideways. I'm not clear on why the Medusa heads are down in the cistern.

After Molly and I ate lunch yesterday, we saw this dog sitting in the square, singing along to 3:00 prayers! It was really cute.

Here's another photo of the Blue Mosque.

Here's Molly petting one of the many feral cats around Istanbul.

Yesterday we visited a hammam (Turkish bath) and it was the best thing ever. The bathhouse is hundreds of years old and made of solid marble. The faucets were very old and it was really neat to be in there. Of course I don't have any pictures because taking pictures in a bathhouse is creepy. You will have to trust me when I tell you it was great and if you ever get the chance to come to Turkey, you have to try it.

Today we briefly visited the Asian side of Istanbul via the ferry boat. It was way too freezing cold today though, so we had to get back home to get warm again. What little we saw was interesting; it looked like everyday life. Very different from the touristy place that we're staying, where everyone comes out of their rug shop to bother you as you try to walk down the street.

Tomorrow we are taking a tour of the Bosphorous Strait. It should be pretty- hopefully not too cold.

Istanbul is really nice, and very large. It seems like a nice place to stay for awhile, longer than my short 6 days, to explore. It's pretty hilly which reminds me of San Francisco.

I leave for India in two days and I am not feeling ready at all. I think I might be a little homesick and maybe even nervous about the craziness of India. I have heard a lot of stories about how it's "nuts" over there, and in the past I always scoffed and thought "No problem!"... but now I'm having cold feet. Ready or not, here I go! I will take pictures of the madness and everyone can live vicariously through me and my visit to India. Wish me luck...

Safe arrıval to Istanbul, Turkey

2009-01-27T10:57:00.000-08:00

Hello, I arrıved to Turkey! Thıngs worked out really well because ı dıdn't have to pay any fee for mıssıng my flıght. Not sure why, but I dıdn't bother askıng. I arrıved around 8am to my pensıon, checked ın and promptly passed out for about 7 hours. I went to eat somethıng and have been walkıng around town. Actually I'm kınd of lost rıght now but I have lots of tıme and a map.

Istanbul ıs not at all what I was expectıng. After the chaos of Egypt, I feel lıke thıs place ıs a luxury resort. It ıs defınıtely more European than Mıddle East. At least from what lıttle I have seen so far. There are stıll beautıful prayer calls from the Blue Mosque but everyone seems to be much more European. The streets are really neat- lots of cobblestones and wındy streets and hılls.

Molly gets here tomorrow ın the evenıng and I am anxıously awaıtıng her arrıval. I'm holdıng off on the major sıtes untıl she gets here so that we can see them together. Tomorrow I am goıng to walk around and explore some of these wındy streets, hopefully fıgure out how to use the publıc transportatıon so I can get to the aırport to pıck Molly up, and eat some more delıcıous Turkısh food. Tonıght I had lentıl soup and pureed eggplant and ıt was really good.
Well I wıll wrıte agaın soon and put up some more pıctures of beautıful Istanbul.

missed flight to turkey

2009-01-26T10:44:00.000-08:00

Hello. I have officially missed my flight to Turkey because it left at 3:50am and not pm. Duh. But now i will never, ever do that again.
For the time being, I am killing the newly found 12 hours (only 6 more to go!) in Amman.
I don't remember, but i think i haven't posted pictures of Petra yet. I will do it soon, maybe. Right now the camera cable is nestled in the bottom of my pack and i don't have the will to dig it out.
Sarahima and Annette left yesterday morning and i am sad without them. Luckily a friend we met in Petra has been hanging out in Amman for the last few days so i have a buddy to pass the time with.
Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I will get to Istanbul soon (inch'allah) and I will write another post when i am settled.

goodbye egypt, hello jordan

2009-01-23T13:12:00.000-08:00

Here's a shot of Rahima's cousins in front of the Alexandria library- Salem, Annette (not a cousin), Sarag, Rahima, and Sara.
We stayed with them for a couple nights and they took us all over Alexandria and showed us just how much we have been overpaying for EVERYTHING in Egypt. Apparently there are prices, and then there are tourist prices. They are a lot of fun and I am hoping that they'll make it out to SF one day so I can show them what things are like in the land of the infidels. I'm pretty sure it'll blow their minds.

Here's Annette and Rahima buying a kilo of bananas (at regular prices with Aunt Nahid standing by) for our 30+ hour journey from Alexandria to Petra, Jordan.

I knew from past experience that Egyptian public transport never leaves on time and always takes much longer than expected. We took a bus from Alex to Cairo, waited around for a couple hours then caught a freezing cold night bus with no bathroom to Nuweiba, Egypt. We arrived at 5am and settled in at an outdoor coffee/sheesha (hooka) place until the ferry ticket office opened at 9am. Then we moved our stuff over to the ticket office until 5pm, when the ferry finally loaded everyone up (supposed to leave at 2pm). Luckily we met a good crew of people while waiting and we've been hanging out with them since. Then we took the ferry from Nuweiba to Aqaba, Jordan and then a two hour taxi ride to Petra.

Petra is beautiful! (Thank you Donna, for the tip)

There are crazy giant sandstone walls everywhere and facades carved into them. Petra used to be a city of 30,000 and these days it is one of the new 7 wonders of the world. The place is riddled with caves, tourists, and Bedouins trying to sell you a ride on a donkey.

We spent the whole day here, hiked all over the place. I got some beautiful pictures and was amazed every time I turned the corner.

Here is a little boy selling us postcards in the middle of our photo op in front of the Treasury. The little guy wouldn't take no for an answer so I pulled him into our picture (not shown) and he smiled then as soon as the camera went down, he continued with his sales pitch.

I can't remember the name of this building at the moment, but it is gorgeous. Inside the ceiling is also sandstone but looks like marble with pinks, grays, and blacks.

Me in front of the "monastery".

Jordan is completely different from Egypt in the following ways:

1. The use of headlights at night is not considered a waste of battery.

2. People don't hassle you to buy things.

3. Taxis are impeccably clean.

4. The Jordanian dinare is equal to the British pound and everything is expensive.

Bear in mind that so far I've only seen the port and Petra so far, so my observations are to be taken with a grain of salt.

Tomorrow we head to Amman via the Dead Sea by taxi. Sarahima and Annette have a flight out of Jordan the day before I do. :( I'm really gonna miss their company, but I am looking forward to meeting my friend Molly in Istanbul!

We got to catch the inauguration on tv in Egypt, but I couldn't hear any of what Obama was saying because it was dubbed in Arabic. I am hoping that someone taped it for me so I can watch it when I get back. Maybe youtube will be an option if I ever find a fast computer.

I am reading Dreams From My Father and I love Obama more with every page. I'm really proud and hopeful for the new president. Already things are different for the traveling American. When I was in South America 5 years ago, the war in Iraq had just started, and I got yelled at a lot and I was asked "why is your country doing this?!"; but now people don't yell at me, and I've had some really interesting conversations about politics.

Yesterday the Jordanian customs officer who stamped my passport smiled at me and said "Obama!" as he handed back my passport. Things are looking up for traveling Americans.

Well, I hope you have all enjoyed reading about the adventures of Jenny. I will write more in a few days.

Luxor to Cairo to Alexandria... I hate Egyptian computers.

2009-01-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

Alexandria library

Our 8th meal of the day.

The Egyptian museum.

Sarahima's family in Cairo.

The Sphynx.

Karnak Temple in Luxor.

Hi, I am in Alexandria now. I'ts been a whirlwind last two days. We spent three nights in Luxor and got to see the Valley of the Kings and the Karnak Temple. We then took a train to Cairo, which was better than taking the bus because you get to walk around on a train and there was more space for our legs. The bathroom was pretty awful- a pee puddle on the ground and a door that wouldn't lock. When we got to Cairo we tried to take a taxi to our hostel but this took about an hour, because our cabbie didnt understnad what we were talking about and didn't know where our hostel was. After driving in circles all around downtown Cairo, we finally arrived to our hostel and checked in for a night, slept for about 6 hours before heading out to the pyramids at 6:30am. We saw the pyramids at Giza in the morning and got to go inside the Great pyramid... not recommended for claustrophobic people, because you have to crouch down for most of the hike up into the pyramid. The room at the end of the path was a completely sealed chamber and was very Indiana Jones.

Later in the day we met up with Sarahima's aunt Nahid. It has been 14 years since they last saw each other. Right away we felt the difference of walking around with a local. Later in the evening we went to Aunt Nahid's cousin's house and were fed a giant meal. We were invited to stay the night and we enjoyed talking to Sarah's cousin's. They fed us several meals after dinner and we were stuffed to the gills.

Today we took a minibus to to Alexandria, where Aunt Nahid lives. We walked around a little bit tonight but we will see more tomorrow. I will try to post more pictures later in the week but right now I am having a typical Egyptian computer experience. The computer is having major issues and the guys who work here appear to know even less about how to fix a computer than I do. Meanwhile they are talking about us in Arabic while laughing and staring at us. The men in Egypt can be a little crude sometimes, although I should say that the people that I've met here that I was actually able to communicate with have been extremely kind and generous.

More news is that I am definitely not going to Israel. Aside from being disgusted with what is going on there, it doesn't seem safe and I have changed my ticket to leave from Amman, Jordan.

For now I'm signing out in frustration, but just know that I am doing ok and I am safe. I also miss home at this moment.

more from Hurghada

2009-01-13T06:48:00.000-08:00

Me and my buddies from the crew of "Pegasus".

Hello from Hurghada. Today is our last day here. Sarah and Annette finished their scuba certification and they are now official open water divers. I got to spend two days on the boat with them, which was very nice. The Red Sea is beautiful! The water is extremely turquoise and "delicious" is the best word I can find to describe it. The boat was a lot of fun. We got to eat lunch on it and the crew prepared really good Egyptian food for us. They were also a lot of fun. They live on the boat and while the girls were diving, I got to horse around with the crew and learn a few Arabic words. I was sad to say goodbye to them- they are quite a cast of characters. I think that I could live on a boat for a little while. Especially a dive boat. I started learning how to help the divers out of their gear and I was watching how to tie all the ropes and it doesn't seem like a bad life at all.

Yesterday I got to go snorkeling when we anchored near a coral reef shelf. The life underwater is amazing! When I first got underwater I didn't really understand what is so great about diving in the Red Sea but as soon as we got to the coral, I got it. We saw lion fish, parrot fish, cornet fish and brain coral, among other things. It made me realize how important coral reefs are and how fragile the sea and our little planet is.

Hurghada itself isn't all that interesting. It is a resort town (maybe I already mentioned this) and there are a lot of half-finished high rises, which is really depressing.

Last night we went on a wild goose chase all around town looking for the bus station so we could buy a ticket to Luxor for tomorrow. I found myself wishing yet again that I had a magical power that would allow me to speak every language in existence, as we got bad direction after bad direction on how to get to the bus station.

I have learned how to say "good morning", "hello", and the all-important "thank you". I use all three phrases in just about every encounter.

Oh yeah, I am in the process of changing my plane tickets so that I can fly to Turkey from somewhere that is not Israel. The final straw for me was an email from Joyful who has a friend who sent her some pictures of Gaza. I was really looking forward to visiting Israel, but it just doesn't seem to be in the cards for me on this trip. It's pretty heart-wrenching to talk about the violence there with Egyptians. Everyone is very concerned about the citizens who are dying there, and there is a lot of hope that Barack Obama can do something to change things in the middle east. It seems like a tall order for one man, but I am also interested to see how things will change once he takes office.

Well, I will write again from Luxor, which is a city on the Nile River and is supposed to be green and beautiful. I hope everything's great back home and look forward to getting emails from everyone about how they are doing.

alligators in our hotel room!

2009-01-11T07:32:00.000-08:00

Isn't this adorable? The housekeeping staff at our hotel make new towel sculptures everyday and so far this is the best. The shirt is Annette's soccer jersey/pj top and the eyes, nostrils and teeth (unpictured) are made of tissue or something.

I am writing to you from Hurghada, Egypt on the Red Sea. Rahima and Annette are taking a scuba certification course here for the first few days of our trip in Egypt. Today I got to tag along on the boat with them while they dived among coral reef. The boat was comfy, and much more interesting then the town itself. It is a resort town and it is low season, so there are very few tourists and lots of plasticky tourist shops. It's hard to dodge the people trying to sell you stuff because there aren't very many tourists. Another bizarre thing is that there are hardly any Egyptian women walking around. I think I've seen 5 since we arrived. It sort of creeps me out. Where are they?

Here's a photo of Annette and Sarahima in full gear.

SCARY!!! You'd think this method would work, but I am still smoking, as are most of the Egyptians. When we went to the little cornerstore and to buy a sim card at the phone shop, the shopkeepers offered us a cigarette to be polite. It is a little surreal to smoke in the market while chatting/shopping for snacks.

Pretty bottles in a window.

What do you call this thing? A minaret? Anyway, prayer music blasts out of it three times a day.

Here are some photos from my 8 hour layover in Amsterdam. This building was designed by the same guy who did the Pompidou Centre in Paris. It looks like a ship, but it is not.

Underneath is a shot from the canal tour I took.

My plan was to walk around Amsterdam while I was there but I was so freezing cold and exhausted from the overnight flight that I only managed to eat some soup and walk one block. Then I saw the canal tour and took it. I had to go back to the warm airport afterwards and take a nap. The Amsterdam airport is possibly the nicest airport I've ever visited. Definitely the place to be if you have a long layover. They have a hotel inside the terminal which you can rent by four hour increments which has it's own bathroom and a real bed (I definitely would have taken a nap there if I had seen it in the beginning) and lots of shops and restaurants with decent food to distract you enough to keep you awake.

We will spend two more nights in Hurghada to finish the scuba certification, then we are heading south to Luxor and Aswan, then back to Cairo to visit the pyramids, then to Alexandria to visit Rahima's aunt, then probably we are leaving Egypt. We're not sure yet what the plan is... we were supposed to go to Israel but I'm a little gun shy these days, so we might go to Jordan and I'll just pop over to Israel long enough to catch my flight out of Tel Aviv.

Egypt!

2009-01-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

Hi, I made it to Egypt in one piece (complete with luggage!). The first thing I saw after getting my pack was Sarahima's smiling face on the other side of the security gate. She and Annette had arrived from Spain a few hours earlier and waited for me at the airport.
After reuniting, we took a cab to the hostel and slept for a few hours, then this morning we got up and headed to the bus station for a 6 and a half hour bus ride from Cairo to Hurghada. There wasn't much to see out the window, just a lot of sand. I slept on and off for the bus trip and I am still quite exhausted.
So far, Egypt is good. There was a prayer call around 5am and I remembered that they had that in Senegal when I went to see Mary and Dan. Our bus driver played prayer music and the kid who runs the internet cafe is playing it right now. It is really beautiful, a capella melody. I can't tell what's being said because my Arabic isn't what it used to be, but that just makes it more mysterious.
I am grateful to be traveling with friends in this very different part of the world. It is so much easier to navigate the overly aggressive touts and to figure out what to do with more brains thinking about it.
Tomorrow Sarah and Annette are starting their 4 day scuba course and I will walk them to class and maybe do a bit of exploring. I will take some photos and post them in the next few days.

Learning Lessons in NYC

2009-01-05T16:09:00.000-08:00

I never thought that i'd be using a TTI technologies computer, but here i am at the HI in NYC doing just that. $1 for 10 minutes! what a rip!
Anyway... I landed safe and sound yesterday afternoon at JFK international. Unfortunately, my baggage did not. In fact, it never left Mexico City and i'm not sure that it has yet. The official story is that our plane was too heavy so they left some of the luggage there and it was coming on the next flight. There were about 40 of us altogether, and I stuck around until the agent entered my form into the computer so I could get a claim number since I don't have a phone and I wasn't really sure what the hostel's phone number or zip code was. This took about 3 hours. I was second to last and the agent confided in me that it was likely that our bags weren't coming anytime soon, because Mexicana had another screw-up earlier in the day. It has been about 24 hours now so at this point I am just hoping that it gets here as in New York before I leave for Cairo tomorrow. On the upside, it is surprising how little I need. I had packed my ipod, book, all the warm clothes I have, an extra pair of underwear, and my passport stuff, and so far I've only bought a few toiletries and a t-shirt and I'm actually pretty comfortable.
I went to the Empire State Building (pity I didn't have my camera) and Times Square and have been walking all over Manhattan. It is cold!!!!! and beautiful. New York is so lovely and the people are so pushy and it's a pretty amazing city.
I had one other major problem today which also worked out. The airline I am flying with tomorrow doesn't seem to have a phone number. I went on a wild goose chase armed with a $20 phone card (almost gone now- thanks again TTI) and still do not know the phone number for them. I was able to confirm my flights tomorrow with the travel agent back in SF. Apparently there is some secret system that travel agents have access to that is directly connected to the airlines' flight information.
So, that is me right now. Cooling my heels waiting for long lost luggage and a flight to Egypt to meet Sarah and Annette. I hope everyone's new year is going great so far. I will post pictures as soon as I have a camera again. Until soon....

¡Que Viva México!

2009-01-03T21:09:00.000-08:00

Well, my time in Mexico is almost over. Joon and I both have to catch a plane tomorrow morning. His plane is bound for home, mine to NYC for two days and then on to Egypt.
We have a tv in our hotel room and it is the first tv I have watched in a long while. Today I learned that there is some serious shit going on in Israel and Gaza and I am wondering if it´s really a good idea that I visit Israel right now (or in 2 weeks). So I will discuss with my soon to be travel partners, the amazing Sarahima and Annette, who are traveling the world on a 10 month trip. I will meet them in Egypt on Wednesday and the plan was to work our way overland to Tel Aviv, but we shall see.

The important thing I want to say is that I love Mexico from the bottom of my heart, and I feel so lucky that I got to be here for the last 2 1/2 months, and really I don´t want to leave. So I will come back one day. The things I love about Mexico are too many to count really, but here are a few: cute babies, first class buses which are more comfortable than planes, huevos rancheros, corn on a stick with mayonnaise and cheese and chili powder, fireworks, scary bus rides, people selling stuff on the metro, aztec soup, affordable avocadoes, houses painted every color imaginable, COLOR EVERYWHERE, beautiful, kind people, young men helping old ladies crossing the street, danger (translation: FUN) everywhere you look, and so much more.

I feel especially lucky that my family and Joon got to come here to share it all with me. I am looking forward to seeing Sarahima, Annette, and Molly on soon-to-come parts of my trip.

There is a lot more traveling to come in the next four months, and it should be exciting because I will have no knowledge of the language in any other places I go, so stay tuned!

Me and Joon on one of those ridiculous top of the bus tours today.

A pretty house in Condesa- fancy neighborhood in DF.

happy new year!

2009-01-01T10:44:00.000-08:00

wow, i can`t believe it´s 2009. i guess it`s because i wasn`t really thinking about it, but it seems like the whole year just snuck right past me.
joon and i had a great new year in the zòcalo, where there were plenty of fireworks and kids, teenagers, and families all enjoying them. once again mexico outdoes the us with danger/fun. joon bought every type of firework available, and more than once sparks flew onto his clothes. miraculously, he escaped with all ten fingers.
tomorrow we head for mexico city, the belly of the beast that is mexico. we will spend two days there and then joon has to head back to sf and i go on to nyc. i am looking forward to spending two days in my home country, where i plan to eat bagels, drink coffee, see the empire state building, and watch american movies (without subtitles). i don`t think that i`m prepared for the freezing cold weather of new york, especially after i`ve been spoiled with 80 degree weather every day in oaxaca, but i have a jacket, hat, gloves and a scarf, and i`ll take my chances.
i am hoping that everyone at home is safe and warm and enjoying the rose parade on tv. i miss you all and hope that you have a great new year!

Tsang family Xmas 2008

2008-12-26T14:26:00.000-08:00

The chapulines catches Joon`s eye...

Seriously considering it....

Eating the chapulines!

For the record, Joon is only the 2nd non-Oaxacan i have met so far who was brave enough to put a chapuline in his mouth. The Oaxacans love them- they are fried grasshoppers with some red stuff on them (chile?)- and I actually see people standing around with a ziploc bag just munching on them. Joon did not like them all that much, but he gets extra credit for trying it.

The family all arrived in these last few days, and we have been walking and eating our way through Oaxaca. Here is a shot of Joon, Derek, and my mom eating at a sidewalk stand on Christmas morning.

Lunchtime at the 20 de noviembre market- my dad and Derek enjoying menudo soup.

Joon after he finished his enchilada at Central de Abastos market.

On the way home from Central de Abastos, we stopped at the nieves area to cool off with some ice cream.

Then we all headed home for our daily nap/resting period while my mom, notorious for her endless reserves of energy, stayed out wandering the streets. This is our daily routine.

Christmas was weird, being in a different country and all, but wonderful. We went out for dinner and I had some really great soup.

I have a pretty awful cough that started this morning. It is a dry, itchy cough. So far I`ve been drinking tea with lemon and honey and using cough drops. If anyone has any other suggestions for remedies, I will be happy to hear them.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!

oaxaca 9

2008-12-21T14:30:00.000-08:00

Jenny, Juri, Nora, Erin, and Kaori at the fair.

The entire spanish school sampling ´nieves´ (translation: oaxacan ice cream) outside La Soledad church.

hello, once again i am having trouble with my camera. my other memory stick is arriving on wednesday with joon so for now i am holding out on buying another. hopefully it is just a memory stick thing. we shall see.

the family gets here tomorrow evening! i am looking forward to it very much.

also, gracie from the hostel back at home is coming to pto escondido with her family and we are going to try to meet up in the next couple of weeks. i am so lucky to get to be with loved ones on this trip.

the other night some friends and i went to the fair. it was a lot of fun. i realized that i don´t usually go on rides or play games at the fair, because everything always costs so much. but this time i have the exchange rate in my favor, so i went on two rides and played the best shooting game of all time. there are these glass cases, with little bands made of dolls in them, and if you hit the target, the band plays a song for you. i tried to take a picture of this wonderful invention, but that is when my camera decided it wasn´t going to cooperate anymore.

i am putting yet more fascinating stencils up. i don´t understand how there is so much! and it is all so cool i have to share it. i showed my pictures to nora the other day and she asked me where i see all of them. she grew up here and said that she has never seen it before. i guess i´m just on the look-out for it. she also enlightened me to the fact that in times of political turbulence, people tend to use the image of benito juarez (considered one of oaxaca´s great leaders). back in 2006 there was a lot of stuff going on in oaxaca, and maybe that is when all these stencils started showing up?

anyway, in the next few days you will be seeing a lot of photos of me and my family doing touristy stuff for the holidays. i hope everyone is doing well and that you have a nice holiday season.

Oaxaca 8/ Posadas

2008-12-18T13:12:00.000-08:00

Hi! Tomorrow is my last day of class at Oaxaca International. I´m feeling pretty sad about it. I really like the people at the school and my classmates, and learning Spanish. I really want to be fluent one day and I think I will have to move to a Spanish speaking country to do it. The good news is, I found out today that I have learned all the verb tenses there are, so now all that´s left is perfecting my subjuntivo and beefing up on vocabulary and slang.

Here is a photo of the courtyard of my apt. building. I saw doña Lulu yesterday, putting up more Christmas decorations and she confessed to me that she loves to put them up, but hates to take them down. I understand completely. The building looks really nice with all the lights and angels and the 3 kings.My door is the open one on the bottom left.

Two nights ago some teachers from the school took us to the first posada of the year. It is a Christmas tradition where women from the community (las madrinas) get together and put on a little neighborhood party. They make food, drinks, and get music and piñatas going. They do all this out of the goodness of their hearts, for the community and for the sake of tradition. It is sort of like a SF street fair except no one is charging you any money for anything. Mexicans are so cool!Here´s a photo of my ponche. I hope I´m spelling that right. It is like a tea with cinnamon, sugarcane, and some unidentified fruits. Kind of like cider.

Here´s a picture of one of my teachers, Nora, and one of my classmates, Erin.

A shot of the madrinas passing out food. There was media tortas (half sandwiches) and tamales. mmmmmmm....

Krazy Kaori showing her media torta and tamale.

An action shot of grammar class. Kaori, Juri, me and our teacher Judith. We have grammar for 2 hours, a short break, then conversation for 2 hours.

Oops- this picture is supposed to be in the ´posters for simone´ post.

Oaxaca posters for Simone

2008-12-18T12:54:00.000-08:00

Back in late Oct/early Nov when I was in Oaxaca the first time and I met Jake and Simone, Simone pointed out all the cool posters Oaxaca has. It seems to be the way they advertise music and political stuff here, and there are new posters all the time. They are mostly pasted onto the stone walls, but sometimes they are hung in shop windows. Anyway, I am putting some photos up here in honor of Simone so she can see what is up these days.

oxaca 7

2008-12-14T18:00:00.000-08:00

Haha- here is a picture that my friend Lucy Pickles took. She was fascinated by this man selling balloons in the Zòcalo and looking bored and pissed off. She threatened to sit next to him and strike up a conversation but we were able to talk her out of it.

Pictures 2-7 are of this amazing corner covered with all kinds of beautiful stuff. I think it has been changing, because one part looks different from the first time i saw it two weeks ago. I am going to make a habit of walking by to see if there is anything new.

Up, up, and away!!!! Hooray for ninjas!

Today i discovered that i am a slave to caffeine. I didn`t drink any coffee today because i slept in late and by the time i had a throbbing headache, it was too late to drink coffee. uuuuuuuuuuuugh. I feel like the picture above, minus the gun.

I didn`t do much today but last night i was walking around and took some pictures of more graffiti. Yesterday was the celebration of Noche de las Luces (Night of Lights) and there was a parade complete with marching band, of course, and they were passing out these cool candle holders with windguards shaped like flowers. Sadly, i did not take any pictures so you will just have to rely on my one sentence description.

Some classmates and I went out for dinner and i had the best wood-fired pizza ever. Thank god for wood fired stoves and goat cheese!

I went to the big movie theatre today and it was wonderful to watch a movie. I saw ´Web de Mentiras` or `Body of Lies`. It is weird because i haven`t seen any ads for movies in 2 months so i had to just guess which movie to watch.

Also something funny is that they guard the exits when the movie ends, so you have to go out of the theatre. I guess they really don`t want you to get a two-fer while you`re there.

Tomorrow I start my last week of Spanish class. It is a little bit sad because I really like the people at my school, and class has been fun.

oaxaca 6

2008-12-13T14:19:00.000-08:00

Hi! The virgen of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico. Yesterday was her big day, and here in Oaxaca they had a giant fair in her honor at a park near my house called El Llano. The best part was the ´toritos´ (little bulls) and the giant tower of fireworks.
There is a torito in the picture above, right before it is set on fire. So, they light it and all those little white things start shooting sparks and someone holds it on their head and runs around (i guess you could call it dancing...) in the street with it as it shoots fireworks all over the place and the wheels on the thing spin around. It is pretty amazing really, and I got video of it on my camera but i can`t figure out how to post it on the blog (Albert Simply Put, please help!).
Then, they have this big tower thing set up with wheels and fireworks all over it, and they light that on fire and it whistles and spins around. It is deliciously dangerous and fun to watch. One of the wheels actually flew off and went spinning (on fire of course) into the crowd, between two fire brigade members, and onto the leg of an innocent bystander. We would never allow this to happen in the US and it is one of the reasons why we are no fun.

Before the fireworks, I went to my teacher Nora`s language academy to watch her sing in French for her school`s posada. Some of my classmates went too. clockwise starting with me, because you know who i am: me, Laura, her boyfriend Carlos, Alyssa, Nora.

A donkey at the fair.

These are two of my classmates. They are Juri and Kaori from Japan. They are probably the two cutest people I have ever met.

oaxaca 4?5? can`t remember...

2008-12-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

Hi! I am experimenting with the picture placement and i don`t know where things are going to end up. Sorry if it is unreadable later.

Today our language school set up a tour of the ex-convent Santa Catalina. It was a convent at one point, then when Benito Juarez became the president of Mèxico, he made all the Catholic buildings public and the convent served as Oaxaca`s City Hall and the jail. Then, years later they city decided to restore the building and today it is a hotel. The cool thing is that there are a lot of ghost sightings here, and although our tour guide was extremely nervous about talking about ghosts (for public relations reasons), we got him to tell us a story about a family who saw nuns with blood all over themselves walking around the hotel. The family thought it was a show of some sort, and wrote a letter to the mgt. that `the nun show was inappropriate for children`.

After the tour, some of us went to get a drink and we saw one of the many marching band parades snaking it`s way down the street. (There`s a picture above along with the angry line of traffic behind the parade.) This particular parade was to educate people about some sort of ritual cleansing. They were burning sage and splashing the sideliners with plants dipped in special herb water.

The top picture is me with some of my classmates (left to right:Jenny, Lucy (eng.), Shirley (hk), Chris (eng.), Kaori (jpn) and Juri (jpn).

Also featured is a fountain in El Llano, a cool park up the road from my apt., Lucy in a funky little coffee shop around the corner from there, and more street art.

There are sooooo many cool things to see in Oaxaca. I am discovering more every day. I`m really glad i decided to spend a whole month here. I`m also really appreciating having a routine with school in the mornings and hanging out with classmates in the evenings. It is also nice not to pack up every 3 days and move.

I found a neat little lending library that has a lot of books in English. It was a huge blessing becuase books in Mexico are really expensive (like 30 usd) because of taxes, but my book only cost 10 pesos (less than a dollar!).

Well that is all for today. There is a big festival for the Virgin of Guadalupe coming up on Friday- I will be sure to take some pictures and post them soon.

Hope everyone is doing well!

oaxaca 4

2008-12-08T18:39:00.001-08:00

Let´s see, what is new here....

It´s a new week in Spanish class and now i am learning about the subjunctive.

Today i found two cool coffee shops, one of which shows movies for free.

I am smoking Faro brand cigarettes, which is a Mexican brand that one of my Spanish teachers first smoked when he was 10. The ones I have are menthols which aren´t my favorite but I really wanted the tin box (...pretty) so I am pushing through.

This weekend I went to Huajuapan for the day. It is a smaller city to the northwest of Oaxaca, to visit a friend of a friend of Joon´s. There wasn´t a whole lot to do there, but the drive was really gorgeous. So far, I´ve driven in and out of Oaxaca 6 times and I am always in awe of the mountains. Actually, they look a lot like California. Kind of a cross between the chaparral in southern Cali. and the Sonoma area just before you hit the redwoods on the 101. Blonde hills and oak trees, plus throw in some nopal and there you have it!

Today I visited the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo and there was some cool video stuff. Also, the paintings/drawings of a man in the woods above. The weird toy picture is of bubbles with toys attached to the caps. They were selling them in the Zócalo this weekend. And last but not least, a photo of a ¨catrina¨ that I saw today. So mexicana....

Oaxaca 3

2008-12-05T14:57:00.000-08:00

Here is the patio of my new apt. It`s not the most flattering picture to start with, but i don`t have a lot of knowledge about blog technology and haven`t figured out yet how to put things in the exact order i want. Anyway, it is a view looking into the kitchen. Note the water jug to the right side of the door. This is a source of glee for me every time i use it! Access to plenty of drinking water has been one of the things i miss most about home. Here you can`t drink right out of the tap, you have to buy water or boil it. Since I`ve been staying in hostels, I`ve mostly been a slave to the bottled water industry lately.

And here is the kitchen. It has everything I need... except an oven. No baking for me in Oaxaca, but there is the stove and cooking utensils.

My bedroom. The bathroom is on the left side of the picture, where the door-that-you-can`t-really-tell-is-a-door is.

The dining table.

The sitting area.

Don`t be fooled! This apt. looks a lot bigger than it is when you split it up into little pictures. It`s actually quite small but plenty big for one person. It is clean and quiet and my own space, and I love it. The landlady`s name is Sra. Lulu and she is really nice and mom-like. She has a tiny black dog named Rocky that is obsessed with a certain black rubber ball and he has the run of the place.

My first attempt at making home made totopos (nachos). They turned out ok and I made some guacamole and beans and rice for dinner last night. Avocadoes here are 25 pesos for a kilo, which translates to $2.50 for 6 avocadoes! Needless to say, I`ve been gorging myself while i can...

Here are a couple shots of a guy making chocolate in a chocolate shop. They have the machines out in front for the tourists like me to see how it`s made. They put cacao beans, cinnamon, and sugar in this grinding machine and mix it all up. Oaxaca is famous for it`s chocolate and it is really, really good. It has a lot of cacao in it so it`s kind of coarse and a little bitter.

Here is a shot of all the students at my language school. We had just finished an activity of textile painting. The señora in the middle was our teacher for the activity.

Oaxaca is still beautiful. The weather is really dry and hot in the daytime, and cold in the mornings. It`s weird because inside any building it is really, really cold, but as soon as you step into the open air it`s warm, and hot in the sun.

Yesterday I saw a young guy (early 20`s) helping an old lady cross the street. He looked like a ruffian and yet he was helping this little old lady. Why doesn`t that ever happen in the US?

Language school is going well. I`m not learning much new grammar stuff, but the 4 hours of hearing Spanish spoken and having conversations about things other than what I want to eat and how much is a dorm bed is really helping. In the conversation part of the class, though, I keep searching for words and not only can I not find the Spanish word, but sometimes the English word escapes me too. I guess sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.

Other than that, life here is pretty tranquilo. I am eating well and sleeping a lot.

I hope things at home are good for everyone too. Only a few more weeks until Joon and my family get here and I`m looking forward to it a lot. Until next time...

Oaxaca 2

2008-12-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

Hi, People. There will be no pictures because the fancy new digital camera is temporarily out of service. All the new pictures I take say: Unidentifiable Image instead of showing me the image and if anyone knows how to fix this, please leave a comment or email me.
Anyway, now for an update on how Jenny is doing.
I found a really cute one bedroom apt this weekend. It has a little kitchen and a little dining room/living room, and a bedroom and bathroom. Its in a big apt building that is much more attractive and open than the apt buildings I am used to. The land lady is really nice too, and there is a little dog named Rocky who lives there too. I move in tomorrow, and I am very excited.
More exciting news is that today I started language school. We had some grammar review stuff and a conversation part where we talked about how rural Mexican families have 12 kids and city families only have 4 or less. We also talked about how the American economy is screwed and how it affects Mexico.
I like the other people in my class and today i got to hang out with one of my classmates after class was over. We had lunch together and she accompanied me while I walked around asking people where you can get a digital camera fixed.
Oaxaca is still beautiful. I am feeling really inspired by all the art here and the colorful buildings. I found more stencil graffiti and I am in awe of it. I took a lot of pictures but I can`t see any of them yet. I am planning on going back if I have to and stealing some techniques for future silk screening projects.
There are also a lot of free museums and tons of galleries. Today I went to the museum of textile and saw some ridiculously ornate, handmade textiles- everything from blouses to chaps.
The warm weather is holding up, which I am happy about. It`s a little dry but the dry heat is welcome after the humid Carribean coast where nothing really drys all the way.
Well that is all for now. I hope I`m not blogging too much. Just trying to stay in touch and when I write in here it makes me feel like I`m talking to everyone from home.
Well I am heading back home for a delicious cheese and avocado tsangwich. Until next time...

Oaxaca de Juarez, again

2008-11-29T10:14:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone, I´m back in Oaxaca. It´s good to be back. The weather is really nice, hot in the sun and just right in the shade and in the evenings.
I arrived yesterday morning and spent the day looking for an apt. for the month of December, and also I visited the language school I´ll be going to. The lady at the language school was extremely nice, she helped me out by giving me some phone numbers to call about apt.s.
This morning I went to look at two apartments; one was promising, the other not. I´m giving myself the weekend to find one, then I will settle in for a month!
The picture above is of the courtyard of the hostel I´m staying at, Hostel Luz de Luna. It was suggested to me by my friend Kierstin and it´s great because they have 4 dogs and 2 cats wandering around the premises. Having pets around makes it feel a little more like home.
It is low season in Oaxaca and there are hardly any tourists around. Very different from the last time I was here, for Día de los Muertos. Last night there were only 3 people including myself staying at the hostel.

Well, I must continue the apt. search for now. I am posting some stencil grafitti I found around town yesterday for the infamous Pinky Royale and anyone else who likes it. The bottom one is the most amazing, I think. Enjoy!

Villa Hermosa

2008-11-27T16:09:00.000-08:00

Pagoda! Where´s my havelina?

Turtles and crocodiles living in harmony.

I´m in between long bus rides. I didn´t sleep much last night on the bus from Playa to Villa but I got a sencillo hotel room this morning, first thing, and I was able to shower and take a nap.

I thought I was being so clever getting closer to Cancún, shaving hours off the bus ride but it turns out that I had to go south to Chetumal on the bus anyway. I had two seats to myself for almost the whole trip, and I have mastered the art of scrunching up on the two seats in such a way that I can almost sleep. Like a cat in a sink, only much less graceful.

With my 12 hours or so in Villa Hermosa, I went to the Parque-Museo La Venta. There is a zoo there (see above pictures) and a big, jungle-like park with Olmec findings found throughout the state of Tabasco. I took pictures of some cool Olmec heads, but something happened to my camera and it won´t recognize them. So you only get pictures of animals today.

My short stint in Tabasco is drawing to a close. I leave in one hour for the bus station, and I will be in Oaxaca by tomorrow morning.

Hey! I just realized that today is Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving everyone...

Playa del Carmen

2008-11-26T11:09:00.001-08:00

Hello from Playa del Carmen. We arrived here yesterday afternoon and checked into our hostel for one night. Tonight at 6:25 I board a 12 hour bus to Villa Hermosa, in the state of Tabasco. I will stay there just for the day, and then board another 12 hour bus bound for Oaxaca. I am not looking forward to the long overnight bus rides, but it will be nice to return to beautiful Oaxaca.
My plan is to stay there for the rest of my time on Mexico (a little over one month) and enroll in language school for two weeks, and use Oaxaca as a base for exploring the surrounding areas.
My family and Joon are coming out the last couple weeks in December and I`m really looking forward to seeing them again.

Today I am biding my time in Playa del Carmen, awaiting the departure of my bus. Cassie and Rocio are on a snorkeling tour (see them practicing in the above picture) and I am taking the opportunity to catch up on the internet.

Playa is a weird place. It`s quite resort-y and there are a ton of American people here. Last night at dinner Rocio ordered a daiquiri and it turned out to be a giant, heaping mushy thing. It was wayyyyyy too big for one person, but I guess if you`re here to PARTAY it`s a good thing. Oh my goodness, this thing was ridiculous, I wish I took a picture of it.

The beaches are still really beautiful, though, and there is supposed to be some great snorkeling and diving here because of all the off-shore reefs. I guess I`ll find out from the girls when they get back.

Well, that is all for today. I will probably get to blog again in Oaxaca. I hope everyone is doing great. Until next time....

Sian Ka`an Biosphere Reserve

2008-11-25T20:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went on a tour to the Sian Ka`an Biosphere reserve. It`s down the coast from Tulum, about 1 hour by van. The biosphere includes beach, several lagoons, and jungle.
We arrived to the Sian Ka`an Center (where we also stayed the night) and after a short walk through some mosquito-infested jungle, we hopped on a boat for birdwatching.

Here is a photo of an osprey. It`s nest was to the left of it (you can`t see it in this picture because I zoomed) and it was made of mostly natural stuff but there were bits of tarp and other assorted trash in it too.

Here`s a view of the beach from the Sian Ka`an Center. There was hardly anyone on the beach- I think us and two other people. About 100 meters off the shore there is a huge reef, and there are tons of pieces of reef and big conch shells that wash up on shore.

even more Tulum!

2008-11-23T16:12:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am still here in Tulum, after a one-night hiatus in Playa del Carmen. I rendevoused with Rocio and Cassie there, and we came back to Tulum via bus yesterday. Today we rented bicycles for $5 and biked to the Tulum ruins (my 2nd time- I`m an expert on them now) and to the beach and back. We were ambitious in the morning, and thought we were going to make it to the cenotes (which as I understand it, are swimming holes in caves. They are big here in the Yùcatan) but after swimming in the turquoise waters, it started to get cold and we realized we weren`t going to make it to the cenotes today.

A shot of the beach from the top of the ruins.

Last night Cassie, Rocio and I wandered over to a soccer game that was going on in our neighborhood. It was great fun watching how serious Mexican kids get about their fùtbol. They were all energy in the first half, then in the second half everyone was falling down with `injuries`, then popping back up again after a few minutes on the sidelines. My theory is that they were tired.

This is a picture of the well dressed, elusive cotton candy man. (This one`s for Mary and Simone)

There are a lot of iguanas around these parts. They are all over the ruins, basking in the sun and posing for pictures for their adoring tourist fans.

Here`s a shot of me, Cassie and Rocio at las ruinas today.

The señoritas about to eat lunch.

Tomorrow we signed up for a tour to go through the Sian Ka`an Biosphere reserve. The guidebook says that there is a core area where human entry is avoided if possible, a research and education area where scientists can conduct research, and a transition area which connects to the outside world.

Our tour is going to take us to a cenote and then on a boat tour through the lagoons to look at the unique birds in the Biosphere. Then, we are staying in the ecological tent cabins for the night and coming back to Tulum on Tuesday morning.

I will be sure to take some fantastic bird and cenote pictures for everyone to see.

more Tulum

2008-11-20T13:12:00.000-08:00

Mary and Simone, my current travel buddies, are leaving Tulum tomorrow and I am heading north for Playa del Carmen to meet Rocio and Cassie, friends from home. I am excited to see them, and do more laying on the beach.
This photo`s of the girls at the Tulum ruins, which are amazing because they are on a cliff overlooking the beach.

Here is a photo from my cabaña. It is nice and sunny today but also pretty windy.

There are a bunch of boats all over the beach, and here is a cool picture of La Gaviota. I don`t see the beached boats going anywhere, but there`s a dive school not far from where I`m staying, and I see people coming and going with scuba gear to the boats that are anchored a little ways offshore.

Here`s a picture of me with foreboding clouds in the back.

I don`t have much to report. I have been mostly lounging around in the sun and reading... a lot.

Things are wonderful here and I can`t complain. Okay, one thing. I counted the mosquito bites last night, and there were 24 on each leg! I am doing my best not to scratch them...

el mar Caribe

2008-11-16T09:17:00.000-08:00

Here is the road to our cabaña on the beach...

An art installation in Mèrida.

The cabaña where I will be sleeping tonight.

A view of the beach here in Tulum, 20 steps away from the cabaña.

Some really cute baby chickens that I saw in Palenque. Unfortunately, they`ll probably grow up to be chick fillets one day....

Greetings.

I am now in Tulum. Let me tell you the story of how I got here. Simone and I were in Mèrida for 3 nights. We just hung out and Simone had a friend who is going to school there so we hung around with him. Yesterday we took a 7am bus to Cancùn, then got a shuttle to the airport, to pick up Mary, another friend of Simone. Then the three of us came to Tulùm by bus, which is a few hours south of Cancùn.

We stayed in a nice place last night, but it was a little expensive for our budgets, so we moved again this morning. I put a photo of our cabaña above, so you can see it. It is right on the beach, and the water is crystal clear and the waves are really calm. This is my first time to the Carribean and I must say, I am impressed. I`m excited to spend a lot of time laying around on the beach and swimming.

Today is pretty cloudy so it doesn`t look so fantastic in the pictures I took, but I will take more when it is sunny so you can all be properly jealous.

Mèrida was extremely hot and I`m sure it is here too, normally. Today is not bad because of the aforementioned clouds, but it is still tank top weather.

I guess that`s all I have to say right now... I will blog again sometime this week, as I will be here in Tulum awaiting Cassie and Rocio`s arrival.

from the highlands to the jungle!

2008-11-13T07:35:00.000-08:00

Hello! After San Cristòbal de las Casas, Simone and I headed to Palenque... there are some ruins there and it is particularly beautiful because it is set in the jungle. The guidebook says that the ruins are at the exact point where the plains rise into the mountains. It was very beautiful and I took wayyyyyy too many pictures. This is a shot of El Templo de las Inscripciones.... I think.

Here`s a photo of a vendor`s stuff in front of the Palace section of the ruins. The ruins are huge- there is something like 15 square km of stuff. We were there for several hours wandering around. It is pretty cool because you are allowed to climb on top and inside of the ruins, unlike at Monte Alban in Oaxaca.

We stayed at a place up the road from the ruins, and here is the bridge that leads to our palapa (fancy word for hut covered with a straw roof). There is a little creek running through the property with incredibly clean water. There were some hammocks strung up which we took advantage of, and at night you could hear howler monkeys roaring. It was a pretty intimidating sound. The only bad things about staying here were: flying cockroaches (which for some reason only lived on my side of the room), mosquitoes, and freezing cold showers.... but that is the price of paradise.

Here is the tower of the Palace section of the ruins.

Yesterday we took a bus from Palenque to Mèrida, and we arrived here around 10:30 last night. The weather is still really nice- warm and a little humid. Today we have a few different missions, do laundry, buy soap and toothpaste. We will be here for a couple days and then we will make our way to the dreaded town of Cancun, to pick up Simone`s friend from the airport and make a quick getaway to Tulum. My friends Rocìo and Cassie are also coming in a few days and I am due to meet them in Tulum. It will be great to have some time in the Carribean sun with old friends.

I will send more pictures tomorrow or the next day. I hope everyone at home is doing great.

still in San Cristòbal

2008-11-09T08:19:00.000-08:00

Me, Jake, and Simone.

You know this guy.

Hello! I am still in San Cristòbal de las Casas, and yesterday i took some interesting photos of stencil graffiti which i am posting here.

It is really cold here at night but yesterday i bought a scarf and i stole an extra blanket from an empty bed in my dorm.

During the day it is really hot in the sun. Mountain weather, i guess.

This morning at 7 o`clock we lost Jake to language school in Guatamala, but Simone and i are going to keep traveling to the Yùcatan together. She has a friend coming to Cancun on the 15th and my friends Cassie and Rocìo are coming shortly thereafter.

For now we are staying here for at least one more night, then are next move is to go to Palenque to see the ruins.

San Cristòbal de las Casas

2008-11-08T09:49:00.000-08:00

hello...
so, i haven`t taken many pictures recently. After Oaxaca I took a van to San Augustinillo, a town on the coast, and stayed there for three nights with some new travel friends, Simone and Jake. The bus ride was a little bit awful. The road was really windy and it seemed like the driver was trying to make people throw up. Also, one of the people in the van forgot something in the bathroom and although he had only driven 2 min. away, he at first refused to drive her back, then agreed to do it but made her pay for 5 liters of gas.
The beach was really nice, though. There was a lot of laying around and napping, and making delicious food to eat.
Two nights ago we took a night bus for 12 hours to get to San Cristòbal, where I am now. It is in the mountains so the weather is: really hot in the sun, really cold not in the sun, freezing cold at night. One of my missions today is to buy a scarf.
So far the town is really beautiful. It is in Chiapas and there are a lot of indigenous people here. There are supposed to be some interesting artesanìa markets and today I am going to go to a museum of traditional Mayan medicine.
The first picture above is a church here in San Cristòbal. I thought it looked interesting with the flags. The second picture is of me with yet another cute cat, per Joon`s request of more cat pictures.
I will take more pictures today and hopefully get them up in the next few days.

Día de los Muertos

2008-11-02T20:37:00.001-08:00

Hello! Today was Día de los Muertos and it was a lot quieter than I thought it was going to be. A lot of the shops in town were closed up (not sure if it was for the holiday or because it´s Sunday). Last night I went out to the cemetery and there were a lot of altars set up, I posted some pictures of some of them. There was a parade and a lot of festivities around town all weekend.

Tomorrow I head out with two new friends (EstadoUnidenses) to the coast. Maybe Mazunte? Maybe Zipolite? The plan is to relax on the beach with a good book.

Tonight a bunch of people from our hostel went to a town called Xoxocotlan where there was some music and a costume contest. On the way there, we caught a ride on the back of a flatbed truck which was really funny and fun.

I don´t have much else to say right now... I´ll try to write from the coast, if there are computers there.

Happy Halloween

2008-11-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

Here`s a photo of the ceiling of a church just off the Zòcalo. I can`t remember the name of the church, but it is extremely ornate inside. I was especially fascinated by this tree of kings carving.

Here`s a mix of hostellers I`ve been hanging out with... we all got dressed up for Halloween, most of us made our costumes. Obviously first prize goes to the breast.

These are some giant sculptures. The guy in the picture was getting them ready for the parade on Day of the Dead.

This one`s just a pretty picture of the light and colors of Oaxaca...

There were a bunch of these art pieces on the streets in honor of Dìa de los Muertos. This was my favorite one.

I will try to post more pictures within the next couple of days, after Dìa de los Muertos. Hasta luego....

Monte Alban / DF again

2008-10-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, now i´m in Oaxaca. Above is a photo of one of the pyramids in Monte Albán. It is an ancient city that is about 6km from Oaxaca. Yesterday I walked there and back. It was all uphill, so it took about 1.5 hours there, and 1 hour back. Needless to say, I´m a little sore today.

The amazing thing about being up here is that it´s on top of a mountain, and is surrounded by other mountains. The air is nice and clean up here, and everything is quiet. The city of Monte Albán is pretty large, and there are tunnels underneath the pyramids which priests used to pop out of so the common folk thought that they were gods. Sadly, you´re not allowed to crawl around under there for reasons of preservation, otherwise I would have been all over that.

Here´s me on top of one of the pyramids, with a nice background view of most of the city.

A three-wheeled Oaxacan taxi! Isn´t it cute? One of the drivers told me that they are made in India, so maybe I will see some while I am there.

This photo was taken on my last trip to Mexico City. I was there for two days between Guanajuato and Oaxaca. It is the Palacio de Bellas Artes. There are murals inside by Diego Rivera, Rudolfo Tanaya, and other famous Mexican artists. The copper dome on top of this building is really nice; it´s a little hard to tell because it was a cloudy day when I took this picture.

The hostel I stayed at in DF was nice. It wasn´t the HI, but a different one around the corner. I met a bunch of folks there and everyone was really friendly. I came to Oaxaca with 2 Swedish girls and an Australian who are sort of traveling together, who I met at the Mex. City hostel.

Tonight is Halloween and apparently it´s becoming a big deal in Mexico. So we are all going to try to make some sort of costumes and go out to enjoy the festivities. In two days it´s Dia de los Muertos, which is supposed to be a very good time in Oaxaca. I will be sure to get some good pictures and post them.

I hope everyone is doing great. Until next time...

Don`t Die in Guanajuato!

2008-10-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

Here`s a cool shot of the market from above. You can see all the activity going on.

Sardines... Con limòn?

The estundiantiles in action.

The alley of the Kiss.

This is what they do to you if you die in Guanajuato and your family can`t keep up with the cemetery dues. They dig you out and put you on display!

Hello, I am in Guanajuato and here are some pictures. Without knowing it, I showed up on the last weekend of the Cervantino Festival, which is a huge art festival that young people from all over Mexico come here for. There are street performances, music, dance, and theatre stuff going on. Mostly there are 18-22 year olds roaming the streets all night long. It`s like Mexican Mardi Gras, without the mass consumption of alcohol and female nudity. I guess it`s not like Mardi Gras at all, except there are hordes of people running around in the streets. It is kinda crazy.

So I have been doing a lot of wandering around, looking at stuff. Last night I got caught up in this crazy tradition also that I didn`t know about. Apparently on the weekends, musicians with mariachi instruments and medieval outfits (you know, tights and poofy sleeves) gather up a crowd and lead them through the tiny alleys of the city. Everyone is singing along and they tell jokes in between. It was really fun, even though I coudn`t understand a word. These are the estudiantiles.

This morning I took a walk through said alleys and ended up at a lookout. You could see the whole city which is quite beautiful. The alleys are really amazing, too. People`s front doors open out into them, which I guess means that they can`t drive up to their door, which kinda sucks because everything is at a hill and in high altitude so it`s easy to get winded.

Then after that, I went to the mummy museum. People who are buried in Guanajuato often get mummified because there are so many minerals in the soil. You have to pay cemetery dues, and if your family can`t pay them, or if no one cares anymore, they dig you up so they have room for newly dead people. If you are a well-preserved mummy, you go into the mummy museum! If you`re not looking so great, they incinerate you. Cremate you.

As charming as Guanajuato is, I think I am done with all the late-night shouting and bursts of song. I am going to start making my way to Oaxaca city tomorrow or the next day.

I hope everyone is well. Blog to you later!

San Miguel de Allende

2008-10-24T18:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a fountain that spouts water from the river which S. Miguel was founded on.

Another beautiful fountain.

Not sure what this building is, but look at the color!

Another fountain... recognize a theme?

This cat lived at the thermal water place. Looked how relaxed and blissed out she is.

Here are some photos of S. Miguel de Allende. I went to a thermal waters spa yesterday- there was this weird tunnel that led to a cave, all submerged in water. The thermal water was dumping into the cave and coming out of the tunnel to the rest of the place. It was really relaxing there.

San Miguel in general is a really beautiful town. I met an expat from Boston who lives there now. She said the place is becoming very developed. She said it with disdain but I liked it a lot. I even got to see a movie- Peligro Bangkok.

The only bad part is that my room had a cockroach problem and the water pressure and heat from the shower was muy mal. I basically had to bathe in the sink. You can`t have your cake and eat it too, I guess.

why not to sit in the front of a mexican bus

2008-10-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

this is how i look when i`m feeling defeated.

this skull is tiled but it`s a real skull

this one has some weird eye things attached to it.

you can see the driver pull up within 3 inches to the next car to get them to move

the driver`s assistant talks to you in really fast spanish about everything, but you don`t really understand because he`s talking to fast and all you want to do is read your book

you have to watch the driver texting on his phone while passing a slower truck on a 2 lane highway

bicycles are riding on the wrong side of the street!!! and it looks like you`re going to hit them with the bus becasue the shoulder is too f------- small

yes, today i took a bus out of mexico city to san miguel de allende. it took forever, but i got here in one piece. this town is so peaceful and pretty. i arrived around 5 pm, found a place to stay, walked around a bit and had something to eat. there are little kids everywhere, and they all seem happy. it is too dark to take pictures but i will do it tomorrow so you all can see.

nannette went home today. it was sad to take the bus without her. i think she would have gotten a kick out of it.

well, i am putting some pictures from the archeology museum in mexico city. apparently i found the skulls really interesting. one of them is partly tiled. there`s a photo of these crazy costumed guys outside the museum. they were dancing around this maypole thing and playing music, then they climbed up it and started sliding down ropes while the top part was turning. i never got the whole story on that, but it was fascinating.

Tepoztlan part 2

2008-10-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

OOOOOooooooohhhh my god. I just typed a whole bunch of stuff and it got ERASED. oh man, i hate computers. ok, i will try again. i will take a lesson from mexico and be tranquila.

As I was saying (or said), today we took a bus to a place one hour outside of Mexico City to a place called Tepoztlan. It is a small, sleepy town with the most perfect weather imaginable. It´s in a valley with all these sharp mountains surrounding it. We read in the all-knowing guide book that there is a pyramid up a 2km path. We thought we´d give it a go and discovered that the book forgot to mention that the path is nearly vertical. We huffed and puffed, and finally got there. It was really nice at the top- we were greeted by coatis walking around and digging in the trash (sounds gross but was actually cute), had a great view of the town and got to see the small pyramid which archeologists were working on to restore it to it´s former glory.

Yesterday we walked around the city and used the Metro to get around. They have an excellent thing going here with the metro- it goes everywhere, not unlike Paris´ Metro system. To use it, you only have to pay 2 pesos! Which is something like 20 cents.

Also, I´d like to take this time to say that I find Mexico City to be not as dangerous or polluted as I was told. It´s very clean (no birds dropping out of the sky from smog pollution Joon ;) ), everyone is extremely friendly and nice, and it doesn´t seem to be any more dangerous than major cities. So if you´re thinking of visiting Mexico City but you´re nervous, that is just stupid. I promise.

So...

I posted some pictures. they are adorable coatis eating each other´s fleas, Pyramid Tepoztlan, a shot of the town with the death-defying mountain behind it, Diego Rivera murals in the Palacio Nacional, Nannette attempting to tame a feral cat, people doing there daily traditional dance in the Zócalo, and another shot of the mountain.

I have more but it takes too long to upload them. Ok that´s all. I hope everyone is doing great and that you send me an email with news from home.

Tepoztlan

2008-10-20T20:12:00.001-07:00

more pictures

2008-10-18T22:47:00.001-07:00

picture one is the view from the roof terrace of our hostel

picture two is my first mexican friend... a cat who lives at the top of the hostel

picture three is mexican geezer! he was a stray dog who looks a lot like geezer but is bigger. hes hiding behind someone... you can only see his head.

pictures

2008-10-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

picture one is nannette, lisa and simon.}

picture two is nannette in front of some cool ruins in df

picture three is me in front of the pyramid of the moon, just before i climb that sucker

Day 2 in Mexico City

2008-10-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

yes, i know the title is really boring. i{m not feeling particularly creative.
That being said, I am having an awesome time in Mexico City! My friend Nannette who was planning to meet me got in to the hostel a few hours after me, and we ran into another friend from the hostel unexpectedly! It was Lisa and her boyfriend Simon!
so then we all had some dinner and went out to Lucha Libre, which I have to say is fascinating. It was a lot of over-dramatic wrestling, really fantastic costumes, fireworks shooting out of the stage, and lots of audience participation. I wish I could{ve taken pictures but they wouldn{t let me bring my camera inside the stadium.
Then afterwards we went to Garabaldi Square where there were literally hundreds of mariachi musicians standing around in mariachi outfits singing to really drunk people. It was pretty great. We had a quesadilla and Lisa tried to convince us how fun it would be to pay some lady to shock us with this weird jump rope-looking thing with metal handles.

Today me and Nannette took a tour to see the Pyramids at Teotihuacan. It was so incredibly beautiful! The pyramids are huge, and our guide taught us a lot of interesting history which I can`t remember right now. It was neat to think about what it would have been like to live back then while standing on the top of the pyramids.
We also saw the place where the miracle of the Virgen de Guadalupe happened. The story goes that some colonial Spaniard asked an indigenous person to carry roses from point A to point B, and when he got to point B, the image of the Virgen was on the cloth he was carrying the roses in.....? (Are there any Catholic people who can help me out on this story? I{m not really sure if I have it right) So.... they have the original piece of cloth in this church and I saw it. It looks suspiciously like a painting, though.
Mexico City is a really neat place. There are a lot of cool, old buildings and it`s pretty clean and the people are really friendly.
I am going to try to post some pictures now. enjoy!

i made it to mexico city!!!

2008-10-17T13:48:00.000-07:00

well, i made it. i haven{t slept much since wed. night but i{m trying to stay awake until bedtime. sorry there are no pictures again but i{m kind of out of it. and i have yet to get used to a spanish keyboard. i don{t have much to say today, other than i am exhausted and overwhelmed and that mexico city is beautiful. the hostel is pretty cool- its right near the center and they have two rooftop terraces and there is a cat. hes pretty dirty but he insisted on sitting on my lap.
thats all i have for now. maybe i{ll write again tomorrow after i get some sleep.

Last day at home

2008-10-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

it's my last day at home and i have no pictures to show you, because my camera connector thing is packed in the bottom of my pack and there's no way i'm digging it out.
i feel excited and nervous and happy and sad.
i can't find my passport, even though i had it here last night. maybe it's stuck in the couch or something. i gotta go look for it.
the next time you hear from my it will be from mexico city!

testing 1,2,3

2008-09-17T18:50:00.000-07:00

hello? is this thing working? lalalalalasl lalalalalal

Here is a test picture of the cutest puppy in the world.