sunrise, sunset

We got a puppy, Nick and I (that's us in the pictures)

2007-01-29T19:43:00.000-08:00

His name is Darwin, and as of today he is 9 weeks. =)

I am bad at blogging..

2006-10-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't died. I'm just incredibly busy... I'm working two jobs right now--nanotechnology policy research and babysitting--and am in classes full time. My mom was here last weekend, I spent the day at the ER because I thought my IUD had destroyed my abdomen (turns out it just "shifted"), I'm spending some nights in Providence and then taking the train to my Boston classes at 7am.. etc.

Right now my boyfriend is making me sprouted toast and hummus--except he had the toaster oven on bake for ten minutes instead of 'toast' and when he finally figured it out he burnt the toast. So right now he's scraping black stuff on the sink.

I plan to write soon about my nanotech research, because it is awesome.

YES!!

2006-09-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

The slaugher of 90,000 horses every year that occurs in the United States (in order for their meat to be shipped abroad for food) will no longer occur. This is a huge deal!

I had told various people about the slaughters that were occuring in the US, but nobody believed me. For some reason, it's too appalling to think of companion animals being killed at such gruesome rates to even believe such a story, yet it's okay for "farm" animals to be killed by the billions and nobody questions the validity of those numbers, because for some reason beyond me, farm animals get no moral considerability and don't count.

As wonderful as this news is, I was still angry when I read the article because the reasons for banning this slaughter were so hypocritical and unsound. Apart from the whole companion animals hypocrisy, one guy in the article said something like how it was appalling for the US to slaughter horses for their meat because that kind of food is a "delicacy" and not a "necessity", unlike chicken/beef/pork.

If it is "necessary" to eat farm animals, then I must be a living, breathing phenomenom. Someone contact the National Enquirer.

I feel like I should be prancing around Boston playing the new John Mayer video to everyone, the one where those guys graffiti a bunch of words like, "THINK" all over skyscrapers.

Regardless, I am so happy about this news. Hooray for horsies.

Article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060907/pl_nm/food_horsemeat_dc

5 Things to Eat Before You Die

2006-09-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

I have had so much fun reading everyone else's 5 food choices when they got tagged for the "5 Foods to Die For" thing, (which was started here and has been circling blogs viciously ever since), that I forgot that someone might tag me. I figured that noone would because I never post recipes on here, though I am a total cookaholic. I think part of it lies in the fact that whenever I think I have a totally great recipe, I go to blogs like Fatfree Vegan Kitchen and What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway and get so overly intimidated by their creativity and presentation that I just get mildly depressed and eat my recipe by myself. (Instead I talk about food nonstop to people like my boyfriend and anyone else who will listen to me get into vivid detail over something like my new jar of organic cumin).

Despite my sheepish culinary silence, Bazu pleasantly surprised me with a tag, so here I go!

In no particular order:

1. Longan (or Lam-Yai): If you've never tried this fruit, you're in for a treat. It's literally sold in every single streetcorner in all of Thailand for very cheap, and people just walk around eating them everywhere. Longans taste a lot like lychees, but the flavor is a bit more subtle and (I think) even more delicious. They're addictive though, so buy a lot!

2. A mixture of black peppercorns, cloves, black cardamom, pieces of cinnamon stick, turmeric powder, and chilli powder. This is the spice base for any authentic Indian curry dish, as I learned in my cooking class in India this summer. Curry variations exist after this initial blend is concocted. I'm sort of cheating with this one because since it's so fundamental, it accounts for all types of curries and not just one. I LOVE CURRY. Indian & Thai alike. I even sought it out for breakfast in Asia.

3. Hummus. If somebody could somehow figure out what has continually had the most biomass in my stomach for the past five years, they would quickly discover that it is hummus. I eat it for breakfast almost every single morning (slathered on toasted rye and sprinkled with wheat germ), dip into it with almost anything for snacks, and sometimes, after a day of all this already, crave it for dinner in a sandwich with pickles and soy cheese (shutup, it's good). I am so picky with it and like it so much that I've now got a hummus guy in Boston; this wonderful Middle Eastern man who makes hummus in his kitchen and sells it to small natural/organic restaurants. I've actually never made it on my own.

4. Falafel. I think that I ODed on this stuff once when I studied in Australia because for a few days, I couldn't stomach it after eating it for lunch every single day for two months straight. I loooooooove falafel. I even started the first falafel group on facebook. There is this awesome Lebanese woman who sells falafel (amongst other things) at this hut on campus, and she knows me so well that I have a tab there.

5. An organic avocado. Sliced, drizzled in high quality olive oil and sprinkled with a bit of salt. This is just so good that it needs not even a semblance of explanation.

Runner up: a spicy green papaya salad (incredible; get it at any Thai restaurant or make it yourself!)

So umm... I'm not going to tag anyone because most blogs I read have already been tagged and the other people have absolutely no idea who I am :) Thanks for the tag Bazu!

Cambodia

2006-09-05T18:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures that I took this summer at the Angkor temples in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Angkor holds over 100 temples, Angkor Wat being the largest religious monument in the world. The temples were built between 802 and 1220 AD by the Khmer civilization. During the height of the Khmer dynasty's reign, Khmer kings presided over a domain that stretched from Vietnam to China.

Though by far neither the largest nor the most architecturally stunning, Ta Prohm was my favorite wat. It has become engulfed by these enormous ancient trees, and their roots wrap around the stone slabs of the temple, creating a really incredible contrast between nature and the man-made.

Angkor Wat is truly surreal, and what you see below are the parts of the temples that survived the attempted destruction of art committed by the Khmer Rouge, the Maoist-extremist organization that ruled Cambodia from 1975 until 1979... and who are responsible for the torture and deaths of approximately 1.7 million people, almost a third of the country.

I never wrote about Farm Sanctuary

2006-08-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

Right before jetsetting to SE Asia for the months of June and July, I interned at Farm Sanctuary during the month of May. For those of you who don't know what Farm Sanctuary is, it is a sanctuary dedicated to the care of factory farmed and/or abused animals. They do shelter work and care for hundreds of animals, along with education and advocacy work.

Every single animal that entered the farm had an incredibly powerful story. They were neglected, starved, chained, put in cages they couldn't even turn around in, beaten. Some were downers at stockyards (downers are animals too sick to stand anymore, so they're left where they fall, half-alive, until they slowly die); others (a cow, Queenie) escaped a factory farm and ran around for days until she was caught; many of the pigs came from being stranded in a scorching hot trailer for days while they were on their way to the slaughterhouse. Hundreds of broiler chickens (broilers are used for their meat, rather than layers which are used for eggs) were rescued from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, where they had been buried alive in mass graves. The chickens are the animals that I worked most with when I was there, and it was incredibly gratifying. I never saw chickens as having personalities and quirks, and I've never been more wrong about anything before. Chickens are hilarious.

My favorite animal was Mako the rooster, who was HUGE (all of the broilers are because they're bred that way-- we called all broilers "mutant chickens", but Mako was exceptionally large), walked like a pirate with a wooden leg (he would jut it out and then put it down), and had the largest, floppiest comb out of any rooster I've ever seen. He was like a dog, and would follow you and lie down next to you in the sun while you stroked his back. He was also VERY good about his pill, and while I had to push the pill down some chickens' throats, Mako followed me around until he got his, and then begged for more. I don't know why I'm talking in past tense, because he's still very much alive, though how long he will be is not for certain; broilers are lucky if they live up to two years (whereas 'normal' chickens live past twice that age).

The animals at Farm Sanctuary were trusting and loving of people, despite the heartless betrayal and blatant anthropocentrism that they've faced from us. At the farm, they now have acres to run around in, they get treats, they are hugged and loved by shelter workers and visitors, they receive top-notch medical care... but most importantly, the animals there have become advocates for the millions who suffer silently and without love.

http://www.farmsanctuary.org/

A pig enjoying a mud bath and some sunshine.

Relaxing!

This is Mako, who I adore.

Piggie snout ;-)

Turkeys are so gorgeous... I wonder if people realize that their turkey sandwich used to look like this?

Me and a friend.

This is Opie

Two of the broilers that I worked with daily

I've got crabs

2006-08-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

I'm erasing the old post because my boyfriend says I lie and make him look bad. For the record, the cage I bought was the second largest in the petshop (my bad), not the first. And he is not ignorant about vegan food.

Instead, here are some pictures of my favorite new crab, Ben Lee. I like him best because he's not scared of me, and immediately crawls around on me instead of hiding in his shell when I play with him. He's also very curious. Right now he's on my lap, though I don't think he has any depth perception because he just fell off. I love his beady little eyes. And when he eats he crabs a tiny bit with one of his legs and does a taste test, putting it to his mouth a couple of times and nibbling-- and then if he likes it he takes big chunks. Aww.

The cool thing about hermit crabs is they can live off people food, provided its organic, well balanced and has enough calcium. Right now his bowls have fresh organic kale, cherry tomatoes, raisins, and mixed dry fruit. I also bought them some sun dried mini shrimp because that's pretty much what they eat in the wild--and they all ate an entire shellful in one night (by all I mean Ben and Margaret because my third crab, William Shatner, who I rescued from some horrible conditions at a pet shop two days ago, hasn't come out of his shell since I got him- hermie hobbyists have a name for this behavior but I don't remember it, it's post-something-shock). Hermit crabs supposedly need cuttlebone as an extra source of calcium when molting, so I ground up some of that and mixed it in with some nutritional yeast and put it in another bowl-- they picked around the bone parts and ate the nutritional yeast... I would've done the same :-)

Anyways, I can't wait for this fucker to change shells because his painted shell is so ugly.

I promise my next post won't be about hermit crabs.

TJ's House of Pizza

2006-08-16T22:32:00.000-07:00

For those of you in the Boston area who are vegan and go to TJs for pizza-- it just turned ALL VEGAN!

And to think that it began as another greasy pizza and sub place in Boston, but got a vegan employee who convinced the owner to include a couple of vegan options on the menu... and the response has been so overwhelming that they cut out all meat, completely.

:-)

Beantown

2006-08-16T09:56:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Boston, and everything is great and wonderful except that I have to move in two weeks and the person who is supposed to help move me, and keep things in his truck for me overnight (because I'm kicked out on the 31st, and am not allowed into my new place until the first--so where on earth do they expect me to go for 12 hours?!) has not answered my email or my phone call. It is impossible for me to move alone. I have an enormous sectional couch, a twin bed, a glass table, a futon, a huge heavy dining room table, a bookshelf.... among other things. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I will KILL THIS MAN if he bails out on me.

I walked into my apartment after two months of being away very uneasily, because I subletted my place to a couple (who seemed lovely, and had to come to Boston to have their baby because she was sick) and wasn't sure about the state it would be in. Apart from some minor things (like they threw out my six huge bags of sorted recycling which I was planning to return; and they rearranged some furniture) things were fine. The furniture part would have annoyed me if I wasn't moving out in two weeks anyway.

But they left me tons of food.. TONS.... and it's not vegan. At all. I opened up my freezer to find three huge bags of boneless chicken breasts, chicken nuggets, burger patties, ice cream... my pantry has nacho cheese doritos and mac & cheese boxes and a bunch of ready-to-eat chicken rice things. Ugh. I'm not sure if they missed the whole "I don't eat meat" thing when I asked them that if they were going to cook meat, they couldn't use my pans.

So now I have all this meat just sitting in my fridge/freezer, and I'm obviously not going to eat it, and I can't just throw out food because as much as I'd love for everyone to be vegan, there are people in this city who need food right now, period. So I've been googling some food donation places but they seem to be more restaurant-based, meaning they want a bunch of food and not just some packages of meat and pasta. If anyone has any idea what I can do with all the flesh sitting in my kitchen ASAP, let me know, thanks. I just bought a bunch of organic kale and swiss chard and tofu to try to balance out my sentiments towards the fridge, but it's not working!

Apart from the above bitching, I'm so glad to be back in Boston... the weather is beautiful, my friends are all here, I start my research job, then classes resume.. :-) I really am very lucky.

NOW IF ONLY I CAN GET THE CHUNKS OF CHICKEN OUT OF MY FRIDGE.

Home!

2006-08-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

I'm back, and visiting my family in Miami before I head up north for my last year of college (which I find unbelievable, that I'm almost done).

For some reason my mother's computer will not allow me to put all of my pictures on her computer (even though it's XP and I have a Canon), so my Cambodia pictures will have to wait a few days. But soon I'll have one website up with every shot I took (though pictures of my favorite place in India--Jaisalmer--got accidentally erased. I don't want to talk about it).

Miami is boring; I love Boston and I can't wait to go back and COOK AGAIN.

Siem Reap, Cambodia

2006-07-28T05:18:00.000-07:00

So I ended up coming to Cambodia. There's so much that I want to write about, but I'm basically too lazy to do it now. Plus there's now way that I'm going to attempt to upload pictures on this computer.

Cambodia is great.

The people are absolutely beautiful--gorgeous faces, long, oval eyes, light brown complexions, shiny black straight hair, perfect figures... I could see myself adopting from here (not that I'd adopt merely based on looks, but, whatever, THE BABIES ARE SO DAMN CUTE). And the people are very friendly, especially the women, which I did not find to be the case in India (the men were, but not the women).

A friend gave me three packages of pens to give to little kids here--apparently owning a pen here is a big luxury--and I was hesitant to do so at first ("Miss, a dollar?" "No, but here's a pen!") , yet he was completely right. Outside of the killing fields (where tens of thousands of tortured Cambodians were buried in mass graves), I stepped over human bones sticking up from under the ground and handed out pens to screaming little kids who ran up to me from all directions once they saw what I had. They fought over them and begged me for more. A 30 year old man even asked me for one. So, if you ever go to Cambodia--take pens.

I'll write more when I'm back in the states, which is in three days (and as I just wrote to Tree in an email, I can't believe I'm going to a place where I have to pay $15 for a meal!).

I lied.

2006-07-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I am here for ten more days because the cheap Cambodian airline that was supposed to get me to Phnom Penh has been suspended (which is just so comforting to hear), and I don't feel like paying half of my money to get there in a nice, respectful airline. I also don't want to take a 24 hour bus ride.

So, as mentioned, I'll be in Chiang Mai (a city that I've fallen in love with) for the next week, and then my friend Bryan (who I met here) and I are going to spend a couple of nights in Bangkok before we get on our terribly long flights to each of our respective cities (namely, Dublin and Miami). But I'm actually not dreading the flight anymore because I got bumped to business class and that makes a world of a difference.

Since I now have a week in beautiful Chiang Mai (which has an awesome moat surrounding the old city and remnants of ruins are scattered here and there near the water), I've decided to get licensed in aromatherapy massage. That should be fun, and I'll get to see my friends more during the morning and early afternoon, since almost everybody at my guest house is here to become a licensed masseuse. The license is valid in the states, too.

The guest house that I'm staying at isn't mentioned in any guidebooks, which is great, because everybody staying here has come across it by word of mouth. As a result, the people here are mostly seasoned backpackers staying for weeks at a time rather than the frantic, two-day tourist who goes to all of the cliche places. I found out about it through my friend Andy's cousin, Teba (www.teba2.blogspot.com) who has been travelling the world for around 7 months now, and told me about some really cool places.

As I mentioned, the people here are so wonderful. Everyone is friends with everyone else, and if a newcomber comes, it usually only takes a couple of days until they're integrated into the group (unless they're hostile assholes). The variety of people at this guest house is very cool--there's Bryan, an Irish ballet dancer who owns his own dance studio and usually travels the world on a tour of some sort; Natalie, a physical therapist from Mexico City who is a total shopaholic; Sarah from the UK, who decided to quit her job one day and has been travelling the world ever since (her trip started in Peru, where she did the Inca trails); Whitney, a blonde surfer from the states who started her surf school in Dominical, Costa Rica and lives there when she's not travelling; Miriam, a dancer from Brooklyn who just recently arrived and is so chirpy and funny and keeps freaking out at how relaxed life is in Chiang Mai; Catherine, who is staying here for like three months and is working in the rice fields this weekend for fun.... I could go on.

Last night, dominated by Bryan and another gay friend, we all went to a gay cabaret club after going for (amazing) tapas and martinis. I must say that everybody, straight or gay, needs to experience a gay Thai cabaret club. We were greeted at the door by a feminine looking Thai man in red lipstick, and were led to the front of the stage. The crowd was either Thai men together or a Thai man and a foreigner. There were also a few Thai women there who were probably there for similar reasons as me and the girls I was with.

The show was really funny. I don't think it was supposed to be funny, but it was, and me and Natalie (who was sitting next to me) kept trying not to laugh out loud at the little Thai men onstage in leopard print thongs touching each others abs and flailing around wiggling their hips. There was a transvestite who sang "I Will Survive" wearing a huge black afro, bright red lipstick, and a tight dress. Lady boys in dresses shook their asses and winked at us. A shirtless man in jeans so ripped they were barely covering anything, decided that he might as well take them off and bear his junk in its full glory. The girls and I almost choked on our drinks when suddenly theres this butt naked Thai guy onstage with an erection and another guy kissing him. Men in battered clothing, wearing these horrific masks came out and gave a creepy presentation to really eerie music (they kept touching their face in despair). Bryan and Miriam, both good dancers, kept making fun of the choreography, and none of us could keep a straight face when a guy in a thong would decide to shake his ass two feet from our heads.

When four of us girls left, the guy in lipstick at the door said, "Thank you sirs, good night!" So we think that they thought we were men! Possibly the foreign version of lady-boys? I have no idea. All I know is that the doorman either spoke terrible English, or we must look manly enough to pass off as transgendered. Haha.

Tonight we are going for Italian food and to the Saturday Market; tomorrow to Thai boxing; then Monday I start my lessons; sometime next week we are going white water rafting.

Something exciting is that the massage place that I'll be studying at has a restaurant for students, and it is exclusively vegetarian and sooooo good. It's like a block away and like 40 baht ($1) for a big meal. Everyone goes there everyday at noon and eats incredibly good food for a tenth of the price it would be in the states.

So, all in all, life is good. I'm flying straight to Florida now instead of going to Boston on August 1st (since my place is subletted until the 15th), so I'll get to see some friends and family before I start school/job.

Homebound

2006-07-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

I think I'm cutting the trip short, which realllllly sucks, but I just don't have enough money to travel comfortably anymore, though if I wanted to I could stretch out the next 2 weeks. I just don't feel like staying in shitty hotels and eating street food. I don't much mind not seeing the Phillippines, but I wish I could have seen the ruins in Cambodia; three years from now tourism will have smacked that country upside down. My new mission in life is to convince my mother to go with me there sometime in the next year (HINT HINT MOM). Lets just hope I can change my flight in short notice, because from what I hear all flights are booked for the next two weeks, and that would be disastrous!!

India (in restrospect)

2006-07-17T01:21:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Thailand. (Translation: I'm back into a world where internet is not dial-up, where I can walk down the streets in a tank top, and where I don't have to constantly keep my eyes on the ground for fear of stepping on a giant, oozing pile of cow shit).

I really enjoyed India. I only wish that I could have had more reliable internet access while I was there because I was constantly surrounded by captivating images--some haunting, others utterly beautiful--and these can no longer be adequately transmitted from here, a week later, as I sit in an air-conditioned coffee shop, sipping on a drink with ice and looking out the window to a city with meticulously paved streets and children wearing shoes. I should have written things down, but I was too wrapped up in the experience of it all, and now a large part of it has escaped me. That is my biggest regret about India.

The entire time that I was in India I kept thinking about my mother. She is one of those people who likes things a certain way, and if those standards are violated then I advise anyone within ten feet of her to put on a helmet. She is characteristically punctual, precise, firm in her convictions, and obsessively clean. Everything she owns is organized to the point where you could ask her where a red sock she bought in 1986 is stored and she could give you precise directions up to the inch of the object. Her fridge is stocked with ten types of bread, six types of cheese, juices, soda, three types of water; the pantry holds enough food to last my entire island through the next hurricane. Her agendas list every single thing she's done for the entire day, and she has decades worth of these. A flip through some pages could tell you what my mother did eight years ago at 4:15 pm. She's one of those people who can't drive on a tank of gas that's less than a quarter full because it might go empty any second!!!!. You get the point. (Oh, and don't get me wrong, my mother is by no means reserved or uptight; she walks around naked and has no trouble telling stories about penises or her dog's amputated balls, in fact, she tells them a bit too often. She is very funny, and also quite vulgar for a mother, and if some of my friends' parents could hear what comes out of her mouth sometimes I think they'd be horrified).

The reason I'm mindlessly rambling on about my mother is because India is the antithesis to her existence. That's really the only way that I can adequately describe the country. The streets are littered in trash to the point where you can't see the ground in certain areas. Dirty, naked children run around aforementioned litter with bare feet. Cows, monkeys, camels, dogs, elephants... they're everywhere, and they live on the sidewalks, roads, and trees. They eat the trash, then they take giant dumps on it, then they fall asleep on it. At night, the sidewalks are filled with homeless people going to bed for the day. Bone-thin women hold their hungry babies to their dry breasts with one hand and stick their other hand out for a rupee.

Indians sleep during the day on their rickshaws, tuk-tuks, in their stores, on the sidewalk, in corners. The ones who aren't asleep are constantly badgering you for your money, following you for blocks in order to sell you a little carved wooden elephant that YOU DON'T WANT!!!! "No, no, NO," means nothing to them. As annoying as it is, you have to give them credit for being one of the most persistent things on the planet (only second to my body hair).

Drinks are often served lukewarm. You order bread and it never comes. The power flicks on and off, constantly. Remote controls don't work. The "hot water shower" fluctuates between boiling and freezing cold. The "room with two beds" holds a king sized bed. 2pm means 4pm, 5pm, 6pm. "India's Best Internet Cafe" holds one lonely computer from 1994, teeming with viruses. Nothing is spelled right, ever. It's "Italienne Restorent"; "Pesta weth Chesse"; "vagetable bergar". A restaurant's mission statement is something along the lines of, "Us welcamme to our very fin restorant. Us hope enjoy this menu and our fin dalecacies. Welcam to India and hope enjoy stay." You order room service and the guy who picks up the phone speaks two words of English ("Yes Ma'am"). "Green Salads" have nothing remotely green in them, in fact, I don't think that lettuce even exists in India. "American Salads" have bananas and mayonnaise.

In other words, I think that my mother's arrival to India would begin with her head violently spinning, then green goo would spew out of her ears, and then she'd spontaneously combust.

She told me that she wants to visit and then didn't understand why I couldn't stop laughing.

In other news, tomorrow I begin my week-long cooking courses, and I plan to return to the states a distinguished Thai cook! I am also thinking of taking a week long massage course, but I'm not sure if I should, because then I'll have to give out massages, and I don't want to :-)

I'm alive (Jaipur, India)

2006-07-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

I have to make this quick because the Treesus is waiting for me outside and is probably surrounded by little kids asking for rupees.

I am alive. I know that I was supposed to be in Bombay, and there was a bombing in Bombay that exact day, but luck has it that we changed our itinerary to completely omit Bombay from the route. So I was extremely lucky to avoid a potentially fatal situation.

Thanks to Peter, my dad, and Nick for the worried comments/emails-- makes me feel remembered. All is well over here... I leave for Thailand on my own soon; Tree is going to Tibet.

Udaipur, India

2006-07-10T04:09:00.000-07:00

I apologize for not posting in a few days; it was not due to laziness but inaccessibility. The computer in Jodphur was terrible, and the entire city of Ranakpur looked at me like I had a dick on my forehead when I asked for one there.

Anyways, as promised, some pictures. I'd like to add that for every picture I show, I have about twenty more from that place that I'd like to share... but it takes approximately seven minutes to get each picture on the web, so you do the math time-wise. And I have to pay for internet and blah blah.

My photobucket album before was not public, which I didn't know; but now it is. So follow the link I gave in an earlier post and all of the photos can be found there simultaneously.

My first stop in India was Delhi. In Old Delhi, I stood in a rooftop of some guy's house and gazed at the old city. Look at the traffic below--that's how India is, always. And the guy said to me, "not busy this month, not tourist season."

I'd like to add that India is dirty. Indians sometimes get defensive when I say this to them, but they always end up admitting it too. It's dirty! But beautiful. But dirty! You can't really tell here, but look at the floow in the corner--its all dirt and rocks and garbage.

I visited Humayans Tomb in Delhi which was spectacular. The buildings alongside were so pretty, and this is one of them.

My best friend Sarah yelled at me for not being in enough shots, so here I am at the same place. I'd like to add that this is one of the many buildings and garden areas that you walk through before reaching the actual tomb.

Here's some cute Indian women who look innocent enough, but, after requesting that I take their picture, they stuck their hand out for rupees. I gave them some Thai Baht (it was all I had) and they looked confused.

This is the actual building where Humayans Tomb is kept. Humayan was some big shot ruler, and upon his death, his wife built him this entire establishment in his honor.

In that building... the actual tomb. All this for that one coffin!

I'm not posting any pictures of Jhun-Jhuno (I think I spelled that right) or Bikaner, because it was SO hot that I didn't have the energy to carry around my camera. But Tree took some pictures of the SPECTACULAR havelis (or old houses all covered in artwork and carvings)--and there was a woman temple which was very fascinating because there were so many people worshipping the gods and providing gifts for them at the altar.

On to Jaisalmer, or the "golden city". As I posted before, Jaisalmer is in the middle of the Thar Desert, about an hour and a half away from Pakistan, and absolutely striking. The fact that such a large civilization could have been built in a desert (and that enormous sandstone fort!) is unbelievable.

This is the fort from a distance. As I've mentioned many times already, people still live in here, and it looks as if it were fake. Everything is sandstone. (Yes, I totally overexposed that shot but I was using a manual camera in 110 degree weather, give me some credit). And this shot, which I purposely overexposed, I like.

Like anywhere else in India, cows are everywhere. Look closely at the shot, there are so many of them. And I think they purposely like to hang out in the middle of roads and highways and take naps, because I see them there quite often. Maybe they know how revered they are and know they won't be hit.

Here I am at the highest possible point in Jaisalmer (or one of them at least): on the roof of a three-story building, in the fort. The background is the desert/city.

I have many more pictures but it is time for my Indian massage, and then I have to pick up the shirts that I've gotten tailored (How bratty does that sound? I am getting so spoiled here!). Also, the ones of Jodhpur and Ranakpur have yet to be burned into a disc and I doubt my hotel has a card reader. But the good news is that it has been very cloudy since I left Jaisalmer, so it has not been very hot at all, and it is amazing!!

Jaisalmer, India

2006-07-05T07:41:00.001-07:00

I am an hour and a half away from the Pakistani border, in the Thar Desert of Jaisalmer. It is not very safe here, especially for a girl, but the city is very interesting. If you have not heard of the golden city of Jaiselmer, google it. I spent the day there today. It sinks lower every year, and 5,000 people live in it still, as they did hundreds of years ago. The entire thing is built out of sandstone, and it stands elevated as if on a mountain. When the sun hits it correctly it all shines gold.

I wish I could get into detail about the temples that I have seen here. Why do most people only go to Europe to look at cathedrals? Come look at India's temples! Often, these incredible temples (and some brilliant havelis) lie in old, decapitated towns that one would never think to look in. The stone carvings are meticulously detailed and elaborate, the walls often plated in gold.. Jain and Hindu gods gaze at you from their shrines. Hindi gods Ganesh, Shiva, Krishna, Vishnu, Rama, Hanuman are the most depicted here in India. There is very little Buddhism in the west, and I assume that I will see more of this in Varanasi, where Siddartha Gautama (Buddha) died, and Buddhist's flock to in order to achieve moksha. If a Buddhist dies in Varanasi, he no longer reincarnates, and achieves moksha.

I am typing briefly because this keyboard is shit. I don't even know how a monitor works in hundred degree weather.

One more thing--has anybody really observed a camel's face up close? They are soooo funny. Their bottom lip juts down, their top lip is pursed... and their face is structured in such a way that they look sly and cynical, constantly. I want one! There are hundreds of camels here and I think they are fabulous.

My pictures are now on a disc, which is improvement. Tomorrow I go to Jodphur--if there is high speed internet there ill post them.

Somewhere in India

2006-07-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

I wish I could pronounce the name of the city (town? village?) I'm at right now but it's just not happening. Our hotel is like an oasis in the middle of a desert--outside it is all dirt roads, scantly dressed little children running around the streets, half-crumbled buildings collapsing into puddles of black water which stray dogs are bathing in, cows sleeping in the middle of the road, gypsy camps, and so on. Yet our hotel is gorgeous, with a huge open courtyard and a beautifully decorated restaurant. My room has a tainted antique feel, with big mirrors and a huge rustic wooden door. We just had dinner in the courtyard, under the stars, with a Rajasthani family sitting on the grass next to us, playing instruments and singing.

Everything in India is slow. We arrived at our hostel in Delhi after about eight hours of travelling overnight, anxious to just sleep! But of course things don't work like that here, and the Indian receptionist kept assuring us, "soon, verrry soon, but we must wait for warden." Apparently a warden had to approve the room? I still don't understand. About an hour after waiting, I approached the man again, but I couldn't talk to him because he was busy getting BITCHED OUT by a British couple who were in the same predicament as us, yet were not as patient. The guy was yelling at the top of his lungs about two inches from the receptionist's face, demanding a room. He eventually took his bags and left, and I feel bad for him, because he'd learn soon enough that this was not an isolated incident. India likes to take their time! A three hour wait for something is not a big deal. So, end of story: 140 rupees later, we got our room without the warden ever coming. The receptionist took a liking to me and he kept saying, "Miss, I favor you, I favor you!" So we got our damn room.

Everytime we tell a local person that we are going to Rajasthan, they look at us like we are crazy. They all say something along the lines of, "Rajasthan? Nooo! Why? Rajasthan in July? Verrry verry hot there, not like Delhi." Meanwhile, I'm standing there in my salwar-kameez (Indian outfit for women consisting of loose pants and a long shirt/dress that goes down to your knees, along with a type of scarf that you wear over your shoulders) with rivers of sweat pouring down my face, my hair is stuck to my forehead and I'm fanning myself with a used fan I bought from a little girl on the street for 10 rupees. Yet in Rajasthan it is "very hot, not like Delhi" ?!?! Meaning that Delhi right now is not considered very hot????

Upon further investigation, Tree and I discovered that while Delhi is 95 degrees right now, Rajasthan is 115. And we are travelling in an un air-conditioned car. AHH!! If it wasn't hot enough, in Jaisalmer, we take a camel safari into the desert and sleep there for the night. I personally think it's insane.

But basically, India is, straght up, a crazy country. The traffic laws are like no other I've ever witnessed. They make Peru's traffic look like child's play. A car will just go on the wrong side of the road towards you and you're like, this is it, this is the end, a giant truck is going to break my little white car in half... and maybe half a second before the fatal collision it swerves out of the way, into a ditch and back out, and you're not dead. After about ten of these, my driver, in an attempt to (I think) justify the traffic in India says to me, "Miss, the truck drivers, they smoke the opium, you know? It is the opium, that is why."

Cows sleep in the middle of the highway. And these aren't rural highways, I'm talking about the middle of the highway in the capital of India. And everytime the car stops, skinny, barefoot little children approach your car and recite a sob story. A little girl with one arm will say, "Pleez miss, I have no mader, I have no fader, no sister, no brader, my doctor, my arm, no mader," and look at you with the saddest little face... I can't ignore them. Little five year old boys will weave through traffic and stick out their dirty little hands for a rupee. Bicycles, tuk-tuks, motorcycles, camels pulling carts, elephants, people walking by foot... everybody shares the road, it is exploding with people.

When we first got to India at 7am, we looked out of our taxi window and saw white fog up in the sky. It took us a few moments to realize that it was not fog, but pollution. Dirt flies up on the road as a car swerves and suddenly everything is brown. Trucks blow out the thickest, blackest smoke... piles of trash will be on the side of the road for a mile straight, with cows and stray dogs digging through it for food. To say the least, India is very overwhelming.

I hope this is not giving you a negative impression of the country. It is dirty, yes, and poor, but I think the country is beautiful. The temples are incredible. The Red Fort in Delhi is one of the most impressive buildings I've ever seen. Humayan's Tomb is fabulous, and kept immaculately clean. Seeing what goes on inside temples is also very fascinating-- Hindis all kneeling down, tracing a 'swastika' (Hitler stole the swastika sign from here, it actually means good luck, ha) in red paint on the altar before a statue of a god, and then leaving a gift over it.

The people are soo friendly! Many of them speak English. One negative aspects though is that I get really intense stares by men wherever I go because of my hair and skin tone.

And the food... THE FOOD!!!!! Vegetarian is the norm, first of all, and, well, Indian food is my favorite cuisine of all time so as you can imagine, I'm happy with it. Curry for breakfast? Yessss.

However I am left handed, and that presents a problem. In India, you eat with your right hand (and with no forks/spoons), because the left hand is considered dirty, since that is the hand one wipes with in the bathroom. It took some getting used to, but I'm getting good at it! Also, you use a spoon to serve your food onto the plate, and that is done with the left hand. It's all very interesting.

I have so many pictures that I really need to take off my memory chips, but these dial-up computers just aren't cutting it for me. I don't think anyone knows what a USB port even is here. When I get to Jaipur, I have been told that there is high-speed internet everywhere, so I'll put them up there.

I could go on forever, but I'm sweating and want to go into my nice air-conditioned room, and finish my novel, which is DAMN GOOD. (Anyone read The Brothers Karamazov? Anyone else in love with Ivan?)

I apologize for any spelling errors or fragments, but it's way too hot to proofread right now.

Delhi, India

2006-07-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

I am in India and it is a different world.

We have hired a personal two week driver for Rajasthan and set off tomorrow morning.

More later.

Thai Boxing

2006-06-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

When in Thailand, one must go to see Thai boxing. Or so I was told.

Well I did, and... holy crap.

There were ten matches in all, beginning with smaller kids (probably 13 years old), then the teenagers, and finally the adults which were the final three matches. When the little kids went out I thought it was 'cute' and scoffed to Tree, "They're so small, this is lame.." and so on.

Lets just say I bit my tongue as soon as the match began—these kids are nuts! The little ones, apart from the final two matches we saw, were the craziest ones, because they're little and just have no fear or physical limitations (or at least they don't think they do). They were punching each other in the face, roundhouse kicking their opponents' bare chests and knocking them flat on their backs, elbowing their ribs with such force that you could hear the "SMACK". The first match that we saw ended with one of the kids getting punched in the face so hard that he began to go unconscious as he stood, and began swaying back and forth until he just fell to the ground. Seriously, my deep-rooted motherly instincts began to emerge and I just wanted to take them home, give them a bath, and put them to bed. If I had told them that they probably would have dislocated my jaw though. Five minutes into the match Tree whispered, "You know, these little schmucks could single-handedly kick our asses." So true.

The second match resulted in a fourteen year old clutching his chest and gasping for breath as he fell to his knees on the floor—he was helped out by two guys and we think one of his ribs may have been broken.There was also a woman match—a Swedish girl and a Thai girl who was a little shorter but nearly twice her size. Both of these girls were badass, and by the second round the Thai girl's hair was completely undone and sticking up and I must admit, these two (both very attractive) girls tangled up with each other, (and nearly killing each other with a type of rage that seems to be so inherent in women), was a physical manifestation of most of my guy friends' fantasies. I don't think Tree blinked once during the match so he wouldn't miss anything. Ha. Well, the Swedish girl nearly killed the Thai girl, and the Thai girl wouldn't finish the match and limped off the ring shaking her head.

The final two matches were the most intense. Most of the crowd had left because it was midnight, and these matches weren't official ones—they were local boxers fighting against each other for practice in the ring after the show was over. They were incredible—absolutely brutal with each other, smooth in their delivery yet extremely forceful. The punches were so hard that they often just knocked their opponent to the ground with one punch to the face (yet he'd fly back up, knee the other guy in the side, and knock him sideways to the ground).
They'd get tangled up and nearly fly out of the ring quite often (which would have resulted in them falling on top of me; that’s how close I was for those two matches). They were unbelievably good, and their thin yet incredibly ripped bodies glistened and shone with the oil they were lathered in (so the punches don't stick or something--being a female that is totally unfamiliar with sports in general, a lot of things confused me. I'd say to Tree, "was that good?! Is he winning??!?!?" quite a bit.)

I forgot to mention that during every match, this crazy, fast drum beat played very loudly in the background, sort of creating a rhythm to the entire thing and raising the level of intensity. All in all it was quite an experience.

Though there were many foreigners at the match, the area surrounding the ring was full of Thai locals who cheered and yelled and raised havoc after every kick and punch, which made it that much more fun and not some pseudo boxing event catered primarily to tourists. And there was this one Thai grandma up in front who must have been ninety years old, and she was so into it, totally shaking her fists and yelling out of her toothless mouth. It was funny.

Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera, but I used Trees and took a few which I will post soon. We also filmed a few matches (in fact, we've been filming a lot here and I will put the video here when I can). I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera though, because the shots I could've gotten would have been incredible.

Aside from that, I am in Chiang Mai (which is the coolest city--don't even get me started on the outdoor market and the 2,000 Baht I spent getting presents for EVERYONE I'VE EVER KNOWN EVER). And the incredibly cheesy Thai love flick we saw at the movie theatre (think two Asians holding hands and frolicking at night through fields illuminated by fireflies and laughing, constantly).

Still, it was most definintely entertaining and very interesting to watch (even though the teenage dude next to me kept farting.. he'd let them out slowly, in tiny increments, as if to thin the fart out as much as possible, and it was just not cool because I rather a couple full blown farts smack me in the face rather than a steady, milder odor penetrate through the nostrils constantly. Oh dear, I just realized my professors read this blog. Hi Coach. Sorry for for the inappropriateness but I feel like you're with me on this one).

Tomorrow at 2:30am, I fly to New Delhi, India. I get in at 4:30am and stay there for 20 days.

Spices

2006-06-27T03:54:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that if anyone in the Boston area would like some authentic Thai spices (Thai curry powder, dried whole chilli peppers, lemongrass, star anise--whatever, they've got it all here) or for that matter, any authentic Indian spices (I could start naming these but I'd never finish--all you cooks know what they are--but basically, being in India, I can get whatever), then let me know!

Another thing they sell here is a package with four ingredients which I forget now, I know that whole dried Thai chillis and some type of leaf is in them, and they're the spices that need to be added to a boiling pot of water to make the INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS Hot & Sour soup that is served at every street corner here. So I can get that too (I just bought bags for myself....must.. stop...purchasing). Each bag holds sixteen servings.

As one may imagine, spices are incredibly cheap (a couple of dollars maybe).

I keep shipping a box of stuff I buy from every city to Boston, so it's not a problem at all. I've stocked up on so many spices myself that I'm already excited to go back to school and start cooking with them in my (new, big!) kitchen.

If you're not in the Boston area and still want something, just let me know, we'll figure something out. Especially if you're vegan ;-)

Just e-mail me or write me a comment. Bye!

...

2006-06-24T09:06:00.000-07:00

I think it's time to purchase conditioner.

Sukothai, Thailand

2006-06-23T04:42:00.000-07:00

Sukothai is by far my favorite place in this trip. Basically, everywhere we go is better than the last (if this continues then Chiang Mai must be a dream).

Anyways, pictures are below.

For people who are incredibly computer illiterate (such as my dear mother who tries leaving me comments on this blog and puts in her AOL account info when it asks for a username and then calls me all confused when it doesn't work): if something is underlined here, then it is a link. A link takes you to another page on the web, and in this case, to a photograph.

I'll start with one picture from Phitsanulok, which is the wat (temple) that I wrote about in my last post. Here is a crappy picture of the Buddha which the Thais were revering so intensely.

I found this picture to be very sweet-- these Thai ladies at the Chatuchak market in Bangkok were very happy to cut up and sell me an incredibly juicy pineapple for a quarter.

The hostel that we are staying at here in Sukothai is incredible. Next time you're in Sukothai (ha ha) go stay in Ban Thai. It is owned by a Belgian guy named Ronny who will take you on the most incredible bike tours around the city. We chose to go one in the countryside and I have no words to describe how pretty it was. Since I was on a bike, I couldn't capture the most captivating images that I saw--farmers whose skin had turned a dark brownish red from all the years of working in the torturous Thai sun, waist deep in floodwater as they expertly tended to their rice crops. Their children chasing each other on dry land while others cooled down in a brown river with their mothers, gigging as they splashed her and ran. Entire families packed into a motorbike--a ten month old baby up front, the father behind him holding him up, the six year old behind the father, the mother in the back--all of them beaming, all of them waving as they go on down the dirt road past us. This is Ronny, explaining to us how rice crops work.
And here is part of the road we went down.

Our room in Sukothai overlooks the cutest garden. It has big pots with little bright fish swimming in it, plants growing out of large snail shells hung from the ceiling, and a great outdoor dining area with ultra friendly staff. The cook is this plump Thai woman who makes the most incredible Thai curry I've had since I've been here (in fact, I'm going to bug her tomorrow to teach me how to make the Masaman curry I've been eating every day since I got here--soo good! And every meat dish on the menu can be replaced with tofu!).

Did you know Sukothai used to be Thailand's old capital? We visited Old Sukothai and it was astonishing. Despite its age, it has been, for the most part, very well preserved. Forty foot high Buddhas carved out of stone, giant pillars, shrines, remnants of columns... all of these were made of stone and brick, by hand. Very impressive! Sort of like Machu Picchu, but not as cool (sorry but show me something made of rock more impressive than Machu Picchu?).

I was particularly struck by the enormous feet, also the hands, and the way candle wax melted on the rock. Also, incense. There were at least a dozen of these giant Buddhas, but upon looking at my pictures, I've noticed that I didn't really take many panoramic shots.. I really like close-up ones with smaller details. But that sort of sucks because the size and magnitude of this Old City isn't transmitted. I think Tree took some panoramics, though.

Today we took a tuk-tuk (or a variation of it, anyway, it's not the type of tuk-tuk one gets in Bangkok) to a monastery where a monk, after having a vivid dream about (who else) Buddha, decided to create a physical manifestation of his life. We took a walk through his dream. That last statement sounds a lot more poetic and romantic than it was--I personally wasn't too taken by the statues (especially after visiting the Old City) because I found the style to be a bit tacky (my mother would agree). It was very colorful and a tad extravagant, full of golds and reds. However, the fact that this monk did the entire thing himself in two years (there were at least 200 statues, some very big), and even constructed his own tomb because his dream prophesized that his death was near, makes the endeavor very admirable. Additionally, the town was completely against his mission and gave him shit for it until the day he died. His work was left unfinished.

We also went to a pottery village. The skill and rhythm in these peoples' hands is so impressive. They'd whip out perfect looking pots in less than a minute. The clay would then bake inside giant ovens that you could walk into. On the way to the pottery village, we often encountered some animals taking naps in rather unconvenient places. We also drove by a cow who had broken loose from its home, and with a rope hanging from its nose, was walking self-righteously down the road.

For those of you who find individual picture links annoying, the link to my photobucket album is : http://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g38/inalilwhile

Phitsanulok, Thailand

2006-06-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

I may just move to Asia.

For anybody that knows me well enough, they know for a fact that I am a giant massage whore (and nobody knows this more than my poor beloved Nick who has been destined to give me incredible amounts of them).

Here a traditional Thai massage at a nice place (not a hut in the corner with a picture of a foot and "Mesagge!" written sloppily on a piece of cardboard) goes for around 200 Baht. This hour long massage includes getting your feet washed, plus tea before and after the massage. To put things in perspective, about 40 Baht is one dollar--so an hour long massage at a nice place with a licensed masseuse and your own private room in a queen sized bed is $5. Five dollars!! And that is considered expensive.

So yes, I am in love. I keep having to justify not getting one every single day (eg: you have over a month left and cannot spend all your money, when you go to Laos it will be much much cheaper) but it's hard to do with such a bargain.

My private room in Phitsanulok (Tree has his own next door) is 100 Baht. I have a gorgeous outdoor-type bathroom with a western style toilet (more on Asian toilets later--it is quite the baffling subject), a queen-sized bed (with a rock-hard mattress, which is actually very comfortable, who would've guessed?) in a gorgeous antique room made partly of intricately carved wood on the walls. The 100 Baht includes breakfast, which is served every morning on the stone courtyard that is lined with wooden hammocks and overlooks some architecturally interesting neighbors and copious amounts of lush foilage.

Phitsanulok, where we currently are, seems like a typical town--a tad polluted, full of motorbikes, tuk-tuks, and miniature taxis made for Asians (Tree, at a towering 6'4, looks hilarious in them)--yet it has the second most important Buddha temple in all of Thailand (the first being the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok).

Upon visiting this Buddha, I was instantly in love with the temple. First, we were the only Westerners there, which was amazing after being in Bangkok, and second, the people praying to Buddha were so interesting. In the temple, Buddhists sat barefooted (with their feet turned away from Buddha, of course), shaking a box that contained some sort of wooden sticks. They would shake the box violently (which created a click-clack-click-clack noise) then bend their faces to the floor, then rise back up, keep shaking, touch the floor again, and so on. Dozens of Buddhists shaking the sticks to glorify the Buddha made the temple hum with noise. Lined on the side of the temple were monks saying prayers to the Buddhists sitting in front of them as they splashed water on their heads.

Outside of the temple, people lit incense and a presented closed lotus blossom as an offering to the Buddha. All in all, a very fascinating experience. The outside of the temple was lined with food huts and dozens of lottery ticket vendors.

I took a few pictures of this, but not many, because nonchalantly photographing while the Thai people are engrossed in prayer and tribute just seemed terrible and touristy of me. I have found this to be the case on many occasions, and as a result, the pictures that I take are never as good as they could be, because I try to snap them quickly to not disturb what is going on. Plus, Buddhist monks do not allow you to take a picture of them (as I learned the hard way), and neither do Muslim women, so taking a picture at any sort of religious gathering becomes a bit intimidating. The last thing I want to be is disrespectful. I will post what I took soon.

Buddhas in Wat Po (Bangkok)

2006-06-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

Behold a reclining Buddha, made of gold and a block in length. The true size of this piece cannot be captured in a photo.. it was massive. (Click)

Buddha head.. (Click)

The intricate designs of the Buddha.. (Click)

And this is me with some mini-Buddhas in Wat Po. (Click)

Tonight Tree and I are off to northern Thailand via a sleeper train. We arrive at Phitsanulok tomorrow morning and stay there for two nights. Then we go to Sukhothai, Thailand's old capital which is supposed to be culturally fascinating and very beautiful. Northern Thailand is less touristy, so that should be a nice relief from the massive amounts of backpackers weve encountered in Bangkok (and this is the off-season because it's monsoon period, which makes the thought of Bangkok during the rest of the time quite frightening).

Bangkok, Thailand

2006-06-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

They weren't kidding about "monsoon season". I told Tree, "I think it's going to rain," as we stepped off the skytrain on our way back from Wat Po. I barely had time to buy some fresh durian fruit from a street vendor, when the city was engulfed in a torrential downpour. Of course, it happened to be during our 20 minute walk back to Thong Lor (where our hostel is) so there was nothing we coud do but keep moving. My sandals began to slip, water was running down my face, my hair was drenched, and all I could hear besides the sound of water was my new "kiwi" friend Kelly screaming behind me as she tried to keep moving. (A "kiwi" is somebody from New Zealand).

I began to notice two things: first, we were the only idiots actually trying to get somewhere out in the rain (all of the Thais were giving us weird looks from underneath shelter); and two, Thai men kept staring at me and laughing from the back of their tuk-tuk's. Initially, I just figured they thought I was funny looking, which is fine... but as I continued onward and looked down I realized that I was in white cotton shorts--and my thong, though hot pink and not transparent, was hardly a helpful contributor to the problem.

So, dad, if you are reading this (whch I know you are): half of Thailand has seen your youngest daughter's butt. Hahaha.

Previous to that interesting experience (why did I ever decide to bring white shorts during monsoon season?!), we went around the city up the Mae Nam Chao Phraya river, by boat. The water was brown and nobody swam in it except for one very happy Thai man who was wading in it and laughing. I don't blame him for jumping in, and if I wasn't terrified of getting a deathly parasite I would do the same. Thailand right now is unbelievably hot. Torturingly so. You sweat, constantly. I keep thinking of my best friend Sarah and how she would be freaking out the entire time if she were here, and be taking a dozen showers a day, not to mention washing her hands every two seconds. We had the bright idea of walking down Khao San Road, the famous backpacking central in Bangkok between 2-4pm, the hottest time of the day. Khao San seems to extend infinitely and is lined with vendors of every kind as far as your eyes can see; it is a street littered with hostels and cheap Thailand products--gold Buddha statues, slightly defected designer brands for a tenth of the price, opium pipes, phat thai (pad thai) vendors coking tons of it at a time, rice dises, traditional clothing--and everywhere you look there are hippie backpackers.

As we trudged along in the heat men would approach Tree and I (and our new friends who came along):

"Hello good sir! You want suit? Nice suit. I make you best suit!"
"Naw, I'm good man."
"Where you from, sir?"
"America"
"Oh! America! I make you nice suit for America. Cheap, best suit."

He's following us down the street at this point.

"I'm good, man, but you have a nice day bro." (Tree is so ever-polite, I would have punched him in the face by then, or at least considered it)
"Good quality su--"

We duck into another store and he leaves us alone. The trick is not to look at a store for more than a few seconds, because the slightlest sign of interest elicits ten minutes of pleadings from its vendor.

Today we are off to the Chatuchak Market, the largest outdoor market in the world!

It is now 7:50am and it's time for my non-conventional breakfast of vegetable fried rice. So good. I'll try to put pics up tonight.

Taipei

2006-06-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

Hello from Taipei!!

Tree and I are in an internet cafe thing, we've been travelling for approximately 28 hours now. Surprisingly, the flight to LA felt much much longer than the flight to Taiwan. Taiwan is cool. They have amazing coffee. Our flight to Bangkok leaves in about an hour.

Tree also has a blog, it can be viewed at: www.philblogs.com/treesspot

I'll update more when I'm not at a random airport in Asia,

Tamara

Interesting!

2006-04-21T10:11:00.000-07:00

Can somebody explain to me what is going on in this picture?!

Also... this little boy is my new hero:

Camera

2006-04-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

Check out my new camera!!!

It's a Canon Digital Rebel XT. I'm very excited to have a new SLR; my old one got stolen and I dealt with a very cheap Canon for about two years after that. But interning at Farm Sanctuary, and travelling through SE Asia calls for quality photographs.

Future Plans

2006-04-10T21:22:00.000-07:00

My ticket to Bangkok has been bought :-)

We're doing Thailand (from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, stopping in a bunch of cities as we move our way north), India (starting in Delhi and ending in Bombay), and China (Katmandu, Tibet).

If anybody reading this has been to any of these places and wants to make some recommendations, feel free! We have India figured out pretty well (thanks to a Professor who has lived there for 20 years every summer and is an expert on Jainism), but Thailand is still very shaky, as we aren't sure which places between Bangkok and Chiang Mai are worth stopping at.

We don't leave until June 13th. During the month of May I'll be interning at farmsanctuary.org, the largest factory farmed animal sanctuary in the nation.

More mutations

2006-04-01T17:59:00.000-08:00

Most two headed snakes only live for a couple of months. This two headed albino rat snake is six years old, and is being sold on Ebay, with a starting bid of $150,000.

Credit: Associated Press

Genes are crazy

2006-04-01T17:55:00.000-08:00

Wow.. this one eyed kitten with no nose was born in December of 2005. Unfortunately he only lived for one day (makes me wonder how he even lived that long, with no nose?).

Credit: Associated Press

Eyeless shellfish?

2006-04-01T17:53:00.000-08:00

New species!

"This photo released by the IFREMER (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) shows a new crustacean called "Kiwa hirsuta". The eyeless shellfish, about 15cm long, was discovered in March 2005 during a diving mission led by American researcher Robert Vrijenhoek, of the MBARI Institute, in hydrothermal vents of the Pacific Antartic Ridge, south of Easter Island."

Credit: Associated Press

Pygmy Hippo

2006-03-25T08:33:00.000-08:00

How cute is this baby pygmy hippo?!!! He currently resides at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska. He is three months old. I'm not a big fan of zoos; my only exception are zoos that provide a natural habitat for animals who would otherwise be lacking in one due to deforestation and all that human-centered junk. Of course, the best way to fix that would be to attempt to restore these natural places in the wild, but until that day comes, I think that well made sanctuaries that imitate habitats correctly are an acceptable alternative in the meantime.

Credit: Yahoo! News Photos

2006-03-23T16:38:00.000-08:00

"First, there is the power of the Wind, constantly exerted over the globe.... Here is an almost incalculable power at our disposal, yet how trifling the use we make of it! It only serves to turn a few mills, blow a few vessels across the ocean, and a few trivial ends besides. What a poor compliment do we pay to our indefatigable and energetic servant!"
— Henry David Thoreau, "Paradise (To Be) Regained"

Comments

2005-12-05T09:34:00.000-08:00

Comments can now be posted by anyone now!

This picture is probably the biggest catfish I've ever seen. Thankfully, the two people holding it released it back to the water (after burping it, haha).

Box Jellyfish

2005-12-04T20:41:00.000-08:00

A special on box jellyfish reminded me how cool they are. And terrifying.

The Irukandji boxfish is the size of your fingernail and invisible.

Larger Box Jellyfish can be up to the size of a basketball, with tentacles trailing up to fifteen feet.

Both kill you.

If you don't die, you're in excruciating pain for weeks, with no antivenom. The highest dosage of morphine per body weight given to a victim has almost no effect on the pain.

To put into perspective, the venom bursts from a boxfish's tentacles at 10,000 times the force of gravity and is three hundred times more potent than a cobra's. A .05 second of contact with a bit of the end of an Irukandji tentacle is enough for weeks of pain on a hospital bed.

I'm not sure how the venom is in comparison to an inland taipan's venom. I'll find out though (through www.venomdoc.com, this guy is amazing. He seriously plays with Australian taipans and death adders all day long), and report back to this post.

(**update** Dr. Fry responded with the following: "The only ref I could find to an LD50 was 0.02 mg/kg (didn't say what mode of testing). This is on par with the most toxic snakes. What makes the box jelly seem like the most venomous animal is that it is definately one of the most painful. People can die in moments from shock due to the agonising pain. The venom itself can kill in an hour. ")

So, the venom of a box jellyfish is equivalent to the most toxic snakes out there (taipans, death adders, etc).

Interesting fact: Bigger species of box jellies actually have primitive brains which allows them to partially withhold stings if they desire. They also have 24 eyes.

In retrospect I have no idea why I actually swam for hours in Australian oceans last year.

Darfur, Sudan

2005-12-04T17:15:00.000-08:00

This Saturday I attended a conference at Harvard University provided by STAND--Students Taking Action Now: Darfur. It was a three day event (Friday-Sunday) that revolved around workshops led by experienced individuals in things such as foreign affairs, grassroots campaigning, and international media coverage. The goal of the conference was to raise awareness about the genocide currently occuring in Darfur, provide information on how devoted individuals can work towards ending the genocide (or other injustices), how the media has treated the genocide so far (virtually ignored it), and how a future genocide can be preventable.

Since 2002, the Sudanese government has been trying to eradicate three African ethnic groups: the Fur, the Zaghawa, and the Massaleit. In an attempt to erase evidence of the massacre, the government does not allow journalists, eliminates all traces of mass graves, and is illegally withholding documental information to the United Nations.

The Sudanese government, by equipping and transporting Arab militias, has killed over 400,000 people, destroyed 4500 villages, and displaced over 2.4 million people. The surviving women and young girls are raped by soldiers in an attempt to alter their ethnic identity.

The zone where the genocide is taking place is roughly the size of France.

(Information obtained through http://www.standnow.org/learn/)

The three workshops I attended were really interesting. The first was led by AID--Americans for Informed Democracy (http://www.aidemocracy.org/). The purpose of the workshop was to provide college students with every possible bit of information they may need to organize a town hall meeting at their school, from contacting renowed speakers to flyering tactics to sample letters and poster ideas. AID provides a $150 grant to any student or group at a university who wants to arrange a meeting (on basicall anything one feels the public needs to be more aware about). They also print out all your flyers and posters for free. Pretty sweet.

The second workshop I attended was led by Ryan Spencer Reed, the person who took the two pictures at the beginning of this entry. "Basically, I sold my car and went to Africa," he told us. The things he encountered in Sudan shook him, and he has ditched law school and now writes and photographs the things he encounters in his travels. He gave us a slide show of his Sudanese photography, and it was heartbreaking but amazing.

The third workshop was led by a head strategist for www.moveon.org, a web site that formulates and leads activist campaigns. I forgot the guy's name who ran it, but he was really cool. My friend and I ran into him an hour later while we were having dinner at Veggie Planet (so not only does this guy plan out grassroot campaigns, but he's most likely a vegetarian too!). Anyway, he drew a really helpful diagram on the board that broke up a plan of action into pieces; tactics have to directly influence strategies, which have to directly influence goals, which have to directly influence the desired end, and so on. Otherwise, it's basically precious acitivist time wasted on things that don't necessarily lead to an effective result (an effective result being something that makes it easier to achieve the end result). So protesting against the war in Iraq on the streets isn't really going to do much. But protesting against a certain legislature that is about to be passed (rather than the end goal), and getting media attention for the protest, and phoning/emailing your congressmen, makes it more likely for it not to be passed. Then once this hurdle has been crossed, it directly influences something else along the ladder, which in turn influences something else, which ideally provides the desired result. (The actual talk was very detailed and much more informative than the vague overview I just gave).

All in all, the conference was great. There were about ten other workshops we didn't attend, which I'm sure were damn good too. As my friend and I were walking to Veggie Planet after our last talk, we ran into this table on a sidewalk in front of Harvard that was piled with fruits, vegetables, and warm cooked meals. I approached one of the girls who was offering it to people and asked her what they were doing. "We think that food is not a priviledge, but a right," was her answer.

It turns out they're part of a non-hierarchical organization called Food Not Bombs, where its members basically go to restaurants, grocery stores, and even dumpsters and salvage perfectly good food that was going to otherwise be thrown out (or already was thrown out). Their goal is to reveal the over-consumption of the US by providing full fledged meals out of food that would otherwise have gone to waste. The food was actually REALLY good. It was all vegan (they're actually "freegan", which is something I'd never heard of before, but it's basically people who refuse to support any corporation because they think the entire system is flawed. Pretty extreme, but very interesting) and very well made.

I had curried mashed potatoes with eggplant and it was delicious. Just thought I'd mention this encounter because it was run by a group of people who I didn't even know existed. All in all, it was an eventful day.

Side note: Ryan Spencer Reed's photography from Sudan, along with the photography of other talented artists, can be found at www.groupm35.com

World's Ugliest Dog

2005-11-29T18:52:00.000-08:00

World's Ugliest Dog Dies at 14

Sam, crowned the 'World's Ugliest Dog' for three years in a row at the Sonoma-Marin Fair, is shown in Santa Barbara, Calif., on June 28, 2005. The pooch with the hairless body, crooked teeth and sparse tuft of hair atop his knobby head died Friday, Nov. 18, 2005, just short of his 15th birthday, according to his owner, Susie Lockheed. (AP Photo/Santa Barbara News-Press, Rafael Maldonado, File)

The World Project

2005-11-16T08:03:00.000-08:00

The Nakheel Development Company in Dubai has decided that it'd be a good idea to create The World Project, a string of artificial islands created to resemble a map of the world, a $14 billion dollar endeavour.

The environmental damage so far (it wont be finished until 2008) has been disastrous; essentially, Gulf marine life is being destroyed. The artificial islands have crushed coral reefs, along with sea turtle habitats. Natural currents have been altered, which in turn is causing Dubai's beaches to erode. Diving is no longer an option because the level of silt in the water obscures one's line of sight.

Nakheel's developer claims that sea life will be compatible with the islands once the project is complete.

But the environment will never be the same, said Frederic Launay, director of the Abu Dhabi office of the World Wide Fund for Nature. "If you build stretches of five-star hotels with landscaped gardens, you're transforming a wild environment to an urban environment," Launay said. "There will be different species. It's an artificial system."
(Quote: Associated Press)

This is one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard. Lets build more playthings for millionaires, but this time lets make them artificial islands in the middle of the ocean, conveniently ignoring all environmental consequence, 'cause you know, we'll be making tons of money.

Striking

2005-11-14T19:26:00.000-08:00

You have to click on the pictures to the the full effect of Grey's photography, which is fabulous:

Bush

2005-11-14T17:29:00.000-08:00

Bush's approval rating for November: 37%

It's never been lower.

Sweet.

"Despite the pall of gloom that hangs over us today, I'd like to file a cautious plea for hope: In time of war, one wants one's weakest enemy at the helm of his forces. And President George W. Bush is certainly that. Any other even averagely intelligent U.S. president would have probably done the very same things, but would have managed to smoke up the glass and confuse the opposition. Perhaps even carry the United Nations with him. George Bush's tactless imprudence and his brazen belief that he can run the world with his riot squad has done the opposite. He has achieved what writers, activists, and scholars have striven to achieve for decades. He has exposed the ducts. He has placed on full public view the working parts, the nuts and bolts of the apocalypse apparatus of the American Empire."
-Arundhati Roy

Animals are neat

2005-11-13T19:17:00.000-08:00

Talk about muddled genetics..

Some interesting looking animals:

An Aye Aye.

A Tarsier (smallest primate in existence)

Credit: www.wftv.com

Religious fanaticism

2005-11-13T19:07:00.000-08:00

Folks have been bombarding this cement wall and placing flowers and candles under it after a discoloration that appears to be the Virgin Mary was discovered. (Chicago, IL)

See this pretzel? It sold for 10, 600 on eBay because of its 'miraculous' contortion: the virgin mary with child.

Credit: www.wftv.com

Interesting..

2005-11-10T20:05:00.000-08:00

I give props to this NY Liberty player for not walking off the court after being assigned to block #12.

Above, in the Florida Everglades, a burmese python swallows an entire alligator whole before exploding.

Oh my god. There is nothing that scares me more than wasps, hornets, and bees. This picture is bothering me way more than it should, but I can't stop looking at it.

(It's a beekeeper celebrating something by releasing all his bees on himself)

Credit: www.wftv.com

Furo do Lago

2005-11-10T08:54:00.000-08:00

"Canoe on the Furo do Lago do Cristo Reis during one of the worst droughts ever recorded in the Amazon region. The drought is damaging the world's largest rainforest, with wildfires breaking out, fresh drinking water becoming scarce, and the death of millions fish as the streams dry up."

Photo credit: © Greenpeace/Daniel Beltra.

Alaskan Wildlife Refuge

2005-11-10T07:36:00.000-08:00

The Senate dropped drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge from its budget last Thursday. Democrats and moderate Republicans are against wildlife drilling because of tight budgeting in response to the country's increasing national deficit (though why the government suddenly cares about that after producing the highest deficit in US history is beyond me).

The House has been pushing drilling, but the Senate keeps opposing it by the threat of a filibuster. This is a huge victory for environmentalists, but it's not final yet. There's going to be a final budget revision, and conservative Republicans, backed by Bush, will have one last chance to include wildlife drilling into the budget. Regardless, the budget that was approved last Thursday still cuts funds from America's lower and middle classes (surprise surprise) by reducing the amount of citizens that recieve food stamps, and hurting education by cutting back on student loans.

This would be a great time for our government to take alternative energy sources into serious consideration. The general outlook on alternative drilling by our government has been, "yes, it's definitely an option worth considering, but since the oil won't be running out anytime too soon, we rather spend billions exhausting this finite resource first."

Sadly, the oil will run out, and alternative resources will be eventually sought, but the environmental degradation at that point will most likely be irreversible.

Keeping arctic drilling from the budget will be a major step against this damage.

We'll see what happens, I'm not getting my hopes up yet.

Australia

2005-11-09T08:38:00.000-08:00

Fraser Island, Australia. I have yet to visit a place that matches in beauty, ecological diversity, and ecosystem rarity.

Singing Mice

2005-11-09T08:17:00.000-08:00

Study Reveals Mice Sing in the Presence of Mates

A study published this week reveals that mice are among a very few creatures that can sing to members of the opposite sex. Others on that list include songbirds, insect, and porpoises. The high-frequency sounds, out of the range of human hearing, are complex and have a pattern to them. "There was joy in this discovery," said researcher Timothy Holy. "We didn't expect it."
© enn.com

Ingrid, Turkeys, America

2005-11-08T18:52:00.000-08:00

I'm vegan, which means I don't consume animal products of any kind--this includes seafood, milk, eggs, and cheese. The reason I mention my dietary habits is because the following post would be deemed hypocritical if this were not established beforeheand. But this is not a post about veganism, but about Ingrid, an adopted turkey from www.adoptaturkey.org, and the nature of Thanksgiving in general.

Ingrid is so cute, look at her. She looks like a cocky little turkey slut.

Turkeys are great animals, with distinct personality types and individual social preferences. Some are loners; others socialize with the turkeys they prefer. A turkey, like every other animal, has a good of its own. I believe that we have no right to violate that good.

Ingrid, the turkey in the photo, is one of the lucky rescued few. Every Thanksgiving, 30 million turkeys are killed after living in terrifying conditions, only to provide human beings with an unecessary dietary luxury. They are cramped in dark, filthy cages. Turkeys are genetically bred to the point where their legs cannot often support their bodies. Their beaks and toes are burnt off without painkillers. Millions die on their way to the slaughterhouse.

Thanksgiving is a disturbing holiday. Historically, it symbolizes the United States' exploitation and mass murder of the Native American people--an issue that's been conveniently ignored, even though current Native Americans in reservations are still disadvantaged, both spatially and educationally. Presently, Thanksgiving has become a symbol of this country's lack of mental connection; the slice of turkey on a plate was never breathing, it never experienced terror and pain, it never existed prior entering your mouth.

This holiday symbolizes how Americans live in a form of illogical double-think, where dogs and cats are accepted and loved, yet cows and pigs tortured and eaten. There is no compelling argument for why one species deserves life and the other death. The weird part is that turkeys were never even eaten in Plymouth. It is a cultural fabrication, quite an unfortunate one for the birds.

Visit: www.adoptaturkey.org for an Ingrid of your own.

Fuck Thanksgiving.

Space is Baffling

2005-11-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

"The Horse Head Nebula is one of the most famous of deep-sky objects. Located in the same interstellar cloud as the Great Orion Nebula, this intriguing puff of gas and dust silhouettes the bright curtain of energized hydrogen gas beyond. Were it not for this backdrop, the Horse Head would very likely be impossible to discern. To the lower left is the reflection nebula NGC 2023. Here we see a hot, newborn star illuminating the cloud of gas and dust that gave birth to it. The stellar wind and radiation pressure from this energetic star is carving out a vast cavity within the cloud."

© 2005 Russell Croman Astrophotography