Trekkin'

Well, Michael and I are back from out Annapurna Circuit trek! We are now relaxing in a cafe in beautiful Lakeside Pokhara. I have already posted an album of photos, here are some highlights:






The rest are here.

My photos are probably the best description of the trek, although they probably only capture about 5% of the experience. The last 16 days have been one of the most incredible journeys of my entire life. In fact, I am still so overwhelmed by everything that I am having trouble putting it into words! Needless to say, sitting in a cafe on a computer next to a road with cars is totally surreal right now. Waking up this morning and not packing up all of my belongings and walking for 7 hours is relieving, yet disappointing. I am happy to have quiet time with Michael, but it doesn't seem right to be in Nepal and not drinking local wine with Nepali guides, porters, and lodge owners. At 4pm, I expect to have to order dinner since it will take 2 hours for the lodge owners to gather the ingredients and cook for all of the guests on a small wood fire. I am in total shock being back in a city.

Of course, it didn't help that the moment we returned to civilization, everything seemed to go wrong. I suffered a mild concussion on the very bumpy bus ride back, and we arrived at our hotel to find that my back had not arrived, and that our reservation was booked for the wrong day. But yesterday we got our new room and my bag, and today we can finally start to recharge our batteries and prepare for the next leg of our travel: 6 weeks in India!

Alchemy in Kathmandu

While we were in Darjeeling, I reread The Alchemist (although this was more like my second first time reading it, because the first time I was 11 and I didn't totally grasp the plot...). Maybe this story has inspired my feelings about Kathmandu. One week ago, on our first day here, we did a short walking tour of the old city. In the first 10 minutes, we stumbled into a small courtyard with a stupa and monastery and I felt suddenly extremely moved and enchanted by the environment. The best description I can think of is the feeling of fulfilling one's destiny. I remembered all the time I had spent at the Rubin Museum 2 years ago: seeing a photo exhibition of Kathmandu in the 70's, spending hours looking at thangka paintings and stone carvings, and knowing in my heart, "I have to go here, and I know that I will go here." The satisfaction of finally being immersed in this culture is unimaginable.

So the last week we have been exploring temples and hiking through villages in the Kathmandu valley, and it has been truly incredible (despite a small bike mishap). I have also felt inspired to take many photographs. Here are some of my favorites:






Plus more on facebook (Michael and I have been fondly reffering to "Nepal" as "Nipple")

I have also started doing some doodles about our days here, and will be posting some of them on Drawings of Journeys.

Tomorrow Michael and I are leaving on a 16 day trek through the Annapurnas, some of the tallest mountains in the world. Here is a map of our route:



Needless to say, I am overwhelmingly excited but also a bit nervous to be in such remote areas. So, there will be no updates for a while. Wish me luck!

UPDATES

Our month in China was amazing, read Michael's blog for more detailed adventures.

After a (too quick) layover in Bangkok, we have entered our first few days in India. We landed in Thursday afternoon in Calcutta. Although it lived up to its reputation for of extreme poverty and chaos, there were parts of the city which I found almost endearing. The whole city had an almost post apocalyptic vibe to me. There were tons of beautiful 19th century British buildings, but none of them have been maintained, so they are now dirty and dilapidated. This once great capitol is now overgrown with tropical jungle plants, and the streets and buildings seem to all be slowly crumbling. Great murders of crows added an almost Hitchcock feel.



That's not to say that I was not deeply moved by the poverty here. It is very sobering to see so many destitute in the streets making homes of garbage. However, I do think I was slightly more prepared for India's 3rd world-ness than Michael was. The first time I visited China was in 1995. Although China's economy was on the rise, there was still no significant expat scene, no backpacker hostels, and certainly no western style toilets. In addition, my first visit was not to one of the quickly developing cities of Beijing or Shanghai, but to Chengdu, which is basically the last Han Chinese city before the autonomous regions of the west. Only in the last few years has Chengdu seen more Western travelers, mostly on their way to Tibet or other rural areas of China's southwest. Although the poverty was probably not as bad as in Calcutta, I still remember being shocked and moved by all of the disfigured and mentally ill who slept on the streets. It was also not uncommon for beggars to aggressively stick their hands in taxis and ask for money or for orphan children to hold on to your legs until you gave them a few coins. In later visits, this became less and less visible, and it wasn't until we arrived in India that I realized beggars in China seemed nearly nonexistent on our trip (although I question whether they have actually been helped or the government has simply hidden them...).

So, all in all, I found Calcutta intense, wild, but intriguing, and although I might not choose to go back there, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. In fact, our last night we saw an amazing musical performance, which would have made me really start liking the city if I hadn't ended the night with my head in the toilet AGAIN.

Now, after our first Indian overnight sleeper train and a very rough 4 hour jeep ride, we are finally in our hotel in Darjeeling. It is much more laid back here, and the scenery is incredible. Sadly, Michael and I both seem to be suffering from pretty bad stomach infections, but I suppose these are common in new places. I am ecstatic to have the chance to go into the Himalayas, though, as it has been a wish of mine since my first trip to the Rubin Museum a few years ago. Truly a dream come true.

Darjeeling Take 1

Sadly, Michael's stomach infection took a turn for the worse yesterday morning, and climaxed in a very stressful visit to an Indian clinic, which I think was a bit traumatizing for Michael...

So I have been playing mom for the last couple days, which has actually given me a chance to see Darjeeling from an interesting perspective. It is very different here than in Calcutta. The ethnicity, Ghorka, shares more with Tibet and Nepal than with the rest of India. It is much quieter and more laid back. It is also feels much less threatening, particularly as a solo lady. Travelling in Egypt last year gave me some preparation for the attitude towards women here, but it was still pretty intimidating to walk into the bar at our hotel in Calcutta and have 40 sets of hungry male eyes land on me at once.

However, equally intimidating was the search to fill Michael's prescriptions here. After the clinic visit, Michael was sent home in a taxi and I went with the daughter of the hostel owner to go find medicine. Since it was only 6am, many pharmacies were not open yet, so our first stop was the state run hospital. To get there, she suggested we take a short cut but warned me that it was a bit "dirty." I wanted to get the medicine back to Michael as fast as possible, so I followed her through a burned out building full of garbage piles to the entrance of the hospital.

The clinic we had gone to in the morning was described to us by the owner of our hostel as, "a very nice private hospital, much cleaner than the state run hospital." However, by American standards, the private clinic was not clean at all. The bathroom smelled and the toilet seat had dirty water on it, and in his delirious state Michael compared the garbage can in his room to the chicken slaughtering jar he had seen at the animal market in Yangshuo. The whole facility was really offputting. But when we arrived at the state hospital, it was not only the garbage cans but the entire building that was reminicent of a giant chicken death jar. Needless to say, I was happy with our clinic choice.

So we woke up the man in the pharmacy across the street who quickly filled our prescriptions and then headed back through the dark burned out garbage building towards the hostel. Again, the girl asked me if I wanted to take another "difficult" short cut, and I agreed to. This one was up a series of tiny alleys with steep narrow stairs that wove through a series of small courtyards. The first had a large pack of stray dogs taking a group nap and the second had 3 men who appeared to be making a very sketchy business transaction. I was relieved to make it back to the main roads soon after this and deliver the medicine to Michael.

By that evening, I had seen many young women walking the alleys here on their own, which made me feel much less nervous about running errands solo. In fact, I beginning to feel quite comfortable in Darjeeling, and am sort of looking forward to being stuck here a few extra days while Michael recovers.

Sadly, it has been raining the last couple days, so we haven't even had any killer Himalayan views yet! But we posibly have two treks planned for here and Nepal, which I am very much looking forward to and praying for better weather. Also, I am making a serious effort to write more blogs, so keep checking back for more updates!

China reflections

I seem to be running out of excuses for not having updated my blog since we arrived. The main problem is, with Michael's thorough and frequent descriptions of our trips events, I am at a loss of what to blog about. Another is that I've grown so accustomed to the odd cultural differences in China that I don't even notice when interesting things happen until Michael asks, "Why is that man walking around town in his pajamas?" or "Why do people like eating old stinky tofu?" or "Why is that old lady on the bus grabbing onto your butt for support?" In my head, the answer to these questions is clear: "Because it's China."

And anyway, how many old ladies dancing in the park or bicycles with loads the size of small trucks or beautiful women hacking loogies can you watch before it just gets old?



Nevermind, China is awesome and I'm ecstatic to be back.

Disaster Strikes!

So yesterday morning, Michael and I got on the m60 bus as 5am and headed to Laguardia for our flight to Shanghai. Sadly, we never made it on the flight, because when we got off at the airport, the bus rolled away with my passport, visas, and wallet. Begin one of the most physically and emotionally exhausting days of my life. After several hours of calling MTA and arguing with Air Canada lady, we managed to reschedule our flight for Saturday morning and accept that my purse is probably not coming back.

Here is the scenario as we pull out of Laguardia: It's 9:30 am, I've been up since 4:30am after approximately 3.5 hours of sleep, and I have 30 hours to acquire a new passport and a new Chinese visa with no money, ID, or cell phone. Looks like it's time to initiate operation "Call Mom."

Luckily, my mom met me at the passport center downtown around 11 with all the documents I would need, and we managed get an appointment for a same day passport. 4 hours and one exhaustion and starvation induced breakdown later, I picked up my shiny new passport, complete with a new photo of me half asleep in a Duane Reade.

Now I am waiting to pick up my new Chinese visa. Despite this unforseen catastrophe, it seems like everything is going to work out after all, thanks to to my Michael's patience and my mom's saintliness.

Countdown to Asia

Michael and I are 3 days away from our 2-3 month trip across Asia! Here is our tentative (and rather ambitious) itinerary:


View Asia Trip Fall 2009 in a larger map

*Don't mind that pin in Turkmenistan, I am having trouble figuring out this whole google maps business. I've also added this map to the sidebar, where I will be updating it with dates and photos.

Having spent the last 5 weeks caught up in the stress of moving out of my loft, caring for my mom during her shoulder surgery, and helping my slightly demented cat switch homes, I'm suddenly shocked at how excited I am! I mean, this is kind of a big deal, right?

Tennessee y'all!

On Monday morning, Joe, Lucas and I headed out of Arkansas, across the Missouri teabag (look at a map and you'll understand), and into Tennessee. We arrived in Nashville in the early evening, and the boys decided to KGB the best pulled pork sandwich in town. We ended up at Hog Heaven, a little shack behind the parking lot of a McDonald's near Centennial Park.

I've heard many horror stories about being vegan in the south, so although there were several vegetable sides listed on the menu, I was skeptical of their preparation methods. To my surprise, the guy who came to the counter to take our order was a serious vegan punk dude! He managed to scramble together some greens and black eyed peas for me, as well as the most amazing spicy bbq pickles I've ever had. While we were sitting outside eating, we were joined by two drunk hobos named Jerry and Hacksaw. Jerry played us some music on his guitar, including some sweet bic lighter slides, while Hacksaw kissed my hand and told me how beautiful my freckles were. I'd like to think that this was a true Nashville moment.

Because we had scheduled only 4 hours in Nashville, neither Joe nor I had bothered to do any research about what there actually was to see there. I decided to ask the punk vegan Hog Heaven employee for some ideas, and he suggested we go swimming in a salt water pool. When Joe realized this plan would involve trespassing, he decided to go off on his own. So while Joe explored the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Pantheon replica, Lucas and I broke into a Vanderbilt dorm complex and swam in their pool.

That night, we drove on to Knoxville and arrived at my friend Joseph's (not to be confused with my road buddy Joe) around midnight. Joseph was sweaty and shirtless and had just finished chopping wood for a fire. He gave us a tour of the community garden surrounding his house, which included about 15 different kinds of tomatos, each plant at least 6 ft tall. I was completely smitten.

The next morning we went into downtown Knoxville to scope out the scene. Having lived in either New York or Shanghai for most of my life, I am not easily impressed by other cities. However, I was blown away by the fact that everything in Knoxville is either free or dirt cheap. We went up in the World's Fair Sunsphere (free) and checked out the art museum (also totally effing free!). Then we headed back to Joseph's and made an amazing salad and pasta dinner with all of the veggies from the gardens. Later, we all went out to a great microbrewery downtown for $1.50 pint night. I thought I was dreaming.

On Wednesday we headed up to the smokies for some hiking. It was really beautiful, even though we were told that the mountains were way smokier than usual. First we drove up into the mountains and hiked to Andrew's Bald, which was a meadow on the side of a moutain with a beautiful view. Then we drove down to a creek lined with magnolias in full blossum. The water was so clear that we refilled our bottles with it.

The next morning we said goodbye to the south and drove all the way to Baltimore. Baltimore wasn't really a new place for me, but there was a pretty cool art festival going on. My favourite booth featured a man badly singing kareoke with a girl dressed as a turtle by his side. The booth was decorated with fake rocks and seaplants, and there was a banner which read, "Underwater Kareoke Adventure."

This morning, Joe dropped me off at my mom's place in Montclair, and tomorrow it's back to Brooklyn. Our final routing looked more like this:


View Larger Map

Chicago really set us back, but we still covered a lot of ground, and I'm definetely happy with my first southern experience.

Missouri and Arkansas

Joe and I arrived in Baltimore last night. I'm going to write about the last week in several sections, since so much happened and I didn't have any chance to update. Things really picked up in the south. Last Friday we drove to St. Louis where we went up in arch and explored the City Museum. The St. Louis City museum is amazing, it's just a giant 4 story playground for grown ups.

We left late that night and drove about an hour deeper into Missouri. This is where shit started getting pretty real. After passing scores of closed fireworks and adult toy warehouse stores, we exited the highway near Merimac State Park. When we finally found the campsite which Joe's book had recommended, we were greeted by a drunk, shirtless, middle aged southern man who told us that the site has been closed for at least 3 years. He proceded to keep us parked in the entrance area while he explained to us how he had bought a country song from a man in St. Louis for $20,000 and was trying to record it with his friend to play at Branson next year and go platinum together. Clearly this man was going to make a fortune.

We drove around the area for a while, but had no luck finding a campsite. We settled for a motel near the park which the shirtless man had described as "...pretty dirty, but surely they must have cleaned it up by now..." They hadn't. I was under the impression that this type of motel only existed in movies, but then again I'd never been to Missouri before. We cut a deal with the woman at the front desk and paid $35 for a room with 2 beds. She suggested that we not use the bed closer to the door, because it might be damp, since the bed was just shampooed. When Joe asked, "Can we smoke in the room?" her response was, "Oh, y'all can do anything you want in this room."

The room smelled like cigarettes, garbage, and sex, and every surface had a thin layer of sticky dust. The draw next to our bed contained a bible and some sticky blue puddles. The bathroom had no toilet paper. The woman who had checked us in stopped by to drop off towels. She assured us that she had just washed them, and not to worry about the huge brown stains all over them. We slept in our sleeping bags on top of the beds.

The next morning we got in touch with Lucas, who was now in Arkansas at his friend Jesse's lake house. We checked out as fast as we could, stopped by the Jesse James wax museum next door, and hauled ass down to Little Rock. Never in my life have I seen so many confederate flags and gun stores in such a short period of time. Within 30 minutes of arriving, we each took 2 shots of Jack Daniel's and jumped in the lake naked. Jesse's family was very friendly, but, not surprisingly, the idea of veganism didn't really click for them, and I only consumed corn on the cob and beer for the 24 hours we stayed there.

The next morning we went with Jesse's family to a rodeo where her brother was participating in the novice bull riding. Their father had been a champion bull rider in the 80's, so they were all quite proud to see him following in his father's footsteps. I also had no idea that bull riding meant tying a rope around a bulls enourmous scrotum and tightening it until he bucked his rider off. After 10 minutes of prayers and the national anthem, the ball squeezing, I mean bull riding began. The highlight of the rodeo was definetely the "mutton busting" section, where 4-8 year-olds tryed their luck on sheep. Each kid was thrown off within several seconds, then stood up and looked around and started bawling. "The embarrassment is terrible." explained Jesse's stepfather.

We left the rodeo early and drove into the night until we reached a campsite in northwestern Arkansas. At this point Lucas had decided to just join us on the road so that he could get a ride back to Jersey. We got our of the car and the air was literally thick with mosquitos in a way which I had never experienced before. We scrambled to get the tent up and passed out around 1am. I was woken up twice in the morning. The first time was at 7:30am by Joe. It was pouring rain outside and he was screaming, "Quick, pack up, we have to go NOW!" Annoyed and disoriented, I watched Joe and Lucas scrambling to pack up for several minutes before deciding adamently against waking up. Joe finally agreed that it might make more sense to wait out the rain after all, and we all passed out again. 2 hours later I was woken up by a cow mooing 20 feet from my head. At this point we decided to check out and get back on the road toward Tennessee.

The mustang is back!

So, after 6 extra days on Lucas's couch, the car is finally fixed!  We should be on the road early tomorrow morning (knock on wood/cross you fingers/oh lord please get us out of here already!).

Our itinerary has been drastically adjusted to account for lost time.  We are stopping through St Louis tomorrow before heading straight for Knoxville the next day.  I'm still excited for the rest of our adventure, although it has sort of morphed from a sweet road trip to a sweet trip to Chicago plus some extra stuff.

And our time here has been quite enjoyable.  Today we went for a swim in Lake Michigan.  Yesterday I witnessed a violent word exchange between an elderly woman and a teenage mother over who deserved the handicapped bus seat more.  The day before I caught a guy in front of me at the public library watching hardcore porn on one of the computers.  Chicago is definitely my speed.

Stranded in Chicago!

This morning Joe and I took off St Louis bound. Unfortunately, we only made it about half a block before the car broke down, so we are currently waiting for a tow. The dealership where it's getting fixed isn't open until tomorrow, so we won't know until then what's wrong with the car and how long we will be here. Hey, at least we're in Chicago, there are way worse places to get stranded.

Last night I enjoyed a pretty laid back 4th of July with the boys. Apparently fireworks are basically legal in Chicago on the 4th, so we sat on the roof and watched people setting them off all around us. Also, Joe and I stopped in a huge warehouse fireworks store in Indiana (which is where everyone in Chicago goes to get fireworks, duh!), so we had some of our own, too.

Also, here are some silly photos from the childrens section of the Art Institute.

Chicagoland

Yesterday was our first day in Chicago. Unfortunately it was drizzling for most of the afternoon, so we didn't make it to too many places. Luckily, I still got the classic tourist photo of myself taking a picture of myself in the bean, which is something I've been looking forward to for weeks (that clump of people around the bicycle is Joe, Lucas, and I).

Chicago is a pretty cool city, and I'm excited to see more of it. It's kind of like a giant Brooklyn, which is good, because Brooklyn is my favorite part of New York.

Cleveland!

Joe and I arrived in Cleveland late last night.

Today we explored downtown Cleveland, which was rather underwhelming. We did take a wrong turn and stumble upon a pretty amazing record store, featuring several displays full of bootleg rap, old school hip hop, and a full spectrum of 70's music. We left with James Brown, Rick James, and Legends of Motown Volume 5.

Then we cruised over to the Cayuhoga Valley National Park where we hiked for several hours.

Although nothing too memorable happened, this was my first weekday off in 8 weeks, so it was pretty amazing for me. Tomorrow we are off to Chicago where I can hopefully upload some photos.

On the Road

Michael and I are gearing up to head up to Saugerties tonight. After I leave my place tonight, I won't be back for 3 weeks, and then I'm moving out in 2 weeks, so it's pretty crazy to think that I'll only be in my loft for 2 more weeks.

Also, I'm really going to miss my new cat Chauncey.



Oh, and this guy.



(and you, too, mom)

Cheer up NY!

On Sunday, after 3 weeks of cold, rain, and traumatizing celebrity deaths, Joe and I are leaving New York on a southwest bound roadtrip. Our prospective route looks like this:

New York-Chicago-St Louis-Big Ben National Park-San Antonio-New Orleans-Knoxville


I have never been further south than Virginia or further west than Pennsylvania, so I am pretty excited. I just hope the whole 3 weeks are as cool as an old Marlboro commercial.