travelers two -

Leaving India, heading home

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 03:41:21 -0400

In some ways, preparing for our next journey feels like many of the other steps we've taken over the last year. We have confirmed our travel arrangements, charted the hours we have left and decided how to spend them, bought some gifts and souvenirs to remind us of our experiences, and enjoyed last-minute explorations and observations. We've packed our bags and made ready for as-comfortable-as-possible travel.

Steamy Varanasi, cool Dharmsala, damp Delhi

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:55:04 -0400

The temperatures in Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia were like training camp, preparing us to handle the heat of India - and a good thing, too, since India in late May and early June is about as hot as either of us has ever been...

Heading north, to newness

Sat, 31 May 2008 10:37:21 -0400

We left Varanasi yesterday afternoon, on a slow train that rocked its way through dry ochre landscapes on its way toward Delhi. We slept well, despite earthquake dreams no doubt inspired by the motion of the train...

C is for Corruption. And Camry.

Tue, 06 May 2008 10:36:07 -0400

And C is for Cambodia. We left Bangkok this morning almost as soon as we'd arrived - after battling our way through the taxi touts who crowded the door of our overnight bus from Chumpon, the fifth taxi driver we talked to agreed to take us - on the meter, that's key - cross town to the bus terminal.

Turns out being asked an inflated flat rate for that taxi ride was the first of such incidents for the day...

Worker bees

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:44:07 -0400

The sun was hot already this morning at 9, and pressed heavily on our backs and shoulders as we walked the short distance to the office along the shoulder of the road. We paused at the bridge to look down on the oily, mud-colored stream below; we were looking for the narrow triangular head of the most notable denizen of the krueng, a 1 meter-long monitor lizard who we've spooked into a splashing retreat on other strolls over the bridge. Today, a smaller cousin paused on the shore, half in and half out of the water.

Yappy Cruddy and the Panty Pirates

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:44:07 -0400

The other day, as we were riding the motorbike to get some groceries, and needing to ask where the store was, I was suddenly struck by a case of the linguistic giggles. I could not recall the name of the grocery store, even though I'd successfully remembered it all afternoon. All I could think of was "panty pirate*." I almost fell off the back of the bike.

It was a good reminder of how very funny language can seem when you don't have an allegiance to certain words having certain meanings.

Absorbing Indonesia

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:55:20 -0400

We arrived in Jakarta on a steamy afternoon a week ago, and have spent the last 7 days walking, working, playing, looking, learning, and asking a lot of questions. We're starting to get our bearings here, and we're finding that Indonesia is absorbing: vast, diverse and different from anywhere we've been before. We're also finding that we're absorbing Indonesia: sea water, humid days, heavy afternoon rains...

Bitter orange preserves

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:24:57 -0500

We meant to be back on the trail yesterday. Then today. And it will finally happen tomorrow. But there was a flurry of travel arrangements to make, and it just took the time it took...to make up for it, the day gave us a little gift. Bitter orange preserves.

A curl of bitter orange peel preserved in a light syrup, with strawberry preserves accompanying it. Delicious on bread with butter...

Fossils everywhere

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:31:34 -0500

Now that we're aware of them, we see fossils on our trail most every day. Here are a few snazzy ones from the first discovery:
http://pooleweb.com/travel/image/tid/380?from=9

I find it fascinating that

Taking the political pulse

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:28:54 -0500

İn our travels in Turkey, people everywhere, all the time, ask us about the election situation in the US - it's been almost everyone, from young professionals to taxi drivers to bolt makers in a poor neighborhood of Istanbul. This is kind of embarrassing considering that the politics of countries like Turkey are not on the radar screen of most Americans, if they even know where Turkey is in the first place...

Going back to go forward

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:57:35 -0500

We spent 10 great days on the trail after leaving Fethiye at the end of January, walking the varied rural landscape in this tail end of the Taurus Mountains. From the first steep climb up above the bay at Olu Deniz, we were initiated into a mountainous territory of limestone and rocky, sometimes treacherous, trail. We wound through olive groves at all elevations, built on terraces etched out of the hillsides by generations of hard-working hands. The small farm fields, now plowed into winter furrows, seemed to promise a crop of stones, flung down from mountain heights and rising through centuries of erosion, more than a crop of wheat. But Turkey is an amazingly productive place...

Lycian Way update number 1

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:52:02 -0500

B and I are taking a break from hiking to let a storm pass over us in Kalkan... we've just had 10 days of great hiking and we're thinking of going out for more if the weather cooperates.

Us (in reflection) at the western end of the Lycian Way

The walking has been wonderful! The terrain is like nowhere we've been before, and

What in the world we've been up to

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:25:02 -0500

On these travels, even a relatively uneventful day can fill our brains with so many thoughts and questions that we hesitate to post an update until we've untangled a bit and feel we have something intelligent to say. Sometimes, though, that keep us from even letting folks know what we've been up to.

Where to stay in İstanbul

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:16:08 -0500

Someone should make a movie about the odd little hotel we found, and stayed in for a few days here and there, in İstanbul. İt's a slightly ramshackle old building, stashed in wobbly

Börek

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:18:21 -0500

Börek's hard to describe... it comes in many forms and variations on the same theme can be found in Greek, Romanian, and likely many other cultures. Think spanokopita, or even an English hand pie, and you're close! Here's a recipe (in broad strokes) from watching Doro's Armenian housekeeper Flor make a potato börek.