Top 5

Mowed the lawn today. It was as surreal as I expect it to be. Otherwise, adjusting pretty well. Things are seeming more "normal" every day, which of course is good and bad. Having pretty much finished Katie's "honey-do" list, I started working in earnest today. Have a meeting tomorrow on my potential "big" project....

Time now for what might be a reoccurring feature: a "Top 5" list ala High Fidelity.

Top 5 Favorite Countries that I visited:
5. Malaysia: Malaysia (and Borneo in particular) was interesting enough to suck up almost a 1/3 of my trip, but it wasn't my favorite place. OK, it was my least favorite, but I still liked it (that's how good the trip was!). The outdoor activities were world class (trekking, scuba, mt climbing), but the culture, food, lack of massages and abundance of leeches all hurt the Malaysia's overall score. The people were friendly when you got to know them, but were largely more reserved and/or serious than folks in most of the other places I went...
4. Singapore: Was great for 2 days. Then was ready to leave. Which was perfect because that's when I left.
3. Cambodia: Just a couple clicks away from totally anarchy, which earned alot of plus points and alot of minus points. I guess that's why it's in the middle of the pack. I'd stay it was easily the most unique place I visited and as an"adventure traveller" that is worth alot. In this "globalization" world, so many places just seem the same. Cambodia is not the same as anything I've ever seen. Not even close. Demerits for generally lame massages more than made up for by the awesomeness of the Temples of Angkor (you all by now know how much I value massages, so that should really tell you something about Angkor...)
2. Laos: Everybody sez that Laos is "laid back" but until you get there, its hard to understand what people mean. But by the end of my first week there, the idea of taking a nap in a public place (like the sidewalk...) didn't seem to be at all that strange. I don't know why or how; that's just Laos. Food: Baguettes with breakfast, sticky rice with dinner...awesome. People: Super friendly, not at all pushy. Massages: Kip for kip, the best massages on the trip.
1. Thailand: Pretty much the only bad thing I can say about Thailand is that everyone else loves it too. Too many tourists, but everything else is perfect. Easily my favorite people: so friendly, smiley and always joking. Joking with you joking with each other, joking with animals, etc. Food: the best. I never, ever got tired of Thai food. (Occasional hamburgers are Thai food, right?). Massages: central to the culture. Beautiful places everywhere. Unbelievable beaches with water that is almost too warm. I know I will be back to Thailand, hopefully many times.

(Note: I just remembered that I also went to Japan! Oops. Not sure where that would have been in the list. Not the top, not the bottom. I liked it for sure and Noriko took great care of me and showed me so many places. But doesn't even seem like it should be on this list. Such a different place...)

OK. Other Top 5's to come, potentially including:

• Top 5 experiences of the trip
• Top 5 SE Asian Beers
• Top 5 travel mishaps
• Top 5 pictures
• Top 5 funniest broken English signs

OK, Seeya...

-erik

Home!

I made it! I'm here! In North America!

The flight home went about as smoothly as 17hrs of flights can go. Got some sleep, didn't have anyone too large encroaching on my seat, didn't have to pay for airplane food, had no more than the average number of crying babies in my immediate vicinity. I do think that the 3 months of travel have made me "more comfortable being uncomfortable" as I've said before, which made the flight more bearable.

While it is great to be home and see Katie, Mocha, and Zipper, it is also strange to be home. But strange not in how different everything is, but in how normal and familiar it is. Really has that "was it all just a dream" feeling. Gonna take some time to adjust as I expected. Also going to take some effort to integrate the perspective that I've gained from the trip into my everyday life, because it is clearly easy just to slip right back into the old routines and patterns without even noticing. The fact that I'm changing jobs and going to have to start anew should force a certain amount of reinvention though, and that's probably good.

My body is almost back to Pacific Time. And expect to legitimately start working tomorrow (even though its Columbus Day! My new boss is a real slave driver!) This weekend has mainly about sleeping, hanging out with the family (we all went on our favorite hike by Lake Berryessa today!), and starting to go through the chores that Katie's been staving up for me. And watching footballs games where you can use your hands. And baseball. Ah, glorious baseball...

Went to Costco yesterday to look at laptops. That was surreal. Night Markets in Laos and Costco have very little in common. And there are sooo many Americans in America. I'm not used to it.

Anyway, that's it for now. Definitely have some alot more though to talk about, so stay tuned. Also I plan to sort through my (literally) 1000's of pictures at some point to put together a little package for y'all that is a little more digestible. Any of you that actually want to see the 1000's should probably just go to SE Asia. It would probably be faster and certainly more entertaining.

OK, hope to see many of you soon!

-erik

One (more) Night in Bangkok

The last day of the trip. Tomorrow I'm on that 17hr flight, seeing the sun rise twice and somehow arriving only 2 hrs after I leave. Certainly bittersweet having it all come to an end. I am definitely ready to be home: tired, homesick. But also I have had a pretty amazing trip and I hate to see it end. I hope it isn't another 37 years before I get to take a trip like this again.

It's been nice to be in Bangkok again, though I really haven't been too active. Another nice "last place" for me to be because, since I've spent a fair amount of time here before, I don't feel the pressure to "see it all." Just been doing the usual walking around, eating and getting massages. (had 2 hr massages each of the last 2 nights. feel like i've been beaten on, and I guess I have. I normally would skip it tonight, but its my last night be pete-sake, so that doesn't seem like an option!). Today I will do a little site seeing, taking a river boat to my favorite temple (Temple of the Emerald Buddha). And tonight, they are closing the (major) road in front of my hotel for a huge Hindu festival centered around a Hindu temple close-by. So that should be interesting. (Bangkok really is 95+% Buddhist, so this Hindu festival is a bit of a fluke I think...)

Starting to gear up a little for work. I've had a number of conference calls in resent weeks setting stuff up. Even had one paying call for a 1-hr consulting job (that paid me the equivalent of 5 nights in a hotel in Laos!). I have one job solidified that I will be working on literally at the beginning of next week. And the other "big-job" is looking better and better. Have had 3-4 phone "interviews" now and will probably have a face-to-face meeting next week with them in the City, hopefully to finalize.

OK, better get out there and experience the last day. Probably my last blog from Asia, but keep checking in though because I have alot more thoughts/experiences that I'll share from the comfort of my own laptop on my own couch...

See many of you soon!

-erik

Tear-Gas-Free Bangkok

A very quick note to let y'all know that I made it to Bangkok and so far have not been caught up in any of the street protests. I wonder if tear gas is any less effective in a city where the air is so bad that it makes your eyes run on normal days? Anyway, if there are no repeats of airport-closing protests, I should be home this Friday! Crazy!!

More later soon...

-erik

No rest for the road-weary

Well, didn't take the day off yesterday as planned. Went to the waterfall instead. The fall was incredible, one of the nicest I've every seen. Huge. (the pict on left is just a little place that I swam and played around with camera shutter speeds after hiking the falls...). Today is the rest day, although I haven't been resting too much. The alarm woke me up at 8AM (oh, the humanity!) and I quickly turned on CNN to catch the VP debate. After I had about 30-40 minutes of that, I needed a break, so I went and had breakfast, and then came back for the end. The idea of Palin with her finger on the button is not only scary, but just bazaar. Shouldn't we have more safeguards than that in place? I think she probably thinks that Russian troops tried to invade Atlanta last month... I caught the clip from SNL where Tina Fey spoofs her by saying exactly the same thing (word for word) as in her Katie Curric interview. Classic. Anyway, enough of that.

After the debate, to the internet, then lunch, then walking around, then cafe. Then internet again (now), soon massage, back to room for nap (time permitting...), and then hopefully to see the evening monk prayers. Also, tonight I might sign up for a 2 day/1 night trek to hill tribe villages (starting tomorrow). We'll see what's available/interesting. The overnight should be very primitive, maybe more so than my camping was in Borneo. But 1 day should be OK.

Can't believe I'm just 1 week out from getting on a plane back to the States. Reentry is going to be strange. Please forgive me if I have forgotten who you are, who I am, what I do, how to speak English, how to drive, what side of the road to drive on, how to dress when I have more than 3 shirts to choose from, etc. Gonna take a little time I think. Am looking forward to somethings though:

• seeing friends and family (of course!)
• seeing Mocha and Zipper (of course!)
• my own bed
• Peets coffee
• cheese and good bread (although I'm getting both in Laos)
• low humidity
• Mexican food
• Mt. Biking
• Cal Football
• Leech free hikes (I broke my "no more leeches" pledge with one sucker yesterday and can expect many more if I trek tomorrow)

Things that I will miss though from SE Asia:

• Strangers that are actually friendly
• cheap, quality food
• cheap, quality massages
• cheap, quality most things
• the predictability in which unpredictable things happen
  

Probably many more for each list, but that's it for now as the massage calls. One note about massage that I meant to write before: I think I mentioned that I got a massage from a blind lady in Cambodia that was awesome. What I'm not sure if I mentioned or not was that sure was ridiculously strong and just about ripped my (very tight) hamstrings apart. I certainly like a strong, deep massage, but if someone is working your hamstrings and you can feel their fingers on the underside of your quads, they are pushing too hard.

Lastly, I've slowly been adding more pict to my site. There is now an Angkor Wat folder that is slowing getting filled. Pictures are trailing my by about a weeks I guess...

-erik

Be Here Now

This morning started early. I got up at 5:30 to give offers (sticky rice) to the over 200 monks that live and study in Luang Prabang. It was a pretty special experience. (but not a single one said thanks! monks today, geez!!) The monks come out of their various temples around the city and walk a circuit around town where towns people line up with food. I went with my hosts from my guesthouse - they go everyday. I am probably going to go to the afternoon/evening prayer session today too. Each evening, you can hear the Buddhist chanting in various parts of town and certainly only enhances the overall "cool" that the town already has.

Really trying to take it slow here with moderate success. This is a great place just to be, but there are also alot of tempting sites and activities in the area too. Yesterday I took a boat trip up the Mekong to a cave that has 700+ Buddha statues inside. The day before was mt. biking (pretty mellow...), waterfall and swimming (nice!), kayaking back to town (fun, but rained the whole way, which got old...). Today I really want to get some quality cafe-time in, but being tempted by the sunny day and a potential trip to another (supposedly better) waterfall. What to do, what to do...

Can't quite believe I'm coming home in a week! Does actually feel like I've been gone for a long time though. I certainly will need time to reflect (probably when I get back) but as far as I can tell right now, the trip has been exactly what I hoped it would be. I had fun adventures, I got lots of rest, I ate strange foods, I met nice people, I spend long periods not thinking about work. Right now, I think one of the biggest take-aways is that travel has a way of forcing you to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. I've definitely gotten there. This is something that I hope to bring back and transfer to my everyday life. Also, I do feel ready and excited to jump back into work in a way that I don't think I've really felt for years. I was really hoping that would happen and relieved that it did (it was either gonna be that or a realization that I never wanted to work again, so the "I'm ready to work again!" road should certainly be less disruptive...)

OK. Gonna run for now (partially because this is the 2nd worst keyboard of my trip....) but Ill touch base again soon. Just added some more pictures from Phnom Penh to the site, but seems like it didn't load them all...grrr. But that's OK, I'm comfortable with that....

-erik