tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55067119415885766152024-03-05T09:03:25.564-08:00Mary's Far Away Fun Times Blog!!Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-3537260876569911732020-03-22T23:17:00.000-07:002020-03-23T06:05:40.367-07:00The Covid-19 Blog Post<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><u>Hi everyone!</u></b> These are crazy times, and I know everyone is worried about everyone and everything in general, so I wanted to give a little update and assurance that I’m well and as safe as possible at present. If you don’t want to read it all, at least read these first two paragraphs! I’m still in Myanmar, but I’ve moved to Yangon and am living in an amazing AirBnB on a quiet street in a safe neigbourhood. We have a generator, lots of drinking water (and toilet paper, although we don’t need it thanks to bidets), and very easily accessible and well-stocked shops and markets near-by. All of the malls and shopping centers are now taking temperatures of all customers. Keeping a distance from people and avoiding touching surfaces is easy enough. We have even been able to buy masks and hand sanitizer in the past couple days. Many offices have closed, and bars and restaurants have been ordered to close too. I spend most of my time at home, leaving to get food or go for a bike ride on empty streets. I am far from the only foreigner who will be staying in Myanmar at this time, so we’re all here alone together.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://mrx.com.mm/uploads/properties/img-mrx-Ooi6QoiX0DIG0I2oOqyBMQeiew6BJNxkhrz2hdmX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://mrx.com.mm/uploads/properties/img-mrx-Ooi6QoiX0DIG0I2oOqyBMQeiew6BJNxkhrz2hdmX.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The kitchen in my new place - so many appliances!</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US"><u><b>As for flights</b>:</u> I’ve been living in Myanmar since November 2017, in a city in the Southeast called Mawlamyine. For quite some time, I have known that the end of my contract there would come on March 15 2020, and I had made plans to travel to Canada in mid-April. I bought my ticket when prices were low at the end of February. It is a round-trip ticket, as I plan to return to Myanmar to work. Trying to change this ticket has proven impossible in the last week. I booked through a third party, and they have been absolutely swamped with calls and emails. I was on hold for an hour before I gave up and sent them an email, and now I wait for a reply. I looked at the option of cancelling that ticket completely and buying a new one, but the flight path options are not very appealing – layovers in China, where huge delays can be expected, or in the USA, where people are stocking up on BULLETS. The photos I’ve seen from American airports of everyone crammed into long lines and nobody wearing masks gets a big “NO THANKS” from me. So, all I can do is wait until the panic subsides a little and see what my options are. I’m alright with this, and I figure there are people out there, who were traveling around, and aren’t necessarily living or settled into these countries the way I am in Myanmar. I know LOTS of people (lots and lots), I know how things work here, I know where to get information and help if needed, and my visa lets me stay legally. So, why not free up the phone lines for people that are REALLY stranded? I promise, I am not “stranded”, I just have less freedom of mobility than usual.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The notice on the booking agent website!</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">I also think it would be nice to take you through a little<b><u> timeline of my Covid-19 experience.</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>February</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">China started to really shut down at the end of January. Myanmar shares a HUGE, border with China, which many people cross over every day, often illegally, with limited checking or infrastructure. Many Chinese companies operate in Myanmar, or in partnership with Myanmar companies, and there must be thousands of Chinese nationals coming and going between Myanmar and China all the time on flights. I have been worried about a Covid-19 outbreak in Myanmar since the beginning of February. Thailand got its first few cases in February, and this was also worrisome, since this border is also huge, has many illegal crossings and limited infrastructure at the legal crossings. But life continued as normal, and Thailand managed to prevent an outbreak (in February at least), and if there were cases along the northern border areas, we didn’t hear about them. What did happen in February, was that everyone I knew got sick with an illness that we’ll probably never know for sure wasn’t Covid-19. It’s normal to get sick in Myanmar, and it’s normal not to go to the hospital to get it treated unless it gets REALLY bad. One by one, we went through the phases: sore throat, fever, fatigue, feeling “stoned” even without medicine, so much mucus and coughing. A couple of people also said it felt like “someone was sitting on their chest”, a symptom eerily similar to the difficulty in breathing linked to Covid19. Luckily, everyone recovered, and we told ourselves it must have just been a seasonal bug going around (weather changing from cool to hot). However, this theory is still brought up quite regularly in Myanmar, because if it was a cold it was a REALLY BAD COLD. Anyway, that was February, life carried on as normal, even though more and more countries saw outbreaks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A photo of me from February, protecting colleagues from my bad cold or maybe Covid-19.</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>March</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">March 1<sup>st</sup> is my birthday, and I was able to celebrate this in normalcy, and it was an amazing weekend. Still no sense of impending doom. We even went to karaoke like three times in the first 2 weeks in March! </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image may contain: 4 people, including Zeelay Zaw Lin, Mary Thompson and Stephen Gildersleve, people smiling, people sitting, hat and outdoor" height="360" src="https://scontent.frgn4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/89242716_10220707569731959_3996314825222258688_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=110474&_nc_ohc=hM430y3gDmQAX_oj_lD&_nc_ht=scontent.frgn4-1.fna&oh=139b8291a2d6f9ec6acb9d442ad8b9de&oe=5E9FC0F0" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">3 weeks ago but feel like 3 months ago! Times have changed!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">However, sometime in March, things started to get really bad in Italy. In my mind, the virus is split between Before Italy and After Italy. After Italy, I think that’s when everyone (especially countries that hadn’t dealt with SARS) finally started to realize what the worst case scenario really was. Meanwhile, March 13</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> I had my last day of work, facilitated a workshop on teaching sexual health in the villages and said goodbye to like 30-40 work colleagues over a huge meal. The opposite of social distancing lol. OOPS. March 14 -15 I was fully immersed in packing, selling things, and moving out of my apartment in Mawlamyine and into my AirBnB in Yangon. There was no time to think about anything else. On the evening of March 15, we went to the mall and got some pizza. My Plan A was to stay in Yangon these 4 weeks, do some consulting work, send lots of job applications, do some networking, maybe do some interviews. Plan A obviously crumbled immediately upon arrival.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Meanwhile, that same weekend, Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, gets on TV and says “It’s time for Canadians abroad to come home now”, and implies things are going to get BAD. In some ways, this is a good thing, and I’m glad the Canadian government tried to be proactive in this. For me, as an individual, this was very poor timing. On my first couple mornings in my new place, I was flooded with messages from family and friends asking what my plan was. I hadn’t even unpacked or recovered from the move I had just made, and I definitely didn’t have the mental space to process the panic. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They stayed like this for 4-5 days</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">For Monday and Tuesday of last week, all I could do was read, watch, stress out, and sometimes remember to eat and drink water. I was paralyzed by anxiety. Wednesday I started to come to, and reached out to some friends in Yangon. Some are staying, some have already left, I’d say it’s about 50/50. Then I sat down and wrote out some pros and cons charts, one each for staying and leaving ASAP. Then I figured out my costs for each option. Well, the cons lists for BOTH options were much longer than the pros, and the costs are going to be pretty similar too. So, it didn’t help as much as it might have, but it did help me feel way more in control of the situation than I had been feeling, and this helped. On Thursday, with new, improved headspace, I made the phone call to the booking agent, gave up after 1 hour, sent an email, and decided not to stress about it ANYMORE. Whatever will be will be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">On Friday I was feeling pretty anxious. My anxiety has always taken physical forms – IBS, chest pain, jaw pain, tension headaches, you name it. So, on Friday my face was feeling hot and I was sure it was a fever. Luckily, my new housemates are super rational and suggested I go get a thermometer from down the street. And of course, my internal temperature was 100% perfect, nothing wrong with me at all. So now, when I start convincing myself I have a fever, I just pop the thermometer in my mouth, see that lovely 36.8 and relax. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stress Relief during a pandemic</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">Since Saturday I have been feeling immensely more normal and better, and I think I’m now ready to either get on a plane with like 24 hours notice or to stay in Myanmar until May or beyond holed up in this house.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">UNTIL MAY!? Hope I didn’t scare you Canadian readers, but that is very likely the minimum amount of time it will take before the situation is more stable (but it WILL get more stable). Well I am confident some travel options will remain open to me (via Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan for example), many countries are closing their borders and many flights are being cancelled. It’s not a good time to move around right now, or to take a long haul flight to the other side of the world. That's why I don't mind staying put for now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><u>The Pros and Cons</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I think you might be curious about my pros and cons list, so here’s a little sample<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>Option 1: Drop everything and fly to Canada ASAP</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Pros<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Cons<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Don’t have to worry about visa<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">No health insurance for 3 months<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Free rent in nice house<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Bad English teaching hours (5-8am)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Can trust the government (mostly)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Change flight or get new one, could be expensive<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Near nature and hiking<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Food and transportation expensive<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Home for planned trip (unless all of that gets cancelled)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Empty grocery stores<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Could get stuck in a layover country<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Bayfield not so exciting<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Might put mom at risk<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">*”Being near family” is not on the pros list because for at least 2 weeks I wouldn’t be able to have any contact with them anyway!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>Option 2: Staying in Myanmar</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Pros<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Cons<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Cheaper health insurance, provider covers Covid-19 related costs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Might have to extend current visa without leaving the country (expensive)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Better teaching hours<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Might have to cancel Canada plans and trips<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">No lockdown yet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Pay rent<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Might be better for work<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Bad healthcare system<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Have nice place to stay<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Government misinforms<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Good chance China will send aid and people if there’s an outbreak<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"> **Making pros and cons lists is hard when you don’t know ANYTHING and everything is uncertain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><u>Daily Life</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I also think my daily routine is mundane enough to convince you that I’m doing just fine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">7am-8am – Check messages, chat with family and friends in Canada, drink some tea, eat a banana, check email<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">8am-9am – yoga, shower, eat<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">9-12 (ish) – maybe go to the market to buy food (wear a mask, wash hands right after)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US">Do online work<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US">Today I wrote this blog post<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Lunch - make at home<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Afternoon until 4PM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US">Do some work, watch some Netflix or TV, read, eat early dinner,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">4:30 – 7:30 PM – Teach online English classes to the Chinese kids<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">8PM – eat dinner, chat with housemates, watch a movie, read a book, go for short bike ride<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkwESmbvvDDtZghqN_btCVa4Uf_bGq0Jsx9dP84SslbzFvMW3TIbnAaLKyF5_KkdqYs-IRUkXPDWadr7yHv_VlbGhl1XFq8e2MuK7cpgLkqWs36iI6L25ZP_6K-nWzVigu3U_XR_V33ck/s1600/VIPKid+schedule.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="1212" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkwESmbvvDDtZghqN_btCVa4Uf_bGq0Jsx9dP84SslbzFvMW3TIbnAaLKyF5_KkdqYs-IRUkXPDWadr7yHv_VlbGhl1XFq8e2MuK7cpgLkqWs36iI6L25ZP_6K-nWzVigu3U_XR_V33ck/s640/VIPKid+schedule.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My teaching schedule for this week - I'm not going broke</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">So to summarize: I’m safe, I’ve got everything I need to stay physically and mentally healthy, and I’ve got plans A, B, C, D, E and F ready to go depending on how the next few weeks unfold. I’m not alone, I’ve got a steady source of income, food and soap and I got my Spotify account working again. Unfortunately, the future is extremely uncertain for all of us, but I think in a few weeks from now we will know much more. So hang in there, stay sane and be grateful for the internet for letting us connect without passing germs to each other. Also guys, can this be the end of the handshake forever? Yes, right?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"> </span><img alt="Image result for namaste gif" height="360" src="https://thumbs.gfycat.com/CheapPleasingBluegill-max-1mb.gif" width="640" /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">PS- In case you're wondering, little bro Robert's safe and healthy in Australia too, but if you ever have to pick between me and him for your zombie apocalypse team I'm definitely the better option <i><b>just a friendly FYI </b></i></span></div>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-63434398314377676402018-08-17T02:05:00.000-07:002018-08-17T02:07:21.699-07:00Mid (ish) 2018 Update from Mawlamyine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hello dear friends and family and I guess maybe some other people!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJLwWGUGmAvDU15yWG8ckFXZIoe0Mfw1BE8TynxSnw3tDb8jycvHEdhbBt8J9-uolJSmxYy-HGiYBFCSDhjVkfElUjpcqZBfHfhZLpZKZHIhUNdssrSpFrfDcDVSGJ-zLtq2sSTPW6W20/s1600/IMG_20180702_132125098_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJLwWGUGmAvDU15yWG8ckFXZIoe0Mfw1BE8TynxSnw3tDb8jycvHEdhbBt8J9-uolJSmxYy-HGiYBFCSDhjVkfElUjpcqZBfHfhZLpZKZHIhUNdssrSpFrfDcDVSGJ-zLtq2sSTPW6W20/s640/IMG_20180702_132125098_HDR.jpg" width="360" /></a><br />
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It is August and we are deep in the middle of an even rainier than usual rainy season. Even with the air conditioners on, the battle against mold is never-ending: clothes never fully dry, and just keep getting wet from riding on motorbikes in the rain. The sun rarely makes an appearance, and when it does it is fleeting.<br />
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This is the daily weather report in the newspaper that is the same EVERY DAY.<br />
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On top of being inconvenient and a bit gloomy, this rainy season also brings flood risks. I am lucky that my house is on high ground, and I have been able to avoid flooded streets in my daily business. The worst that has happened was getting stranded in Mawlamyine for 5 straight days, cutting a highly anticipated trip to Yangon in half. Even then, the flooding was not here, but on the way, closing down the highway. The road was closed for so many days that I ended up flying to Yangon (a 45 minute, very overpriced flight).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHeqHKdDuP1x3xyKXM_rpx4TxR-zr6FQHK3KPs0f6xPy5MLeuc3I4Sfi_4KATATNurTmwBV9XrivrHcnpthQfdbySGtSoFYTjzqvj0_xp1jBMMXcLQ1Cb87AJMMAEMgbwRFdmaq3vjxEk/s1600/floods.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHeqHKdDuP1x3xyKXM_rpx4TxR-zr6FQHK3KPs0f6xPy5MLeuc3I4Sfi_4KATATNurTmwBV9XrivrHcnpthQfdbySGtSoFYTjzqvj0_xp1jBMMXcLQ1Cb87AJMMAEMgbwRFdmaq3vjxEk/s400/floods.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A photo taken by a friend's friend who got stuck halfway to Yangon. This is the bus I would usually take.</td></tr>
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So yes, it's raining, and a lot of time these days is being dedicated to rainy day hobbies and activities. In July a group of 5 of us joined a boxing class at a pretty fancy gym we 'discovered', and this has been a sanity-saver. Since we had to buy a membership for the classes, we have also been trying out some of the other classes and meeting the other trainers. There really aren't many foreigners in Mawlamyine, and we seem to be the first to go to this gym, so lots of the trainers and other members are pretty intrigued by our presence. Everyone is extremely friendly and welcoming, and it's been a really excellent experience.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfo7uaSwbGvCcihi_8E-Yz9HDGq2a1QQNpvD4wsYP_qgGa_-VOxjRCMU_FPGjqsdKmc93zMFP7TojA-uKt3oqdtGzTyNBCdwqeLN9mIPxzUtmovkROaKAHaH81cmYlysGapLhqyU6qsLI/s1600/boxing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfo7uaSwbGvCcihi_8E-Yz9HDGq2a1QQNpvD4wsYP_qgGa_-VOxjRCMU_FPGjqsdKmc93zMFP7TojA-uKt3oqdtGzTyNBCdwqeLN9mIPxzUtmovkROaKAHaH81cmYlysGapLhqyU6qsLI/s320/boxing.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The gang with our teacher. He's happiest when we are suffering.</td></tr>
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Rainy season has put a bit of a damper (GET IT) on exploring and roadtrips, just because driving a motorbike in the rain is truly as unpleasant as you're imagining. The monsoon rain is Canadian thunderstorm rain ALL THE TIME, so imagine a wall of high-velocity raindrops hitting you going 40km/hour with only a thin plastic rain coat on. It hurts, it's cold, it's hard to see anything, and I swear everyday one of those high-velocity raindrops manages to hit me RIGHT in the tear duct. Not to mention, arriving everywhere, all the time, soaked, isn't really a good look for anybody. I get wet from like right above the knee down, but also a circle right in the middle of the top of my chest. If I'm on the bike long enough, these two wet zones will eventually meet in the middle. The potholes are also getting REAL serious, as water just erodes the pavement and new potholes seem to appear every night, some of the like a foot deep.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monsoon street fashion</td></tr>
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While caves are out for rainy season, waterfalls are definitely in. Spending a day in and near a waterfall is a really popular activity for the locals, and most of us are lucky to get invited to tag along. Finding the waterfalls without the help of someone to show you the first time can be a bit difficult. Google maps are not very useful here, and there are very few road signs, or signs at all really. But once you find them, it's great to know you can go back and enjoy a swim!<br />
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Other good rainy day activities are getting clothes made at one of the many many tailors with inexpensive fabrics, board games (we played risk for 5 hours a few weeks ago) and baking (just got an oven), along with classics like reading, Netflix and playing on a small keyboard that a bought a few months ago.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpDT2LsA4fSrb73Yi2ww5hwHSUH1YVaIn8c0Mc8PRUl91olOP2AYIZFSp6jfbF6OucrZBMvUjE6_ysvszwqk2JPNWwuvL6XVim14C5lzk_8iwzQBwftFRtFaLN8zRYzYe31DbolVDQ4RA/s1600/risk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpDT2LsA4fSrb73Yi2ww5hwHSUH1YVaIn8c0Mc8PRUl91olOP2AYIZFSp6jfbF6OucrZBMvUjE6_ysvszwqk2JPNWwuvL6XVim14C5lzk_8iwzQBwftFRtFaLN8zRYzYe31DbolVDQ4RA/s400/risk.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not just Risk, Game of Thrones Risk</td></tr>
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Alright, seems like I've complained enough about the rain for now. Outside of #monsoonlife, things are going quite well. With some help from another Cuso volunteer, we managed to create a website for Jeepyah (where I work), which you can see here:https://jeepyah.org/ I have never made a website before, and it's something that I can actually show off to people, unlike most outputs of my work (although these are also available on the website in the Publications section). Some cool new projects are starting up, one working on engaging women in politics and elections, another addressing gender-based violence and harassment and stigma around talking about sex. I really love working with my local colleagues and am very excited to see what they will achieve with these projects! Please, if you want to support me through Cuso, I'm still nowhere near my fundraising goal despite several stern talkings-to (take pity on me I'm such a bad a pathetic fundraiser!)<br />
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<a href="https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=3869366&langPref=en-CA">https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=3869366&langPref=en-CA</a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio8bz3vW7lA9Tq-HYVHxxsl_UbZQBjwcF8smXrylYgU1Sz_MdYjeiYtubuQDmyvjVbl6_MF4bBnTTa9_54sONsOCfQUg12Qa38SroDqpv6NnXsNVIEgLUXcSy66RD8_lqYmQ2qAqdnyAc/s1600/IMG_20180724_094717677.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio8bz3vW7lA9Tq-HYVHxxsl_UbZQBjwcF8smXrylYgU1Sz_MdYjeiYtubuQDmyvjVbl6_MF4bBnTTa9_54sONsOCfQUg12Qa38SroDqpv6NnXsNVIEgLUXcSy66RD8_lqYmQ2qAqdnyAc/s400/IMG_20180724_094717677.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">JCSDO staff and students of their training course</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPd7gdPgLPVwKTjOssoFq9ADG1kqArfRSKm-vc9RQ5-jU49fHfkAu1q-8bwICwRuk-0DPIax1JiN5WhbjRIBgiXC1ddyNI-WLIuedCyoUcZmDJjSYy8Tfxj8Ct-jHVvYm5bIV9sQJCUzE/s1600/mary+cherry+polka+dot+shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1500" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPd7gdPgLPVwKTjOssoFq9ADG1kqArfRSKm-vc9RQ5-jU49fHfkAu1q-8bwICwRuk-0DPIax1JiN5WhbjRIBgiXC1ddyNI-WLIuedCyoUcZmDJjSYy8Tfxj8Ct-jHVvYm5bIV9sQJCUzE/s400/mary+cherry+polka+dot+shirt.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My supervisor and I wore the same shirt to a meeting</td></tr>
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My language learning is coming along quite nicely, especially with how little effort I've made and how bad of a student I've been. I think living here in Mawlamyine, rather than in Yangon, is making the difference. In Yangon heaps of people, including taxi drivers and people working in shops and restaurants speak English. In Mawlamyine, if you want to eat in most of the restaurants you better do it in Burmese! Taking taxis here also usually requires at least a little Burmese. In addition to Burmese, I am also learning the Mon language, which all of my work colleagues speak, most as their Native language (Burmese is a second language). In Mon I know the essential words like eat, come, chicken curry, fried pork, rice, home, go, and how to greet people and be polite and stuff. The sounds in both languages are quite difficult, but Mon takes the cake guys. There's one sound that is like "mb" that comes from the back of your throat, and I straight up can't make it. Not even close. Luckily, I'm getting enough brownie points with the limited language I can use to get by.<br />
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And last but not least: Ontarians, rejoice! I am still planning to be home for Christmas this year, and should be around for at least a month. Please try to limit the snowfall and windchill, I don't think I'll manage it very well at all this time around.<br />
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Many thanks for reading this and continuing to not forget about me! I really appreciate it 😍! See you in December, or even sooner if you want to come visit (October and November are great weather here!)</div>
Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0Mawlamyine, Myanmar (Burma)16.4543173 97.6439611000000716.3324898 97.482599600000071 16.576144799999998 97.805322600000068tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-44497967261527915152018-02-12T22:38:00.002-08:002018-02-12T22:38:42.859-08:003 months in Myanmar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hello world!<br />
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It's true, somehow three months has already flown by. PLUS, it seems like this will be the final blog post of my 20s. So two shocking milestones in one post.<br />
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First, let me tell you about how I've settled into my home for 2018. Mawlamyine is a beautiful but very boring (but somehow still very noisy) small city.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCAyodeU5AdfV9V3ChjpV85RYLEk7Skc8aKqvZkVSV0T2h6HacQ-yAE_ufcUqH-R3v-gUvwF2RXY6hsr5DGzQuK34e2HFGkbjl6HVEaL2EAaah-mrUD4HBUnw0-0Z_ZuJja0pLNpeFwV4/s1600/IMG_20180129_210607216.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCAyodeU5AdfV9V3ChjpV85RYLEk7Skc8aKqvZkVSV0T2h6HacQ-yAE_ufcUqH-R3v-gUvwF2RXY6hsr5DGzQuK34e2HFGkbjl6HVEaL2EAaah-mrUD4HBUnw0-0Z_ZuJja0pLNpeFwV4/s400/IMG_20180129_210607216.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Very loud Buddhist concert of some sort</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Very loud parade of some sort</td></tr>
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There are no traffic jams and lots of trees. I've made a small group of expat friends and we spend quite a bit of time together, having dinner in the evening or going on adventures with our motorbikes on the weekend to pools or waterfalls or whatever sounds even remotely interesting. And yep - I mean my motorbike, that I bought and use on a daily basis to get to and from work and run errands and such. It's a small Honda semi-automatic, so it doesn't have a whole lot of power under it, but it gets the job done.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6npcjpgk66ryw1tdZlyHi6L5gECq8fevE7cw-91LVTha3uxuWQSgOaYBa3ZyrqRnAOEteMp32KCtUM-pESM7PqS9HpDigGhY0iUSvXvdJhuVXlKgvLDv1Bhx21ACEeajW7zEpX7i6vOY/s1600/IMG_20180112_134002306_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6npcjpgk66ryw1tdZlyHi6L5gECq8fevE7cw-91LVTha3uxuWQSgOaYBa3ZyrqRnAOEteMp32KCtUM-pESM7PqS9HpDigGhY0iUSvXvdJhuVXlKgvLDv1Bhx21ACEeajW7zEpX7i6vOY/s400/IMG_20180112_134002306_HDR.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My beautiful baby</td></tr>
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It's also provided a great deal of entertainment and freedom to explore the area. I'm very pleased with it! If you come to visit I'll let you try it out :)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCYjkalp86c7qq4zavWHzRZQwp9_Un0kBhLust8wys_XE-32J74I90rhDesXy9Ab7QFRw9FgvtG_e3mSA9R2T-OrTKnirOtlD3cJeZSzocpMe3_ieXB179ZIZdInjbGWLGXWQv4p15B8I/s1600/IMG_20180103_135115030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCYjkalp86c7qq4zavWHzRZQwp9_Un0kBhLust8wys_XE-32J74I90rhDesXy9Ab7QFRw9FgvtG_e3mSA9R2T-OrTKnirOtlD3cJeZSzocpMe3_ieXB179ZIZdInjbGWLGXWQv4p15B8I/s400/IMG_20180103_135115030.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Although this spot isn't in Mawlamyine, it's a good example of the kind of place I can now visit easily</td></tr>
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I've been getting used to my new house. I bought some speakers to drown out the mediocre karoake coming from downstairs, and I've even started to suck it up and jump in a cold shower every once in a while. Here is my hilarious and tiny building manager, who decided to help me put up my curtains:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrqbujmrRaE2qxFbCqw9Bz0zV2KhbkHGaKoWRmKFAMNa6jGhN_vMpZJ42Pf4vPVNFkeeqQkUuxamh9Zm-Nhys3L-7xHPbdKGGVR66FZvkhfpXQvPWf73xbZhyphenhyphenKP4GY0xJsMEDh5imExS0/s1600/IMG_20171210_112439641_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrqbujmrRaE2qxFbCqw9Bz0zV2KhbkHGaKoWRmKFAMNa6jGhN_vMpZJ42Pf4vPVNFkeeqQkUuxamh9Zm-Nhys3L-7xHPbdKGGVR66FZvkhfpXQvPWf73xbZhyphenhyphenKP4GY0xJsMEDh5imExS0/s320/IMG_20171210_112439641_HDR.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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Work is still going well, and I think many of my colleagues have warmed up to me nicely. It took a month or so, but we got there. I've started teaching an English class to any interested staff 3 times a week, which has given me a great opportunity to get to know some of them much better. We've been busy writing reports as well as proposals to continue their programs.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjULjUPJext1BnsSzjHKaQvHT2LhqglXW3xTxbAQspBfQYHCbrB8j9dXW75vfvsuIw06WBOLr6mY7Bw-o8znPS1WBhyphenhyphenaq1UH97SM9YOhaOhkFecMYg2NW5O7V9QhE-N44AMvx4Lxfvyqq8/s1600/IMG_20180117_140216899.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjULjUPJext1BnsSzjHKaQvHT2LhqglXW3xTxbAQspBfQYHCbrB8j9dXW75vfvsuIw06WBOLr6mY7Bw-o8znPS1WBhyphenhyphenaq1UH97SM9YOhaOhkFecMYg2NW5O7V9QhE-N44AMvx4Lxfvyqq8/s400/IMG_20180117_140216899.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My supervisor's son at my "desk" using my computer to do important power rangers related research</td></tr>
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I've also been helping some organizations that are part of the larger Mon Women Network, so I've learned about land rights issues, political representation issues, child labour in the area and the push for a federal system. It's all been super interesting, and I think by then end of this 12 months we are going to be able to improve the organizational systems and structures of Jeepyah and make a significant contribution to building their capacity to deliver their great programs. If you're interested in supporting this work, please check out my Cuso fundraising page:<br />
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<a href="https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=3869366#.WoJ3Ud-hk-0.blogger">Journey with me!</a>: Together we’ll support Cuso International as we work to reduce poverty and inequality.<br />
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My Myanmar language have been going well, much better than expected. I have lots of free time, so I've been having classes 3 times a week! The only problem here is that at work, the language used is Mon, not Burmese. So I've been focusing on Burmese since it's the most practical language, but also making an effort to learn some Mon. Unfortunately, these languages have completely nothing in common. and learning them simultaneously would probably not normally be advised. Let's see how long my motivation keeps up, but at this rate I might reach an elementary level in at least one of them!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfCdd5b6S6mLlKGaGdZVm4Nm_-q-TeBor0kcFdfI6vLzBQcQtiFg-GlUbfDI8Uk8StXuTyK0Gq7R-9f92YWiZb0MYbG70Bcte4WnCplOrAJlhVI4rdWDhUAzLcqT9Cp9VpbHzw7KwmGHQ/s1600/IMG_20171228_073755906.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfCdd5b6S6mLlKGaGdZVm4Nm_-q-TeBor0kcFdfI6vLzBQcQtiFg-GlUbfDI8Uk8StXuTyK0Gq7R-9f92YWiZb0MYbG70Bcte4WnCplOrAJlhVI4rdWDhUAzLcqT9Cp9VpbHzw7KwmGHQ/s400/IMG_20171228_073755906.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mon children on Mon Youth Day. They love to march, lots of marching</td></tr>
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As mentioned earlier, my 30th birthday is also quickly approaching. I've been preparing myself mentally for the momentous shift from 20s to 30s most of this year. I'm not having any kind of crisis because what's ahead is definitely as exciting as what was behind. It's definitely got me feeling reflective and pensive though. I was talking yesterday with friends about how the days can still seem so slow but the years seem faster and faster, and my guess is this feeling just intensifies with age. I've met so many great friends in the last 10 years, and I can't wait to see what my 30s will bring. And hey, if you feel like you should get me a birthday gift, please please just donate to Cuso instead! (They're REALLY on my case about being a lazy fundraiser, you'd be doing me a big favour hahaha) Here's that link again:<br />
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<a href="https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=3869366#.WoJ3Ud-hk-0.blogger">Journey with me!</a><br />
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So the year coming up is going to involve a lot of listening to my work colleagues and coming up with solutions to their challenges at work and with running their programs, dealing with international NGOs and improving accountability. It's going to involve a lot of sitting on floors, eating weird food, deciphering broken English, narrow escapes from various baby-bodily-fluids incidents, heat rash and being extremely patient and flexible.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0M90NdaYkBwtHR2os4S3-5iUZ8-20OMk3MnywAPYMvaHWKX9M87BdENEUpXwdPVlstWaGGOBVla9qv1qpwXWIt9Smp3IsiYGyUjOzTJf2Oj6Bne_ez0yKX82LiMmKDrM5oX6dcSP_DBs/s1600/IMG_20180203_210908520.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0M90NdaYkBwtHR2os4S3-5iUZ8-20OMk3MnywAPYMvaHWKX9M87BdENEUpXwdPVlstWaGGOBVla9qv1qpwXWIt9Smp3IsiYGyUjOzTJf2Oj6Bne_ez0yKX82LiMmKDrM5oX6dcSP_DBs/s320/IMG_20180203_210908520.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some weird food</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgflOxHyayxmksDXhqvtRG_h4NAv3OrN78OvD9VlWELWFqFPmTgcDC_TpssG5N-G3R6xO4pZUIZ-3T0aZS7rD3bMWAgM8BkiKJ1mo75jxdOayGl7LZ0pJCVHU30QYa6H-aVww-Di9lcwEU/s1600/IMG_20171226_145544988.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgflOxHyayxmksDXhqvtRG_h4NAv3OrN78OvD9VlWELWFqFPmTgcDC_TpssG5N-G3R6xO4pZUIZ-3T0aZS7rD3bMWAgM8BkiKJ1mo75jxdOayGl7LZ0pJCVHU30QYa6H-aVww-Di9lcwEU/s320/IMG_20171226_145544988.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">LOTS of baby bodily fluids on this particular day at work</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some more strange (but delicious!) food</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Luckily, the rewards, both personal and professional, are worth it, and it's shaping up to be a great first year of my 30s.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A resident of Jeepyah's shelter project holds her baby. Jeepyah supported her through pregnancy and delivery</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-26070883292247079692017-11-29T19:36:00.000-08:002017-11-29T19:40:38.158-08:00Where in the World is Mary Update<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hello from hot, humid Myanmar! I have been to Canada where
several people told me again that they actually enjoy reading these blog
updates, and a few friends have admitted to not actually knowing my
whereabouts, so I’m feeling freshly motivated and compelled to write.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I left Uzbekistan at the beginning of October, and stopped
along the way VERY briefly in Russia, Barcelona, and the Azores Islands of
Portugal. I met up with some CEU classmates in Barcelona for a lovely couple of
days while they waited out the strikes and protests. Then on to Canada, where 6 or 5
weeks or so flew by as I bounced around between Southwestern Ontario, Ottawa
and Toronto. Thanksgiving and its many pies were a special highlight! As
always, all visits were lovely and it was fantastic to see so many people!<o:p></o:p></div>
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On November 8 I left Canada for Myanmar. I’ll be staying
here for 12 months, working in a small city called Mawlamyine. You may recall that
I’ve actually been to Myanmar before, but I never got this far south in the
country. It’s brand new territory!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The work<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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I’ve taken a position through a Canadian organization called
Cuso. Cuso finds local partners and helps them to decide how a “volunteer” from
Canada might best be able to assist in developing capacity and then finds the
best person for the job. The local partner in my case is a small,
community-based organization called Jeepyah, and I’ll be helping them to first
assess their position as an organization and then develop sustainable
strategies for stability, growth and impact. The idea is to transfer my
technical knowledge and skills to various members of the group, and since I up until now have been somewhat of
a generalist, it is fitting that we’ll be working through multiple areas
together over the next year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Cuso<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The process through Cuso has so far been a dream. The level
of support given to us (they call us volunteers) before and during the
placements has so far been exceptional. I spent the first two weeks in Myanmar
doing an in-country orientation in Yangon (the capital). Everything was
provided for us, including a very productive language class. </div>
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Cuso works all
around the globe, matching the needs of their partners with the skills of
applicants. From a development perspective, this is an excellent model for
building the capacity of people who already have excellent ideas about what
should be done to improve their communities, and is a very sustainable way to
go about supporting them. If you think you’d like to contribute to such a
sustainable and high-impact activity, feel free to click this ridiculously long link and
contribute a donation to the organization! And if you were going to get me a
Christmas present, please donate here instead!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=3869366&langPref=en-CA">https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=3869366&langPref=en-CA</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jeepyah<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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I am only a few days into working with Jeepyah, and I’m
still figuring some of it out. It is split between a Women’s Empowerment
Project, a Community Development project, so Child Rights Monitoring, and
Community Mobilization. It is an ethnic organization that is particularly
focused on the Mon people. In Myanmar, the Burmese are the majority and are the
most represented group in government. All other groups are considered
minorities, including the Mon, so their commitment to ethnic identity and tradition is strong.
The office is a house in a residential area in Mawlamyine, and they have a
training center nearby. Only a few of my colleagues speak English, and they are
the ones I will work most closely with. Jeepyah also has close ties with other
civil society organizations. I think a more detailed blog will follow once I
figure things out a little more.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two (and a half) very important colleagues!</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The town<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Mawlamyine is the capital of Mon State, and sits on a large
river, not far from the ocean. It is a pretty quiet town, with one modern
shopping center (thank the heavens it at least is there!) with a LOTTERIA
(Korean McDonalds) inside it to cover my western fast food cravings. I’ve also
seen two places advertising “pizza”, although the quality and standard remain
unknown. I’ve seen a few tourists around, mostly backpacker types on rented
scooters. In the hills surrounding the city there are some beautiful Buddhist
pagodas, reclining buddhas, and other stupas and places of worship. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">500 monk statues</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The world's largest reclining Buddha</td></tr>
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My apartment isn’t half bad, especially because it has an
AIR CONDITIONER! It is also spacious, comes with an oven, and is conveniently
located nearby to places that sell pizza and beer. It does NOT come with hot
water, and there have been a couple power outages, and I saw a cockroach the
other day (but just one!), but these things are all fine. Until March it also
comes with a spare room with a king size bed in it…just saying. Maybe I’ll be
driving my own motorbike by then too and can be a personal chauffeur! <o:p></o:p></div>
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There you have it! A short sweet update to fill ya’ll in on
the wheres, whats, whos, whys and whens, and just in time for Christmas so that
when people ask how I’m doing there will be something to tell them! Much love to all who read, and ta-ta for now darlings!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-34709315502583802332017-08-02T07:53:00.002-07:002017-08-02T08:00:08.747-07:00Happy 1 month anniversary Uzbekistan!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So a month has flown by, and both of my Grandmas have requested further information, and a friend who only says nice things when he REALLY means it has suggested I update my blog, so I figure I better.<br />
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I've had a month full of first-world annoyances like figuring out the internet, having my shoes break, having my phone speaker stop working and the power button jam for a couple days, having my laptop charger quit working, and so on. These are typical things which can happen, but become excruciatingly frustrating when in a place where nothing works they way you're used to. For starters: where do you go to solve these things? How do you get there (no google maps)? How do you tell a taxi driver where to take you? If you get there and only speak English is it even worth going? How big of a wad of money do you need to take with you to be able to pay for it (took me a couple week to figure this one out. The answer is huge, a huge wad)? Is the President going to decide to go for a drive and stop traffic on the major roads for 15 minutes? Why did this happen HERE and not in Europe or Canada where things are easy? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME!?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby I got your money don't you worry</td></tr>
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Where I've had bad luck in one area, I've had great luck in others. I wasn't too hopeful about being able to meet many people as I'd heard that the teachers in the international schools would all be out of town for the summer to escape the heat, but there are quite a few people around and I've been slowly snowballing a couple more friends each week. We can usually manage to find something fun to do either at the few bars in town (although most close at 11:30) or in someone's flat. I've got big plans for the karoake bars around and the bowling alleys I've seen too.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jazz...in a pub</td></tr>
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There are lots of decent restaurants here, but also lots of mediocre restaurants that won't even serve you alcohol, so that's a challenge. I've found some decent Georgian wine for sale in the shops, so that base is covered too. I managed to find peanut butter, Heinz Ketchup, great bread and cheese. The one thing that is definitely missing is deli-style sandwich meats, so I'm missing sandwiches. Luckily when Mom and Grandma were here they had me eating like three sandwiches a day so maybe I can go a few months without (hahahaha). The local food is also quite good, and I've found that it's a mixture of Western Chinese (noodles and mutton), South Asian (samosas), and Russian (meatballs, pasta, Russian salads which are gross), and Uzbek food which is mostly just rice and meat (but delicious rice and meat!). Will try to get more food photos!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unsatisfactory sandwich meat selection</td></tr>
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The deal with the sacks of money is that the biggest bill I ever have on me is worth less than 1 USD. Things are fairly inexpensive here, but even a $2.50 meal requires 4 bills to pay for it. Think about that. If I need to spend $60 on a laptop charger, that's a huge wad of cash (I'm not doing the math but you can figure it out I'm sure). It's insane. And even getting money is a pain in the ass. I brought quite a bit with me, but due to paying rent and other start-up costs went through it pretty quickly. So to get more cash, I had to go to a bank (and apparently only a few will do this), show them my passport, withdraw USD from my MasterCard, pay the bank 4%, and then go get the USD exchanged into soum. You might also imagine that my aversion to math and multiplication does not help me at points of sale here. The locals can count off 170,000 Soum in about a second while I'm standing there like "10, 20, 30, 40..." etc. etc. There's even a fancy technique in holding the money while counting it that I'll be lucky if I catch onto before I leave. It's all just so ridiculous.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I can math this: I would need 21 bills to pay for that!</td></tr>
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While general dysfunction is something I've encountered in other places I've lived, what's so unique about Tashkent is that the infrastructure is generally very well developed. Roads are good, traffic isn't bad, parks and public places are well-kept and clean, and there are fountains and statues everywhere. It's a bit more like living in a weird dystopia than living in a less-developed country. There are police everywhere, checking bags at the entrance to metro stations, pulling random cars over to check documents and just generally hanging around. I've been asked to show my passport just once at the metro, and it seemed they were almost just curious to see where I was from and what I was doing there rather than suspicion. The cops are actually generally pretty friendly (to me at least) and people seem to feel comfortable asking them for directions (no love for Google maps, remember?). I won't get into it more here, but if you're interested I suggest the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/uzbekistan" target="_blank">Human Rights Watch Repor</a>t on Uzbekistan in 2017 to get an idea of the other side of things.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixRZKFqZeaTzGxw9rP92ORdGtMG3PbcpvFscSCg3CAzBYBdUaSBpAejqe1ZBwv1JOYXGLyBEj53x1RWpW5VL28-66NbMRWFh6G8XfBi8kecKrYgPkBTxtVX4tk67gFvDkVl8R5T7J5Ukc/s1600/IMG_20170709_194525.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixRZKFqZeaTzGxw9rP92ORdGtMG3PbcpvFscSCg3CAzBYBdUaSBpAejqe1ZBwv1JOYXGLyBEj53x1RWpW5VL28-66NbMRWFh6G8XfBi8kecKrYgPkBTxtVX4tk67gFvDkVl8R5T7J5Ukc/s320/IMG_20170709_194525.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hotel Uzbekistan and statue of guy who forced people to convert to Islam in beautiful park</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
The weather is crazy hot, but I think I might be getting used to it. The first week here the air felt like it was on fire, which was pretty uncomfortable. I'm pretty lucky to have air conditioning in both my house and work, so only need to worry about travelling to places. At night it cools down a bit but is still pretty hot. I'm going to be very very cold when I get to Canada in October! I've been travelling on public transit as well as using taxis, although it took me a couple week to build up the courage to try the taxi system. You basically just stick your arm out, and any random car (not necessarily a taxi) will pull over. At this point, you're supposed to tell him (always him) where you're going and then negotiate a price. As you can imagine, doing this without a common language is essentially impossible. If the driver doesn't want the added hassle of a foreigner speaker he just drives away, and if he thinks he can rip you off because you're a foreigner you end up in an awkward situation at the end of the ride where you might just need to jump out the door and walk away (after paying a reasonable amount). They are also all very particular about how hard you should shut their car door. I've never lived in a place where people got upset with you for shutting a car door too hard. Like, they're literally built for that right? So they always get mad at me for that too, because I honestly am not sure I'm going to ever remember it, because like, when you're getting out of a car your mind is already thinking about the thing you're going to do next, right?<br />
<br />
In general, not speaking Russian has made life challenging. I feel like a lot of these issues and annoyances would be helped by language. However, with this already being one month, there's only 2 months left, and it seems pretty unlikely my brain will be able to absorb too much of it. But I'm starting to be able to read some signs and recognize some names written in Russian, so that's pretty cool. It's the 4th alphabet I've attempted to learn not including English (plus whatever written Chinese is, I won't call it an alphabet though), and I'm pretty impressed with my brain for being able to catch on at all. I've learned about 5 words in Russian, but still up to last week caught myself about to say hello or thank you in Hungarian. I imagine my English will be absolute garbage by the time I get to Canada again, and you'll all just have to believe me that it WAS good after 10 months of grad school hahaha.<br />
<br />
Ah - speaking of home, I've bought my tickets and will arrive October 4th for a whirlwind tour which will involve much administrative drivel (new driver's license and health card and police check for new job and blah blah blah), and high likelihood of me catching a bad cold, but also many Thanksgiving pumpkin pies!! I'm expecting to leave again in November, but this is unconfirmed so more details later.<br />
<br />
As always, much love, and if I missed out on some detail that you're interested in please let me know! I'll try to take more photos I swear.<br />
<br />
BYYEEEEEEE!<br />
<br /></div>
Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-47471418575128404642017-07-02T23:30:00.001-07:002017-07-02T23:33:26.206-07:00From Central Europe to Central Asia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hello hello hellooooo! I am in the middle of a 6 hour
layover in Istanbul, on my way from Budapest to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It’s
Canada Day and there’s a good chance I’m the only person in this whole airport
who is aware of it. The wifi is NOT working because it’s a stupid system where
you need to get a code via text message and for whatever reason I just can’t.
I’ve taken a very long nap, eaten, and now am bored enough to finally get
around to writing a proper update.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A couple of weeks ago I handed in my thesis on sex work
policy blahblahblah. I was in Budapest for 10 months, and they went by super
fast. I learned a lot of useful new skills and definitely gained some knowledge
and understanding that should help me out in the future. There were about 30
people in my program, and we were split into two classes for mandatory courses.
This means we all saw A LOT of each other for that 10 months, and became super
close. As people have been leaving this past 2 weeks to start internships
around the world, there have been a lot of tears. It might be a long time
before I see a lot of them again. Now I’m fighting back tears in the airport so
I’m going to stop this nonsense (next day edit: I will miss many people
immensely, but having gone through this before I know I’ll see a lot of them
again somewhere too!!).<o:p></o:p></div>
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I was lucky enough to have several visitors while I was in
Budapest. My Dad and his lady friend Teri came in November. My good friend
Dawn, who I met in Korea, came for a couple days in May, and my brother was there
a couple weeks later. Finally, Mom and Grandma came for a couple of weeks and
caught my graduation ceremony. I was also able to travel a little tiny bit. I
made it to Brussels to visit another old friend, Kate, to Barcelona for
Christmas because the ticket was cheap and it was warm, to Ireland to visit
Conor, to London to see Natalie and Hridi and to Austria with Mom and Grandma.
I had many more intentions of traveling, but between school, work (online
teaching), and doing a tiny bit of volunteer English teaching, and visitors, my
schedule was constantly packed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The final component of my degree is an internship, which I
am completing with UNICEF in Uzbekistan starting MONDAY (hasn’t sunk in yet,
caps are to convince myself haha). I’ll be there for 3 months, working on a
report of a capacity-building program. I’m certain I’ll find out many more
details in the coming week. I’ve done pretty limited research on the country
and it’s capital Tashkent, but it sounds like I might come out of it being able
to speak a few sentences in Russian (???), which hasn’t ever really been a goal
of mine, but I guess could be cool! And I’m very stoked about interning at a UN
agency. UN internships don’t often turn into jobs afterwards, but I don’t even
care about that. Just getting the experience, making some contacts and finding
new potential references is great in itself.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoQWyxOGuo9-b4ESQBsbQ7HNOcoXaGqDbBahalZMuODJeqH8YxJldsWrlc36hiPzzFEa-glUw6slVviGDvsoLDFpDk1BRi1hbs0EXXuX2CtTZVkiPwy97GST1UvXEHtkUkjXciALaLZ4k/s1600/uzbekistan+map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="569" data-original-width="1069" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoQWyxOGuo9-b4ESQBsbQ7HNOcoXaGqDbBahalZMuODJeqH8YxJldsWrlc36hiPzzFEa-glUw6slVviGDvsoLDFpDk1BRi1hbs0EXXuX2CtTZVkiPwy97GST1UvXEHtkUkjXciALaLZ4k/s320/uzbekistan+map.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I’m done my three months, I’m hoping my American
roommate from Nepal comes for a visit and we can do a week-long silk road tour.
Then I’ll be home in Canada for October, at which point I intend to eat the
equivalent of at least 3 whole pumpkin pies. I haven’t been home for
Thanksgiving since 2011, so the pumpkin pie eating is a pretty big deal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What’s in the works for November is what’s really exciting.
While applying for summer internships, I accidentally got a job. Some of you
will be familiar with CUSO International, an organization that sends people
from Canada and the US to work with their partner organizations in various
countries around the world. I applied for a position that started in July, but
they contacted me about a position starting in November in Myanmar. I have very
few details other than that…the final stage of the process is to get matched to
a suitable organization, so I’ll need to wait on that. However, it’s seeming
increasingly likely that I’ll be in Myanmar for 2018, an incredibly exciting
prospect.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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That’s the update! If you read this, it means I successfully
stayed conscious long enough to get on the plane and get to somewhere the wifi.
Instead of sleeping last night I got some friends to come over and drink all
the leftover alcohol in my flat ;), and am riding what is sometimes referred to
as “the struggle bus”. (Next day edit: I bought some water shortly after
writing this and the young guy was like “are you tired” and I was like “I’m SO
hungover” and he was like “me too”).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">24 hours later:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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I’m sitting in my new (to me, definitely old in general)
flat, somewhere in Tashkent. A UNICEF driver dropped me off here very late last
night, about 3AM. Getting through the airport took an eternity. Myself and a
Brazilian couple needed to get our visas at the airport, and we had to wait
about 40 minutes for the guy who gives out visas to even show up. Luckily the
couple was friendly, had just left Montreal after 6 months and proved me wrong
about nobody else knowing yesterday was Canada Day. Getting through customs
declaration also took an eternity. Had to get all of our luggage scanned right
before leaving the airport. When I found him the poor driver looked bored to
death, so I apologized, and apologized again when he lifted my 28kg suitcase
into the back of the vehicle.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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The outside and the halls of my new building are definitely
nothing to brag about, but the flat itself is huge. Living room, kitchen, big
bedroom, fully furnished AND air conditioned <span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span>.
Someone was even thoughtful enough to have some bread, water, juice and eggs in
the kitchen for me to use today! Unfortunately, as far as I can tell I’m
internetless, and I also just have no idea at all where I am haha. The same
driver is coming to pick me up at 9AM tomorrow to take me to the office, at
which point I hope to be buried under an avalanche of useful information, as
well as enjoy an internet connection. NEED MY FIX! <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ve made an uncharacteristically meek decision to just stay
in today, rather than go explore. I have no local currency, no internet, no
map, and still haven’t quite wrapped my head around the idea that I’m not in
Budapest and that I need to go to work in an office tomorrow morning. I slept
most of the morning, did my unpacking, watched Mad Max (the ONLY movie I have
on my hard drive haha), and will take some time to prepare for tomorrow. It’s
taken up nearly the whole day already.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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July 3 edit - Sending this from the UNICEF office in Tashkent, will update more later. Much love to everybody, but especially my Dad who turns 67 today, and who pre-emptively accused me of forgetting his birthday 3 days ago. Touchy in his old age I guess.</div>
Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-36983868304174169682016-09-19T14:07:00.003-07:002016-09-19T23:38:33.096-07:00Welcome to Budapest! Now ignore all the fun distractions and study you scoundrel!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Dear reader, hello!</div>
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<br /></div>
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It’s been almost 3 weeks since I arrived in Hungary, which
means I’m long overdue in updating you on what’s happening over here. Apologies
to my patient and flexible family and friends who let me drop into their lives
for a few weeks and then disappear into a kind of void from which I’m generally
pretty terrible at staying in touch from. Seriously, much Canada love.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUX-BwGKyztb-DLhkX3Ohlo8Awh1z9AJsKpUrfsCzuMN6W5a0Ja_QmMHVjT20PfKzdf0CAF4HR-TVqkMR5dtLgg4dQPaj7aE2301ExGHOatRlPRzSTOJDIfjNrkDI3tSAgK3KTu8qsUSA/s1600/PANO_20160828_190135.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUX-BwGKyztb-DLhkX3Ohlo8Awh1z9AJsKpUrfsCzuMN6W5a0Ja_QmMHVjT20PfKzdf0CAF4HR-TVqkMR5dtLgg4dQPaj7aE2301ExGHOatRlPRzSTOJDIfjNrkDI3tSAgK3KTu8qsUSA/s320/PANO_20160828_190135.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Last photo I took in Canada? Dad running to help my dumb brother put gas in his car.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>On to Budapest!</b> Budapest looks like this:</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjACTdZNgXS8C0kNsxubkPlgsHoUGB1WcMwJ_4JHFPjyBUhRE33-4tyjRnSkig1gOqHf8o4XjGcWFde9KZUrC9ekHew4DI9ViaqIX0x_P_oDl4VlYSjvd8smiv-NKcDilCwqPJkj-KHwTA/s1600/IMG_20160904_190743.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjACTdZNgXS8C0kNsxubkPlgsHoUGB1WcMwJ_4JHFPjyBUhRE33-4tyjRnSkig1gOqHf8o4XjGcWFde9KZUrC9ekHew4DI9ViaqIX0x_P_oDl4VlYSjvd8smiv-NKcDilCwqPJkj-KHwTA/s320/IMG_20160904_190743.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vaci walking street</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifpyy5tEefzcNkAVWHWmr_Rtin_NiWUspbknGrHUVKWVyLFxFFU8qQMulM2UaVXw1GtUHhVI8ZFi_WmRZlsArpfvJMj6WmWxVqjkszMkXbYBJIDemf-ty_O-8QFSeQLN6dYh2auKc4bpM/s1600/IMG_20160902_202859.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifpyy5tEefzcNkAVWHWmr_Rtin_NiWUspbknGrHUVKWVyLFxFFU8qQMulM2UaVXw1GtUHhVI8ZFi_WmRZlsArpfvJMj6WmWxVqjkszMkXbYBJIDemf-ty_O-8QFSeQLN6dYh2auKc4bpM/s320/IMG_20160902_202859.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looks like a church?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBas_4cctllrlfuEMP8j6Tr3KLQWV_WqmRlE1v6MXfLbrdVNrXHsqg7-MqiFC7YUL3Ee3FvqrZby67FQFO7tQ-wYxsKIWFmE3mPJ3-NrzJix6IS-bCqeDfXJ3ueG6cytDNrbMPB7DOhdk/s1600/IMG_20160913_104753.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBas_4cctllrlfuEMP8j6Tr3KLQWV_WqmRlE1v6MXfLbrdVNrXHsqg7-MqiFC7YUL3Ee3FvqrZby67FQFO7tQ-wYxsKIWFmE3mPJ3-NrzJix6IS-bCqeDfXJ3ueG6cytDNrbMPB7DOhdk/s320/IMG_20160913_104753.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I've heard the funicular is super FUN</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I arrived 3.5 days before my very first day of orientation,
which was enough time to do pizza, beer, set up a cell phone and start the
apartment search. It was not enough time to get over jet lag or actually finish
the apartment search.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily, the
public transportation in Budapest is an extensive and easily navigable system,
so getting around was a breeze, especially considering the last foreign public
transit system I learned to navigate was in Kathmandu (system might be an
exaggeration). Another plus was that my AirBnB (not a bed and breakfast) was
exactly what I was expecting, in a great neighbourhood and with no unpleasant
surprises, so I had a nice private room to relax in at the end of long,
exhausting days.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<b>On school:</b></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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The first two weeks at school were made of orientation
sessions; way more orientation sessions than you could even wrap your mind
around. Sessions with admin, about health care, about immigration, about
various student clubs, about fired safety, etc. </div>
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On top of orientation, we started a mandatory academic
writing class. Many of my classmates are non-native English speakers, and I
think these classes exist to help even out the playing field before we start
into a year of heavy reading and writing. This pre-class class led to having a
paper due before any of us even started the classes we registered for, which
seems to be an omen of the year to come. Several instructors have warned us
that it’s going to be a huge workload, and hoped that we had had a relaxing
summer (luckily I did!)<o:p></o:p></div>
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School is split into 3 terms: Fall term starts now and ends
in December. Winter term starts in January and ends in March. Spring Term
starts in April and ends on June 10 (it’s a short one!) My thesis is due on
June 10, and then my official residency permit ends on June 30. By this time I
will hopefully be on my way to start a 2 month internship, the final component
of the program. I know, I also kind of can’t believe I’m subjecting myself to
another internship. But, as they say in Nepal, what to do?<o:p></o:p></div>
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As expected, my classmates come from an extraordinarily wide
range of backgrounds. North American, South America, Africa, all regions of
vast Asia and of course Europe (EU and non-EU) are represented. Some are coming
from well-established positions within governments and NGOs, some are
transitioning from the corporate world, and some (like me) are getting into
something brand new. So far our conversations in class have been incredibly
interesting and I’ve learned about many new issues.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ve been pretty wary about developing too many activities
outside of class as I’m going to have 8 classes in the first 2 terms, plus a
few little smaller courses throughout (finally forcing myself to learn Excel),
plus write a thesis, plus apply to various internship programs. I’m also
attempting to keep up my VipKids teaching (the online thing with the Chinese
kids) since the pay is so good and the commitment so minimal. I’m also trying
to exercise and eat healthy. I heard that can be tough during master’s degrees
since it’s take more time than not exercising and eating garbage. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ve decided to get involved on a small level with one
program, called <a href="https://www.ceu.edu/academics/academic-outreach-programs" target="_blank">Olive</a>, where I’ll be teaching an English class to various
refugees and newcomers living in Budapest on some Saturdays. This seems like
the easiest way for me to use a skill I already have to do something good in
the community without a huge time commitment, and the program seems really
great so far. While I am working with lower-level English students, the program
also provides subject specific academic tutoring to students and has a class-auditing
program for students who are aiming to be accepted into Master’s degrees in
Europe. It’s a really neat initiative, ad I’m super glad they have asked me to
help (even though I was such a mess last week that I missed the first meeting
with them because I thought the email said Thursday instead of Tuesday. Great
work Thompson.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Enough about school! I’m already sick of it. I finally found
an apartment,</b> after an arduous five days of hunting and 12 apartment visits. I
live in what is called District VI (Budapest had numbered districts before the
Hunger Games was written, if you’re wondering) near Andrassy Ave., which looks
like this:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFMLU5zf0GPID5G7RWxfT74_ntTi07Rs1BMOWiEuaOJgQFA669xXiIxhv5B7gRjDnnVicz7o9zJnFqbrCqC-scHiDV_LlKM0YbGrcY95vqLeyNZrRpVuyeOpbIBT7GK8x2ngn6oj3Qd1Y/s1600/andrassy+avenue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFMLU5zf0GPID5G7RWxfT74_ntTi07Rs1BMOWiEuaOJgQFA669xXiIxhv5B7gRjDnnVicz7o9zJnFqbrCqC-scHiDV_LlKM0YbGrcY95vqLeyNZrRpVuyeOpbIBT7GK8x2ngn6oj3Qd1Y/s320/andrassy+avenue.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I’m about a 10 minute walk from Heroes Square, which looks
like this:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHNpdgxRkS23D0saGIZ6dY4lcvCe_Yy-quyeiDwlc5d8PBW5SLmQl8wxbIk8lrB89U92Bq9fLjdOwQ7Yfo5qm2azaHNo2ABhUYIVo-JL-sJmGgFGwIpjeSrj2JxGLV6jEE8KmTdeU6iM0/s1600/heroes+square.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHNpdgxRkS23D0saGIZ6dY4lcvCe_Yy-quyeiDwlc5d8PBW5SLmQl8wxbIk8lrB89U92Bq9fLjdOwQ7Yfo5qm2azaHNo2ABhUYIVo-JL-sJmGgFGwIpjeSrj2JxGLV6jEE8KmTdeU6iM0/s320/heroes+square.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Which is in front of People’s Park, which is a huge
beautiful park filled with bars and huge sprawling lawns and even a thermal
bath. It’s great. Now that I’ve finally found a bicycle (another arduous task
it turned out), I’m about a 15 minute bike ride from school (12 in the morning
when there’s less traffic) on a road with beautiful, huge, well-respected bike
lanes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The apartment itself seems to be pretty typical Budapest
style. You enter a huge front door from the street that takes you into an open
courtyard. The building is built around the courtyard, so that all the
apartments are positioned around it in a big U shape. The ceilings are tall,
almost too tall, and the door are too. Like this:<o:p></o:p></div>
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This apartment was appealing because the landlords had put
such care into making it look nice. There are nice curtains, new furniture, and
freaking chandeliers in every room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m
pretty pleased with it. I share it with a roommate – a German girl who is in
her second last year of med school and doing an exchange semester in Budapest.
Europe seems to have a very popular network of schools student scan do
exchanges between, and Budapest seems like a very popular destination. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So far she’s great, but just like my last
German roommate, she buys way too many sweets and chocolates and is way too
generous about sharing them. That’s a slippery slope you guys.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Welp, congratulations if you’ve made it this far again! I
generally only expect my Mom, Dad and Grandmas to ever make it this far. I
literally don’t even expect my own brother to <s>make it through</s> start
reading it in the first place? Oh well. If anything interesting happens I’ll
update, but I might just get sucked into a blackhole of schoolwork instead. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Goodbye for now!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-84616073516648699052015-10-12T03:34:00.002-07:002015-10-12T03:34:39.667-07:00Nepal's New Crisis: Life During the Siege of Kathmandu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hello again! Time for a less formal update.<br />
<br />
As many of you know, after a 2 month visit to Canada, I've returned to my English teaching work in Kathmandu. My visit home was lovely. I got to spend a lot of quality time with friends and family, I spent all my money on beer and gained 10 pounds from pies, doughnuts, ice cream and beer. I know this because my Nepali students were kind enough to point out my weight gain. It was good, but alas, I was running out of money and needed to return somewhere I could get a glass of beer for less than $7.<br />
<br />
When I left Kathmandu in August, things still seemed kind of...earthquake-y. Lots of piles of debris. People still a little on edge. Some tremors. One of the first things I noticed while driving from the airport to my friend's apartment was that Kathmandu no longer seemed earthquake-y to me. A welcome and encouraging sign. However, there was something else that I noticed before I even managed to get IN a taxi. FUEL SHORTAGE. I landed back in Kathmandu just a few days into a fuel shortage that has turned into a crisis in following weeks. I have good timing, always have. I paid twice as much for a taxi as I normally would have, and found out later that if I'd arrived a couple days later they were charging 6 times more than I would have usually paid. The situation has continued to get worse. I arrived on September 29, and it is now October 11, and less than 200 oil trucks have crossed from India into Nepal in that time.<br />
<br />
Why is this happening? It's incredibly confusing, and technically nobody has claimed responsibility for the stranded trucks at the India-Nepal border. It has a bit to do with a new constitution, unhappy ethnic groups near the borders, Indian imperialism and bureaucracy. Feel free to search it for yourself, as I'm certainly not qualified to explain it to you. What I'd like to tell you about is what everyday life is like in a city that's under a fuel siege.<br />
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When I arrived on September 28, road rationing had already been implemented. Vehicles with odd number license plates were allowed to drive one day and even numbered plates the next. A couple days later private vehicles were banned from buying petrol at the gas pumps. Some of my friends started walking to work in an effort to save their remaining gas for emergencies. As public transportation became overcrowded, people turned to bicycles. By the end of the first week of October it was becoming difficult to find bikes for less than $100. Getting to and from work and school has become a daily struggle and source of stress for people, and the slow down has had a bigger negative impact on the economy than the spring earthquakes did.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Parked taxis lined up blocks away from the pump, waiting days for their turn.</td></tr>
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I have been lucky because I live only a 15 minute walk away from where I work, and about a 40 minute walk from where I would usually go out at night. If I want to go further away than that, things get a lot more difficult. I've managed to take a bus to the other side of town once, but had a lot more difficulty getting back. Kathmandu busses are usually pretty full, but what's happening now is madness. On almost every bus you can see people riding on the roof and hanging out the door with just the ball of one foot on the step. Around 9 PM the busses stop running, and we depend on taxis. However, taxi drivers have to wait in line at petrol stations for days at a time until they can refuel, and in the last couple weeks, taxi prices have skyrocketed When we're able to eventually find a taxi, we then have to pay 3 times or more what we'd normally pay for a trip. Even worse, schools don't have fuel for their busses and hospitals don't have it for their ambulances.<br />
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Not only is getting around the city becoming difficult, getting out of the city feels like a far-away dream. In just 30 minutes you can drive out of Kathmandu and into the hills for beautiful hiking and day trips. But you need gas to do that. You also need busses to transport tourists around the country, and without them the industry as a whole is suffering. Tickets to Chitwan, one of the major tourists spots in south Nepal, have become scarce. Tickets to Nepal's second biggest city, Pokhara, are still available, but it's unclear for how much longer. Tourists attempting to hire private vehicles are also having difficulty. The shortage also applies to jet fuel, and it's been fortunate that most airlines fly shorter flights and are able to refuel at their point of origin or even in India.<br />
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In addition to transportation woes, Kathmandu depends on gas to fuel its generators and cook its food. Load-shedding is part of everyday life in Kathmandu, and many higher-end houses and apartments, restaurants, tourist shops, hospitals and hotels use generators when the power goes out. Not being able to use your generator at home is usually at most an inconvenience, but at a hospital it can make a life or death difference. Businesses dependent on tech suffer for each period they are unable to use machines and connect to their servers and restaurants lose money when they cannot serve customers.<br />
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As for cooking fuel running out, this poses an even graver issue. Restaurants serving limited menus and missing out on income is one thing, but families at home running out of cooking gas is a much bigger problem. Traditional Nepali food is rice and lentils, foods which are only really edible when cooked. As people have started to run out of cooking fuel, they've turned to wood fires. In Kathmandu, we don't have much access to wood, so this is not a viable option for the whole city. Out in the countryside, there is wood, but having villagers chopping down forests creates a pretty serious ecological dilemma later down the road.<br />
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It's not just the physical and logistical problems of this shortage I want to address. The burden is also psychological. This isn't my first crisis in Nepal, and in some ways it's almost as crippling as the first one was. An earthquake is an unstoppable, unpredictable force that brings death and tragedy. After the earthquake, we were all just lucky and happy to be alive. And within the first week there were already signs of relief and improvement. This shortage was created by a blockade/embargo that nobody accepts responsibility for, for reasons that so far we've only been able to speculate on. The world isn't paying attention (which is fair), and nobody is coming to the rescue. Instead of getting better, the situation has only continued to deteriorate over the last couple weeks, with no end in sight. Those trucks didn't stop coming because of some natural, uncontrollable force, and what's happening is fixable now and was avoidable in the first place.<br />
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Misinformation is rampant, and many remain hopeful that it will be over soon, but nobody knows for sure. This is surely what it feels like to be a pawn in a game of chess, waiting for the players to make their decision without having any idea what it is that's going through their minds. And as we wait, we are totally stranded, unable to move, unable to live our lives because we can't get where we need to go. Frustration is building, and with the big holiday just around the corner, the situation could get tense. People are coping as best as they can, just like they always do, but they can't last like this forever. And unlike the earthquake, there must be somebody somewhere who can be blamed for this crisis, and we may even someday figure out who it is. In the meantime, we're stuck motionless in this city, hoping things will return to normal sooner than later, just trying to make it through until our holiday vacation starts.<br />
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PS- Sorry for the lack of photos! Not on top of my photojournalism game apparently. But feel free to search online and have a look at some of the images of people hanging off busses and huge lines of trucks at the borders!<br />
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-35444086264043315522015-09-13T13:51:00.000-07:002015-09-14T06:56:13.131-07:00Nepal: Chhori's Post-Earthquake relief efforts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="s1">April 25, 2015 is a day that will be remembered in Nepal for generations. Our world was literally shaken up, our foundations cracked, and our ancestral villages reduced to rubble. We were incredibly lucky that all members of <a href="http://www.chhori.org/" target="_blank">Chhori</a> were safe and physically unharmed. However, all around us we could see the destruction, devastation and grief, and it broke our hearts. Within the first week after the earthquake, <a href="http://www.chhori.org/" target="_blank">Chhori</a> started strategizing with INGOs and coordinating immediate relief projects in an effort to do whatever we could do to heal.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kathmandu's central Ratna Park filled with tents 3 days after the earthquake.</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Several of our members are closely connected with the VDC (Village Development Committee) of Belkot in the district of Nuwakot, one of the 11 districts heavily affected by the earthquake. We were able to get specific numbers on how much and what kind of food, shelter and medical supplies were needed directly from villagers on the ground. On May 1, with help from <a href="http://www.planete-enfants.org/en/index.php" target="_blank">Planete Enfant Nepal</a> we were able to deliver aid to 141 families. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Delivering food in Belkot</td></tr>
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Our second visit after the earthquake was to Sankhu, a community 20 KM east of urban Kathmandu. On May 6, we were able to deliver aid to 5 families. While in Sankhu we conducted an assessment of increased risk of trafficking of women and children, and found that people were aware and concerned about their own vulnerability and the safety of their daughters at this precarious and stressful time. We spoke with one woman who was so worried about the safety of her daughters that she requested we find a safe shelter for them immediately. Fortunately we were able to oblige her request and found a safe place in Kathmandu. More recently, we have been able to open a fully functioning shelter in Sankhu for other at-risk women and girls to help combat trafficking.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Many of the village buildings had collapsed</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">About 2 weeks after the earthquake, news reached us that a large number of displaced families were still living under tents in the Gongabu Buspark area of Kathmandu. While conducting an assessment in this area on the 17th of May, we encountered two pregnant women and two single women with young children. Due to the poor conditions they were living in, we relocated the women and their children to our office space temporarily. We were able to provide financial support to the two pregnant women and their husbands, helping them to afford food, water, shelter and healthcare for 2 months. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Children of single mothers enjoying activities while sheltering in our office.</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">During our assessment in Gongabu, we found that many people were simply stranded in the Kathmandu area with no money to get home and nobody to help them. From May 17-30, we provided money for bus tickets for 30 people to 16 various districts in Nepal and Darjeeling, India. With the help of Geneva Global, we were able to coordinate emergency food support to people in staying in a large futsal shed in Gongabu. We reached 107 people over a period of 10 days. We were also able to provide psychological first-aid, counselling, medical checkups and sanitary napkins to 110 people in 3 different tents in the Gongabu area.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chhori's nurse providing medical check-ups in Gongabu</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">As the President organization of the Campaign for Rights network, Chhori organized meetings on May 5th and June 15th with many grassroots NGOs working to support and empower girls and women working in the entertainment sector in Kathmandu to determine the effect of the earthquake on this population. We found that many of the girls had lost their rented rooms and were struggling to find new ones. Many had returned home to their villages (many young people did this in the week following the first earthquake). Most of the businesses that they work at, including bars, restaurants and massage parlours had been closed for weeks, leaving the workers without a source of income. Several groups had confirmed deaths among their contacts, and many more women and girls were unaccounted for. Chhori became even more determined to provide increased shelter space for these women and girls</span><span class="s2">.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Campaign for Rights Network meeting</td></tr>
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In Mid-may we visited a group of families who had set up a temporary shelter in Kathmandu's Model College in the south part of the city. These families had been told that they would be ask to leave in a week's time in order for the school to reopen and resume classes. Many of the families told us they had nowhere to go, and were unsure of their futures. Chhori provided psychological first aid to many of the parents and children here.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Children playing beside their temporary shelters at Kathmandu Model College</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">From late May to June, after the psychologically devastating May 12th earthquake, Chhori worked with <a href="http://www.planete-enfants.org/en/index.php" target="_blank">Planete Enfant</a> again to organize a psychological first aid, counselling, medical checkup, mediciane and sanitary napkins for 300 people in Kirtipur, a village on the outskirts of the Kathmandu Valley</span><span class="s2">.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Psychological First Aid in Kirtipur</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Our next stop was the VDC of Chaugadha, again in Nuwakot district. On June 20th, we brought sanitary napkins and safe-menstruation awareness brochures. We also provided psychological first-aid, counselling and medical checkups with a focus on reproductive rights for the villagers. While we paid special attention to women and girls, we included men in our services as well, recognizing that all people were traumatized by the earthquakes and needed support.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our private counselling tents</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">We then heard from our contacts in Belkot, Nuwakot, that four families were desperately struggling to get back on their feet. On June 25th, with help from private donations from abroad, we were able to provide these 4 families with sheet metal to make monsoon-proof temporary shelters and some cash for purchasing basic supplies and food. In Jiling, another VDC in Belkot, we were able to provide tents and clothes to 15 more families that were struggling to stay afloat. Temporary shelters had become the critical item in post-earthquake survival, as monsoon season makes it impossible to safely build new houses</span><span class="s2">.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Delivering heaps of lentils and rice</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">In late June we shifted our focus towards the special challenges facing women and girls in this post-disaster time. We had witnessed girls being forced to practice chaupadi even though their whole families were sleeping in makeshift shelters. Chaupadi is the practice of isolating menstruating women from the household and men in the family. Usually they live and sleep in a small shack apart from their house. In the best of times it is an unfair and unsafe practice, and during the post-earthquake the risks have increased. After witnessing this injustice, Chhori started to advocate for improved awareness of menstrual health, encouraging other organizations to include sanitary napkins in their relief packages. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">We were made aware of another area in Nuwakot called Urleni, where girls were vulnerable to traffickers. From the first of July we were able to establish an emergency shelter for girls in this area. Overall, throughout the aftermath of the earthquake, we provided shelter for women and children in Nuwakot, Sankhu and Kathmandu, and several young women and girls are still living in our new Kathmandu shelter and being supported to pursue formal education. Additionally, several women received financial support to re-establish their lives after losing their homes in the earthquake</span><span class="s2">.</span><span class="s1"></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chair-person Hira Dahal talks to girls in their chaupadi hut</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Our most recent action, as of July 5th, has been through our association with the <a href="http://www.beyondbeijing.org/" target="_blank">Beyond Beijing Committee (BBC)</a> to petition the government of Nepal to provide specific care and support to pregnant women, new mothers and their newborns, and to ensure that women are included in the relief and rebuilding decisions being made at the local level</span><span class="s2">.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Chhori, like most Nepalese these last few months, has been doing everything in our power to help those worse affected by this heartbreaking disaster. Drawing on our strengths and prior knowledge and experience, we were quick to focus in on the needs of women and girls in some of the worst affected areas, knowing that there was a risk they would be ignored in this critical time. Our staff worked very hard and were extremely brave throughout this time, even as the aftershocks continued and we slept outside for weeks. We owe much gratitude to <a href="http://www.planete-enfants.org/en/index.php" target="_blank">Planete Enfant Nepal</a>, <a href="http://www.genevaglobal.com/" target="_blank">Geneva Global</a> and private donors from overseas via our foreign volunteers, all of whom were quick to offer and deliver support and provide the financial backing for our actions, interventions and advocacy. We’re so relieved that the sense of emergency seems to finally to subsiding, giving us the time and clarity to focus on long-term recovery and rebuilding and growth as our country shifts its focus to instituting a new constitution.</span></div>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-35514104414154772872015-05-29T04:36:00.003-07:002015-05-29T04:36:32.610-07:00Post earthquake (x2!) update<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="s1">Hi again! It’s been so long! I was on such a roll and then that second May 12 earthquake interfered with my motivation and I got totally sidetracked. But I’ve developed a nice little plantar fasciitis issue and don’t feel much like getting off my ass to do anything, so I think I have time for a wordy update.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I think where we left off, things had been getting back to normal. In the couple weeks after the April 25 EQ, I had gone back to both working at the english school and volunteering with Chhori. We had been out to the restaurants and hung out having drinks. Things were still a little scattered, but people were ready to get back to ordinary life and rebuilding what was destroyed. We had started cracking jokes at all the fear-mongerers and alarmists. Like, get over it guys. Yes, there were several earthquakes daily, but nothing bigger than a 5.0. You can only feel something below a 5.0 if you are sitting down and not moving. If you’re walking, in a car, or ever showering you won’t feel anything smaller. It was unnecessary panic. We were laughing at work on Monday because the EQ alarm had gone off and we hadn’t felt ANYTHING.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Then May 12, Tuesday, rolled around. I was in another organization’s office, sending emails. I was alone in a big meeting room on the second floor. Mid-email, the shaking started, but slowly at first, so nobody panicked. Then we realized that it wasn’t stopping, but was instead getting worse. I ducked under the table I was working at and held on, hoping that a French NGO with the presence of mind to install an EQ alarm had also made sure the building could survive one too. I could see mayhem in the stairwell out of the doorway to the room, saw my colleagues running down the stairs, saw the French director of the NGO trying to grab small children as they ran by her towards the stairs. I think her and I were the only one that got down and stayed down. One of my colleagues ducked under the table with me for a few seconds, but when the shaking let up for a second she was also gone down the stairs.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">When the shaking did finally stop, I made eye contact with the director and was like “Wow, that wasn’t supposed to happen.” What I meant was, earlier that week I’d read that there was a 0.5% chance of an EQ bigger than 7.0 striking Kathmandu. 1/200. I packed up my stuff as quickly as I could and went outside. The sent a few messages to make sure everyone was ok. And, wonder of the internet, before I had any information myself, my friends living in Korea were already sending messages. They might have even sent it before the earthquake was over haha!! Everybody I knew was okay again, but my Nepali colleagues were super spooked. Crying, freaking out, and like, this weird paralysis of not being able to act. I wasn’t sure what to do…I probably would have been fine with going back inside the house to be honest with you. But my colleagues had gone off down the street (a tiny street lined with HUGE houses I might add!)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">And, this time again, I KNOW that the ground was shaking, and that there were several large aftershocks in the first hour, but I barely felt any of them. I think I only felt one. So I walked down the scary street to where my friends were standing in a place that was slightly safer, but still not really. This was because within minutes of the EQ, everyone who had one got in their car or jumped on their motorbikes and was flying around trying to get home or to their family. My biggest fear from earthquakes has become the panic that ensues afterwards. I said “guys, is there an open field over there? Can we go there for like 30 minutes?” Success! So we chilled, my boss trying to decide what to do with the 2 women and their children who were looking to her for direction. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">She ended up deciding to take everyone to her neighbourhood with her, and they would all sleep outside under what they call a futsal, a sheet-metal-roofed shack/shed thing. She tried to get me to come, but I definitely didn’t feel like that was the right idea after witnessing the levels of panic amongst the local population. I was feeling okay right then, but I knew an anxiety attack was building in my chest, and what I needed to do was find my foreign, non-superstitious, sarcastic, prone to drinking when stressed, cheese-eating friends to regain my sense of security as soon as possible. Luckily, one of my EQ buddies from the first round lived nearby, and is in an EQ safe house, so I walked over there. My house wasn’t walking distance, and the busses and taxis were CRAZY.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">When I walked over to her neighbourhood, I found my friend and her roommate sipping tea at the local tea shop, just chilling on stools like nothing had happened. I knew instantly I had made the right decision. Possibly my 3rd thought after the earthquake had finished was “maaaaaan do we have to sleep outside again? That really sucked. UGHHHHHHHH”. And apparently they had been thinking the same. We decided to wait it out inside. We got ahold of another EQ buddy, and she brought a brick of cheese, cookies, other snacks, and a bottle of lovely tequila. Exactly what we needed. I did some quick anxiety relief yoga that’s been helping, we ate cheese, drank tequila, skyped with our other EQ buddy who had left (my former roomate), and set up our beds in the living room and tried to sleep.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">We managed to sleep most of the night, but all of us woke up at about 3AM to a HUGE tremor. We parted ways the next day, I headed back to my house. It was so different from the first one, even though it wasn’t that much smaller. I didn’t work on Wednesday, but I was back in on Thursday. So I was back sleeping in my room the night after it. I think the big difference was that the uncertainty was gone. After the first one, nobody knew what was going to happen. Nobody knew how the city was going to react, whether supplies would keep coming in, whether the lights would keep working or if the busses would keep running. This time we knew, things were just going to go back to normal.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Another big difference was that the destruction was so much less terrifying, mostly because everything had already fallen, and everybody who had been in an unsafe building was sleeping outside. So it wasn’t quite so overwhelming in that sense, but the emotional toll was HEAVY. It’s now May 29, and people are still sleeping outside because they are scared. Astrologers here keep predicting big earthquakes, and enough people believe or even half believe that it has a real impact on daily life. It was the worst trick the earth could have played, letting everyone sink back into a sense of security and then striking again. This time it’s taking much longer for people to move one. Everyone is on edge, jumping at the slightest sounds or movement. A lot of us try to laugh it off, but that doesn’t make it less real.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The ground continues to shake. Just today there's been 3 tremors over 4.0 and one over 5. And our experience tells us that, most likely, it will stop in a second, so there’s no need to panic. But, our experience also tells us that YOU NEVER KNOW, so better be prepared for it to NOT stop or to get worse too. To make it worse, there have been several severe thunderstorms here this past week. My roomates and I aren’t particularly afraid of thunderstorms, but the locals definitely are. And a few days ago, while the high winds of the thunderstorm were causing the sheet-metal shelters on the top of roofs to rattle and blow around, a nice little tremor shook us up from underneath. There’s been something like 270 earthquakes 4.0+ since April 25.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Mental health has jumped up the list of priorities, and now when my organization delivers material goods they also deliver mental health services. It’s going to take a long time for this country to heal, especially when our trauma is revisited every time we feel the earth shake, which happens every day. But people are taking amazing steps and actions to rebuild the countryside, and the tourism industry here is ready and able to welcome visitors to most areas. I like to think the worst is probably over, but the truth is I’ll never make that assumption again, because I’ll never forget that ANYTHING above 0% is still completely possible.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Thanks for tuning in and maybe for the next one I’ll have something lighthearted, whimsical or even zany to report on! And by the way, estimated Canada return is early August 2015. See some of you then.</span></div>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-21762374449896449262015-05-10T02:44:00.001-07:002015-05-10T03:06:39.690-07:00Earthquake Diary #5 Wednesday April 29: Hunting for an Outlet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="s1">For the first time since the day of the earthquake, I woke up in my own bed and cooked myself my own breakfast. </span>My German roommate slept in later than me, as she hadn’t been able to sleep well at all in the terrible German embassy. Mid-morning, my British roommate returned home from her embassy, and told us about some Mexican ‘earthquake friends’ she knew who knew a way for us to volunteer. AND, they had electricity AND wifi at their hotel (we had neither). So the 3 of us packed up our gadgets and power cords and headed up the road. When we arrived, the wifi was in fact working, but the electricity was out, which meant my dead laptop and phone were useless. We also found out that the Mexican girl’s big plan was to walk into a camp with like 4 bags of rice and hand it out to people, and I was like “oh, ok I think we’ll pass then.”</div>
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<span class="s1">My German roommate got a call from the organization she volunteers at asking her to come in and bring her laptop, as they had work for her to do. I went with her, and we stopped at an ATM so she could withdraw some of the cash she had received in donations from Germany. I noticed that there was an outlet in the ATM, and having no shame, plugged in my phone. I waited for my roommate to go home and come back, charging my phone in the ATM shelter the whole time. Some of the Nepalis laughed at me when the realized what was happening. Didn’t care. When she got back, we walked 20 minutes to her office, where there were a tonne of people around. Turns out they wanted her help redesigning their homepage so that it was more earthquake oriented, and to collect the latest news updates. I was able to charge my phone, but not my laptop (forgot the damn adapter!) and sat there soaking in information from the internet. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">At least 3 Facebook groups had formed in an effort to try to coordinate all the separate volunteer actions that were taking place. One group was geo-mapping all earthquake related events and calls for help. There were countless villages where all the homes had been destroyed and no aid had arrived yet. At this point I hadn’t wrapped my head around the names of the districts, and it was all unfamiliar and far away. But it seemed like so many people in Kathmandu had heard the pleas for assistance and wanted to help in some way. My roomate’s organization, Himalayan Climate Initiative, had also sent some volunteers out to one of the camps to do a needs assessment and hand out some supplies. We had made it through the immediate threat to our survival, but now there was a new sense of urgency in Kathmandu.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">After a while, once I had written down some potential places to go and volunteer for the next day (it was too late at this point for today), I gathered up my stuff and went to search again for some electricity. But first I stopped at home, because I had run out of clean underwear! So I came home and handwashed like 7 pairs, using up as little of our precious water supply as possible. I can handle dirty shirts, dirty bras, but dirty underwear is just TOO FAR. I noticed that several of my neighbours had also hung out some laundry to dry, so I must not have been the only one who had exhausted their clean underwear supply.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Once that was taken care of, and I had hung them up, it was time to find some electricity. I knew that the hostel had generators and wouldn’t even notice one extra white girl plugging her shit in to leech of their power supply. So I walked on over. When I got there I chatted to some of my friends there, and this is when I found out that one of their coworkers was missing. He had been trekking in Langtang Valley, where some huge avalanches and landslides occurred, burying the entire village of Langtang. He had been guiding two guests, and so far they had only heard from one of the guests. I had met the trekking guide before, and this was some of the worst news personally that I had received yet. All we could do was hope for the best. Some people were walking back to Kathmandu from this valley, and it took about 4 days, so there was still a chance he was on his way back.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I hung around the hostel to sit in on a meeting they had scheduled to organize their own relief efforts. They had collected some donations just from current guests, and had plans to buy supplies and drive them out to a village the next day. They seemed to have everything under control, so I left before it was over. I hadn’t been walking around at night since the earthquake, and usually I feel really safe in my neighbourhood, but everything was so unknown and my situational awareness so heightened that I wasn’t sure if it would be safe. Luckily, of course, I had no problems on my short walk home, other than a few more aggressive than usual neighbourhood dogs (poor things were just hungry). The animals had REALLY been on edge for the last few days; most notably dogs and birds. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I should also mention that the weather had been TERRIBLE since the earthquake. It had rained every day, was chillier than usual, and on Tuesday or Wednesday it actually HAILED. It was like nature giving Nepal the finger. While this had never really affected me, not even in the camps, I knew that it was bad news for all the people who had lost homes and were sleeping outside in flimsier tents than what I was lucky enough to be sheltered by. And as the ground continued to shake, we knew that this loose, wet earth would be extremely dangerous to those in the mountains.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">To finish off Wednesday, we stress ate nutella , peanut butter and biscuits in the kitchen with our headlamps on. This day got lost in our minds, because although we actually processed A LOT of new information, it really felt like we hadn’t DONE anything. We decided that tomorrow, we needed to DO something, HELP some people. The need to help was our driving force at that point, as it seemed was happening to everyone else in the city too. Must be one of the steps in the emotional process post-disaster.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Stay tuned for misadventures in volunteering and more stress eating!</span></div>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-75117870670677929492015-05-09T03:41:00.001-07:002015-05-09T03:41:47.423-07:00Earthquake diary #4 Tuesday April 28 - Coming home<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="s1">I woke up at the American camp, ate a banana and come biscuits I had brought to avoid the nasty oatmeal this time and took an AMAZING HOT SHOWER. I don’t even have one of those in my apartment here. It was a little chlorine-y but didn’t care. Preparing to leave camp meant charging my phone (electricity was hard to find for a few days), checking my messages and internet things, stocking up on a few extra of the terrible meal packages to take home (preparing for the impending food shortage), and grabbed 2 litres of water for home too (for the water shortage). </span></div>
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<span class="s1">At some point, the guys in charge said they had news for Canadians regarding an evacuation. The question on everyone’s minds for the last day or 2 had been “should we stay or should we go?” There was so much uncertainty and fear-mongering it was really difficult to tell if Nepal would descend into utter chaos (Haiti) or kind of return back to normal. So I went to listen to what they had to say. A military plane would be landing, bringing relief supplies, and the empty plane would be able to take any Canadians to Delhi for free. My first thought was ‘Delhi, ew”. I wrote down my details just so that I had been officially recorded by the government as being alive and in Kathmandu, but declared I wouldn’t be getting on the plane. My second thought was “My aunts are gonna be soooo angry if they hear there was an evacuation plane and I wasn’t on it” hahaha. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Eventually I got all my stuff together and headed out for the last time. I collected my confiscated butter knife at the door (we actually don’t have enough of those in my house so they are very precious). I could always come back in the next week. There may even be people still camped out there! When I got home, I met my German roommate, and I think we had some lunch. Then the plan was to go out and SHOP, because we were still unsure about the impending food/water shortage and disease outbreaks and riots that had been promised. The shop near our house where we usually buy water from was out, and we took that as a bad omen. Instead, we walked a few blocks to a large department store called Bhat Bhateni, and luckily, it was open and functioning like normal. They even had water!! “Maybe things won’t be so bad”, we thought. We grabbed a taxi back, and didn’t even get overcharged by TOOOO much, another sign of things returning to normal.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The power was still out at our house, but we were able to cook using the gas stove. Our water was also not working as the tank had been damaged, so we were relying on the water we’d stockpiled in various buckets, bowls, bottles, cups, pots, and even in our clothes washing machine. I cooked up the sausages that had been in the freezer so they wouldn’t go bad. Our British roommate had decided she would stay at the British embassy one more night (some people slept out side for the WHOLE rest of the week). Our place was in fantastic shape, no cracks even. The whole neighbourhood was in great condition.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The ground would still shake occasionally, which was still terrifying, but the tremors were becoming much less frequent. I noticed that my landlord had an english newspaper and we asked to look at it, and we saw more photos of the damage. It said that thousands of people had left Kathmandu to return to their villages, which had been hit very hard. We had no internet access so this was our only source of information.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The last significant event of Tuesday was a radio interview I gave over the phone. My cousin’s sister-in-law works at a radio station, and she wanted to know what was happening in Nepal. So, around 10PM Nepal time, in my totally dark house, with my headlamp on, on a phone network that could cut out at anytime, I talked about my experience. I was very concerned about saying something untruthful or making damaging generalizations, because the truth was all the information I had could have been nothing but rumours (MUCH of it was). So I was pacing around my room and formulating my answers as coherently as possible. And when it was over, I slept in my bed for the first time in 4 days, and I think I only woke up once or twice from tremors, so it was a GOOD night!!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Stay tuned as we figure out how to help and things getting back to normal.</span></div>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-41760283631291623202015-05-07T06:28:00.000-07:002015-05-07T06:28:11.945-07:00Earthquake Series: Part 3 Monday April 27. So is it safe YET?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="s1">Monday, April 27</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Wake up at US Embassy Facility - 5:30AM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">I woke up REAL early, and REAL hungry, possibly by a tremor, around like 5:30 or 6. My friends had slept in another tent (their tent was full when I had arrived), and were all still asleep. I couldn’t believe how well I had slept, or how much better I felt. I braced myself to eat cold pasta for breakfast, but was informed that if you searched thoroughly enough you could fine OATMEAL. YAY! And I managed to find one!!! I once again failed to properly use the heating packet, so I braced myself to eat cold oatmeal. This oatmeal tasted like muffin batter! Apparently the diet of an American soldier overseas consists of just sugar in different forms, including a literal packet of sugar to make “juice” with and a packet of table syrup (to put on what? My oatmeal?). Not wanting to waste the precious non-pasta meal, I forced myself to keep eating until it was finished. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">The US camp actually had very lovely washroom facilities for us to use. The water was being pumped out of the swimming pool, providing us the luxury of hot showers, which I don’t even have in my apartment here. I didn’t take one on this day due to lack of any shower supplies, but definitely put hot shower on the mental to-do list. I brushed my teeth (I forgot to mention last time that I went about 36 hours without brushing them) and it felt so good. </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Team meeting @ US camp: 7AM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">At some point early in the morning, the security guy who has been put in charge gathered us together to inform us that he would not tolerate blanket hoarding, and if he caught anyone with more than 1 blanket in the upcoming night, he would kick them out into the street, even if it was the middle of the night. I actually laughed a little, because, like, what a crazy, overreactive, extreme American thing to say. My American friends later confirmed that they too thought the punishment seemed a little extreme for the crime. He also informed us about the safe haven, the shop part of the building that had bullet-proof glass. We were to run into there in the case of “people coming over the walls”. *GIANT EYE ROLL HERE* Get over yourself US Embassy. We found out later that this asshole hadn’t even been in Nepal for the quake. No street cred.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Leave from camp: 9 :30AM</b></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">My friends and I discussed our options for the day, not sure if we’d be spending the night in the camp again or not. My American roommate had left for the airport around 4AM. We had no idea if she would actually get on a flight or not. I decided to leave my stuff there but leave for the day. My one friend had been with me at the farmer’s market when it struck. Here house is on the other side of town, and she hadn’t felt safe enough to go home since Saturday. I offered to go with her to check on her place and her roomate, as she hadn’t heard anything from her yet. We checked with the consular staff to see if it was safe, and she made a displeased face and said “well, we’ve heard of some muggings”. We went anyway, because that seemed pretty unlikely to happen to us in the middle of the day. Before we got in a taxi, we walked over to the hostel (very nearby) so I could check on my friend again. He had been working non-stop since Saturday, all day and all night, helping guests get to their embassies and evacuate and such. So he was passed out, but at least I knew he was still safe.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Take taxi to Patan: 10:00 AM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We jumped in a taxi, but screwed up and took it from the main tourist area where they always overcharge anyway. PLUS earthquake price. We had no idea what earthquake price would be. We agreed to 800 rs, (usually 300 tops) and took off. Along the way I asked the driver how his family was. They were fine. How was his house? His house had been destroyed. We drove past Ratna Park, and he pointed into the tent-filled area and said “my family is here”. This was our first time to drive through other areas of the city, and seeing the tents helped the situation to sink in a little further. Along our way, we still didn’t come across any scenes of total destruction. Mostly we noticed small piles of debris, small walls toppled, makeshift tarpaulin tents in odd places and bumps in the road that we were pretty sure hadn’t been there before. When we got to our destination, I gave the driver 1000, told him to keep the change, and use it to keep his family safe and healthy.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvfmvYj8QCpXLElSHIWwo-q6GDegUYiBUDOIpnRpVYjwAn-Kd5XYsw9-jBm82HPKz7ttPIBVY5APVC7GvdYWaT9oAj4h-TXkeqX7jnh0PAepwMqz36oLVF7C69vRbi11FCk9PlJCE-qjs/s1600/20150427_142126.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvfmvYj8QCpXLElSHIWwo-q6GDegUYiBUDOIpnRpVYjwAn-Kd5XYsw9-jBm82HPKz7ttPIBVY5APVC7GvdYWaT9oAj4h-TXkeqX7jnh0PAepwMqz36oLVF7C69vRbi11FCk9PlJCE-qjs/s320/20150427_142126.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The tents in Ratna Park</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Arrive at friend’s house: 10:30AM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">My friends neighbourhood was comletely intact. The only noticeable differences were a bus park full of busses that should have been running, more people than usual walking around with nothing to do, and a community electrical plug-in that someone had set up on some steps. My friend’s apartment was even more unaffected. Her water was running, her electriciy was working AND there was wifi. It was like some magical earthquake-proof castle. We pulled out our devices and internetted furiously for like 2 hours. We stress ate a whole bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter cup mini’s. Eventually, I needed to head back to my apartment to meet my German roomate and decide our action plan. My friend decided to stay in her apartment because it was so luxurious, had an earthquake-proof wall and her roomate would be staying there too.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Head for home: 2PM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We walked to the main road, saw NO taxis, but did see a bus that could take me home!! So weird to be riding on a bus, just like it was a normal day. On the way back, the bus passed a temple that had been TOTALLY destroyed. Like, you couldn’t even tell it used to be anything. Part of a statue in a roundabout had come down. The stadium was full of people (no roof). Malls were missing windows and parts of their signs. We didn’t drive by the site, but it was clear that you could no longer see the Dharahara tower where it used to stand. Eventually we got back to the park, and it was full of tents. I hoped to myself that the majority of those people still had houses they could return to when the aftershocks had subsided, and were just sleeping outside for safety like me. At this point, the bus got PACKED, and some of the fear instilled by the Americans started to rise in me. “Shit, what if someone does something? Tries to rob me?”, amongst other silly things. Of course, unsurprisingly to anyone who has been to Nepal, when it came to my stop, I made the helpless foreigner motions, and about 10 people started shouting for the driver to stop, and were moving out of my way, and helping me make my way towards the door, just like they always do. Stupid fear-mongering! Works way too well!</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5GLkljzff87NymZlvBUfIPcuE-8BD3AMPS2AKj-EL4bcBrRJNjfrsLFxbbsaytV1jqVhqqN8zJTCqP7bPZjzDoY6KBHHsn_KAotVv4Wp6vxf2T873PQ7iehA95p6QRByyiaG0G3P3vTM/s1600/20150427_141706.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5GLkljzff87NymZlvBUfIPcuE-8BD3AMPS2AKj-EL4bcBrRJNjfrsLFxbbsaytV1jqVhqqN8zJTCqP7bPZjzDoY6KBHHsn_KAotVv4Wp6vxf2T873PQ7iehA95p6QRByyiaG0G3P3vTM/s320/20150427_141706.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The temple was 10 times bigger than these pillars, now just rubble.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>In my apartment: 3PM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">On my way home, I noticed that some of the shops in my neighbourhood were open, which I took as a wonderful sign. I got home, talked to my landlord, and chatted with my German roommate. Apparently the German embassy was not nearly was well set up as the British or American. They weren’t given food until lunch that day (so like, almost 24 hours without), and she had shared everything she had taken with others. This includes her sleeping bag. She said three of them were using it! They didn’t provide them with anything, they had to dig their own toilet out in the backyard, and they didn’t help them to figure out flights home or contacting family in Germany. Sounded like the embassy staff were practically trying to be as unhelpful as possible to a bunch of people that had just been through a traumatic experience. Not very cool. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Leave for embassies: 5PM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">While we chatted, there was a knock on the door, our new British roommate to move into the American roommates room! Talk about good timing to move apartments. She had luckily managed to catch us at home. We all agreed to go back to our embassies to spend one more night to get us through the high-risk 72 hour period for aftershocks. This had been originally 24 hours, extended to 48, and finally to 72. We had gone the whole day with no serous aftershocks like Saturday or Sunday, but if they weren’t staying here I definitely wasn’t going to stay here alone. We agreed to meet back at home again the next day around noon. We packed up my German roommate with enough food for the evening, I grabbed my shower supplies, and we headed out again.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Arrive back at camp: 6PM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Back at the American embassy facility, I managed to get a spot in the tent with my friends, as some others had left from there to go to the airport. I ALSO managed to grab a camping mat! WOO! Major upgrade from my cardboard (but I still kept it under the mat anyway because it was like my Wilson). I rummaged through the food and opted for ratatouille. There was a Canadian couple in our tent, and one of them had actually figured out how to use the chemical heating packs! So her wife explained to us how to do it, and we got excited for our hot food! We joked about how Americans and Canadians WOULD be the group of people to survive a huge earthquake but then all get diabetes during the aftermath. So. Much. Sugar. I somehow managed to screw up cooking my thing AGAIN, but it at least was warm. That evening, the couple who had left in the morning were spotted walking back into the camp around 8AM, and we were all like “shiiiiiiiiiiit”. They’d gone to the airport at 10AM, sat around all day with no food or water, were told their flight would be leaving the next morning instead.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>People who failed to get on flights arrive at camp: 8PM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Background: the Kathmandu airport is TINY. One landing strip, 5 docking station (is that an airport or a spaceship? Whatever). Their plane arrived at the airport, but had to wait while aid planes landed. Eventually, it had to fly off to Calcutta to refuel. It returned later, but the same thing again. Aid planes were being given priority (understandably, most would agree). Their plane ran low on fuel a second time, and gave up for the day. I cannot even begin to imagine how chaotic the airport was. I landed right after they cleaned up the Turkish Airlines plane that had crashed (just a little, no fatalities), and I thought it was mayhem THEN.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Big bedtime tremor: 9 or 10 PM</b></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">As we were settling into our beds, we felt one more large tremor, enough to cause us to sit up abruptly, but not enough to make anyone get out of bed. I think we all went “UGHHHHH STAAAAAAWP IT!” I was immediately glad we’d decided to sleep outside again. I was asleep within 30 minutes from then.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Stay tuned to hear about the end of immediate threat of danger, the beginning of learning about the extent of the damage and incredibly uncertainty. </span></div>
</div>
Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-62630501299839298462015-05-04T06:09:00.003-07:002015-05-04T06:09:51.056-07:00Nepal Earthquake 2015 Part 2: It's over, right?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Sunday, April 26</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>British Embassy: 6AM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">After being fed a meal of not so terrible oatmeal, we were briefed by the ambassador himself. Officially, we were told to go back to our homes/hotels and get our stuff together. British nationals could return when ready to leave (the country), the rest of us encouraged to seek out our own government’s help, but told we would be welcomed back if there were any further major occurrences. We hoped (again) that things were tapering off, so we decided to head home and shop for some post-apocalypse supplies (water, hand sanitizer, pasta). My American roommate had a flight scheduled for the next day (Monday), so she went to the airport to see if she would be flying on time or not. Everyone else left for home as well. When we got home, we met our landlord, who informed us that our water tank (on top of the roof) was leaking, and advised us to fill as many buckets as possible with the remaining water so it wouldn’t be wasted. After this crazy exercise, we (myself and my German roommate) were both so exhausted, we crashed on our beds. Unfortunately, we couldn’t help the feeling that we were constantly moving (could have been because we were!). I didn’t sleep at all. At about 10 AM I could no longer ignore the hunger, so I went to the kitchen and devoured an entire BBQ chicken thigh I had purchased the day before at the farmer’s market. It was delicious, and I was much happier afterwards. I went back to bed and tried unsuccessfully to sleep some more.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Arrive at home: 8 AM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We had been feeling small tremors all morning, but nothing very large. Then, at about 1PM, the house started to shake, but instead of subsiding after a couple seconds, it intensified. I dove under my desk, which I had left placed in the doorway (apparently the safest place to be if indoors). I yelled to make sure my roommate was awake and doing the same in her room. I could hear the water in the buckets we had filled sloshing around and spilling all over the floor. Finally it stopped. With our adrenaline pumping again, we found each other in the hall and decided it was definitely time to go back to the British Embassy. This was the second big aftershock, 6.7 (some information says it was a second earthquake, some say that even if it is a second earthquake it still counts as an aftershock because it was triggered by the first one). After experiencing that inside my apartment, I can truly not imagine what the bigger one must have done to the place. We took a few minutes to pack our bags so that we were better prepared than the night before, taking warm clothes, medicine and some food, and headed back to the embassy. We bumped into our landlord and he agreed that we were probably best off there. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>6.7 Aftershock/second earthquake: 1:09 PM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">When we got back to the embassy, they were a little more hesitant about letting us in this time, but we promised that we wouldn’t use up their resources and just wanted to sit on the lawn and be safe from earthquakes, so they let us in. Surprisingly (to me, the one who clearly forgot to think for a while), there were more people arriving on Sunday than there were on Saturday. In hindsight, obviously, these were the people who had been outside of Kathmandu Valley on Saturday. We chatted on one group of British people who had been rafting when it happened. They said they were in a gorge and the rocks started to fall around them. Their boat guide freaked out and jumped out of the boat and left all the tourists on their own to try to navigate. Luckily, they were able to survive the incident and make it back to the city in one piece.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Arrive at British Embassy again: 1:30</b></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">After sitting and relaxing at the embassy for a while, we were informed that most nationalities were being redirected to their own embassies. My roommate and I were determined to stay together, and I ignored the call for Canadians to load into a van to be driven to the American Embassy recreational facility (embassy workers get their very own complex with a pool, spa, full size baseball diamond and tennis court, exclusively for them to use. Even regular American citizens can’t get in there without a special invitation!). Eventually, we were all gathered together again to be told that we would be asked to leave: Canadians to the US camp and Germans to their embassy. They told us that they didn’t WANT to force us to leave, but they would have to place priority on making space for British nationals. They were still so polite, and they insisted on cooking us up some food before we left. We walked part of the way together, and split up, not sure when we would see each other again. I headed into the US camp.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Arrive at US camp: 4:30 PM</b></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Now, don’t get me wrong, I know plenty of Americans that I like A LOT. However, I was a little apprehensive about entering into this American sphere of abruptness, fear-mongering and libertarianism (all just hunches at that time), especially after the good humour and politeness I experienced at the British embassy. First impression: in a city where almost every neighbourhood had lost power, this US facility was still running their metal detectors and x-ray scanners for bags. I was asked to hand over the butter knife stashed in my bag to spread peanut butter with. After this, a consular service worker asked for our details and whether our families had been notified that we were safe. Right after speaking to the consular service lady, I spotted my American roommate who had braved the chaos of the airport earlier that day. I wasn’t very surprised to see her, as I’d been hearing that it was total madness. She told me that she got there, looked around for about 15 minutes, and without speaking to anyone decided to leave and return to the city to the US camp. She said there WASN’T anyone there to speak to, and had decided to just try showing up the next morning at the time her flight was scheduled and see what happened. I also met up again with all the people who had been at the British camp the night before. Some people hadn’t even bothered going home, even before the big quake at 1PM.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVGiMXuz1IdN0Q5iVtNptpDPuUj3cQraUBi0M6noTm_Rr082U5wW82_MPyf0Kxi26zIFl_ImOh75CqNG1VxzVBZuseJG3sr46EE9DhMZF5FQ_xi_ULsMq_0ufuA_7yGu-S-5jvNslmGWI/s1600/20150427_061455.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVGiMXuz1IdN0Q5iVtNptpDPuUj3cQraUBi0M6noTm_Rr082U5wW82_MPyf0Kxi26zIFl_ImOh75CqNG1VxzVBZuseJG3sr46EE9DhMZF5FQ_xi_ULsMq_0ufuA_7yGu-S-5jvNslmGWI/s320/20150427_061455.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The American Camp. Not too shabby.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<b>Meet with friends at US camp: 6 PM</b></div>
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<span class="s1"></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The American camp was mostly operating on an every man for himself principle, so I scavenged a piece of cardboard that was about the length of my body, and traded some precious 3G time for a blanket with my American roommate (like straight up prison/refugee camp style). I found a nice spot on the ground to set up my bed, away from the edges of the tent and near a big group of other Canadians (strength in numbers plus they are friendlier!). Then I searched through the boxes of MRE (Meals Ready to Eat?), aka Soldier Food, and found some pasta, which I ate cold because it turns out you have to have a degree in physics to figure out how to cook that stuff. Much to our surprise (and delight), the MREs contained Poptarts!!!! Now, I’m old enough to know Poptarts are gross, but if that wasn’t the most comforting thing I’d seen in a long time…Unfortunately, the ones I got weren’t frosted, so that was disappointing. </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5dbc7daZ6O72Wlf75OrvfzX-So-oLgv1_FwG5OdQqFv9YNz8_ddux_2Q_QPr7DBzWzR50Hhtyd4QlahiI-dNUUKdwOC562nRSWcJnzrj2SUaRs2pnzSbmQKbrQ4Jw_n23-BawuF7qaJQ/s1600/20150427_062418.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5dbc7daZ6O72Wlf75OrvfzX-So-oLgv1_FwG5OdQqFv9YNz8_ddux_2Q_QPr7DBzWzR50Hhtyd4QlahiI-dNUUKdwOC562nRSWcJnzrj2SUaRs2pnzSbmQKbrQ4Jw_n23-BawuF7qaJQ/s320/20150427_062418.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Soldier food". Not amazing, but very appreciated.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I chatted with my friends for about 20 minutes (discovered they were ALSO stoked about the Poptarts), managed to get ahold of a couple more Nepali friends on the phone, and promptly fell asleep at about 8PM. And I slept like a log through the whole night, with my cardboard mattress, my backpack pillow and my one blanket, unaware of the continuing tremors and the heavy rain, because that’s what 36 hours of cycling between adrenaline and anxiety does to a person. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Asleep by: 8 PM</b></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">And that concludes the second day of post earthquake life. Stay tuned for more about Camp USA, venturing into the south side and stories from the German Embassy.</span></div>
</div>
Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-15553432899242790662015-05-01T21:04:00.001-07:002015-05-01T23:27:19.487-07:00Nepal Earthquake Saturday April 25: Minute by Minute account from an extremely lucky individual<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Saturday April 25th</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Written on Tuesday April 28</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">By the time you read this, it will have been 1 week after these events took place. I managed to think about/have time to record them on Tuesday. I am finally getting the chance to type them up and post them now. Here’s a very very detailed account of what happened when the earthquake struck.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Wake up: 8AM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">It started out like any normal Saturday. Actually, better, because I woke up early, cooked a nice breakfast, worked out, had a nice bucket shower (showering with a bucket is a real accomplishment because it takes much more preparation than a regular shower) and made some plans with my American roommate for her last Saturday in Nepal. I then headed off to the weekly farmer’s market to purchase my fancy foreigner delights. </span></div>
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<b>Farmer's Market: 11:30-12:00</b></div>
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<span class="s1">To finish off my shopping trip, I ordered a panini to go. While waiting for my delicious weekly panini, I felt the ground shift ever so slightly. I stared at my feet confusedly, trying to figure out if I was about to faint, if I was standing on a deck or something unstable, or if I was crazy.Before I could finish assessing what was happening, the ground REALLY started to shake, and I finally realized that this was THE earthquake we had been warned about, and the adrenaline shot into my veins like icy fire. This was the first earthquake I had ever truly experienced, and I wasn’t completely sure on the emergency protocol. I managed to run a few strides (turns out one of the protocols is DON’T RUN) to get out from under the tent and grabbed ahold of a stair railing. I managed to look around to check for anything that might fall down and hurt me, and remember feeling relieved to see nothing too hazardous. At the time I wrote this in my notebook, I still had no idea how long the quake actually lasted. But after checking Wikipedia, it apparently only lasted 20 seconds!? WHAT!? My conservative guess had been 40 seconds, but it could have been a full 2 minutes as far as I knew. I remember looking around at everyone else freaking out: screaming, crying, grabbing for support, running out of the nearby restaurant to the parking lot. Some of the people running for safety were people I knew, friends I’d met in just the last few weeks. Finally, the shaking stopped, and I kind of just stood still while I caught my breath and calmed my nerves. My heart was pounding and my breathing heavy. The water from a tiny stream had sloshed around furiously and my leg was wet. Tables and umbrellas and people had fallen over. Mothers with worried faces searched frantically for children who had left their sight at the wrong moment. I knew that we all had been lucky. Nobody was hurt. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Earthquake time: 11:56 AM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Now, you’ll maybe recall, I was still waiting on my panini. Naturally, in hindsight, what I did was totally ridiculous, but I REALLy wanted that panini. So, I politely said “Excuse me, that ham and cheese panini is mine, could I still have it?”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“You want it to go ma’am?”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“I think that’s a good idea.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">So he wrapped up my panini, and I made my way to leave the farmer’s market (to go where? I have no idea guys). When I got to the parking lot, I discovered a group of people, including my friends, sitting on the ground. “Is this the safest place to be?” I asked, and sat down with them. They had been eating brunch and drinking brunch wine when the quake struck. I’m not sure how long we sat there, but it must have been at least 30 minutes because I don’t even remember feeling the first 6.6 aftershock, so that must have been before I’d recovered from the initial shock of what was happening. All I remember is watching a van rock back and forth at one point, so there’s a good chance that was the big aftershock. Who knows? Not me.</span></div>
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<b>Start to walk in streets: 12:45 (ish)</b></div>
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Somewhere around 45 minutes after the initial quake, we decided to part ways. My American roommate had been home alone and I knew she must be scared nearly to death. I planned to go home to check on her, and stop in Thamel (the main tourist neighbourhood) to see if my friends at the hostel were okay. My friends from the farmer’s markets wanted to go back to grab the rest of their wine and cheese. We made plans to meet later that afternoon and get some drinks. Again, in hindsight, I know this all seems ridiculous, bit it took a LONG time for us to wrap our heads around the gravity of the situation. We were worried about grants proposals due on Monday! In my defense, having never experienced an earthquake, I had no idea where it might have ranked on the Richter scale, and probably would have been equally as terrified if it was like a 3.8. We had also not seen ANY destruction on the scale of collapsed buildings or dead bodies. We just didn’t know and couldn’t process the seriousness of the situation.<span class="s1"></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Arrive in Thamel: 1:00 PM (ish)</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Anyway, I set off alone down the street. When I arrived at the intersection near the Garden of Dreams (the main entrance into Thamel) it sunk in just a little further, as a huge crowd had congregated in the middle of the intersection, a safe, open place away from tall building. My mind was like “Oh! Wow, ok, so this was a thing that a lot of people are scared about!” When I turned to look up the street into Thamel, I saw a hydro pole crashed onto an empty taxi, wires everywhere and a pile of bricks from a fallen wall. Even then I knew, this was the kind of street not to be walking down only an hour after a big earthquake. I searched for my friends in the crowded intersection and couldn’t find them. I looked at the fallen wires again, and I bet you can guess what I did next. I walked towards the danger, but as safely as I could. I looked down the alley toward the hostel, and there they were, standing on a pile of bricks that had been a wall an hour before. I joined them in the alley, relieved but still scared. As we hugged and and sputtered our anxious words, another tremor started and we all took off towards the safety of the larger road. Turns out that if you can run without losing your balance, you can’t feel the shaking as badly. I led my friends towards the relative safety of the large intersection, where I bumped into my farmer’s market friends again. At this point, I lost my hostel friends in the crowd, but assumed they would be super busy taking care of the guests, and that if they had survived the big one they would probably continue to be fine.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Leave Thamel 1:15 (ish)</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Back with my farmer’s market friends, we decided to not split up again, and to go search for my American roommate together as we were all a little worried about her. At this point, the phone networks were still down, and people were only able to call to numbers outside of Nepal. According to my phone log, I was able to receive a call first at 1:30 PM. an hour and a half after the initial quake. My German roommate was safe in the garden at her friend’s house. Then , my friend, who is living in India called, with the best intentions, but I curtly told her “leave me alone, I’m busy!!!” and hung up (sorry Abby!). I finally got ahold of my American roommate, and we set off to find her in a park near our place, across from the British embassy. One of my friends became desperate and ducked behind a bush to change her tampon, I had to do a #2, basically since the initial quake shook my bowels up, but opted to continue to hold it. Two of the girls set off to check on one their boyfriend’s parents, and I stayed in the park with my roommate. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Sitting in park: 1:30 - 4:00 PM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">The ground continued to move all afternoon. It was like being on a boat. The park began to fill up with Nepali families. A friendly shop owner was there with his family and he was the one who told us about how badly the other areas of Kathmandu had been hit. “Patan, Basantapur and Bhaktapur are gone,” is what he said. It sunk in a little further. Around this time, the 3G network started working, and at 1:36 PM I was able to get on Facebook to post a message that I hoped would be enough to placate all my concerned friends and family who were about to wake up to the news of a huge earthquake in Nepal. I knew the 3G was fleeting, so I had really hoped that message would be seen and I wouldn’t have to worry about a flood of messages jamming up my phone while the networks were still spotty. While on Facebook, I was also able to see that a few Nepali colleagues had been able to post that they were okay, which was a huge relief, although it left me with many concerns for all the rest of them. We were able to learn that the earthquake had started in the Gorkha district, about half way between Kathmandu and Pokhara. We learned that many of Kathmandu’s ancient structures had collapsed, leaving nothing but rubble. It sank in a little more. My roommate and I talked about how in awe we were of the earth, and decided that we would probably convert to whatever religion it is that worships the earth as the all-powerful being it is. The earth is alive and we must appease it! </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>British Embassy 4:00-5:00</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Around 4pm, the 2 other girls returned, with news that the British Embassy was taking in anybody from North America, the EU and Commonwealth countries. We decided to go and check it out. We had no problem getting in (thanks Western privilege!), and no joke, were promptly handed cups of tea. Bless the British. The man in charge informed us that they were the ONLY embassy taking in ANYBODY. As in, Americans couldn’t even go to their embassy, nor Canadians to their consulate, and expect to receive any help, a fact which was confirmed by numerous others later on. The embassy had a nice, large lawn, an earthquake proof building, working toilets (which I immediately relived myself in), water, food and blankets. Also, a small British boy named Henry (awww) who was on rubbish patrol (AWWWWWW). </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>At my apartment 5:30-7:00</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">We STILL hadn’t fully wrapped our heads around the situation, except for my American roommate who we usually tease for being overly paranoid. 3 of us decided to go home to spend the night, and she said “No way, I’m sleeping here!” We thought she was being over paranoid. As our apartment is near the British embassy, she decided to walk back with me to grab some of her stuff, and went immediately back to the embassy. I stayed outside with some of the neighbours who were sitting in the front yard. The told me that they’d be there all night. I went into my apartment (stupidly) and noticed that by some miracle, the wifi was still working! So I quick Skype called my mom, during which there were a couple scary tremors, and an interruption when my landlord came to chat. My building was (is) is great shape. No cracks on the inside, outside, or even on the roof. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Start of Skype call to mom: 6:00 PM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">My German roommate finally returned home, and after experiencing a couple more tremors, she said she thought we needed to go outside. We saw that many of our neighbours were choosing to spend the night outside for safety, and finally I relented. After all my stubbornness, I also ended up back at the british Embassy, because it was the safest, closest place to sleep. When we got inside, we found that my friends, who had also decided not tot stay, were back too. Apparently, they had driven to one of their homes, seen all of the people preparing to camp outside for the night, and turned back for the embassy. Again, in hindsight, of course this was the right decision. It was totally not safe to be sleeping inside a building.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>British Embassy 7:00 PM onwards</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">So, about 8 of us gathered around and shared some cheese, bread, cookies and candies that had been purchased at the farmer’s market and then carried around all day. I finally ate the second half of my apparently more-important-than-life panini. The ground continued to move beneath us all the while. We began to feel tired, and 5 of us opted to sleep out in the open. We found a tarp and some blankets, and I managed to drift off into an uneasy sleep. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Sleeping outside: 10PM- 1AM</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">I was woken around midnight or 1AM when it started to rain, and we decided to move inside to avoid getting wet, cold and sick. The floor space was full and we all ended up having to split up. After I had got all settled down and cozy in my blanket, it only took about 5 minutes for a big tremor to hit and get everyone running out of the building. I personally only made it as far as slipping my shoes on before it subsided and I decided to just like back down. A few people remained outside for about an hour to calm their nerves. Another big tremor woke us all up at about 5AM, causing people to run outside again. The sky had begun to lighten and the birds were chirping, so there was no getting back to sleep after that. At about 6AM, the soldiers in charge came through with the official wake up call and informed us that breakfast was served. These guys were absolutely amazing, all charm class, patience and competence.</span></div>
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<b>Breakfast served: 6AM Sunday</b></div>
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<span class="s1">And here is the end of my first day and night of earthquake. Stay tuned for what happens next! Spoiler alert: I manage to survive!!</span></div>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-6757691762053068022015-03-10T22:04:00.000-07:002015-03-11T07:27:05.682-07:00India Part 3: The South<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="s1">We arrived in <b>Mumbai</b> in the morning and needed to take the local train into town to get to our hotel. The Mumbai local trains are infamous for the organized chaos you experience while taking them. You have to find the right platform, make sure it’s the right train, figure out which stations you are coming into, and, once you are at the right station, you need to move fast to get off the train before it starts to move again. Luckily, everything went smoothly for us, excpet that the train we thought would take us all the way to our hotel’s neighbourhood stopped halfway and we had to ‘alight’ (fancy British word for getting off a train or bus) and find another one. Since I am a natural master of deductive reasoning, we found the right train and carried on. But I’ve spent too much time talking about trains! We got to our hotel, and it was exactly what we expected. Nothing amazing, but in a fantastic neighbourhood (called Fort) near to some NICE food spots (very important). That evening, we hopped on a bus after figuring out the numbers (different from Roman numbers!) and went to Chowpatty Beach on Marine Drive. My first impressions of Mumbai were GOOOOOD! It was the first Indian city we were in where I didn’t have to watch out for cow poo on while walking down the road, and it truly felt LUXURIOUS. Marine Drive was lovely, and Chowpatty Beach was a hub of evening activity. We got some food from a group of stalls set up on the beach and watched the families relaxing and playing on the beach. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmOTC19FaN8yn2ewYNo-E4H_5yevh4bSQy-5fkXfmdC4TGeBDqClVEnD0U1_I9x-cJ-JznsHkZ5Stl3kM4_bFeQwwdRiOLV20MRHCNefNVhILn3QdKjhLCy6y2vZ4z7ZGHgE16Uhyphenhyphen4gkg/s1600/P1233263.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmOTC19FaN8yn2ewYNo-E4H_5yevh4bSQy-5fkXfmdC4TGeBDqClVEnD0U1_I9x-cJ-JznsHkZ5Stl3kM4_bFeQwwdRiOLV20MRHCNefNVhILn3QdKjhLCy6y2vZ4z7ZGHgE16Uhyphenhyphen4gkg/s1600/P1233263.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chowpatty Beach</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">We walked back along Marine Drive and laughed at the awkward couples trying to be typical young couples but in a place where public displays of affection are not exactly approved of. The next day we walked around Colaba, which included walking by the India Gate, the Taj Hotel and Leopold’s. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHPrbCUSydhTb5jN-TnpASodujH0olwBfrqmHfZiYjZUYZrSx-IazVbcK3rUPO-nLexbWpZbdxmWojGobHMTWfwIYTnBZTyTHwzKA2Np6hqqC6XL8KNdT0w8PAhQvJjvo707DYEp7WTaU/s1600/P1243266.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHPrbCUSydhTb5jN-TnpASodujH0olwBfrqmHfZiYjZUYZrSx-IazVbcK3rUPO-nLexbWpZbdxmWojGobHMTWfwIYTnBZTyTHwzKA2Np6hqqC6XL8KNdT0w8PAhQvJjvo707DYEp7WTaU/s1600/P1243266.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">India Gate</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">In the afternoon we hopped on the same bus going down Marine Drive to see Ghandi’s old residence. now a Ghandi museum. This was the Ghandiest thing we did while in India, and I think we were both glad to have made the point to go there. The next day we opted just to walk around A LOT all over town. We walked to the Central Train Station, then we walked to a temple, then we walked to Dhobi Ghat, a slummy looking place where a huge percentage of the city’s laundry get done, and we walked to a mausoleum, then we gave up and went home. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCsgGo_WlHFr1K0dg4iwCnbC0o6Pal0Gw0Tu6TaRUfcOgB0C_sXIh7P6b6_8WUVCuu_A2iivqp4_1ev4wpT6fKWRMI6Lk0E_rlcgQo85gXQNY_X0UFV3HX6cVhg2wJbX7k22M6WYKkrg/s1600/P1253285.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCsgGo_WlHFr1K0dg4iwCnbC0o6Pal0Gw0Tu6TaRUfcOgB0C_sXIh7P6b6_8WUVCuu_A2iivqp4_1ev4wpT6fKWRMI6Lk0E_rlcgQo85gXQNY_X0UFV3HX6cVhg2wJbX7k22M6WYKkrg/s1600/P1253285.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dhobi Ghat</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Alcohol isn’t cheap in India the way it is somewhere like Thailand, so we actually didn’t do much drinking! I promise! The next day we had a train in the morning. We had a gruelling journey ahead of us. We got off the train at 4am, waited around a train station in some other city until 6am, then took a second train toooooo</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Hampi</b>! The journey was totally insane and we were crazy for planning it like that, but it was so worth it. Hampi is like nothing I’ve ever seen…it looks like the set of The Flintstones. Instead of trying to describe it, you just need to look at the photo. It was beautiful. We had a bit of a trek to get to our guesthouse, as we’d booked one a little far away from the main action. Again, so worth it. We were surrounded by peaceful rice paddies and boulder piles. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj31yPg66ER1CRgJI20wMwzLs0DCxjQ1pvEV2yyusfQKS-kBXOXGXjmJiSzmdm1GGgoxiWTeWPpJAmGoPUayKP1NO_4k0qB91vcXXvuss-U_o9Qktw-PwdK8SPrfx7Hu5to-nqlkEPrHBk/s1600/P1283328.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj31yPg66ER1CRgJI20wMwzLs0DCxjQ1pvEV2yyusfQKS-kBXOXGXjmJiSzmdm1GGgoxiWTeWPpJAmGoPUayKP1NO_4k0qB91vcXXvuss-U_o9Qktw-PwdK8SPrfx7Hu5to-nqlkEPrHBk/s1600/P1283328.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hampi</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">We rented out a scooter every day we were there and just drove around. I also drove the scooter, and nobody got hurt! We did a lot of lazing around doing nothing, but one day we got really adventurous and rented bicycles and biked around all these old ruined temples and stuff in the area. That was pretty interesting and fun, although a little on the sweaty side. Our days in Hampi kind of blend together in my memory, and the photos are really more effective than any of my words could be.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnO8WdI9B30hyphenhyphenbQGThvbCtQN1rjp1TEQFFe-ZgnyDvZsTvz615kQxUgZjoRrGgcDcyaM_-tFApolOLrrt-sCCJ5NXT1AdNPW0HDCB20Gp41l6K1NYd722e4fDjqB1kT_jKYpNNUwqrAX8/s1600/P1303418.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnO8WdI9B30hyphenhyphenbQGThvbCtQN1rjp1TEQFFe-ZgnyDvZsTvz615kQxUgZjoRrGgcDcyaM_-tFApolOLrrt-sCCJ5NXT1AdNPW0HDCB20Gp41l6K1NYd722e4fDjqB1kT_jKYpNNUwqrAX8/s1600/P1303418.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ruins in Hampi</td></tr>
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<span class="s1"> When time was up, we headed out to catch our sleeper bus. This was a silly bus, and we had an unpleasant experience…the bus stopped at like 3am, they made us all get off, and wait around for 30 minutes, then made us get on ANOTHER bus. WHY!?! There was no explanation, of course there wasn’t. Anyway, we did eventually arrive in</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Goa</b>! But we didn’t arrive at the right place exactly. We got off the bus and onto another bus to a placed called Margao, and then got on ANOTHER bus to take us to Palolem, which was at last, our final destination. We alighted from the bus and were instantly bombarded by guys trying to hustle up some business for their guesthouses. We were prepared, and decided they seemed nice enough and had the right price, so we followed them down the beach. After a bit of negotiating, we ended up with an adorable little beach hut for an INCREDIBLE price about 50 meters from the water’s edge (more like 25 at high tide haha). Then we kicked into full blown beach mode for the next 4 days, leaving our beach beds only to go to a restaurant, bar, or to another beach. It was grand, we were so relaxed we forgot to take photos, sorry! </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Mx_U61m6qJWDkMAZYlpVddEuIr2FXw2hhmS_M2w2s2YZD6tFqJLkTj5Qv2T8EP7E-pPcDbhWX6RcaP0-OomBgb7Q62wgPsTRJMkAWq-aYlyNwTBTwB8ZxeXSMNESrxadjWj6wFBj4c4/s1600/P2033425.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Mx_U61m6qJWDkMAZYlpVddEuIr2FXw2hhmS_M2w2s2YZD6tFqJLkTj5Qv2T8EP7E-pPcDbhWX6RcaP0-OomBgb7Q62wgPsTRJMkAWq-aYlyNwTBTwB8ZxeXSMNESrxadjWj6wFBj4c4/s1600/P2033425.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">beach</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Our next journey was going to be so much more straightforward than the last two and we were totally prepared for it. We took our night train down to</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Alleppey</b> (or Alapuzha), our first stop in Kerala, God’s own Country. Our main objective here was to explore the backwaters. Most people do this on a beautiful, all-inclusive houseboat. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieX2wOVAHaV3sp5NSHkZS35XMRtghGNAauJjALp6YgA_FXf9GRZbKaTuFRZBXU2paDGqqUqNIV0GcejV-FsGc0deHERMk_FBLr7ph053DBLPSG_TUZFsRymXnmaJbSpZGhMV9QwE3xVSo/s1600/P2073451.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieX2wOVAHaV3sp5NSHkZS35XMRtghGNAauJjALp6YgA_FXf9GRZbKaTuFRZBXU2paDGqqUqNIV0GcejV-FsGc0deHERMk_FBLr7ph053DBLPSG_TUZFsRymXnmaJbSpZGhMV9QwE3xVSo/s1600/P2073451.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1">Because we were on a budget, we figured that was waaaay out of our price range (we were right too haha) and opted for a day trip on a canoe instead. Our guesthouse arranged the whole thing and we were off the day after we arrived. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwDPBus7AIqRaz7nTvul3GMfgq7wq-rkx4QLs5mQKd8ElIxfZer6Hv_j6OwYAj1Ght5YwCBfQ-MsJBEZkOwi7SEmTab9g9WUCxdCDMbTPorDHnu_nwZwpX6-L_Vn15o7BIemWrHtagRYM/s1600/P2073460.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwDPBus7AIqRaz7nTvul3GMfgq7wq-rkx4QLs5mQKd8ElIxfZer6Hv_j6OwYAj1Ght5YwCBfQ-MsJBEZkOwi7SEmTab9g9WUCxdCDMbTPorDHnu_nwZwpX6-L_Vn15o7BIemWrHtagRYM/s1600/P2073460.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">our canoe</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Alleppey was really cool. Kerala is an elected communist state, and they are REALLY communist! There are also A LOT of Christians there, and between the Communist things and Christian things it really feels incredibly different from anywhere else we went in India. So we got paddled around the waterways where people live and work and it was beautiful and lovely and there was so much to see.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDk7L3rRjSTM79N42PSTgLBjBmR2JNHOS7P08JravQmv1wqCMeKRbjIkLz5JMyGqaBFGxghBywY5tesIA6Pvac1DOZR__rsdLHWDK1QyxfQyKxxc4eae_LKYLhA2PJpXAH1rjkutEotYs/s1600/P2083534.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDk7L3rRjSTM79N42PSTgLBjBmR2JNHOS7P08JravQmv1wqCMeKRbjIkLz5JMyGqaBFGxghBywY5tesIA6Pvac1DOZR__rsdLHWDK1QyxfQyKxxc4eae_LKYLhA2PJpXAH1rjkutEotYs/s1600/P2083534.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">comrade</td></tr>
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<span class="s1"> The tour finished off with lunch prepared by our boatman’s wife at their beautiful house in the middle of a bunch of rice paddies. It was a lovely day! </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsm_qK9rlxZUUwMjDOaE9yBwA-XW_t80cYlcVA9e5Qw3dW721IL7p9dQtrjey9OtgC5Z3vNZP9woajXb_QUC_K31pp6KOlo4JmL-_mcLG6yJLaryEuHpUlZIVtMtg3agiGx1h63evq3oA/s1600/P2073517.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsm_qK9rlxZUUwMjDOaE9yBwA-XW_t80cYlcVA9e5Qw3dW721IL7p9dQtrjey9OtgC5Z3vNZP9woajXb_QUC_K31pp6KOlo4JmL-_mcLG6yJLaryEuHpUlZIVtMtg3agiGx1h63evq3oA/s1600/P2073517.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">rice paddies around his house</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">There didn’t seem to be a whole lot to do in Kerala other than see the backwaters. I kept wishing there were some guesthouses outside of the town and along the banks of the water so we could just sit and relax and watch the world go by, but there wasn’t. The next day we took another bus (a long ride again) to</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Munnar</b>! Munnar is a Hill Station up in the Western Ghats. It’s tea fields. It’s so much tea! We arrived at night and were happy to find a cooler climate (higher altitude yay!) and disappointed to find really expensive hotels. Our first day there we just wandered around in some tea fields (we MIGHT have been trespassing, whatever) and ate some AMAZING food at a restaurant that we visited two more times before we left. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhohwXoogCj3yGWYK2WepJUFZ42uAjsS1h9DjPf585qWo7i2v5hIGLG8QggysDEy6LUEm5EwLnubWpf38XkZtAZVqNPRmIJJ5zblMW0Xkj7TWBs21HlQ6w0L6pazHRfRw4-R1qBJgTqAIk/s1600/P2093551.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhohwXoogCj3yGWYK2WepJUFZ42uAjsS1h9DjPf585qWo7i2v5hIGLG8QggysDEy6LUEm5EwLnubWpf38XkZtAZVqNPRmIJJ5zblMW0Xkj7TWBs21HlQ6w0L6pazHRfRw4-R1qBJgTqAIk/s1600/P2093551.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">tea everywhere</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">The next day we went for a guided hike up higher and onto some mountains. Unfortunately, the visibility was terrible and our views were not as extraordinary as they should have been. But it was still a nice day and we learned some things about tea. Did you know that black, green and white tea all comes from the same plant? Did you know that the tea plants in India were just transplanted from China? Did you know the British are literally obsessed with tea to the point where the whole country should have gone to some kind of therapy for it? So many interesting things about tea. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxND8mk445zhr6bCEP8LNQvmpbGQ5OPehTQNiOVmXTcnJE-VwZYR8hUniaLkEvhqLi1oIFsbbyZCE_guTyAsGxy2y6riOLShseexUFbimmZ_d4vv_-HdN7YLcUOUHAnKcMhy-KPahtDfM/s1600/P2103571.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxND8mk445zhr6bCEP8LNQvmpbGQ5OPehTQNiOVmXTcnJE-VwZYR8hUniaLkEvhqLi1oIFsbbyZCE_guTyAsGxy2y6riOLShseexUFbimmZ_d4vv_-HdN7YLcUOUHAnKcMhy-KPahtDfM/s1600/P2103571.JPG" height="86" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So-so view from the top</td></tr>
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I think on this day we also went to the tea museum. It was a little odd (there were dead animals hanging on the wall!) and propaganda-y (LOVE THE TEA COMPANY. THE TEA COMPANY WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU. DO NOT QUESTION THE TEA COMPANY), but they did have an active tea processing exhibit that showed all the steps between tea leaf and tea bag, so that was cool. On our third and final day in Munnar, we hired an auto to drive us up to Top Station, and to stop at some of the attractions along the way. We were happy because the sky was clear and blue when we started up. We got almost all the way up there before we turn one corner and the sky was suddenly grey and cloudy. Just like that. So again, our amazing view was ruined, but luckily I’m very imaginative so I could figure out what it probably looks like when it’s clear. Unfortunately my camera can’t do that and the photos are terrible.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy2oKFFLyFwDVnaL6e3wGhhyphenhyphenAovU8BAknzyGLpvZKb6oQtMME-LubFWlkU3sOW97qwiu1V7V6b8EQR0hXHnflKxj8nJeerhEXcw2lsLy-txXV3fBaa1IuyxC7cSDncrTDRKQAsUZ9nUPk/s1600/P2113593.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy2oKFFLyFwDVnaL6e3wGhhyphenhyphenAovU8BAknzyGLpvZKb6oQtMME-LubFWlkU3sOW97qwiu1V7V6b8EQR0hXHnflKxj8nJeerhEXcw2lsLy-txXV3fBaa1IuyxC7cSDncrTDRKQAsUZ9nUPk/s1600/P2113593.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Top Station</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">We came back down and to cheer ourselves up we rented a paddle boat and went out on this beautiful lake for a bit. Then we ate some food and saw some crazy honey bees. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIUR8xgtvVY2bLIQn7I_Nh1KyRC5ME_AONYX9O5EbwmPsObMtUX8NWYvSwUWpFMpEDNqO6-Q97R-O3jN5YBZ7UB-SnvkhcQ0ZwOLbX7SQV-_d6YBI6FLUZkdIlzt0YmY72RJGDdSu1irw/s1600/P2113631.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIUR8xgtvVY2bLIQn7I_Nh1KyRC5ME_AONYX9O5EbwmPsObMtUX8NWYvSwUWpFMpEDNqO6-Q97R-O3jN5YBZ7UB-SnvkhcQ0ZwOLbX7SQV-_d6YBI6FLUZkdIlzt0YmY72RJGDdSu1irw/s1600/P2113631.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">paddle boating</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Our last mission in Munnar was to stock up on spices. The next day, we caught a short and pleasant bus ride to:</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Kochi</b> (Cochin)! Our last stop of our epic pan-Asian journey. We walked around the touristy Fort Kochi area, saw the famous Chinese fishing nets, the Portuguese Basilica, the Dutch Palace, Jew Street, and one last temple (but our first/only Jain temple!). It was a super multicultural day. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvhX5Mk5xJjBQzBlPNu0eqUFuB6-L2H_NHTISSx_FKi44VWDTHwrxF-PUF1M-1YsMuNlpMb23oUW9YO_6bSPGig0TAghRKzarOpbyxAL2M1gSqcf2ApRZ1yJIJ6j6ow7SXW4q2VCTnyH8/s1600/P2133668.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvhX5Mk5xJjBQzBlPNu0eqUFuB6-L2H_NHTISSx_FKi44VWDTHwrxF-PUF1M-1YsMuNlpMb23oUW9YO_6bSPGig0TAghRKzarOpbyxAL2M1gSqcf2ApRZ1yJIJ6j6ow7SXW4q2VCTnyH8/s1600/P2133668.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jew Street?</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Then we finished it off with THE BEST SHRIMP CURRY that has ever existed probably, and then Conor headed off to the airport. The end of an era!!! The next day I moved into a hostel so I wouldn’t be so lonely. I had a few very idle days planned for myself. My visit to Kochi happened to coincide with a huge international art festival taking place, and I spent a couple days just walking through the huge exhibits. During the evening I would go to cultural shows, and was able to take in a puppet show, some dancing and some martial arts. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisZw56NUsgYbAfLhuh0ajJRCoFUlKbCYhPdaAtTrvrKMEds_c_A6NeBuSgbQ8Q2IE9YlnVkkChTAhc81bD4ZYmylmhr7HjHZuaT3QmBkuA6xdqh57haBGC7dqEyZ5gM1tH2rjyj0nW-F4/s1600/P2163728.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisZw56NUsgYbAfLhuh0ajJRCoFUlKbCYhPdaAtTrvrKMEds_c_A6NeBuSgbQ8Q2IE9YlnVkkChTAhc81bD4ZYmylmhr7HjHZuaT3QmBkuA6xdqh57haBGC7dqEyZ5gM1tH2rjyj0nW-F4/s1600/P2163728.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kathakali Dancing</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">I also managed to squeeze in an Ayurvedic style massage. Turns out I don’t love Ayurvedic massages. They are oily and gentle, and I prefer less oil and lots of pressure. But it was worth trying out. On my last day in Kochi I went on a mission to find specific items to take up to Abby’s house in Lucknow. I needed a cake pan, deli meats and blue cheese. Once these items were found, I went “home” and relaxed. The next day I flew to Lucknow to meet Abby! That’s for next time</span></div>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-18962362925361204992015-02-26T01:12:00.002-08:002015-02-26T01:12:29.282-08:00India - Rajasthan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="s1">Our next stop was also our first stop in lovely Rajasthan, maybe the most visited state in India after Goa. <b>Jaipur</b> was our first stop that we really enjoyed. We hired a tuk tuk to drive us out to our first Rajasthan fort, the Amer Fort. We grabbed an audio guide (definitely needed it for our first fort, not so necessary by the end). These forts are built to withstand siege and battle. There are walls around walls, steep staircases with sharp turns, spikes sticking out of the walls to gouge elephants, etc. That’s enough about forts for now. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiklJ1hpDZHScesEpCwJGcXdCQESIgD3BVwmIH6TYQsEeO-k6-EwOpxKXKyoDxGeViFbuNTIBuM0Kv95MAnnh6n9JtJwG-S6Os-UPY7EDXEeMNsvIPVT0Va4ddQaXKZeF4YZmXlxv-lVDk/s1600/P1042872.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiklJ1hpDZHScesEpCwJGcXdCQESIgD3BVwmIH6TYQsEeO-k6-EwOpxKXKyoDxGeViFbuNTIBuM0Kv95MAnnh6n9JtJwG-S6Os-UPY7EDXEeMNsvIPVT0Va4ddQaXKZeF4YZmXlxv-lVDk/s1600/P1042872.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Amer Fort</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">In Jaipur we were also lucky to cross paths with a lovely British couple that we had hung out with for a few days in Myanmar back in November! We met them for dinner and swapped our crazy India stories. The next day we walked around the old city, ate some amazing Indian deep-fried sweet called jelabi, and looked at the Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Wind. It was built so the royal ladies could sit and watch the going-ons of the city, without being seen by commoners. It also turned out to be the only thing within our price range (a palace and an observatory were WAY overpriced). </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_-2UYhU8qSMIZ7iImwMOk87JyqLcNENFRiI5np9UOI-jws-AF6QYHou7Ka7ZwtzHxLuKWpICYDqBVuv8TT4x3V3aOCYBwzPNB3uKmvquRbxNFgO1vgjxDkztf8Z7NQ3zKpn02LRIfX8/s1600/P1052907.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_-2UYhU8qSMIZ7iImwMOk87JyqLcNENFRiI5np9UOI-jws-AF6QYHou7Ka7ZwtzHxLuKWpICYDqBVuv8TT4x3V3aOCYBwzPNB3uKmvquRbxNFgO1vgjxDkztf8Z7NQ3zKpn02LRIfX8/s1600/P1052907.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Hawa Mahal</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">That night, we went to see a Bollywood film at this fancy old vintage decorated movie theater with our British friends. Although the movie was in Hindi with no subtitles, we were able to understand most of what was happening, especially with a little help from Wikipedia. Indians, at least the ones in Rajasthan, make a tonne of noise in a movie theatre, whooping, cheering and yelling at the appropriate moments. It was a neat experience! I can’t remember what else we did in Jaipur so it must not have been that amazing, but I do remember getting on our FIRST NIGHT BUS in India. Like the train, we were a little (or a lot) cold due to windows that didn’t quite close, and were additionally kept awake by an insane melodic horn (it sounded like he was playing a keyboard to produce the sounds!). We at least had our own nice little compartment and had some privacy from the rest of the passengers on the bus. It was kind of like sleeping in a coffin for two with windows. Finally, at some point, I was asleep, and when I opened my eyes we were in…</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Jaisalmer</b>! Our second Rajasthan stop. This was the desertiest of our stops, and the first thing we saw out of the window was the fort, rising out of the center of the town like a giant magical sandcastle. We lucked out again with our guesthouse, scoring a huge room and private bathroom for very cheap. The owner insisted his name was Aladdin (I say too good to be true) and was super helpful. The main reason we went to Jaisalmer was to do a camel safari out to some real sand dunes. Aladdin arranged this for a great price, and we were off the next day. Conor and I and our guide, Leelu, set off to wander around the desert for a few hours, then we (Leelu) set up our camp and cooked us dinner (it was delicious!). We slept out under the stars, and nothing even tried to eat us, although at one point I thought maybe I had to go pee, but when I peeped out from my blankets there was a dog just standing there investigating us, so I stayed where I was. I slept SOO well I actually missed the sunrise by like an hour and yelled at Conor for not waking me up to see it! Our camels had tried to run away in the night, and this 13 year old kid that was helping Leelu had to go chase them down for us. We rode them back to the village, then jumped in a jeep back to town. Pretty neat. We spent the rest of the day chilling with another cool British couple we met in our guesthouse, and went out for dinner with them at this restaurant with a slightly insane lady hostess, who chatted with us while we ate. The next day we wandered around trying to find these old haveli things until it was time to get on our bus. This was a shorter distance, only like 5 hours and then we were in…</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the desert with our camels</td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><b>Jodhpur</b>! Jodhpur is famous for, you’ll never guess, a FORT. This fort was impressive. The royal family has maintained it and turned it into an impressive museum. Jodhpur is also known as the blue city, because there are about 20 blue houses clustered together and if you take a photo just right it looks like the whole city is blue. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8gvTf-IVNJogVodmObSrJFU5egpW6A4qpIJb3rEx72lze0y1o9TlH5jdTrZV84NcOju0sNffNqEbtHNkAi5Px9uIA7LH30KdQEOaXpdJSiA33D_Den_PvSQIUmEf5y9I2oWgrGF8Qh1M/s1600/P1103016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8gvTf-IVNJogVodmObSrJFU5egpW6A4qpIJb3rEx72lze0y1o9TlH5jdTrZV84NcOju0sNffNqEbtHNkAi5Px9uIA7LH30KdQEOaXpdJSiA33D_Den_PvSQIUmEf5y9I2oWgrGF8Qh1M/s1600/P1103016.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">blu city?</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">So the fort was informative. In Jodhpur, we were also able to meet our pal that we met in Varanasi a couple times! Saurabh took us to a fancy thali place where we ate until we were just about to throw up, then tried to have some drinks, but soon realized we were way too painfully full for that nonsense. So the next night we got smart and did the drinking first and the eating second. Conor and I hadn’t eaten much meat for about a month prior to this point, and Saurabh promised us amazing tandoori chicken, and he totally delivered. On our last day in Jodhpur, we decided to try out ziplining beside the fort, mostly because we heard that you get to zip over the opening of the prison that Batman has to climb out of in the latest Batman movie (you know the one with Bane!). It was a total bargain and lots of fun, and, what a coincidence, we were joined by a group of 4 Korean teachers vacationing together. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ziplining</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">After ziplining we were off on another bus, a bus which ended up taking approximately forever it turned out, toooo:</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Pushkar</b>! We arrived in Pushkar after like 8 hours on a bumpy local bus. It was dark, we were the only people still on the bus, it was EXHAUSTING. Luckily, our guesthouse was very easy to find and we were able to eat dinner and go straight to sleep. Pushkar is home to a holy lake, and has drawn all the kinds of tourists who feel the “vibrations” that always elude me. The very positive side of being in a town full of hippies was that Pushkar was full of AMAZING restaurants serving unique and flavourful dishes with fresh ingredients. We had already designated Pushkar as a do nothing place, where we would relax and recharge. We didn’t end up doing anything special, just walking around the town and planning out the rest of our time in South India. Our visit did coincidentally coincide with a holiday (Kite day? New year? Both??) which let us see lots of kite flying, some colourful processions through the streets to the holy lake, some extremely loud music, and a booze-less rooftop rave for teenage boys. All very interesting. When it was time to go, we easily made our way into the next town over to catch a local bus, which was much less painful than the previous one. We arrived with plenty of daylight left to go, in…</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The holy lake at Pushkar</td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><b>Bundi</b>! Our smallest and least touristy stop of the entire country had a fort, but an old, abandoned, ruiny kind. We arrived and immediately asked advice about a good place to get chai, not realizing the gravity of our question. Within minutes, we were off, accompanied by the guesthouse owner, his brother, and 3 other guests, because getting chai is an event in a small town like Bundi. We arrived at Krishna’s, where we were told we would be drinking the BEST chai in India. Bold claim. It was, however, VERY delicious and unique, with a bouquet of flavours exploding in your mouth. Unfortunately for me, one of these flavours was black pepper, one of my kryptonite foods. :( So I didn’t get to drink all of mine. After tea, the guesthouse owner, Shivam, decided to send his brother to get us all some butter chicken while he built a fire,a nd we sat around the fire eating chicken with our hands. Good start! The next day, we walked up to the old Palace and Fort. The palace was REALLY cool, very ruiny and crumbly, but with a few rooms in amazing condition. Apparently it was never conquered by the Mughals, and the British also left it alone because they were on good terms with the royal family here. So it wasn’t RUINED, per se, it was just disused. A lot of fun to explore. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">room in the palace at Bundi</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">We also walked up to see the fort, which was a little less exciting, and a lot more terrifying due to a monkey family siege in which we both decided the best course of action was to run away. After Indiana Jonesing in the ruins, we decided to have a beer by the lake. It was a good day. I’m pretty sure the next way we walked around and saw a few more of the town’s monuments, including a much better than expected Queen’s Bath. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Queen's bath</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Then we relaxed and drank some rum by a campfire. Early in the morning, we set off early in the morning, a little apprehensive about our instructions for getting to Udaipur. We caught a train at a totally different time than what we were told it would come at, but apparently it was ok, and then we got off the train and caught a bus the rest of the way. We must have been pretty pro at this point, because everything went exactly as planned, and by the evening we were in:</span></div>
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<b>Udaipur</b>! Our last stop in Rajasthan. Udaipur’s pop culture claim to fame is that the James Bond film Octopussy was shot there, and you can watch the film in dozens of restaurants in the main tourist streets. It is also known is the “Venice of the East” but if you’ve been to Asia you know there are like 50 Venice of the Easts and none of them are much like Venice at all. (I’m looking at you Tai O Hong Kong!) It DID have a nice lake, with a palace by the lake and TWO palaces on the lake. We went to see the palace, which is still VERY intact, with many rooms still fully decorated in what I’m calling “colonial-chic” style.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">indo colonial chic</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">There was also a tree growing up of the second floor balcony. SECOND floor. Because Kings do what they want. After the palace, we looked around a nearby temple with some very intricate carving. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">large temple in Udaipur</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">The next day, we checked out a vintage car museum that houses the old royal cars AND horse carriages. The next day we took a boat ride on the lake and got a really nice view of the palace from the water. The last thing we did here was watch a cultural performances that was pretty mind blowing. An older woman balanced like 10 jugs on her head and performed tricks like stepping on glass and balancing on a pan. It was pretty memorable. That night, we jumped on a train heading south, and in the morning we were in Mumbai!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">dancing with jars</td></tr>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-72665303741365115422015-02-20T02:39:00.000-08:002015-02-20T02:59:20.632-08:00India #1 Delhi, Varanasi, Agra<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="s1">I’m just gonna jump right in! We arrived in Delhi on December 23. At first we were like “wow what a nice metro! This isn’t how we pictured Delhi at all!” But that eventually faded after we arrived at the New Delhi railway station and exited onto the street, where we did immediately find what we were expecting from Delhi. People, traffic, garbage, an insane man to woman ratio everywhere you look (think like 20:1), open urinals, etc. To add to the experience we were expecting, we then got into an auto (tuk-tuk, rickshaw, what have you) and were totally ripped off on a ride to our hostel. It wasn’t so bad, because we really were expecting it haha. So, December in Delhi is actually a little cold and I was pretty glad I hadn’t jettisoned my warm clothes from Nepal. On Christmas Eve, we walked to Connaught Place, a well known shopping area, and were pretty unimpressed, although we found a pretty nice cafe, which is never bad. Our main goal on December 24th was to get tickets for…The Hobbit! This was our only plan for Christmas Day, but it ended up being a little harder than planned. A Bollywood film called PK had just been released, and the director is the same guy who did Three Idiots, and is thus mega famous. He released his film on condition that any theatre showing it could show ONLY it, and no other movie. So, instead of watching it in the commercial district 20 min from our hostel, we had to drive an hour out into the suburbs. Luckily it didn’t matter, because it was Christmas and we both wanted basically nothing to do with India anyway. Later, we both attempted Skype, but the wifi at our hostel was terrible and we were mostly unsuccessful. </span><br />
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<span class="s1">Now, cut to sometime between Dec. 25 and Dec. 26 - Mary is in the shared hostel bathroom, having the most epic food poisoning of her life! Merry Christmas! As you can guess, most of Boxing Day was spent in bed recovering from my epic purge. Luckily, it was the only time I got REALLY sick in India, and it only lasted like 20 hours. I should also point out that I probably got it from some expensive Western restaurant!! Our last day in India, I had mostly recovered, and we managed to squeeze in some sight seeing. Delhi has quite a few historical sites scattered around. We went to Old Delhi to see the Red Fort, our first of like 1 trillion forts. It was nice, but not amazing, and we enjoyed learning about how terrible the British were during their time there. One British prince managed to shoot like 25 tigers in one go during a visit! TWENTY FIVE! Then we checked out the biggest mosque in India, then decided that Old Delhi was way too crowded and crazy and that it was time to GTFO. We jumped on the Metro and whizzed down to see Qutab Minar, a super old Minaret, mosque and ruins complex. It was similar to what happens when you go to Rome and see the field of ruins there. THEN we headed over to Hauz Khas because I heard that’s where all the cool kids go. We watched the cool kids and got some pizza, and I was happy.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Qutab Minar</td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>The next day, we had a train booked to go to Varanasi. We had heard that trains could be late, so we were prepared to wait a few hours. When we got to the train station, our train had been delayed TWELVE hours. As in, the next morning. PANIC! Luckily, the staff at New Delhi station must be used to foreigners freaking out about such things, and several security guards and ticket agents helped us cancel the old tickets and purchase new ones on a train that had also been delated 12 hours that happened to be leaving when we were planning to leave anyway. So we jumped on that (they made us run!! I almost died! We didn’t even need to!). This was our first train journey and India, and we’d heard soo many stories. Because of the delay and reschedule we had landed in sleeper class, which is technically the 4th class of sleeper cars. We had planned on being in one class up, where they provide blankets, pillows, heating, and windows that close properly, so we were totally unprepared for the bare bones conditions on the train. We were probably both going to freeze to death during the night. Then, we met Ravinder, a young Punjabi boxer, traveling to Varanasi for a match (fight?) with his nephew. He was keen to practice his English and told us if anyone messed with us we should just call for him. Then, in an extraordinary act of kindness, he offered us one of their blankets, saying that they were family and could share one bed and one blanket no problem. Any anxiety we had had about taking sleeper class was totally gone. In the morning, the train was moving REAL slow, and what should have been a 12 hour journey turned into a 24 hour journey. Our train car emptied out over the day, until there was only us, Ravinder and his nephew left. We were bored out of our minds and glad to have some language-barrier induced laughs. We FINALLY arrived in Varanasi, cold, hungry, tired, and said goodbye to Ravinder and wished him luck in his fight (he won btw). That night we slept so early!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another friend we made on the train</td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Our first day in Varanasi, the guesthouse owner arranged a tuk-tuk tour for us, mostly to temples. It’s difficult to travel through Asia for 6 months and still get excited about a temple, but it’s still something to be done. AND, the driver let us try to drive, and I think we were both pretty good at it. Just like a 3 wheeled motorbike with a box built around it haha. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Conor driving the tuk tuk</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">The weather was still cold and grey and not beautiful. Varanasi itself was a little (more than a little) odd. Everybody hypes it up, people say it’s their FAVOURITE place in the country. We found it kind of less interesting, we decided it might be because we don’t feel the “vibrations” all the yoga hippies are always talking about. Varanasi is famous for the Ganges and the cremations taking place by the river. The river WAS an interesting sight, and you can easily walk the length of it in a couple hours and see lots of great stuff, just making sure to dodge the cow poop, beggars and narcotics salesmen. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The burning ghats</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">We watched Aarti, the nightly ceremony performed by priests for Lord Shiva:</span><br />
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<span class="s1">We were also lucky to meet our second Indian friend, he was staying at the same guesthouse as us. By this time it was New Years Eve, and Varanasi is probably one of the least interesting places to be on Dec. 31! We were lucky to have our friend Saurabh to show us where to go to buy alcohol and what Indian rum to buy that wouldn’t be too expensive or we would have been totally sober on NYE because Varanasi, a holy city, is also a DRY city. Planning fail on our part haha. We drank, walked down by the river and got yelled at because apparently there is a 10:30 pm curfew and went to bed. Next day, We went with Saurabh to see the location of Buddha’s first post-enlightenment lecture. It’s now just a bunch of ruins and a museum, but it was interesting. At this point we were still trying to get a handle on all the different Hindu gods so it was pretty helpful. We had a bit of an issue when we entered the ancient site, as the officials there refused to believe that Saurabh wasn’t our illegally hired tour guide. I jokingly asked if it would be acceptable for use to walk around separately from him and they very seriously responded with “yes that’s fine”. When told “you have no proof that he’s a tour guide” they said “we have no proof that you are not a permit-less tour guide”. Whaaaaaat!? Somehow, eventually, they relented, and we toured the grounds. I’m pretty sure, that day we were supposed to take our next train. Saurabh had not only shown us which rum to buy, he had shown us an app to use to check to see ho late our train would be. Due to human error, I neglected to check this app before leaving for the train station, and when we arrived we discovered that our train was again delayed. This time, every couple of hours the delayed it by a couple more hours, until again, we left 12 hours later than schedule, and our night train turned into a day train. We did FINALLY arrive in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, a fort, and not much else…a Pizza Hut I guess. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Checking out Buddha with our fake tour guide</td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>We had one full day in Agra. We spent part of it at the Taj Mahal, the most expensive attraction in all of India. Foreigners: 700 rupees. Indians: 20 rupees. But, they get away with it, and they always will, because that thing is totally as beautiful and amazing as everyone says it is. Not overrated one bit, and I was so annoyed. I would have been way more satisfied if I could report that the whole thing is a big scam. It’s not. It takes your breath away, and the sun wasn’t even shining when we were there. You’ve seen the Taj Mahal, I won’t waste my time describing it :). After the Taj Mahal, we walked over to the Agra Fort, which we entered from the wrong direction, and had to jump a fence to get to the main entrance. On principle of being cheapskates, we don’t often hire guides, but this guy gave us a GREAT deal because the weather was bad and he was having a slow day, so we succumbed to his persistence, and I think we’re both glad we did. He was good at his job and the signage wasn’t great so we were able to gain a lot more from it. He made us take some silly perspective illusion photos. I think that’s all of importance that happened in Agra, unless you wanna count Pizza Hut, which I DID, but I doubt you want to hear about my pizza. Tis a silly place, and if the Tah Mahal didn’t happen to be there, it would be a pointless place to visit. Our next train was at 6am, and naturally, of course, even though this train being a few hours late would be LOVELY, it was RIGHT ON TIME, because even though I swear Conor had been building up a TONNE of karma for the month before that, the universe is a jerk.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Stay tuned for Rajasthan next!</span></div>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-80767010709487235202015-01-14T00:05:00.002-08:002015-01-14T00:05:20.667-08:00Nepal 2014 (and Malaysia?!)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="s1">Happy New Year! Belated Happy Holidays! Yadda yadda! I bet you thought I wasn’t gonna write about Nepal, because it’s been a few weeks since I was there, and nothing yet, right? Well cheer up (or let out an exasperated sigh) because here it is!!!</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Kuala Lumpur</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">We started our long journey from Burma to Nepal with a 6 hour layover in Bangkok during which we escaped from the airport just long enough to shove some noodles into our faces. It was raining and terrible. Then onto Kuala Lumpur for our 24 hours of high-tech glitzy modern living. We lived it up! A haircut, a trip to the mall and a stop at the cinema to watch the latest Hunger Games film. We finished the day with some of that amazing KL Chinese style streetfood and some photos of the famous towers. It was a fantastic little vacation! Next, on to</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Kathmandu</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Again, just this time much colder haha. As soon as we arrived it was straight to business, for obtaining a visa for India is no simple task. After we had started the Indian visa process, it was time to get our trek permits sorted out. Luckily, it helps to have friends with connections for this process, and with Om’s help we were able to get everything taken care of quickly and cheaply. After a few days we were on our way to Langtang valley for a planned 10 days of trekking. The first stretch of our trek was the Tamang heritage trail. The Tamang people are Tibetan horse traders, although the villages we stayed at were focused around herding, a bit of farming, and lots of tourist business. Turns out trekking is waaaaaay harder than I thought it would be. I like walking; I do not like walking up and down mountains, especially with an extra 10 kilos on my back. I am way to unstable and clumsy for that sort of endeavour! When I woke up on the third day, I declared that I wasn’t moving, and that Conor could go ahead without me, but I couldn’t go anywhere. He decided we should stick together, and the next day started out again. We reached a peak of about 3100 meters and could see snow-capped mountains surrounding us on all sides. After a couple more days, we finished the circuit. The second part of the plan was to hike straight up into the high mountains and straight back down. I told Conor he was on his own, and that I was just going to hang out in one of the villages for a couple days. Turns out, I am a genius and also probably psychic, because two days after we split up it SNOWED! I could see it on the mountain we had been at the day before. I was not the happiest of campers in good weather, I probably would have had a meltdown if I was trying to walk up mountains in the SNOW. Conor however, with his elf-like grace, had a great time climbing up mountains in the snow, wind and ice, so it’s a wonderful thing that we split up. I returned to Kathmandu to eat fancy pizza in cafes and drink beer on patios around campfires, the kinds of places I belong hahaha. When Conor made it back to Kathmandu, we finished up part 3/3 of getting an Indian visa, did a tiny bit more sightseeing, and celebrated Om’s birthday. By this point in December it was getting seriously too cold for backpacking in Kathmandu, and I was really looking forward to the warm weather in India (I was misled).</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Trekking highlights include: the stars, the sunsets, the lovely people in the villages, I didn’t seriously injure myself (scrapes mostly), hot springs, deep fried chocolate bars , and endless LOTR moments.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">We’re halfway through India now, and I’ll update you guys on that later. </span></div>
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Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-14658543671129902592014-12-05T02:24:00.001-08:002014-12-05T02:24:40.832-08:00Myanmar/Burma
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<span class="s1">We flew from Kunming, our last stop in China, into our first stop in Myanmar- the capital Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon). We wanted to move a bit slower here than in China.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Yangon (Rangoon)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Our first impression of Myanmar was pretty unusual…the taxi drivers didn’t try to rip us off even a little bit for our ride to our hostel. Then, we got in the car, realized the steering wheel was on the right, and realized 5 minutes later that the cars were driving on the right hand side of the road anyway. As in, British cars, North American roads. WHAT!? I guess it’s working out ok for them though haha. We arrived at our hostel, one of the few in the city, close to Chinatown (yay China). That fist night, we walked to the biggest, most important and most famous of the Burmese pagodas: Shwedagon. It was so full of tourists. Rich middle-aged European packaged tour bus tourists to be exact. They were to be a constant fixture of our travels through the county. The pagoda was pretty impressive, but we realized that we basically ruined every other pagoda we were going to see for the next two weeks. Woops. Next day, we decided to try to find Aang Sun Su Kyi’s house, because it was listed on the tourist map the hostel gave us. We did eventually find it, but the whole thing is closed up with barbed wire, and is now some kind of military compound. Which is why I usually research the crap out of anything before I go see it haha! Spent the rest of the day shopping for hot weather + conservative culture appropriate clothing (WORST combination), drinking tea, eating food and drinking beer. Next day, we checked out the Yangon circle train. Never designed to be a tourist attraction, this is a commuter train that runs in a huge circle through the outskirts of Yangon. It was a real cheap day. We met a monk who studied English and Korean. What a coincidence right!? Our final day in Yangon, we checked out the odd Drugs Eliminating Museum, recommended to us by some expat journalists living in Yangon. Specifically addressing the government’s successes with destroying anything opium related, the museum was filled with lots of odd and very old exhibits. That night, we jumped on a hella comfortable VIP bus to Inle Lake.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Inle Lake</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I think I can safely say this was my favourite stop in Myanmar. Quiet, cute fishing village, mountains, lake, pizza, everything you need! We arrived at 4am (because night buses and Burma are totally ridiculous) and were lucky to be able to get in our room straight away without paying for an extra night. We didn’t wake up until basically noon that day, at which point there wasn’t time to do a whole lot but walk around, drink some tea, eat some dinner and plan out our next 3 days. We got really lucky, as there was a huge festival happening in a nearby city that we had heard would be cool to go to, but we didn’t really know how we would go about getting there. Luckily, a German guy had already set the wheels in motion to arrange a pickup tuk tuk to drive several other guests at our hotel out there for the night, so we joined in. So glad we did! I am pretty sure it was the New Years celebration for the ethnic group called Shan who live in eastern Burma. It did not disappoint. Live music, hot air balloons with fireworks, man-powered ferris wheels, food and beer, horrifying toilets, it had everything. We were all sad when it was time to leave!</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>The next morning we rented some bikes and set off on a bike ride around the like with a cool British couple we had met the night before. The scenery was amazing. We biked until we got to the famed “hot springs”, which for our cheap asses meant two public baths, one for men and one for women. The other option for the rich tourists is to pay $10 to go for a swim in the fancy bath owned by a hotel. The British girl tested out the water and reported that it was way to freaking hot to get into, which was ok because I had already decided I probably wasn’t going in it. We carried on, caught a boat across the lake with our bikes, and leisurely biked back toward town. A great day all in all!</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Next day: woke up fairly early to go for a hike through the villages in the mountains with a guide/restaurant owner down the street. He was totally worth the little money we paid him. He knew everyone in the villages and even led us into a few houses to say hi to people! And into the schools! Which made us pretty uncomfortable, and caused some confusion until we explained that we were teachers before and we didn’t like disrupting the classes like that. He took us to a house and made us a pretty awesome lunch, then took us to a secret, untouristed lake in the mountains, and made sure we saw the local couple making out under a tree (he thought it was VERY shocking haha), then we went home. And drank some tea. Burmese tea is kind of like Chai…but maybe a little different, and instead of milk the put condensed milk. It’s like a cross between a Chai and a Vietnamese coffee. Why isn’t everybody selling this!? We drank a lot of those. That night, I convinced Conor to go see a traditional Burmese puppet show (he was like “puppets? meh”) because it was only $3. Best $3 we spent! The marionettes themselves were beautiful, and we had a master’s control over making them dance. Apparently, Burmese people started making puppets dance before human dancing ever became popular, so that the traditional human dances look a great deal like puppet movements. Then he told us that we could buy and actual marionette for like $10 and I was like SOLD! SO SOLD! And then I had to carry it around with me until I left because I was warned by locals not to mail ANYTHING out of Myanmar. Either way, it was another good day.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>On our final day, we went out on the lake for the famous Inle Lake boat tour. We were hoping to find buddies to reduce the cost, but no luck (still not expensive). Because so many tourists do the tour everyday, the whole thing has become super touristy. The boat driver takes you around to various workshop/showrooms, where you get a tour around the workshop and then are escorted to the shop. I kind of just thought of it as an interactive museum, where I could learn things. Burmese people are waaaay less pushy sales people than in other SE Asian countries, so the experience was not unpleasant. It was incredibly interesting to see the floating gardens! OUt in the lake, tomatoes, lotus roots, flowers, other stuff…pretty cool. We managed not to buy too much, and finished off with some cigars and a bottle opener. When it was over we grabbed some dinner and got on another overnight bus to</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Bagan is a plain filled with ancient temple ruins. Not just a few, but hundreds. The best part is, nobody really knows that much about who built them or why, but Marco Polo makes a reference to the grand city of Bagan in one of his writings. Bagan itself is hot, dusty and dirty, and not at all pleasant like Inle Lake, but the temples are amazing.We were unable to prebook any accommodation, so we had to spend a little while finding a cheap place, where they once again allowed us into the room at 4am without charging extra. When we finally woke up at noon, we decided to rent e-bikes. Electronic bikes are halfway between a scooter and a bicycle. It was my first time to drive any kind of motorized bike so I was worried, but I did fine for the most part. The bikes are the best way to get around, as all the temples are spread rather far apart, it’s hot as hell, and the small roads between them are nearly entirely made of sand. Checking out the old temples really makes you feel like Indiana Jones, despite all the middle aged Europeans in there with you. We chilled out, grabbed some tea, and scooted over to the famous sunset pagoda, which we knew would be crammed full of middle aged European tourists, but was really supposed to be the best one. We found a little spot near the top and took our photo, then waited for all the middle-aged Europeans to clamber down the hella steep stairs and load onto their tour buses, then called it a day.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Woke up the next morning at 5am to go watch the sunrise. Rich tourists can pay over $300 for a spot in the basket of a hot air balloon the flies for an hour over the fields of temples at sunrise. Poor tourists can climb up on of the temples and take photos of this phenomenon. It was actually somewhat difficult to find a good temple because not all of them were climbable, and at night they were totally unseeable from the road. When we did manage to find one it was SUPER Indiana Jones, headlamp and all, and there was a big spider in the narrow stairwell that almost prevented us from making it, but we got there! Over the next 30 minutes about 10 more people joined us and we waited for the sunrise and the balloons to take off. We were not disappointed. About 16 balloons set off over top of us, and it was exactly as beautiful as we had imagined it would be. Then we went home and slept until noon again! When we woke up, we carried on exploring the temples, but we were starting to get temple ruin fatigued. WE made sure to catch one last sunset, then headed home for dinner. We were lucky to bump into some friendly Aussies we had met in Dali, China, who had splurged on the balloon experience for the next day. We agreed to meet with them the following evening for dinner to check out the photos and hear about the experience.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Next day: having grown weary of temple ruins (so spoiled I know) we rented regular bikes and explored the town of Nyaung-U. Turns out there wasn’t too much to see and it was a pretty lazy day. We caught up with the Aussies and marveled at their hot air balloon photos at dinner and decided that they hadn’t wasted their money. The next day we hopped on a bus to </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Mandalay</span></div>
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<span class="s1">For once in this country, we arrived at a reasonable hour instead of 4am from the bus, which was good because it was tricky to find our hostel. When we did find it, we were happy to have nice beds and an awesome breakfast the next morning. Our first day in Mandalay we rented some bicycles and set out to find an old teak monastery that was supposed to be nice. Turned out biking in Mandalay was a little frustrating, but we managed to stay safe AND find it! And get a really good feel for the city along the way. At night we took a taxi out to the world’s longest teak bridge (official record holder) for some beautiful sunset photos. The next day, Conor was feeling pretty sick so we didn’t do much. Mandalay doesn’t have as many attractions as other areas in Myanmar, so we didn’t feel like we were missing out on too much. At night though, I went out to watch the Moustache Brothers, a famous comedic trio known for criticizing the government during their acts. Two of the brothers spent time in jail because of their anti-government acts. These days, they’re only allowed to perform for tourists in the front room of their home, and only one brother speaks English. We decided it was less “HAR HAR HAR” funny and more “hmmm that’s interesting” funny. But I’m definitely glad I got to see it. We then went to check out a Burmese “club”, which was basically 20 women in not so sexy clothes singing songs and doing “fashion shows” while men drank beer and watched them. It was reeeeeeeaaaaaaally weird. When we went back to the hostel, a street market had kicked off into high gear with some kind of concert/performance thing. We checked it out, and everyone freaked out that two foreigners wanted to sit there and watch and we were given the total royal treatment. It was a really cool experience and I’m glad we got to see it. Unfortunately, I needed to wake up pretty early to catch a flight, and the music continued on until like 4am and I didn’t really get ANY sleep! Oh well. The next day we caught a flight to Bangkok, where we spent 6 hours eating, and then onto KL, where we spent a day eating, shopping, grooming and watching the latest Hunger Games movie. We are now in Kathmandu, planning out our trekking route!</span></div>
Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-87843333227694160402014-11-19T02:13:00.003-08:002014-11-19T02:13:57.444-08:00China!<h2>
<span class="s1">China</span></h2>
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<span class="s1">Well it has been a month since the last update, and I’ve been busy busy, so I’ll jump right in!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">After leaving Thailand I headed back to Hong Kong, had another lovely and quick visit with friends from Korea and new friends from Hong Kong, drank cocktails and ate steak on a boat, and prepared to head into China. I took an over night train from Hong Kong into Shanghai, my first stop:</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Shanghai</span></h3>
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<span class="s1">I was so so very extremely fortunate to have friends living in Shanghai who let me stay with them for a WHOLE WEEK! I know my visit to Shanghai would have been half as fulfilling without them, and I am so grateful they let me stay for so long (in their very lovely apartment with their very cute dog too!). My week in Shanghai went by very fast. I spent my time admiring the impressive skyline, eating in some very nice Western restaurants, wandering around the different neighbourhoods and sampling Shanghai expat life. HIghlights include smoked meat poutine, 4.5 hours straight of karaokee, a surreal and super interesting collection of Maoist propoganda posters and an unbelievable acrobatic show that culminated in EIGHT guys on motorcycles driving in circles around the inside of a wire sphere. It was a great week! My travel buddy and I were sad to leave our comfy lodgings and generous hosts, but we got on a train anyway and headed to…</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Zhangjiajie (aka Wulingyuan Scenic Zone aka Avatar Mountains)</span></h3>
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<span class="s1">Our first 24 hour train! Yay! Luckily, possibly one of the worst as well. Stuck on top bunks, the train arrived FOUR hours late, so arrived 4 hours late as well, too late to catch the bus to where we needed to go…grrrrrr. But we managed to make friends with some nice Chinese girls to pass the time a little quicker. When we finally made it to the small town of Wulingyuan, it was like 9p.m. So we got the info we needed and got to bed so we’d be able to venture out into the mountains bright and early the next day. These mountains have obviously always been there, but their popularity exploded after the movie Avatar came out, because apparently the floating mountains in the movie were inspired by these mountains in China. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and it rained for both days we were there. While still incredibly beautiful and unique, and definitely the karstiest karst I’ve ever encountered, we didn’t get to see the famous views at their finest. But still two days of nice hiking (not great mind you…China has the thing with using the slipperiest material possible on their sidewalks and walkways) and so very beautiful. And expensive. The ticket to just enter the park was a lot, and once inside most people were also paying for cable cars, trams and a giant elevator. Oh well. It was still cool.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Beijing</span></h3>
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<span class="s1">After our second overnight train, this time with nicer bunks, we arrived in Beijing in the evening. First impressions of Beijing: ugly compared to Shanghai, why are there cops everywhere, why is there a line up to get into the subway station, why are there a thousand people strewn across the square in front of the trains station, damn it’s cold. I now know the that cops everywhere could be connected to our visit coming just before the start of the APEC summit. It’s possible that the leaders were n Beijing at the same time as us and in the same area, and more cops were about than usual. Another effect of the APEC summit was that the Beijing air was cleaner than usual. Turns out all the factories had been shut off for the summit a couple weeks in advance, so we got to see the “APEC blue” skies of Beijing, which was nice. Our first day we went to the Forbidden City (but not in, a) closed b) expensive), so we walked around it, then ovr to Tianmen Square, then some nice middle aged women tried to pull the teahouse scam on us and we almost fell for it. The started speaking to us and asked if we wanted to have a cup of tea with them and speak English. When we got to the teahouse the prices were INSANE and that’s finally what tipped us off. We politely got the hell out of there. Then we watched the sunset, went home and went to bed early so we were ready for the next day: The Great Wall. We picked the easy way of booking a tour through our hostel (it came with free lunch!). Spent a few hours hiking along the wall (so many ups and downs and stairs), took about 1000 photos, had our lunch and went back to Beijing. It was a really good day, with great weather. The next day we only had a few hours, so we walked around one of the old fashioned neighbourhoods that they call hutongs and saw a drum and bell tower. Then we got on train #3 and set off for…</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Zhangye (Danxia landform)</span></h3>
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<span class="s1">Zhangye is in Gansu Province, the corridor between the Tibetan Plateau and the Gobi Desert. It’s dusty and bleak. On the train ride there both of us were feeling a little stomach achey. We only had one day here with one specific purpose: see the rainbow mountains. The mountains were beautiful, but we were a little disappointed with the park facilities…you couldn’t really hike around it or anything, There was just a bus that drove you to 4 different scenic viewpoints, where Chinese tourists would get out for like 15 minutes, take photos, and drive to the next spot. So not a waste, but the park could be set up way nicer and it could be more enjoyable. Our next mode of transportation was bus to</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Xining</span></h3>
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<span class="s1">Before we even made it out of Zhangye, a rock hit one of our bus windows and shattered it! Everybody was fine, but it took about and hour to sort out who was to blame, who owed who, and then to “fix” the window with some Scotch tape. But we were soon on our way again, with a taped up window, through the mountains, for 7 hours on a bus. The drive was actually pretty beautiful, going through snow covered mountains dotted with various animals and prayer flags. Inside the bus was not quite as nice, with a handful a folks vomiting into bags, squished into small asian sized seats, so many smells. When we got there, we were so lucky to have a friend of mine pick us up IN A CAR to drive us back to his place, where he generously hosted us for a few nights. It has been 4 years since I was last in Xining, and the place has changed so much, parts of it are unrecognizable. There are new streets, new neighbourhoods, new buildings, new stores…transformed. We were lucky again that my friend needed to go over to Rebgong (aka Tongren) and we caught a lift in a car for 2 hours instead of a bus that would take 4 hours and spent the day meeting with locals and monks instead of walking around like the dumb tourists we actually are. We got to eat the most amazing food, and at the monastery there, we witnessed an annual gathering of monks doing what is called “slap debating”, in which monks challenge each other about Buddhist philosophy and then slap their hands together at the end of each challenge (I think anyway…it’s not like I could understand what was being said). The next day we took a trip to the museum that I used to do some work at, and I lucked out again in that a friend of mine who used to work there, still works there, and happened to be working that day! We checked out the exhibits, and I was a little disappointed (although not at all surprised) that none of my English revisions had been taken into consideration, and all the English signs still make as little sense as they did before. By this point in the trip I had a full blown cold and sounded like I was perpetually on the verge of hacking up one or both lungs at any second, so I took it easy the rest of the day. Last day in XIning I took some time to meet up with a couple more old friends to see how they were doing. One woman who was running a great organization trying to make it easier for Tibetan girls to get educated said she had to shut the whole operation down due to new policies that have been adopted in the last year. She had many organizations have had to do the same, which blew me away. It means that all the people I had been trying to help with funding and funding reports are essentially now defunct. Such a waste. The next morning, it was time for ONE MORE 24 hour train ride. We said goodbye to our lovely host, and jumped in a taxi to the train station. It was nice to say goodbye on my own terms this time.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Chengdu</span></h3>
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<span class="s1">Sichuan province! Spicy food and pandas! At this point we were closing to the end of our time China, so just a couple days here. We arrived in the morning, so we walked around the downtown areas of Chengdu and ventured into the People’s Park. There are People’s Parks in every city in China, but we didn’t see ANY as lively as the one in Chengdu. There were maybe like 10 different tea houses, with outdoor seating, packed full of middle-aged locals drinking tea and playing cards or mahjong. I mean, there were SO many table of old people playing mahjong, like a sea of them. And the tea was good too. There were boats in the park, performances, dancing, badminton, kids amusement park stuff, flower displays, karaokee machines and of course a marriage market. It was really a spectacle. That evening I bought a rather expensive to so “Sichuan Opera” not really knowing what I was in for. But the show was overall pretty nice, mixing traditional entertainment with some cheesy laser shows, synthed up music and one rap (so weird…whyyy). The part that was amazing, is this thing called face-changing. The actor/dancer is wear a mask, and in plain sight, turn their head just a tiny bit for 1/10 of second, and their mask is DIFFERENT. One of the guys didn’t even turn is head. I was super impressed. The next day was panda day! Near Chengdu there is a panda breeding facility that gets lots of tourists. The hostel tour went early in the morning to ensure that we could avoid the majority of the crowds and actually see the pandas. I really enjoyed it! The habitats were large and natural, and there was lots of information about pandas and the facility posted everywhere. We even timed our visit well to see baby pandas! Like so little they couldn’t really even use their legs properly. It was ridiculously cute. However, the more you learn about pandas, the more you wonder if we’re wasting our time trying to keep them from going extinct. they are practically suicidal. Their digestive systems are designed to be carnivorous, yet they eat 99% bamboo, and since they don’t digest the nutrients in bamboo well they have to spend the entire day stuff their faces with it, and because they lack nutrients they have to spend the rest of the day sleeping. They are super picky about mates, and then even if they get pregnant have have the baby, half the time they don’t even look after it. Anyway…just some thoughts I had while walking around the facility. Our last highlight of Chengdu was trying out some Sichuan pepper hotpot, free courtesy of our great hostel. While a little too spicy for me, Conor loved it. The next morning, we caught an FLIGHT (not a train yaay!) to Kunming.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Dali</span></h3>
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<span class="s1">The flight to Kunming was actually just to help us get to a little place called Dali faster. Dali is in Yunnan province, and home to the Bai people. We came here because we had heard it was a nice little relaxed town that was very foreigner friendly, with a beautiful lake on one side and picturesque mountains on the other (perfect feng shui BTW). It ended up being a bit more of a hassle to get to than we bargained on, but luckily it was worth it. We went for a bike ride along the lake until it started to rain, and spent another day just ambling around the old-fashioned buildings in the town center. And now, it’s back on the bus to Kunming, to catch our flight tomorrow into Myanmar! I’ve had a good time in China, probably better than I was expecting to have, but I am real excited to go somewhere warm again.</span></div>
Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-36514894048784178402014-10-19T20:51:00.001-07:002014-10-19T20:52:14.493-07:00Thailand! It was interestingHello again! I write to you from my friend's couch in Hong Kong, where I'm back for a few days before heading into China. Last night the blockade near my friend's place was removed after students agreed to talks with the government. The weather is much nicer now than it was in September.<br />
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Where did I leave off? Driving into Chiang Mai from the border right? So Thailand Part 1<br />
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<b><u>Chiang Mai</u></b><br />
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Chiang Mai is Thailand's second major city after Bangkok. It is much smaller and more laidback than Bangkok, giving a totally different atmosphere. We found an amazing, cheap hostel in the old part of the city (where most of the tourist attractions are) for a few nights. I was really lucky to have a friend of a friend living in Chiang Mai, and she met up with us on our very first night and showed us some cool nightlife spots. The next day we rented some bikes and biked around the city despite very threatening rain clouds, which did eventually let loose a torrential downpour. The next day, my local friend showed us the "hip" neighbourhood of the city, full of cafes and Western restaurants. She then drove us out to a really cool waterfall that we were able to climb up. There was nearly nobody there and we had a really nice time. We then went to a quiet, forest temple that we also wouldn't have known of otherwise. It was a great day! We felt super VIP driving around with our personal tour guide. The next day we took a neat (but expensive!) tour up the mountain to see Doi Suthep, probably the most famous temple in Chiang Mai. We drove to the top of the mountain in a truck, then biked down, stopping at a tribe village (tourist trap), Doi Suthep, a fancy, shiny, very busy temple, and one more temple, and a waterfall. Pretty pretty cool. Josh flew to Ko Samui the next day, and I just hung out with my friend, checking out some places that Western tourists don't really know about (although Chinese tourists do apparently haha). That night, I took the overnight train to Bangkok. This was a waaaaaay pleasanter experience than you'd imagine, and I actually slept pretty well! And when I woke up, I was in<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">biking down the mountain</td></tr>
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<b><u>Bangkok</u></b><br />
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When I arrived in Bangkok, I caught a cab straight to the Myanmar Embassy to apply for my visa. It was a Friday, and I was leaving on Monday, so I needed to get my visa taken care of ASAP. So the rest of that morning was just waiting in line forever. I finally got to my hostel around noon, checked in, laid down for like an hour, and went back to the embassy to get my passport. Day 1, Bangkok haha. That night, I was super hoping to go out and enjoy the nightlife, but my hostel was pretty quiet and nobody was picking up what I was putting down. :( WOMP WOMP. The next day I took the subway up to a HUGE weekend market...maybe the biggest market in all of Asia? It was pretty cool, but I had seen A LOT of markets by that point with a lot of similar stuff. This market did have some cool stuff made by local artists, so I bought a pair of cool dinosaur earrings and was happy. That night, I went out with some Irish girls that I had randomly happened to meet in the food court in the mall near my hostel. They were on a visa run from Vietnam, where they teach English, but one of them had lived in Bangkok previously, so she knew all the cool spots to party. I met up with them and had a really fun night out on the town. One disappointment was that the curfew is still in effect in Bangkok, so we ran out of time to go see one of the GoGo shows. SO I need to go back to Bangkok to do that someday! The next day, woke up, went to the train station to buy my ticket to Ko Phangan. From the train station, I walked over to China town to check it out. As soon as I got there I realized how dumb of an idea that was considering how soon I would be in actual China. So I just kept walking in the general direction of Khao San Road. This took me through lots of random neighbourhoods and invited lots of puzzled looks from locals being like "this girl is soooo lost" haha. Eventually I found some of the attractions from the old town, checked them out, kept walking, and finally, like 2 or 3 hours later, arrived at Khao San Road. First thing I did was foot massage!! Very needed. Then I grabbed some dinner, and walked around the notorious street before things got too crazy, just to be able to say I was there and checked it out. I grabbed a bus back towards my hostel, walked around some more, got home and passed out. The next day was my last day, so I stashed my bags at the train station and went to see the Grand Palace. I got there, only to discover that it was ACTUALLY closed hahaha (there is a famous scam where tuk tuk drivers will tell you that the palace is closed and charge you a crazy amount to drive you somewhere else). So I went to the neighbouring Wat Pho to see the huge reclining Buddha and bumped into a friendly girl I'd met at my hostel! We decided to do our best to figure out how to see the Emerald Buddha inside the Grand Palace. We walked all the way around the Grand Palace wall and finally found a horde of Chinese tourists coming in and out of one of the doorways. BINGO!!! Eventually, I had to go get on another overnight train. Will definitely have to go back to Bangkok one of these days! What a cool city!<br />
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<b><u>Ko Phangan</u></b><br />
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Ko Phangan, an island off the East Coast of Thailand, is home to the infamous full moon party. Which is why I was going there, although my expectations were pretty low. After the overnight train, woke up and got on a bus, which drove us to a boat, which took us to the island, where we took a tuk tuk. I had realized on the train that I didn't know the name of the hostel I had booked, and had no way to check without wifi. I met a guy on the train who knew the name of his hostel but not how to get there. When he said the name "Jaya" I was like "THAT'S THE NAME OF MY HOSTEL!", and I knew what to tell the tuk tuk driver to get there. Alone we were doomed to fail but together we were unstoppable hahaha. After so much traveling I was pretty exhausted, so we just went down to the beach for a few drinks (there was some crazy jungle party going on that I totally skipped because there's scary shit in the jungle). The next day we tried to have a nice beach day and got rained on, so went back to the hostel and got ready for the big party. The hostel transformed into a sea of neon shirts and body paint. When we were ready we headed to the beach. It was soooo packed! So much music and dancing! Nobody knows for sure how we spent the next few hours, but eventually the sun was rising, and when it really started to get hot we decided it was time to go home. The next day I didn't really get out of bed, except to eat a pizza around 5pm. The next day we left pretty early in the morning to go tooo<br />
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<b><u>Phuket</u></b><br />
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We stayed in Phuket because we both had flights from there a couple days apart. Because we had both heard the Phuket was maybe the worst place in the entire country, I found a guesthouse at a quieter beach near the airport, which ended up being pretty nice. We had one really nice beach day, and Josh left the following morning. I had to find a cheaper room, but decided to splurge on a beachfront motel (15$!) for the next couple nights, where I pictured myself waking up, going to the beach, repeat. But, just in time, I discovered via facebook that a couple friends of mine were in Phuket, although about an hour away. These friends had been living in Australia for a year after leaving Korea, so I really wanted to see them. I caught a bus to Patong, the sex tourism capital of SE Asia, which I had intentionally been avoiding, to meet up with my pals for a nice beach day (although it rained) and a catch up. It was so nice!! Worth it even though I ended up missing the bus and had to pay a guy too much money to drive my home on his motorbike in the rain for like an hour hahahaah. STILL WORTH IT! The next day I woke up, went for one last swim, packed up and headed to the airport. Due to some poor planning and budget airline inflexibility, I had to fly back to Chiang Mai, and then fly from there to Hong Kong. The whole journey was pretty smooth, arrived in Hong Kong, and moved back into my friend's living room.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXt1Wl0KFi0lTEb6BQe3AwW3Q5nlkrlNlvmoHsqlBKmCurYQbZOZmp-lsu1EWG-DU3g7Hw8t3uvGGH8wjaEkpe_2bUr1ifkEPpKx4hPnpAbBJFJgHBeISPaH-ZgMiZ2wY3Hq6wRMzq2x0/s1600/PA101369.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXt1Wl0KFi0lTEb6BQe3AwW3Q5nlkrlNlvmoHsqlBKmCurYQbZOZmp-lsu1EWG-DU3g7Hw8t3uvGGH8wjaEkpe_2bUr1ifkEPpKx4hPnpAbBJFJgHBeISPaH-ZgMiZ2wY3Hq6wRMzq2x0/s1600/PA101369.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Thailand was a lot of fun, but it was so impossible to escape the young gap year kids with the obsession with getting drunk and being super disrespectful of local cultures. A few times on the trip I felt super super old and uptight because of things that were happening haha. I might be too old for the backpacker scene!!<br />
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Anyway, I got this done right before heading into China, because I'm pretty sure the Blogger website is blocked there! See you in November!!Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-63629657872891611102014-09-28T04:00:00.001-07:002014-09-28T04:23:40.839-07:00Laos<div class="p1">
Hello from Thailand! We crossed the border from Laos a couple of hours ago and are on our way to Chiang Mai, the first stop on our Thailand tour. We’ve got a few hours on a mini-bus, so I’m gonna give you a brief (sorry, I meant it when I initially wrote it I swear) rundown of what happened in Laos! Ok? Ready? </div>
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Part 1 : Thailand -Vientiane</div>
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I technically flew from Hong Kong into Thailand as it was much cheaper than flying into Laos. I spent a few days in a very sleepy little town called Nong Khai, located right on the Mekong River in Thailand. You could see Laos on the other side of the river, pretty cool. There wasn’t a tonne to do in Nong Khai, but after the craziness of Hong Kong I didn’t mind a few days of quiet. The one highlight of this town is the sculpture park, cyclable distance from my guesthouse! Dozens of Buddhist sculptures made by one holy man, I think is the story. A couple days before I was scheduled to cross the border into Laos, I met a guy at my guesthouse who had gotten stranded after being too late to get across the border. He had rode his motorbike up from Bangkok and was on his way to Vang Vieng. He offered me a ride to Vientiane on his bike, but I would have to go a day earlier than planned. Why not right?? It was only like an hour drive away, so it wasn’t THAT dangerous. The only thing that went wrong was that I burned my damn leg on the exhaust pipe as I was getting off, and that mess has taken quite a while to heal (it was two weeks ago and it’s still scabbed over!)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9eUR8m0krZZkAmWAAPzl-YZJWn12ju6lVE8uwSzuy7K0DhtnH_pSswpfiWaNzGMeZ8q1l7tU_V6QRG_7Mgf1Bfu9iqVa8GdAKMMT5jn5dxh60Lh6QSGtUakydyCCvygmNUB9ZO3gfl2M/s1600/P9120830.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9eUR8m0krZZkAmWAAPzl-YZJWn12ju6lVE8uwSzuy7K0DhtnH_pSswpfiWaNzGMeZ8q1l7tU_V6QRG_7Mgf1Bfu9iqVa8GdAKMMT5jn5dxh60Lh6QSGtUakydyCCvygmNUB9ZO3gfl2M/s1600/P9120830.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">crazy sculpture park</td></tr>
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Vientiane itself was really nice. It gets a bad rap as being “boring” from most travelers, but I found it pretty charming. Lots of cafes, bars, restaurants, a beautiful riverfront promenade and park that was full of people enjoying it every evening (too hot during the day), good bookstores, decent hospital (because I had to go there for my burn…stupid!). In one word, I think what was going t through my mind was “livable”. Anyway, I was there a day or two before my friend Josh showed up, just chilling and hanging around. The day Josh arrived we went for a bike ride around to see the handful of recommended tourists sites, nothing amazing. We went to a centre run by Mine Action Group (MAG) where you can learn about the Secret War and the thousands of bombs dropped on Laos by the US Airforce in the 60s. Once again, I found something that I previously did not know ANYTHING about. Example: Did you know Laos is the MOST bombed country in the world? Did you know there are unexploded ordinances all over the country? Did you know President Kennedy pronounced Laos “Lay-os”? Anyway, that was really informative and worthwhile, if you’re looking for somewhere to put any extra money look into the MAG group. The are training local people on how to diffuse the bombs properly without harming any people or villages, and educating villagers and farmers on what they should do when they come across anything that could potentially blow them up.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vientiane looks nice right?</td></tr>
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Part 2: Vang Vieng</div>
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After a couple days in Vientiane we headed to Vang Vieng, the tubing capital of SE Asia. The bus ride there was pretty standard, met some British girls who helped us decide which guesthouse to stay in on the way. We got there a little late in the day so we just walked around, witnessed some of the tubers making it back to shore and chilled in some hammocks. That night it rained the whole damn night, thunder and lightning too. We woke up and the sun was out so we headed down to get our tube on. You can imagine our devastation when they told us that the river was too high and dangerous for tubing! After a few minutes of collective stunned silence, we opted to go to the “Blue Lagoon” for a swim instead. The photos we had seen showed a beautiful, shimmering turquoise pool, perfect for a swim. What we arrived to was a brown, muddy area with some picnic tables, which is what happens when you visit places in the rainy season. The water was still lovely anyway, and there was a cave to explore nearby as well. It turned out to be a pleasant day.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the "blue" Lagoon</td></tr>
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Our second day in Vang Vieng we had purchased a tour (for so cheap). We set off in a tuk-tuk, like 15 km up river. Our first, and actually most difficult mission was to cross the river in a kayak. Josh and I were determined to have no problem, and we were off to a good start until we got stuck on some rocks! I’m pretty sure the guy had to give us another push to get us going. One boat got swept waaaaaay down the river and needed to be rescued with a motorboat. Once the river was crossed we took a very picturesque little hike through some rice fields until we reached a mountain. Here, we each got a tube, put on our headlamps, grabbed the guide rope and entered into a cave river. We couldn’t go all the way in because the water was too high (and the ceiling too low), but it was still a very very cool experience. After tubing in the cave we had some nice BBQ skewers and walked back towards the river. From here, we spent the next 3 or 4 hours kayaking back to town. It was sooooooo lovely. The water wasn’t too scary, just really fast with a couple tiny little “rapids” that we handled no problem. Along the way we stopped at one of the tubing bars for a beer.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kayaking</td></tr>
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The next (and last) day in Vang Vieng, we finally got our tubing in! At the first bar we made friends with a Russian, a German, and 3 Thais, and these were our tubing buddies for the rest of the way.There used to be many bars open along the river for tubers, but now it is limited to 3, which is probably still plenty haha. Our goal was to get the tubes back before 6 so we didn’t get charged extra (but also because it gets dark not long after that), and we JUST missed it. It was a really fun day. We were luckily able to meet up with the German and Russian people afterwards, but lost contact with the Thais, probably forever, which is pretty sad. Maybe I’ll bump into them in Bangkok?<br />
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The next day we woke up, headed to Luang Prabang. I did NOT feel so good for the duration of the bus trip, but I made it!</div>
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Part 3: Luang Prabang</div>
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We arrived in Luang Prabag with no idea where we should stay. It took a couple hours but we finally found something and set out to find a nice Laos dinner. The next day I woke up and did NOT feel well. This lasted the whole day. It was also raining so I basically did nothing. The next day I was still not quite well, but managed to rent a bike and cycle around to see all the many temples in LP, which is basically what it is famous for, being a UN World Heritage Site. At one of the temples a young monk started talking to us, and invited us to come to his temple at 4:30 so we could sit in on the daily chanting. We were like “cool!”. After we saw the rest of the temples, we biked over to our monk’s temple. He met us and we chatted some more, and two more tourists showed up that he had invited to witness the chanting. We met another monk who’s English was even better, AND could speak Mandarin really well too. They told us that their goal is to either get into a good university in Vientiane, or even better, get a scholarship to a university in China or Australia. They spend tonnes of their free time studying to do these things, when they aren’t fulfilling their monkly duties. Anyway, we hung around for the chanting, which took like 40 min, but was pretty cool. At the end of it they had like, a daily meeting, where the monk in charge gave them a rundown of stuff to do the next day or something. Get this, the monk in charge, the oldest monk at the temple, was 24 years old. The monks we were speaking English to were 18 and 19, and they both told us the 24 year old was too old to study English hahaha. After the chanting, we hung around to say thank you to the monks for letting us be present during something that is probably actually quite important and serious to them and the one guy, who named himself Jack after the Titanic character (no joke), gave us these special good luck monk bracelets which he had made while meditating or something. I had all my tubing bar bracelets on my right wrist so I made him put it on the left wrist because they actually look identical and I didn’t want the monk bracelet mixed in with my beer bracelets. That just didn’t seem right to me. Then Jack gave us this awesome pro-tip. In Luang Prabang, one of the big tourist draws has been to watch the monks collect their morning alms. They all walk around in the morning and the local people give them rice, and that’s what they eat. Recently, tourists have been actually taking part in this special religious process, which is kind of messed up. There were signs ALL over town asking tourists to respect the sacredness of the ritual and to not ruin it by posing for photos with the monks, or giving them bad food, etc. I clearly wanted to witness the morning alms giving, but hoped to do so in the least intrusive way possible. Jack told us that if we walked further away off the main road and closer to his temple, we would be further away from the other tourists and we’d be able to get better photos, and it would look more like what it’s supposed to. Jack was the best! King of the world!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk_kwRUVdth0LJsg1PJpgUWPJHQlaVWYmVkvmdaF3pAxh8nDDbtlSI65W_NxpdBE6SKu4aLVVHmGBP5xv_LlPfTmtxTeawH9PT80vEeOTLQaPMJ6uTrtX2uJ6fRT98VGVVgIJjQOp9CdE/s1600/P9231100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk_kwRUVdth0LJsg1PJpgUWPJHQlaVWYmVkvmdaF3pAxh8nDDbtlSI65W_NxpdBE6SKu4aLVVHmGBP5xv_LlPfTmtxTeawH9PT80vEeOTLQaPMJ6uTrtX2uJ6fRT98VGVVgIJjQOp9CdE/s1600/P9231100.jpg" height="320" width="180" /></a>Which brings us to the next day. I woke up at 5:30AM to go get some photos of the morning alms giving. I ended up going alone because 6am is an insane hour for a backpacker. I walked back over to Jack’s temple and saw a line of older people waiting for the young monks to arrive to give them rice. Using all two words of the Laos language that I learned, I politely asked if they were ok with me taking their photo, and they said yes. YAY! So we waited together for the monks to arrive. So much success! Each monk has a pot, and each person puts like a handful of sticky rice or whatever they have into their pots, and that’s what the monks eat for the rest of the day. When this was finished, I went back to bed to sleep because it was still insanely early. Later in the day we headed out to visit a beautiful tiered waterfall. However, similar to the “blue” lagoon experience, it was not quite what it looked in the photos we had seen. There was water EVERYWHERE. The areas where you would normally swim the water was twice as high as usual, and had engulfed most of the surrounding trees and picnic tables. We were still able to take some neat photos near to the big waterfall, and my friends climbed to the very top. So not a total waste. We got home and I was STILL feeling a little sick (at this point I had started to take antibiotics, which helped immensely), but dragged myself out to the night market to make some purchases. And then I passed out.<br />
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On my last day in Luang Prabang, I woke up and was STILL SICK, but getting better, slowly. When I was feeling well and brave enough, I ventured out to what is called Ock Pop Tok…or Ock Tok Pop…? Anyway, it’s an organization that fairly trades and sells traditional handicrafts made by hand by villagers in Luang Prabang and throughout Laos. I enjoyed a lovely lunch of bread and butter and jam (sick remember, UGH) and took the FREE tour! I learned all about silk worms and natural dying processes and how they make the weaving patterns. Did you know that silk worms only live for like 42 days? So there was me and this one other Korean guy on the tour, and we both really wanted to buy something, especially after taking the tour, but we were also both very cheap. So after hunting around the shop for like 20 minutes, we found the cheapest scarf there was and each picked one out for our moms haha. It was really quite cool. Then I went straight to the post office and mailed all the junk I bought home, so let’s hope it makes it there. On the evening of this day I sought out a neat little organization that has been working on literacy and book access in Laos called Big Brother Mouse. They run a daily informal English Conversation gathering and encourage tourists to drop by to volunteer to help locals get some English practice. I got a little (a lot maybe) lost and showed up kinda (pretty) late, but was only the second foreigner there. The study group consisted almost entirely of young men aged like…17-35 (maybe like 2 of them over 28 though), and ONE local woman. Really good way to take a crash course in everything local and current in Luang Prabang and Laos. Most of them were studying English with hopes to be English teachers, tour guides, or to become involved with the tourism industry in some way. I wish I hadn’t been so sick while I was there or I would have been able to go more than once, it was pretty memorable. The next day:<br />
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Part 4: Slow Boat</div>
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The final part of the Laos journey was a 2 day slow boat river cruise from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai, where you can cross the border into northern Thailand. Day 1: 8 hours to Pak Being. Day 2: 8 hours to Huay Xai. 1 Boat. No stops. Luckily, the boat was nowhere near full and we were able to sit very comfortably and gaze out while the scenery went by. The boat had no windows so it was fresh air the whole way. Along the way we DID actually stop, but just for a few seconds (literally) to let someone off or to buy some fish or fuel for the family that owned the boat. The back part of the boat is actually the home of the family who owns it, and each boat is a little bit different based on how they have chosen to decorate it. At one village we stopped and the BIGGEST CATFISH I HAVE EVER SEEN was carried past us to the kitchen in the back. It was still alive. On the second day, when we finally made it to Huay Xai, there was no space for our boat to “park”, and we had to latch on to another boat and climb into it in order to reach dry land. They took a great deal of time to figure out and we missed the border closing and spent one more night in Laos. That was yesterday. We’ve now made it across and on our way to the much hyped Chiang Mai! Yay!</div>
Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-51667621960547117352014-09-10T23:26:00.001-07:002014-09-10T23:26:53.149-07:00The Hong Kong Wrap UpHello hello! I've got some time to kill at an airport, too early to check my bag even :(, so you get a blog update! I'm sitting in the Chaing Mai airport, having just flown from Hong Kong, waiting to fly to Udon Thani, to take a bus to Nong Khai, where, for the first time in 2 or 3 weeks, I will sleep in a bed in a room all to myself. I have been couchsurfing and hostelling since I moved out of my place on August 24th. It's gonna be glooooooriouuus!!<br />
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So, Hong Kong<br />
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Day 1 - September 3<br />
I arrived in the afternoon and easily found the bus to take me to my hostel. Hong Kong is amazing to find your way around, I've never seen a city with so much tourist friendly signage. I don't think you could get lost there even if you tried (unless you couldn't read or something). Checked in, hung around and relaxed until the evening, when I met my friend who lives in Hong Kong for dinner. She took my to a super grimy Indian/Pakistani restaurant located in the back alley behind Chungking Mansions. The food was as delicious as the location was terrifying. After dinner we walked down to the harborfront to check out the nighttime skyline. It was impressive.<br />
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Day 2 - September 4<br />
On my second day I ventured out to strike off some of the obvious tourist stuff to do. I slept in kind of late, then headed to the peak in the afternoon. The tram on the way up was pretty impressive, frighteningly steep. The official "peak" tourist area was pretty disappointing. Usually, when you think about the top of a mountain, you don't picture a shopping mall. But that's what was there. So I tried to find this walking path, walked the wrong way, twice, and by the time I found it it was too late to get around the whole thing before it got dark and I got attacked by mosquitos. So I just walked partway up to the very top of the mountain, turned around and took a nighttime photo of the skyline before descending on the tram. When I got back to the hostel, I found the table of people with the most empty beer cans and persuaded them to join me on a pubcrawl I had heard about. Unfortunately this was not the most memorable night out, I think there might have been TOO many people joining. That being said, I still managed to lose my phone without remembering how, so maybe things got more interesting later on.<br />
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Day 3 - Friday, September 5<br />
Woke up with a killer hangover, had to pack my bag and officially check out by noon, had to make my prebooked cable car by like 2pm. Not possible. Got to the cable car about an hour late, but lucked out and caught them when they weren't busy so it wasn't a big deal for me just to jump on. The cable car is the main attraction of Lantau Island, and takes you across the mountains to the "big Buddha" and a monastery. The cable car ride was definitely the best part, the big Buddha was cool, the monastery was alright. I had some time so I took a bus to the "idyllic fishing village, "the Venice of the east" Tai-O. Waste of time. It was just a Chinese fishing village. It smelled bad, the old men didn't wear shirts, and to top it off, I nearly got stranded there! The bus stopped running back to the cable car at the ridiculous hour of 5. Luckily, several Chinese speaking tourists were also stranded, and were very helpful in finding us a way back. The guy who worked at the bus terminal ending up borrowing a car and driving the 20 minutes back to the cable car. That night, I moved my stuff into my friend's apartment, and, as it was her birthday, went out for some drinks with her Hong Kong friends. This turned out to be quite a good night, much more my speed than the pub crawl haha.<br />
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Day 4 - Saturday, September 6<br />
My friend and I went to a little neighbourhood called Stanley, a scenic 40 minute bus ride from Hong Kong Island. It was SUPER hot when we got there, so we just walked around a bit, got a beer and a pizza, and headed home. That night I again sampled the Hong Kong expat life, ate some mediocre Chinese food had some drinks.<br />
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Day 5 - Sunday, September 7<br />
Went to the beach at Shek O. It was beautiful! We joined in with a barbecue and had a fantastic day. The water in Hong Kong is almost TOO warm, feels kind of strange and unnatural. Stayed at the beach the whole day, grabbed some icecream on the way home, and called it a day.<br />
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Day 6 - Monday, September8<br />
Woke up with a sore throat. Decided to stay home and take naps all day. Went for more mediocre Chinese food for dinner, had a few drinks (although I switched over to ginger tea instead of beer haha).<br />
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Day 7 - Tuesday, September 9<br />
This was the Midsummer Festival, so everyone had it off work! We went to the beach again, this time to an island called Lamma. It was a really cute area! Reminded me of Bayfield back home. Spent a few hours there, went swimming, went home, had some tasty street Dim Sum, then home.<br />
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Day 8 - Wednesday September 10<br />
Woke up with snot literally pouring out of my nose, decided to cancel my plan to take a day trip to Macau. Slept all morning, but exerted the effort in the afternoon to go and pick up my passport from the Chinese embassy. I got another Chinese visa! Success! Had a last meal in Hong Kong of so very tasty tasty sushi.<br />
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September 11- That's today! Woke up early and flew to Chiang Mai! Flying with a head cold SUCKS. We landed and hour and a half ago and my ears still haven't popped :(<br />
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I will actually be back in Hong Kong in about a month. I was only planning on staying a couple days at the most, but because China's visa is only 30 days (dumb) I can't go in until October 20th, which means I will get a second chance to do some of the stuff I missed because I wasn't feeling so hot.Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506711941588576615.post-54204281965466950762014-08-18T17:48:00.000-07:002014-08-18T17:48:12.135-07:002 weeks left in KoreaAnd that makes 2 years living and working in Daejeon! I fly to Hong Kong on September 3. I'll talk about that later. First, let me tell you about how leaving Korea after two years feels...<div>
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I am more than ready to leave Daejeon. I probably shouldn't have stayed here the second year...but that cash incentive was too good to turn down. My first year here wasn't boring, because everything was new and exciting and amazing. But in the second year the novelty faded and I realized I was living in what many Koreans would agree might be the most boring city in Korea. There's so many reasons you might think this, but these reasons might also be the reason you like living in a smaller quieter city, so let's not get picky and go into too many details. I just like big dirty dangerous cities filled with weird people who wear weird clothes and have weird hairstyles. I can't help it. To summarize, one of the key feelings I feel is READY. I'm ready to go. And when you're ready to leave, it makes it much easier. There are many many PEOPLE (the guys in tight pants) I will miss...but there's lots of THINGS (terrible work computer, why do the banks close at 4, etc.) I won't. So ya, it was good, and I'm certainly glad I opted to move to Korea two years ago, but it's time to go, at least for a while (dun dun dunnnn).</div>
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So let's talk about the exciting part! What's next? As mentioned, first stop is Hong Kong on Sept. 3. I have some friends living there so I'm expecting it will be a pretty great time, even though it's pretty effing hot there at the moment. I'll fly from Hong Kong on Sept. 11 to Chiang Mai, Thailand, and head straight to Laos from there. I'll travel through Laos for two weeks then go back into Thailand for another two with a friend from Daejeon. This part is gonna feel like a vacation compared to the next part haha. In the middle of October I'll head back to Hong Kong and take the overnight train into Shanghai to visit some friends from Toronto who are living there now! Then I'll be whizzing around China for the next month (that place is huge man) trying to see as much as possible and visit some more Chinese friends while I'm at it. In the middle of November my friend and I will fly into Myanmar for 2 weeks. Beginning of December we're headed to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia for a day layover in which we are going to eat everything, and then headed to Kathmandu Nepal. Last time I was there I didn't get a chance to do any trekking, so that's the priority, although I think I convinced my travel buddy to do the shortest one (still 5 days!!) because the next shortest is 9-10 days or 7-12 days :/. Like, I love watching the Lord of the Rings...but I don't think actually doing all that walking is appealing...especially without a wizard. Or a sense of impending doom if I don't. That would be the kind of motivator I would need for that. Anyway, 2-3 weeks in Nepal (I'm going to have to wait for my Indian visa there until I get it....but it SHOULDN'T slow us down), and then off to India. No flight has been booked yet, but we are considering flying into the South and working out way up North. But if we're feeling pretty broke we may still go overland from Nepal to Varanasi instead, although that doesn't sound pleasant at all. India is gonna take 2 months because there's soooooooo much to see and apparently it takes a few days to even adjust to each new place you go. So we'll be finished in India sometime toward the end of February, at which point I will review my finances and most likely fly back towards SE Asia to hit the countries I missed: Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia. I'm thinking I will be back in Canada sometime next spring or early summer, when the weather gets warm, because that last January visit was toooo coooold haha.</div>
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So that's what's up. If you've always wanted to travel in Asia but never had anyone to go with you've been offered your chance haha. And for Psy's sake don't ask me what I'm doing after I get back to Canada. That's just rude guys. Keep it to yourselves. I'll tell you when I know hahaha. YOU THINK I'M NOT THINKING ABOUT THAT!? Jeez.</div>
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Oh PS- I paid off the last of my student loans a month or two ago. *bows* thank you thankyou!</div>
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OK that's all for now. I am spending the rest of my week trying to liquidate my belongings...it's hard! I found FOUR ethernet cables in a box. That doesn't include the one I'm using. Who accumulates that many ethernet cables in 2 years? My Macbook air doesn't even HAVE an ethernet port. What is wrong with me?</div>
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Much love,</div>
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Mary</div>
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P.S. again - if anyone has any travel tips, must see places, overrated spots, good companies, knows any locals, please let me know!!!</div>
Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03421260081185628007noreply@blogger.com0