Pulpology: Mark & Sonia's Intercontinental Absurdities!

Grrrrrrrrreat Success!

2009-06-30T00:00:00-04:00

OK, well, maybe not great success, but I will give myself a small Borat-style high-five. We're finally starting to see some veggies in the Special Olympics Victory Garden! Niiiiice, I liiiiike!

The herbs -- basil, parsley, dill, cilantro, sage, chives, thyme, oregano -- have been doing well, and I've been harvesting the thinned seedlings for salads and other recipes. However, I was skeptical that we had enough hours of sun in the backyard to produce any actual veggies. The tomato, cucumber, and pepper plants have been growing like mad. But I was beginning to think we'd have a bunch of gargantuan plants with no edibles.

Joy! This week, I noticed our first red tomato. This tiny cluster is from the Juliet plant we bought at the Falls Church Farmers Market. Woot! You can see from the picture that the birds have been trying to get at it. (Despite the menacing inflatable snake that ain't foolin' NOBODY.) It's not going to win a blue ribbon at the State Fair. No matter! After carefully photographing it, which I made Mark do because my hands were all muddy, we carefully harvested it, and it's now in the kitchen awaiting a place of honor in a salad of some sort. Hopefully there will be more where it came from. I may live to regret those words... in which case you will ALL be receiving cases of salsa for Christmas this year!

I also noticed that the cukes are starting to proliferate. These are also farmers market plants, which are clearly at home in their back corner of the garden and are threatening to overtake the beans and squash.

I continue to struggle with the southeast corner, which doesn't seem to get enough sun to support anything. Plus it's the lowest, wettest point of the entire yard. I've tried lettuce from seed packets, several times, to no avail. I got a few seedling freebies at a gardening workshop last weekend -- yes, I attend gardening workshops on weekends for fun, are you the least bit surprised at my geekitude? -- so I might put in some cilantro and dill back there to see how it does.

My other struggle is with the compost pile. We've held off buying an expensive rotating composter, and instead used an old plastic trash can. I tried to keep everything manually rotated and aerated, but I let it go for a week or so because of all the rain. And when I opened it up this week it was chock-full o' maggots. Barf! So much for that experiment. I dumped it out in a secluded spot in the backyard and let the birds have a nice lil' picnic. We'll cover it with grass clippings and still have a workable compost pile. Another lesson learned for the Victory Garden files!

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Related links:
* Our Special Olympics Victory Garden (May update)
* Celebrating Joan with the first seedlings of the season (March update)

I'm with the band

2009-06-20T17:00:00-04:00

Here are a few snaps from Mark's latest gig... The band, American Giant, has only recently formed and this was their first outing. They played at a walkathon/fundraiser event for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, which was a little bizarre and very different from the standard smoky-drunken-divebar gig. I have to admit, though, watching them play onstage at the foot of the Washington Monument was pretty kickass. The National Sylvan Theater is little more than a rickety old bandshell, but the location makes it almost majestic. Having Jerome from Jimmy's Chicken Shack there to run sound on equipment from Rams Head didn't hurt either.

Hopefully there will be more American Giant gigs (and, ahem, a web site) soon, and y'all can come out and join us next time! Bring your earplugs. :)

All I really need to know about Twitter I learned in kindergarden

2009-06-17T00:00:00-04:00

I've been on Twitter for several months now. While the basic mechanics are pretty straightforward, it took me a while to get the hang of it and feel like I had a useful tool on my hands. There are approximately three gazillion "Twitter How-To" articles out there, but none of them really got to the heart of it. And it finally occurred to me that everything I needed to know about Twitter, I learned in kindergarden:

The Golden Rule
Follow everyone who follows you (unless they are an obvious spambot). You can always un-follow them later if their tweets get annoying, but at least give them the benefit of the doubt up front.

Share everything
Re-tweet helpful stuff. This has the double-benefit of sharing interesting tidbits as well as promoting someone else's tweet. If you do this on a regular basis, folks will start re-tweeting your stuff too.

Nobody likes a copycat
Don't just "RT" everyone else's material. And for god's sake don't spit out an endless stream of quotations. Add your own original thoughts from time to time!

It's polite to use someone's name in conversation
Use @ handles as often as possible. This directs a question or comment to a specific person, and you're more likely to receive a response that way. Unless you have a large pool of loyal followers, posing a generic question to the masses is not going to generate many responses.

Nobody likes a braggart
Constantly promoting only your own stuff (products, website, events, etc) starts to occur as spam after a while.

Just because someone's popular doesn't mean you need to be their friend
People with tens of thousands of followers aren't always the most interesting tweeple. More often than not, they're obsessed with rote numbers of followers. Yawn. (However, I do always give 'em a chance to really wow me, per the Golden Rule above.)

Know your friends
Use a tool like TweetDeck to group the people you're following into categories. This way you can easily skim a topic and see what folks are tweeting about. I follow a pretty diverse set of people -- travelers, gardeners, techies, foodies, winos, CSRfolk -- and TweetDeck helps me keep their conversations organized.

So what have I actually gotten out of Twitter? Here's a quick list of tangible benefits:

* I got someone a job
* I got some free plants (from several different people)
* I won a free bottle of wine in a contest
* I got a timely news snippet that proved helpful in a conversation with a vendor
* I've learned about lots of great local events
* I was able to give a particularly smarty response about hashtags in a work meeting
* I connected with a CSR industry expert who gave me some great jobsearching advice

...and, most exciting of all: I got an AMAZING fare to Italy by being in the right place at the right time and following the real-time advice of a travel guru.

Might I have gotten those things even if I weren't on Twitter? It's possible. But unlikely. There's something about the immediacy of tweets that is vastly different from an email you can stash away and maybe read later. And there's something intoxicating about gaining access to people who you might otherwise only read about or see on TV. Following a person and reading their random tweets gives you more insight into their humanity. And I happen to think that's pretty frickin' cool.

Do you have any great Twitter pearls of wisdom? Please share!

"Live a balanced life; learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance
and play and work every day some."
-Robert Fulghum "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarden"

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How do you NOT plan a slow travel trip?

2009-06-12T00:00:00-04:00

It's official. We're going to Italy in the fall. On Tuesday night, with the help of the good folks at FareCompare I found a redonkulously low fare from DC to Rome and just couldn't resist. (As a side note, it turned out to be a mistake on the part of the airline. They left out the fuel surcharge. Oops! Hee hee.) So, we're booked: September 16 to October 16. Italy, here we come!

And now comes the fun part! I love researching for upcoming trips. And while I have been collecting information, articles, blogs, tips, and contacts for a few months now, it's time for the real work to begin. Since we've never been to Italy before -- I know! unbelievable! -- we'll probably spend a few days each in "the big three" cities of Rome, Venice, and Florence. There's a wealth of information about what to do and see and eat and drink in these places. I may try to find us some couchsurfing hosts, and I hope to hook up with a few of the amazing Italy/travel/wine folks I've been chatting with on Twitter.

That'll be fun, but this trip is really all about slow travel. A corollary of the slow food movement that began in Italy as a reaction to fast food, slow travel is a philosophy that embraces a decelerated pace, cultural immersion, and deeper exposure to the richness of "going local." Slow travel typically involves a stay of at least a week in one place, with day trips fanning out in concentric circles from your home base. After our frenetically-paced SE Asian junket last November, where we arrived home feeling exhausted and in need of a vacation from our vacation, I decided our next trip would be as slowed-down as possible. I've been drooling at pictures of small towns in Italy -- OMG, they're all GORGEOUS! I've been researching agriturismo venues where you can pick veggies from the garden and learn to cook fresh local dishes from scratch. Heaven! I've been collecting charming Italian wineries like baseball cards. After all, we will be there for the harvest season. Cin cin!

But I feel like I've hit a wall.

How do you *plan* a trip whose very essence is about not planning at all?

Is this information filed right next to the sound of one hand clapping? I haven't figured that one out either. Anyway, I'd love to hear from the slow travel mavens out there. How does one find the elusive balance that covers just enough of the basics so you don't miss out on all the good stuff, but allows the trip to unfold organically?

We also haven't decided which region to use as our home base. Any and all suggestions are being evaluated! Send your recs my way, please and thanks!

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Kicking off summer with The Big O

2009-05-25T00:00:00-04:00

It's simply not summer in the US until Memorial Weekend, the official inauguration of the season of grillin, chillin, and overconsumption of the vice of your choosing. This year we decided to start our summer off right with a trip to Osyrusfest 2009 in Coatesville, PA.

We'd attended this event two years ago, and it was great to see how it's grown. Started a few years back by the illustrious Preston and Paul Hoffman as a way to celebrate jam bands (and an excuse to drag millions of dollars of lighting equipment to the quarry outside their old family homestead), Osyrusfest has evolved into one of the premiere small music festivals in North America. The schedule was jam-packed full of excellent bands from all over the country. Even for someone who gets easily bored with the never-ending wiffly-wafty nature of jam music -- ehm, that would be me -- the jaw-dropping lights and striking Ofest setting kicks the whole thing up a notch or ten.

Learning from past mistakes with leaky tents, this year we decided to rent a big honkin' RV and drive up from DC. Several participants flaked out at the last minute, which just left more room in the RV of Love & Justice for me, Mark, and our friend Josh (better known in some circles as The Minister of Intoxication). We got the exact same model we'd rented last year for Burning Man, and the minute I stepped inside to load up our gear I had a huge flashback to our dusty, surreal adventures on The Playa. And, sniff, I missed Crystal and Foreward and the rest of the GBOF crew! Nevermind, we were about to create a whole set of new memories with a new cast of characters.

We finally hit the road around 8:30pm on Friday, which meant missing most of the hideous weekend traffic, but it also meant arriving just before midnight. After taking a wrong turn at Gum Tree and almost taking out their neighbor's mailbox, we rolled into the Hoffman Estates just as the Mobias Project set was ending. I wiggled the Mothership into position, and we cracked open a frosty beverage to celebrate our successful arrival. The party raged deep into the night, complete with a DJ set and a neverending supply of Fisherman's Brew beer. (Sponsorship is goooooood!)

The rest of the weekend was somewhat of a blur, albeit a totally mellow and relaxing one. Daytime consisted of parking ourselves in the shade outside the RV and interacting with our neighbors, sharing beverages and tasty treats. If we were so inclined, there were several sporting options to partake in... everything from whiffle ball to bocce. Mostly we just sat around chatting and enjoying the continuous current of music from the DJ tent, live guitar and drum circles, or our own RV sound system. It was chillaxed to the max!

The highlight of the weekend was indisputably the stellar set by Eclipse, a Pink Floyd tribute band from Nashville. They totally stole the show. Mere words can't quite convey the exhilaration of standing on the overgrown quarry floor, surrounded by lights and fog, listening to this band belt out Pink Floyd favorites like "Comfortably Numb" and "Wish You Were Here." If I closed my eyes, I coulda sworn I was actually seeing the Floyd live and in the flesh. It was truly breathtaking. The band has seven members, including one vocalist who sounds more like Roger Waters and one with more of a David Gilmour sound, plus a hot female saxophonist/keyboardist, and another hot female vocalist who can belt out "Great Gig in the Sky" like nothing I've ever heard. So they can really cover the full gamut. If you are the least bit fan of the Floyd, make it your business to see these guys in concert. They blew us all away.

And then, the icing on the cake: we got to hang out with most of Eclipse after the show. Such is the benefit of having a ginormous mothership of a vehicle... you get to host the best parties at the festival! We never quite matched the 20-person pileup of BM 2008, but we certainly did circulate a lot of folks through the RV of Love & Justice on Saturday night. And I have to say, in addition to being a phenomenally talented bunch, Eclipse are also outstanding peeps to hang out with. It was a pleasure getting to know them. The absinthe was flowing, the hookah was fired up, and the steady stream of innnnnnnnnteresting people kept the conversation lively, to say the least. Good times.

By the time Monday rolled around and it was time to roll on home, everyone was a bit rough around the edges, as you can imagine. Preston was overhead to say something to the effect of "I can *feel* how much fun I had this weekend. Even my teeth hurt!" Amen, brother. We were all using our inside voices the following week at work. No matter, it was completely worth it! Kudos to Preston and Paul for a tremendously successful Osyrusfest 2009. Oh, and on top of all the fun, we raised a bunch of money to help provide clean drinking water to Varkhadiya Village in Gujarat, India, via the fabulous folks at 1Well. Gotta love fun that benefits a great cause. Summer 2009, here we come!

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PS. All Ofest pics can be found here. Anybody who wants originals, please visit the Flickr set and help yerself! (There are a few additional photos posted there.) I didn't get everyone's email addies, so kindly help me spread the word to the rest of the 'Fest folks.

PPS. Hippie-ravers HEART oktapodi, big time! Here's a small sampling of the new friends our groovy cephalopod made at Ofest:

Our (Special Olympics) Victory Garden

2009-05-10T00:00:00-04:00

In celebration of Mother's Day, this seemed like a good time to check in with an update on our gardening adventures. As I've said before, my mom was the one who instilled in me a love of veggies and diggin' in the dirt. So while I'm more than a bit sad she's not around to witness my latest attempts at green-thumbery, what better way to celebrate this day?

This year we (and by "we" I mean "I") decided it was time to graduate from container plantings to a full-blown garden in the backyard. I was inspired, in part, by First Lady Michelle Obama's awesome efforts to raise the profile of organic gardening by planting a vegetable garden on the grounds of the White House. Hurray! The likes of Alice Waters and Michael Pollan have been advocating this for years, and it's just another sign of positive regime change to see the First Family involved in gardening efforts. (To his credit, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is doing some kickass things to embrace sustainable agriculture, and has planted his own garden right on Ag grounds.) There's been much talk of "Victory Gardens" this year, given the troubled state of the economy and America's higher awareness of the importance of locally-sourced food. And how much more local can you get than your own backyard? The time was right to fully embrace the gardening ethos, and take our efforts to the next level.

Just one problem: our backyard is pretty shady. We love our "secret garden" backyard for the privacy it affords. While the front yard is super-sunny and enjoys afternoon southern exposure, the back is full of tall trees and doesn't get as much sun. Hrm. While there is an interesting movement (see below) that recommends doing away with that All-American pasttime of keeping a high-maintenance, resource-draining green carpet of turf, we weren't quite ready to take the plunge and dig up our front lawn to make way for veggies. So we tried to find a suitable spot in the backyard that would get enough sun to sustain a small patch of salad fixins.

We found a spot, and opted to go with a raised bed. Supposedly raised beds are a more efficient use of space and water, and are the way to go when planting vegetables. So we plotted the dimensions of a possible raised bed, taking into account the odd shape of the yard, several drainage spouts we didn't want to disturb, and the extant foliage. We settled on a very odd shape, and set off to obtain the necessary lumber to make the frame.

The result was affectionately referred to as either the "Trapezoid Garden" (Mark) or "Special Olympics Garden" (me). Yes, the shape is weird. Yes, it's a bit larger than recommended for a raised bed garden. But ya gotta work with what ya got.

In preparation for planting all manner of herbs and vegetables, I decided to try to start a few things from seed. After purchasing a boatload of seeds (rookie gardener syndrome), as well as a few peat starter trays, I planted some tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, rosemary, and a handful of flowers for the front yard. Lacking a proper greenhouse setup, I had to be satisfied with a few sunny windows and plenty of water.

By late March, we'd mulched over the scant remaining grass using newspaper and a combination of grass clippings and compost. Having lugged five big bags of designer dirt home from the garden store, it became obvious we'd need a *lot* more soil for this puppy. Hoo boy.

Meanwhile, the cukes and tomatoes had all succumbed to mysterious malady I eventually identifed as "damping-off disease." This fungus rots the stems at the soil surface, causing them to topple over, shrivel up, and die. Boo-hoo! It's caused by overwatering and poor circulation. I've decided that the peat trays are partially to blame, as it's hard to tell if the plant is sufficiently moist or oversaturated. It was discouraging to lose a whole tray of seedlings, but fortunately the peppers were still in good shape.

At least, until the mercurial DC spring weather got the better of me. I accidentally left the seedlings outside overnight once in April. The daytime temps had been in the mid-70s, so I'd put the plants outside to "harden" a bit in preparation for eventual planting. That worked out great, but that night it plunged to the 40s. Eeeek! The abundant tray of seedlings dwindled down to a few extra-hardy specimens. I was crushed. One glimmer of hope: an errant tomato seedling from last year's crop managed to survive the winter and poke its little head up. I've since been warned that hybrid seedings are not to be trusted, but I'm still proud of this one tough little soldier that made it through the ice and snow. I eagerly await whatever fruit it decides to bear this season.

Gradually, throughout late April and early May, we transformed the bed into something that might actually support vegetative life. This involved many trips to the garden center for bag after bag of dirt, plus some attempts to turn over the existing soil and combine it with the purchased stuff. I transplanted several lettuce varietals that I'd started from seed, as well as scattering some new lettuce seeds directly into the garden. I researched "companion plants" and which veggies played nice with each other, and attempted to plot out the garden schematic. I also attended a workshop co-hosted by The DC Historical Society and Washington Gardener magazine, and geeked out to an afternoon of Q&A by Cindy Brown of Green Spring Gardens. My true geekburger nature shone through as I reveled in the research, the planning, the anecdotal stories from other local gardeners. But at the same time, I was realizing that gardening is really all about trial and error. As with most great hobbies, in gardening one must not be afraid to fail once or twice or three times, in pursuit of that one combination that really works. I don't like to fail (who does?) but when you're talking about a 99-cent pack of seeds or even a $2 plant, happily, the stakes are low. When the cucumbers I started from seeds all croaked from the damping-off fungus, I bought a bunch of seedlings from the garden store and planted those in the garden. When cutworms (or perhaps the insane amounts of rain we've been having lately) got the better of those seedlings, and all but one flopped over, I bought heartier plants at the local farmers market. Hopefully the third time's the charm. Likewise, though I can't seem to keep a tomato seedling alive no matter what I try, a friend has come through with some awesome heirloom plants. Live and learn, and take good notes to prevent the same debacle next time.

Which brings us to the present. As of this weekend, I've planted nearly everything, except the peppers, which require really warm weather to flourish. The multiple varieties of lettuce, which love the cool damp weather, are starting to mature and I've already started incorporate some into our daily salads. A sage plant from the garden center seems to be doing well, alongside a stevia plant that I just couldn't resist. (I have no idea how you make the transformation from green leafy plant to organic sugar substitute, but that's an experiment for another day.) The new cukes are in, fingers crossed. I planted a bunch of herbs from seed, including basil, cilantro, and chives. Several types of heirloom tomatoes (Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Chocolate, and Black from Tula) from our friend's garden are planted alongside some other funky-sounding tomatoes (Nebraska Wedding, Juliet, Pink Beauty, and Green Zebras) sourced from the Falls Church farmers market. The Juliets were purchased from a farmergrrl with a Jack Skellington tattoo. Now *that* is the American dream, friends and neighbors. I also planted a few different types of carrots, beets, and beans, as those were always my favorites to garden with my mom. I think she'd be proud of my efforts. Now, if I can just keep the birds and squirrels from eating everything...

PS. I have discovered that gardeners, in addition to happily sharing their knowledge, are generous with extra plants and clippings. Along with the heirloom tomatoes, in recent weeks I have been the benefactor of rosemary clippings, hostas, and day lillies. I could also have my share of free mulch if only I had a way to transport it from a friend's yard in DC. Much love to my garden peeps, you are a wise and bounteous group of folks!

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Passport DC: How I spent the morning in Colombia

2009-05-02T00:00:00-04:00

I arrived at the Ambassador's residence around 9am for orientation. Stepping inside this oasis of lush style, you'd never know you're just a few steps from the Dupont Circle Metro Station. From the stunning entryway leading to a jaw-dropping wooden staircase, to the dining room with Elizabethan wainscoting, to the skylight in the Edwardian ballroom, the Thomas Gaff house is a true DC landmark. It's a few blocks from the actual Embassy of Colombia. But it was no surprise that this was the chosen site to host the Embassy's open house. The place is sa-weeeeeet!

This was Cultural Tourism DC's second year organizing Passport DC, a series of 30+ embassy open houses all occurring on the same Saturday in May. The event provided a unique opportunity to visit some of the most gorgeous properties DC has to offer. Embassies from Australia to Zambia opened their doors to the public, offering cultural programs, food tasting, and a rare glimpse inside buildings that are not often open for walk-ins by the Average Joe. I'd heard about the event from the volunteer coordinators at the Cherry Blossom Festival, and it sounded like a great opportunity to give back. I received two assignments: morning shift at the Embassy of Colombia, and afternoon shift outside the Embassy of Ukraine.

Last year's event drew over 50,000 people, and this year they expected even greater numbers. In preparation for a day of directing the masses, Denisse Yanovich, Cultural Attaché at the embassy, gathered up a group of Passport volunteers and embassy staff to dole out assignments. As any good volunteer knows, there's nothing better than knowing exactly what you're supposed to be doing, so it was a great relief to see the shifts planned out in precise detail. Denisse explained that some of us would be tasked with crowd control, making sure that nobody brushed up against the priceless Botero painting in the foyer or wandered upstairs to Ambassador Carolina Barco Isakson's private residence, and some of us would be serving treats or handing out literature in the main ballrom. I ended up at the passport stamp station. The event program guide featured a "passport" section in the middle, where visitors could collect a stamp for each embassy visited. My very important job was to offer an official stamp to those who wanted to commemorate their visit to Colombian soil. Most embassies used standard ink stamps, or stickers, but at the Embassy of Colombia we didn't mess around. I got to use an ancient metal seal to emboss page after page. After a few hours the muscles on my right side started to feel like jelly, but it was worth it for the excited reactions. "Oooooo! It's so *official*!" and "Coooooooool!" and "Wow, that's awesome!" were just a few of the standard responses. People really dug it. And as any good volunteer knows, there's nothing better than recognition of a job well done.

Last year, the Embassy saw about 2,000 visitors. I don't know what the final count was for this year, but I'm guessing we surpassed last year's benchmark by about midday. The line stretched out the door and around the block. People were almost as excited to see the exquisite artwork as they were to enter the raffle to win a free tshirt emblazoned with the "Colombia es pasión!" tagline. Visitors were also treated to videos extolling Colombia's tourist attractions, free Juan Valdez coffee, and bocadillos with guava and queso. I didn't see the Couchsurfing group who met up for the day, but did run into a random friend who was surprised to see me wielding an official Colombian seal. It was a great morning.

My shift was over around 1pm, when I was relieved by the afternoon volunteer. Denisse directed me to the kitchen in the bowels of the residence for a spot of lunch. (As any good volunteer knows, there's nothing better than a free lunch! Especially one awarded in recognition of a job well done.) I was a bit sad to leave, but my next shift awaited. I ate as quickly as I could, and caught the Route 3 shuttle bus to my next destination in Georgetown.

On the shuttle, I sat next to a woman who had just come from the Embassy of Uzbekistan, and was en route to Saudi Arabia. She and I marveled at the fact that when you've lived somewhere for a while, you tend to take for granted the goodies that are available in your backyard. When else do you get a chance to see what the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia has to offer? Legally, Embassy grounds *are* officially the soil of that particular country, so it's probably the only chance someone like me might get to "visit" Saudi Arabia. Alas, today it wasn't meant to be, as I needed to continue on to my next shift at the Embassy of Ukraine.

Long story short, I got redirected to help out at the main information booth back at Dupont Circle. I spent the rest of the afternoon directing folks to the appropriate shuttle lines, explaining that although the Embassy of Australia closed at 3pm there were still plenty of embassies open until 4, and handing out program guides until they ran out. While not nearly as organized as my time in Colombia that morning, it was nonetheless energizing. By the time my afternoon shift ended around 4:30, I was exhausted and more than ready to head for home.

It's too bad Passport DC is only once a year... so many fabulous embassies, so little time! But for those who are looking for a second chance, the European Union countries are doing their own open house events next weekend:

Shortcut to Europe
Saturday, May 9
1-4pm

Related links:
* more photos from the day's events
* video/pics from all embassies

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Sweet Dreams

2009-04-22T00:00:00-04:00

I'm working on some new blog posts, I swear I am. But in the meantime, I wanted to share this award-winning short by Kirsten Lepore, which came my way via nerdseyeview. I completely agree with Pam, it's a "nearly perfect travel story." Enjoy, and Happy Earth Day!

Styrofoam and cigarette butts

2009-04-06T18:30:00-04:00

Wowie-zowie. I'd known about the evils of styrofoam -- especially after so much time spent picking it off our lawn -- but I didn't quite comprehend the magnitude of its nefariousness until this weekend.

I signed up to do a Potomac shoreline cleanup, one of Marriott's many "Spirit to Serve" activities that happen throughout the year. Saturday was a fabulous day to be outside: bright early spring sunshine, and a strong breeze to keep things cool. About two dozen folks from Marriott HQ and various local properties spent several hours on Saturday morning cleaning up Roosevelt Island. Situated in the Potomac River between DC and Virginia, the island is a 90-acre preserve with paved and wooded trails, a memorial to Teddy Roosevelt, and the remains of George Mason's house. It's a cool little spot and a nice respite from the rat race. Unfortunately, due to its location, Roosevelt Island also catches a lot of trash that gets dumped into the Potomac.

Blue trash bags and hazmat gloves in hand, we split up into smaller groups and each got assigned a specific section of the island. Our group wound up on the south tip under the Rt 50 bridge. I had visions of discovering all sorts of bizarre stuff -- discarded clothing, medical waste, maybe even a dead body! -- but it mostly came down to two things.

Styrofoam and cigarette butts. Ew.

At the start of the day, the organizers asked us to keep track of how many butts we picked up. I stopped after 50, but estimate my grand total to be somewhere around 100. They also asked us to count the number of plastic bags, and I was pleased to report that I'd only found two or three. That's a sign of something good. However, the quantity and frequency of styrofoam bits was most disheartening. Cups. Chunks of packaging. Those frickin' peanuts. Small bits. Reeeeeeally small bits. The stuff was absolutely everywhere. Yes, I know the new and improved styrofoam is CFC-free, so I guess it could be worse. But the stuff never breaks down. NEVER.

What ran through my mind, over and over again, as I stooped to pick up yet another white bit of the vile stuff, was that someday far in the future, aliens will come investigate our planet and find nothing but little pieces of styrofoam everywhere. And they'll wonder WTF we were thinking. I wonder that too.

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Celebrating Joan with the first seedlings of the season

2009-03-28T00:00:00-04:00

Yayyyyyy, little green theengs! The first seeds we started in indoor kits have sprouted. I think these might be the cukes.

What a fitting way to celebrate my mom's birthday, which, when she was around, was practically a national holiday. She was an avid gardener, and I credit both my love of veggies and my love of diggin' in the dirt to her fabulous guidance. Happy Birthday, Mom!

Jumping on the Tweetwagon

2009-03-27T00:00:00-04:00

I've been resisting it for a long time. Twitter, the latest killer app... you've probably heard all the arguments pro and con, I'm not going to rehash them here. Personally, it boiled down to the almighty question of What's In It For Me? And I hadn't come up with a compelling enough answer to propel me into signing up for a Twitter account.

Until...

::: cue dramatic music :::

This week I went to a DC Web Women event. In addition to the usual top-notch presentation and Q&A from the group, afterwards a group of DCWWers sat around discussing the merits of Twitter for professional purposes. Somewhere amidst all that debate, I decided it was time to plug into the Twitterverse and finally see it for myself.

What do I think is In It For Me? Well, for starters, I'm looking forward to connecting with folks I might not otherwise have access to. This will be particularly useful as I continue to ramp up my job search, and try to expand my network into the new field of Corporate Social Responsibility. Also, I love the idea of getting local recommendations on the fly while we're out traveling. I doubt I'll be nearly as ambitious as the Twitchhiker, but travel and Twitter are an intoxicating match. And finally, I'm curious about using Twitter to microblog while on the road. Not that I'm giving up crafting more in-depth blog entries. But the ability to send a quick Tweet or post a single photo does open up some new possibilities. And brevity, after all, is the soul of wit. ;)

So, here I go! If you're on Twitter, feel free to follow me at http://twitter.com/pulpologist.

BTW, for anyone out there who's been living under a rock and doesn't know what Twitter's all about, here's a great video from Common Craft called "Twitter in Plain English."

Read it and Peep

2009-03-11T17:30:00-04:00

Ah, it's that lovely time of year again. The crocuses are coming out, and so are the peeps. No, I'm not talking about the chirping sounds of happy little baby birds, I'm talking about those nasty, sugar-encrusted, technicolor marshmallow abominations in the shapes of bunnies and chicks. Despite falling into the category of "something you'd have to pay me big bucks to actually consume," Peeps have a special place in my heart as they hail from my hometown. Or at least the next town over. That's right, Peeps are a creation of the Just Born Candy Company, based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Another dubious claim to fame for the illustrious Lehigh Valley!

Although Peeps are not fit for human consumption, they do make great art subjects. To celebrate this festive season, here are two upcoming contests involving Peeps:

Washington Post's "Power to the Peeps" diorama contest:
This is a brilliant annual event where people create amazing works of art using Peeps. In previous years, the dioramas have been based on scenes from popular movies such as Pulp Fiction, tabloid headlines like Amy Winehouse's escapades, and Olympic events. You have to see these things to believe them. An incredible amount of work goes into each piece, and last year they were displayed at a local art show. Genius.

Nat Geo's "Peeps in Places" photo challenge:
National Geographic is running a photo contest where entrants are invited to photograph Peeps in front of iconic landmarks. Speaking as someone who has traveled around the globe and done this with a small orange mascot, I think it's an awesome idea.

I know there are examples of other Peeps masterworks... are there other contests out there as well? C'mon, where my peeps at?

"An Army of Peeps" image by psilver

Adventures in public radio

2009-02-17T00:00:00-04:00

You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes...
Well you might find...

You get a penmanship award!

OK, that's not really how the song goes. But it's how my Tuesday night went as I volunteered at local NPR affiliate WAMU.

It was Day 4 of their Winter Membership Campaign. I'd already decided to step up the community outreach efforts this year, so when I got an email soliciting phone volunteers, I thought "why not?" It'd be a great chance to give back to a station I listen to a lot. (Anyone who's had more than five minutes of conversation with me can attest that it's only a matter of time before I break into "This one time...? on NPR...?" in my best Alyson Hannigan voice.) It would also be a great chance to go behind the scenes and see what makes public radio tick. Never mind the fact that my favorite show, starring my boyfriend Ira Glass, is taped halfway across the country at WBEZ in Shytown. And never mind the fact that, honestly, I can't stand the sound of Diane Rehm's voice. She still covers interesting topics on her show, Granny Squidbilly voice notwithstanding. Never mind all that; it'd be an adventure in do-goodery!

Welllllll, I'm not sure how much good I actually did. After the brief orientation, during which the WAMU staff exhorted us to PRINT NEATLY and mentioned that the person with the best handwriting would get the "Miss Legibility" prize, I sat down expectantly and waited for my phone to ring. It was like high school all over again. I got a total of four calls. One person just wanted to enter the prize drawing without donating anything. How lame is that? One person wanted to set up a "sustaining membership," meaning her card would automatically be charged a certain amount each month, but she wasn't sure she could sustain the minimum monthly amount of $10. That call was a bit of a bummer. However, two people actually pledged some funds. Woo-hoo! That meant I got to carefully fill out the oh-so-exciting Pledge Form (twice!), and then waggle it in the air when I was finished.

I think I collected a total of $300 for the cause. But it was clearly a matter of quality over quantity, as my stellar penmanship garnered me the legibility prize! This was definitely *not* like high school. They called my name and I rushed to the front of the room to collect my crown and have my picture taken for the Wall of Fame. I couldn't resist a little wrist-wrist-elbow-elbow wave to the crowd. It was exhilarating! Well, OK, not really, but it was the highpoint of an otherwise pretty dull two hours. Don't get me wrong, I had a lovely conversation with the other two volunteers sitting at my table. And WAMU did feed us. But it's not like I got to see any quasi-famous local radio celebrities. We weren't even anywhere near the recording booth. I got to enjoy a bit of my own quasi-celebrity, as other volunteers congratulated me on my hard-fought victory over illegibility. I got to wear the crown for the remaining hour of my shift, received a lovely WAMU mug, and got a certificate. Signed by none other than Diane Rehm, WAMU 88.5 Handwriting Expert! Check it out for yourself. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

No, you can't always get what you want. But, wait, does this mean that somehow the universe is trying to tell me that a Legibility Award is what I need...?

Important birthdays

2009-02-12T00:00:00-04:00

Today is the celebration of the birthdays of three great and influential men. I'm sure most of you have heard that it's the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. This year the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth has also been getting a lot of press. But there's one slightly lesser-known birthday to celebrate today as well, as it's the [cough-mumblety-mumbleth] anniversary of the birth of our own Mark Schramm. I don't have the time or the budget to do one of those soaring video retrospectives showing highlights from his life, but I can offer you a handful of recent travel pics:

Hey wait, actually I do have a video! Here's a short clip from last fall, of Mark and our nephew James getting down with their bad selves. Clearly music appreciation runs in the family!

Happy Birthday, Abe, Chuck, and Mark!

PS. Did you know...? You can also browse through all the Pulpology photos with Mark in them by choosing either the "Mark" or "M&S" keyword filter on the main pics page. Yes, this page is a little kludgey and I'm working on redesigning it. Any comments or suggestions are welcome!

Sweet and sour January

2009-01-28T21:30:00-04:00

Whew, January 2009 has definitely been a month of "best of times, worst of times." I have to admit, I'm pretty glad it's about over.

We joined the rest of the world in celebrating the Coronation of Barack Obama on January 20. (Yay, stem cell research! Yay, an intelligent person in the Oval Office! Yay, attention to climate change! Yay, End of an Error!) We hosted a couchsurfer from Indianapolis. He'd helped with the Obama campaign in his home state, and was excited about waking up at 4am, waiting in the dark for a few hours, and then standing in the freezing cold for a few more hours with the huddled masses to observe this historical moment in person. We watched it on TV from the comfort of our warm, cozy house. Still, it was a wonderful event to witness, and it'll be nice to be able to travel without having to automatically apologize for being an Amerkan. And how cool to have a Chief Executive who understands the power of Web 2.0, for a change.

The celebration was marred by the passing of Mark's dad, who had a stroke in early January and never fully regained consciousness. We spent some time in Connecticut for the funeral and helping Mark's mom get things in order. Not a fun time, needless to say, and it brought back a lot of sad memories for me. However, it was nice to see friends and family and get a chance to celebrate John Schramm's life. He had just taken a business trip to China and seemed energized by that endeavor, so I'm glad he was able to go out on a high note.

In the "not-so-monumental but still reaaaaaally fun" category, and because I can't leave you on such a morose note, we got a chance to see one of our favorite bands last night at one of our favorite DC venues. Thievery Corporation rarely plays gigs in DC anymore, but they played the first of FIVE back-to-back sold-out shows at the 9:30 Club last night. As always, the show was spectacular. If you ever get a chance to see these guys live, go for it! Their latest album, Radio Retaliation, contains the usual eclectic mix of Jamaican, Indian, African, Latin, and Middle Eastern beats and melodies. It's goooood stuff.

Bangkok round-up

2009-01-10T16:30:00-04:00

It's happening at a glacial pace, but I *am* making some progress in uploading pics and stories to this site. I recently reached a milestone: finally got all the Bangkok stuff posted! Those of you who are email subscribers will already be aware of this, as you've been getting handy little notices when a new post goes up. But for the rest of you ::cough:slackers:: here's a quick guide to what's been posted lately:

PICTURES
* all Bangkok photos are here
* they're also broken down into more manageable categories such as
- Grand Palace and Wat Pho
- Chachoengsao
- Loy Krathong
- Pattaya
- Samut Prakan
- the rest of Bangkok, including pics from Ma Tuk's house, several markets, and lots of food!
* oh, and Singapore pics are up too

BLOG POSTS
* all Bangkok posts in one big-ass chunk
* First taste of Bangkok
* Chachoengsao and a river cruise
* Happy Loy Krathong!
* Not-so-divine comedy
* Party time, excellent!
* Cul-cha, and a bit of seedy underbelly
* Both ends of the spectrum in Samut Prakan
* all Singpore blog posts are here

So have a read, and let us know what you think! We love reading your comments and questions. And thanks to the eagle-eyed folks who have pointed out incorrect links and other bugs. This QA is much appreciated, and helps us know that someone's actually paying attention to what we write here. ;)

Living in an Opeth album cover

2009-01-07T12:15:00-04:00

Oy vey, all this murky grey weather we've been having lately is seriously kicking my ass! Makes me feel like we're living in the cover of an Opeth album, and who doesn't want a dose of everyone's favorite Swedish death metal band while they're slogging through January? I know, I know, hope is just around the corner with all the Inauguration festivities, but in the meantime it's been a struggle just to get out of bed in the morning.

And just to pile it on a bit more, Mark and I have decided to reprise the juice fast/detox diet we did last spring. We both really need to purge some of the extra weight and bad habits we've fallen back into after a month of gluttony in SE Asia and then another month of gluttony for the holidays. This time around, we're doing it a bit differently. Rather than following the 21-day Martha's Vineyard diet to the letter, like we did last year, we're going to try something a bit more sustainable that incorporates some solid foods along with all the slurm. The focus will still be on fresh fruits and veggies in juice format, and lots of water and green tea, along with the occasional salad here and there. No coffee, no alcohol, no processed foods. Well, we might give ourselves a hall pass for the Inauguration celebration... it IS a historic event, after all!

Have any great raw foods recipes? I'd LOVE to see 'em! The biggest challenge last time was sheer boredom, so if we can manage to get a bit more creative this time, I think we'll have something. The plan is to do the stricter part of the program for three weeks or so, and then start incorporating other healthy foods gradually into the mix, while still focusing on a mostly-veggie diet for the long term. And hopefully this will become a sustainable blueprint for a healthy lifestyle, as opposed to a fleeting New Year's resolution that quickly crumbles into a pile of pretzel bags and empty wine bottles. So we'll see how it goes. Wish us luck!

Related posts:
* 2008 Detox results

Still time to support two great causes

2008-12-26T11:15:00-04:00

Passports With Purpose
Didn't get that great travel gadget you were hoping for? Looking for a way to spend some of that Christmas or Hanukkah dough? Need to find a charitable cause to assuage some of that year-end Western Guilt? Whatever the reason, there's still a week left to support Passports With Purpose, the brainchild of travel writers Beth Whitman of Wanderlust and Lipstick, Pam Mandel of Nerd’s Eye View, Debbie Dubrow of DeliciousBaby, and Michelle Duffy of WanderMom. Surf on over and check out the fantastic prizes, then buy as many raffle tickets as your heart desires. The funds raised will support Heifer International, an organization dedicated to eradicating world hunger. The raffle runs till December 29.

Celebrate Joan
On Saturday, December 27, my family will be organizing our third annual Celebrate Joan 4K-ish Walk in Allentown, PA. Proceeds will benefit the Joan Zamborsky Memorial Trust Fund, which supports educational programs for the disadvantaged kids at the high school where my mom taught. I realize that very few of you will be anywhere near Allentown on Saturday. What I'm asking is that everyone get out and take a walk, wherever you happen to be that day, and send me a few pics. We love doing this event every year, and one of our favorite parts is getting photos and stories from around the world. And regardless of which holidays you celebrate this time of year, we could all use a nice brisk walk to work off some of those delicious treats!

Happy Holidays everyone, and thanks for helping to make the world a better place! Here's to a fabulous 2009.

Word of the day: discombobulated

2008-12-11T11:30:00-04:00

dis*com*bob*u*lat*ed [dis-kuhm-bob-yuh-leyt-ed]
adjective
1. confused or disconcerted; upset; frustrated
2. thrown into a state of confusion; having self-possession upset
3. how you feel after coming home from a monthlong trip on the other side of the planet

So, we've been back for about a week now. On the surface, everything is back to normal (whatever that means). But as all seasoned globetrotters know, the longer you're away and the farther you go, the more your world gets thrown off-kilter once you come home. How am I discombobulated? Let me count the ways:

Sleeping patterns. OK, this one I expected. I've been to Asia before. It takes a while to get over jetlag. But this whole routine of not being able to fall asleep before about 2am, and then waking up at 4am, wide awake with no hope of getting back to sleep before the alarm goes off in a few short hours... I'm about over it. I am not a morning person, so being fully awake before the sun comes up is a disconcerting situation, to be sure.

Christmas holidays. You'd think that having been bombarded by "holiday" decorations and music the entire time we were in Southeast Asia -- which was itself pretty discombobulating... Christmas in a predominantly Buddhist or Muslim country, in the tropical heat? huh? -- would have prepared us to launch into the Christmas season upon returning home. But somehow missing Thanksgiving really threw off the rhythm for me this year. It doesn't help that all of our holiday decorations are packed up in storage in my dad's basement, so the house is devoid of all visual cues. I'm just not ready to face Christmas in two weeks!

Stuff. Everywhere. We couldn't fit a Christmas tree in the living room even if we wanted to, as we're still dealing with piles of mail, half-unpacked bags, rows of souvenir gifts en route to friends and family, and bits of trip doggerel to be stuck into journals. Oy vey. Fortunately we have folks coming over on Sunday for a dinner party, which will force us to whip the place into presentability! (Yes, Virginia, that's what closets are for.)

Big changes in 2009. 'Tis the season for New Year's resolutions, and while I have some of the usual suspects -- get more exercise, eat more veggies, do more volunteer work, etc -- I've also decided it's time to shelve the extended travel idea for a while. Even though it's something I've wanted very badly for at least the past two years, when I closely examine the facts, all signs point to Now Is Not The Time. So what does that mean? Well, an end to living life on hold, for starters. We'll reclaim our house as a home, take it completely off the market, and bring back some of the personality that was stripped away when we vanillafied it (per our realtors' advice) for the Soccer Mom demographic. I'm going to work on finding a new job that incorporates travel, so I can hit the road on a regular basis and still hang onto a steady paycheck. (More on that to come, and I will definitely be hitting some of you up for brainstorming and other support!) And a few other attitude changes that basically sum up to enjoying life in the present tense.

So, yeah, I'm pretty discombobulated this week. But somehow I've also been enjoying it, for the most part anyway. I think it has something to do with not falling completely back into the old routine. Travel, after all, is about breaking your routine and pushing beyond your comfort zone. If I can hang onto some of that while traveling through each day, and still enjoy the ride, I'd be ahead of the curve.

C'mon, I can't be the only one discombobulated during this hectic season. Misery loves company! What's got you out of sorts?

I Heart Japanese Toilets

2008-12-04T03:15:00-04:00

We're en route back home today, via Singapore, with a brief stop in Tokyo's Narita Airport. After a month on the road, with the occasional questionable toilet facilities, I have to admit a certain jubilance at the high-tech Japanese commodes at the airport. For the uninitiated, toilets in Japan are not only spotlessly clean but also feature state-of-the-art features such as heated seats, bidet spigots, and even a faux flushing sound to cover any undue bodily noises. They're not terribly exciting in and of themselves, but again, after a month of Asian squat toilets (with mandatory swarms of mosquitoes) and other sketchy plumbing adventures, it was a welcome change.

There will be lots of catch-up over the next month or so as we process the four DVDs full of pics and videos, and convert journal entries into engaging blog entries. So be sure to watch this space in the weeks to come!

But first, a glass of red wine and a visit to our nice soft bed.

Hello Sarawak, are you ready to RAWK?

2008-12-03T00:00:00-04:00

We opted to spend our time in Kuching (on the Sarawak side of Malaysian Borneo) visiting slightly touristy spots: Sarawak cultural village, two caves, and orangutans. After a few stressful travel days getting here from Sabah, we were kinda worn out and needed a few days of mellowness. Fortunately our couchsurfing host, Barry, provided a comfy place for us to crash. And we enjoyed meeting Bruno, a fellow CSer from Paris who happened to be surfing with Barry at the same time we were there. Barry, another chef, took us to some awesome off-the-beaten path Chinese restaurants in Kuching that were definitely not listed in Lonely Planet. So despite the organized tours, we felt vindicated that our Kuching stay was sufficiently authentic.

Day One was spent at Sarawak Cultural Village, which reminded me of Colonial Willamsburg. Composed of several different tribal longhouses clustered at the foothills of Mount Santubong, SCV is a great way to get a sampling of Sarawak's ethnic diversity. There's a cultural performance in the welcome center -- yes, it ranks pretty high on the cheese-o-meter, but it's also a handy way to check out the beautiful fabrics and distinct dances of each of the tribes represented in the village. And then you can wander through half a dozen different longhouses to see how each tribe lives. My favorites were the Penan longhouse, where Mark practiced shooting a blowpipe, and the Orang-ulu longhouse, which featured a little dude playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" in a fornlorn minor key on both a sape and a saron.

Day Two took us to the nearby Wind and Fairy Caves, which may not be as extraordinary as World Heritage-ranking Gunung Mulu, but have the benefit of being easily-reachable via daytrip from Kuching. Wind Cave, the smaller of the two, hosts lots of bats and swiftlets. Swiftlet nests, made from bird spit and random detritus, are used to make the infamous Chinese soup (and other dubious delicacies). Fairy cave features an enormous cavern, views across the border into Indonesian Borneo, and some mildly strenuous climbs into some limestone nooks and crannies.

We also spent some time exploring Kuching, the Cat City. (Ten points if you can read the name Kuching and not automatically shout out "Ka-CHING!" which is what most people have done when we've told them about this part of the trip.) Nobody seems entirely sure why Kuching is called the Cat City, but the result is that there are myriad kitschy cat statues all over town. Fantastic Chinese restaurants as well, whether of the sit-down or street stall variety.

We couldn't leave Borneo without seeing some orangutans, aka the "Wild Man of Borneo." There are two major orangutan rehab centers in Borneo... and no, neither of them remotely resemble the Betty Ford Clinic. We missed seeing Sepilok, which is near Sandakan in Sabah. So we wanted to make sure we visited Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, just outside Kuching. There are two main viewing platforms where orangutans gather to be fed by the Malaysian equivalent of Ranger Smith. Personally I found the ranger's splendid mullet almost as fascinating as the antics of the orangutans he was feeding. Even though it was a sanitized environment, it was still pretty cool to see these fascinating creatures at close range.

RECOMMENDED:
Sarawak Cultural Village
Pantai Damai, Santubong
Sarawak, Malaysia

Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Emerging from the jungle

2008-11-30T10:00:00-04:00

We spent our Thanksgiving in the Bornean jungle on the banks of the river Kinabatangan. After two days of mucking around in mud up to our knees, with ants in our pants, amidst many monkeys, we're pretty happy to return to (relative) civilization here in Kota Kinabalu. Yesterday we spent the day on a 10-hour bus ride from Sandakan to KK. The scenery was amazing, but as you can imagine it was a long journey. Today we're catching a flight to Sarawak state, the other half of Malaysian Borneo, to couchsurf in Kuching for the last few days of our trip.

At the moment, we're pretty glad to *not* be in Bangkok or Mumbai! Things are pretty mellow in Malaysia (fingers crossed) and we wish safe passage to our fellow travelers in these troubled areas.

Schadenfreude in the jungle

2008-11-28T00:00:00-04:00

We got up early -- really, REALLY early -- for a morning river cruise. While it was moderately pleasant to be skimming along the river in the misty morning, we didn't really see a whole lot. In exchange for getting up at 5am? Sorry, not thick enough.

After brekkie, the day's main event: a 3-hour hike to Oxbow Lake. We donned the abominable boots, slathered on the sunscreen and skeeter cream, and filled up the water bottle. We were mostly in the shade of the forest, but it was still beastly hot and ridiculously humid. Our fearless leader, Jungle Jay, spent a lot of time explaining which plants were poisonous and which were medicinal. We even tasted a few. Yvonne, who turned out to be quite the diva, gave him a hard time at every turn, grumbling about having to taste random plants and complaining about the heat. Mark and I marveled that she would have signed up for two solid days of this... shouldn't she be off in some spa somewhere getting a mud wrap, as opposed to slogging through mud up to her ankles?

Well, as it turned out, she got a bit more mud than she'd bargained for. In one hilarious moment of jungle schadenfreude -- I'm so totally going to hell in a handbasket -- we were crossing a particularly moist meadow. Somehow Jay and the Swedes managed to lithely skirt the huge puddle in the middle, but Yvonne got herself completely stuck. Knee-deep in the muck, she stood mewling and making faces and calling out for *someone* to help rescue her. I was the closest person, but I couldn't resist snapping as many pics as possible. Meanwhile Jay doubled back and pulled her out, but not before she nearly lost a boot to the mire. She was pretty annoyed at me. It was totally worth it.

We made it to Oxbow Lake and back in time for another tastier-than-expected lunch, and then a free afternoon to rinse off the mud and chillax a bit. And then -bam!- another river cruise at 4pm. No rest for the wicked. For the first ten minutes or so, we saw nothing. Despair! Would this be a completely critterless day? But then we were rewarded. First a huge cluster of proboscis monkeys, and then a group of long-tail macaques. Up close and personal! Kickass. It was great fun to watch them do their monkey thang: swinging, chattering, grooming each other. Good stuff. And a nice alternative to a day when our compatriots back home were swarming the malls for Black Friday bargains.

You know where you are? You're in the jungle, baby!

2008-11-27T00:00:00-04:00

We spent our Thanksgiving in a slightly non-traditional way. After rising early to catch the only bus out of Semporna, and enjoying an uneventful 4.5-hour bus ride through eastern Borneo, we got dumped off at the side of the road next to the Medan Selera Coffeehouse in Bukit Garam. This was the appointed rendezvous spot where the good folks at Nature Lodge Kinabatangan had promised to pick us up. One problem: this might have been the former location of said coffee shop, but it was clearly closed due to construction. And none of the locals hanging around the disheveled strip mall had any idea what we were talking about. So we hung out at the one open restaurant across the street and hoped for the best. Along the way, we picked up a trio of confused-looking Swedes, who'd just gotten off the bus from Kota Kinabalu and had received the same enigmatic instructions from the lodge. Happily, misery (aka confusion plus stultifying heat) loves company. It's always better to be lost with someone else!

Fortunately, the Nature Lodge folks did eventually happen along, and whisked us away for an hourlong journey to the lodge that included off-roading over a bumpy dirt path and then a quick boat ride across the mighty Kinabatangan river. And, finally, we'd arrived!

Nature Lodge Kinabatangan is a pleasant, rustic cluster of buildings along the banks of the river. There's a main lodge that houses the kitchen and open-air dining room, a dorm cabin, shared toilets, and several smaller cabins sprinkled throughout the property. The staff are friendly (like almost all Malays, if you don't count cabbies) and energetic. We'd signed up for the two-day package, which turned out to be a highly-structured series of morning boat rides, midday hikes, and a night walk or two. Normally such precise agendas are not the way we prefer to experience a place, but trekking with professional guides seemed like the best option for wildlife-spotting. So, after a quick moment to freshen up and dump our bags, we trooped back to the boat dock for our first guided boat ride. Our crew consisted of "Jungle Jay," our sprightly and knowledgeable guide; Carolina, Josefin, and Emma, the three jovial 20something Swedes; a sardonic German woman named Yvonne; and a pungent Czech dude called something like Hamze or Janze. (I never did quite catch his name. He'd been traveling for the better part of two years and clearly relished hanging out with wildlife much more than conversation with other people.) We piled into the boat and set off down the mighty, muddy Sungai Kinabatangan.

At first we didn't see anything besides a few other resorts, tastefully set back from the shoreline. But eventually long-tailed macaques and proboscis monkeys availed themselves. Many brown-blob-in-a-tree photos were snapped. Jay proved adept at spotting hornbills and other birds, as well as monkeys and the occasional lizard along the river banks. I have to admit, after three days of diving in the world's most stunning aquarium, and seeing all manner of sea creatures at arm's length, it was a bit anticlimactic to have to pull out a pair of binoculars to see the jungle wildlife. We'd clearly been spoiled.

After another quick break and a surprisingly tasty dinner of fresh fish, it was time for the night hike. We donned some nasty rubber boots -- the jungle equivalent of bowling shoes, bleccch -- and our best long pants/long sleeves garb to discourage leeches. Bug spray, check. Flashlights, check. OK, let's go see some nightlife! Mostly we saw some bigass bugs -- scorpions, enormous grasshoppers, a shaggy caterpillar -- but we also lucked into a tarsier spotting. Feet like a frog, 180-degree turning head like an owl, giant creepy eyes like a space alien, tarsiers are funky little nocturnal primates. They jump between trees to catch bugs and sometimes even birds. We were fortunate enough to surprise one with a high-powered flashlight and it stayed in one place long enough for everyone to snap some great photos. And then, in a flash, it bounced away without touching the ground once. Freaky-deaky.

No leeches spotted on this trip, despite everyone's paranoia. Really, the most disturbing part of the night hike was the hideous slurping sucking sound our boots made in the ever-present jungle slurm. Lovely. The fact that we couldn't see much made it even worse. Plus it was hot and mercilessly humid. By the end of the hourlong hike, we were well ready for bed. 'Twas an interesting alternative to overeating turkey and carbs with some inane football game in the background, I tell ya what. Happy Thanksgiving!

RECOMMENDED:
Nature Lodge Kinabatangan
Sabah, Malaysian Borneo
(book through Nasalis Larvatus Tours)

Knick-knack, PADI-whack

2008-11-24T20:55:00-04:00

Apa khabar from Semporna, Sabah, on Malaysian Borneo! We're here for a few days to bask in total scubaliciousness and dive at some of the world's top sites. We also decided to go ahead and get our Advanced certifications while we're here (what better place to do it?) which is a fairly simple thing since we've already got our basic Open Water certifications. So far we've done one day of diving (three dives) and it's been absolute heaven. Stay tuned, more to come...

Kuala Lumpur: many lessons learned

2008-11-21T00:00:00-04:00

Our time in Kuala Lumpur, or "K-L" as it's known locally, was a series of great travel lessons. We got to meet lots of fellow travelers, had an amazing local dinner, and saw some spectacular sites. But overall, our time in the Malaysian capital left a bad taste in my mouth.

We arrived early on Friday, Nov 21, via the shiny happy Aeroline bus from Penang. As before, it dropped us off a few blocks from KL's main attraction, the Petronas Towers. We stashed our bags at a nearby hotel concierge desk, and trudged over in the blazing midday heat to see about some free tickets to the top of the Towers. Oops, turns out that in order to get one of the allotted free tickets, you have to show up at the crack of dawn. Not the crack of 1:30pm. Oh well. What about Menara KL, the other big tower in town? It didn't seem to be within walking distance, plus we also wanted to check out Batu Caves. So we decided to visit the tourism bureau, located nearby and recommended by the folks at Petronas. Once we finally found the place, we were doubly pleased to find both AC and free internet. The headscarved woman behind the desk cheerfully told us there was a bus heading to the caves in about 20 minutes. Perfect! Just enough time to check some email and cool down a bit.

Hey friends and neighbors, what's that I hear? It must be time for another Travel Lesson Learned the Hard Way! This one can be spun in two versions...

1) Don't bother with tourism bureaus! Indie travelers should find their own way around.

2) Always ask lots of stupid questions, like "exactly where does this bus go, and how many obnoxious tourist stops will there be along the way before we reached our desired destination?"

We should have just taken a bus, or even a cab, straight to the caves. Instead we got loaded into a stifling mini bus with five other people, and schlepped to not one but two shopping stops! First the stupid pewter factor (and wouldn't you love to buy a big heavy useless somethingorother from the lovely gift shop?) and then the only slightly more interesting batik shop (and how 'bout a lovely silk scarf or ten?). ::: sigh ::: By the time we reached Batu Caves, we only had about 45 minutes to explore. Right. Got it. Lessons. Learned.

The caves *were* very cool, and just about worth the headaches to get there. Guarded by an enormous gold statue, 272 steps take pilgrims to the caverns at the top. Two Hindu shrines, tons of monkeys, it's quite a spectacle. Once you reach the top you cross an enormous chamber to get to another opening with sunlight streaming in. There were some Hindu ceremonies taking place, but it was hard to take them seriously with people crawling over each other to snap pics and monkeys running through the proceedings. Monkeys drinking leftover soda from Coke cans. Ah, Western culture rears its ugly head yet again!

We got dropped off back at the tourist bureau, after sitting through about an hour of KL's gnarliest rush hour traffic. It turns out the KL Tower (Menara KL) was within walking distance after all. Armed with several maps and somewhat-explicit instructions from the van driver, we walked about 20 minutes to the base of the tower. Fortunately there's a shuttle to take weary visitors to the tower entrance. It was a pretty well-organized place, with audio headsets and numbered viewing stations to explain the vistas in each direction. Through a murky sunset, we watched the lights come on at the nearby Petronas Towers and across town.

Touristy items crossed off the list, it was time to rendezvous with Ken, our couchsurfing host for the next two nights. We tried the public phones, but couldn't find one that actually worked. No wireless around. Hmm... we decided to ask if we could use the phone at one of the nicer restaurants at the base of the tower. Scoping out an Indian place that looked decent, we asked if we could make a local call, and fortunately the cheery manager agreed. We called Ken and got his address, which turned out to be a mind-boggling page of complex catenations of words and numbers and more words. Oh boy. He recommended taking the train out to a nearby MRT stop and grabbing a cab from there.

In retrospect, this is really what we should have done. But we were pretty pooped from a day of humid siteseeing, and thought it would be easier to grab a cab out there.

Uh-oh, do you hear that? It's the sound of another Travel Lesson Learned, boys and girls! Strap in for this ride!

We started at the first taxi stand, a respectable-looking kiosk that turned out to be run by the Malaysian version of The Three Stooges. Not only did they have no idea where Ken's place was (despite the reference point of a nearby MRT stop... that only seemed to confuse them more...) but they also wanted to charge us a small fortune to get there! No way, man. The second taxi stand quoted us about a third of the price, and the dispatcher seemed to think it would be no trouble for the driver to find the place. So we paid the dispatcher, got a receipt, and hopped into the next available cab. The driver first took us to the hotel where our bags had been stashed for the day, and while Mark was inside collecting our stuff, I asked if he knew how to get where we needed to go. He waved the receipt in the air and muttered "airport, airport." No, I insisted, we weren't going to the airport, we needed to be taken to a specific address, as agreed upon! I showed him the address, and he snarled something about not knowing where that was. Great. Well *I* sure as hell don't know how to get there! I offered him Ken's phone number to get the directions, and he insisted we'd need to use a pay phone to make the call. Lovely. So we got to see firsthand the legendary surliness of KL cabbies, how delightful.

When Mark got back in the cab, we took off. With no idea of where we were going, or how we'd get to Ken's place from the airport, it was a somewhat tense ride. At some point the cabbie's cell phone rang, so he was totally busted about not having a phone to call for directions. Ha! As we started to get a little closer (maybe?) to Ken's neighborhood, the cabbie pulled over and went into a gas station to get some smokes. Great, now what? When he came back we gave him Ken's number and he got more explicit directions. OK, now we're getting somewhere we want to be! But when we got to the apartment complex, the security guard said we were at the wrong end. Too late, the cantankerous f'er dumped us out on the curb and sped off. We had to walk about another half mile to get to Ken's place. *&#^! I haven't been so furious at a random stranger since... well, maybe never.

We did finally make it to Ken's apartment, about a half hour later, bedraggled and fairly surly ourselves. Ever the gracious host, Ken got us situated in our room and we were able to shower and calm down. He cooked us a fantastic homemade Cantonese dinner, and we got to chat with him a bit. A sociology professor who once worked for an airline and used to live in Europe, Ken also happens to be a great cook and an active participant in the KL couchsurfing scene. We enjoyed a lively conversation and were able to bring this frustrating day to a pleasant close.

The next day, after sleeping late and getting some laundry done, we helped Ken prepare for a couchsurfing dinner party. We were expecting a potluck-style meal where everyone brought a dish of some sort. Instead, it turned into a showcase of Baba-Nyonya cuisine, all cooked by our host! Whew. The party itself was an international melange of about 20 locals and surfers from all over the globe. As usual, we were the only Americans. We got to meet a French-Canadian divemaster living in Vietnam, a funky little British dude who sells lap pools in Thailand, a twitchy German who seemed to hate everything, and many vivacious and friendly Malays.

All in all, our time in KL was pretty challenging. We saw some cool stuff and met some cool people, but I was pretty happy to wrap up our visit to Peninsular Malaysia and cross KL off the list. Next stop: Malaysian Borneo!

Related links:
* all our pics of KL
* Indie Travel Podcast's excellent KL recap (blog article and podcast)

Friends in high places, part two

2008-11-20T17:00:00-04:00

[if you missed part one, you can find it here]

A few days later, curiosity got the best of us and we decided to check out the views from Komtar Tower. Looming over Georgetown, the 65-story concrete monstrosity is part of a complex that includes government offices and retail space, as well as an observation deck at the very top. It appeared to be a moderate walk from our hotel, so we decided to maximize the tourist experience and hop into a trishaw.

Ah, trishaws. Myriad versions of these ingenious vehicles can be found all over Southeast Asia; in Malaysia they’re typically powered by a small wiry man on a rear-mounted bicycle, with a padded seat attached in front. Trishaws are often elaborately tricked out with lights, flowers, and sometimes even a sound system. Riding in one is akin to being in a bizarre video game where you’re cruising along slowly and almost at ground level, helplessly flung into hair-raising traffic rushing past you at approximately Mach Two. I imagine this is what it might feel like to roller-skate around the DC Beltway at rush hour.

We managed to flag down a driver and squeezed our big American butts into the seat. “Oh, heavy!” the hapless driver exclaimed, and proceeded to huff and puff his way towards the tower. Fortunately, this part of Penang is pretty flat, and it turned out we only had to travel a few blocks to reach our destination. I was worried that the guy might have a heart attack along the way, but he was truly a pro, and managed to get us there without collision or medical incident. We gave him a big tip in a vain attempt to assuage our Western guilt.

Upon arriving at Komtar Tower, which has an enormous, Byzantine open-air mall at its base, we wandered around for a while, trying to find the way to the observation deck. No signs, no information desk, not even an elevator bank shed any light on what was apparently a very well-kept secret. Instead, a dizzying array of stalls selling the usual cheap clothing and electronics stretched for what seemed like blocks in all directions. Suddenly a man appeared in our path.

“I know you!” Mark said, and by this time we were both grinning. “We recognize you, even though you look different with clothes on!”

Incredibly, it was our old buddy William, fully clothed this time. He grinned back at us. “USA!” he exclaimed. “You came to tower! Good to see you again!” And then, with a bit of humility as he recollected our previous meeting, he added, “I show you my body!”

You did indeed, my odd little Malaysian friend. Now how ‘bout you show us how to get to the top of this joint? And so he did. It turns out we’d blazed right past the ground-floor info desk and elevators. William not only showed us the way, he rode up in the elevators with us and took us straight to the ticket desk at the top floor. Clearly proud to be bringing his own personal tour group up to the observation deck, he showed us some of the town’s salient features, pointed out a few sights, and insisted we have the ticket lady take a picture of the three of us.

Busy man that he was, William bid us adieu, and presumably went back to his activities at the tower’s ground level. We stood by the windows bemused at what a small world it was. Granted, Penang is a pretty small island, but what were the chances of meeting the same random guy a few days later? Just then, he appeared again! This time he was brandishing a small scrap of paper with his name and address, and asked if we would please send him a copy of the photo. He didn’t have email, so we’d need to snail-mail him an actual print. Yes, certainly, no problem, we promised to send a copy when we returned to DC, with a mental note to include the one of him proudly posing shirtless from our first meeting, for full before and after effect.

We continued our Penang sightseeing and moved on to visit other parts of Malaysia, half expecting to see William pop up around any random corner like an Asian leprechaun guiding us to hidden pots of touristy gold. It became a running joke… would William appear on the street in Kuala Lumpur, to take us up the Petronas Towers? Might we see him 50 feet underwater while scuba diving at Sipadan? Perhaps he’d pop out of a longhouse in Sarawak, to show off his prowess with a blowpipe? Shirtless or otherwise, the guy definitely made our Penang excursion a memorable one, thanks to the unexpected, unscripted kindness of strangers.

Related information:
* More pictures from around Penang
* Friends in high places, part one

Second week recap

2008-11-20T00:00:00-04:00

We've managed to pack a lot into our second week! Here's a quick recap of what we've been up to during week two: the major themes include friends, food, and massage in Thailand, and Chinese temples and lots more food in Penang. We are gonna be like 400lbs each by the time this trip is over!

checking out the sites with Bruce & Anne:

Nong Nooch, ladyboy show, in Pattaya, on Soi Cowboy

Chatuchak market, Ancient Siam, floating market

a seriously endless parade of food:

exotic fruit plate, buffet lunch at Ma Tuk's, Vietnamese lunch

massages!

these two fabulous ladies gave us several two-hour massages, right in our bedroom (life does *not* suck!)

and on to Penang:

Khoo Kongsi, biggest incense sticks ever, Kek Lok Si Temple
(for the record we did climb all 7 levels of stairs to the top of that pagoda!)

at the top of Kek Lok Si; street food at Gurney Drive; Sonia slurps up some asam laksa

Friends in high places, part one

2008-11-18T16:00:00-04:00

Travel is all about being open to new experiences and finding adventures in unexpected places. But this is easier said than done, especially when you arrive in a new place all hot and dusty and tired, with your plans slightly off-kilter and your attitude completely askew.

And this was exactly the state we were in as we found ourselves wandering the streets of Georgetown, Penang. We’d just arrived in Malaysia that morning, after spending a pampered week in Bangkok, only to discover that our CouchSurfing host had ditched us. No matter, we quickly found other accommodations, despite the relentless tropical humidity that threatened to melt our brains. After seeing some of the more obvious nearby attractions in Georgetown – Chinese clan houses, mosques, Hindu temples – we took a purposeful “wrong” turn off the main road and strolled into the heart of Penang’s Chinatown district. We passed rows of cramped, no-frills shops, piled high with boxes and stacks of merch on tables, bastions of capitalism that practically screamed out “We got stuff! You want stuff?” No glossy marketing tactics in this neighborhood. This was definitely a no-nonsense part of town.

Halfway through a nondescript block, on a street of no particular distinction, a shirtless man wandered out of his narrow row house, alternately rubbing his eyes and his bare chest as though he’d just awoken from a nap. And in this ponderous heat, who could blame him for copping a mid-afternoon snooze? He looked about as surprised to see us as we were to see him, especially in such a revealing outfit. His eyes flew open, and he rushed into the street to greet us. Not knowing what might happen next, we cautiously stood our ground for his approach.

“Hello!” shouted the little man excitedly. “Where you from?”

“USA.” I replied, allowing the standard beat to pass to see what his response might be. I was prepared to follow up with a thumbs-up, big smile, and “Obama, yay!” (As a side note, it will be so nice to no longer have to do the raspberry/thumbs-down/Bush-yuck routine upon meeting new people in other countries.)

“Oh! USA! Very good! Why you here?” our new friend inquired, scratching his head. Apparently he didn’t encounter too many Americans in these blocks off the tourist circuit.

We proceeded to tell him about our travel plans in Southeast Asia, and he in turn shared a dirty joke about Thailand. It was sufficiently eye-roll-inducing that I’ll not repeat it here, although we did chuckle politely. Now on an enthusiastic roll with how he’d entertained us, he pointed towards what we later learned was Menara Komtar, Penang’s tallest building. He chirped a vaguely suspicious sales pitch about the 360° view of the island, and encouraged us to get there first thing in the morning for a breakfast snack. As a peculiar counterpoint to the entire conversation, the man, who said his name was William, continued rubbing his pancakey pectorals. He seemed to have an endless wellspring of information to impart to us, so it was a bit of a relief when it began to rain and we were afforded a graceful way to bow out of the conversation.

With his permission, we snapped a picture of him posing proudly like a Greek statue gone wrong, said our goodbyes, and promised to consider a trip to the top of Komtar.

We figured that was the end of our encounters with William.

[to be continued...]

Back in Malaysia

2008-11-18T13:05:00-04:00

We managed to grab a ridiculously early-morning flight out of BKK -- the upside was that there was absolutely no sign of the hideous soul-numbing Bangkok traffic! -- and we're now in Penang, Malaysia. Since internet access is pretty cheap and abundant around here, we may have a bit more time to post and catch up on previous posts. Pics, too, as there are SOOOOOOO many good ones from our time in Thailand.

In the meantime, we already miss our comfy Bangkok oasis at Ma Tuk's. Upon arriving in Penang, we stopped at the guesthouse that had been arranged for us by a local couchsurfer. (We'd originally planned to surf with him, but I guess he doesn't have space this week.) The place, shall we say, was a little rough around the edges. Particularly after our week in the lap of luxury! So we picked another place around the corner. The Hotel Hong Ping is still sorta in the budget range at roughly $20 a night, but feels much safer and comfier. We're in the main hub of Georgetown, the primary city on Pulau Pinang (Penang Island) and there are tons of restaurants, pubs, and of course internet cafes! We'll probably do a bit of siteseeing this afternoon and will try to book a scuba daytrip to nearby Pulau Payar in the next day or two.

Bangkok, in a nutshell, was awesome. The legendary Thai hospitality was in full swing, as Zoe's family showed us an amazing time. We saw temples, gardens, wildlife... to say nothing of all the food. Traditional Thai meals, Japanese Sukiyaki, Vietnamese, fresh seafood, amazing fruits and satay and other snacks... Mark and I suspect they were trying to fatten us up like two Christmas geese! We joked that we won't need to eat anything the entire rest of the trip. And our "suite" by the pool was absolutely divine. Totally spoiled. We also got to meet up with Bruce & Anne, and check out some of the sites with them. It was wonderful to catch up with what they've been up to in Perth, and give them the lowdown on all the usual suspects at home.

Onward and upward! We'll be in Penang for a few days, then it's on to Kuala Lumpur for some more couchsurfing and a gourmet dinner. What was I saying about not eating anything the rest of this trip...?