3750 km (ho chi minh city).

the end!

i've gotten a little lazy with photos in the last few weeks, but here are some highlights from vietnam:

before coming to the mekong delta, i spent five days on the island of phu quoc.

sunset from my phu quoc bungalow.

while in cantho, i visited some floating markets. it was, unfortunately, a very overcast day.

this was how you could tell what people were selling.

much of the cycling i did in the mekong delta was on roads like this.

i almost got engaged on this ferry. clifford watched.

ho chi minh traffic! there are 4 million motos in hcmc. it was kind of a thrill to bike in.

ho chi minh rush hour.

well, this is the last post on hifromhk. thanks so much to all of you who've followed my adventures. tomorrow morning (very early) i'm flying to hong kong, where i'll spend four days before returning to the us on november 24th, just in time for thanksgiving. i can't wait to see many of you in the weeks to come! have a safe, warm and wonderful holidays. love, b.

3665 km (ben tre).

have you ever read mezzanine by nicholas baker? if i ever become a writer (ha) i'd be happy if my writing could be only half as scattered and rambling as his.

it seems to be a thing in vietnam to customize the ringtone your motorcycle plays when put in reverse. i've heard everything from beethoven's 'für elise' to 'santa clause is coming to town.'

yesterday was one of those days (i've had maybe a dozen of them on this trip - examples include meeting buela in the middle of nowhere southern laos or getting help from a handful of different people in northern cambodian who positioned clifford (and me and my bags) on the back of a moto in ways i never thought possible) when it feels like particular people were placed along my path for the sole purpose of completely altering and greatly improving my day's plan. since that sounds super egocentric, let me try again. perhaps i'm just finding myself in awe of how again and again, i head out in the morning having only a vague idea of how to get to the next big town, oblivious to the events of the day ahead, and somehow i always end up, in an admitedly roundabout but totally unexpected way, at my intended destination.

yesterday's chance encounter was chin, a vietnamese sign designer in his mid 50s who pulled up beside me on his moto about 40 km outside of cantho. he asked if he could practice his english with me, and i said yes. over lunch and coffee (which he insisted on buying despite my repeated attempts to pay, because in vietnam he said, the person who invites must pay) chin and i talked about life in vietnam. his english was pretty limited, but we managed to cover a lot of ground. after lunch, chin told me that the route i'd intended to take was dumb (he said too long), and that there was a much better way. soon i was following him on a bumpy road to an unknown destination. about five kilometers out of town, a ferry appeared, and after handing me his business card (write me a letter!) with directions written on the back in vietnamese, he told me to get on. then i got on the ferry, amid giggles and taigaoles.

at this point, i knew i was in the mekong delta, but that was about it. i got off the ferry, gave the business card to a teenage boy who then pointed straight ahead and drove off. then a man stole my oranges. then i biked the wrong way (on a thin path through beautiful countryside!) for five kilometers before showing the business card to someone else who told me to turn around. after retracing my pedals, i found another ferry, which i soon learned was the one i wanted. then i got on the ferry (third of four). on the ferry two men, using sign language, communicated that they would like to arrange a marriage for me and the woman sitting to my left. i smiled awkwardly at the woman sitting to my left, who didn't seem to know any of us, and said (in sign language) that i didn't think that was such a good idea. after parting ways with my ferry companions, i soon rejoined the larger highway i'd left with chin (his shortcut saved me maybe 40 km), and made my way to ben tre.

clifford and i are separating for good in two days. we've been fighting more than usual, but i just think it's our natural way of creating distance to ease the heartache. whenever we're not fighting (not often these days...), we talk about how much fun we've had together, how much we've both changed. and besides, i'm leaving him in good hands. i'm just hoping the next owner can tighten his spokes as well as i did.

3545 km (cantho).

i'm in the mekong delta!

this afternoon while i was biking along at my usual 80 km/h, a bee hit my handle bar and literally shattered to pieces. as if that wasn't surprising enough, i then watched (in slow motion) as the stinger (sans bee) spiraled up my sleeve and stung me on the chest. it hurt.

more to come from ho chi minh, including photos and a map update, when i have internet that is actually useful.

3175 km (takeo).

it's november 4th in cambodia. when i wake up tomorrow morning, we'll have a new president.

i read hemingway's a moveable feast in phnom penh and felt inspired to do some slightly more personal writing. i can say with 100% certainty that this would not have happened a year ago.

i actually wrote this two days ago, but thought i'd share it with you now:

i've loved phnom penh, but somehow i feel guilty about this. guilt guilt guilt. thanks, pomona.

phnom penh is such a contradiction: a bustling, forward looking city that is still haunted by the atrocities of the past. a city proud of its independence after shaking off colonial rule in 1953, that now thrives on and grows with the heavy aid of outsiders. french colonial buildings that age and then crumble in poorer parts of the country are here maintained by expats and developed into leafy restaurants, bars and boutique stores for the benefit and enjoyment of other westerners.

phnom penh, a ''backwater capital,'' feels very cambodian. it is also the easiest developing capital city i have ever spent time in.

easy, for me, has always been the source of guilt.

the last thirty years have been a constant struggle in cambodia, as every person in this country tries to move on from the genocide of the khmer rouge. families attempt to recover, if they can, from losing a quarter of the cambodian population.

and now, thirty three years after the khmer rouge took over, i bike in from the north, and everything comes so easy. the cambodians i meet are warm and friendly. the weather is wonderful. i hear more english and see more westerners than i have in weeks. i eat well and stay in a beautiful apartment.

before my arrival, i'd only focused on the difficulties of the past. now, it seems, i'm surrounded by a very optimistic present.

i force an acknowledgement of the contradictions, both hidden and overt, to make my experience feel more real, which maybe means more difficult. why does privilege bring the desire to make things harder?

i spend the morning aimlessly winding my way through the stalls of central market, bargaining with women over cashews and ray bans. i bike slowly along palm shaded streets, in a futile attempt to stay cool as the midday heat descends. motos with three, four, five people speed by, dodging the young children splashing in puddles from last night's rain. i see victims of khmer rouge landmines begging outside of enormous, gleaming temples. lunch is on the shaded, open roof of a colonial building. i treat myself to a chocolate almond crepe, as i watch the traffic circle independence monument below. i spend the afternoon in a khmer rouge detention center made queasy by the sight of elementary classrooms turned into torture chambers. before spanish tapas, i find myself at the foreign correspondents club drinking sangria beside belligerent foreigners as i watch men fish with mosquito netting from the banks of the mekong below.

how can this all happen in one city, in one day?

3085 km (phnom penh)

phew, that kilometer count is starting to look a little silly...

i arrived in phnom penh friday after a speedy 440 km, 4 day ride from the 4000 islands. i'm staying with a fellow pomona grad, nora petty, in her beautiful downtown apartment. i'll be here until tuesday, at which point i'll make my way to the coastal city of kampot, before turning east towards the small town of kep. i'll cross the border into vietnam on sunday, and then cycle through the mekong delta to ho chi minh city. i have to move pretty quickly in vietnam, because i fly back to hong kong on the 2oth, before returning to the us on the 24th. hard to believe, less than three weeks left!

i can hear the macarena playing outside my window.

some photos:sin and clifford get acquainted, while papa looks on.

4000 islands

4000 islands

cambodia. i can't get enough of the clouds in this part of the world.

2845 km (kratie).

i'm in cambodia!

cliff is pretty upset with me these days. so far, he's broken 14 spokes, and gotten two flat tires. i did teach myself how to true a tire on the side of the road today. that was fun.

we've spent a good deal of time in the past few towns with bike/moto mechanics. i think, though, i've started to enjoy sitting on the side of the road at random bike shops as much or more than visiting sites. it's a great way to melt into the surroundings and just watch the world go by. today, after replacing three broken spokes, we completely took apart the free wheel (layer cake of gears on the back tire) and repacked the ball bearings inside (all things i didn't know were possible until about two hours ago). the mechanic/father was careful to show his son all the steps involved as he repaired it.

southern laos was wonderful - it was hard to leave. heading south out of pakse, i met a bicycle gang of thai grandpas who i joined for most of the ride to cambodia. they were a lot of fun (not much english - lots of arm waving and broken thaiglish), and one of them even started calling himself my papa. i spent four days in the four thousand islands, exploring the thin dirt paths that crisscrossed the islands, and living my life long dream (i have other more admirable aspirations) of sitting in a hammock with a stack of books on one side and a beer on the other. i met up with a few scripps grads (jill helped connect me with mollie royer) which was lovely.

anyway, i'm still moving (as quickly as cliff allows) towards phnom penh. i'm hoping to be there in time for halloween. then it's southwest to the coast before turning east towards vietnam. i'll put up some photos when i have a faster internet connection in phnom penh.

2425 km (pakse).

i try to avoid writing long posts, because i don't read them, and don't expect you to, but this is sort of the culmination of what i've learned during my time in laos, and although it goes against a consistent positive/optimistic energy i think i've done well to maintain thus far, i wanted to get this all down before i head into cambodia (if this sentence exhausted you, it might be better to wait for my next post).

traveling always makes me (sometimes painfully) aware of how ignorant i remain of much of the world's political/social/cultural history. that's a big statement, and unrealistic, but i'm a cynic and expect too much of myself. being in laos has been really difficult at times, because i've learned so much about the enormous impact the united states had (and continues to have) on this country that is simply not taught in schools. sadly, se asia is not the only region this is true of.

i was hesitant to talk too much about my plans for the past week, because i really didn't know what to expect. on the 16th, i headed east from savannakhet, despite it being out of the way, because i wanted to see a part of laos that was and continues to be heavily impacted by the second indochina war (the vietnam war in the us, the american war in vietnam - actually occurred in vietnam, laos and cambodia for much longer than the us involvement, from 1959 to 1975). two days out of savannakhet i reached the small village of muang pinh, intending to head south on route 23 to the town of salavan. i wanted to take this road, originally built in the 1940s, because it at one time served as part of the ho chi minh trail (much of the trail didn't go through vietnam at all, but ran through eastern laos and northeast cambodia) until the us bombed the two major bridges along the road in 1966, forcing the vietnamese to find a new road, which they did. without bridges, the road quickly fell into disrepair. with this much in mind, i knew the road would be in very very bad shape, but that was when i was still operating under the assumption that i'd be dealing with a road. no one in town could give me any information on the road, but they did laugh at me when i said i wanted to take it. not a good sign.

the road ended up being 140 km, 55 km of which was on a treking trail. in the place of the two bombed out bridges (mind blowing to see these huge bridges in pieces in the river) i paid people to take me in small boats. the first and last thirds of the trip were on bumpy dirt tracks, but still pretty usable. after crossing the first river at the village of tad hay (after 35 km) i lost the road, and took off on a trail into the forest. although i was never, distance-wise, that far from larger towns, this 55 km leg of my journey was the most out there i've ever felt. the impact of the bombing was most obvious from the way people responded to me. multiple times, teenage girls ran from the road and hid in their fields as i approached, parents scowled at me and grabbed their children, and at one point, as i asked at a laos home for directions, a young child sobbed and rocked in the corner until i left.

needless to say, these interactions (in contrast to the incredibly warm reception i've received elsewhere in laos) left me shaken and confused. the reason, i, as a foreigner, am still viewed with fear and suspicion, has to do with the fact that almost all of the bombs dropped on laos during the indochina war were by american planes trying to stop the transfer of goods from north vietnam to south vietnam along the ho chi minh trail (pause: despite being largely a neutral force during the second indochina war, laos was the victim of the largest bombing campaign in the history of the world (1964-1973). of the 260 million cluster bombs dropped over laos during this period, it is estimated that 30%, or 78 million, failed to explode. these uxos (unexploded ordnances) still present a real and devastating risk for a large majority of the laos population. it's estimated that the 2 million dollars a day the us spent on 'the secret war,' or the bombing of the ho chi minh trail in laos, only affected about 15% of the cargo being transfered. the us army contributes nothing to the seriously underfunded clean up efforts.)

20 km into this 55 km leg i met buela, an english teacher (being an english teacher in laos doesn't mean you speak much english) who joined me for the next 35 km, intent on visiting his family he hadn't seen in a year. despite their being separated by only 35 km he rarely takes this journey due to the quality of the path (with at least 15 river crossings, it took us 7 hours). that night, after i had covered 90 km in 13 hours, buela and i stayed with his family in their small village. they were, as always, incredibly hospitable, and it was great to have buela serving as translator. at this point, clifford was a mess, and i spent much of the next morning trying to get him working again. with the bike vaguely in working order, i said goodbye to buela and his family and completed the rest of the trip, arriving in salavan around noon.

some photos:

the (still good) road passes through tad hay.

the morning light made this hard to take, but gives you an idea of bombed out bridge #1.

river crossing #7?

buela waits for me on the other side of river crossing #12.

it always takes a group to get clifford back on the road.

from salavan i headed into the bolavan plateau, a mountainous region famous for its coffee (plants originally imported from costa rica and colombia). i spent two nights in the plateau at, you guessed it, two more waterfalls (tad lo and tad fane) before heading down to pakse. one highlight was a stop in paksong at 1200 m (clifford needed some more work) where i spent the hottest part of the day with a dutch man who taught me how to 'wok-roast' coffee. he didn't let me leave until i got it down.

i apologize, that's a lot to handle all at once. i've learned so much since i've arrived, and since i know (and many of you know) i have a habit of getting a little obsessed, i'm going to stop there. it's going to be hard to leave laos. despite the persistent shadow of the second indochina war, i've had such a wonderful time in the past five weeks and have met so many accommodating, warm and friendly people. i've gotten attached to more than the sticky rice in a way that sort of snuck up on me.

clifford is in pretty good shape now. i can only use my top 16 of 24 gears, and i still have a back spoke that can't (for now) be fixed, but i'm hoping we'll limp along to phnom penh, where we might be able to get him back up to 100%. in my last few days in laos, i plan on visiting wat phu champasak (a famous temple south of paxse) and the 4000 islands, an area just north of the cambodian border where the mekong fans out and is filled with (during the dry season) 4000 sandbar islands. and then (both sadly and happily) it's on to cambodia.

1950 km (savannakhet).

have you ever tried a custard apple? i feel pretty mixed about them.

well, i'm back in laos after a quick trip through thailand. i didn't stray too far from my original path; i just followed the mekong on the other side. i decided, rather last minute, to do this, because i'd heard the roads and scenery on this leg were better in thailand.

the two (tourist spot) highlights from my six days in thailand were the sala keoku sculpture park, just outside of nong khai and wat phu tok.

sala keoku is a collection of sculptures created entirely out of concrete by one man (ban leua sourirat) after spending several years studying buddhism in a cave with a hermit whose lap he fell into one day (or so the story goes). the park was really unexpected, grotesque and fantastical to the extreme. the highlight was an interactive wheel of life sculpture that you had to crawl into, but photos of it didn't really turn out.

the temple at wat phu tok is nice but not the reason i visited. the monks of wat phu tok have built seven levels of meditation huts into the limestone hill that rises behind the temple. the different levels are connected by a rickety maze of wooden bridges. i spent the night in the town of ban phu tok with a family who ran a small restaurant on their front porch. the restaurant owner's husband was pretty excited about my bike trip and would occasionally tell my story to fellow diners, pointing me out and yelling 'you! bicycle! vietnammmmmm!'

my favorite meditation hut, on level 5.

i also really wanted to see northeast thailand as it is by far the most remote area in the country (as well as the poorest). called isan, northeast thailand is actually more lao than thai, and maybe more lao than laos itself (in the late 1700s, vientiane was sacked by siam and thousands of lao peasants were forcibly moved into northeast thailand and reduced to serfdom. now, many more ethnic laos actually live in thailand than in laos itself. this was further compounded in 1893 when the french created an administrate unit, named laos, that was half the size of the former kingdom known as lan xang). to me, isan still felt very thai, although there were a lot of things that reminded of laos (what does it mean to be lao?). the most noticeable difference is the wealth, though, creating a social and economic infrastructure that is still impossible in laos.

with that being said, it feels wonderful to be back in laos. savannakhet is a beautiful town on the mekong, famous for its crumbling french colonial architecture and palm lined dirt roads (reminding me constantly of st. louis in senegal). yesterday (as so many of you remembered! thank you!) was my birthday and the full moon festival. it made for a great evening. a few other travelers in my guesthouse joined me for an evening along the river, eating street food, drinking beerlao and watching hundreds of lao families place candles and incense on the mekong. unique and wonderful.

before i go, i'll leave you with two photos from rock climbing in vang vieng, and two photos from na nam, a village i stopped in on the way to vientiane.

limestone cliffs outside of vang vieng.

i really do almost always wear a shirt - this is a hot country though.

ang nam ngum reservoir.

rattan ball in na nam village.

the festivities continue today with boat races, street food and more beerlao. tomorrow i'm off again, heading east towards vietnam, before turning south. my route is more uncertain in this part of the country, although i'm aiming to be in cambodia within about ten days or so. thanks again for the birthday wishes! more soon.

1505 km (vientiane).

change of plans. i'm going to thailand (briefly).

hopefully i'll be back in laos in time for my birthday, which also happens to coincide with one of the biggest festivals in laos (bun awk phansa), marking the end of the rainy season.

short for now, but hopefully more from thailand!

1275 km (vangvieng).

'ten weeks with clifford (a love story)' continues.

it's strange to be so far away during the madness leading up to the us elections. now more than ever, i feel like fellow travelers see me as such a representative of the us. i've actually gotten hoorahs when i've said i'm absentee voting for obama. as if it was a hard choice. i guess i shouldn't be surprised, when the vice presidential debates i just suffered through are actually taken seriously. my dad sent me this about a month ago, but i'm reminded of it daily, as i'm questioned about the us elections.

i wanted to use this post, not to rant about politics (you at home are probably tired of it) but to talk about my recent obsession with sticky rice. and to also talk a little bit about the biking i've been doing.

i've really been struck by the warm reception i get as i bike from town to town. as i wrote previously, people frequently come to the road and say hello, give me their hands, try out random english phrases ('my name is' without the name, 'good afternoon' at 7 in the morning).

i tried to take some video as i passed through a few of the villages, none of which worked all that well. the one i tried to post didn't work for some reason - i'll try again in the next few days. too bad i didn't have my camera out when i had 30 kids running beside me through their entire village... so much for subtlety.

i've decided (after much consideration (and i don't use 'much' lightly here)) that my favorite response is the occasional one i get from people over 60, mostly because it's so unexpected. usually, older people see me and probably think, 'pshhh, just another 2 meter white kid on a red bike with a yellow helmet and short shirts.' but then, occasionally, a 72 year old woman with a machete will make eye contact with me, give me a look that says 'what's wrong with you?', and then, just as i'm passing, throw me a thumbs up and a hurried sabaidee! it's those moments that make me happiest to be biking. and the downhills. oh, the downhills.

when i bike uphill, i think about sticky rice. biking downhill has become meditative - the wind has a calming and clearing effect.

the most common response i get after people hear about my bike trip is 'whoa. ok. i assume you've done a lot of biking before?' to which i usually respond 'um, no. well... no. my bike is red, though.'

what this has actually caused me to think about, though, is whether i see myself becoming a 'biker,' whatever that means, in the future. in the first few weeks i would have said definitely no, but as time has gone on i've really started to fall in love with biking as a mode of transport. halfway between luang prabang and vangvieng, i got stuck in the village of kioukacham due to a pretty intense rain storm, and spent the afternoon watching buses full of tourists stop, grab a sandwich, and move on. i was surprised to find myself quite content to watch them pass through, knowing i'd be spending the night in the middle of nowhere, and biking on the following morning. i'm not sure this is something i could have said two weeks ago.

i also realize i've been talking a lot about 'hilly' biking but haven't really told you what that means. so, courtesy of the lonely planet se asia biking guide i found in a book exchange in luang prabang, i give you an elevation guide of the two day ride i did between luang prabang and vangvieng.


it's a little confusing because i've done the ride in reverse. i started in the upper right hand corner in luang prabang, and biked to kioukacham the first day, then continued to muang phukhun and on to vangvieng (along the bottom) the second day. elevation is marked on the left, and distance on the bottom.

anyway, that's probably enough for now. it's been raining a lot today. writing felt like a nice alternative to getting wet. over the past few days i've been eating more mulberries than i ever thought possible, and tomorrow i'm going rock climbing in some limestone caves. should be exciting. and then i'm off to vientiane - i'll hopefully arrive by tuesday. hope you're all well!

1010 km (luang prabang).

laos is really beautiful.

and hilly.

i've been in luang prabang for the past few days after taking the two day slow boat from houay xai. this all came after two days of biking from luang namtha on a brand new (hilly!) road (built by the chinese, intended to connect china and thailand, but still without a bridge over the mekong into thailand, so largely unused). i stopped at the village of nan phe on the way, finding a place to stay by making sleeping gestures to everyone i saw until a lovely family took me in. we made baskets and ate cucumbers. it was nice.

biking through laos has been really great, despite the hills. both the people i've met as well as those i just see as i pass on my bike have been so warm and friendly. there are small villages every ten minutes or so along the road, and often groups of kids come out to the road yelling sabaidee! (hello). sometimes i even get a high five. it's pretty great.

luang prabang has been a nice break from biking. i met two german women on the slow boat who introduced me to their swedish friend who grew up in laos and speaks both laos and thai. he, and the four laos bartenders we met through him, have been great guides over the past few days.

on the slow boat from houay xai.

there are lots of waterfalls around luang prabang. this was the first we visited - tad sae.

after this photo was taken, i got in.

bathing elephants in lower tad sae.

returning from the waterfall.

this morning i biked out to kuang si waterfall which was just spectacular.

after this photo was taken, i got in.
are there other ways you can pose in front of waterfalls? maybe i'll have to think of something more exciting.

tomorrow morning i'm going to start heading towards vangvieng, which will probably take about three days. i'm hoping to stay at an organic mulberry farm a bit outside of town, and exchange my mulberry picking expertise for free room and board. we'll see how that goes.

485 km (jinghong). and lots of photos!

surprise! things didn't go according to plan.

i ended up spending 5 days in yuanyang, and didn't really bike much between yuanyang and jinghong. i knew the road would be bad, but i didn't expect it to be that bad. big hills, frequent landslides, and a few points where river and 'road' became one meant i wasn't able/didn't want to be on a bike. i ended up hitching a bit, and taking a few buses, making my way to jinghong over two days.

i arrived in jinghong yesterday, and will be leaving to head south toward laos early tomorrow morning. jinghong is a really interesting city in that it feels so generically se asian. the autonomous region of xishuangbana (jinghong is the capital) is heavily influenced by laos, thai and burmese culture, although the chinese government only officially recognizes the dai influence (an ethnic group originally from thailand although now dispersed throughout laos, burma and china). the thick humidity of xishuangbana has been a huge change from the cool mists of yuanyang. i got up early this morning and explored the city and countryside on bike, and am now hiding this afternoon from the heat.

i ended up getting a bit stuck in yuanyang, when i stopped in the beautiful village of duoyishu as i was leaving yuanyang (or so i thought). there was a small guesthouse in the village run by a couple from guangdong, and i ended up staying with them for three nights, which included celebrating the mid-autumn/harvest festival on the 14th. staying in the village was wonderful, and i especially enjoyed an epic 8 hour hike through the rice terraces with the other guest, a chinese man named stephen (who actually lived in the us for 11 years).

here are a bunch of photos from the last month, going backwards in time. click on any of them for much larger versions!

duoyishu is in the right of this photo.

on the road between yuanyang and duoyishu.

talking to kyle in the middle of nowhere (during our hike).

making dumplings for the mid-autumn festival.

approaching tonghai, a city between kunming and yuanyang.
signs like this make me very happy.

(notice the characteristic factories/pollution)

clifford and i, dressed to impress, just before setting off from kunming.

with some friends i met during a quick weekend trip to dali (four hours nw of kunming).

sunset over kunming from my apartment.

below are a few photos from yangshuo, my first stop after entering china over a month ago. the last photo is identical to the one that appears on the back of the 20 yuan note.

well, that's it for now. i'm hoping to cross the laos border saturday and then make my way sw over four or five days to the laos/thailand border. from there i'll hop on a boat and head east-ish down the mekong over two days to the city of luang prabang. hopefully more from there!

365 km (yuanyang).

biking is hard.

i arrived a few hours ago in the small town of yuanyang xinjie after three days of biking through a much hillier landscape than i'd anticipated. in the interest of full disclosure (this is a safe space) i took a 30 km bus ride from the river valley below to my current altitude of 1600m (check out the map for my current location). today's views were by far the best - the 40 km downhill to the river valley had views that gave me goosebumps despite the intense heat.

yuanyang is apparently comparable to the great wall in terms of engineering feats. i'm not really sure what that means, but the photos i've seen are pretty phenomenal. this isn't the best time to view the terraces since they're currently full of rice (you want to see them full of water) but i made it before harvest season, so at least they won't be full of rice stalk stumps. i'll be checking out the surrounding area in the next day or two.

i haven't figured out how best to describe what biking through these areas feels like. each day is made up of so many little moments with different people in different environments that ultimately make up my larger experience. somehow turning all of this into a coherent explanation hasn't really worked, even in my head.

maybe i'll try again in a few days. for now, i hope you're all well.

0 km (kunming).

well, tomorrow (barring any unforeseen circumstances) is the start of the great bike adventure (woooo) '08.

my odometer is set to kilometers since this part of the world is strictly metric, but for those of you that may be metrically challenged, it's about 1.6 km to the mile. i'll trust that you can do the math from here.

i'll work my way south over the next few days to yuanyang (a town famous for it's rice terraces), and then head southwest through some hilly terrain to the town of jinghong. after a few days in what is supposed to be a very se asian feeling region of china, i'll head south to the laos border. if everything goes according to plan (something i'll undoubtedly say quite often but will, i imagine, rarely come true) this should all take about two weeks.

more soon, including photos, if i can ever get them off my camera.

a typical dining experience in small town china.

yesterday, i biked between anning and fumin, two small towns west of kunming. the route was beautiful and followed a river with rice terraces climbing both sides of the valley. when i arrived in fumin, i biked around town for a bit, in search of a place for lunch. drawing stares from every direction, clifford (my bike) and i worked our (not the last time clifford will help me use the first person plural) way through the small streets, finally settling on a small noodle shop just outside of town. as i pulled up, the entire restaurant turned to watch the waiguoren lock his bike.

i walked into the restaurant as customers audibly commented on every aspect of my appearance. i approached the kitchen, everyone watching, and ordered a bowl of veggie noodles. i was complemented on my chinese (this is VERY common, even if you can only say hello) and then i returned to my table. i sat, everyone stared. i drank some water, everyone stared. i sent a text, everyone stared. my phone beeped in response, those who had turned away looked back.

the owner of the restaurant, very impressed with my chinese, sat down with me and started saying something important really fast. in response, i said 'oh, i only speak a little chinese' hoping that this would somehow convey that although, yes, i can order veggie noodles, i still had no idea what on earth he was talking about. he shrugged, and walked off.

the table next to me was working on some delicious looking fried potatoes. i asked if i could purchase some. the owner went to the table, took their potatoes, and gave them to me.

on the way out, i asked for directions back to kunming. as i walked away, clear on which way to go, the woman who had given me directions yelled 'chinese!' at me in chinese. i smiled in response, trying to avoid expressing my utter confusion.

amid giggles and taigaoles, i pedaled off to kunming.

ps. i'm considering renaming this blog 'amid giggles and taigaoles.'

observations on biking in china.

china has been added to that list of countries in which the phrase 'oh insert country of choice...' is used as a way of staying sane in response to the multiple situations/circumstances/events per day that just don't make any sense.

here are a few things i have learned/seen in my two weeks of biking in china.

- as far as i can tell, china is a country of people in cars/trucks/buses on foot/bike/motorcycle playing a life long game of chicken. getting stared down by an 85 pound 70+ year old chinese woman is a frightening experience. she won, i swerved.
- the only consistent rule of the road i've observed in china is 'the bigger you are, the more you can get away with.'
- in keeping with this, red lights seem to be viewed as some sort of challenge by truck and bus drivers. red lights mean anything goes. green lights mean proceed with caution.
- it's not uncommon to be nudged out of the bike lane by trucks/buses that don't feel like waiting in traffic.
- it's not uncommon for trucks/buses to use the bike lanes as parking lots.
- i've had to avoid hitting a disconcerting number of unattended children between the ages of 2 and 5.
- i get a lot of attention on my bike. sometimes it feels like i'm in a race. except no one speaks english and no one is cheering me on. they're just yelling at me.
- things i frequently hear are 'laowai!' (literally 'old outsider'), 'waiguoren!' (foreign person) or 'oh! tai gao le!' (oh! too/very tall!). yesterday when i was biking through town a chinese woman who must have been at least 75 yelled, in english, 'oh! you're so tall! like a mountain!' that was unexpected.

somehow, despite all of this, things just seem to work. we all get where we need to go. it's just a bit more exciting along the way.

last night i read this quote about driving in india, and it feels very applicable to china as well:

'in the west, people take everything very personally.

in much of india, we still dont have traffic lights, and our streets are a throng of drivers, pedestrians and sometimes animals all trying to cross each other and only narrowly avoiding each other. drivers honk their horns constantly at each other to alert each other that they are there and to vie for position, but take it far less personally. we know that it is the roads and millions of people trying to live their lives and get to where they are going. our culture reminds us that sometimes life is impersonal. we all are subject to impersonal forces - like traffic.'

more music?

i really like victoria bergsman (taken by trees).

this makes me really happy.

full album out october 7th.

do you name a bike?

will i get too attached? should it remain nameless? why do we always feel like we need to name things? and by we i guess i mean i? i think this is the first time i've wanted to name an inanimate object? if you had a bright red bike what would you name it? do you want to hear my name ideas? i doubt it?

these are the things i think about when i bike in a straight line for a long time.

i bought a bike!

i am now the proud owner of a beautiful new (bright!) red cannondale f6. my plan had been to go with the much uglier, much less conspicuous, white and blue one, but the bike shop didn't have that one, and i figured i need all the help i can get to be noticed around here.

so now i'm in kunming for a few weeks until i leave first for jinghong in far sw china, and then cross into laos. in a rather ambitious fit of inspiration this afternoon (i'm pretty sure i was biking downhill), i've decided to start the bike trip from here. expect my lovely google map to reflect that change in the next few days if it still feels like a good idea tomorrow and the day after. this does mean i'll have to leave kunming a bit earlier than planned since i'm still only on a 30 day visa. oh, i've also added a little icon to the google map that i plan to move as i move, if you feel a burning desire to know where exactly in the world i am, right now.

my short few days in yangshuo were wonderful. i spent the time exploring the countryside on bike and foot. yangshuo is definitely the most naturally beautiful place i've been in china, and maybe one of the more beautiful i've visited in the world. hopefully some photos will make their way up here some day.

and that's it! i'm staying in a great apartment just outside of kunming, started chinese lessons today, and will be biking up every hill i can find in the next few weeks! i hope you are all well - i'll be sure to be back soon with exciting biking stories/puns. take care.

a year and a day in hong kong.

whoops, another month gone.  i'm still in hong kong, but will be leaving a week from tomorrow.  the last month has been really great, although i've been busier than i ever was during the actual grant period.  i couldn't afford the full yoga teacher training (3,500 US wasn't really in my budget...) but i have been doing the morning practices, which means i've been doing yoga 7-9am monday through saturday.  65-70% of you won't believe that i'm actually doing this, but it's been really wonderful and made me even consider the possibility that i'm a morning person.  who knew?

when i'm not pushing the snooze button, i've been teaching about 20-30 hours per week with kaplan.  it's been pretty demanding, but surprisingly enjoyable.  i've learned a lot in the last year about teaching, and am finally reaching a point where i can have fun with the classes, as i feel like i've started to develop my own style of teaching.  

i'm currently living in sheung wan on hong kong island with a friend of mine named julian.  i left my apartment in mong kok this afternoon, which was much sadder than i anticipated.  i've been surprised at how nostalgic i've started to get as i'm faced with my imminent departure.  leaving has led me to realize just how much i've taken away from this year.  

about ten days from now i'll be in kunming and i'll remain there for about three weeks.  during that time i'll start biking up every hill i can find, continue to do yoga (i've been put in touch with some local teachers) and maybe learn some chinese or something.  grad school has become a very real and very exciting possibility in about the last five days, so studying for the gre has been added to my to do list as well.  

that's about it for now.  many of you will have heard this song, but it feels relevant right now.  

sort of a plan.

things are finally starting to fall into place. i just purchased my ticket home this morning, which will take me from ho chi minh, vietnam to hong kong on november 20th, and from hong kong to minneapolis on november 24th. now, all i have to do is figure out what happens between today and november 20th. this is what i've come up with so far (subject to change):

follow along with this map (you can zoom in and out and move it around)

the fulbright officially ends on july 3rd, when the other english teaching assistants fly back to the united states. i have to forfeit my fulbright funded return ticket as my *brilliant* plan to change my return flight date was foiled by northwest and their rules. i'm currently planning on staying in hong kong for the next six weeks, so that i can take part in a month long anusara yoga teacher training course hosted by my yoga studio. i'm also hoping to pick up some teaching hours, and continue (or rather, restart) studying mandarin.

on or before august 12th, i'll head into mainland china, traveling overland through yangshuo (a place i've meant to get to for months) to kunming, the largest city in the southwest province of yunnan. kunming is an important spot, because it is here that i'll be buying the bike that will take me to ho chi minh. i'll remain in kunming until my china visa runs out (30 days) and then head south via xishuangbana into laos. this will put me in laos right around september 12th. at that point, since it will still be a thousand degrees, i'll probably hide in the foothills of northern laos until it cools down, and then make my way south to the largish city of louang phrabang.

this is hopefully where the real bike trip i'm planning will begin. over the next seven or so weeks, i'll work my way south to vientiane (the capital of laos) and then follow the mekong river along the border of thailand and laos until i hit cambodia. i'll then cross into cambodia, making my way to phnom penh. i'll then continue south to kampot, and then work my way east through the mekong river delta to ho chi minh. then, i'll sell my bike and come home.

i've stuck with this idea longer than most, so i'm feeling pretty confident that it's the real deal. when i was home visiting family and friends, i picked up most of the gear i'll need for the trip, so that all i really need to purchase in kunming is the bike itself.

if anyone will be in any of these places, or could be coerced into being in any of these places, do let me know. i'll probably need a piggy back ride around mile 800 or so.

jet lag.

i've tried writing this post quite a few times in the past few months, and as time went on it got harder and harder to create something that adequately expressed what inevitably kept becoming a larger experience.  so instead, i'm not going to really talk about the last few months at all.  the difficulty i have in maintaining this blog has made me realize that blogging probably isn't for me, but since i'd hate to devastate my three loyal readers (actually, google reader tells me i have five subscribers, i'm touched), i'm going to try to push through anyway.

i returned to hong kong four hours ago (at 5:15 am, after a ten hour layover in vancouver), and have decided to use jet lag to my advantage and maybe write something that my sleepy stupor will allow me to post without over thinking.  being back in the us was wonderful and exhausting.  i split my time between the west coast (vancouver, seattle and portland) and minneapolis, and saw a lot of great friends and family.  the ten months i lived in hong kong were, i think, the longest period of time i have spent outside of the us in a single stretch.  after my whirlwind trip back to the us, it's strange to be sitting back in my bed with only the recent water damage on my ceiling courtesy of hong kong's recent torrential rains to remind me of my absence.

so, i'm back, probably for about five months.  the fulbright officially ends on july 3rd, and then i have to start making choices for myself.  it seems i've finally reached the end of the live-your-life-in-handy-segments-so-you-don't-have-to-make-important-life-decisions phase.  i'm not sure why i'm calling it a phase, though, since that phase has been more or less the entirety of my life.  i feel ok about that, though.  i won't share any of my 'definite/certain/fresh' plans for the next few months quite yet, since, let's be honest, they'll be different tomorrow, but i do know that i'll be staying in china and se asia until thanksgiving, hopefully studying chinese, and (maybe?) studying for the gre.

the point of this post is that i'm working through a lot right now, and maybe if i figure some of 'it' out i'll share my realizations here.  i did smile as i stepped off the plane this morning, even as i was slapped?kneed?buffeted? in the face by 120% humidity and 90 degree weather at 5:15 in the morning.  i guess that probably means i'm happy to be back.  and with a little luck, hopefully it will be less than two months until i try to do this whole writing thing again.

back in chengdu.

Hi, so this is Ben's friend Kyle, continuing in the theme of not-Ben posting to Ben's blog. Ben is back in Chengdu, and safe there, but a strange thing happened when he tried to post about his experience of the protests in Lhasa: Blogger shut down and wouldn't let him post anything at all. Then, he tried to send the post to me through four different email accounts, and each time the account would freeze when he tried to send it. Finally, he was able to send it through facebook, which turns out to have a valid use after all. Crazy as it sounds, Ben's account of events is being censored by the Chinese government, so I'm posting it here for him. On that note, here it is:

hi everyone, thank you all for your messages and emails. i returned to chengdu a few hours ago after a 48 hour train ride from lhasa. i originally had planned on keeping this post short, but i've decided that for the sake of dispersing information, i'm going to put what i saw and did so everyone knows what's going on. it's long, so get ready.

i arrived in lhasa on march 13th by plane and spent the first day walking around the jokhang temple, the spiritual center of tibet. i circumambulated the temple on the barkhor circuit with thousands of other pilgrims, watching hundreds prostrating themselves outside. the situation was generally quite normal in the city, although i had been informed that i would not be able to visit most of the monasteries surrounding lhasa (drepung, sera, ganden) as there had been protests by local monks.

the morning of the 14th, i woke early (thanks 3700m) and visited the potala palace, again joining thousands of pilgrims to wander through one of the more beautiful and emotionally overpowering buildings i have ever visited. early that afternoon i went out to the train station to buy my ticket home for march 22nd. on the way back my taxi got a little lost, and dropped me off about ten minutes east of my hostel.

walking down the main road to my hostel, i encountered a huge crowd of people yelling and throwing rocks. to avoid the crowd, i moved south, cutting through the barkhor alleys to try to return to my hostel. the barkhor square was even worse, as tibetans were destroying chinese businesses, and throwing all chinese owned merchandise onto huge fires in the alleys. i cut through the crowd towards my hostel, watching people destroy building after building. after meeting an english speaking thai woman south of the jokhang temple, we pulled a young chinese police woman (19 years old, still in police academy) away from a group of tibetans that were beating her, and ran down an alley. we hid under some burlap sacks for a while, before the door across the alley opened, and we took refuge with a tibetan family.

after providing impromptu first aid to the badly injured chinese police woman, the two women left to go to the hospital, and i spent the night with the tibetan family. by the evening of the 14th, tanks were driving through the city, and i could hear the sound of gun shots and the explosion of tear gas canisters. i tried to return to my hostel a few times, but as i approached the chinese police surrounding the tibetan quarter, they only waved their guns and yelled in chinese to step back.

on march 15th, i woke early again. around 10am, two other americans (one of whom was james miles, the only foreign press correspondent in tibet) miraculously took refuge with the same tibetan family as they dodged the tanks rolling through barkhor square. he was with another young woman who had been in tibet for a while and spoke very good tibetan. the three of us left the tibetan family around 11 (they were so wonderful, their son who lives in la called my dad in minneapolis), and walked through the alleys around barkhor square. the alleys were filled with the remains of chinese businesses, and the fires still raged. a few tibetan men egged on the riot police, banging on pans and screaming for a free tibet.

we proceeded to james' hotel which was located east of the barkhor, still about 15 minutes walk from my hostel. as the protests had started in this area, the whole area was blocked off by riot police, and we couldn't move. for the rest of the 15th, we stayed in the hotel, as we frequently heard gun shots and tear gas burned our eyes. we could see groups of tibetans in the alleys throwing rocks at riot police, as the police shot off warning shots above the tibetans' heads.

that evening, the police started conducting house to house searches, entering our hotel from the roof. we were told that we couldn't leave, as anyone found on the streets would either be arrested or shot. we saw groups of tibetans being escorted by chinese police throughout the day and evening. when i left on the 18th, estimates (not supported) were that thousands of tibetans had been imprisoned in chinese jails.

from the 15th to the 17th we stayed in the hotel, under a form of house arrest, as leaving the hotel was too dangerous. the 15th and 16th were very noisy, as we heard loud explosions and gun shots intermittently. on the 17th, we were informed that tibetans could move with identity cards, and foreigners could move with passports. i left the hotel, trying to return to my hostel (i hadn't had my bag now for 72 hours) but the police would not let me leave the tibetan quarter. the police were all mostly younger than me, and some even smiled as i approached. disturbing.

on the 16th, my tour agency had been trying to contact me, but as i couldn't move, and wasn't anxious to leave, i hadn't encouraged them to come get me. on the 17th, when i couldn't get to my hostel, i asked if they could somehow get my bag. instead of getting my bag, they came to get me. four tibetans showed up in an suv to pick me up, and since they had possession of my tibetan permit, i had no choice but to go with them.

i never felt that i was in danger, as i had nothing to do with the conflict. the chinese government had required the removal of all foreigners because they were scared of the photos and videos the foreigners could (and did) collect. the chinese media has blamed this on the dalai lama. the dalai lama has nothing to do with it, and has released international statements asking for a peaceful resolution. this was a large group of tibetans (both students and otherwise) upset with the chinese because of their violent forced occupation.

the chinese news i watched on the 16th blamed the riots on the 'dalai group,' which, as far i know, does not exist. or if it does, it's not supported directly by the dalai lama. the news reported that the group of rioters was small and that by the 16th the situation had returned to normal. it showed tibetans delivering presents to the chinese to thank them for bringing safety. the same broadcast was repeated over and over again, as if hearing it twenty times would somehow make it true. in the remainder of mainland china, the tibetans are depicted (and it's largely believed to be true) as ungrateful terrorists. the protests of the last week are considered to be the biggest uprising in tibet since 1959.

i’m no longer aware of the exact situation in tibet. i left the morning of the 18th, a few hours after an ultimatum was given by the chinese to stop all rioting. i have no idea whether the ultimatum was met. there was still unrest between tibetans and muslims when i left, as the mosque (or the area around it) near the hotel i was stuck at was apparently (again not supported) lit on fire.

i'm going to keep my emotional response out of this for now, as i'm still working through what all of this means. i wanted to make sure everyone understood the situation as i saw it. i've tried to keep it as objective as possible. if anyone has any further questions, please contact me. i hope you are all well.

Benjamin is safe

This is Benjamin's dad. I've been in contact with Benjamin and he is safely in a hotel waiting out the protests. As soon as he gets internet access, he'll post an update here and answer his emails.

Scott Jenson

sino the times...

the last few weeks have been very busy.  emilio has been back in town for the past two weeks, which has been great.  a friend from kunming was also in town this week, so we had an unusually full house.

it's always great to have guests, because it brings back the excitement of the first few months in a new place.  i still feel very mixed about hong kong (and have resigned myself to feeling this way for the next four months), but have loved exploring new restaurants, hiking trails and other more touristy spots with a new group.

i've recently gotten back into climbing which has also been really great.  climbing gyms are very strange here, and very difficult to find.  there are only a few bouldering gyms, and most of them are hidden in the upper floors of scary warehouses.  luckily, though, i managed to meet a banker (surprise) named nick at one of them who happens to be developing some new outdoor sport routes in kowloon.  since meeting a few weeks ago, i've climbed with him a few times.  it's pretty surreal to finish a climb and turn around to find hong kong at your feet.  the quality of the climbs is surprisingly good as well.

we stayed at the venetian in macau last weekend on a 'spring break 08 woooo' package, which was certainly interesting.  macau hotels are weird.  especially when they're modeled after a rich couple's honeymoon in venice.

i'm flying to chengdu tomorrow to visit a friend from senegal, and then heading to tibet for just under two weeks on the 13th.  not quite sure of the itinerary yet, but i'm starting to get very excited.  

that's all i have to report for now.  i hope everyone has a lovely march, and i'll be sure to post photos when i return!

why i want to marry daniel rossen.

chinese new year

we had this week off for chinese new year (or lunar new year as it's known outside of china) and rather than stay in hong kong, dhwani, sarah, sarah's friend jeffrey and i went to shenzhen to spend the holiday with a friend from the university and her family. shenzhen is the same city i visited early during my time in hong kong, as well as the city i must pass through to visit most anywhere else in china. tourists rarely stop there, and up to now, i'd had no real reason to. after spending a few days there with lusi and her family, though, i have a much more positive outlook on the city.

chinese new year is sort of like a mix between thanksgiving and christmas. most of the holiday is spent with family, watching festivities on television and eating ridiculous amounts of food. gifts are given in the form of red envelopes filled with money. anyone who is unmarried can expect to receive a red envelope from those that are married. lusi's family was incredibly accommodating, and although they spoke very little english, lusi's fantastic translating allowed us to have some pretty involved conversations. it was also a great opportunity for me to practice my chinese. i seem to be a pretty absurd spectacle to most chinese people, though. not only am i tall beyond comprehension, but i speak poor mandarin with a midwestern accent. in general, since the majority of older chinese people speak little to no english, i'm still encouraged to try to speak, since it's the only way we can really communicate anything.

a few highlights from the trip included eating some fantastic chinese food (much better than anything i've had in hong kong), making pork dumplings with lusi's family, a trip to the "countryside" with lusi's extended family (including a trip to the driving range!), lighting fireworks along an abandoned highway and getting kicked out of a 7-11 by chinese gangsters. it was so fantastic to be taken in by lusi's whole family, who were so warm and friendly despite the language barrier and our joining what is usually a pretty strictly family gathering. all in all, a great few days.

in other news:

- in the chinese calendar, each year is named after a different animal. last year was the year of the pig. this year is the year of the rat. i'm a rat. this should be a good year?
- i'm going to tibet in march! i'll be visiting friends in chengdu and kunming on either end.
- it's freezing in hong kong. the weather is colder than it's been in ten years. this is made even more complicated by the fact that no one in hong kong or china has heat. we've spent the last two weeks huddled around our space heater.
- almost recovered from the wild boar/monkey/chupacabra/badger ferret bite. last rabies shot is next saturday.

and some photos from china:

the first of many meals with lusi and her family.

the crew hard at work on their dumplings.

all alone at my station.

sarah and her sparklers.

dhwani and lusi in a strawberry patch.

at the driving range. i think i'm reacting to jeffrey hitting his ball backwards. (btw, we're all wearing the same clothes in all these photos, not because it all happened on the same day, but because it was too cold to change. never having heat changes the way you view things like showers or clean clothes)

maybe the most awkward photo of all time?

all of us together in the 'countryside'