The Islands

I see that Katherine is pursuing a real-time blogging strategy, whereas I prefer to ruminate over past events for several days before writing about them. Or at least that's my excuse. In that spirit, as we leave for Laos, I'll write about our trip to the islands several days ago.

We started out in Koh Samui, and we spent our first day visiting this lovely waterfall in the center of the island. It was a short but steep hike up to see it, and the heat and the humidity made me feel like all of my high-altitude training in Colorado was for nothing.

We took a boat over to Koh Tao, which was pretty much overrun by tourists. I had planned to go on a Learn to Dive trip, but it was canceled due to a monsoon, which was disappointing but presumably better than the alternative. I quenched my thirst for adventure by climbing/swimming around on these rocks, which Katherine urged me not to do. Shockingly, her fears were justified... I ended up with a nasty cut on my finger, perhaps from some mussels on an underwater rock.

Back on Koh Samui, we rented motorbikes to explore the island a bit more. Though admittedly Katherine looks like the consummate scooter expert in this photopgraph, she came the closest of all of us to taking a bad spill when she tried to turn too quickly on the monsoon-drenched pavement, narrowly avoiding a pickup truck and ending up on the ground. Fortunately, this did not seem to exacerbate her earlier foot injury.

My scooter was decorated with this charming cartoon, which you may recognize from the Disney blockbuster "Finding Memo." It did come in handy when finding my motorbike in a crowd, and after lunch Katherine and Dan would certainly have been grateful for more recognizable bikes, as they seemed to have forgotten where they parked.

As Katherine mentioned, we've spent the last few days (in fact, one more day than anticipated) in Chiang Mai. I'll post some pictures of some of the 300 Buddhist temples here sometime soon!

On to Laos

Tonight is our last night in Thailand, after a slightly extended stay in Chiang Mai. Travel to Laos turns out to be slightly more complicated than expected, but tomorrow we fly to Luang Prabang. The entire city was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995, due to its uniquely amazing architecture.

Our three days in Chiang Mai have been a respite in a number of ways. We were able to do some laundry, which, in a climate that works through three shirts a day, was a huge benefit. There's also a pool at this hotel which has been nice.

Sightseeing in Chiang Mai is also remarkably chill, in that you can merely walk down the street -- any street -- and pass half a dozen temples. The city contains almost three hundred. Many young men from all over the country (and in some cases, the region) come to study in wats in Chiang Mai; for some it provides an otherwise unavailable opportunity for education. And the young monks are surprisingly friendly -- a couple of them have struck up twenty-minute conversations with us as we passed through their wats.

One of the biggest temples around Chiang Mai is on Doi Suthep mountain, which required ascending 306 steps up to the wat, but which also yielded amazing views of the entire valley below (the mountain is some 3000 m high).

Pictures to follow -- Luang Prabang sights include more temples (probably not a surprise), plus caves, elephants, and crazy good architecture.

Land of Smiles

Well, I finally have some time to make my first post here... actually, it's my first post on any blog ever!

I've been in Thailand for about a week. I met up with Katherine and her friend Dan without difficulty on my arrival, and we all spent a couple of days in Bangkok together as well as four days on the islands in the Gulf of Siam. So far, I feel like my trip has been dominated by eating and visits to temples. In fact, for those of you who need proof of my dedication to blogging, I just passed up the opportunity to visit two more temples with Katherine in favor of writing this post.

I purchased a new digital camera for this trip (the first camera I've owned since about age 12), and I'm pleased to post some pictures of our adventures. Of course, after carefully uploading my best pictures, I navigated over to Katherine's most recent post and found that she'd put up almost exactly the same ones! So look for nuanced differences in our perspectives on Thailand.

In Bangkok, we visited three holy sites: Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn), Wat Pho (pictured, and site of an inconceivably large reclining Buddha), and the Grand Palace (home of the Emerald Buddha). We then spent our one afternoon in Bangkok at a medical facility, since Katherine's foot "felt weird." Fortunately, it was ok, and a Thai version of Ronald McDonald made the whole trip worthwhile -- that's right, they have McDonald's locations IN THE HOSPITAL. Also Starbucks.

Our last stop in Bangkok before flying to the islands was a Snake Farm, where they milk snake venom -- presumably to produce antivenin, but perhaps just to amuse tourists. This snake, slyly peering out from beneath a leaf, was difficult to spot at first, since he looks just like a vine, and also hangs from the tree in such a way as to cultivate this misimpression. At the snake farm, I learned that everything my father had ever told me about snakebite care was incorrect. Also, they had a fun little video about the deadliness of snake venom, oddly set to a very upbeat jingle.

Later: pictures and stories from the islands!

Additions

Yesterday, with some extra time in Koh Samui, we rented motorbikes and tooled around the island. One of our stops (and a principle driving factor in motorbike rental) was this shrine. The Buddha is 12 meters high and sits on a tiny island connected to Samui by a causeway.

We took off our shoes to ascend the stairs, but on our descent noticed that shoes are allowed during the hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in case of a hot floor.


This picture (to the left) is not recent -- this is part of one of the wats in Bangkok -- but before I had only uploaded a couple of pictures of temples. Temple architecure is one of the most wonderful sights on this trip -- I personally have grown so accustomed to traditional Western (and specifically Christian) sacred architecture that it is a totally novel spiritual experience to be in these buildings.

Details on the Emerald Buddha

In response to Allison's comment, and in case anyone else is interested, you can see a picture of the Emerald Buddha (I don't have one as flashes aren't allowed in the temple, and everything turns out poorly), along with his history and a small explanation of his outfits on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_buddha).

Thailand, with pictures.

My pictures in this post will be identical to the pictures posted on Facebook, so I apologize to those of you on Facebook. But we're facing some technical difficulties and FB has really stepped it up as far as being able to upload pictures onto a random camera.

The biggest attractions in Bangkok were the temples. This shows several parts of Wat Phra Kaew, which lies within the Grand Palace and houses the "Emerald Buddha" (actually jade). The Buddha was actually covered in plaster, but during a move was dropped and its inner beauty was revealed. He now wears different outfits depending on the season and sits in these awe-inspiring surrounds.


Nick has proven more adventurous than I, in many ways, but none so clearly as with food. I can't take any spice, which eliminates a vast swath of Thai cuisine, but Nick steps up and tries anything. He also often gives Dan full control over our dinner order (which is really relatively wise, since Dan has pretty good taste to begin with, and can also read and speak Thai). But some of Nick's culinary choices I question -- such as his enthusiasm for this yogurt, which came with corn kernels and kidney beans.



On our first island, Koh Samui, we went to a little jungle park with elephants, crocodiles, monkeys, and a beautiful waterfall. I got to feed this guy -- a huge bunch of tiny bananas, which he took with his trunk and popped in his mouth, unperturbed by the peel. This entire activity also resulted in large amounts of elephant slobber distributed in various places on my body (i.e., like Wellie, the elephant was unaware of how he slings it).






Our second island, Koh Tao, was quite picturesque -- and is apparently one of the best diving sites in Asia. Unfortunately, Nick's scheduled dive did not take place -- due to the coconut-launching, roof-destroying, gale-force winds monsoon that arrived midday on Saturday. We made the best of it and instead hiked to a far northern point on the island, where we had a good view and a drink.

We also got to see some fire throwers one night in Koh Tao. This one in particular was quite accomplished with the fiery baton, also with throwing it up in the air and catching it behind his back.

Tomorrow we fly back through Bangkok to Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand, where we spend two days before hitting Country No. 2, Laos.

I think it's Day 21...

Just a quick post to update you. Pictures will come up later this week, hopefully.

I made it to Bangkok without incident on Sunday night. Monday I ran some errands and saw Jim Thompson's house, a feat of traditional Thai architecture that was the home of American entrepreneur Jim Thompson. He apparently single-handedly opened the global export market for Thai silk. He was also a pretty impressive collector of Asian art.

Nick arrived Tuesday and we headed pretty much immediately to Wat Arun, one of the most picturesque temples in Bangkok. We took a river taxi and a ferry to get there (it's on the Thonburi side of the main river running through Bangkok). Then we met up with Dan for dinner and a stroll through the Lumphini Park Night Bazaar. Nick had crocodile for dinner!

Today we went to the Grand Palace and its wat, Wat Phra Kaew (containing the Emerald Buddha), as well as Wat Pho (which contains the world's largest reclining Buddha -- I think he was reclining as he attained nirvana). A lot of great sights (and lots of pictures soon). Tonight we have a low-key evening, and tomorrow we head to the islands.

A correction

Oh, the trip is not 38 days, it's 52. My math skills are limited.

Colorado. Today is Day 15.

I'm nearing the end of my time in Estes Park, and as always, I wish I lived in the mountains. Though it doesn't feel like home the way Sister Bay and Belleville do (and the smell of grass and summer in Belleville never changes), it's still one of my very favorite places to visit. It's also been nice to see a whole lot of family; my aunt celebrates her 70th birthday this year and so all cousins gathered for at least the first few days of the week. It was great seeing lots of little ones, including a couple for the very first time.

We managed a couple of really great new-er hikes early in the week. I have to say I've been a bit distracted by trip-planning later in the week, but it's still a really incredible place to be, even when you're not hiking. Last night's dinner was on a deck with a panoramic view of the mountains. No matter how much I love D.C., I can't do that there.

Here are some pictures from the past week.

On Sunday (our first full day here), we hiked in from the Wild Basin trailhead in Allenspark to a few different waterfalls. We first passed Copeland Falls, which is a long, shallow falls. A mile or so later, we came upon Calypso Cascade (at left), which was also really nice. The water seems really high here -- little brooks babble across trails and the rivers and waterfalls are all bursting at the seams.











The last stop on our hike, though the trail continues on, was Ouzel Falls. This was the tallest falls on our hike, and pretty impressive in water volume as well.










This is the top of Ouzel Falls, with Nick and our cousin Eddy standing above it (which was a climb.... Gwynne and I remained below, poised to call a ranger in case of emergency).














On Monday, Nick, Gwynne and I traipsed up the trail to the Twin Sisters Peaks. The trip was about 7.4 miles roundtrip and about a 2500 ft. elevation gain. Not the toughest, but certainly tough early in the week (the air gets thin at the top). It did afford us some nice views of the bigger peaks toward Trail Ridge and of Long's Peak, the tallest peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.





We stopped for lunch at the top of the mountain. There, we encountered this guy -- a marmot. Here, he's eating a Wheat Thin -- despite repeated NPS entreaties to refrain from feeding wildlife. I was alarmed by the marmot's boldness (he seemed ready to climb my leg), so Nick placed a Wheat Thin on my shoe. I quickly kicked it off and Marmotie grabbed it even more quickly. He was quite interested in all we had to eat, and it's obvious we weren't the first to succumb and give him some -- he wasn't shy in the least.


Here are Nick and Gwynne on top of one twin peak (I'm on the other).

Pictures from the lake and from a museum in Kansas!

This is a relatively narrow view from our beach on Green Bay.
















The eternally cheerful (except in cases of ear infection) Wellie.












Somber pup Wembley.













Around 9 a.m. on Saturday, on the drive from Salina, KS, where we stayed overnight, to Denver, my dad randomly exited and headed to this local natural history museum. This is not totally unlike family trips of yore... when my dad would just take us on some random tangent to see some "very interesting" sight (including the Gros Ventre landslide). The museum we went to was actually quite interesting, and including these creepy fossilized jellyfish.




And here is the gun I'm planning on buying, now that I can, by law, own a handgun in DC (also from the museum):

Next leg...

We left Sister Bay yesterday (Thursday, July 10) and drove home to Belleville. En route, I got three shots (Hep A, tetanus, and typhoid) and my mom slammed her hand in a car door. This morning found my mom at a clinic having her hand examined (turns out it is not just bunged up but in fact broken) and found me at the vet clinic with Wellie, who developed a bad ear infection. Both Wellie and my mom appear to be improving.

This afternoon we (my parents, Nick and I) left Belleville around 2 p.m., and drove through Missouri and part of Kansas. We are now stopped at Salina, KS. Tomorrow we continue to Denver, pick up the missing piece (Gwynne) and head to Estes Park.

If you're interested in seeing places we've been so far, you can look at Door County tourism information pages (or look at Door County maps). In Colorado, we'll be in and around Rocky Mountain National Park. My next post will include some pictures, but I can't really promise that they won't just be of the dogs.

Last thing: Nick wanted to be clear on why the title of the blog is what it is. There's a Fraggle Rock song called "Wemblin' Fool," which is sung by Gobo and (appropriately) Wembley. Now that we have a dog named Wembley, I suppose the lyrics are in our heads more often than before. But anyway, the song is about traveling (or wembling) and given our family's ability to sing along to most any Fraggle Rock tune, it seemed appropriate for this family trip. Here are the lyrics:

Well, when I'm wembling west,
I take the friend I like best,
So we can wemble, wemble, wemble side by side.
And when we're wembling south,
We stick our feet in our mouth,
And we just wemble, wemble, wemble as we ride.

So now it's doodley do, doodley doo,
Do, doodley doo,
Bop, boobley boo,
'Cause a wembling song can't go wrong.
Yes, it's a doodley do, doodley doo,
Do, doodley doo bop, boobley boo,
Just wembling on.

We wemble most to the east,
And north we wemble the least,
But still we wemble, wemble, wemble along.
Come on and wemble and you'll,
Be just a wembling fool,
'Cause that's the wemble, womble, wembling song.

Wisconsin -- This is Day 3 of 38.

I'm putting this up to chronicle the long trip this summer - July 3 to August 23, 2008 - mainly so you don't get your inboxes jammed with pictures of puppies and beaches.

This is obviously before it gets "interesting" (though I would note that after sailing two days in a row, having Leinie's Honey Weiss in the fridge, and sleeping in a hammock with two big dogs, it's already "good"). I arrived in Green Bay on Thursday; Nick has already been here for a while and has been painting the house. We'll be here until Wednesday (Nick and my dad) or Thursday (my mom and me). On the way to Belleville, Nick and I get some shots for Asia. Then I'll hopefully see some friends in Belleville and we'll head to Colorado.

Last night we watched the Fourth of July fireworks -- we were closest to Gill's Rock's, but we could also see those going up on Washington Island, as well as three cities across upper Green Bay in Michigan. We had brats and beer, and Nick and I wore our Obama pins to feel especially patriotic. Tomorrow we're going to Washington Island to get some Alby burgers, swim at Schoolhouse Beach, and probably, for me, get seasick on the ferry.