Randall's Rather Random Ramblings

2009-10-28T23:58:00.001+07:00

Everyone needs to go see the movie about my dog. It opens today and is called "This Is It"

2009-10-11T06:43:00.001+07:00

At my third suprise party in three days. Suprise!

Our Baby

2009-03-13T20:25:00.002+07:00

As many of you know, Ryanna and I are going to have a baby. We just had the 20 week sonogram. Do you want to know if it is a boy or a girl? Watch the sonogram and find out!

Year in Review

2008-01-08T03:50:00.000+07:00

I haven't posted much in the previous year, so I thought I would do a wrapup to try and catch up a bit.

As many of you know, I got married to Ryanna Urban on May 26th. We had a wonderful honeymoon in Victoria, BC Canada and arrived back in Dallas to move into our apartment and begin our CARES program there. The last 7 months have been wonderful being married to such an amazing woman. Each day gets better and better.

In July we went up to Colorado to go to a friend's wedding. The groom was a roommate of mine when I was in Indonesia and the bride is the sister of Stephen, who I went on the long trip through Asia with.

Next I went to a training session at Sage software in Scottsdale, AZ for a week and Ryanna was able to join me for the last half of that trip.

In December we went up to Portland and Seattle for Stephen's wedding (yes, the same Stephen!) and to meet more of Ryanna's family since they are in that area. We had a great time.

The business is going well. We've got lots of consulting jobs going on right now that are keeping food on the table and we are working on putting out some products soon that I will fill you in on soon.

Our power went out at 11:55PM on December 31st so we had a new year celebration by candle light. We could see lots of different firework displays from our apartment which was good because it was really cold outside.

Now I'm enjoying following the presidential elections (finally I'm enjoying it! They started WAY too early). I have no idea who I am going to vote for yet but I'm enjoying the intrigue.
I'll be posting more now so stay tuned for more.

Took a bit longer than expected

2007-12-03T06:55:00.001+07:00

So I planned on moving my blog a long time ago and did. But the new server wasn't great and I never got the posting working again. My life has gotten a little busy since then so I haven't bothered to fix it or post anything recently.

We've got a new server at work so I've moved my website over to the new server and set it up correctly this time. Hopefully I can start posting again.

Site Moved

2007-05-03T07:32:00.000+07:00

I've moved my site to a new host. A huge thanks to the ICI guys for hosting my site for the last few years. I plan on updating it a bit to remove and add links and stuff that is no longer valid.

If you can read this then I have succeeded.

Sailing Away

2007-04-30T09:27:00.000+07:00

I finally gave away my sailboat today. I've had it since around my sophomore year of high school which would be well over ten years ago now. I decided that it wasn't worth keeping around any more since I probably wouldn't be using it all that much for a long time. It was also in pretty rough shape. I posted it on Craigslist and within about 15 minutes I got 3 responses and then pulled the notice. The first guy decided not to get it and the second guy came and picked it up. He is in a family that likes to sail catamarans and was very happy to get it. I hope it works out for him. Either way, it is no longer my responsibility. Oh, my dad is also very happy that the space beside the house is now free. What does he plan on doing with it now? Why putting a new fishing boat there.

What's Next

2007-04-23T09:41:00.000+07:00

Some of you may be wondering what's next. I could have hit the pavement and gone looking for a job or just done an Office Space. Instead a couple of guys from work and I are starting a company to do something very similar to what Professional Edge did. It is exciting yet a little nerve wracking to go out on your own and see if you can survive.

We are just starting to form plans but hopefully we can formulate a plan to make enough money to support our families and maybe even thrive a little. So far it is looking good and we should be off the ground in a couple weeks or so.

Right now, as a pet project I'm creating a home spun CRM solution that runs on ASP.NET. The idea came to help my future sister in law and her husband with their home business. It is morphing into something more than I thought it would be but that is probably a good thing. Hopefully it will turn out good. When I have a good working copy, I'll try and post a demo to the web. It will take a while though. It's pretty complicated.

New Post!

2007-04-19T08:34:00.000+07:00

My appologies for not posting more often. I've been a little busy working and getting ready for the wedding. There is good news though! I will probably have more time to blog now. Professional Edge, the company that I have been working for is folding. That means I have lots of free time I wasn't expecting and not a lot of money that I was.

If you know of anyone who needs a highly motivated, honest and hard working employee, let me know.

Update on the squeak

2007-04-07T21:03:00.000+07:00

If any of you actually cared, I've discovered that when I turn the fan off, the squeaking stops. So either I've got a squeaky fan or mice that only like to squeak when the fan is turned on. At least I'm narrowing it down.

An Inconvenient Weather for an Inconvenient Theory

2007-04-07T20:46:00.000+07:00

In light of the ongoing Global Warming debate, the weather this winter has been very interesting. I can't attest to the global climate but here in Dallas it has been a rather cold winter. In fact, we got snow about three times and got below freezing and stayed cold temperatures much more than usual. In fact, this Easter weekend we are on track to set record lows.

I guess the part that confuses me most is the supposed "proof" that is being talked about. When the temperature goes up, a case could be made but when the weather goes down, they say that erratic weather is also caused by global warming. So no matter what happens to the weather, it is proof of global warming. Sounds fishy to me.

In fact, when I started getting skeptical about global warming was in 9th grade when I saw in English class on the cover of Time Magazine that "Sever Winter Storms (in New York) Proof of Global Warming". I stopped and thought, so because it is so cold, it proves the earth is warming. Something isn't quite right about it.

There are some real alarmists out there but the facts of the matter are that we only have really accurate weather information for the last 125 years or so. There have been periods in recent history when the earth has been warmer, and cooler than it is now and that was not related to human activity. Whether the world is actually warming or not is an interesting question and can been proven with simple graphs of global temperatures. Whether or not it will continue to rise and if it it caused by humans is extremely difficult, if not impossible to predict or know.

Bottom line is that I don't want this theory to inconvenience me until it is actually provable. Until then, it should be kept in the "theory" department. Oh, and just because some scientists get the backing of the UN doesn't mean that it is proven, just that a lot of people who would benefit from the proposed "fixes" think it would be a great idea.

Squeak Squeak

2007-04-01T00:20:00.000+07:00

I've occasionally been hearing some squeaks coming from my room. Since it is in the garage, it isn't hard for different animals to climb under the garage door and through the door if I leave it open. I'm wondering if I have some cute little mice living somewhere in the room now. It is either that or a squeaky fan. I haven't figured out which yet. If it is mice, it will be nice to get used to having others in the room before I get married.

Strange Weather

2007-04-01T00:17:00.000+07:00

Today outside is some really weird weather. The sky is a strange light blue and there is this big yellow ball in the sky that it hurts to look at. I vaguely remember something like it called the "sun" from a long time ago but I guess I have forgotten what it looks like. The weather has been so nicely grey and stormy for a long time, I mean, what do you do on a day like today? Go outside?

2 Months to go

2007-03-28T07:53:00.000+07:00

Less than two months until Ryanna and I are married. For all of you who have married, I bet you remember what it was like at this time. It will be nice when we are married have a place of our own (not in my parents house any more, not that it is that bad). Hopefully we will know soon where we will be living. I'll let you know when I know.

Its been a while

2007-03-28T07:48:00.000+07:00

I guess it has been quite a while since I last posted. Thats what happens when you are engaged and getting used to a new job. On a side note, I'm tired of Dallas traffic. It isn't usually bad where I have to drive but when I go on client site, it can get really bad. Yesterday I spent almost four hours in traffic. Tomorrow I'm going even further but I'm going to leave very early to try and miss the traffic. Oh, and I'm buying a toll tag so I can use the toll road to speed things up.

Ringtones and Amazing Grace

2007-02-25T11:43:00.000+07:00

When I got my new phone in the US, I wanted a ringtone that was funny and not too annoying if it went off in a place it wasn't supposed to. I settled on a cow mooing and I really like it. I had an ongoing joke with Ryanna when we are at the movies that if my phone did go off, people would just think the mooing was some cows in the movies.

So we went to see Amazing Grace today which was a phenomenal movie, one of the best I have seen in a really long time. In the middle of it, I heard my phone go off. Then I realized that my phone wasn't vibrating. My next thought was that someone else had downloaded the same sound off the internet and put it on their phone and what an incredible coincidence that was. Then I realized that there were some cows in the background of the movie that were mooing.

Hello?... Not Interested. Click

2007-02-14T06:32:00.000+07:00

Hasn't it been nice having a cell phone and not getting telemarketing calls on it like your home phone? Well things are about to change. That's right. In one weeks time, the list of cell phones will be made public and as a result telemarketers will be able to target your cell phone. And the best part about it is that you will still be charged for the call!

Luckily, there is something you can do about it. Go to www.donotcall.gov or call 888-382-1222 to register your cell phone or home phone for the national do not call registry. This will stop telemarketers from calling your phone for five years. Unfortunately it doesn't stop charities or pollsters but should put a dent on most of the marketers.

UPDATE***
Turns out I jumped the gun. The FTC still does not allow automated dialing to cell phones even if they open up the list of numbers. Most marketing agencies don't call if they can't use automatic dialers. Still, it would be wise to sign up all of your numbers to keep as many marketers out as possible.

Potato Rolls

2007-02-07T00:44:00.000+07:00

Last night my mom made potato rolls for dinner and they were delicious. While we were eating them, I asked why she made them and she said, "Because we had some leftover mashed potatoes and it makes the rolls light and fluffy."

I replied, "I thought the potatoes make the rolls thick and heavy."

And my dad said, "I thought the potatoes are added for flavor."

So why are potatoes added to potato rolls? I guess we'll never know. They sure were good though.

New Professional edge website and 500!

2007-01-29T22:37:00.000+07:00

Professional edge, the company that I work for has a new website. It is much prettier than the old one and has lots of good information. Check it out at www.professionaledge.com.

By the way this is my 500th post on this blog. Thats pretty incredible if you think about it. That is 931 days ago so I'm averaging just over a post every two days. I hope that is enough for everyone.

Pans Amazing Labyrinth of Grace

2007-01-29T11:21:00.000+07:00

Okay, the title is a mix of a couple of movies and I'll explain why, kind of. Saturday morning I started to read a book called "A Practical View of Christianity" by William Wilberforce, written in 1797. Yes, that is 1797 not 1997. Never heard of Wilberforce? Neither had I until started reading the book. I read through the introduction by Charles Colson. It told the story of Wilburforce and how he worked in Parliament in England to end Slavery at the end of the 18th century. What is fascinating about him is that he tried for about 10 years to get it done but got nowhere because of the political power of the slave trading companies. He decided the way to fix the problem was to improve people's morality through Christianity first and then their outrage would force the politicians to abolish slavery. And it worked. He wrote the book "A Practical View of Christianity" which basically explains how the "Cultural Christianity" of the day was different than "Real Christianity" and encouraged people to be convicted about what was true and not. He realized that the way to change society was through its morals, instead of trying to beat the politicians.

So I started reading that in the morning and went out to see Pan's Labyrinth with Ryanna in the evening. I had heard that it was good and wanted to check it out. The first preview that showed up was about a guy at the end of the 18th century in Parliament who was trying to abolish slavery through convicting the populace of England. I thought, hmm, I think I've heard this story before. And sure enough, it was about William Wilberforce. The movie's title is "Amazing Grace" because Wilberforce was a friend of John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace. It comes out February 23rd and I'm really excited to see it.

So... Pan's Labyrinth. Turns out it is a Spanish movie subtitled in English but that doesn't bother me since I lived over seas for so many years. The movie is really beautiful and strange in that it is a mix of the attempt to suppress the anti Franco rebellion in Spain in 1944 and a fairytale. It actually works though and Ryanna and I really enjoyed the movie.

Pop Up Messages on Windows

2007-01-27T03:52:00.000+07:00

Now that I've had to move back to Windows for my work environment, I've had to get used to it again. One of the things that has really struck me is how often things pop up demanding my attention. Networking is constantly telling me something, as is MSN Messenger which I don't use but haven't gotten around to turning off. Security updates and settings are constantly popping up as well.

One of the things on the new Windows Vista is that it pops things up WAY more often. Practically any time you run something it asks if you really want to run it. Change a setting, are you sure? I really feel Apple got it right on their system. It asks me when I know it should but not every time. The reason why the Windows approach is bad is that people get used to clicking "OK" every time so when they shouldn't, they don't know any better.

Hopefully there is a way to turn off all this incessant second guessing by the operating system.

Weather

2007-01-20T07:42:00.000+07:00

It snowed here in Texas a few days ago. Hard to believe, huh? The weather was actually below freezing for a few days and there was lots of ice on the roads which caused a lot of accidents. Of course this is an excuse for me to put a picture of my car on the internet.

First look at Windows Vista

2007-01-20T07:33:00.000+07:00

I went in to work today and in the mail was our new version of Windows Vista for development and trial. I was installing VMWare so I fired up Vista in it to try it out.

The first thing I noticed is that it is a lot shinier. Notice I didn't say prettier, I said shinier. Everything looks like they put a lot of time into trying to make it look better but it turns out looking like a bad winamp skin. I mean, black for a the taskbar color? And whats up with the goofy shaped start button.

Overall I wasn't impressed. I bet that part of my impression was due to the fact that I've been using Mac OS X for the last year and a half. I didn't really see anything great about it except that some stuff was simplified and streamlined a little. Of course that just means I have to relearn a bunch of stuff. Most of the annoying things about the windows paradigm are still there. Oh, and it was really slow. Probably because it was running in a virtual machine but the host machine was no slouch.

So, should you upgrade to Vista? I haven't used it much but from everything I've read and seen so far, don't bother yet. In fact, don't bother until you get a new computer. And when you get a new computer, get a mac. I promise you won't regret it.

My Next Phone

2007-01-10T01:53:00.000+07:00

About 4 years ago when I was out buying my first cellphone (yes, I was a little late), I knew what I wanted out of a phone. I was looking for more than just a phone, I wanted a phone that also had internet and could connect to regular wireless (like a laptop) as well. I looked at all sorts of phones, some of which kind of had the functionality but none really worked that well.

I ended up going with a moderately nice phone that had bluetooth but none of the features I was looking for. They just didn't exist yet. Well...

Apple (my favorite company!) just released what WILL be my next phone. Imagine a device that is a combination of an iPod, miniature laptop, cellphone and camera all combined into a device the size of an iPod with a touchscreen interface and really well integrated. How cool is that? Now I just have to justify it to Ryanna...

New Car?

2007-01-09T11:17:00.000+07:00

Yesterday I loaned my car to my dad since his was in the shop (someone hit him going down the alley). I needed the van to take the dog for a walk in the woods and he and mom wanted to check out Ben's new apartment. On the way up there there was a wreck so the traffic was stop and go for an hour. During that time a lady ran into the back of my car. Luckily she wasn't going very fast but there was still a little damage to the bumper. So much for my new car.

Getting Settled in the New Job

2007-01-04T11:20:00.000+07:00

I've been working for a couple of days now at my new job and I'm starting to almost feel like I have a clue what is going on. When I was teaching in Bandung, I had a grey Dell Inspiron 5100 that weighed a ton. I can't complain too much about the laptop seeing as I bought it and many more like it as IT Director. When I left though, I wasn't sad to see it go. I bought a sleek little Macintosh Powerbook 12" and have absolutely loved it ever since.

At my new job I got my laptop from them today since I will be doing MS Visual Studio and .Net development. Lo and behold, it is a grey Dell Inspiron 5100 almost identical to my last one. Oh well, I guess I wasn't the only person who bought a bunch of them. I'll be keeping my Mac for personal use though.

New Car

2007-01-02T01:46:00.000+07:00

So I picked up a new car a couple days ago. It is a silver 2003 Honda Accord with less than 40,000 miles on it. I really like the car since it is a standard and drives really nice. I looked at the VW Jetta but decided not to get it for several reasons. I'd don't have to drive around my parents van anymore.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Wedding Plans

2006-12-30T23:16:00.000+07:00

Ryanna and I have started planning the wedding and have a date. Mark May 26th, 2007 on your calendar if you want to come. If you want to make sure that I send you an invitation, please send me an e-mail (lladnar1@gmail.com) with your address.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-26T11:22:00.000+07:00

Merry Christmas to everyone!

I had a great Christmas and got some really cool presents. It was great to spend Christmas with my family again. I was able to a couple of years ago but this year felt a lot more like it used to.

I got some really cool presents this year. One of which was an iPod dock for my iPod which has a radio, alarm clock and much more built in. I also got a home brewing kit to make some... um... delicious beverages.

My favorite present of all is:

Ryanna! Thats right. I'm now happily engaged to the most amazing woman I've ever met in my life. I'm very lucky to have her and can't wait till we are married.

For those of you who haven't heard the story before, here it is. This February, I traveled to the Philippines to see my parents who were going there for a wedding of a friend of ours. Before my parents left the US, they asked me if there was anything that I wanted them to bring from the US. I am in a habit of always adding something silly to the end of the list so I jokingly asked for them to bring me a "girlfriend." Well, when I arrived one of the first things out of my mom's mouth is "There is a gal here from Duncanville that you HAVE to meet!" Now, my mom is constantly trying to set me up so I'm a little used to this but it surprised me that someone else from Duncanville was staying at the guest house. So I went in and met her and her friend and thought they were nice but didn't think much more about it. They were in the Philippines for 6 weeks volunteering at the school in Bagabag while on their trip around the world.

Amazingly, even though we both had lived in Duncanville for over a decade and are the same age, we had never met each other before. We know many of the same people and she even went to Mexico with my sister in 1999. She also lives a couple of houses over from where my sister-in-law lived with her family till recently.

The next evening, I went down to the common room to check my e-mail and found Ryanna (the woman my mom was talking about) was also checking her e-mail. We struck up a conversation for the next several hours and I was really surprised by how much we had in common and how much I liked talking with her. At the end, I got her e-mail address and told her I'd look her up when I got back to Duncanville... in 10 months. She later told me she wrote down that she thought I was an interesting guy but she didn't think I would actually contact her.

The next day was Sunday and I went to a tiny local church of the friends who were getting married and while there, the young adults rather forcefully invited me to the Valentine's Day party that evening. I didn't really want to go alone so I invited Ryanna and her friend to come with me. They agreed to go so we went.

While at the party, people continually mistook me and Ryanna for dating but we kept insisting that we had just met. They played lots of couple games, the most infamous one was the orange game. The girl is blindfolded and handed an orange while the guy puts his hands behind is back. The girl has to peel the orange and feed it to the guy the fastest. I had the bright idea of having Ryanna put the whole peeled orange in my mouth so I could chew and swallow faster. She did and when I bit down, orange juice went straight down my throat the wrong way and I started coughing orange juice all over her. She was very gracious and forgiving of me, which I was very grateful for.

The next day, Ryanna and her friend went up to Bagabag, a city 8 hours drive away (although they flew). My parents and I were in the Philippines for 3 weeks and were trying to figure out what we wanted to do for most of the time. We were discussing going to the beach, Nasuli or Bagabag. After Ryanna and her friend left, I realized that I could use the time to go and get to know here a little better so I told my parents that I wanted to go up to Bagabag for the week. They looked into some flights but there was nothing that was going to work so it wasn't looking likely. We were sitting around that afternoon and someone walked into the common room and recognized my dad. Turns out his wife worked with my dad in Dallas and he was in Manila to pick up a singing group and bring them to Bagabag. They weren't ready to go so he was going to be driving up there by himself that evening. I offered to go along and he was happy to have me go.

The next morning I was all alone in the Bagabag guest house not really sure where Ryanna and her friend were and what I was going to do. I went off and found the internet guy so I could hook my computer up and check my e-mail and found him laying cable in front of one of the houses on the base. Having nothing to do I helped him and wiled away the morning chatting with him. Right about noon Ryanna and her friend walked out of the house we were working in front of and seemed very surprised to see me. Hannah said hi but Ryanna looked really shocked, said they had to get to someone's house for lunch and ran off. I figured that either she liked me or thought I was stalking her. Since I hadn't seen her very much I also figured it wasn't the latter. I stopped by that night and found out I was right.

We ended up spending a whirlwind few days together in Bagabag before I returned to Manila for the wedding one girlfriend the better. However, it looked like it was going to be another 10 months or so before we could see each other again.

It turned out that Ryanna was able to visit me in Aceh, Indonesia for 5 days on her way from the Philippines to London. It was great to see her again then and deepen our relationship. Next, I traveled home at the end of June to see her for 10 days before returning to finish out my contract. I was still committed to traveling with Stephen up to Russia so we arranged it for our girlfriends to join us for a couple of weeks through Laos and China. Finally on November 29th I made it back to Duncanville.

Since then we've been getting to know each other even more and on Christmas eve, I asked her to marry me and she agreed. We're hoping to get married sometime in June.

So... Merry Christmas to all of you and thanks for reading my blog all this time!

New Job!

2006-12-23T21:38:00.000+07:00

I've only been back for about three and a half weeks but I've already got a job. I've agreed to work for Professional EDGE, a computer consulting firm that I interned at while I was in college. They are very happy to have me back and I'm excited to be working for them again. I'll be doing a mishmash of different jobs that can be defined as "Computer Consulting" and are in the general area of anything a business might want in a custom computer program. This will probably involve a lot of programming and other support. As with my previous jobs, I can't post specifics about what I am doing but I'll keep you up to date as much as I can.

Long Live Turkmenistan!

2006-12-21T14:49:00.000+07:00

One of the countries I did not visit in Central Asia is Turkmenistan. It sounded like one of the wackiest countries in the world with a very active personality cult for their leader, Turkmenbashi (Head of the Turkmen) or Saparmurat Niyazov. The personality cult included only government run bookstores that sold little besides books written by him, cities, seaports and many other things named after him (including a meteorite!) If you want to get an idea for just how weird the country is, read Lonely Planet's Central Asia book in the section about Turkmenistan.

Well, the reason that I mention all this is that Turkmenbashi died last night. There is no clear succession and he was leader for life since the founding of the country. It will be interesting to see what happens when a person like him dies after having such a strong personality cult following. I would imagine it would be similar to Castro and Kim Jong Il when they eventually die but we'll see what happens to the country. Often throughout history when a popular and strong leader dies, the country is thrown into turmoil.

A Day of Weddings

2006-12-20T21:55:00.000+07:00

This Sunday was a day full of weddings. After church we went to the first one. My sister-in-laws father got married to another widower. It was a great ceremony and they looked really happy together. After the reception and a 30 minute break, we went to the next one. The second one is the sister of some friends. After that we went home and watched the end of The Santa Clause 2 which has a wedding (sorry if I spoiled the ending!) It definitely felt like a theme for the day.

In fact, while I was traveling on the last trip, it seemed like everywhere we went there were weddings going on. In Central Asia, the big custom is to get your wedding video made around the national monuments and famous buildings. While we were sightseeing we constantly had weddings going on around us. At some places we could count 7 brides or more. Also, along the roads people were videoing the processions from the back of hatchback cars. Seems like lots of people want to get married all over the place.

Yoda, Spring 2002 - Dec 11,2006

2006-12-12T11:19:00.000+07:00

As you can probably tell from the title, Yoda didn't make it. We went to the vet to visit him this morning and he could barely move. In the two hours we were with him he only was able to lift his head three times and couldn't stand or wag his tail. None of the medications were working so we decided it was time for him to go.

The vet determined that his bone marrow wasn't producing red blood cells for whatever reason and that there really wasn't any chance of him recovering. Ben was able to come down and say goodbye since it was his dog.

We found Yoda when he was a mangy little puppy and instantly fell in love with the funny shaped puppy with one ear up and the other ear down. He had his mischievous years but in the last year or so he was turning into one of the sweetest dogs I had ever known. When I got home a couple weeks ago, I was excited to have such a good dog around. Yoda, with his youthful playfulness, has also helped keep Buster healthy and more active.

He will be very missed, especially since his life was so short.

Dogs

2006-12-11T21:40:00.000+07:00

My parents have two dogs. One is 13 and the other is 4. I was worried that I wouldn't make it home before the older one got too old but he's still happy and energetic. I took this picture a few days after I got home. The big white dog is the younger one and the smaller basset is the older one.

Well, the day after this picture was taken, the younger dog got an eye infection. I don't just mean a little eye infection, it looked like his eye was about to explode. I finally took him to the vet on Wednesday and the vet was very concerned and said stuff that sounded really serious. I got some medicine that might help and treated him for a couple of days. His eye got better but he got weaker and weaker. He also lost control of his bladder which didn't make my parents very happy. When I brought him back to the vet two days later, I practically had to carry him out to the car. The vet was even more worried that he had some kind of anemia which could be caused by leukemia, cancer or some auto-immune disease. We decided to leave him at the vet clinic so they could try and treat him as best they could but we opted not to spend thousands of dollars on blood transfusions and the like since they probably wouldn't help him anyways.

We've now waited all weekend and have only heard that he is resting but not if he is getting better at all. We'll head up there today and hopefully we will know whether he will live or not.

The odd thing is that I was expecting this from the older dog, not the younger one. The older one is still as happy as can be, except he misses his brother.

Conclusion

2006-12-02T23:08:00.000+07:00

We have thoroughly enjoyed this trip and are glad to have shared it with you. I'll try to keep posting to my blog about my life which is still interesting, at least to me. I love hearing from all of you so please feel free to send me an e-mail anytime.

Now I'm back in Dallas trying to set up my life again and get over jetlag. So far I've gotten a cell phone (with 3G, internet and TV!), gym membership and am still looking for a car and job. Its good to be home.

Postcard from St. Petersburg

2006-12-02T22:35:00.000+07:00

We arrived in St. Petersburg after an overnight train from Moscow for our last destination. It proved to be one of the most beautiful and amazing cities we had been to on this trip, well worth the effort of getting there.

St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great of Russia and was designed after European cities, created to Europeanizing the Russian Empire. It was the capital of Russia until the Soviet Revolution which actually began in St. Petersburg with Lenin.

Located in St. Petersburg is this statue of Peter on a bronze horse. He was an avid horseman and hunter. He also started the Zoological museum which is one of the top three in the world and its prized exhibits are his horse and dogs.

Being the financial, industrial and political capital of Russia for hundreds of years, St. Petersburg has tons of beautiful 19th century (and before) buildings all over the place. The next picture is just a representative picture of a building from around the city. Interestingly, the Soviets moved the capital to Moscow and more or less ignored St. Petersburg for development so it still retains its 19th century charm.

St. Petersburg is situated in the middle of a bunch of rivers and consists of a bunch of islands with canals through them. This means there are over 900 bridges around the city. At night the whole city is beautifully lit up. This is one of the main bridges in the town. It is good that they light it up so well because at the time we were there, the days were only about 6 hours long, leaving a lot of time for night.

We spent a lot of time trying to see just a few of the millions of museums. In fact, there are museums to everything, including chocolate, horses, small dolls and anything else you can imagine. We tried to stick to the main ones since we only had a few days but did manage to make it to the Dostoevsky museum. This was actually a small but well laid out museum all about the life and literature of on of Russia's greatest writers. You can even see the houses where The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment were based.

This photo is of Peter and Paul's Fortress at night. It was the first thing built by Peter and was a fortress to ward off the Swedes. It was very similar to Georgetown from the beginning of our trip, including a similar layout and never having been tested in battle. There was lots of information on the founding of St. Petersburg and the Russian space program including a real size replica of Sputnik and newspaper clippings from around the world when it was launched.

We also went to the Armory which had weaponry, especially artillery. You can see the evolution of artillery from the beginning to modern soviet stuff. There were some cool experimental weapons like the first rifled cannon barrels with projectiles and square cannons.

Finally, right before we left, we went to the world famous Hermitage. Unfortunately we weren't able to stay for very long, only two hours. We did get to see most of the great art though. Return of the Prodigal by Rembrandt was truly amazing, well worth the visit. We didn't make it to all the other stuff which is huge, like the Smithsonian.

The one negative about St. Petersburg is that there seem to be pickpockets everywhere. We were mostly successful at fending them off. If you want to know more, ask Stephen.

This concluded our trip. I headed back to Dallas and Stephen headed to London to see his parents for a week before heading to Portland.

Postcard from Moscow

2006-11-24T17:56:00.000+07:00

We are here in Moscow for a few days near the end of our trip. Our first day out of course we had to visit the Kremlin. Growing up during the cold way, I always pictured it as a dangerous but probably beautiful government structure, which was there, but the main part of the Kremlin and the part that you are allowed to visit is made up of Cathedrals. I was quite suprised at that.

This is a photo from the main gate. Like so many ancient cities, Moscow was built on a hill near a river. The city walls were in a ring further out, then the main city on the hill is surrounded by walls the height of the hill. This makes all the buildings inside the walls at the level of the tops of the walls. Very cool. We purchased our tickets and headed in.

This is Stephen listening to our Audio guide in front of Cathedral of the Assumption. The audio guide was probably about as good as a paid guide and also a lot cheaper. I didn't know a whole lot about Orthodox Churches before coming to Russia but I sure learned a lot. They have a slightly better cross, love icons and Mary. It seems that all the Cathedrals are dedicated to some part of Mary and there are tons of icons of Madonna and Child.

Also in the same complex is the bell tower with its two additions. It was under renovation along with one of the cathedrals so we could see the jewel collection unfortunately. Apparently the Czars would compete with each other by building bigger bells with a deeper ring. This is the largest one built and it looks like it went the way of the liberty bell.

Also there is the Czars cannon. It is absolutely enormous. Not in length but in the size of the cannon balls. It was cast by well-known Russian founder Andrei Chokhov in 1586 and has an inside diameter of 35 inches or nearly three feet! I wonder if it ever got used...

Around the corner in Red Square is St. Basil's Cathedral which is notable because it looks like it would be more at home in Disney Land than Moscow. Who can accuse these designers of creating dreary old cathedrals?

The next day we went to the National History Museum and saw the history of Russia since the first fish crawled up on land till the last of the Czars and everything in between. Interestingly enough, there was nothing on any Soviet history there. We tried to visit Lenin's tomb but it was closed for some reason.

Tonight we head to St. Petersburg by train. Moscow has proved to be a very cold city and a bit drisly or sleety at the same time. Lets see how St. Petersburg is.

Postcard from Almaty

2006-11-22T12:58:00.000+07:00

We took a quick taxi across the border to Kazakhstan (three hours) to the former capital of Almaty. We didn't really have any reason we wanted to visit here except that it is a convenient place to catch the train to Moscow. There are a couple of museums and things but we didn't really get around to seeing them since we were only there for a day and a half. We did wander around the central shopping area a couple of times which is mostly remarkable for its large number of guys sitting around drinking beer on park benches. Not the most friendly of places.

We caught the train up to Moscow which is aruond 80 hours or over three full days. Needless to say by the time we arrived we were quite tired. We had a good time relaxing, reflecting and trying to talk with the people in our car. We did successfully ward off the friendly lady trying to get us to marry her daughter for a couple of hours. Everyone was very nice and often shared food and hung out talking although most of the time we couldn't follow what was being said. We eventually did arrive in Moscow and spent about 4 hours walking around tying to find a specific hostel but apparently I wrote down the address wrong. We walked for another 3 hours trying to find another one and eventually succeeded in finding a full hostel but they were nice enough to let us sleep in the laundry room. This turned out to be a huge blessing as we were both exhausted and most of the rest of the hostel was filled with a group of Germans who were in town for a football (soccer) match. They spent most of the night partying loudly and no one else got any sleep. Next step is to explore Moscow then on the 24th we'll take the overnight train up to St. Petersburgh.

Postcard from Bishkek

2006-11-16T20:19:00.000+07:00

After our time in the fergana valley, we headed up to Bishkek. Bishkek turned out to be one of the most beautiful big (1 million people) cities we have ever seen. There are trees and parts everywhere and the roads are really wide. We stayed with some friend's of a friend's parents. What made it really fun is that they didn't speak any english! That didn't stop them from being super hospitable and showing us all over town. One of the coolest things at their house is that they had a sauna instead of a bath! They made us take a sauna every night and it is amazing how addicting a sauna can be in cold weather. I would be tempted to install one in the US if I wasn't going back to Texas.

All in all, Kyrgyzstan is one of my favorite countries. It wouldn't take a lot to convince me to move here. The people are friendly, the cities are wide and beautiful and the natural beauty is stunning. The economy is not real good which makes for cheap prices and lots of opportunities to help out.

Next up we headed to Almaty. We aren't planning on staying long before heading to Moscow.

Postcard from Arslanbob

2006-11-16T19:26:00.000+07:00

We traveled up into the mountains in Kyrgyzstan to a town called Arslanbob. It turned out to be one of the most idyllic and beautiful places we have been yet. We didn't stay in town long though, only long enough to head up into the mountains. We were going camping for a week which is really great since we have been lugging around many pounds of camping gear for months. The mountains around the area were absolutely stunning. Much of Kyrgyzstan is mountains and all of the cities are in valleys. Makes for a beautiful country.

We started up loaded down with tons of food and made it up into the hills a bit before stopping for the night. We found a nice camping spot between two streams.

This is us hanging out with our gear at the first camping spot. The next morning we had a leisurly breakfast and headed out to visit the waterfall. There was water and it was falling a long way (80 meters or 240 feet) but it was impossible to photograph since it was so long. Just imagine water falling a long way and you get a pretty good idea of what it looked like.

We found an absolutely beautiful camping spot not too much later and pitched what ended up being our camping spot for several days. It was next to some very large rocks which provided protection and cover from rain and snow. There was also a beautiful little brook not too far away and the ground was really level. Here are our neighbors coming over to mow our lawn. How considerate!

Actually, they were sheep and the shepherd came by later and chatted with us. Of course we don't really speak Russian or Uzbek (He was Uzbek) but with a dictionary we were able to chat quite well. He kept bringing us fermented goats milk which was almost drinkable and break. He also showed us which berries we could eat. He was really nice. We left him a lot of our gear that we did not want to carry back.

During the next couple days we just took it easy and did some day hikes in the surrounding areas. It was absolutely gorgeous. It felt at times like walking in really old places. The trees were old and gnarly and there really wasn't any undergrowth. There were also tons of beautiful little brooks.

The third to last night there it snowed.

We were already pushing the timing since they don't recommend camping after September and it was already November but it had been beautiful so far and we took our chances. Luckily we came prepared with good sleeping bags and plenty of cold weather clothes. It was definitely cold though. It started out the night by raining for 2 hours which didn't help the situation any. We ended up really wet before it started snowing so we got cold as well while we slept. During the day the sun came out long enough for us to dry most of our stuff out for the next night.

After a second night of wet and cold though we had had enough. We packed up and headed to town. We stayed with a really nice family there and they cooked us some really good food. Then we headed back.

Arslanbob is one of the most beautiful places either of us had ever been. It was a small town still dominated by sheep, cows and horses with simple people and surrounded by a walnut forest. Mountains and beautiful lakes are a long days trek up into the moutains making it an ideal place to visit. In the town square is a lion. On our way out I asked someone about it.

They told me that the name of the town, Arslanbob, was named by an Islamic Imam from the 11th century. Arlsan means lion in Arabic, interesting if you are a Narnia fan, and bob means garden since he planted a garden. Then we headed back to the Fergana Valley.

Robert D. Nichols

2006-11-13T10:09:00.000+07:00

Nichols, Robert D. age 81, passed away November 4, 2006. Preceded in death by parents Sam and Dora, and first wife Rosemary (Hable). He worked throughout the banking industry in Minnesota, but most importantly he was a beloved husband and father. Survived by wife, Andrea; daughters, Kathleen Korner, Barbara (Dave) Knutson, Mari (Dave) Meyer, and Susan (Karl) Wendorf; sons, Robert Jr. (Linda), Tom (Susan), Mark (Connie); and stepson, Dennis (Barbara) McFadden; 19 grandchildren; and 5 great-grandchildren; sister, Marilyn Lederle; brother, William (Jary); and many friends. Visitation for family and friends Monday (TODAY) 6:30 to 8 pm at St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in Wayzata. Private funeral for family. Interment Fort Snelling Nat'l. Cemetery. Memorials preferred to the Arizona Heart Institute in Phoenix. "I am grateful for being able to have had two very good wives who loved me, gave me support, and cared for my family." David Lee Funeral Home Wayzata 952-473-5577

Grandpa Nichols

2006-11-12T17:31:00.000+07:00

Last Saturday, November 4th my Grandfather, Robert Nichols, went to be with his Lord. He was buried at Fort Snelling in Saint Paul with full military honors. We'll miss him.

Postcard from Khiva

2006-11-05T18:27:00.000+07:00

We arrived in Khiva and were immediately speechless. While Samarkand still had a few old buildings and Bukhara was about half still there and with a bit of imagination you could imagine what it was once like, Khiva was still (almost) like it was 150 years ago. We stayed for two days and wandered around trying to see everything. There is way too much explaining to do of all the things below so I'll just summarize a few here and let the rest speak for themselves. To truly appreciate this city you have to see it yourselves. We rank it up there with the best we have seen like Angkor Wat.

The Kalta Minaret is the nearly solid blue and stumpy mosque below (not the tall one with a top. It was commisioned in 1852 and was supposed to reach a staggering 70 meters (230 feet) but was abandoned when he died two years later. It would be truly stunning if it were actually finished.

The Camel's name is Misha if you were wondering. Also the Yurt (tent like thing) is pitched in the throne room where I am sitting. The Khan's like to still sleep in Yurts during the winter so all of the throne rooms had round platforms for their yurts. Not pictured is another prison with gruesome pictures of different torture methods that the Khans like to use including impaling on a stick, flaying and putting in a bag with cats and then beating. The caretaker of the jail loves to point all this out.

After our two full days in Khiva, we caught the bus and taxis back to Krgyzstan. We almost weren't allowed back across the border but managed to talk our way through. It was a great relief to be out of Uzbekistan since it is the first competent police state we have been in yet. There are checkpoints everywhere and tons of papers to be filled out twice, stamped, restamped then frowned over and carried for the rest of your trip. We made it though.

Postcard from Bukhara

2006-11-05T17:47:00.000+07:00

A short busride from Samarkand is the city of Bukhara which is famous for cruelty and Great Game politics between the British and Russians. We arrived after our fun bus ride and quickly found a great place to stay called Komil's B&B. Komil was a very friendly guy and spoke great english. He told us that the place we stayed at in Samarkand, Kamila is the female version of his name so we had to stay at his place to complete the pair.

We did a walking tour around the city since it still has a lot of old buildings. In fact, it is over half old buildings in the old section of town and doesn't feel too modernized at all. We were really amazed at how much it felt like going back in time a bit. You could still imagine the city as it was hundreds of years ago.

Here is Stephen standing next to one of the many traditional doors still dotting the area. Amazingly the people aren't all that short. They just build the doors that way.

After wandering around the city for a while looking at different architectural stuff, we made our way over to what is left of the Ark. The Ark is the royal fortress of Bukhara and is build on a slight rise in the ground that gave it great strategic fortifications.

This is the front gate of the Ark. The ramp you see in the picture continues winding and climbing up till you reach the level at the top of the walls. This is the height of the palace. You can almost see Gandalf riding Shadowfax up the ramp trying to rally the troops in Minas Tirith. Okay, maybe I've read it too many times. Anyways, about 70-80% of the Ark was shelled to pieces when the Soviets took over the area in 1920. There are still a few remaining buildings to see inside and it is well worth the look.

These are cannonballs pulled out of what was the Ark. The big ones are over 12 inches in diameter. Earthen defenses proved to be no match for these combined with airplane bombardments.

Around the back of the Ark is the prison where Connelly and Stoddard were held.

Stoddard was sent as a British envoy to Bukhara in 1838 during the Great Game but didn't follow proper protocals like bringing a gift, riding his horse up into the Ark and bringing a letter from the Governer General of India instead of the Queen. The Khan was not impressed and tossed him into prison, more infamously the "bug pit."

The bug pit was so called because it is a large hole in the prison where tons of lice, scorpions and other bugs were infested. It was reserved for less favored prisoners. His would be rescuer arrived two years later in the form of Connelly but he was promptly thrown in the pit as well. The Khan grew tired of waiting for a response to his letter to the Queen of England who he considered his equal and with the British defeat in Kabul he figured they weren't very important players. He had Stoddard and Connely marched out of the prison, forced to dig their own graves and executed. Stoddard was in the bug pit for three years.

Also in Bukhara are some covered Bazaars which are like intersections with markets in them and many more Medrassas. We began to realize that Samarkand was neat but not nearly as neat as Bukhara. Also there is the Kalon Minaret.

It was built in 1127 and is 47 meters (154 feet) tall. Kalon means great and it has 10m foundations with straw as earthquakeproofing. In fact, it has never needed repairs except cosmetic repairs like when an airplane hit it in 1920. Supposedly even Jenghiz Khan was so amazed by it he didn't destroy it.

We also stopped in one of the largest Medrassas in Uzbekistan. This is Stephen walking alond the many arched covered areas. It was used by the Soviets as a warehouse and is truly huge.

Finally we wandered over to where what is left of the walls are. We caught it right as the sun was setting which ended a great day of exploring an ancient city.

Next up we were headed to Khiva which had been preserved by the Soviets as a "City Museum" so it promised to be in nearly original condition. Fun!

Postcard from Samarkand

2006-10-29T20:03:00.000+07:00

We arrived in Samarkand after an uneventful but expensive night in Tashkent. We managed to find a hotel (actually our taxi driver took us to a different one than the one we wanted) and were able to negotiate the price from $40 to $15 for the night. We then went out exploring.

The main thing to see in Samarkand is the Registan. It is a collection of three Medrassas or Islamic schools that have been restored. The first was built in the 1400s and the other two in the 1600s.

This one is distinctive because it has two ligers (lion/tigers) adorning it with a smiling face right above them. This is unusual because humans and animals are forbidden to be represented in Sunni and Shiite art. This is why they have the very fancy mosaic patterns.

The inside of the Medrassas are an open courtyard surrounded by dorms now filled with hawkers of tourist trinkets. There are four large arches on the inside where I guess the teachers taught from.

Samarkand was the capital for the Timurids lead by Amir Timur or Tamerlane as he is known in the west. Even though most in the west have never heard of him, he carved out an empire in his time to rival even Alexander the Great. He lead campaigns and conquered Constantinople, Delhi and Moscow. He was on his way to China with 200,000 troops when he died of disease from the cold. He motto was "The earth is not big enough for two kings."

Throughout the Timurid empire are blue domes like this one.

They really are all over the place in this part of the world. When Amir Timur died, he left behind a black sarcophagus. Lots of mistique now surrounds it. It was taken by a Turkish king even after being warned not to. He broke it in two and his son got sick. After returning it to Samarkand, he got better. It was exhumed by Russians a week before Hitler attacked them and reintered a week before the deciseve battle of Stalingrad was won.

Supposedly written somewhere on it is his epitaph, "If I were still alive, the world would tremble!" What a great guy.

For something a little more lighthearted, we found a new scent of laundry detergent for those of you tired of Tide.

The next morning we took the bus to Bukhara. We figured out how to take the local bus which was a little slower, lots cheaper and more tiring since we had to talk to all the people on the bus while sitting in the aisle. Here are all the guys from the bus. The one on Stephen's left asked us over to his house about 300 times with promises of rivers of whiskey. We didn't take him up on the offer.

First Postcard from the Fergana Valley

2006-10-29T17:18:00.000+07:00

We arrived in the Fergana Valley (Kyrgyzstan) from China and were in for a huge change in culture. It is amazing what crossing some mountains can do. We went from a rice and noodles culture to a bread and cheese culture.

One of the most amazing things about the area is how much it feels like the mid-western part of the US. Wide clean streets, houses with yards, much larger personal space and blond haired blue eyed people walking around. In fact, this is the first place on our travels where we can be mistaken as locals until we open our mouths. Theres is lots of farm land, cows walking around and cotton everywhere.

Communication is remarkably easier too. Not only can we read the Cyrillic writing with a little practice (we never got very far in Chinese), but when we try and pronounce the local words, people mostly understand. If they don't we can pantomime and usually be understood. In China we would try and say the words in Chinese, pantomime and try every trick in the book only to realize that the person had absolutely no idea what we were trying to communicate.

I'll post more about the Fergana Valley including pictures after we cross back through the area and camp there for a while. On a side note, we cut out Tajikistan from the trip plans as it was going to take too long. Instead we will just be camping in the Fergana Valley.

About China

2006-10-24T17:49:00.000+07:00

Now that I am out of China I can write a little more about my experiences there. I really wasn't sure what to expect since I knew they were communist and the first 10 years of my life were brought up in a world afraid of the Soviet Communists.

Crossing in to China from Laos, it was definitely like stepping into a different world. First of all, almost no one spoke English and few things were written in English. When we would have trouble speaking to someone, they would dutifully write out what they were trying to say in Mandarin! Thanks. They also had these peculiar hand motions for different numbers. We would ask how much and they would make the shape of a gun pointed left. I think that is 7 or 8. Sometimes it would be the pinky and thumb pointed up with the rest curled. That is 6. 5 is all five fingers pointed up and bunched together and so on. We would hold up five fingers and they would get confused. Overall it was very hard to communicate in China which resulted in us not eating very much for a lot of the time because it was just to hard to order at a restaurant.

The Chinese also have a very different idea of common space and common courtesy. Mostly that there is none. I had several people walk straight through me like I wasn't even there. I used to wonder why Singapore had the no spitting law. I wonder no more! In China they hock lugies constantly and it sounds absolutely disgusting. Beijing has recently passed a no spitting ordinance as well so hopefully it will improve soon.

Sidewalks are also public trashcans and toilets. It was not at all uncommon to see children or people older than children going to the bathroom in the middle of the sidewalk. I remember seeing a pile of poop on the sidewalk and thinking that someone didn't clean up after their dog and then thinking that it probably wasn't a dog.

The "No Smoking" signs on busses apparently means that it is optional to actually smoke a cigarette on a bus but you have to endure a bar rooms worth of second hand smoke. I must have smoked at least a pack of cigarettes worth of smoke on each bus ride.

Okay, enough griping, now some genuine insight into China. China is the most capitalistic (they call it modernizing) of all the nations I have ever been to. True they are good about giving lots of opportunities and equality to most people (women had the same jobs as men EVERYWHERE) but there was nothing that the government provided for free. You had to pay to use the roads, pay to get healthcard, pay to go to school and pay for just about everything. I thought communism was about "to each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Apparently communism means something else in China.

Overall it was a great experience though. China is a wonderful place even if the great firewall of China does block half the internet (including this website!) and there are almost no religious or personal freedoms. Hopefully with rising prosperity and education, the chinese will start demanding more freedom. On the plus side, the underground church is really fired up about reaching out to other nationalities. Hudson Taylor would be proud.

Okay, enough about china.

Postcard from Kashgar

2006-10-24T17:40:00.000+07:00

We had a great day exploring around Kashgar. We saw the huge statue of Mao, sections of the old wall and old buildings. Of course we took plenty of good pictures however, I forgot to put the memory card in my camera so none of them were actually recorded.

The wall was really incredible. It was about 30 feet high and 20 feet wide. You could really get a feeling what it would be like to approach a city like this in its hayday. Now it is just another chinese city with some old buildings still in it. It was a lot of fun to wander around the old section of the city and see all the old adobe style houses. It was also good to be in the bread part of the world again. Bread on every corner. I took some really cool pictures of people making bread and old homes but... well... use your imagination.

We stopped by the famous Kashgar Sunday market and perused for a while. It wasn't as big as I pictured it but it was fairly large. Lots of spices, knives, hats, carpets and anything else you want to buy there. We're going to some places with other really good markets. They are really packed with people.

The next day we left for Kyrgyzstan which was pretty easy to find a bus. Getting through the border was another matter. We had to go through a passport check to approach the border, show our passports to get in the building and get a departure card, show our passports at immigration, show our passports at customs, show our passport leaving the building and show our passports at the security check outside. Thats was all just to LEAVE China. I never though a country would care that much to make sure everything was just right when you left. Then we went over to the Kyrgyz side and made it through immigration without a problem but got pulled aside right away because we were Americans. The immigration officer asked me what state I was from to which I replied "Texas!" He told me that wasn't a state in the US. I begged to differ seeing as I had lived there for 11 years. He was not convinced until I pulled out my driver's license which is from Texas to which he said "Oh! Tehas! That is how it should be pronounced." Silly me. A couple more passports checks and we were home free.

Postcard from the Silk Road to Kashgar

2006-10-22T10:13:00.000+07:00

We left Chengdu a day later than we had planned since we missed the train by 5 minutes the first time and had to reschedule the trip for the following day. The following 3 days and two nights involved a lot of sitting on a train bed and reading or sitting or sleeping or not a whole lot of doing anything. We eventually arrived in Urumqi which is the most landlocked city in the whole world which means is it is the farthest from any ocean. After we arrived we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to the bus station for Kashgar. We took the 24 hour bus to Kashgar which meant we had been traveling for 4 days and 3 nights STRAIGHT! The road to Kashgar is the famous Silk Road which is a whole lot less cool than it sounds. Maybe part of the reason I say that is because we very exhaustedly saw it from a bus on the last leg of the journey. Anyways, imagine a vast expanse of flat dirt with an occasional bush and every 50 miles or so there is an oasis with tall stately poplar trees and square chinese buildings and you have a good idea of what it looks like. Also along the road is the second lowest point in the world after Death Valley. Quite a change after being in Tibet the week before and heading into the mountains of central asia next week. Eventually we arrived in Kashgar and crashed in the hotel after showering. The bed felt great since it wasn't slightly smaller than my body and constantly bouncing around all night. We experienced a little "train" lag the morning on the bus since we stopped for breakfast and we thought it was like 3 in the morning. Turns out it was 8 and the sun hadn't even started to come up. We had traveled so far in a couple days that the sun had changed by about 4 hours! The time was still the same since all of china runs off of Beijing time. The sun rises at about 9 and sets around 9 in the evening. Really strange for us. Turns out also that we are still in the fasting month of Ramadhan here. We thought we were going to miss it but didn't.

Tomorrow the plan is to leave for Kyrgyzstan after exploring Kashgar today. More to come later.

Postcard from Chendgu

2006-10-16T19:11:00.000+07:00

UPDATE!!! Photos for the last three posts have been fixed. Enjoy!

Chengdu is more of a transition city for us and there isn't really a whole lot here we were excited about doing except for going to the Panda Research and Conservation Park. This is where the majority of the captively bred pandas have been born in the world. So this morning we hopped on a bus and headed over to check it out.

This is a photo of Jing-Jing.

She is the official Panda of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and if you think that is a little overboard, you haven't been to China recently. Everything here is 2008 Beijing Olympics. They are hyping it so much here it is ridiculous and it is still two years away.

Here is a photo of a couple of Pandas eating. This seems to be one of the two primary activities of the Panda. The other is sleeping. They are incredibly slow and docile for bear-like animals. It was a lot of fun to see them. The center also has a really good video explaining all about Giant Pandas and the attempts they have made to breed the pandas. They have been suprisingly successful the last 6 years or so.

Also at the park was an added suprise for me. The firefox!

Technically called the Red Panda or Lesser Panda, a common nickname is the firefox. Why is this so cool? Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I love the Firefox browser. The animals were cool to see in person and incredibly cute.

Tomorrow morning we are boarding the long train to Urumqi. We'll be on the train for several days and then after a short stop there, be heading by train to Kashgar. Don't expect to hear much from me for a few days then.

6 Days in Tibet

2006-10-15T16:06:00.000+07:00

After overnighting in Chengdu, Stephen and I decided to go to Western Sichuan instead of Tibet. Western Sichuan is ethnically tibetan but open to tourism in a way that Tibet is not. We decided not to go to Lhasa since it is overly touristy and expensive. The decision proved to be a good one as the area we went to was beyond our expectations. Here is an account of our 6 days of travel there.

Our first day was pretty normal. We caught the bus to Kangding which usually takes 8 hours. On the road though there was a rock slide in progress. We thought it pretty amazing at the time that we could watch rocks fall onto the road.

We waited about an hour and the rocks stopped falling and we were able to continue the journey. We arrived in Kangding which is the last Han Chinese town before Tibet but there are still lots of Tibetans there still. We set out to find tsampo which is barley meal, yak butter and tea mixed into balls. We did find a nice couple who happily made us some to try. It was interesting, filling but definitely high in calories. It was plain that it was invented to be easy to carry and energy given while herding yaks up in the mountains. We overnighted there and caught the two day bus to Dege the next morning.

The next day was primarily involved with bumping up and down on a rickety old bus and trying not to slide off the seats since they were angled down funny. Not the most enjoyable ride. We passed by the beautiful rock and pine houses of the Tibetans.

Our guide book says the ride to Dege is 24 hours so we thought it was non-stop. Unfortunately our bus driver was not able to drive for 24 hours straight so we stopped at a town called Luhuo for the night. When we got off at 6PM we thought they meant that we would be stopping for 6 hours because they kept saying 6. So we wandered around town for a while and tried to talk to the locals but we don't really speak mandarin or tibetan. They were most impressed with my arm hair though and Stephen found it very funny when about 20 men from the town were crowded around me petting my arm hair. My favorite guy there kept informing us that I was a 3 and Stephen was a 2. We have no idea what that means but I'm glad I'm higher than Stephen is. Eventually we realized, through the repeated attempts of the town people to tell us, that the bus was leaving at 6AM and that we had better get some sleep. We found a cheap room at the bus station and crashed.

Unfortunately that meant that we wouldn't be able to make it all the way to Dege because we would have to turn right around and head back to make it to Chengdu in time for our train to Urumqi. We decided to get off the bus in Ganzi which really confused everyone since we had paid for all the way to Dege. Ganzi is in a valley at over 10,000 feet and some of the passes we were going through were more than 13,000 feet. We were really looking forward to the pass to Dege which is nearly 20,000 feet high. Since we got off, we weren't able to do it. In Dege we found a good hotel, a great bakery and prepared to hitchhike back and do some camping along the way. So we went into the town to buy some food stuffs but we offended this one guy while trying to buy spices and stuff. We aren't exactly sure what we did but he got very angry so we just left. The next guy just gave us what we wanted for free so we weren't sure if we were doing something wrong but in the end we ended up with everything we needed without getting kicked out of town. We also had some time to look around the area.

One of the prime incomes in the area is from raising and milking yaks. One of the things we bought was yak meat to eat while camping but eventually burned it as we had pretty well mutilated it while trying to cut it and it was full of yak hair. Not very appetizing. Sorry that I didn't get any pictures of the amazing people. They were almost all in traditional clothes which included crimsen monk robes, bright skirts with wide brim hats for the girls and cowboy outfits or yak coats for the guys. I'm not kidding about the cowboy outfits. For some reason, the whole area feels like the wild west. There are horses everywhere and cowboy hats, towns look like Dodge city and even yaks look like hairy cows with horns. In one town we even saw a horse go bolting through the town with a saddle hanging behind it. A minute or two later a lady came running after it.

After spending the night in a hotel and getting cleaned up, we decided to try and hitch back to Kangding and do some camping for a couple nights along the way. We started out early the next morning walking out of town along the road. We walked for an hour or so before a tractor with a trailer came along and picked us up.

Also in the tractor was this lady who is the only Tibetan I took a picture of. I asked some other people but they either said no or wanted money which I wouldn't pay them.

He only drove us a few miles and then turned off. We continued walking and after 4 and 1/2 hours, we had only made it 10 miles. Finally a truck driver pulled over and gave us a lift. Now one of the things about hitching in other parts of the world is that you are expected to pay for the ride. It is also oddly enough more expensive than taking the bus. Anyways, the bus driver took us as far as Daofu although we wanted to go up to the next pass. He stopped to take on a load and he seemed to indicate that we wanted to take us farther. So we waited around for a while and they started loading his truck with used cardboard. We realized it was going to be a while so we decided to help as it would get us back on the road faster. 3 hours later we had finished it up with a bunch of empty plastic bottles on top. It was lots of fun and the loaders were very appreciative of the help. They even fed us dinner which is a big thing here. We had a friend in Kunming who said he has been living here for 3 years and has never been invited over for dinner at someone's house. We got back in the truck and drove another mile to the hotel, much to our suprise. Then to our even greater suprise, the hotel was crazily decorated on the inside like the picture below.

Every inch of the place was crazy like that and the hotel was built in the traditional tibetan stone with pine interior. We spent the night and were awoken by the truck driver who wanted to keep driving us. We kept trying to explain that we wanted to get off at the next pass but he didn't understand until we arrived there and motioned to get off. He thought we were nuts since there was snow everywhere and it was really high up.

We trekked up the hill and found a good spot to cook breakfast on the stove we brough with. We had figured out how to use it with diesel although it made everything taste a little funny. Noodles and tea later, we kept hiking till we found a place to pitch the tent and build a fire. We gathered wood and spent the next 2 hours trying to light the fire. We destroyed two of our three lighters (holding the last as an emergency for the stove) and still didn't get anything lit since all the wood was soaking wet. It was really cold too. Finally with a splash of diesel we got it going and worked furiously to keep it going. I started getting altitude sickness, although I didn't know it right away, so went and laid down. It started sleeting and I wasn't getting any better so we decided to head to Tagong for the night. We did so by breaking camp and hiking out to the road and hitching a ride on a pickup that liked to take potholes at full speed. We spent the night there then caught a quite shared taxi to Kangding then a bus to Chengdu.

Interestingly enough on the way back we had to stop again for the same rock slide. We wondered whether the whole thing was caused by the local villagers who always showed up to sell food at inflated prices to the passing motorists. One never knows. We finally arrived back in Chengdu and crashed at the hotel.

For anyone interested in visiting tibet, I would highly recommend Western Sichuan as it is very authentic, under touristed and still wild where Lhasa is overtouristed and mostly Han Chinese as the Tibetans have all cleared out. That is the account of our 6 days in (almost) Tibet.

Postcard from Kunming

2006-10-08T17:44:00.000+07:00

Taking the bus from Luang Phrabang in Laos to Kunming in China was definitely an experience. The bus ride was 40 hours long but was a sleeper bus which made it bearable. The four of us attempted the trip and were greeted the first night by northern Laos roads. By roads I mean a patch of potholed land that a good vehicle can probably pass over. Trying to sleep while passing over these roads was like playing football and sleeping at the same time, where you are the football. We were jostled left, then right, then up, then down constantly.

It was all great fun. During the next day we crossed into China without too much difficulty although I was questioned a bit after I couldn't provide any ID besides my passport and scuba certification. The border agent wanted something issued in the US to which I explained repeatedly that I didn't live there so I didn't need certification beyond my passport. He eventually gave up and let me through. The next day and night were much better as the roads were actually passable if not a little curvy. We arrived safely and groggily in Kunming.

Our time in Kunming was lots of fun as we toured around the city looking at cool stuff. We went to some ponds with nice parks around them and tried out tea which is very famous from this region of China.

For fun one day we did a photo scavenger hunt and set of as couples to see how many of a list of items we could find. This is the result of the most disgusting food.

Doing the scavenger hunt turned out to be lots of fun and a way for us to explore places in Kunming that we wouldn't have otherwise seen. China was definitely interesting. As Katie put it, "it's like a really big Chinatown."

Also in the market we stumbled across this fruit that we had no idea what it is. It smelled a bit like a lemon or orange but was solid on the inside like an apple but without a lot of meat.

Our last day in Kunming we went down to Shilin, which is the stone forest. It is basically limestone rocks that have been weathered into huge pillars in really odd shapes and sizes. Some are quite spectacular and the highest reach nearly 30 meters (close to 100 feet). For anyone planning on visiting Shilin, the entrance price has been raised to almost $20 so I hope you really like rocks.

Finally, the next day we tearfully said goodbye to Ryanna and Katie and dropped them off at the airport for their flight back to the US. We then boarded the train to Chengdu.

We're only staying in Chengdu for the night and then will head out near Tibet for a while. It may be a while before we get back to internet again but I'll post when we do.

Postcard from Laos

2006-10-01T15:05:00.000+07:00

We arrived in Northern Thailand right across from the border with Laos after a suprisingly fast 18 hours of taxis and busses from Angkor Wat. We spent the night with some friends of some friends and had some really great discussions with them. The work they are doing is very exciting and it is amazing to see God working in this part of the world.

The next morning we headed into Laos. First off I'd like to say, if you have the chance, GO TO LAOS NOW!!! Laos is truely awesome. We have enjoyed some of the best food we have ever had for around $1 per meal. The people are also very friendly, not pushy like Cambodia and Thailand. The infrastructure is also developed just enough to make things comfortable but not feel like you aren't experiencing the real culture. In another 5-10 years though, Laos will probably be ruined similar to how Thailand now is. It takes a lot of work to find a part of Thailand that is comfortable. Not so in Laos, it is amazing. Truely the jewel of the Mekong.

We stayed with some more friends there and were pleasently suprised by Laos. The big excitement of the trip happened the next day when Ryanna and Katie arrived from the US to join us for part of the trip.

The friends we were staying with have a new baby boy that is one of the most happy babies I've ever seen. Our stay in Laos was awesome. In Vientiane, we ate at a Vientamese place that Stephen raved about for days. We also ate at an Indian place that was phenominal and they had the best breakfasts at a place called Joma. Our whole experience in Laos with eating could be summed up with "gastronomical bliss."

But there was much more going on that that. For one thing, we were both very happy to have Ryanna and Katie there. We have done tons of stuff and had a blast.

First off, in Vientiane, we went to the "Arc D' Triumph" as I call it. It is modeled after the french thingies and represents the communist victory over the king of Laos in 1975.

I also have a picture of Ryanna from a distance looking like she is holding it up but I don't think she would be very happy if I posted it. We also saw the big stupa and water fountain around town. Mostly we just enjoyed catching up.

The next day we took an overnight bus to Luang Phrabang.

Luckily it wasn't this bus with candles for headlights. The bus we did take wasn't much more comfortable though. We did make it safely.

Luang Phrabang had an amazing night market although we haven't bought anything there yet.

We had a great time walking around, looking at the World Heritage city and gazing off over the river.

The next day we rented a boat to go see the Pak Ou caves.

Along the way we had to fill up at the local area gas station. You can actually see gas pumps like out of a regular gas station on the boat.

The caves themselves were mildly disappointing seeing as they were just shallow caves along the river filled with thousands of budda statues. I guess that would have been more exciting if I worshipped budda.

It did have some amazing shots of the Mekong river though. Speaking of which, the Mekong is a really huge river that flows really fast.

Once back in town, we climbed to the top of the hill where there is yet another stupa to watch the sun go down. Unfortunately, it was a very foggy day so it wasn't so impressive.

After that we went down to the river and had yet another amazing Lao meal.

The next day we took an elephant tour to a waterfall. I think the pictures probably speak for themselves. It included a Land Rover to get to a rickety little boat and then a two hour elephant treck right to the waterfall. The water was suprisingly cold but very refreshing.

Hopefully tonight we will catch the sleeper bus to Kunming. It will take 38 hours and leaves in the evening so we should arrive around noon on the second day.

Postcard from Angkor Wat

2006-09-24T09:29:00.000+07:00

Even with all the hastle getting to Angkor Wat, it was well worth the trip.

Around Angkor Wat are a collection of temples that were built during the height of the Khmer empire. This one is Bayon which has 216 faces of the king facing tons of directions. Angkor Wat itself is the most impressive since it is almost completely still intact and has some incredible long murals almost undamaged for 800 years. We'll leave these to your imagination though so you have some reason to go to Angkor Wat yourself.

There was also Baphoun which was painstakingly takeen apart by archeologists in the 60's in order to be renovated. Unfortunately the records of what pieces went where were lost during the Khmer Rouge period so the temple is now the worlds largest jigsaw puzzle.

Baphoun currently under construction

Pieces of the puzzle

It rained several times while we were there so we had to take shelter where we could. Here is Stephen waiting out the rain in a ruined corridor.

Ta Prohm was one of the coolest temples because it has largely been left unrestored. I kept having songs from The Jungle Book running through my head because it reminded me of the movie so much.

Part of Tomb Raider was filmed in this temple and it definitely feels like it. This one makes a person feel like they are living in Indiana Jones, until you see the tourists with cameras getting their picture taken that is.

This one is another where's stephen picture. It is a photo of him at Ta Keo which was built in a pyramid style but was never finished. The steps up are so steep it is more like crawling up a cliff than climbing steps.

All over the place were incredible carvings covering almost all of the doorways walls and anything else made of stone. Here is one of the best preserved ones we found.

One of the murals at Angkor Wat shows the gods and demons playing tug-of-war with a snake above the sea of milk. This was used as balustrades as well which look really awesome.

Here is me doing my part to help out.

Finally, at Preah Khan is this strange building that looks very greek.

Cambodia in general felt like a huge tourist trap with everyone out to squeeze money out of the tourists. If it wasn't for how incredible Angkor Wat is, it wouldn't be worth it. Stephen and I were both very glad to be back in Thailand after the trip where we were able to easily and cheaply get where we wanted to go. Angkor Wat stands higly recommended on things to see. Next stop, Vientianne, Laos and picking up Ryanna and Katie. Needless to say we are excited.

Postcard from Bangkok

2006-09-24T09:12:00.000+07:00

In spite of Bangkok being a backpacker's paradise, we were only there for a couple days. One day really. We just didn't have time to fit much in. It is a big city though so we didn't miss a whole lot.

We did go to the Grand Palace though.

It has some very old and brightly colored palaces and temples that are very thai and unique in their brightness. They were renovated not too long ago whith colored mirror pieces all over the place.

For example, this giant golden stupa is actually covered with millions of one inch square golden reflective mirrors. The effect is really cool.

We also tried to go to the snake farm where they collect snake venom to make anti-venom but it was closed in the afternoon due to the coup.

Speaking of which, there were tanks and soldiers all over Bangkok and Thailand. As we were leaving for Cambodia, they were all over the place and even had a few checkpoints along the roads. Everything was calm though and no problems really anywhere.

On our way to Siem Reap where Angkor Wat is, we got caught in the bus scam. We got on a bus that took 9 hours to do the 4-5 hour trip so that they could dump us at a guest house at 11pm and then we wouldn't go looking for another one. Needless to say we marched off in a huff.

Update from Bangkok

2006-09-20T10:38:00.000+07:00

We arrived last night in Bangkok and wandered around Khao San for a while. It is incredibly packed with backpackers, more so than anywhere I have ever been.

This is Khao San filled with backpackers. Where's Stephen? (He's there)

So we woke up this morning and went to check our e-mail and found out that there was a coup last night and Thailand is now under martial law. We are fine and hopefully things won't go crazy here. Either way we are planning on heading to Cambodia in a few days. I'll post a postcard for Bangkok later.

Postcard from the Kwai River

2006-09-20T10:19:00.000+07:00

Mr. G in High School had us watch "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and I really was fascinated with the movie. I even made a model bridge out of popsicle sticks. Well I've finally gone and seen the bridge and all it represents. Turns out that the movie isn't very accurate to what happened with the bridge but does portray the suffering of the soldiers.

One of the oddest things about the bridge (and you won't find this information in Thailand) is that the bridge doesn't actually cross the River Kwai. The railroad follows the river kwai for 300 km but never crosses until it joins the Mae Klong river. The author of the book just assumed it was the kwai river since that is what the railroad follows. When the book was written and the movie made, people started showing up looking for the bridge on the river kwai but the Thai's had no idea. Once the figured it out, in a very thai decision, they renamed the upper branch to Kwai Yai or the little Kwai. The main Kwai is now called Kwai Noi or the big Kwai.

This is all that is left of the original wooden bridge. Actually, if you look on the right side of the picture, you can see the original. The left side is a recreation. The Thai government asked the Japanese to remove the wooden one in 1944 because it was obstructing river traffic.

In its place was built a steel bridge that was actually dismantled and transported from Java to Thailand by the Japanese during WWII.

The steel bridge was also set up by prisoners of war and in 1945, it was bombed repeatedly by American bombers. The middle three spans were knocked out and rebuilt after the war by the Thai Railway. You can see the two spans that look different in the photo and there are still some pockmarks on some of the pylons near the end.

See, we really were there.

There was also a very touching memorial and gravesight for the POWs killed building the railroad.

Postcard from Penang

2006-09-20T09:43:00.000+07:00

We decided to take a train from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok which just happened to have an eight hour layover in Butterworth on the way there. Butterworth is a short ferry ride away from Penang island so we decided to make a quick trip there.

While there we visited Fort Cornwallis

Fort Cornwallis was founded in 1786 by Fracis Light and named after the Governor-Generl of Bengal Charles Cornwallis but is probably more recognizable to Americans as the British General who lost the last battle of the Revolutionary War. It was set up as the first base of the East India Trading Company and was strategic but unattacked throughout the colonial period.

Above is me storming the fort near some cannons. One of them is Seri Ramai which apparently is a really famous cannon from that era. It was originally built by the dutch and you can still see the VOC on the barrel. They gave the cannon to the Sulton of Johore who later gave it to Aceh and in 1871 the British seized it and move it to Penang where it has been ever since.

I don't know how many times I've seen "No Littering" signs but luckily at Fort Cornwallis littering is allowed. I guess they wan't to leave more clues for future archeologists.

Penang also included some very impressive victorian era buildings including a clock tower presented to Queen Victoria on her Diamond Jubilee, all of which I didn't take pictures of.

Here is me on the ferry back to Butterworth.

And Stephen in our sleeper car to Bangkok.

We have now traveled by train, bus, ferry and taxi. Seeing as we are going to Thailand and Laos, maybe we will add elephant soon.

(Last) Postcard from Kuala Lumpur

2006-09-16T11:26:00.000+07:00

This is my fourth and final time in Kuala Lumpur for this trip. I've been staying at a tiny little but very nice guesthouse named the Red Palm that I would highly recommend if you are in Kuala Lumpur.

The good news is that all of our visas are finished here in KL. We now have China, Kyrgyz, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia in our passports. The only one left is Tajikistan and we need to go to Uzbekistan for that one since there isn't a consolate around here anywhere.

Stephen and I have got train tickets tonight for an overnight train to Butterworth near the island of Penang and will probably spend the morning sightseeing in that area. Then we have overnight tickets for Butterworth to Bangkok.

We also tentatively have added Angkor Wat to the itinerary which adds Cambodia to the list of countries.

Postcard from Perhentian Kecil Island

2006-09-14T13:26:00.000+07:00

Stephen and I have spent the last few days on Perhentian Kecil Island after an overnight bus trip from Kuala Lumpur. We decided to go after dropping our passports of at the Kazakhstan Embassy and being told that we would have to wait till friday to pick them up. We decided instead of hanging around KL for a whole week, we might as well head to the beach. Everyone said Perhentian Kecil was the best so we headed there.

Here is a picture of the beach. The main beach, long beach, is a really beautiful white sand beach with lots of cheap bungalos and moderately priced restaurants lining the shore. There is also a path across the island to coral bay. Coral bay faces the west so it has a great view of the sunset. Our first night there we hiked the 15 minutes across four dinner with a view of the sunset. It was all well and good until we started heading back and realized we forgot our flashlights. By then it was very dark and the path went through the woods and over the central hill. We decided to just do it in the dark. What an experience that was! We had to go pretty slow and rely on our other senses to feel where the path was. Along much of the path though was phosphorescent fungus that glowed. The cool thing was that it was on each side of the path only so we just had to walk down dark part with the glowing on each side to find our way.

The next day (yesterday) we decided to rent a kayak and paddle around the island. Kecil means "little" but don't be fooled, the island wasn't small. It took us about 4 hours to go around the island and we were paddling pretty quickly the whole time. When we got to coral bay on the opposite side from where we started, we pulled in for a half hour break and saw a few guys sitting around. We went up and started chatting with them and they, like many others, love the fact that we speak Bahasa. We were quite thirsty by then and saw they were drinking green coconut milk which is very good and refreshing. We asked if we could buy some to which they told us that they don't sell it but they had just cut some down and they would love to give us some. Needless to say it was very tasty.

This morning we took it easy, partially because we are both a little sore from the paddling and partially from the fact that the disco next door was pumping bass until 2 in the morning. We hopped the ferry back across to the mainland and are now waiting for the night bus back to KL.

Friday we're going to pick up our passports from the Kazakhstan Embassy and then Saturday head to Thailand. Our first stop will either be Bangkok or the Bridge on the River Kwai. I love the movie and have always wanted to see it.

Postcard from Jakarta/Medan

2006-09-10T19:07:00.000+07:00

Since I only spent one day in each city and didn't do anything photo worthy, this will be a short post without pictures.

I went to Jakarta from Bandung on Thursday morning, catching a ride with a friend who was going down for a meeting. I met up with some other friends who now live in Jakarta and we went to the mall together. Two highlights of the trip are that we ate Krispy Kreme doughnuts for the first time and saw Snakes on a Plane.

I bought stock in Krispy Kreme a while ago when it was really low and have been stubbornly holding on ever since. I figured that the doughnuts were really good and it was low priced. I had never tasted them before though until Jakarta! They were everything they were cracked up to be and then some. There is another company that has been moving in before them called "J-Co" that is very similar but the doughnuts don't taste nearly as good. Go Krispy Kreme!

Snakes on a Plane was definitely interesting. It was a lot of fun to watch it with my squeamish friends. I don't think I have laughed so hard in a very long time. There was some very gratuitous violence in the film that was hard to watch but overall it was very funny. If you do see it, make sure to bring someone squeamish with you. It enhances the movie very much.

Friday morning I flew in to Medan to pick up Stephen (finally!) and to say goodbye for the last time. I met the new country director who is a really cool guy and had dinner with the Medan staff as a going away party. They also gave us some signed tsunami books to remember our work in Indonesia.

Then Saturday morning we flew to Kuala Lumpur where we currently are getting our Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan visas. That means our trip has officially begun. More to come later.

Postcard from Bandung

2006-09-06T10:54:00.000+07:00

As most of you know, I lived in Bandung for three years only a little more than a year ago so my time here is kind of like a reunion/final farewell. I've spent most of my time at the school where I taught and many of my friends are still here although it is interesting to see how many are now married or seriously dating someone.

Anyways, to start things off, here is a picture of the gate at the school.

I did some substitute teaching for various teachers including 8th grade bible. I really like teaching bible and wish I could do it more often. I also did junior high chapel on friday.

I had a great time relaxing in Bandung and hanging out with old friends. I even got to help design the new lab at the new school that is under construction now. Now for a little bit about Bandung and some sightseeing.

Bandung used to be called the "Paris of Java" or the Paris of the East. Back when Indonesia was a dutch colony, Bandung was a resort and relaxation city for citizens of Jakarta trying to escape the heat. It saw rapid growth after independance and was the center of Indonesia's textile market until the crash in 1998. Still, many textiles are made there (check out the labels next time you go to the store). There is one particular outlet street called Cihampelas (chee-amp-las) that has gaudy facades in front of all the stores. Unfortunately I haven't taken any pictures of them yet.

All you texans out there would be interested to learn that Bandung is a sister-city of Fort Worth.

I've seen this monument for four years but have never gotten around to taking a picture of it until now. Next time I am in Fort Worth I'll have to find a similar monument. If anyone knows where it it, please let me know.

Because Bandung was a rest city up in the mountains away from the heat, there are still many Dutch colonial villas around the city. There is also still tons of classic Dutch architecture.

And of course next door is something a little more... um... modern.

Bandung also has the Kimia Farma plant right in the middle of the city which is where the world's supply of Quinine was made for hundreds of years (maybe not that long). Quinine was the primary anti-malaria drug used for a long time despite the fact that you almost died from the side-effects. They have much better drugs now, not to mention that malaria is much more treatable than it used to be.

That does it for Bandung. I'm leaving tomorrow morning to spend a day in Jakarta with more friends, then heading to Medan for a day to pick up Stephen, then to Kuala Lumpur. More to come.

Postcard from Melacca

2006-08-27T13:39:00.000+07:00

Yesterday I arrived in Melacca, the famous trading port for hundreds of years. Melacca was first colonized by Arab traders, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and the English for 100-150 years each! Talk about a lot of colonizing. Today it is turning in to quite a tourist attraction. I walked around this morning and saw a couple of tourist attractions and tons of tourist markets selling those tourist trinkets that people buy and give to people who aren't sure what to do with them.

There is a replica of an old Portuguese Gallion from 1512 on display which is an example of "colonial plundering of Malaysia."

There were tons of museums everywhere. I think it might rival the smithsonion for number of museums in one place. I wasn't very interested in them so I only went to one which kept making me take my shoes off and put them in a plastic bag to carry around.

Also in Melacca was St. Paul's Church on the top of the main hill that used to be the Portuguese fort. It was later abandoned by the Dutch when their church was built on the bottom of the hill. St. Francis used to visit this church often and his body was interred here for 9 months after his death. That is his statue.

After a little sightseeing, I hopped a bus to Kuala Lumpur.

Singapore Supplimental

2006-08-27T13:26:00.000+07:00

I've got a couple more pictures from Singapore that I took my last morning there.

The first one is the skyline from my friend's appartment complex. I share it with you so you can see the skyline of almost all of singapore: more appartment complexes!

The second one speaks for itself. Kakapoo Joy Juice? Yum.

Postcard from Singapore

2006-08-25T22:18:00.000+07:00

I arrived in Singapore yesterday afternoon and immediately met up with my friends. We've been hanging out for the last day. It is good to have people I know to hang out with and go see stuff with. I've been to Singapore before so it isn't much different than last time. People are more organize, get in lines and stuff is more expensive here. That is about it. Oh, and the public transportation is REALLY easy to use.

Last night we all went on the night safari at the Singapore Zoo. We took the tram ride around for the first 45 minutes and then walked the trails for a couple of hours. I have to say it was really interesting to see all the animals at night. They get really active. Usually at zoos they are just sitting around or sleeping whereas at the night safari, they were all up and moving. The Night Safari is highly recommended if you ever visit Singapore.

We went shopping today just to see around. Lots of good food too! Pretty expensive. After sunset we went out to the beach for some reason. I guess my friends like the beach after dark. It was nice though and we had some Singapore Slings. They were... a little overated if they are rated at all. I guess you have to have one when you come here though.

Tomorrow I'm off to Malaka to get some ferry tickets for later on in the trip. Good news too! We got our Letter of Invitation for Uzbekistan so we can now get the visa. I was really worried that wasn't going to happen. All the visas are now coming together.

Postcard from Kuala Lumpur

2006-08-24T07:10:00.000+07:00

I decided that maybe the best way to keep all of you up on my travels was to send postcards from the different places I'm going with pictures (when possible). Here is the first, from Kuala Lumpur.

I've been in Kuala Lumpur for about a week and a half now and have been all over the city (mostly walking). KL has some of the phenomenal eateries. All very cheap too! Its a mixture of Chinese, Malay and Indian food which is really spicy and good.

I've successfully gotten three visas so far. China, Russia and Kyrgyz. I wasn't able to get the Uzbekistan visa yet since we haven't gotten the Letter of Invitation yet (they are mad at the US so they are making it hard), or the Kazakhstan visa (it takes a whole week to get it and I don't have a week left). We'll have to get those later.

Here are some pictures from different places I visited that were photo worthy.

This photo is of the Batu Caves. They are a set of three caves just north of KL that you can take a bus to. There are 272 steps leading up and a huge statue of some god sitting there. The caves were okay with lots of little shrines around inside and lots of monkeys that are mean. There was also a cave just to the left of this picture that went back 2.2km but I didn't go back since I've seen caves before and you had to pay to do it.

Of course you can't go to KL without visiting the Petronas Towers. This is the view from the top. I must admit that I haven't been up them yet. I just haven't felt the need yet. Interestingly (at least to me), Petronas means Petrochemical Nasional which is the national gas company. Gotta love what monopolies can afford.

Sorry about the haze in the pictures. Every year Kalimantan in Indonesia decides to burn down the entire jungle so the haze from the fires goes across to Singapore and Malaysia. The haze in both pictures is from this. There is no smell but it is like really bad smog. There isn't a lot of pollution from cars here since most vehicles run on natural gas.

Today I'm headed to Singapore to visit some friends. I can't do any more visa work and I need to visit a port to get some ferry tickets from Medan to Melacca so I can get a visa to Indonesia. More postcards to come.

Its a small world

2006-08-18T07:26:00.000+07:00

I was hanging out in the hostel the other night after a day walking around Kuala Lumpur when in the door walked an old student of mine! He was one of the first class I taught and graduated the same time I left the school. Pretty cool who you run into around the world. It really is a small world after all. (dang, now I have that stupid song in my head)

In Kuala Lumpur

2006-08-16T12:44:00.000+07:00

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur without a lot of fanfare. I've been trying to find my way around and get to know the city. I found a nice little Hostel to stay in that isn't too expensive and is near lots of fun stuff.

I got extra pages put in my passport today at the US Embassy. I love the US Embassy. Its so nice to walk up, flash my US passport and walk by everyone else in line. I was through security, pages filled and out within 30 minutes. Amazing. Someone I don't think my experiences with the rest of the embassies are going to be as nice.

Next I went to the Chinese Embassy which of course doesn't do consular services. You have to go to the Bank of China for that. So I went there and got the forms but didn't have all the information so I'll go back tomorrow to get it done.

I also went looking for the Uzbek, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Embassies but apparently they have all moved since I got their addresses so now I need to get new addresses for them. That pretty much sums up what I've been up to. Hopefully I can get these done soon.

Gone

2006-08-14T06:28:00.000+07:00

I'm on my way this morning and will be gone traveling for the next four months or so. I won't have my laptop with me most of the time so my posts are going to become a bit more sparse but I'll try and post whenever I get a chance. I'm headed to Medan this morning and then on to Kuala Lumpur this evening to begin getting visas for all the countries we're headed to.

Finding Nemo

2006-08-12T18:47:00.000+07:00

I had a great time in Sabang this last week. I spent it sleeping in a hammock, snorkeling and scuba diving. The coral in Sabang was largely damaged by the tsunami but has started growing back and is still good in the deeper areas. The fish there are phenomenal. To start with, I saw Dory (Regal Blue Tang) everywhere. I tried to say hi bush she kept acting like she didn't recognize me. I also saw Gill (Moorish Idol) quite often with plenty of Bubbles (Yellow Tang) around as well. I even saw huge schools of Moonfish although they didn't make any funny shapes for me. They just looked like, well, a school of Moonfish. Once I even caught a glimpse of Jacques, the cleaner shrimp. On my last full day there I went out for my last dive still looking for Nemo, Bloat and Crush. As I was descending along the decline to the dive depth, I passed over some very familiar anemone. I went in for a closer look and there they were! Clown fish! There was even three of them. Two larger and one smaller. I had found Nemo. I had seen plenty of puffer fish but not exactly a porcupine fish until the morning before I left. I saw a perfect huge one! He was a little shy though. I never did find Crush (Sea Turtle) even though the island I was on is famous for having them around. I asked and they told me I would be lucky if I saw one. Lucky I was not.

Anyways, besides the fish from Finding Nemo, I saw a black tipped reef shark, gigantic mooray eel, blue spotted rays and tons of cleaner wrasse. Of course, not to mention all the millions of other colored and shaped fishes. Very nice week at the beach.

Gone to the Beach

2006-08-07T06:27:00.000+07:00

I'm finally taking off and will be at the beach for the next week so don't expect any new blog posts for a while. I won't even have my cell phone with me. Later!

4 Years

2006-08-04T11:15:00.000+07:00

I missed it a couple of days ago but July 29th marks my four years here in Indonesia. Its amazing to look back at who I was then and how I have changed since. Funny how I only have a few more days left till I leave permanently. Seems like just yesterday. Sigh...

If you want to read about all that has happened since I arrived, it is all contained in my newsletters that stretch the entire time. Tons of stuff is also included in the last two years of this blog. Interestingly enough, the last month was also the two year anniversay of this blog.

I'm going to be taking off to the beach for a week so I'll be out of contact starting monday but I have a couple of random posts I've been mulling over in my head for a while that I'll try and post before then.

Last Monday

2006-07-31T16:54:00.000+07:00

Everybody loves Mondays so much, me included. Today is my last one here at my job before I go. I've handed over everything to my replacement now so I'm doing a lot of sitting around and waiting. It is weird leaving yet again a place I have spent a long time in. Almost my whole life has consisted of moving and leaving. Let me tell you, it doesn't get any easer.

I went for a walk Sunday around some of the paths I jogged before I got tendinitis and saw many familiar things. There was the first house I lived in when I came to Banda Aceh, the restaurants I always used to eat at and the same people sitting out on their porch where they always are. I'm going to miss Banda Aceh even though I'm excited to be leaving. I've had a great run here and am very glad for the way things have turned out.

My plans moving forward are to finish out this week then Monday morning I'm going to Sabang which is a beautiful island 45 minutes from Banda Aceh with some of the best diving in the world. I haven't been in over a year when I've lived so close to it. I'll be there for a week, after which I'm heading to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I'll be there two weeks to get visas for Stephen and me. I decided to get a ticket to go to Bandung since they were on sale for $25 (plus $25 in taxes and fees) but still not a bad deal from Kuala Lumpur all the way to Bandung. So I'll be heading there for about a week before I meet up with Stephen and begin the trip.

I've still got lots of packing to do but everything is coming together.

Newsletters now available

2006-07-28T15:02:00.000+07:00

For all of you not on my mailing list, I've posted the latest newsletter which is # 22 as well as the previous two which I had never posted online. Click on the newsletter link on the left to read them.

Pretty little star means trouble

2006-07-28T10:52:00.000+07:00

I've been a Mac user now for nearly a year and have hardly used a Windows computer since. I was just downloading some software from Microsoft's website to play Windows Media Player files in Quicktime when I started noticing all these pretty stars all over the place next to software updates. They are the same little silver stars that have started popping up on all my friend's Windows computers. Apparently they have designed a very nice logo for their Windows Genuine Advantage program or whatever they are now calling it. Basically if Microsoft thinks you are running a pirated copy of the program it will start notifying you and not let you upgrade parts of the system. Problem is that EVERYONE I know is seeing this on their computer and asking about it. I know that the machines purchased here in Indonesia probably have a pirated copy but even the ones that were purchased from HP, Dell, IBM and others in the US are doing the same things. I'm so glad I'm using a machine from a company that doesn't treat its customers as criminals.

Not only that but Macs are much safer to use. Did you know that? Read this article by Walt Mossberg with the Wall Street Journal for an insight into the difference. Why battle viruses, adware, spyware, trojan programs and spam when you can just get a Mac?

Are you stuck holding on to some programs that only run on Windows? Good news! Macs run Windows too. That is if you want all the Windows Genuine Advantage, viruses, adware, blah blah blah that comes with it. Not to mention that OS X is lightyears ahead of Windows in usability and creativity.

I'll leave you with this. There is a reason Mac users are fanatics. Wouldn't you rather enjoy using your computer?

Last Week

2006-07-27T16:33:00.000+07:00

The name of this post is a double entendre but since I have to explain it, it probably isn't very good. First off, its been a week since I last posted so I'll fill you in on that. My main activities have been continued support of the new Base Manager while he learns the ropes. Also I had a rather emotionally charged and contentious several meetings with the village leadership about the project. We came very near closing down the project but in the last meeting after I informed them that the Country Director was coming tomorrow to speak with the district leader about shutting it down, they caved pretty quickly. Amazing how that happens. Anyways, at this point I've turned everything over to my replacement who is doing a great job so I'm just around to answer questions.

Secondly, its almost my last week on the job. I'm very happy to be leaving the project in the state that I am. It is now running well (after the last meeting). My plan is to head to Sabang for a week after I'm done for a little vacation then head to Kuala Lumpur to pick up some visas for the trip and them come back to pick up Stephen and start the trip. Still lots of packing and planning to do but the good news is that Ryanna and Katie are going to be joining us for two weeks! We just bought the tickets for them to come and they'll be joining us for Laos and Kunming China. Stephen and I will both be very glad to see them again since we've both been away for a long time.

Orang Kampung

2006-07-20T12:43:00.000+07:00

Orang Kampung literally means "village person" (not to be confused with The Village People) but could be translated as "redneck" as well. So in honor of Jeff Foxworthy...

You know you're an Orang Kampung if:

1. You can fit more than 5 people on a 100cc motorcycle
2. You think toilet paper only belongs on a dinner table
3. You've had your picture taken with a westerner you don't know
4. You think a Britney Spears song makes a great ring tone
5. You sleep with a band-aid over your belly button to "keep the wind out"
6. You have wondered about the purpose of a trash can
7. You have tried to use a western toilet but your feet kept slipping off the seat
8. Your television and satellite dish cost more than your house
9. You own cows, chickens and goats but aren't sure where any of them are
10. You think there are two food groups: chicken with rice and fish with rice

Another Tsunami

2006-07-17T20:34:00.000+07:00

This afternoon (middle of the night in the US), there was another earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia. First of all, rest assured that I'm okay and didn't even know it happened till I read the news. It actually occurred near where I used to live in Bandung. The villages that were hit are Pangandaran and Cipatujah. I used to go to Pangandaran for vacation at the beach. Both of these villages are much smaller than similar areas hit by the tsunami in Aceh, not to mention that the tsunami is much smaller.

So far it sounds like the earthquake was a 7.2 and the tsunami was around two meters high (six feet). It was enough to shake the area a bit and damage some coastal houses. Early reports were that about 30 people were missing and now they say that at least 6 are dead. Rumor has it that the tsunami flooded the village up to 1 kilometer inland. I'll post more if anything important happens.

Oh, by the way, it is on the same fault a few hundred miles east of the Jogja earthquake.

3 Weeks to go

2006-07-17T14:27:00.000+07:00

My contract will be done in three weeks time. It seems like I just got started. It's amazing how fast one year goes by. I just got back to Banda Aceh yesterday after seeing the Canadian team off in Medan. My replacement is already here and I've been working to get him up to speed on everything before I go. This morning I turned over my responsibilities to him so now I'm just an adviser to him until I leave. Its strange to have someone else running the project I've been running for so long.

Lots of things have happened since my last newsletter so I'm going to try and get another one out really soon. Hopefully now that I have less responsibilities and the Canada team is gone I'll have more time.

I'm also finishing preparations for the upcoming trip. I'm getting really excited about that!

Red Carpet Treatment

2006-07-14T10:18:00.000+07:00

Our Canadian work team finished up and we headed to Medan yesterday. When we landed, we picked up our bags and headed to the hotel. Along the way were a million police and tons of government officials. They got more and more dense on the way to the hotel. When we got to the hotel, there was a red carpet and everything! I mean, I knew we were doing good work but I didn't know we would get that kind of attention for it! When checking in, they were really anxious to get us out of the lounge. Turns out the President of Indonesia was coming to spend the night a the same hotel as us.

At one point I was in the lobby when he went out. Turns out he looks like anyone else but just has a lot of other people running around him doing things. He even has a car with a license plate that says "Indonesia 1."

So this morning I was going to go down for breakfast and the elevator stopped but was going up. I decided to head up first since I was near the top floor anyways. The elevator went to the top where the President was staying and they asked me to get out but there was no where to go. So I was just waiting around for him to arrive and take the elevators. Well, he was taking a while so I went and found the service elevator and took that one. Didn't have to see him again thankfully.

We got the Canadian team sent off without any problems this morning. They did a great job and there were no major problems or complaints the whole time. I'm going to have a nice rest now though.

Strike

2006-07-11T10:25:00.000+07:00

Apparently a bill ratifying the peace agreement in Aceh is supposed to go into affect today. The Acehnese aren't very happy that some parts of the peace agreement were left out of the bill so now there is a general strike at least for this morning. At our work site there is nobody except our staff there working. The Canadians are all ready to go but now have nothing to do. Hopefully things will pick up in the morning after the strike is over.

Work Team Progress

2006-07-09T07:29:00.000+07:00

The team up here has been doing a great job. They are really hard workers and have gotten a lot of work done. We divided them into five teams. A truss making team, a foundation and brick laying team and three paining teams. The foundation team started from scratch and already has the house with walls half way up. They may be able to put the trusses on before they leave. The truss team builds enough trusses for about 2 houses per day. The painting teams are painting about one house in two days for each team.

Today is Sunday and so we are taking a break, going to the beach, barbequeing and going to church. Monday we will start work again but they want to start doing more heavy labor so there will be for teams, truss, paint, foundation and brick. I'm glad so many are wanting to do hard work.

We leave thursday and hopefully life can start getting back to a little more normal. Of course then a few weeks later I'm done so I don't know how normal that will be.

New Boat Technology

2006-07-09T07:25:00.000+07:00

File this one under, DUH! A company in Germany has figured out a new technology to help reduce the cost of fuel use in ships. Add a sail! No kidding. You can cut fuel costs by adding a sail and using the wind power. Wonders never cease. Why didn't we think of this before? I bet soon we will have fully wind powered vessels cruising around...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13325827/site/newsweek/

Strange Phone Calls

2006-07-08T20:33:00.000+07:00

Having a cell phone means you get calls all the time. That is if anyone is calling you. I've had some pretty strange ones in Indonesia. I think things are a little different here. I had a call the other day that went like this:

(ringing)
Me: Hello?
Other: Hello?
Me: Hello?
Other: Hello?
Me: Who is this?
Other: Abdul, who is this?
Me: Randall, what do you want?
Other: What do you want?
Me: You called me
Other: No you called me
Me: I didn't call you
Other: Yes, you called me
Me: Who is this?
Other: Abdul, what do you want
Me: Who do you want to talk to
Other: You called me
Me: No I didn't
Other: Yes you did
Me: Whatever
(click)

I get other ones along the lines of this:

(ringing)
Me: Hello?
Other: Is Rita there?
Me: Who?
Other: Rita
Me: You have the wrong number
Other: No I don't, is Rita there?
Me: I'm pretty sure you don't. This is my phone and I don't know any Ritas
Other: ...
Me: Hello?
Other: Is Rita there?
Me: No, I don't know any Ritas
Other: Well this is her number
Me: No it isn't. This is my phone
Other: Okay
(click)
(immediately ringing again)
Me: Hello?
Other: Is Rita there?
Me: This is still the wrong number
Other: I'm sure this is her number
Me: Well, I'm sure it isn't
Other: Is she there?
Me: Not where I am
Other: Do you know where she is?
Me: I don't know her. Goodbye
(click)
(immediately ringing again)
Me: This is still not Rita's number. Please stop calling.
Other: Randall? Who is Rita?
Me: Oh, sorry Stephen.

Then the most common call I get is this. I think it has to do with the way phone calls are answered.

(ringing)
Me: Hello?
Other: Hello?
Me: Hello?
Other: Hello?
Me: Hello?
Other: Hello?
Me: Who is this?
Other: Who is this?
Me: Hello?
Other: Hello?
Me: Hello?
Other: Who is this?
Me: Randall, who is this?
Other: Hello?
Me: Hello?
Other: Who is this?
Me: Randall, Who is this?
(This repeats itself for quite a while)
Other: Hello?
Me: Hello?
Other: Hello?
Me: What do you want?
Other: Is Dewi there?
Me: Sorry, wrong number.
Other: Oh, bye
(click)

I must admit. I now give people three hellos. If they haven't identified who they are or what they want, I hang up. I figure, if it is important, they will call back with a few less "hellos."

Canadians and Durian

2006-07-06T20:42:00.000+07:00

We've been doing our best to keep the 27 Canadians (really 25 Canadians and 2 Americans) all fed. They've really been enjoying the food although some have said it is a little spicey. Today I was going to bring them some durian to try. But as I was about to leave, Adrian from Panga showed up with a ton of durian to bring out to them. So we went out there and tried to get them to eat it. That involved me eating a ton of durian and trying every trick in the book to convince them that something that smells that bad and tastes like rancid gym socks can actually be enjoyed. So with a taste of heaven and a smell from hell, I convinced a few of them to nibble at it. I managed to down about 3 whole durians. One of the best parts about durian is that it sticks with you for a while because every time you burp, you taste it again. Oh, and it makes urine smell really funny.

Blog Comments

2006-07-06T20:38:00.000+07:00

Sorry to all of you who have been trying to post comments. I turned on moderation of comments a few months ago which means that I have to approve comments before they will appear on the site. Well, I thought it was going to notify me when someone commented so I could approve it but it never did. I had a backlog of comments that I just approved. Special thanks to all of you who have commented, especially Sarah Jo for the birthday greeting!

I'll try and stay on top of it in the future but if it becomes a problem, I just put it back to automatic

Canada Team

2006-07-06T06:36:00.000+07:00

I'm back and working a million miles an hour for 12-14 hours a day. I arrived back at the exact same time as a work group of 27 people from Canada. They are here to help with construction on the project site to taking care of all of them is a full time job for 4 of us in addition to all the other things I'm supposed to be catching up on after 6 weeks of being gone from the base. I'm writing this now in a brief period I have in the morning since I'm still a little jetlagged. Its the only free time I have all day.

My replacement has arrived as well and we're working together to get him up to speed and ready to take over for when I leave in almost exactly a month. It feels strange to be turning over responsibility for the project since I have been in control for so long but it is also a good thing.

I'll post more when I have a chance.

Almost back

2006-07-03T07:55:00.000+07:00

I'm in Medan now and I'll be traveling back to Banda Aceh this afternoon with a team of 27 people from Canada. They are here for two week work trip to our project. When I agreed to have them come I didn't realize how big the logistics for 27 people is. I'm looking forward to picking them up in a few minutes and helping them make an impact in the villages we have been working in. They will be doing construction and some community health training. Of course I have hardly been in Banda Aceh for over 6 weeks but I have a good staff that hopefully has prepared for everything. We'll see!

Back to Indonesia

2006-07-01T16:52:00.000+07:00

I've had a really awesome time in the US for the last couple of weeks. I've been really busy so I'm sorry I haven't been posting to my blog. I'm now on my way back and should be arriving back in Indonesia tomorrow morning. I spent my whole time in Dallas with family and friends. I'd like to appologize to all the friends that I wanted to see but didn't have time and to all the friends who I only briefly saw and wanted to spend more time with. I'll try and catch up with all of you better next time.

I've always joked that I wanted a water buffalo for my birthday. Well this year I got one. Because everbody's got a water buffalo, right? At least a small wooden one, but it counts! I could buy a real one in Indonesia but it would be about $500 and I don't know what I would do with it. That is a little expensive just to be able to say that I have one. So where is your water buffalo?

Have you ever traveled back in time?

2006-06-18T05:37:00.000+07:00

I'm one flight away from arriving back in Dallas. My next flight leaves Japan at 5:30PM and after 12 hours of flight arrives in Dallas at 3:30PM on the same day, which is two hours before it left. How is this possible? The only plausible explainations are first that we pass through a wormhole on our way that throws us back in time 14 hours, second that we fly close to the speed of light several thousand times around the earth and that allows us to travel back in time or we just crossed the international date line. Personally I find the third option too boring to be possible so I'll leave it to you to figure out which one actually happens.

I think it is clear I didn't sleep enough on the last flight. At least they have free internet here in Japan!

My Real Itinerary

2006-06-16T14:31:00.000+07:00

I'm finally flying to the US tomorrow and here is my new itinerary:

Starting in Medan
Malaysian Airlines flight 865 June 17 3:30PM to Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian Airlines flight 52 June 17 11:45PM to Tokyo
American Airlines flight 124 June 18 5:30PM to Dallas

American Airllines flight 125 June 29 11:45PM to Tokyo
Overnight in Tokyo
Malaysian Airlines flight 53 July 1st 12:00Noon to Kuala Lumpur
Overnight in Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian Airlines flight 860 July 2nd 8:55AM to Medan

I am just realizing that I have two overnights on my way back so I will need to arrange somewhere to stay. If anyone knows anyone in Tokyo or Kuala Lumpur that would be willing to host me, I'd love an e-mail!

Merapi strikes again

2006-06-14T21:13:00.000+07:00

So apparently Merapi erupted again last night even bigger than last time. I went up on the roof around 10PM and didn't see anything so I just went to bed. I just checked again this morning and I can still see the mountain and it looks just like a mountain so I guess I missed the fireworks again. Either that or the media is making it up.

Back in Jogja (for a short time)

2006-06-13T21:23:00.000+07:00

I'm back in Jogja and have been since last night. Things have really changed since I left on Friday morning. First, we are ramping down the distribution of the stuff since the emergency phase is over. Secondly, we have a new boss as of today. Thirdly, we are starting with the development phase with health and hygene training and planning to help with shelter construction as well.

I'll be here till Friday morning at which time I'll fly to Medan for the manager's meeting and then saturday I fly to the US! To say I'm excited is an understatement.

Oh, and tomorrow is my birthday.

Sold my bike again

2006-06-10T15:08:00.000+07:00

So I just arrived back in Banda Aceh and decided to sell my bike. I'll only be in Banda Aceh for two days this month and then a little more than a month after that before I go home for good. I had a friend who was very interested in buying it and we agreed on a good price so I sold it to him today. I'm sad to see it go but I didn't need it anymore.

I'll be in Banda Aceh for today and tomorrow to get a handle on the situation (seeing as I'm still running the base) and to show the VP around the project site. I'll be heading back to Jogjakarta on Monday.

Fun of the day

2006-06-08T20:16:00.000+07:00

Today we woke up to the news that Mount Merapi is erupting. We went out on our second story roof to see what it looks like since it is only 20 miles away. I must say I was very disappointed. It was more like some minor volcanic burps than a major eruption. Some of the team went as close as they could today and took some photos.

Then later this morning we were visiting one of our main villages with the Vice President of Samaritan's Purse. We were talking to the leaader of the village while sitting in one of the few buildings still standing, which has only a few walls still between the column supports. Suddenly we had a pretty large aftershock which was the first one I felt. We all went running crazily outside but only one wall fell in a little. Needless to say we finished the meeting outside.

Here is a shot that one of our team members took while driving near the volcano. All of the white around the cone used to be trees but is now either covered with ash or totally burnt.

Grandpa

2006-06-07T08:32:00.000+07:00

Apparently my Grandpa just had a stroke and isn't doing very well. He's had very bad health for the last 5 or so years but it is looking worse this time. Please be praying for him.

Earthquakes and Volcanos

2006-06-07T08:26:00.000+07:00

Apparently the first week after the earthquake there were over 500 aftershocks which is a record. Funny thing is I haven't felt one and I know an earthquake when I feel one having lived in Aceh where there is one every couple days.

Then there is Mount Merapi which is apparently around here somewhere and trying to blow its top. I have yet to find the mountain and don't see any signs of it in everyday life here so I'm not terribly concerned.

Color me an ostrich with my head in the sand maybe. Things could chance in a hurry though.

First Week

2006-06-04T10:01:00.000+07:00

We've now been here in Jogja for a week and working non-stop since we arrived. Most days have been 18 hour days which is why I haven't been posting (or sleeping) much. Today we are taking a break since even God rested on the seventh day. I haven't even had time to answer very much e-mail but hopefully will be caught up today.

Things here are starting to get better. Most of the disaster area is a line from a ways south of Jogja to north east of the city. For some reason the homes in this area were almost all destroyed. The houses are generally lightly fired brick houses with mud for mortar. Generally there is no rebar in the walls and the roofs are clay tiles held in place by gravity. Driving around, almost every building has had some tiles fall off and the houses that were destroyed were the mud and brick walls collapsing under the weight of the tile roofs. Many people were injured by the tile roofs falling on their heads.

People are starting to set up tarps for temporary shelter and receiving lots of food from relief organizations. This will be great for the short term but in the long term, there are a lot of people who have lost their houses and their livelihoods. There is one village we are working in that was completely destroyed with over 500 houses. There is no longer a local economy so how can the people rebuild? Unfortunately it doesn't appear that enough money is coming in to rebuild the houses for the people but hopefully they can be trained in how to make a better and safer house in the future.

Tomorrow we'll continue our operations which consist of the distribution of tarps for shelter, blankets, stoves, buckets and tools and many other essential items for keeping them more comfortable while living in tents which will be a long time while they rebuild.

Check out the Samaritan's Purse websites for lots of pictures and information on what we are doing (check out the international sites as well as they have other pictures as well).

Still Alive

2006-06-02T20:40:00.000+07:00

For all of you who have been wondering, I'm still alive. I've been working 18 hour days since I got here in Jokja and am very exhausted. Only one more day till Sunday though. The city of Jokja is still in pretty good condition so I've been staying at a pretty nice hotel during the day and going out to the rough areas all day long. Then of course there are the meetings.

Lots more to say but I have to go eat.

2006-05-31T21:30:00.000+07:00

Check out the Samaritan's Purse website and click on the earthquake response to see what I have been up to. I took those pictures!