What's with November?

P1010291, originally uploaded by julia_mcgarey.

This is the cow. The cow that, when we were walking through the streets of Mussoorie, my cousin Jessie wanted to pet. See the fingertips at the bottom of the frame? It so perfectly commemorates that moment for me. This also the cow that, Ronnie, our Indian cousin, told Jessie NOT to pet because Indian cows sting. She looked at me doubtingly, and I nodded in agreement.

Jessie, who was twelve years old at the time, has kept in touch with Ronnie by email since we returned from India nearly two years ago. My dad called me this morning to tell me that Roni and his brother, Honey , were killed in a car accident last night. How is it that my grandfather's death last week barely phased me, but this tears me apart? I feel kind of guilty about that, but Ronnie was such a joyful, genuine person. He was impossible not to like, and he had such a great sense of humor. When my uncle gave the Christmas sermon at the children's home in English that year, Ronnie translated for the kids, imitating every gesture my uncle made. He had the kids roaring with laughter. It was a funny sermon to begin with, but nobody could have contributed more as a translator than Ronnie did.

I wish I had a better picture of Ronnie (that's him on the right), but I can't seem to find one. Ronnie's grandmother had leprosy, so his mother grew up at the children's home that my great grandparents started, and eventually took over managing it, so Ronnie grew up there too. My grandmother's foundation had been funding his journey through dental school. He would have been done next year! Amazingly, while he was in school, he decided to adopt two young boys. I haven't heard what happened to them, but I hope they are okay.

Everyone in my family cared very much for Ronnie. I can't believe that this happened so close to my grandfather's passing, and almost exactly a year after my Aunt Analea died.

And to think, I was planning to post a short blog about the woodpecker that woke me up this morning when my dad called.

Revival

DSCN0647, originally uploaded by julia_mcgarey.

Oh Man, I just started a post about how I hadn't posted anything since halfway through our trip and so much has happened since then, but in trying to figure out how to link flickr to my blog, I managed to lose what I'd written. So instead, I'm going to keep it simple and share this picture of Hong Kong at night. It was taken from the ferry, and I love that one of the buildings was too tall to even fit in the frame. If I could have seen the screen a little better I might have been able to capture it, but I think that I did pretty well shooting in the dark.

A lot has happened since then. Wonderful things, and lately some frustrating things, but I've decided that I want to be more involved with the blog community, so I'm going to start writing more and sharing photos (if my dinosaur computer remains up to the task). There are so many blogs that I love to read, I want to extend my gratitude and return the favor. I'm also tossing around the idea of putting together an etsy shop, among other things. Something that probably won't happen until this summer, but it's been on my mind for a while. One of my good friends has done it, and seems to be doing pretty well. Check her out: Amy Ambros

I'm looking forward to spending more time here, nesting and making myself at home. Everything's still in boxes, but I'll get it spiffed up soon. I hope you'll stay with me through the process!

Here's one more photo from Hong Kong. It's a close up of the Bruce Lee statue we went out of our way to find.

Koh Tao & Khao Sok

From Bangkok we headed to Chumpohn on an overnight bus and caught a high-speed catamaran to Koh Tao. It was pretty painless, and we found the dive company we were looking for, Buddha View, waiting at the pier. I enrolled in an open water diving course, and was pretty much busy from day one on the island. We did find time to rent scooters and explore a bit, and to try to go snorkeling in Shark Bay. I say try because the thunderstorm overtook us before we made it the couple hundred meters out to where the sharks were. The bad part about Koh Tao was my stomach was still weak (from the drinking episode in bangkok, I thought) and on our second open water dive I got kind of hypothermic and didn't feel up to going on the two dives the next morning. I think I must have had a fever. I got a referral, though, so I can complete the last two dives anywhere I want to within the next year and still become a PADI certified open water diver. Maybe I'll go to Mexico...

From Koh Tao we took the boat back to Chumpohn and caught a bus to Kaoh Sok National Park. Unfortunately the weather was awful and the boat, in spite of it's size, was getting tossed all over the place. Waves were hitting the windows. We made it, though.

Khao Sok was really rainy, the electricity was out everywhere, and the park itself was closed, but it was still worth it in the end. Yesterday the rain let up some and we got to go on an elephant trek and go tubing through the jungle. The tubing was insane. The water looked like Thai iced tea and was rushing because of the rain. After I convinced the guy from our resort that I could do it alone, we made the regular trip in half the time it usually takes and convinced them to let us go longer. Around every bend there was something spectacular-- whether it was the limestone cliffs with stalactites hanging down that looked like fangs, the black snake with orange stripes (mangrove snake?) curled around a tree branch, or the elephant standing in the trees at the top of the last hill. I couldn't believe it. The guys that were with us were really fun, too.

The elephant trek was pretty breathtaking. Our elephant, Jake, had a mind of his own and kept trying to get out of doing what his handler asked him to. I liked that. Jake took us across the river, up into a lush valley, and back again. At the end we got to take turns riding on his neck and occasionally he would fold his ears back and cover your legs with them. I felt like he was trying to hold me in place. We got a ton of pictures and fed Jake a bunch of bananas at the end.

Today finds me in Ao Nang (I keep wanting to write Anyong... too much arrested development?) We got a room with hot water and satelite tv for less than what we paid for our room in the jungle. It seems so luxurious. We might go get massages later, but tomorrow I think we're going to take a longtail boat to Railay and do some climbing. There's also a cave to explore there and some pretty amazing beaches. Soon we'll head back to Bangkok, then fly to Cambodia, make our way through Laos (where they have tubing pub crawls), then go to Chang Mai and Pai if we have time.

I don't remember whether I explained about the pictures-- I tried to upload some in Bangkok but ended up locking my memory card somehow. I'm hoping I didn't lose the ones I had on there and I don't think I'll be messing with it again until I get home. But eventually I will have photos! And I'll try to post some here.

Bangkok and Kanchanaburi

Well, I made it to Bangkok. I was for here two days on my own and ended up meeting an Italian girl, Martina, on the express boat who was also traveling solo and she showed me around Khao Sahn Road. The next day we went to the grand palace and ate noodles. I really like Bangkok. It's much easier to get around in than Germany was, mostly because tourism is so popular here. There's a ton to do, and we haven't done half of it yet. The first night Stan was here we met up with some couchsurfers and had some good thai food-- we ordered a green curry and also deep fried chicken wrapped in banana leaves (a recommendation from the couchsurfers). We visited Wat Pho day before yesterday and saw the reclining budha, which was breathtaking in and of itself, but the architecture surrounding the temple was pretty amazing too. Yesterday we took a minibus tour to Kanchanaburi, saw the bridge over the River Kwai, rode on the Death Railroad, and went to the Tiger Temple, where I actually got to pet full grown tigers and sit with some babies while they wrestled.
We met up with one of Stan's friends, Clint, last night for drinks and tips on things to do. The drinking went on a bit too long for me though, so I'm moving a little slow today. Ugh.
I'm getting used to the heat, though. We switched hostels because our first one was too far from all the action. Now we are staying on Soi Ram Buttri in a fan only double room.
Tomorrow we will still be in Bangkok, but are planning to take an overnight bus, then a boat to Koh Tao to go scuba diving.

First leg: London, Scotland, Germany

I'm in Dusseldorf! Tomorrow night I leave for Thailand. It's a ten hour flight so I'm really happy that it will be my last flight for a while. I wanted to upload the photos I've taken so far, but I can't get to the USB port on this computer and since this hostel has free internet (!), I thought it was time for a blog.

The first day of my trip was in London. I arrived at seven in the morning, but didn't get to my hostel until around noon. It took me a while to find the hostel because it was above a bar and not marked well, plus it was rainy and cold and I had the wrong address. Luckily I had the right phone number and got better directions before it started hailing. Once I got settled in I headed out to do a little exploring. I was supposed to meet up with Geri, a couchsurfer from New York who is going to school in Paris and traveling for her spring break, but I couldn't get her phone number to work. I was about to walk into the tube station when I got a text from her. We decided to meet at Picadilly Circus and take in the National Gallery. After that, we explored a bit around St. James Park and Buckingham Palace. We ended up at a noodle house, which was nice because it was the first real meal I'd had since leaving Austin.

I felt I only needed to spend the one day in London because I've been there several times before, so the second day I got on a bus to Edinburgh to see my old camp buddy, Ian Holden. He and his girlfriend, Angela, were great hosts. Angela made us linguini and prawns with lemon and chilis for dinner that night. Yum. We had a few beers at the flat and started a game of Globetrotter Trivial Pursuit, which was entertaining, if only for the oddly worded questions. They bought it in India, and many of the questions either don't make sense at all, or they do not correlate at all with the region they are supposed to. A brilliant example was something to the effect of which Asian president spent twenty-seven years in prison? The answer? Nelson Mandela. Of course. Anyway, the game soon became dull so we went out to explore Edinburgh a bit. I got a couple of photos of the castle at night.

Saturday we got up early and hiked up to Arthur's Seat. This is the highest point in Edinburgh and was windy as hell. I can't remember the last time I felt like the wind might knock me off balance. I have a few pictures of myself at the top that are kind of hilarious because of what the wind is doing to my hair. It was crazy. The hike down was much steeper than the hike up, but we made it pretty easily and headed to the Blind Poet to watch the Manchester United game. The pub was packed and the game got pretty exciting in the second half, but ultimately Chelsea won. We decided that cheap curry would raise our spirits (or Ian's at least) so we went to the Mosque Kitchen. The rest of the day we just walked the city, stopping at Greyfriars Cemetary, the Writer's Museum, the Castle, and then hiking up Calton Hill, which bosts a replica of the Acropolis. We had dinner at a nice little Thai restaurant that night, then drinks at a semi-cheesy bar called Jekyl & Hyde's.

Sunday we slept in then went to Queensferry and saw the bridges. It was really crowded for some reason. We thought at first that it might be because the weather was unusually nice for Scotland (I really lucked out!), but then realized there was an absailing festival. I hadn't heard of absailing before, but I think it must be similar to rappelling because the festival was really just a bunch of people lowering themselves from the bridge by a rope.

I spent the night in Glasgow last night because I had to get and be at the bus station by 4:45 this morning to get to the airport on time. The hostel I stayed in was pretty awful. It was nine stories and had seven hundred beds, and although it was pretty cheap they made you pay for everything. The hostel here is much much nicer. Anyway, I wasn't too impressed by Glasgow. It has a much harder, colder feel than Edinburgh (which I loved), and seems like it's home to a lot of junkies and violence. I was thinking this as I was walking near the hostel, just before a fight broke out across the street. Later, I was talking to a girl in the hostel who told me that two people staying there were stabbed last week...

I actually like Dusseldorf quite a bit. I didn't really know what to expect, but it's pretty, easy to walk around, and seems to be really bike friendly, too. There's one street that has a canal running down the middle with huge trees stretching over it from either side.

That's all I've got for now. I'll try to post something else from Thailand!

3..2...1....

Day after tomorrow I will be on a flight to London. I thought I might try resetting my internal clock a little bit ahead of time, but that hasn't worked too well. I'm far too excited to go to bed early. It's a little strange, I'm sleeping on the couch tonight because my bed's in storage now. Actually almost everything I didn't sell on Craigslist is in storage now. It's quite liberating.

Tonight I went with Rachel to Little Thailand and had some pretty amazing food. They also have a really tasty bloody mary. It's a family run business out of a double wide trailer out past the airport and I swear it's the best Thai food I've had in Austin. I'd been doing so well with saving money until this weekend, but since I'm leaving I've been going out to eat with friends a lot. Julio's Friday, Hut's Saturday, Polvo's yesterday, and Little Thailand today. Tomorrow I'll probably end up at the Alamo with Fiona for a movie and some beers.

This was a good farewell weekend though. I met up with Connie, a couchsurfer Stan and I met in Vancouver last summer, on Saturday for the Black Star Coop beer social, and then went to a couchsurfing party. It was a really great way to spend my last Saturday night before the trip, surrounded by fellow travelers. I loved trading stories with all the people there, and it was really nice to hang out with Connie again.

I'm not really sure what the next few months will bring. But I'm excited and hopeful, and I truly believe it will be great, even if it is far from what I expect it to be. Not to say that I have any real expectations... in fact I'm hoping that it will be full of things that I would never have anticipated. That always leads to better stories.