Zen Traveler

Such is the modern way...

2007-09-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

I would be remiss if I didn't mention my recent life changes - this doesn't come under the category of "travels" but it has certainly been an adventure, and it will have a huge impact on future travels. One year ago this week I took a leave of absence from my medical device development work at www.vapore.com - we had just completed a radical new product for the market, everything was looking up, but there can be a period in the process where you have to wait for the customer to do his job of introducing it to the public (and then allowing the product to sell itself, based on its merits). Great time to take a needed break (new product development is hell at the end) and management was extremely fond of not having to pay me. I went to Guatemala, learned Spanish, practiced stoving (its not intuitive it turns out - see my technical blog for details), and even taught sewing classes (yet another blog, of mine, and an odd story - I don't really know how to sew!).

The very day before I returned I found that it was felt that more "technology" was no longer needed in the organization - and it has not had any more since then either. Young companies without a product on the market officially don't have a demonstrable worth (real worth is based on present and projected sales) so any promised sales are worth a fortune. Vapore now has a product (http://www.pari.com/hydrate) and it is a beautiful one meeting all customer specifications and then some. but stock in Vapore is now worthless - if only because the company no longer has technical vision or leadership.

Kick ass, then just before rewards are due... - get used to it mate. The product won a 2006 R&D 100 award, once I later wrote the application (http://www.rdmag.com/pdf/rd100/RD79_RD100_matsmetal.pdf) - one of the one hundred best new technology products of 2007. So I have somewhat sworn off corporate culture until the right new company comes along and consult on global manufacturing - too many experiences with no appreciation for the technical people, who tend to deliver the innovation. The SF Bay area is filled with the coolest technical jobs possible - environmental, solar electric, high tech materials, more biotech, and such - when you need work.

"Travel with a purpose" was I goal I set back in Laos, when I found adventure tourism - as hard as I tried to live close to the local people and to travel as slowly as possible - to be somewhat hollow. Its not that the people in underdeveloped nations needed my help - hell, they seem to be the happiest people I know, just without many choices - but, as a scientist, there were things that I could perhaps do to make their lives a little richer (or more secure, or something), AND those accomplishments would be enriching rewards for me. Even humanitarianism is selfish business! I'm a good scientist, I like to travel, working with new friends is a great thing, and wouldn't it be great to work outdoors all the time?

The rest of the story is that I think I now aspire to be a "technical humanitarian" (apparently a new phrase for the language), and particularly I chose stoving (the process of designing for and introducing improved cook stoves to the 2-3 billion people who live now with smoky and inefficient ones) and try to make advances by experimenting, writing (http://improvedstoves.blogspot.com/), networking, and such. And Engineers Without Borders (EWB - http://www.ewb-sfp.org/) is a decent way to get exposed to all kinds of other technical humanitarianism goals - clean water, decent housing, good health, food security, renewable energy, etc. - I helped start the Appropriate Technology Design Team so that we could take in new projects that could survive on their own sooner (http://ewbappropriatetechnology4.blogspot.com/).

Eventually I'll be able to tell if this change helped (and be a little less bitter - this post will then self destruct and disappear)... party on Garth!

After all, how bad can it be? Now I do get to work in more interesting places, on projects that are just as technical (but perhaps not as challenging - but the anthropology/cultural change aspect is turning out to be hell), help people, work outside, possibly assist in stimulating significant change, I enjoy working with the people who have some of the same life interests that I do, and so on. But no stock options are offered.

En Guatemala!

2006-11-14T14:10:00.000-08:00

Too much Spanish! Why didn´t someone make me learn a useful language when I was young and able to learn easily! I think I have been in Guatemala now for about 3.5 weeks, but have not bothered to keep track - all I know is that my command of the language is improving VERY slowly, I am doomed to at least a few more weeks of classes (luckily I am in the country for 10 weeks), and Antigua is a pleasant enough place to learn Spanish. Actually I have only had 9 days of instruction - Scott and Betty descended on me and we went into a manic 10 days of traveling and family activities (Betty is from around Guatemala City and has an extended family the size of several U.S. states). More on all that later... better to get a few random colorful photos on line in case anyone looks here for something new.

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2006-11-13T15:01:00.000-08:00

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Photos Before Blogging Was Big

2006-10-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

Blogging is a relatively recent phenomena, and it may not last long (who has extra time to read all this stuff?), and lots of photos were taken before blogs alowed us to post so many to the web. Sure they are in Yahoo photo albumns and such (http://photos.yahoo.com/csellers42) but blogs are just a little bit better at reliving the experience. So here I'll post some of the best photos from my pre-blog time - I lived in ruralish China for 2 years (2002-2004) then I travelled around Asia for another year. Some of these photos found their way into email travelogues (a clumsy method) and others have never been shown - does anyone care though? In order to post photos you seem to have to tell a story - my village was Wuqing (aka Yancun), about halfway between Beijing and Tianjin (both huge cities of +10 million, each about an hour away). It seemed that no one spoke English there, even though everyone had 8 years of English in school; just no oral English practice. Learning even a Chinese word a day would make you competent after as year or two, but life is much harder than that - Mandarin is the hardest thing that you will ever have to learn.

But what an experience! China at the point where it became a global entity, when donkeys were banished from the streets and capitalism was everywhere. I never saw evidence of Communism, and people thrived by selling everything that they could. There were small problems because the competition was warped (what if everyone sold the same thing...) but it will work itself out. Americans think that Chinese factories are geared toward exports, but actually they struggle to keep up with local demand; 1.3 billion people require lots of stuff.

Prices/wages are certainly low there, but so is the cost of living - I never saw people in need, and they appear happier than we are; people value family most, and that's what is most important to them. Individualism is not a priority - traveling alone internationally, like I did, is their worst nighmare.

From there I went on the road for a year - traveling slowly from Bali to Kathmandu was my goal. Bali is not all I would have wanted it to be (the recent terrorist bombing there was on their mind too much), but it was a glorious place; perfect rice field terraces and a fanstastic culture more than made up for everything. Art is a way of life, and the living couldn't be easier. Two months was all they would let me stay, but I could have stayed in the Gili Islands (off the island of Lombok) forever - where all the cats have crooked tails. There they forgot to discover motorized vehicles, and hallucinogenic mushrooms are are way of life. I had bronchitis but could still dive on reefs and chase sea turtles - and there is just enough beer and email to survive.

Onwards to Singapore (one of the most beautiful places I know - despite all the regulations) and then I ambled slowly up the length of Malaysia. Tioman Island had the best giant clams I have ever seen, and huge dragons enough to satisfy me for a lifetime. Maybe the best place I have ever visited was the Perhentian Islands, off Kota Bahru - someone forgot to put them in the guidebooks so few visit there. You move about via boat taxis and the social scene couldn't be better. Don't go there!

Of course Thailand is one of my favorite places - I can't tell you how much time I spent there, mostly because I was kicked out of China every few weeks to get a new visa. Bangkok was my favorite city long before I got there - modern, overwhelming, primitive, colorful, exciting and more. It has great buses, a subway, river taxis, perfect street life, the best markets, and an occasional emerald buddha. Life is easy there, and the country is small enough so that you can be in the mountainous north one day (Chaing Mai) and the tropical south (Phang Na and Phuket) the next - via long overnight trains.

From Bangkok I lept to Kathmandu - and that is a subject of a previous blog posting...

Very High in the John Muir Wilderness

2006-09-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

This is the eastern side of California's Sierra Nevada mountains - the backside of Yosemite National Park, where life is a little drier and a lot steeper it seems. Inyo County (where lies the town of Bishop, CA) is the home of both the highest point in the U.S. (Mt. Whitney, at 14,505 ft or 4,421 meters) and also the lowest point in the U.S. (in Death Valley, at 86 meters below sea level). A land of extremes. The stretch of U.S. Highway 395 that runs through here is one of the prettiest that I have seen - the air is clearer and the peaks more jagged (and close), and the sheer vertical gain more... snow visible all year long.

This view of the area above the vanadium mine at Pine Creek was my first in depth exploration of the area - the Forest Service delayed my entrance into the wilderness area where I wanted to go so I headed up into the nearest interesting looking place; this amazing stuff was visible off of the highway! I found an old vanadium mine and went in illegally – just majestic! Then I went to a meadow that was set aside since water came out of the ground there – barefoot when an unknown snake almost (meaning: it didn’t) attack me and the lush grass and trees almost made me a rabid environmentalist once more – water in the desert is sacred, and should not be the realm of cows.

I was in the neighborhood because distant friend was having a 2 week party at 11,500 ft, and I wanted to meet all the strangers that would be there – mostly artists and their ilk, my kind of people. What a hike in! Only a few thousand feet vertical (starting at 9,000 ft) but too many miles with a heavy pack – a 2 pound jicama, 5 liters of wine, oyster mushrooms (the fresh basil had since wilted way too much, so I threw it away), Mexican chocolate, and other weighty delicacies. Just vague/blurry photocopied photos to lead me to the massively off trail camp. WAY above tree line; just boulders, lakes, wildflowers, and stunning peaks looming overhead – I have conducted extreme parties in the past, but this topped them all. We squatted in a beautiful camp at the top of the world, just us and the still snow capped peaks – and a million mosquitoes during several parts of the day. People and dogs suffered, but it was just pain – no more. There was a great kitchen and good food, and the rising full moon over the mock campfire was incredible. Mark was the host and Skandar led a terrific medicine circle – I became the Muskox and all was fine with the world. 16 hours later I was on the path back out – not good (I’ll allocate more time next year), but definitely good enough; new friends are worth more than a fortune.

Hiking hard and fast out, the wildflowers were just incredible – late summer to us is just barely spring in the high country, where the flowers crank beyond belief (even to those of us who are somewhat colorblind) – and it was hard to try to proceed towards work when its so great, and Bishop are the ancient Bristlecone pines), but it’s a very the hike and the drive are so long. It seemed like a perfect place to live (across the valley from long way out there. I zoomed through Yosemite, through the hot dry Central Valley of California (vegetable bowel of the U.S.), and was relieved to finally reach the cool clime of the bay area; my home. What a glimpse of how diverse California is!

Fire Arts Festival 2006

2006-07-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

Summer in the Bay Area is when the minds and hands of creative people turn towards Burning Man projects - the celebration of all things strange, fiery, and artistic held out in the Nevada desert every year. A month or so before it, The Crucible holds their Fire Arts Festival to showcase upcoming Burning Man exhibits, and anything else that generally qualifies as "fire art" - fire breathing and swallowing, fire dancing, sculpture, dangerous carnival games, high voltage exhibitions, hydrocarbon powered anything, things of neon and el wire and LEDs, roaring jet engines, other stuff destined for BM like observation towers and fire or electric amusements.
This year I was in charge of one of the bars - not bartending just hustling to make sure everything went smoothly. It was an amazing event, as always - like a county fair (huge, filled with people and things for them to ooh and aah at, food and drink to spend on, trinkets to buy, and lots of ways to participate. Photos are tough because there are absolutely no lights except the flames from the sculptures, so some shots are from setting up and taking down - more trouble than a carnival because of the size and complexity of the pieces. Yes, a flash can give a clearer picture, but I wanted the colors and the movement of the flames. It is too much for me to describe each photo (does it matter?), so I'll just include say a few words here and there and you figure out which photos I am describing...There are a whole host of "organizations" (a poor term, but what is the one for proto-anarchists?) in the area that are focussed on fire art - many are workshops for making flaming metal sculptures (THERM, Flaming Lotus Girls, NIMBY, and the Crucible and such), and then plenty of individual artists that do it in other ways(Orion Fredericks, Sunbrothers). Nothing remotely commercial is ever in this event (Dupont, for the electric el wire?) - microbrews, crazy urban food, and the absence of mainstream is the look and feel; the worst part is the Porta-Potties (sorry for the brand reference), and they seem to be a necessity. The costumes are outlandish, people wear electric stuff, multicultural as hell, all ages love it, people on stilts and on fire roam, and somehow the city of Oakland allows it because of a perfect track record and a perfect location in a barren parking lot almost under a huge freeway. Our subway (BART) passes right overhead and the flames reach up toward it, and it pauses to watch. Out in the middle of this commercial/urban wasteland it must be look like hell, or something from Mad Max - its good to be extreme.

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2006-07-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

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Ah! Ecuador

2006-03-10T20:13:00.000-08:00

I have wanted to see South America, but I got distracted for several years by SE Asia. Now my eyes see the world differently and the long spine of the Andes looks great! Fantastic spires and walls (Patagonia!), and unlike other place it has villages at enormous altitudes - the spine of a whole continent (up to 22,834 feet/6960 meters - nominally the highest outside Asia)! To a certain extent Ecuador was a random place to start - Belize was the first in Central America (Guatemala next I hope) - and I never met anyone from there or who had ever visited there, but why not? No Galapagos Islands - I can almost imagine them (the ancient tortoises sound great) so I can't go there. Yet.

Patty invited me to experience an ultimate world class ecolodge (www.blacksheepinn.com, in Chugchilan, Cotopaxi, Ecuador) and explore small villages around there on foot; how could I say no? We would try to confine ourselves to a very small area for 10 days (around the volcanic crater/lake Laguna Quilotoa) and that's the best way that I know to avoid travel/culture overload.

Unfortunately, blogger is a cumbersome place to post magazine style travelogues - text and photos intermingled in an attractive manner. It won't kill me to do it, but it just takes a huge commitment of time to make it look good. In the meantime I want to show some great photos, just in case I never write more (I haven't for Belize so far - it was just a simple trip to an easy place), and here is the link to where some more are at my Yahoo photo site (and photos from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, China, etc. too - good coverage of the places I have been, though China is weak for having spent that long there). http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/csellers42/my_photos
Not the best way to share, just one way.

Thanks to Patty for the E opportunity, and many of the best photos shown above!

You'd Better Belize it!

2006-01-29T21:56:00.000-08:00

Talk about a slogan that grates on you, and to make it worse this one sticks in my head like a broken record. Over the holidays I was doing the independent traveller thing again - this time in Belize. Last minute flight, no plans, no book, no reservations (at Christmas!), no destination, and no knowledge of the lay of the land. At least there was there was no language barrier - Belize was formerly a British colony known as British Honduras. I must be an addict of palm trees to chase so many island destinations.

It turns out that Blogger does not allow you to position photos easily! - you have to toy with it incessantly to arrange the photos and the text just right; I switched from emailing written travelogues in Word to a web based method just to gain spatial independence! Posting solely photos here turned out to be a nightmare of positioning (they overlap if I try to do anything but arrange them vertically), so look for my Belize photos at: http://photos.yahoo.com/csellers42

Surviving the Annapurna Circuit

2005-10-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

Note: This is the start of the Annapurna travelogue, which is in 4 parts.

I’m a mountain person. Wasn’t raised that way, don’t always want to be one (like when I am not amongst them), the more rugged the better, I even like the pain that goes with the beauty. In early 2004 I had just spent 3 months on small islands in Indonesia and Malaysia, and many more cumulative months over the last two years living on the best in Thailand, but Nepal was the first place that really felt like home. Don’t get me wrong, I love beaches - I was raised on seafood and Pawley’s Island – but there is only so much I can do on them… collect shells, dive with sea turtles, explore reefs, walk the beaches, swim for exercise, soak up beer and sun, explore the interior jungles, and so on. I was beached out (what a luxury, to be able to do something you love until you are sick of it, then move on to something else you love!) and Nepal was the cure. It had actually been years since I had set foot midst peaks – the Sierras of California and somewhere in the distant past (China will do that to you – everything before seems remote) all those years in Idaho (and Utah, and Wyoming, and Montana…) and my heart soared. You can’t actually see the mountains from Kathmandu – the valley is just too polluted – but everywhere there was the promise; I was staying in the primitive Durbar Square area but the popular Thamel district was thick beyond belief with all the trappings of a modern alpinist environment. Guide services, trekking companies, outdoor gear rental and retail stores, expedition stuff, and gorgeous posters are everywhere. And the city itself was so exotic that I almost didn’t want to leave – my neighborhood of muddy alleys and funky smells had been continuously inhabited for over a thousand years and it felt every minute of it. Neighborhoods that looked like they had never seen a foreigner, whispers of “hashish!” (its the best in the world, and you get a free colorful cultural experience in a back alley with your purchase), street urchins just begging to be paid attention to, throngs surrounding sacred architectural edifices, rickshaws and the press of sweaty flesh – it was everything I wanted it to be and more. But you only get 2 months in the country and it was time to feel the trail underneath my feet – I advertised for partners on the local bulletin boards, found a likely Yank and Aussie with similar interests, we hired a local guide Raj (just in case), bought and rented what we might need for at least 3 weeks away from civilization, boarded the bus with its load of goats and produce, and were on our way to Besisahar – trekking has increased in popularity and convenience since the heyday of the 60’s, but it is still essentially unchanged; Nepal’s Himalayas can only be accessed on foot, and everything about the experience is still pretty rough. We were there in the off season and the tourists were pretty thin – just the way I like to travel.

Even with the long rickety bus ride (with goats on board!), you still end up at a frontier end-of-the-road town that is in the distant lowlands, just a dusty place to lace your boots one more time and hope you haven’t forgotten anything important. Just start walking. Even though you start amidst tropical heat, rice fields and bananas (elevation 700 m) you learn quickly what Nepal trekking is all about – the track is a few foot wide dirt highway that is the only access to the outside world, and it is plied by the entire population (and their donkeys, and goats, and everything else) as they move goods and services throughout the region. In flip flops. It constitutes the main drag of every single village along the way, lending a view into the intimate lives of the residents, as they worked, played, ate, and slept. This part of Nepal (the Annapurna region) is not quite Third World – we were surprised to see fragile electrical transmission lines stretching along most of our route (regularly spoiling our photographs – which are not allowed to include them as we try to capture the “real” Nepal) – it just happens to be a place where there are absolutely no roads and not even any sign of the wheel (motorcycles, bicycles, and even carts and wheel barrows were nowhere to be seen, only the very occasional handhewn water wheel, driving a prayer wheel or a grist mill). The joy of being so easily immersed in such an exotic culture – dark eyes, pierced noses, reverently religious Buddhist people, living like our distant ancestors did – was almost too much for me and I had a hard time keeping up with my mates; at each village I wanted to stop and spent the rest of my life, playing with the children and quietly contemplating my navel. But Rich (the Aussie firefighter – fit, built like a brick shit house, and a real social animal) - gobbled up the trail and it was a challenge not to be lost in his dust. This trek nominally takes 21 days and you have to keep moving to meet this target (and we intended to, for various reasons), though we would try to stay in the more unconventional villages along the way to make our journey seem more authentic. But years of being away from the trail took their toll – lazy beach life did not leave me as fit as I would have liked – and the pace occasionally seemed brutal. Luckily (?) we all soon had amoebic dysentery despite being careful with the water, so at least one of us had to pause for a toilet break every 50 meters. So we couldn’t travel but so far a day.

Each little village has 2-3 little inns where you can stay, with tiny threadbare rooms (mattress/bed and candle) for <$2/night. Its firm tradition that the room is cheap, even free, and you are mostly obligated to spend your food dollars where you sleep – dinner never had meat and was usually some choices of noodle or potato dishes or the local dal baht (literally “lentils and rice”, but you never actually got the lentils, just their juice – you are supposed to eat this bland thing with your hands, and Raj and all the locals ate only this dish); other
local food was somewhat rare, but you could sometimes find thukpa or tintuk occasionally. Meat was obviously around on the hoof (chickens in cages, goats roaming across huge landscapes, and the occasional cow like thing) but never available. Places would seem to advertise yak meat, but it was only offered for one month of the year. A VERY good day included potato pancakes with yak butter and yak cheese; but where was all the flesh, bones, skins, etc. of the animals we saw? As we got higher and higher, we eventually found big bands of cashmere goats roaming across the open plain countryside (and giving birth! – the mother would drop the kid and fall behind the moving herd, then catch up a few hours later when the baby was up to speed.), and at the very top – for only a day or so – wild blue sheep and yaks wandering on the steep hillsides; at one tiny hamlet I heard there were day old yak twins so I tracked them down and helped the shepards bring in the herd for the night, yelling and howling across the rugged landscape, below 25,000 foot peaks. By now it was just cold and deserted (in the rain shadow of the big peaks), too high for people to make a living at except for the occasional tea house or inn, and inside those we clustered together at night (Singaporeans, Bulgarians, Ukrainians, Israeli, British, etc. all now just citizens of the world) at the tables with charcoal fires placed below them, talking about how hard Thorung La (the big pass, at 5400 m - 17,769 feet) would be and who might not be able to make it. We had already lost Matt (much later I found him in Berkeley) at the tiny airstrip at Humdee, suffering so much from dysentery, altitude sickness, and knee pain that he decided to fly back out, and we were worried about some of the loose group of travelers that we had become used to sleeping and eating with over the week – one would need a horse and one would take several tries to get over, but everyone actually made it. It was solid snow and ice for the half day to the top, and surprisingly there was a tea shop at the very top, where you could get some small reward for the effort.

Next: painful all the way down, beautiful new country, a glimpse of Mustang...

More Photos from Early Annapurna

2005-10-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

Note: This is the second episode of the Annapurna travelogue, which is in 4 parts.

My friends in Nepal made it all worthwhile - you are SO far out that anything that seems familiar is sacred. I can't imagine doing that first trip alone (I later wandered in the Everest region for weeks alone, but that's another story...). Losing Matt too early due to altitude sickness, failing knees, and the trots was very unfortunate - we missed him but he was later found happy on the beaches of koh Samui (Thailand), healed.

Photos: My compadres (Matt on the left, Rich on the right) on a random trail through a village, then Raj in there as well, where the trail was carved out of the shear rock wall (in the old days there may have been wooden planks hanging from ropes where they hadn't carved it out yet).

Of course I put only a tiny fraction of photos in my travelogues, and I try to pick the very best. Here are some of the less dramatic photos and bits and pieces of explanations: the a kitchen in the middle of nowhere (ah, I loved those sooty spaces and was always in them when they allowed), and another perfect child with a hole through her nose. I wanted photos of the people who lived there showing that time had not changed them that much - I saw little evidence that it had.

I don't always cover the spiritual parts enough (to keep the length of the travelogues managable, so that they can be emailed), but Nepal was the place to see serious faith in action! How can anyone consider their religion "right" when here exists such a content and devout people? We prowled into Upper Pisang (Raj and I at the closed gompa), and explored the roofs of the monastary at Braga (Rich and Raj).

I was fascinated by the beasts of Nepal - the dreadlocked dogs, the beautiful horns and coats of the cashmere sheep, the yaks and the dzos (half cow half yak, for lower altitude work), mules and donkeys, the very occasional cat (always tiger striped), the blue sheep, occasional partridges, etc., but the conflagarations at the Swiss steel suspension bridges always awed me most - I called it an "Annapurna traffic jam" when so many sheep and goats needed to cross a precarious wire bridge at the same time (often with machine gun armed soldiers at either end, to keep out the Maoists) that a mass panic resulted. More than once I pulled a stuck sheep hoof out of a bridge grate to keep the herd moving.
Rounding out the photos... the Gangapurna glacier across from the town of Manang, a dzo with traditional colorful wool earrings (I don't advise that you rey to get quite that close), and my favorite bunch of weatherbeaten ratlets. When not ill, eating, or sleeping, I could usually be found chasing kids and animals.

Still Suffering Around Annapurna

2005-10-08T20:09:00.000-07:00

Note: This is the third episode of the Annapurna travelogue, which is in 4 parts.

The view from the top was great! But the trail down the other side was long and horrendous, until your legs just collapsed at the bottom after losing tremendous amounts of altitude (1600 meters – nearly a mile straight down – after having climbed 1000 meters on snow to the top that morning), in the religious pilgrimage town of Muktinath. There is a Buddhist shrine here where the sacred water/fire/stone come together in one place, with 108 waterspouts and more prayer flags, prayer whels, and fantastic images than you can believe; we bought and lit butter candles, and felt appropriately in awe. We came across some ladies selling bits and pieces from Tibet (or so they indicated) – things old, odd, and natural are revered so I now have a bit of animal horn and a chunk of what I hope is turquoise to remember them by. I took part of a day off and chased baby goats, we hit the road and blam, gone were the high snow covered peaks, mostly out of sight for the rest of the trip. We passed some little towns that were the real thing – major stops like Muktinath have the mark of tourism (often subtle – just a few little stores and guesthouses) while these were weathered collections of wattle and daub and stone that were in the process of crumbling; despite the rush to keep making progress (the manifest destiny of the Annapurna circuit– finish in 3 weeks) I drank a pot of mint tea in every one I could.

Across more dramatic rain shadow plains that reminded me of Idaho, we finally came to Kagbeni, a beautiful town (I should have stayed there!) that was a green oasis of wheat/millet and fruit trees right before the river of stones took off for Upper Mustang – the legendary place that most tourists are forbidden to enter for fear of changing the people (but enough $$ will get you there); I just looked and longed, glad someplace is set a little bit aside for the people and the future. Kagbeni was a delightfully cramped place with narrow streets, interesting food, friendly people, and animals everywhere (always important). There is a famous statue here which I am sure gets its share of photo ops – the embarrassing member was removed for safe keeping the day I was there.The road out towards Jompson and Tatopani was hard and long, on a stony river bed in the rain. I’m afraid that rain does little to enhance the experience for me, especially when your gut is tearing itself up. My memories of this section are the least, as I kept my head down and an eye out for toilet spots. The huge riverbed is almost a highway, with animals being driven down the middle, nomadic teahouses made out of river flotsam, and even an occasional tractor (Something motorized! They were flown in and just ply the stretch to Jompson.).

We stumbled into Jompson, home of the only other airport on the circuit and a significant tourism hub – all our Israelis (and other nationalities) friends were holed up here, eating better food and playing cards. I found a pharmacy-like thing and bought more medicine for the bronchitis that had been with me for months, and quickly left this scrap of civilization without regret. Rich flew out here suffering from schedule (he went on to see Chitwan too) and foot problems, so it was just taciturn Raj (now with something strange growing bigger by the day under the skin on one leg – anxious for home) and me, mile after mile. At some point it really does start to seem like you are leaving, your experience is coming to an end, and your time is up. As with most of the trip you are traveling deep in a gorge with monsters like Dhaulagiri (at 8167 m, the seventh tallest mountain in the world – the full moon made it spectacular),and Annapurna on either side; technically the Kali Gandaki River gorge is the deepest in the world (6000 m or 20,000 ft!) but you don’t feel the whole depth looming over you. Just as impressive is having well shaped Nilgiri (~7000 m) tower over your back as you pull into Tatopani. The name means “hot water” and indeed it had hot springs and it was a chance to get clean for a change. A leg of chicken was the first meat in weeks, there was even chocolate cake, and it was a good excuse for an extra day of rest – we had failed to find the carrot brandy in Marpha, and still couldn’t seem to slow down as much as I wanted – something resembling Manifest Destiny forced us toward the trail’s end.
At some point in every trip you are no longer headed “out”, you are on your way “back”) now took us straight up through a distant area where few foreigners were seen – it was the end of the season so none were still on the trail. Instead we saw villagers turning boulders into gravel with hammers (surely the most menial job I have seen), houses under construction with the crudest tools, beautiful stones stairs, and rhododendron forests dripping with moss. We had every town to ourselves at night and I always took the opportunity to pretend that I was the first Westerner to arrive there – in Nepal you know that this is never the case, but it might as well be, since no one is going to start up a conversation with you (little English is spoken, or needed, here); I must have explorer genes, causing me to search for new places and tell stories. The way was mostly uneventful except for the thousands of painful stone steps both up and down, and some of my most local experiences of the trek – chased down the narrow street by a water buffalo family, downloading all my medicines to old people wracked by coughs and trampled by livestock, and privy to a very private and spooky late night animistic ceremony (I never understood a word or a gesture, just cowered in the dark while the shamans performed – don’t even think about taking a photo).

Poon Hill, at the top, is the destination of many visitors because it offers an unparralled view of a huge number of mountains. The town is perched on a ridge and is way too modern (able to accommodate many tourists during the busy season) and we the promised mountain view after a near ritualistic ascent to see them right at dawn (I paid off the Maoists at a discount, as a Canadian – the government has been kicked out of this area) – the mountains are many but the distance great, while I like mine right on top of me.
Photo: The view from Poon Hill (3210 meters - nearly 2 miles high!) at sunrise, with Dhaulagiri (8167 m) dominating the skyline.

The kids and the animals were exceptional, having none of the bad habits that I had been warned of (soliciting change/candy/pens) and they were happy to pause for photos – what must I seem like to them, a solitary traveler from some unknown nation? How had people like me changed their lives – brought cash to their economy, provided a little electricity, a continuous reminder that there was more out there than other tiny villages tucked into the hills? I would have given my left leg to stay a few days (meanwhile, the thing growing inside Raj’s leg was bigger than a duck egg by now so there was no stopping), but what would I have done? Mostly because of the language barrier Nepal seems to be a place that you only pass through and sample briefly – any attempt to extract more from it by lingering (read a book by the side of the trail?) might spoil the experience by emphasizing how much of an outsider you really are. Trekking is a perfect way to see the country – you are constantly moving, tired, hungry, amazed, distracted, etc. as you get to look right into their homes, but there is little chance you’ll interfere or be lonely.

Going downhill was a relief after so many days of climbing, but the end of the road meant a return to the spectacles of civilization – the last town (Phedi) turned out to be a booming construction town, teeming with workers dynamiting the rock and resolute upon paving the entire Circuit in the next 100 years; progress is a frightening thing, but at least it will take time. It was a crazy mix of images and experiences – I was in the lowlands again, lush and fertile and well populated. The waterfalls and river are beautiful and meant another chance to wash up before facing the world. But the world was garish and unworthy, filled wit ice cream vendors, trash, needy people, and urban squalor. We banded together to hire a car to take us to Pokhara (second largest town) where I immediately got a shave (with a straight razor in an outdoor shop, of course), rented a bike, ate all kinds of food, weathered out another Maoist bandha (regional strike, shutting everything down – particularly transportation), and finally caught a bus back to Kathmandu; how come I couldn’t bring myself to photograph the burned out bus carcass in the middle of the road, or the insane mountain road conditions? Probably because the bus was too crowded, or I was avoiding looking too much like a tourist.

I celebrated Kathmandu again, reacquainting myself with all the street children again by taking them out for meals and teaching them guerrilla marketing techniques so they could sell cheap trinkets (made in China) to tourists more effectively. The streets of Thamel are dense with things to do and I tried to do them all (food, email, etc.), but for some reason I felt that I had not spent enough time high in
the mountains – I had briefly peaked out incredibly high at Thorung La, but had only been in the land of yaks for a day or so (they can only thrive above 10,000 ft). And another bandh was upon me – there was rioting in the streets, it was dangerous to go certain places, sacred cows mingles with burned out vehicles in the empty streets – it was time to leave town. I was almost too late – the economy shuts down ahead of time it turns out, as bus drivers, etc. go home to their villages while they can; I missed by chance to trek in the Langtang region (no buses!) and just barely caught a scary flight into the Everest region (the one after me and killed all aboard), after spending 3 days in the primitive airport; I have now learned patience.

Photo: Even the youngest child knows the Sanskrit "namaste", literally "I bow before you" but actually more like "the spirit in me meets the same spirit in you". A beautiful greeting!

Late Annapurna Photos

2005-10-07T20:08:00.000-07:00

Note: This is the fourth segment of the Annapurna travelogue.

Closing out the Annapurna saga are just a few more great photos which were not quite good enough to put in the main travelogue, but are worth seeing.
The reason I like to take photos of kids? You don't have to ask permission, you just point and shoot (assuming that they don't run away first!). Adults require some grooming before you can get a great close up (Why bother? Because it makes a better picture, more interesting and attractive.).
The village photos people photograph tend to be more glamorous places - with interesting people, animals, etc. when in fact you can pass through many of the smaller villages without being noticed and without seeing anything "worth taking a photo of".

I loved the tiny places the most - that explorer gene in me. What do they think of me, what do they know of the outside world? My experience is that that they are just as happy without our things - Coca Cola, TV, telephones, electricity, fast food, magazines, plastic toys, etc. - what do they really contribute to our quality of life? If you never knew of these things, would you miss them? I doubt it. Unfortunately tourists bring with them expectations - the lure of the outside world - and that eventually seduces the population. Bad tourists. But change is inevitable - the outside world exists, it propagates its values, rural places change slowly in response.

Wait!

2005-08-24T00:02:00.000-07:00

It’s all about the wood, not the photos. Or maybe it is about the people, or the purpose… Good wood is a very satisfying thing, and good figured wood is far finer still. I have had the pleasure to work many fine individual pieces (every one distinct), and these are as good as I have seen.

It's ALL About the Photos

2005-08-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that this blog is only about the photos. If this is the future of information/experience sharing then I want to see it! What will blogs become in the future except occasionally creative multimedia outlets, ways to live vicariously? The dialogue is just filler – read (or ignore) the captions and maybe learn a little bit about the world; it’s not very important. Enjoy the colors, revel in the people, imagine the experience, get interested, push your envelope, and go some place, … Take a trip and experience the world! Satisfy your curiosity. Make your life a little richer.

Why these particular photos? No reason; these are what I have, and I don’t spend much time selecting them. I have not been nearly everywhere, but I have been to some of the places that are changing the most in the last little while. I explore, how people live, what makes people happy (I’ll let you know when I figure it out – it’s not money…), and how they are changing. All are good memories – might this blog be mostly for me, after all? I’ve found that photos stitch my memories together – they are the skeleton of the stories that I remember. I even find I take photos with a thought to telling a story of that trip/place in the future – subconsciously writing the tale (or manipulating the memories?) ahead of time .

I hesitate to reveal about me too much via photos. The photos are me – invading peoples’ space gently as I try for a good expression takes a lot out of you and makes you work for each image. And soooo many are not good enough to share – just not the right combinations of conditions, but every scene being photographed seemed great at the time. Having a digital (or any other, if you actively use it – at least with digital you can’t spend much time futzing with equipment, missing the moment) camera changes your trip – you now see things too often through the lens of the camera. You need to let your feel for a good photo take over, and occasionally take more pictures than you think that you should (just to get the 10%-20% that are worth having). But taking too many pictures makes for a boring life – live in the moment, and take photos only after you have absorbed it all. Fill the frame with people and plants and animals and things, or crop the photo appropriately before you share it, and throw away the bad ones quickly.

I still ask – why bother blogging?

Photos: Daughter of an outdoor produce merchant (my neighborhood, Wuqing, China), one of the last photos I took in China. Bronze pouring, The Crucible, Oakland, CA.

Zen Traveler?

2005-08-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

I wish I traveled in a zen way! Zen, a Japanese word from the Chinese chan, from the Pali jhanam from the Sanskrit dhyanam and ultimately the root dhya-. To see or observe, to meditate. Meditative travel? Certainly travel in an unconventional way – contemplative, sensitive to the local surroundings (not everyone was born as fortunate as we were), few expectations, no hurry, live in the moment, and enjoy every one of them. Stop and see the scene around you, see it as it is instead of how you imagined it would be or want it to be. Sit long enough so that you have some chance of capturing the essence of the place – read a book, talk to strangers, take a nap, do nothing… just don’t be in a hurry to get to the next part of your adventure. Stop taking photos. I have to admit that I don’t go to museums or famous places much – I can imagine what they look like, and I am usually right it seems. What I can’t anticipate is ordinary life – the subtle ways that people all over the world are different. People interacting – with each other, their children and pets, their environment… that’s the fascinating part. ALL my best moments have come from NOT traveling – stopping to see what happened.

Work is still keeping me from writing, but hopefully things are on the path to a more balanced life. Last weekend we escaped to Marin for an Asleep at the Wheel concert - I have been following them, and Texas music, for 20 years it seems and they (or at least Ray) still sound exactly the same. And I seem to know every word. Nothing could be finer than an outdoor concert in California - perfect weather, beautiful scenery, and the cocktails at this tiny venue weren't bad either. And the classic California crowd - passionate, eclectic, eccentric, inspired, and just plain funky.

It was a good day for memorable quotes:
"Rely on the sudden erection of your small dorsal hairs" - Vladimir Nabokov
"The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates
"Not all who wander are lost" - JRR Tolkien

Photos: Sherpa family, Everest region of Nepal; Asleep at the Wheel, Rancho Nicasio, Marin County, CA

Back in the Saddle Again

2005-08-13T09:21:00.000-07:00

Its been a messy few weeks, moving our tiny "factory" from Richmond to Alameda - it proved impossible to predict how much time and effort would be required to pack and accomplish the exodus, then unpack at the other end and get back to doing research. We did the best we knew how (who could know that the SMTP outgoing email server would go buggy?) and now things are approaching normal.

Then there was that trip into the Sierras...actually parked the car above snowline (~10,000 ft, just over Tioga Pass on the edge of Yosemite National Park) then just walked in a mile to 20 Lake Basin for 2 days. Indeed there were 20 lakes packed into a tiny area midst as much rock and ice as I have ever seen in one place, and certainly no place this fine was as easily accessible. No place is perfect - the mosquitos were thick, it tried to rain each afternoon, and the nights were cold this high - but it is about as close to heaven as you can get, and there may not be as many wildflowers on the other side of the pearly gates.

So its back to trying to create something reasonably useful and creative in this space...

Photos: the crew in the tabla rasa, and North Peak, in the Hoover Wilderness (Inyo National Forest, California).

Where Do I Begin?

2005-07-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

To limit expectations I will randomly shuffle between ordinary and introspective things; expect little from me and you will never be disappointed. Plain banality will fill the space between.

Digital photography changed my life, to some small degree. I had owned cameras before, and even done some dark room work, but it was always too much trouble – not enough great photos for the time and effort it took. Digital cameras were different – small size, instant gratification and the opportunity for improvement (just take another…), no material dross (paper photos), and easy integration into electronic media. The camera actually helped me travel – it was easy to hang out in small Chinese villages when in my palm I had photos of the whole world to show. So some of these photos are from this time – China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Lao, and Nepal were all special places for me – I
tried not to visit but to live there for a short time. Localize. Other photos (and they are an important part of the blog – without the pictures the blog would not be worth it) will be from the Western part of the U.S. or from future travels; no plans right now, but travel is one of the things that I do, so it will happen.

Comments on these blog postings? I don’t really encourage them for and so I may not read or respond to them – emailing me, to engage in the lively art of conversation, is a better idea. Anything too easily accomplished is usually not worth having.

Photos: I have not written the travelogue on Bali yet (2 months there - as long as they would let me stay) and this new blog format (code hacked to make more space) may get me going on it. Durians and rambutans for sale in the hills above Lovina, and a bawdy monkey image from Ubud.

I, Charlie

2005-07-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

I’ve got to get done with this blogging about blogging (and as soon as I can get around to investigating the whole phenomena more I may end up blogging about blogging about blogging).

I doubt that it is important who I am, what I do for a living, or what goes on in my life. But just in case, this post tells the story briefly. Born in Maryland (U.S.A.), I grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, got a degree in Physics from William and Mary, and another in Materials Science from Northwestern University. The first 28 years in about as many words. Then a rich 12 years (or so) in Idaho, working for The Man – a beautiful place and just what I was looking for out of life, at that time. Dabbled in business and made some mistakes – no, money is not the answer, it’s usually the problem – then thought I had to hit the road. I switched to manufacturing and prowled factories in Indiana, Michigan, and finally China – if life were a river I lay on my belly and always drank deeply; but sometimes too deep. Two years in Northern China is a long time for anyone, but I learned what could be learned from the experience, contributed what I knew (and more things I didn’t know I knew), and then moved on. I spent the next year rambling across SE Asia, from Bali to Kathmandu – but that is another bunch of stories (“the travelogues”); many of these blog photos will come from this time. Now, I live in Berkeley, California and work at a technology start-up company nearby; I try to do some crafts (woodworking, hot glass work, blacksmithing, etc.) and believe that we all have to do something for our culture, so I should volunteer more. I like to travel, I do it very easily, and this is a good thing – the world is more than just our local environment, and experiencing it locally makes us better citizens. Enough about me, let the blog begin – no plans, just writing in the moment.

Photos: When I am lucky families out there in the world adopt me, her family in Wuqing (China) owned a fishing pond and we had a tremendous bond for several years, despite not being able to converse at all. Perhentian Kecil (Malaysia) was one of the most perfect places I visited, and this family there fed me and ferried me by boat for weeks.

I Write, Therefore I Blog

2005-07-27T09:46:00.000-07:00

Despite being a scientist, I more or less write for a living and so it is somewhat easy for me. So blogging will just be more of the same? Don’t I spend enough time already writing things no one reads, even though I can’t type? But I am always looking for opportunities to write creatively, knowing that if I practice enough someday I might be worth reading. So bring on the blog – only a couple minutes at a time, an opportunity to post a photo or two, and who knows where it will lead? This might have been ideal while I was traveling, though it was hard to find a USB connection in Asia to download photos with, and just last year was technologically a long time ago and blogging was not nearly so easy. I still wonder who I will give this URL to?, and whether this will keep their interest for long – I don’t think so, because I’m not saying anything. Maybe I eventually will – it will take time to figure out how.

Photo: Cat with no name, Wuqing, China. She never learned my name and I never learned hers. We enjoyed each others’ company for a year, and she has a great home now.

Why Blog?

2005-07-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

I spent a day exploring "to blog or not to blog" and came up with "why not?" - I just have to find a style that works for me, and not waste too much time worrying about satisfying the needs of people who aren't even reading it. It seems like blogging is just one more way for people to express their creativity, and it fits into a life already spent in front of a computer. Maybe having a blog is just another requirement of modern society - like email, a cell phone, a car, etc. - and who knows where it all will lead as we evolve toward more technology?

Many blogs seem to be diary-like things and I don't think anyone is interested in my personal minutia so I will refrain from this style (what has changed in society and culture so that we are willing to do this now, at this point in time?), others are an outlet for humorous ramblings (strictly entertainment), some offer commentary and insight (scholarly?) in a world already overloaded with information, and some are more photo oriented - maybe mine will be like this, since I have photos to share and as yet no acceptable way to do it. Maybe it will be hard to blog travelogues - just have to see and learn. And the question still remains "who will read these words?".

Photo: Zi Wei ("purple flower") on the train ride between Huang Shan and Nanjing. She taught me the nuances of Chinese tones ("Dway BO chee!") and couldn't comprehend why I was unable to read Chinese.

Testing, Testing...

2005-07-25T12:02:00.000-07:00

Why on Earth would I want to blog? Will it substitute for email (or any older forms of communication)? Will it take less time or more? Its a place to display photos, but do I really care - or does anybody else care? Can I arrange photos like I do in my travelogues, or am I stuck with linear? Isn't this all a little too self centered (a collaborative blog might work...), or does it just mean that there is far too much memory and bandwidth out there (and too much time spent sitting in front of computers)?

The tornado of fire, at the Fire Arts Festival 2005 (The Crucible, www.thecrucible.org, Oakland, CA - July 15, 2005).