Road Trip!

"Road Trip!" Those words have always evoked a spectacular sense of freedom for me. In my day, I've gone a few doosies. There was the high school road trip to mythical South Whidbey. And who can forget Duck Itch Lake up in Canada? Both the eastward and westward Marilyn roadtrips were not to be forgotten as well.

The time has come for a new page in my road trip history. Much like the road trips of yore, this one is about the journey as much as the destination. What makes this one different, however, is that there will be no sleeping in the back of the car, picking up hitch hikers, locking the keys in the car, or blasting the stereo full blast. This road trip is just me, Scoot Scoot, and the open road. So with my sleeping bag bungeed on, a shiny new trunk for my laptop (can anyone say "internet addiction"?), and perhaps an unrealistic sense of enthusiasm, I embark. Stay tuned to BdW for reports from the road.
Sunday April 22 2007File under: travel, road trip

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Guest Post du Mom

Since I have just returned to BdW headquarters from a month in New Zealand I have been invited to do a guest post to share my travels. See, I leave my children for a month and they suddenly get interested in me. I could wax poetic (if I could wax or be poetic) about the breathtaking beauty of New Zealand and the kindness of her people but I'll save the sappiness for the uncut version and try to hit some highlights. Flying into NZ gave me a sense of its awesome geology, eons of continental bumps and shakes are condensed into this small country-spiny-ridged mountain ranges; vast, lush, glacial valleys; lunarscape volcanic craters and plateaus with picture-perfect farms nestled in here and there. I hooked up with Kiwi native and good buddy Judith and we became far more intimate with this terrain on our 4-day tramp in the Marlborough Sound region of the South Island. We tramped the Cape Campbell Walkway following a goat track through grassy hills and sheep farms out to the eastern most point of the South Island. Lunch huts along the track were setup for proper tea and a chilled bottle of the local Sauvignon Blanc awaited us at each day-end farmstead. It was a challenging hike but fun and rewarding too.
Read more...
Thursday March 1 2007File under: travel, New Zealand

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What a Wondrous World

The world in which we live is a pretty spectacular place filled with all sorts of wondrous things. To see some of these things, both man made and natural, are among the reasons I like to travel so much. Often, seeing pictures doesn't come close to relaying the beautiful and awesomeness as does being there in real life.

Throughout my travels, esp. when in proximity to some especially wonderful place or building, the conversation often turns to The Seven Wonders of the World. I've yet to meet someone who can name all of them (without the help of the internet). It was amidst one of these converstations that I got to thinking about the wonders of the modern world.

Well, it turns out I am not alone. Days after I had this conversation, I ran across this site on one of the blogs. It is accepting votes on what should be included on the new seven wonders list. Unfortunately it requires signing up for something which makes me think it is some promotion or something, but the concept is good and browsing the nominations is very interesting.

Perhaps the best site I've seen on world wonders is Hillman Wonders of the World. This list contains 100 wonders and is good for killing a whole afternoon's worth of productivity. I've visited to 26 of the wonders, 8 of which were in this last trip. How many have you been to?
Tuesday January 16 2007File under: travel, links

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Travel Slideshow

In lieu of a slideshow presentation in person, I've decided to go with the BR-esque online slideshow to display the better of my travel photos. Actually, many of these photos aren't mine. Many thanks to Andrew, Per, Myke, and Trista for their generous photo contributions. (Also, many of the photos are repeats from previous posts and from Andrew's Thailand slideshow. But I just couldn't pass up putting them in)

Oh, and a tech note. I've decided to try YouTube in order to cut down on network traffic on nwlink's servers. Also, it seems like a good cross-platform solution. If it isn't working out for you, or you for some reason hate YouTube, I can e-mail you the .wmv file. So, press play (or visit the YouTube page directly here) and enjoy!



Wednesday January 3 2007File under: travel, video

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Environmental Atonement for my travels (part one)

Travel, general speaking, is bad for the environment. Until a year or so ago, I didn't realize that air travel was among the worst forms of transportation for the environment. (The all-knowing David Suzuki has a great explanation of why here.) Throughout my trip, I was thinking about what I could do to atone for this. Carbon offsetting was something I knew something about, so I promised myself I would environmentally redeem myself, or at least make an attempt, when I got back.

First step in my quest for atonement was to assess the damage. A quick calculation of the miles traveled by plane came out to around 20,000 miles. This figure alone hit me pretty good, as it is approximately equal to 4 round trip flights from Seattle to NYC. To equate that to environmental damage, I chose carbon dioxide production as a measure. Various "calculate your impact" websites gave total carbon production from just me from 7,500 kg to 10,800 kg.

Step two is to find a way to offset said carbon. The sites that help calculate are quick to offer an easy way to offset the impact of your flights. Each does it a little differently, but the general idea is that they use the money you give them to support clean energy projects, which conceptually takes carbon out of the atmosphere. The prices for this ranges from $13/tonne(1,000kg) to $27/tonne putting the environmental cost of my flights between $100 and $300.

This investigation into my impact and what I can do to offset it has been very enlightening, but I hestitate to drop a couple hundred bucks on such an abstract solution. As the title of this post implies, this is to be an on going project. My next focus will be alternative methods for offsetting carbon. Stay tuned!
Tuesday January 2 2007File under: travel, environment

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Reminiscing - map and calendar

One of my major activities since coming home (aside from eating cheese) has been reliving, reviewing, and recovering from my trip. I've been compiling photos from the people I traveled with, sorting through maps and books I brought back, and transfering notes from the back of crosswords to a more usuable computer format. In light of these activities, I foresee a couple more travel related posts in the future for BdW. Here is the first one.

In my last couple days in Vietnam, I saw a fellow traveller outlined their general itenary on a big map. It was such a neat idea that I copied it. Here's what I came up with. It is best viewed at large size. (To avoid clutter, I left off the into and out of asia lines. Starting point is Bangkok and ending point is Seoul)

Also, on my trip, I kept a general log of where I was and what I was doing on a daily basis, just to jog my memory when I got back. The bold at the bottom of each day represents where I spent the night. It is prolly an overkill of information for all but the very bored.


Wednesday December 27 2006File under: travel, pics

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Back in the U.S.A.

Yep, so as most of you know, I've returned from my travels abroad. I come back enlightened, emboldened, enjoyed, and a bunch of other ens. I am happy to be home, even if it hasn't stopped raining and the temperature makes me wish I was back on a beach.

Last post, I asked what you would do on return from a long trip. Here's what I did: First agenda item was hug mom. Then it was straight to the refridgerator for a tortilla with cheese. (I told you I missed cheese, eh?). I followed it up with a bowl of cereal and sleep in my own warm bed. Other highlights of the re-entry process involved dinner with the family (homemade pizza (again, cheese)) and playing with the Punkso.

The holiday season is one to be with friends and family. It was with that in mind that I brought this jaunt to a close. And it was with great fun that I got to spring the suprise of my return on everyone (my mom actually jumped up and down). Anyway, surrounded by friends and family with beautiful decorations and atmosphere, I'm glad to be home.
Monday December 25 2006File under: travel, food

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WWYD

A popular activity for long haul travellers is to talk about what is going to be the first thing they are going to do when they get home. Common answers are take a hot shower, throw toliet paper in the toliet(!), stay in a cozy bed for 24 hours, drive a car (try not driving for a couple months and see how you feel), and eat. Eating is often people's most enthusiastic response. Nights upon nights have been passed talking about chips with salsa, real pizza, or pickles. The big foods that have been missing for me are cheese and cereal (not together of course (although...)).

Well, I ask you: what would you do? What is the first thing you would do after being away for an extended period. Any food that is particularly American that you think other countries might not have? Often it takes actually going away to realize what you miss most. So for those of you who have been holding down the fort, use your imagination.
Friday December 22 2006File under: travel, food

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Seoul Searching

Yes yes. You're eyes aren't deceiving you. That is snow you are seeing in the picture. I feel bad continually posting anecdotes on hot days, beaches, and relief at finding a room with A/C while all ya'll at home are dealing with wind storms, snow, and gloomy winter weather, so I thought I would make ya'll feel better by pointing out that travellers also hit runs of cold weather.

But global warming isn't bad enough that it all of the sudden snowed in Ho Chi Minh City. This picture was taken at Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, South Korea. As I understand it, it is Korea's version of an imperial palace which I have seen so many other places. Beautiful architecture, grounds, and gardens made for a great place to meander around while enjoying the gorgeous winter day. (And yes, it was cold enough to warrant the long pants.)

Other Korean activities? Well, I got a geocache, of course. And following my love of public transportation, I rode the Seoul train. (Okay, that was the last bad "Seoul" pun)
Thursday December 21 2006File under: travel, Korea

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History Lesson

Everywhere you go, there are new bits of history to learn. Most of it is completely new to me, as Mr. Burnett's World History class somewhat glossed over the overthrow of Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia in 1970 by semi-US-supported (US-semi-supported?) troops, for example. But here in Vietnam, history is a little more real. Place names ring a bell (Danang, Dien Bien Phu, etc.) and when the tour guide talks of history, I can place what he says in context.

Yesterday, I visited the Cu Chi tunnel system that doubled as a kind of museum of how Viet cong(?) guerillas lived and fought. (There was a geocache there too!) It was, from a technical standpoint, really interesting how they engineered the tunnels, how to cover smoke from their cooking fires, etc. On the other hand, all the evidence of the bombing, agent orange, etc. made me pretty ashamed to be an American. Then, to top it off, I stopped at the war remnants museum on the way back. Sufficive to say, it didn't make me feel any better.

I will hold off on making any comments on my feelings on America's actions then (and how they possibly correlate to U.S. actions of today) because 1)I imagine the information presented can't help but have a bias (just as the textbooks I learned from had their own [opposite] bias and 2)I don't want the comments for this post to explode. But being surrounded by the history that I have only learned about in books and the Discovery Channel has been quite an experience.

(Oh, and I took some pictures, but forgot my transfer cable at the hotel, so you'll have to use your imagination. Or wait until the slideshow when I return. Or imagine me hunched over in a 3 feet tall tunnel holding my camera out in front of me so as to take a misdirected, out of focus shot.)
Tuesday December 19 2006File under: travel, Vietnam

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