http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Ekim/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Ekim en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:45:28 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:45:28 +0000 Irkutsk I've heard of that place somewhere before. But its not a country is it Oh Risk Playing the board game Risk way back when. It was a country or region or whatever in Risk Well now I'm on a train. And going thereThe open steppes of Mongolia have been morphing into gently rolling hills with more and more trees the taiga ecosystem of Siberia is starting to pass by out the tra http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Lake-Baikal/blog-452700.html I don't know if I've ever been in a city that has renamed and or moved itself as many times as Ulaan Baatar has When a capitol of the more recent Mongolian empire was first declared it was 1639 and that capitol was 420 kilometers from the current capitol city. Actually city might not be the right word to use in reference to that first capitol. Ger camp might be a bit more accurate. Remember t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-451276.html The train rolls into Sainshand Mongolia at 520 am. And our four barely awake bodies tumble down the stairs dragging our bags behind. Onto the wide open platform standing alone in the wide open Gobi Desert under a massive wide open Gobi sky. The train is gone one minute later. The sun is already up. And so is our guide eager to meet us and take us out to our ger yurt in Mongolian camp a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Gobi-Desert/blog-449824.html Beijing China to St. Petersburg Russia. On a train. The 'TranSiberian Railway'. 8505 kilometers of views. Five weeks across China and Mongolia and Russia. From Asia to Europe. Now that's quite an adventure. And for us it began June 6 as we flew out of Mumbai on our way to Beijing.Us Us is four teachers from my school the American School of Bombay. Katie Lynn Deb and myself. And w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-434921.html As I headed south out of Lexington Kentucky on the broad swatch of concrete that is Interstate 75 I couldn't help but remember traveling this same way so many times in my childhood. Back then the family was always heading south to Florida to visit Grandma and Grandpa. I remember the old Interstate tuckering out in south central Kentucky dumping us onto a narrow and twisting even older US High http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Kentucky/blog-428374.html Sri Lanka Where in the world is that I'm pretty sure I never studied it in social studies back in the Deer Park Community Schools back more decades ago than I'd care to mention. Sri Lanka But I read about it. As the government tries to end a decades long civil war cornering the last 'Tamil Tigers' in hopes of bringing peace to the war torn northern tip of the island nation. And I remember http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Sri-Lanka/blog-397541.html The early morning sun filters gently through the trees casting crisp shadows that dance on the ground in the gentle breeze. The colors are rich brilliant as only the early morning sun can do. A bicycle clatters by its stack of eggs cartons stacked two feet high poised perilously over the rear wheel. A rickshaw driver offers me a ride. But I prefer my own two feet this morning 'exercis http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Punjab/Amritsar/blog-391991.html From the very first it seemed a trip that dreams are made of. A full week traveling with two fine companions. My fellow teacher at the American School of Bombay KC. And Eric who I've had so many adventures with over the past ten years now teaching in New Delhi A full week traveling in India. By train. And not just any train. The Maha Parinirvan Express This was a pilgrimage to the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/blog-385490.html Dharamsala. In the foothills of the Himalayas. We fly in aboard a small twin engine turbo prop. And then drive up the twisting and turning mountain road to Mcleodganj. The home of the Tibetan government in exile here in India. Where the Dalai Lama hangs his proverbial hat when he's at home not off to distant points in defense of his homeland. I passed a peaceful week here in the pines e http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Himachal-Pradesh/Mcleod-Ganj/blog-381799.html In far northern India precariously rests the gem in the crown of India the state of Jammu and Kashmir. And in that far northern state lies a remote and sparsely populated region called Ladakh. The name in the Ladakhi language literally is LaDags and means 'land of high mountain passes'. Ladakh one of the last refuges of Mahayana Buddhism in the world is also called 'Little Tibet' or the ' http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-299524.html It had been three wonderful days so far at Kanha National Park. Morning and evening safaris each day. Langurs primates and Chitals spotted deer and Barking Deer and Peacocks and Indian Buffalo and Wild Boar and Sambar Indian Deer and plenty of incredibly beautiful birds. Like the Indian Blue Jay and the Kingfisher. And we'd had a our moments viewing the beautiful Barasingha or Swamp Dee http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Madhya-Pradesh/Kanha-National-Park/blog-270370.html Three weeks on the road. Laos Cambodia and Thailand laid out before me. The plan was to choose just one place in each country and experience it deeply not flitting about and merely skimming the surface. But after three weeks incredible though the experience was deep and abiding as it was I had still really only skimmed the surface. Of an incredible part of the world. When I took the job http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-261875.html The Himalayas That crowning jewel of a mountain range that rears its lofty peaks like a crown over this incredible country. They push heavenward the result of intense pressures within the earth as the Indian sub continent drives its way inexorably northward into the Asian continentFinally I've met the other trekkers that I knew were somewhere here in Mumbai hidden amongst the 18000000 or http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttarakhand/Rishikesh/blog-223179.html Its July 15 and I sit peacefully in our campground at Lake Nakuru National Park munching on fresh veggies avocados and bread. Not knowing at all what to expect because this is Africa And after a long and rough ride we're about to go out on our first game drive For the next two weeks Kenya and Nairobi are ours.I look back already at the dirty and bustling city of Nairobi where I flew in and w http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Masai-Mara-NP/blog-220528.html The close of our East African safari is in the little Massai village of Engaruka 60 kilometers down a rutted and dusty dirt road. The sense of isolation is strong. As are the Massai people. They have held to traditional ways of life proudly and belligerently against the onslaught of Western Culture. They are known as fierce warriors who live a pastoral lifestyle grazing their cattle and goat http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tanzania/North/Ngorongoro-Conservation-Area/blog-220536.html It's September school is up and running. The travels of the summer are now pleasant memories. A gentle smile on my face on a rainy monsoon morning as I sip my chai. Or in the case of the Jewish cemetery in Warsaw those memories are powerful. Memories that rocked my basic understandings of humankind.I've been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. It is powerful. Perhaps even mind numbi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Masovia/Warsaw/blog-198004.html Aurangabad More than 2000 years ago when Buddhism was the prominent religion in India pilgrims traveling across the sub continent and monks engaged in their ascetic lifestyle began digging into the cliffs towering over the Waghora River near present day Aurangabad India. Although today we call their excavations lsquocavesrsquo that word is an incredible misnomer. These prayer halls chait http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-164809.html Bandra to Dharavi Dharavi Asia's largest slum Just a few kilometers from my apartment. One million residents crammed into 432 acres. Tin shacks stacked on tin shacks stacked on tin shacks. Open ditches that try to carry the sewage out of the slum. A constant crush of noise and people and smells. After all the incredible trips I've enjoyed all the beautiful sites and sights I've seen why am I http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Mumbai/blog-164808.html Bhutan. Druk Yul in the local language Dzongkha. Translated that is the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon. At one time this hidden country high in the Himalayas was considered the ShangriLa the land beyond the blue horizon of so many fables and myths. Now this isolated Kingdom is being confronted with incredible choices as they and the 21st Century meet. It is a Kingdom. There is a King. He a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Bhutan/blog-164790.html Rajasthan Rajasthan The heart of the tourist track here in India. Forts and palaces and birding and desert treks by camel. Maybe even a tiger sighting. Incredible colors and sounds. I was joining a group of tourists from Canada the UK and Australia for my Rajasthan adventure an adventure that would also include four days bicycling through the Indian countryside We start in Delhi India's cap http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/blog-155367.html