Jennifer and Masa
We're back home in Los Angeles now after a six month circumnavigation of the globe. This is my account of our adventures. Please read however you'd like and feel free to leave comments as I still check it from time to time when I'm feeling wistful.JM in Transit
Travel Blog Posts
A Year Ago Today
Published: June 16th 2007North America » United States » California » Los Angeles » Santa Monica
June 16th 2007
It's been a year since the frantic readying quite abruptly became the incredible doing. Since I had this surreal feeling that I was stepping off of a very high cliff and hanging in the air on nothing. Not quite trusting it to be real, but moving along anyway. That's how it felt one year ago today waiting at the airport. All the preparations were made and momentum carried us on. Carried us through the six months and out the other side. Carried me all the way around the world and back. To One Year Later. Relentlessly. I’m back now, and I'm happy. I have a great life here at home. I am marrying the best person I’ve ever met in less than three months. I’ve got a good job in a great city. I’m living ... read more
December 21st 2006
When we got to the Auckland airport bound for French Polynesia, it was so strange to see Los Angeles as the final destination of our flight. Even though we were taking a layover of five days in Tahiti, it was the last place we’d see, the last stamp we’d get in our passports, that was it. Next stop was home. At the time this made me both excited and sad. With every hour that passed I think the balance shifted to more and more sad than excited. As the reality set in that we would be going home in only a few days, I felt like I was struggling to hold on to the excitement I felt at seeing my family again, my friends, my clothes, another pair of shoes, clean towels and sheets, etc. Because ... read more
Coromandel Peninsula and Auckland
Published: March 4th 2007Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland
December 17th 2006
If Rotorua was the biggest disappointment we had in New Zealand, then the Coromandel was the best surprise. Masa was still a bit sick when we arrived, so we were hell-bent on finding a nice place to stay with a private bathroom and comfortable, clean surroundings. Something quiet, private and restful. We checked out a couple hotels that were way out of our comfort level price-wise and a couple bed and breakfasts that were like staying with someone’s parents. Then we found Tairua Beachfront Backpackers in the little town of Tairua. It was nothing that we had agreed upon: shared bathrooms, lots of people all over the place, a bit shabby, but it was cheap (like all the backpackers there) and clean and seemed ok so we took their last double room. Just for the ... read more
December 9th 2006
We arrived in Wellington around 9am to an absolutely gorgeous day. The best day we’d had in New Zealand, weather-wise. We had no idea what we were going to do, all we knew was that we were expected at our home-stay near Raglan the next day. We missed the shuttle to the bus station, my fault, because the shuttle driver announced that it was going to the train station and even though I knew in the back of my head that the bus and train stations were the same, I didn’t think. So I said no, he left, and we were stuck walking to the bus station. Even on a beautiful day, the walk was a bit of a nightmare since we were carrying very full bags. We finally made it to the bus/train station and ... read more
November 30th 2006
When we left Te Anau the morning after we finished our hike, it was raining, and it had been raining pretty continuously for about 24 hours I’d say. As we drove, though, it turned first to sleet and then quickly to snow. Keep in mind that this was in their early summer and we were at about 1000 feet above sea level. This is not how we expected New Zealand to be, but we loved the surprise. That day we made our marathon drive up the west coast of the south island to Greymouth. This is about a 13 hour drive on a good day. But of course we had weather, and we also had to stop a lot to look at stuff. We stopped at the beautiful rugged beaches along the west coast, we stopped ... read more
November 29th 2006
November 26th - Day one of the KT was mostly uphill. We gained quite a bit of elevation for the distance, though I don't remember specifics. Even so, at the top we were only around 4000 feet above sea level. Most of the day we hiked through beech forest covered in ferns and wildflowers and crazy mosses and lichens. That landscape was beautiful. Toward the end, though, we came out of the trees and into a part that was covered in tussock grass. As we walked we started to feel something hitting our faces. I thought, “that can't be snow” and said as much to Masa, but it surely was. It snowed all that night and by the morning the area around the hut was a late spring wonderland... the closest to a white Thanksgiving I'd ... read more
New Zealand Arrival and Getting to Te Anau
Published: March 1st 2007Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Te Anau
November 25th 2006
When we got to New Zealand, we spent some time in Christchurch to gear up for our hike in the fjordlands, but mainly our first few days in NZ were spent getting to Te Anau - the place we were starting our hike. The track we planned to walk was the Kepler Track, a four day Great Walk through some of the extremely beautiful Fjordlands, a World Heritage Area (but then, aren't they all?) We laid down some cash in Christchurch for warmer gear, because as we quickly discovered New Zealand is not nearly as warm as we'd thought it might be. Even though it was allegedly late spring early summer, we were at 45 degrees latitude. It was cold. Our first two nights were spent in Christchurch at a really great Backpacker place called the ... read more
November 19th 2006
From warm, sunny Thailand, we ducked back under the equator to warm, sunny Aussie.... at least that was the plan. We had visions of lazing in the sun, basking in the heat at gorgeous beaches. making ourselves brown and wrinkly in true aussie style. Before I give a full account I'll let you in on a few things that I learned down under, in no particular order: 1. Australians like to eat pot pies (and if you know of my affinity for pot pies, you'll know how excited this makes me) 2. Steak and Kidney Pie means kidney the organ, not kidney the bean. 3. Kidney the organ tastes like pee. 4. Not all Australians are brown and wrinkly from the sun. 5. Caravan parks are awesome and offer an array of sleeping options 6. Saying ... read more
Chiang Mai and the end of Thailand
Published: December 6th 2006Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai
November 8th 2006
A few things: first, this is without photos because I have them all on a dvd for which there is no dvd drive on this computer and I've waited for-E-ver to post this and I'm just putting it up so check back for photos later. next, this is Take two. Alright I just wrote most of this alraedy and then accidentally closed it somehow and it made me really mad as I'm sure everyone can relate. Here's how it went. We went to Chiang Mai expecting to do some rock climbing. Masa did quite a bit, but I only did one day in the end. Having had no experience the three-day course that Masa took was a little intensive for me. He did top-roping with me the first day and then the second and third days ... read more
October 22nd 2006
First I have to preface this already novel length entry. I realize that the title of the post is pretty harsh, and at times I admit my attitude was less than forgiving. But before I dive into our adventure that was Cambodia, I need to say that while at times I know I sound (and probably am) insensitive, I do realize what drives the need for these people to do what they do. I struggled daily with the universal unfairness of it all that I was born to such a situation that allowed me to be there on a trip around the world that probably cost more than many of these people see in several years. It made me feel small, weak, frustrated at my own inability to change it, and it made me feel lucky. ... read more
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.003s; cc: 13; qc: 88; dbt: 0.0498s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.61.183); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.8mb
