Kevin and Amarryn

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“Travel is more than the seeing of sights, it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” - Miriam Beard Korea wasn't really on our original itinerary. We were planning to fly home from Japan but Ammi decided she wanted to see the World Expo in Shanghai. Since the Expo wasn't for 10 days after we left Japan we figured why not kill some time in Korea. Our experience wasn't really what we had hoped for, but it was partly our fault. We didn't have a guide book so we had to rely on internet forums, which were mostly about people teaching English in Korea. Also, we stayed in a bad part of Seoul near the university, so every morning we'd have to step over a passed out Korean ... read more

“Walking ten thousand miles of the world is better than reading ten thousand scrolls.” - Chinese Proverb The cool thing about China is that it feels like one foot is planted firmly in the past and the other is planted in the future. You still have traditional things like food, tai chi, and Chinese Opera and at the same time you have futuristic architecture and electric motorcycles zipping around. The bad part of this is that some people haven't caught up yet. For instance, it seems a favorite pastime in China is a game called “Who can get to that empty seat on the subway the fastest?” It's slightly annoying when you're obviously trying to get off the subway and a great wall of people come at you as soon as the doors open. Even ... read more

People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” - Dagobert D. Runes “We are leaving India! Thank god!” Ammi exclaimed as we boarded our Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur. She was so giddy you'd think she was a five year old on her way to Disneyland. The flight attendants eyed her obvious enthusiasm with curiosity. We left India with one sprained wrist, one mysteriously swollen face, two colds, a few extra parasites, and enough bad memories to necessitate an entire team of therapists for years to come, but we were leaving. Oh happy day! The only problem was we had heard that China is terrible from some fellow travelers. Would China be another India only much colder? We were about to find out. Since we ... read more

“India is not an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay” Shashi Tharoor in his ‘The Great Indian Novel' The sun is warm, the sea is swaying and I'm enjoying the passing of yet another day. Despite this outward sense of calm, it is still out there—waiting for us. We can't hide here forever. This was meant to be a brief respite from the rigors and chaos of the outside world, but now we were just dithering. We have been in Varkala for 9 days now and having decided to stick it out in India, it was past time that we got on with it. Maybe this is a metaphor for our trip as a whole. We came to ... read more

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” - Phillip R. Slocum Cambodia has an even darker history than Laos. Not only were they heavily bombed by America as well (unofficially again), but around the same time Saigon had fallen to the North Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge nightmare began, ending only a few years later with over 2 million people dead. The Khmer Rouge wanted Cambodia to become a communist country based solely around agriculture, and anyone educated, who spoke a foreign language, or who wore glasses were branded parasites and systematically slaughtered. While this makes little sense to me, what makes even less sense is the fact that America supported the Khmer Rouge (I thought they were against communist countries!?!?). Even the ... read more