Naomi and Ryder

Our last installment comes after our return to the States, but it is of a land well worth sharing about. Many people don’t even know where Bhutan is, or that it even exists. It is a small country, about the size of Switzerland, surrounded by eastern India on three sides and China on the northern border. It is a newly democratic society, who, given the opportunity to elect anybody to govern the country, elected their already ruling king because they love and respect him so much. Bhutan’s government does not measure Gross Domestic Product like so many other countries; rather they measure Gross National Happiness. Clearly, they have different priorities in this peaceful, verdant country. And the people there reflect it; they are kind, generous, and peaceful. Bhutan is the only country we traveled to where ... read more

Get ready for a long one folks...we've been to 3 countries since I last wrote, but I promise I tried to keep it as interesting and concise as possible! There are no pictures this time as they take FOREVER to load, but I promise at the end of all of this, I will make one entire entry pictures for you. Anyway, read on. Cambodia: A country where unbelievable tragedy has occured in the far too recent past. Upon arrival in Phnom Penh, Ryder and I had felt completely overwhelmed by the end of our Vietnam trip and it took us 24 hours to re-orient to our new surroundings. In the capital city, we started to understand and explore the reality of the Khmer Rouge and how Pol Pot's regime taints the history of this incredibly poor ... read more

Vietnam: cutthroat and beautiful. The land of motorcycle accidents, cone hats, infamous pho, rip offs, and incredible scenery. Traveling from our remote Laos border crossing, we passed through the simple pristine villages, with squat thatched homes surrounded by emerald rice paddies. Mountains loomed and the cloudy skies only emphasized the dramatic landscape. We hurtled (and there is no other word for the bus experience in Vietnam) down mountain roads, toward Hanoi and we could tell immediately that we were no longer in the gentle country of Laos. First of all, Vietnam's population is drastically larger at over 80 million compared to 6 million. And the people are louder and either more aggressive, or more excited to talk to you depending on what kind of person they are. For example, the second we stepped off the bus ... read more

Hello Again! We figured you all needed a break from our stories, so we took a writing hiatus during our time here in Chiang Mai. For those of you who don't know, Chiang Mai is in the north of Thailand and is the second biggest city in the country. Ryder's mom has been living here for the past year and so we decided to come up for a 15 day visit. We had an uneventful overnight train ride from Bangkok up here. Though we had a couple of hours to kill in Bangkok and it happened to be the Chinese New Year. This was great as it made our couple of hours very interesting with lots of music and dragons filling the streets. Upon arrival in Chiang Mai, we met up with Julia (Ryder's mom) and ... read more

Alrighty, we're back up and seeing if we can get some photos to load. If you don't already know this, you can actually click on the photo and it will get bigger (I think then too, you can just look at all the photos and their captions like a photo album at that point). But before that, here are some random facts you should know about India: 1. The hundreds of roaming cows and braham bulls in the city streets always have the right of way. 2. The equal-in-number of goats, are cutest when somebody has put a ratty sweater on them, but the little babies are the cutest! 3. The thousands of dogs (no pet control here) are cute, but not worth touching...fleas (and don't be deceived by the absolutely adorable puppies running around everywhere, ... read more

Hello One and All from Delhi, India! This is Naomi writing you with first impressions of India, which are hard to express. It is fascinating, devastatingly poor, dirty, crowded, and beautiful. Ryder and I got into Delhi around 7 at night, completely jet-lagged and worn out from about 35 hours of travel. Luckily Adrian, Ryder's brother, and his friend Rohit were at the airport to pick us up. Haggling with a rickshaw driver was happily averted, and Rohit and Adrian delivered us to Majnu-ka-Tilla, also known as the Tibetan Colony. It's here that the Tibetan refugees arrive from their home country and stay until they determine where they are going. All the guest houses are funded by monastaries and money paid for a place to stay goes to the Tibetan community one way or another. It ... read more