06 March We started the day with a sunrise cycle rickshaw to the Indian border. Because of the road blockades, we'd weaved in and out of hundreds of parked cargo trucks the night before and now all of these trucks seemed to be lined up at the border to get to their Nepali destinations via India. Our poor cycle rickshaws were too bulky and unable to maneuver between the trucks, so we walked the last bit to the border. We stopped at the Nepal immigration office, then walked under two gates, down the road a bit and directly to the Indian [View Full Entry]

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26-27 February After one heckuvan afterparty for the scuba course, I got up early, posted another pile of clothes/snorkel/books/etc. home then hopped a flight to Sydney. And then one to Brisbane. And then to Bangkok. And arrived in Bangkok at 5 a.m. Bangkok is fully prepared for these arrivals and has all the duty free shops open and all the cafes for your convenience. They also have convenient chairs outside of the duty free shops where I took a nice nap. It's nice to curl up and make a drool puddle outside of a store where the cashiers wear suits and [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Canberra behind, I headed north to Queensland to take in the Great Barrier Reef the best way possible: diving! I took a 5-day open water course and am now certified for life to 30m depth. We spent a thrilling two days in the classroom watching videos and taking quizzes with intermittent pool sessions learning all those useful skills for the water. We had 3 lovely days on the diveboat, getting in 8 dives and 3 snorkels. I had the best dive buddy ever, Ria from Vancouver. We pretty much kicked ass and were the only new divers to navigate [View Full Entry]

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Ben kept a blog of his visit! 12.23.08-12.24.08 My trip to Australia literally got off to a scorching start as I woke up to leave from East Lansing. I had been working in lab the previous day and had managed to give myself a sunburn from standing over a UV light while slicing up gel bands from an experiment. My goggled face in the mirror told me everything I needed to know about why it felt so warm during the night. It was a busy day running errands and tying up loose ends but I managed to arrive at the airport [View Full Entry]

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13 November - I flew from Auckland to Sydney on a charming Qantas flight with great food, a nice seatmate...and the X-Files movie? A weird choice for a flight where you can't pick the film you watch. Gosia met me at the airport and we taxi-ed to her place to get a good night's sleep. 14 November - We were absolute tourists today. Started out with a walk to University of New South Wales to turn in Gosia's last law essay ever. Then took the bus to Hyde Park for a stroll, with stops at the war memorial and a big [View Full Entry]

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I went for a fun bus ride today through the city of Auckland, just to see what it's all about. And to go to the Victoria Park Market, which is basically deserted on Thursday mornings. The city's interesting -- there are parts that feel like a village, bits that have the big city atmosphere, giant shopping streets, big green parks. The people are a mixed bag too -- lots of pakehas, but also Maori and heaps of Pacific islanders. Auckland's home to more Fijians than live in Fiji, more Tongans than live on Tonga, more Samoans than in Samoa, etc. And [View Full Entry]

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03 November - Started the journey to Auckland by flying to Miami. It was warm and sticky and the folks at reception at Days Inn were less than friendly and less than helpful. And shockingly, my trashy Days Inn near the airport IS A POLLING PLACE. 04 November - Was surprised to see thirty people hanging around the hotel at 6:00 a.m. when I got up to catch the airport shuttle. Apparently it’s convenient for everyone in the neighborhood to go vote there. Particularly because you have to drive through another parking lot to get to the Days Inn. And it’s [View Full Entry]

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This one's a long one, so pace yourselves :) 28 OCTOBER (Pt 2) - After writing about my amazing cathedral adventure, I moved from my $8/night hostal to a fancy hotel (included in my Galapagos tour). So fancy that they have a doorman and bellhops and $8 breakfast. I don’t know what to do when someone carries around my bags for me. Do I tip? How much? What do I say? I gave the bellhop 50 cents. I’m pretty sure he was insulted, since he didn’t talk to me again after that. I settled in, went out for friend plantains with [View Full Entry]

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27 October - I spent the day with three Norwegians running around the Mariscal, the New Town, of Quito. We’re all leaving for the Galapagos this week and had odds and ends to pick up - waterproof disposable cameras, toothpaste, contact lens solution, etc. And we had to make a big trip to the post office for Ragnhild to mail a package home. That may have been the most interesting part of the day, since the post office here is very different than home. For one, they don’t have boxes. That meant we went on a hunt for one in the [View Full Entry]

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Today I´m on my own -- the Norwegians headed to the Galapagos and Sarah left me for Buenos Aires. Slept in and then got up and packed everything to switch hostals. Then I decided to spend some time seeing the town. First I went to the Plaza Grande in the Old Town and wandered around looking at old buildings. I got frustrated, though, when the buildings I really wanted to go in were closed. Or being renovated. Or required money to walk around in them. The Presidential Palace is on the square, as is the giant Metropolitan Cathedral. I took a [View Full Entry]

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