..Just so we're all on the same page, I left Thailand on the 5th of October and popped in to California for a week on my way to Haiti, in the Western Caribbean. I visited with family and friends, many whom I have not seen since I started off on my venture two years ago, almost to the day. The week flew by with hardly a moment to breathe. All in all, it was a fantastic stopover and now I am here in Haiti ready to get my hands dirty, my legs muddy and clothes trashed, helping Hands On Disaster Response [View Full Entry]

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Rested, relaxed, armed and ready to tackle a new country with only a 6.6 KG laptop bag (minus the laptop - I left it at a friend's house in Thailand), I left the lights of north Bangkok behind, jumped on a local bus and for less than a dollar I headed for the Suvarnabhumi (pronounced like Sue-wan-ah-boom, believe it or not) International Airport, traveling partner in tow. With 7 1/2 hours until the early morning flight to Yangon, Myanmar, we busied ourselves by reading waste-of-time trashy gossip magazines at a bookstall, munching on crisp cookies and exploring the nooks and crannies [View Full Entry]

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LIFE OF PAI Oh. Where to begin. The Life of Pai. Ah, yes. Well, after flying from India into Thailand and forfeiting my onward ticket to Macau for two days later (the HODR China deployment at this time was not looking promising, so my friend Tim and I made the decision to nix heading there and running the risk of not being able to get Chinese visas), we headed into Bangkok, to the infamous backpacker hub of Khao San Road, a part of town I have managed to avoid ever going to, save for one time a few years ago -- [View Full Entry]

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In case you may have missed an email blast from my traveling, or joined in after I left my home state, I wanted y'all to know I now have a blog site. I started it in India and have finally completed it. Well, okay, it's nowhere near complete, but it does have all the text emails I have sent out in the past year and 10 months (almost) since I started out on this verylongtriparoundtheworld. http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/travlinfool/ One of these days I will be adding photos and maps and hopefully be keeping it up to date. Believe me, this takes so much [View Full Entry]

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In the five months I spent on the Indian subcontinent (three in Bangladesh and two in India), I found myself often trying to form an opinion on that part of the world. Since I was volunteering in Bangladesh and living amongst friends and locals in a small village my opinion and experiences were vastly different from the times I spent struggling to get by in India. Everyone has always told me it's a love it or hate it country, and quite honestly, for many years, I had no desire to go there, but I think after spending so much time and [View Full Entry]

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*THIS ALL TAKES PLACE STARTING ABOUT A MONTH AGO....* I'm glad to be out of the cold weather. I left Sikkim and the cold and rain behind on the second day of the bahnd. The first time I was in India, in transit to Bangladesh last February, I was stuck in a bandh where the city of Kolkata closed down for the day, as did the border to Bangladesh! This time the two day strike was all about the rise in petrol prices. Let's just say I don't recommend traveling on strike days. Fact is, traveling is hard cause there is [View Full Entry]

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Fear not...she's back.....Many of you have expressed concern for my travels, for me personally and nervousness cause they haven't heard anything in weeks....months. No, I you haven't missed a blast, I simply haven't written any. This is my first email blast since March!! I left the HODR deployment on the 17th of April, along with the other remaining seven volunteers who all went their separate ways. My friend from the project in Peru, Emma, and I took off for the eastern side of the country. After an adventurous overnight ferry ride across the water (sleeping on the floor with all the [View Full Entry]

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I first started feeling under the weather on my four hour bus journey from Boston to New York. First a cough, then three sneezes in a row, then a sudden urge to reach in my bag for a kleenex, stray napkin from Starbucks, anything to stop the drippy nose. A pill to stop a coming-on-fast headache. Pound, pound pound....This coming from someone who considers herself healthy and hardly ever comes down with anything. Well, this was definitely the start of something. Something lasting. I spent the final hours that afternoon with my friend Karen at her New York apartment, packing (or [View Full Entry]

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It's high time I write a little synopsis of the past two months. Just to clarify, it is the 7th of March and I am currently in Bangladesh, at my fifth Hands On project. I haven't had much chance to sit down and compile my notes on my recent travels and now think I may have a bit more time to do so. January 12: official end date to Project Pisco. All's well that ends well. It was a sad and difficult final week, as all projects tend to be at the close. We threw a bash at a local restaurant [View Full Entry]

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NOTE: I AM CURRENTLY SENDING THIS FROM BANGLADESH IN THE MIDDLE OF FEBRUARY, 2008! I MADE IT HERE A LITTLE OVER A WEEK AGO, SO THE INFO IN THIS EMAIL IS ALREADY WEEKS OLD. BUT, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER, RIGHT? A SELECT FEW OF YOU ALREADY HAVE A VERSION OF THIS.......... The day I left Peru, after 4 months volunteering in Pisco and a bit of traveling afterwards, I spent the day with my friend Santiago in Lima. After a filling and fabulous Chinese dinner at a restaurant overlooking the city at sunset from the 18th floor (used to be the [View Full Entry]

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