Turkey is great I have visited there 3 years ago.I found Turkey modern and amazing. Beach and sea is magnificent!!! Turkish people are also hearty. The people who knows my language(german) is very few but in big citeies ,they know english.They try to help us. I am going to visit there again this summer with my family. Seaside really affected me. I want to move there!!!!!!!
Khao San Oy! I am on Thanon Khao San just now. This is my 3rd time in Bangkok, 1st time on Khao San. I was speaking Thai with the cab driver, and he asked me "um..why do you want to come here again? It is full of hippies!"
The hippies I don't mind. It's the touts, overpriced food, and nasty fake purple dreadlocks that I'm not so down with. So much so that I'm hiding out in an internet cafe until my train leaves for the islands tonight.
Not sure if my last comment posted or not. Just so you know, I'm Hilary, I'm technologically impaired, and I'm a friend of Marcial's. He told me to check out your blog.
Chok dee na (good luck!)
Hilary
yew tee Krung Tep na ka 'wadee ka, Ryan!
I believe we have a mutual friend? One madrileno se llama Marcial? He told me to check out your blog some time. I live in Lampang, Thailand, but I'm here in Krung Tep (Bangkok) to see my family out tomorrow. They're on a beer run. To 7-11 of course.
I'll read your second blog on Thailand when I have the chance.
And that's right--you don't be knockin' The King. A man from Switzerland was just imprisoned (7-year minimum, I believe) for defacing a public royal portrait.
King Bhumipol will probably live on as one of Thailand's most revered monarchs, up there with Rama V. He has donated millions of his own personal money to agricultural progress and other forms of rural development, as well as to tsunami relief efforts. His own grandson died on the Andaman Coast. Personally, I'm a bit jealous that we Americans don't have some one like him to look up to these days.
Chok dee na,
Hil
Nairobi resident Hi Hellotrain. My dad lived in Kibera close to 30 years back when i was a baby. Recently he visited me and we went to his 'home' 'nothing has changed he said, that used to be my house' . It never was as bad as it looks when i lived here though, but its practically the same.
Thank you! During the past week or so, I've read through all of your journals from the beginning to the end. First I must compliment you on your command of the English language. Next, it's your writing style--professional--kept me glued to the screen. And finally, I found your range of emotions and sensitivity to your surroundings brilliant! Thank you for an amazing arm-chair-journey!
Aye aye aye! Ah yes, he's captured it well! I too have lost and found many things on my travels (coming up to ten months on the road) and I really, really understand where you are coming from.
You're right. Travelling the world IS eaier than you think, it's understanding what it throws up that's the hard thing to get your head around.
And yes the world can be a tragic, seeting mess of inequality and brutal truth, but mostly, the world is teeming with hidden beauty, stark contrasts and amazing characters. You just have to get out there and find them.
So get out there you. Yes you! If you're reading this and wondering... asking yourself the same question for the umpteenth time... stop thinking about it. Let some of this guy's vagabondaphilia rub off on you and submit yourself to the treasures the world has to offer.
Good work Vagabondvan. I salute you!
Off the beaten track Seldom do we find a traveller, who is concerned with the land he is exploring. People are always relegated behind beautiful landscapes when tourism industry hijacks the spirit of free travel. Travel is not only about hill stations and countrysides, beaches and backwaters. It's also about exploring the soul of the land. When a bulldozer and the agony it brings find way to a travelogue, it deserves a comment. Let's hope for a travel culture where tourists are sensitive not only to mosquito bytes.
Don Sebastian (Dejavu)
Yup So you're going back and leading a tour?
You know, we in the U.S. have still not come to terms with what happened here in our name. Some 200,000 people got killed, as many as in Bosnia. Yet where are the crimes against humanity trials?
So good that you are teaching a new generation and living out a new approach.
Warmly.
Lou
Wow So like I sent you an e-mail at Sinclair and it came back. Then I googled. And wow, what a tour. What a raconteur! Eclectic, amazing commentary. Full of grace.
Travel on!
Lou
Doesn't seem like hell, but I'll take your word for it. Really beautiful terrain, great shots as usual. There is NO better travel guide than a frazzled hostel owner who wants to make a day trip just for purposes of escape, lol. Back here we had a Japanese Day at Sinclair and according to the Dayton Daily I am a "language arts" teacher. So I guess that means I have to go make a story board out of flannel or something. :)
Happy MLK Day and God bless,
under my skin Ryan, you really have a graet talent to describe even hell.you conquered even the most difficult chalenge an author could ever get...big compliment....greetings from a fan....Juliana de Las Marias
wow I agree Wow. What an incredible entry. I completely agree with you. The scary thing is not that the Nazis were evil people, but that they were normal, good people doing evil things, with millions of other normal people standing by and doing nothing. I have studied the Holocaust for several years, and been to Auschwitz and many other camps all over Poland. I have seen what you have seen, and have felt what you felt. But it is amazing how you were able to put all this into words. Thank you for this entry.
Disturbing Ryan, your lines made the terror of this place very clear. I was thinking of visiting this place when I'll be in Krakow next February - now I know I have to.
An unreal experience I went to see Aushwitz in September, and unfortunatly (or fortunatly, whatever way you look at it), I only had about a day to see it. I have to say, it took a while for it to sink in what had actually taken place there.
Anways, the most moving and disturbing experience for me was in Birkenau. I had walked the lenght of those prison houses and came up to the fence...and all I could see was the chimneys of all the destroyed prison houses. It took my breath away and for the first time in my life....I was speachless and couldnt think. It took a while for my brain to process everything I was seeing and that feeling of reallity hitting me straight in the gut hasnt gone away, even all these months after. That feeling, I think, will stay with me forever. Its a hard feeling to descibe, but its a real one. And seeing your pictures bring it right back and really makes me feel like whatever I problems I have in my life are completely insignificant to what these people had to go through.....
But I do plan on going back....I see it as a blessing that I have the choice/opportunity to leave Aushwitz and Birkenau as I please. Not many people understand my need to go back...but I feel like I must. To prove to myself and others that it really did happen. It really does exist...its part of our history and we have to live with it.
*sigh* What a tragic place to visit....
¡trotacontinentes! nice move, you have gone from the periphery of Latin America to the periphery of Europe. I empathize with how superexpensive Europe is, I really took a financial hit going to London this August. It was just so lovely though. I have heard a lot about Krakow, since one of my advisors was Polish, although the sum total of Polish I know is:
(say it like you would the English words)
Pee-EDGE me-NEWT. (Five minutes.)
Hope the jet lag doesn't string you out too much en linda Polonia, ni que las lindas polacas te cansen demasiado, jeje.
ps. all the dogs and chickens are out in the boondocks, drive out to the camps and you will hear them soon enough. :)
Got them ol' travelin' bones, got that ol' travelin' smile.
Come visit me over on my own blogs at Travelin' Bones: Travelin' Bones
and: Van Lenning Portal
... full info
Robert
non-member comment
Turkey is great
I have visited there 3 years ago.I found Turkey modern and amazing. Beach and sea is magnificent!!! Turkish people are also hearty. The people who knows my language(german) is very few but in big citeies ,they know english.They try to help us. I am going to visit there again this summer with my family. Seaside really affected me. I want to move there!!!!!!!