As excited as I am to have you coming home, I can tell this has been a wonderful trip. And perhaps the past week among the best of it. I know you must be wishing for "a few more days.." Argentina sounds like the kind of place even your old mom could enjoy! Safe travels baby K, and see you in a week. And there is yet another adventure on the horizon to look forward to. Love you. mom
haha was there an ever a doubt in your mind about my dorkiness? I was going to post some fan fiction in the form of a Battlestar Gallactica script which takes place in pre-Inca Peru, but I decided that might be a little too much....
hey wow yeah.... you are totally amazing. i would have never made it through that cave, and i've seen some pretty filthy stuff in my day.
very jealous of you my dear. hope you find beauty every day!
m
OMG-Bat shit? The cave would have been enough to make me turn around. But the horses, now that's another thing... been on a few runaways myself in the day. Eagerly waiting for the next post! I'm telling you - next trip bring a little computer.
Holy Bat Shit! Haha I loved your entry. I can totally picture you on that runaway horse and I am glad to hear that hat has been put to good use : ) But, why on earth would you swim through bat shit? Although come to think of it, doesn't that stuff fetch a good price at the market? Just remember it as you were trudging need high through liquid gold or ..... in bat shit with a horrible smell and potential to contact a deadly disease. Either way it sounds like a blast miss MiddleoftheWorldManning! Love ya
Leather/Smeather Whoever convinced you to buy that leather jacket was clearly a thoroughly well informed and generally all-round fashion legend. Even if they didn't get their own leather jacket handmade. In buffalo leather. With hood. For $110. It wasn't that nice anyway; I barely wanted it. Would've clashed with my sandals. The $3 T-shirt I bought in Siem Reap is just as nice.
I'm sure you're aware Chris and I arrived in Phnom Penh right in the middle of the festival chaos. We were lucky we didn't know there was a festival happening on the island, or I'm fairly sure that's where we would've headed. 5 days in Cambodia with that man more or less eclipsed the previous 2 months travelling. We were a dangerous and formidable combination, with unforgettable results. Except for the bits I've forgotten. Alcohol can do that. To counter this I just finished my 12 days in the buddhist monastery, which was like the precise opposite of any amount of time spent with Chris, and was much, much tougher than I imagined.
Are you in London for long? If you need any pointers, let me know, and if you get a chance, definately check out http://shunt.co.uk/ which I mentioned before. They seem to have changed venue, but I imagine it's still just as good.
Merry festivities, enjoy the snow, I'll be enjoying BBQd meats in 35 degree hit. Bizarre.
Oddly enough I was in a church Christmas pageant type thing when I was five and the choir director wrote a song called "Christmas in July" whose lyrics I still remember a few of amazingly. I assure you that my choir director was not Sufjan Stevens. I also assure you that my jealousy of your time in Angkor Wat cannot be expressed well enough by this post.
you win! cannot wait to hear that album when i get back. my i pod was stolen, so i am completely music-less :( i'll be back in washington around the new year--can 't wait to see you!
I get where you're coming from. A Navajo woman I used to work with talked about tourists to the res just walking into people's houses and snapping photos, because to them, it was like a museum exhibit, and the people living there were just part of it. On the other hand, sometimes there is an unfair expectation for people to maintain their "folksy ways" for the sake of tourism - I found it almost distasteful to attend an Aboriginal Cultural Center in Cairns, where there were men walking around in loin cloths and bare feet, where just outside the building I had seen plenty of aboriginal people hanging out in Nikes and blue jeans.
I guess I could have just said, "cultural pluralism is complicated."
Totes jealous about your trip, by the way, and really enjoying your writing.
Accuse me? I almost fell off the couch! Hilarious. Glad to hear you're feeling better. Got to tell you we were a little concerned when we heard about what happened in Cambodia. Kait + Festival? Of course. So glad you weren't there! Ah, this is going to be short. Dinner time. Please keep the blogs coming, they're a wonderful read.
TM
Not to discredit your soul searching, because that is part of what this is all about, but to come to your defence here- when I was reading about that city I came across an article that said many of those monks get food poisoning a lot because disreputable vendors sell spoiled food to the tourists at high prices who then buy it and give it to the monks (unknowingly). So THAT bad karma starts at the front of the chain and you just have wonder why it all has to be so corrupt.
The post sounds like a real adventure and I hope that it really was! I like it very much and if I have the chance to attend something like that , I will not hesitate even for a minute!
The article is very interesting! I like it very much because it shows a different culture and their customs. I am not surprised by the fact that it looks like a little bit strange to foreigners and this is normal. As I come to think of it , my reaction will be the same!
Thanks for reading, Ruben! Headed to Hanoi tonight, probably staying for 6 days or so, including a little side trip to Halong Bay....lemme know what you are up to!
You know, the first word you ever said was "wow". I think it was a portend of things to come. Your journey continues to amaze and entertain. keep em comin! Miss you. Love you.
Miss you too Ian! Thanks for the comment and I can't wait to see you on the flip side. I spent Halloween in the jungle and while we didn't have costumes, we did get pumpkin curry. xoxo
Hey Kait,
Ur blog is fun to read, its so good to read that everyone goes through the same procedure to find there way around in south east asia.
At least its all very cheap and with beerlao we cant go wrong.
Hope we can catch up in Hanoi or just after that.
Enjoy the rest of ur trip.
Xx Ruben
hey there!! Alex, Noelle and I wish you a wonderful Halloween (if you in fact are celebrating it today)! and we hope the Soviet-style busses continue to be very accommodating!lol We miss u Kait :)
"I made it safely" was kind of an understatement Kait! all I can say is you got cojones kid. cooking class and treking will seem tame by comparison. can't wait for the next installment. jess and nick are spending halloween in nyc- and i am hiding in the basement to avoid the trick or treaters, who unless they are over 60, probably don't live on cape cod. love you.
Not sure how much tickets to Alaska are, but he was a nice guy who works for the FAA and comes down here on business regularly. We might have to take a trip. :-)
Kathy Manning
non-member comment
As excited as I am to have you coming home, I can tell this has been a wonderful trip. And perhaps the past week among the best of it. I know you must be wishing for "a few more days.." Argentina sounds like the kind of place even your old mom could enjoy! Safe travels baby K, and see you in a week. And there is yet another adventure on the horizon to look forward to. Love you. mom