Before arriving in Mexico, I had been a little apprehensive when it came to in-country transportation. After a couple of months on the road I was feeling pretty burnt out, and hardly in the mood to battle tooth and claw through another cramped bus station and spend hours on a rickety contraption that may or may not arrive at its final destination in one piece. Thankfully, my ignorance was quickly laid to rest. Mexico’s buses are by far the nicest I have ever seen, by far more comfortable and reliable than those in my own country. Almost all long-distance buses are run by private companies, and the competition insures quality, well-priced service. Of course, I am sure this quality varies greatly throughout Mexico, but we took the very sleek ETN luxury buses (“la linea mas comoda!”), ... read more

As we descended into Guadalajara, I was quite pleased to see that the air below us was relatively clear. Given Mexico City’s reputation as one of the worst polluted places on the planet, I had worried that its much smaller neighbor would face similar woes. The woman sitting next to me on the plane (who also shared my dire fear that the sound of the wing flaps was really some kind of structural failure that would soon cause the entire plane to burst apart in mid-air) had been born in Guadalajara. For the majority of her adult life, however, she had resided in California. She was taking her sister to visit relatives, and it was her first time back to Guadalajara in many years. She expressed a good deal of surprise over how much the ... read more

We continued our journey by taking the train from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok. The ride consisted of two overnight train journeys with a half-day stop in Butterworth, Malaysia. This gave us an excellent chance to cross over to Penang and explore the historic city of Georgetown. Its colonial buildings and bustling Chinatown have recently earned it a place on UNESCO's world heritage list. We arrived in Bangkok on a Saturday to a light drizzle and very packed train station. The gloomy weather, crowds, and traffic jam made it very difficult to find a taxi. Later, someone told us that it was a national holiday, due to voting that Sunday. This proved to be true, since on Sunday nearly all businesses were closed and we ran into a herd of Thai boyscouts in the park doing some ... read more

This weekend we went to Yogyakarta and stayed with the families of two of our coworkers. Yogya has the undisputed reputation as the cultural center of the island, where Javanese traditions flourish. Not only is it a major hub for silverwork, Wayang puppetry, Batik, and traditional dance; but it is also a place where the Javanese language, both spoken and written, is practiced regularly. The curling Javanese script can be found throughout the city, marking streets and neighborhoods. Yogya is also known as the “student city”, as it has many universities and students from throughout Indonesia choose to move to Yogya for their studies. The city certainly caters to the younger generation, and we passed countless coffee houses and Internet cafes within moments of arrival. Another thing I instantly observed about the city was the massive ... read more

I am thrilled to be writing the first blog entry from our new home in Semarang, Indonesia. My first week here has been a complete and total blur. It was extremely difficult to wrench ourselves away from the beauty of the Perhentian islands. En route we spent one brief night in KL, which only made us want to stay longer. Our endless purgatory of air travel finally ended as we slid into Semarang airport late last Saturday night. After a turbulent flight through a thunderstorm from KL to Singapore, I almost didn't think I could make it through another two flights. Thankfully, two Singapore Slings in Changi airport set me straight, and we enjoyed a very pleasant flight on Garuda, changing planes in Jakarta. As we approached Indonesian Immigration, we were met with a gigantic billboard, ... read more