Archive for November, 2009
Taling Chan Floating Market
By Thomas on November 18, 2009 | 1 Comment »
As I bite into the pastry, the warm custard filling oozes over my hand. “Real Macau egg tarts,” the sign reads. Well, this is better than anything I ever had in Macau. Licking my fingers, I wonder how I could get my hands on the recipe. But sensory onslaught distracts me – the smell of barbecued fish, the exotic scent of orchids, an old Thai man playing a traditional string instrument. I turn just in time to jump out of the way of a motorcycle. A blast of exhaust fumes hits me as the driver plows through the crowd. Clearly, this guy is » Continue reading this post »
Walking the Amazon
By Tony on November 16, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In the 21st century, it’s hard to be a true explorer. But Ed Stafford is doing just that by attempting to be the first person to walk the entire length of the Amazon River.
Don’t think this is some hair-brained publicity stunt that will never come to be, Ed has already been hacking and wading his way along the Amazon’s banks for close to 600 days. SIX HUNDRED DAYS!!! Yikes, that’s a lot of leeches. We’ll be keeping an eye on his progress. You can, too, by following his incredible adventure at his site Walking the Amazon.
Bangkok Balloon Art World Challenge
By Tony on November 14, 2009 | No Comments »
During our inner-city explorations, we just happened upon the Bangkok Balloon Art World Challenge.
Incredible! The balloon clowns certainly didn’t produce anything like this when I was a kid.
Time Travel
By Tony on November 12, 2009 | No Comments »
Life in central Bangkok is far different from the tourist enclave of Banglamphu. Each day brings with it a new quirky adventure, some unexpected discovery. The new city oozes a bizarre manga-esque vibe which seems light-years away from the old city. Is this Japan, or have I been swept up into some psychedelic sci-fi cartoon?
Spiky-headed teens squeal and whine melodramatically into their mini-computer cell phones as the sky train roars by above. A Buddhist nun prices iPhones in the Apple store. A crowd of screaming fans screech and swoon over a group of stick-thin, singing supermodels gyrating on a stage. Beyond the crowd, a surreal, androgynous robot statue guards the path into a parallel world of air-conditioned malls.
Bypassing the fembot, we » Continue reading this post »
Remembering Evelyn
By Tony and Thomas on November 10, 2009 | No Comments »
Fifteen years ago on this day, we lost a good friend.
In 1994, while traveling across Africa, we met Evelyn Molony in Khartoum, Sudan. Having just returned from a month-long journey to the remote Jebel Marra region of Darfur, she was clearly an adventurer in the truest sense of the word. Joining forces with her and her traveling companions Chris and Kathy, we made our way through Eastern Sudan and crossed what was then a wilderness border into Eritrea.
Traveling across such a remote, politically tense region was full of challenges. Evelyn, who had studied Arabic at Leeds University in the U.K., became our de facto guide and led us through a series of comical adventures that we treasure to this day. Evelyn was hilarious yet subtle, incredibly capable yet impressively modest. Best of all, she could be a goof-ball.
Our adventures with her continued months later, when we met once again in Kampala, Uganda. We traveled to the border of Zaire to visit the mountain gorillas and then on to the Ssesse Islands in Lake Victoria where we camped, explored the jungles, and kicked back on the isolated stretches of white sand. We still laugh about Evelyn running around shooing away a herd of massively horned Ankole-Watusi cattle that invaded our pristine beach. We celebrated the moonlit nights with fish fries and stories. For us, these were fantastic times, yet just across the border in Rwanda, genocide was coming to an end and the full extent of the atrocities was coming to light.
Evelyn and Chris, moved by the suffering of the Rwandan people, decided to travel to Rwanda and volunteer at an orphanage there. During her stay at the orphanage, Evelyn must have contracted cerebral malaria. Shortly thereafter in Nkata Bay, Malawi, Evelyn passed away due to complications related to the disease.
Our enduring image of Evelyn is of her with Chris laughing and goofing around with huge pieces of orange stuffed into their mouths. Those were really good times.
