Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the_boroughs' LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
3:57 pm	i arrived in kathmandu refreshed from southern india. after doing yoga for a week at a nutty ashram, i lounged for a bit in varkala and got to know some of the local people. i read some books, drank some chai and daydreamed of my hikes up the himalayas. i got to kathmandu and immediately loved it. the chaos of the city is tempered by the calm, warm nature of the people. and there's an excitement in the air that seems to be fed by people anticipating, or recovering from, a beautiful hike through the mountains. it's highly recommended you do not hike alone in nepal, so i was signed up with a good company here for a 10 day trek. my nepalese hike leader, asok, couldn't have been nicer, and my group was an international bunch, many of whom i hit it off with. no one seemed like a hardcore trekker and i knew i'd be able to keep up with everyone, despite the fact that the only exercise i've gotten over the past 5 weeks has been a week of sun salutations. the political climate seemed somewhat OK as well. things have gotten much more peaceful here over the past few years and according to the different sites i visited, it wasn't a big deal to visit, especially if you're a tourist hiking the trails. however, the elections are happening in a couple of weeks and protests are starting in the cities. there are also protests over tibet here. not much of this is in the international news but i've witnessed the beginnings of the political demonstrations. supposedly 300 people were beaten and arrested here in kathmandu just yesterday! all this said, unless you are violating a curfew or find yourself in a protest, you're pretty safe. on the other hand, the lack of electricity for 8 hours a day and the angry maoists shouting at you with a bullhorn an inch away can be irritating. so while i like kathmandu, i've done my site-seeing, and i wouldn't choose this week to be sitting around the political center of nepal updating my livejournal from "CYBER CAFES." in fact, if things were different i would literally be heading for the hills (mountains!) except that less than 48 hours ago i got an invasive intenstinal infection. it was all very acute and i'm feeling much better now but yesterday i spent over 7 hours on an IV getting antibiotics and water pumped into my body. after an "alarming" amount of time and medication my fever went down. but my hiking group has left and now i'm left with a conundrum. there's not really a way to catch up with them. do i try and figure out a new group? or do i try and go home early? i feel pretty weak but when will i be back in nepal? the himalayas are a 30 minute flight away ... whatever i decide, with all honesty i can say i am grateful to have my health. it will be awhile before i take it for granted again. i haven't been this sick since i had a terrible flu in college and lisa, emma and adam nursed me back to health. i believe i was forced to take a cold bath because i had 105. and neil dropped off crackers and ginger ale. interestingly, the insanely nice doctor at the clinic i went also graduated from u of m and he has a practice in ann arbor! luckily he didn't try to talk football with me. we mostly talked about my blood counts and mosquito born illnesses. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
12:36 pm	hello friends, apologies for the free associative post below. electricity is optional where i am and i fear that i haven't more than a few minutes before the power goes out. i feel an update is in order anyway, so here it goes ... since we last left i have: seen the taj mahal; it is indeed the mona lisa of india, take that as you will been stuck in a tuk tuk right on the outskirts of a mob scene (following a political assassination, which i wasn't near) in varanasi, replete with policemen enthusiastically beating a few men, who were being held back by the crowd, with long wooden sticks been stuck in a hindu procession near a heavily guarded mosque been questioned lightly, ogled and followed by ganja-stoned policemen seen the ritualistic burning of corpses on the ganges saw a floating body in the same river actively ignored countless touts, argued one directly off my boat in the ganges as the sun was rising outside the cremation ghats seen many beautiful forts and temples been exposed to bedbugs in a tent in a rural village (which means i am not bringing ANYTHING back w/me from india or nepal! RIP some gifts and lovely indian clothing) this list seems rather negative. i was also charmed by adorable children in the above village chanted and meditated for over three hours a day for over a week in a yoga ashram! in other words, i feel i've kind of lived 1,000 lives and it's been challenging but really good everything that's listed above took place in the north of india with the exception of the yoga ashram, which was its own little world. the north of india has, as an understatement, a lot of problems. rajasthan is rich with history but also poverty and its corollary (in many parts of the world) extreme gender roles. as a result, i was only exposed to rajasthani men - i don't think i spoke to an indian woman more than once or twice in my whole trip up north. there's too much to say on the subject here, but it was a strange and in many ways unsettling experience. rajasthan and nearby cities are also plagued with corruption at every governmental level. i saw police officers bribed left and right over simple things like letting a rickshaw onto a heavily-trafficked street. figuratively and literally i'm on the opposite end of the indian map, here in the south, kerala. specifically varkala. while the federal government of india is riddled with issues, kerala has had a strong, solid history of state government. in fact, i think it was the first state in the world to elect a communist government? or something like that. either way, socialism is strong here and kerala is one of the most progressive states in india. they even had female police station in 1938! the difference shows. women are treated with respect here. it sounds absurd but i suppose one huge thing i've learned on my trip is how grateful i am to have the rights and the lifestyle i do as a female in the US. it's hard to say that when i feel sexism is alive and well there, and there's far to go. there's still a strong glass ceiling, i think, at many corporations, even forward thinking ones like google. and whether you like her as a candidate or not, seeing how hillary clinton was treated by the media, in my opinion, was disappointing. but coming from the north to the south has left me feeling elated. even though my taxi driver tried to work out a commission scam on me, my good feelings here cannot be shaken. people are warm and friendly, and when they ask you where you are from, it's not an entree into a sales pitch. again, i cannot begrudge the men of rajasthan. poverty necessitates a strong sell, and the men are the providers of any income for their family. many of the women i was with were up for shopping in every city we went to. relatively speaking, even if one sale was made out of 50 "hello miss how are you why are you ignoring me please come back where are you from you are very beautiful"s a day, the three dollars spent in rajasthan by a western shopper could feed a family for a week or more. down south, however, there is more prosperity and in turn, a softer approach. it sounds spoiled of me to say i feel more relaxed here, but of course i do. right now i'm near the ashram in a cliffside little village overlooking the beach. the weather is terrible but the atmosphere is cozy. and yesterday i had my first cup of coffee in over a month (they drink it in the south!). though i've never indulged, i imagine the experience was akin to mainlining pure cocaine. the ashram had so many rules that checking my email for more than 15 minutes seems positively liberating, as does eating non-vegan food. i've also met some interesting people here and am probably going to see yet another temple, and do some more yoga, tonight, hopefully to help me get into a little bit of shape for hiking in nepal. (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 1st, 2008
10:50 pm	today was an exhausting day. i got up at 6 am and did some fort-seeing, sight seeing, get-puppets-and-hats-shoved-in-your-face-seeing. last night i saw a bollywood film in a crazy theater in jaipur! that was fun. there was a mix up this afternoon with my tuk tuk driver and it was a crazy mixup, he took me extremely far from where i wanted to go, didn't speak english and then wanted tons of money from me! i started to cry, just for a few seconds, for the first time here. i did! not loudly, i just had tears coming out of my eyes as i tried to find out if he could get me where i needed to go! he didn't understand, a security guard came over, i got myself together, and then he0 didn't understand and then suddenly there was a crowd of men offering me their cellphone numbers to call in case i ever needed anything! i felt so bad for my tuk tuk driver, i'm sure it was an honest miscommunication, i tipped him, overtipped him, it's not his fault i probably have PMS or just reached some i'm traveling only in rajasthan, one-of-the-poorest-states-of-india breaking points. also i finished family matters, which was extremely depressing. i haven't mentioned any books i've read in the past month or so: the glass palace (don't recommend). under a half yellow sun (i really liked it). what is the what?! oil! (don't read it!!!!!!)!!!!!!!! and now shantaram, which lisa recommended, which i'm really into, and which makes me wonder, what would it be like to travel in india as a man? in a few more weeks with no grooming i just may be able to find out!!!!! i've basically abandoned my tour group and am using my tour leader as a point of entry into overnight trains and places like the taj mahal - which i see tomorrow! must catch a tuk tuk at 5 am. my waiter tonight asked for my email address. you know ... just cuzzzzz erh i wish i had a great update for you, but i don't, i'm tired! bon soir. just a few more days till kerala, which is quite different from rajasthan. they had female police officers there in 1938! (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
4:15 pm	it hasn't been traveling third class on overnight trains, getting a bad cold or having to run to the bathroom every so often for the last day or so no, the unremarkable event that's sent me almost over the edge in india is: A TRIP TO THE POST OFFICE! to the post office. i suppose there's something universally comforting about the fact that post offices the world over can reduce even the most patient person to near-tears. after bidding my tour group adieu due to my sickness and inability to travel, i had the time to get a few things done and as usual, i'd managed to pack some things i knew i'd never wear here - whilst buying one or two presents for back home. so i thought, i'll go to the post office, lighten my pack! after all, i'd heard many times how cheap it is to mail things by sea from here... but in fact, before going to the post office to mail a package, one must visit a tailor. a tailor who will pack your things by hand and then sew fabric all around the box while his 22-year-old son tries to chat you up ... this process takes for ever and ever and ever. when the sewing is done you watch as a candle is melted ... wax is dripped slowly on the fabric and little seals are impressed upon the wax using rupees. small universes are created and destroyed, over and over and over, in a hidden dimension. and all around the box, thousands of little seals begin to dot the fabric and finally dry. after this positively medieval process ends, you are transported into the early 20th century as a tuk tuk pulls up to the tailor shop. you haggle with a tuk tuk driver over the price to the post office. on the way there, he forces you to stop at a shop and buy tape. they have none at the post office! (they do. you are also instructed to buy a pen, apparently those don't exist at the post office either!) at this point you have been hustled by what seems to be 1,000 men on your trip and it's only week 2. it's hard for you to ignore people but so many questions about where you're from, what you do and if you're married - it's basically impossible to tell who wants to sell you something, bring you to their cousin's shop or get a greencard; and who might actually help you when you're lost. unfortunately in rajasthan the latter is rarely the case. so the tuk tuk driver making you buy tape is almost the last straw of the day, but you buy it because spending 5 rupees seems easier than getting into an argument. the post office is unbelievable! you fill out so many forms your hand almost falls off. and everybody's packages are covered in cloth. the whole process takes a few hours; all to send a couple of bags and dresses home. what a mistake! but please, dear readers, don't get the wrong idea. traveling around northwest india has been a good experience, and i am looking forward to the taj mahal, as well as seeing the holiest of all hindu cities. and remember when gwyneth paltrow played an eccentric brainiac mathematician in that movie? that makes me laugh. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
12:30 pm	i'm in jaisalmer, india. (sorry for the image sizes, i don't have the time or patience for the keyboard to fix!) delhi was pretty amazing. cows in the streets! people asking to take MY picture ... schoolkids staring at me. paratha stalls, temples, mosques, etc ... all while i was jetlagged. the 20 hour train ride was hard. i was exhausted and people kept bumping into me at every stop with their luggage; understandably, i was in THIRD class (wish i could have upgraded, probably for 20 bucks - but the train station was pure, unadulterated, impossibly distilled CHAOS). erh we got here and checked in and had dinner. jaisalmer is in northern india and it's also unquestionably in the desert. in a walled city with a fort dating back to the 1100s ... the fort is crippling and we're staying in it in a pretty nice hotel and by nice i mean the bathroom is clean. everyone wants to sell you something here ... i get it but it's hard for me to ignore anyone, difficult too to tell everyone on the street where i'm from. the hard part is there are a couple of things i need to buy but i HATE shopping when no one is pressuring me and just can't deal with shopping when wheedling and bargaining are involved. my roommate is a challenge, i won't lie. i thik she's 21. she definitely loves to smoke (weed and cigarettes, she put the ashtray next to my pillow last night!), "party," talk about ("no offense") how the US has bad food and is evil!!!, sit cross legged on 2 person seats at dinner and ask me if her leg on top of my thigh is bothering me, she's just more comfortable that way YUCK! then again, it's pretty amazing she's traveling for 4 months on her own around india. i can't imagine how i would have come off at that age to some hardened 30 year old new yorker. and she could be worse so i shant complain beyond what i just wrote on my livejournal ... i'm whining in my livejournal! she's probably too mature for one. i think i just have to get used to sharing space with someone?! who isn't as cute as robert? but onto more positive things. i am realy glad i came to india. last night i rode a camel and watched the sunset in these amazing sand dunes in the desert! this is a random pic, i don't have time to find a good one, but interestingly enough there are wild dogs running around the desert. and rats! a local family wandered a far distance to play music for us and dance. the women wore full makeup and traditional northern indian dresses ... they were amazing. and during the singing their baby started to cry and the mother pulled a scarf over the baby and started to breast feed while she was singing and clapping. i have never seen such multitasking! the baby even played peek-a-boo with me. do babies just seek out women who aren't looking at them? i think so. at night i stayed in a magical tent that had a bed in it! and there was more music and dancing. and i have some real faves in my group, which is really only together for transport and hotel check in/out, plus the occasional meal. and i'm so super happy i came to india. it's vastly different than anywhere else i have ever traveled and i know i need to come back to southern india, as i can tell i don't have enough time alloted there. well, i must go, until some other horrificly slow internet connection ... (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
1:29 pm	well here i am again in an admirals club. this time en route to india! i'm in heathrow where the food is just worse. in paris, the admirals club is filled with delicious cheeses and cocktail foods. in buenos aires (robert posted some pics ) there were at least varied if mediocre snacks. but in heathrow you just get pretzels, disgusting plastic-wrapped cakes and gherkin pickles. though i do love the pickles. i would be having a complimentary cocktail but drinking and flying really don't mix, though i wish they would, because the older i get the more antsy i become when flying... i don't think it's fear ... it's just generalized anxiety. what if i have a psychotic split it in this cubicle with wings!?! before we took off last night the steward announced "there are 320 passengers on board and we have 19 flight attendants at your service." this ratio failed to impress me and in fact, rather frightened me. with this proud announcement came a visualization of an angry mob, 320 strong, erupting into a mid-air riot over a peanut shortage ... mini riot erupting in over over peanut shortages ... only to be stopped by a cadre of less-than-20 attendants?!?!?! i don't know ... where is my imagination going?! i well, i'm off to india for about 5 weeks, nepal for a little over two, to do some hiking. i might do some yoga in india and really live out a cliche ... i miss ny already! but doothy will return, never fear. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, January 18th, 2008
4:47 pm	if i were a man, i would freeze my sperm but i'm a woman and even though we're being marketed to by crazy cyrogenic companies, freezing eggs isn't the brightest idea. it's an insanely expensive, extremely invasive process and only 150 births have resulted from frozen eggs (not embryos) so far. and no long term studies have been done on the process and resulting offspring. it costs about 15k just to harvest the eggs and store them for one year. on the other hand, frozen sperm has been safely used for decades, and is relatively inexpensive to store (and no needles involved, just some glossy magazines! you can even do it at home with a special kit that includes preservative). it's only 600 for the first year at top-end places, with 159 bucks for storage every year after that. perhaps it's not as romantic* as conceiving naturally, but inserting defrosted sperm is easily done. (*is it even romantic to conceive? for some reason, a very specific scene plays out in my head when i think of people purposefully trying to have a child. the image is of a tom hanks-like actor gleefully announcing "let's make a baby!" to some permed '80s actress and throwing her on the bed. but i digress.) so why would i freeze my sperm in the first place? because the ages of both parents greatly influence a child's predisposition towards autism, schizophrenia, and other diseases. before, it was believed that the mother's age was the major factor. but recent studies using hundreds of thousands of subjects are showing the father's age is just as important a variable, and in some cases even bigger, in the health of offspring. essentially, with people having children later and later, freezing the age of 1/2 the dna just seems to make sense. as mentioned, women are already being marketed to along these lines. and if women could freeze their eggs halfway as easily and cheaply, they totally would. i know i would and i'm not even sure about having kids. but men aren't being marketed to (yet) at all. and understandably so - most guys i know would never seriously consider doing this. they probably wouldn't do it if it cost 100 bucks just once. the irony is, my male friends are getting into their 30s if they aren't already there. many probably do want kids - but not now of course, and that's the point. if they want them at all, they want them down the line. these are the kind of guys who will, once they have them, do anything to help their child's mental and physical health. they'll probably spend thousands of dollars on organic pickles for their lucky girlfriends/wives/lesbian friends, whoever will be their mothers-to-be. but none of them will even think about doing this, even after reading my poorly written post. i joke that i'd like to market this towards neurotic new yorkers - to men and to their wives/girlfriends. the thing is, i actually don't think that this is a neurotic idea at all! Autism Risk Rises With Age Of Father - Large Study Finds Strong Correlation http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/04/AR2006090400513.html "When fathers are in their thirties, children have about 1 1/2 times the risk of developing autism of children of fathers in their teens and twenties. Compared with the offspring of the youngest fathers, children of fathers in their forties have more than five times the risk of developing autism, and children of fathers in their fifties have more than nine times the risk." Father's age linked to schizophrenia risk http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6556-fathers-age-linked-to-schizophrenia-risk.html Children born to older fathers are more likely to develop schizophrenia when they grow up, suggests the largest study of the issue to date. A team of British and Swedish researchers have shown that for each extra decade in a father’s age at the time of his child’s birth, the child is almost 50% more likely to suffer from schizophrenia later in life. The study of 700,000 people in Sweden suggests that over 15% of the schizophrenia cases in this group could be attributed to the patient having a father aged over 30 at birth. “This is interesting when you have a society where the age of fathers when they have their first child has increased during the last decade,” says Finn Rasmussen at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, and a member of the team. Having an older father is believed to increase a child’s schizophrenia risk - where there is no family history of the disease - because spontaneous mutations in the father’s DNA are more likely to occur in his sperm as he ages. These mutations can contribute to the overall risk of schizophrenia, as well as other diseases, in his children. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 1st, 2007
9:46 pm	i wish i could write more in this journal but internet connections have been few and far between (or rather fast internet connections). after bangkok i took the bus to cambodia. most people fly into siem riep to see ankor wat. you can have a completely 5star experience seeing the temples if you do it that way. i mean, if you shell out 190 bucks a night to stay in a 5star hotel in a country where the gdp is 400 usd. but obviously we didn't do that. i would like to explain the conditions of the cambodian people as i saw it from my bus without sounding trite but i can't. but as soon as you cross from thailand to cambodia the people become much thinner ... and the roads go from paved to perhaps barely a road. the government is well CORRUPT of course and the road from the thai border has been under construction for years. supposedly the gov't is in cahoots with some higher ups from the bangkok airport. which seemed very believable. i won't even attempt to describe visiting the killing fields, and the prison where the khmer rouge tortured and killed 1,000s of people, including little kids and infants. not on livejournal! some more uplifting highlights from the trip were: obviously angkor wat; learning how to cross the street in siem reap (you just cross ... slowly ... walking into major traffic as motorkbikes swarm around you), eating a tarantula at a khmer restaurant; meeting jay's friend david, who works on a nonprofit here helping cambodian people retain land rights; taking a motorbike taxi and being sure i would die; having the lights go out a few times in siem reap, walking back to my hotel in the dark, alone, kind of lost, finding my way; and not to sound cheesy but honestly meeting and interacting with the cambodian people. they continue to deal with extreme poverty and corruption but still managed to be incredibly warm and hopeful seeeming ... now just how condescending does this livejournal seem??!?! tonight i took a motobike (as a passenger) to the top of a mountain and watched the sunset on some hammocks. while i had a beer with some people on my tour i thought about how glad i was that i didn't try and do southeast asia entirely on my own. the travel alone part has been good but the tour has been so worth it for getting me into some really out of the way places. but i also thought i would die on that ride, an hour on a moped for 3 dollars. it was a great way to start to see the vietnamese countryside. (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
3:10 pm	crazy image sizes here i am on ko muk, or ko mook, as it's sometimes spelled. it's a remote island off the west coast of thailand. save for a muslim fishing village, there are a few rather small, though very nice, beachside resorts. not that my tour group is staying in any of them. no, we're staying up on the hill in little huts. of course, our huts do have beds, and after camping, i suppose that should be seen as a benefit. yet camping has been my favorite part of this section of the trip. not only because we went to the most beautiful part of the thailand so far, but also because i feel like the very act hardened me for the rest of my travels. for example, upon returning to this "civilized" island i look at these "tourists" and scoff at their FLUSH TOILETS and showers, which probably have showerheads! (unlike our washing facilities, which are always in the same room as our [nonflush] toilets, or really, not toilets but little holes in the floor with tiny raised footholes for your feet!) don't these holiday-goers know that to truly experience a vacation, one must be potty trained for the 2nd time in your life? suffice to say this trip has knocked me down a few notches from the luxury level of corporate-sponsored travel, but i think it's a fair trade ... yes camping ... no room service ... for the last few days we were camping on koh rok, a 2 hour boat ride away from ko mook, which is already a 2 hour ride from the mainland. on the way, we jumped out of our boat and a guide led us through a pitch back cave with a flashlight. we swam for 10 meters or so and emerged in the emerald lagoon, which is as beautiful and unreal looking as it sounds and supposedly featured in some move called THE BEACH, which i will probably never see. but ko ruk itself was the most beautiful place so far. the island is basically deserted except for a few national park employees. that and a ton of crododile-size lizards.(I AM NOT EXAGGERATING!!!) the lizards are all around the island, and unafraid. never fear: as our tour guide told us, they only bite if you step on their tails in the dark. and by the way, they hung out right by the bathroom, day and pitch-black night. a few daytrippers would come and go snorkeling off the beach but otherwise it was just us. my tour group has really grown on me, even my roommate irina. even though i know myself well enough to know that my first impressions of people are usually way off, i guess i've really learned not to be such a misanthrope on this trip. i am going to miss the people i became friends with in this group! wowwwwwwwwwwwww but anyway, koh rok. my little tent was right on the beach. i'd wake up in the morning and have coffee with ryan and jordan and watch the sunrise. (coffee, by the way, means INSTANT nescafe, with palm oil creamer, which has been proven to give immediate heart attacks upon ingestion.) jordan would always joke that you could tell who the city people were because the three of us would always wake up first and try and find wherever the hot water and instant coffee was. our little starbucks! hyuck. erh i don't think any of us actually go to starbucks. REALLY. after some pancakes or eggs (btw i have eaten so many undercooked eggs here, i totally have the bird flu as well as malaria) i'd take a little walk down the coast, climb over some rocks, and lie on the hammock at the old abandoned bar ... it was kind of a creepy space but very beautiful. during my naptime there i'd be slightly afraid that an ogre was going to come out and get me ... after my nap and walk i'd do some yoga on the beach!!!!!! i actually only did this once! and then we'd take the boat and go snorkeling at a bunch of amazing spots. i saw a giant eel one day and it bared its teeth at me. i learnt later that if i'd gone too close it probably would have bit me! i would like to note that there have been many unsafe conditions on this tour. and i have almost died like 2 million times already. (interestingly i am the only american on this tour, and considering how litigious we are as a people, this is probably the best for the tour company.) then more swimming, reading, dinner and playing cards, and then i'd go to bed at 8. another note, when almost everyone else stays up drinking and coordinating dance routines, i usually go to bed. i have never slept so much in my life. yesterday, our last day on koh rok, i went out fishing with our tourguide and some of the guys who live on the island. the fisherman with the mustache took me under his wing and i caught 6 fish. but they were so tiny compared to the three that one of them caught when he went SPEAR GUN FISHING. i kid thee not!!!!! my fishing mentor had a crush on me and who can blame him? i look like UGLY BETTY in PARADISE! seriously i caught a reflection of myself in a mirror and i look horrible. my hair hasn't been combed in weeks, i wear insane outifts of striped shirts and loud sarongs ... but the worse part is, i would actually kill to have ugly betty's skin. my complexion is not made for so much sun and there are not only pimples from too much sunblock but tons of freckles all over my face. and now a true sign of too much sun exposure - big blotches of dark patches. EGADs. i may have to go into hiding for a few weeks when i come back to new york. or check into a medical spa, which actually has been suggested (in jest?!) a few too many times for my comfort level. anyway WHAT is the point of this entry? there really isn't one. i'm about to go take a shower, then take a walk over to the fishing village and then tomorrow it's off to the overnight train back to bangkok and the thailand tour is over. truth be told, i could do without bangkok and the royal hotel (royally gross that is). 2 days later i'm with a new group and off to cambodia and vietnam for 18 days. watch out landmines! doothy is coming! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 18th, 2007
4:46 am	i rode an elephant for 2 hours this morning. my elephant-mate, ryan, and i actually almost fell off. i tried to stop him by grabbing his shoulder but that didn't work too well - he is about 6 feet tall and perhaps 200 lbs and the only thing that kept us on the elephant was a sailor knot that i had personally tied! it was pretty silly and not that scary even though we were hanging off an elephant looking at some rocky ground. i figured i got what i deserved for riding an elephant. (but actually, the elephants are happy to give you a little ride - supposedly they live a rather idyllic lifestyle taking care of tourists.) after the elephant trip a bunch of us went tubing down the river in the rain forest where it, unsurprisingly, rained on us. i saw monkeys in the trees. this still excites me! we were going down this river for a couple of hours so by the end i was super wet and cold. but we stopped at a buddhist temple where 100s of monkeys live. and i fed monkeys bread by hand! it was so cute!!!!! of course!!!! i took pictures. the only downside of this trip right now is some of the group dynamic of the tour. honestly 1/2 of my tourmmates are people i really like. the other 1/2 i would just like to ignore. they are the greek chorus who were traveling together in northern thailand before we met up. they love to comment on my READING HABIT. DO YOU EVER STOP READING? DOES SHE EVER STOP READING? ARE YOU A SPEED READER? DO YOU ALWAYS READ SO MUCH? no! i don't! only when i'm on vacation surrounded by people i don't really want to talk to ... but truthfully, we're only together on buses or trains and at the beginning of any "activity" that we might choose to partake in ... the only other unfortunate side of things i kind of do have a roommate. i could ask for my own room as there's an odd number of women, and one lady has managed to have her own room the whole time. i have irina, who's nice but very clingy. BUT things could be worse so rather than alienate her and mix up the whole group dynamic, i'm going to just continue having a roommate for this trip, i guess. because the truth is we are rarely in our room at all to sleep. and i don't know why i'm even bothering talking about accommodation. we've been doing super outdoors-y activities in remote thailand - what we are staying in aren't hotels. they are basically SUPER rudimentary shack type things. luckily they do have screens on the windows. but i've basically been camping. i'm not sure what i thought considering every day only costs 32 dollars, including all room, transport and some meals! i am still so glad that i came on a tour, though, and didn't try and figure this out on my own. i am in some really random area of thailand right now. this is such a boring entry about such an exciting day. but i guess i'll post it anyway for posterity's sake OR SOMETHING. DOOTHY (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 15th, 2007
7:25 pm	things have changed since bangkok and overall for the better. my crazy hotel is something i'd like to forget. i met up with my tour group - well 1/2 of them - and they frightened me. they'd all been traveling together through the north of thailand for 2 weeks. and were VERY LOUD. and one man, kim from canada, seemed very drunk. and everything i said was fodder for some kind of inane joke ... anyway i went to bed at 6 PM on the scary concrete bed. i woke up and went shopping in some microscopic bangkok side alley market for a cheap backpack. and i made it back in time to see a woman taking a dump on a VERY BUSY sidewalk near my hotel. i saw so much of the female anatomy at once, more than i've ever seen and maybe ever will see. i hope that last part is true. i can't go into the details. things only got less hygienic from there. anyway i met up with my tour group and luckily the first 1/2 stayed behind as they'd already done the bangkok tour on the first day of their previous trip. and i'm not sure how this worked out but the other 1/2 of my tour group were all in their late 20s and early 30s, and all seemed normal and nice. and it's turned out, so far, that this initial impression was quite accurate on my part. we toured wat po, an amazing temple where there were all sorts of yogic sculptures, a giant reclining buddha, and ancient inscriptions with directions on how to give thai massages. i can't do it justice, wait for my picasa pics!!! then a tour through the canals of bangkok where we toured an orchard farm. sounds boring but it was very nice to see a calm side of the city. later an overnight train, which was tres romantic and my first such trip. i slept extremely well! i loved my cozy little cabin. i awoke somewhere, i really don't know where, all i know is that the bathroom i used at the restaurant i ate at was THE MOST DISGUSTING BATHROOM I HAVE EVER BEEN IN and seemed (and seems) rather par for the course. i don't know what to say on this subject. also thailand = bring your own toilet paper everywhere. then we made it to a remote national park where we took a boat for over an hour. and landed on some raft huts. and there we stayed for 2 days. and toured coral caves and went swimming. i can say it was one of the most remote and beautiful places i have ever been. DID i mention i have been bitten by 1,000 mosquitoes and am sure to die of a billion diseases? soon or within 8 weeks of my return? or somewhere in between? in the morning i woke up with the sun and had coffee in front of my little hut. and then would go for a swim in the lake ... there were no showers. i saw monkeys and elephants. now i'm just outside the same national park but on another side. i'm reading a lot. people are hanging out at a funny rasta bar. must go. XOXOXO DOOTHy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 11th, 2007
4:30 pm	an email i just wrote to kate and sarah i'm in a rather gross hotel. i mean, it's fine i'm sure. but, it's kind of one of those stained-sheets, cigarette-burns-on-the-already-scary-bedspread kind of places. no, i'm not exaggerating, that is a literal description of my bed. on the plus side, i don't have to have a roommate as i can afford to get my very own room (it's only 35 bucks). the front desk just couldn't believe i was going to strike out on my own when my double was already paid for. "but there are two beds!!!!" i'm just not up for meeting izabela in room 169 as i've only slept a few hours in a row since leaving new york. did i mention how cheap this tour was? i hope i survive. well, the rest of this trip is outdoor-adventure type things till vietnam and cambodia. so if i perish in thailand it will at least be by cholera, malaria or something else rather more romantic than bed bugs. (which wouldn't immediately kill me, just drive me slowly and surely, totally and absolutely insane as they are my #1 unrealized fear.) hmmm, why did i come here again???? YOURS IN ADVENTURE, dooth conrad (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 16th, 2007
11:06 am	omg you guys. i gave one month's notice (or a little more if they need it!). i am SO excited. i've been meaning to do this for about 2 years. i'm starting a travel site for women. no, not for womyn. for women. and i don't want to sound absurd/corny but even if i totally fail and waste some money and time, it's going to be awesome. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 7th, 2007
10:09 am	fortune dear readers, i would like to know if there is anywhere better to be than here in my queen sized tempurpedic bed????! with a tray that has some black *coffee and seltzer? and lots of pillows!???? and my favorite flannel shirt on? and the curtains closed to block the sun! CUZZZZ i don't need the light! the last two weekends i've had class on saturday and sunday. tomorrow i have to wake up and go home for EASTER. but today i have nowhere to be. of course, i can't sleep in ... but at least i don't have to feel guilty for laying about in bed. *OK it's from the deli; literally the coffee grinds they USE at the deli. i couldn't face waking up today and having to leave the house for coffee. so the owner of the deli sold me a little packet. now, why didn't i buy a can of, say, cafe bustelo? because the deli doesn't sell coffee. that's right. they sell milk, and they are now stocking varied cold cuts in the lackluster looking deli counter, which used to lay barren. but no coffee. none. i guess there's a new partial owner, and he said he didn't want to buy too many things until he owns more of the store? it made no sense to me at 2 am last night .... and it makes even less sense to me now. i may work in an office, but i have some business advice for 24/7** mac stop. it's simply this: stock some cans of coffee. ** mac stop is certainly not open 24/7. the hours are whimsically set, and usually, brief. Current Mood: indescribable Current Music: break it off!!!! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 4th, 2007
8:46 pm	internet i wanted to share a nice moment from india because it seems i only complain. yesterday the night manager of the hotel i was at was super gruff with me, not friendly at all, even though i was paying for my own room - i understood though, i didn't expect him to be friendly to me or anything. and earlier in the day i had asked to use the internet for 30 mins and he said i had to pay for the full hour. but i negotiated him down because in northern india, maybe all of india, it seems you negotiate on everything! but this morning when i checked out they had me fill out a feedback form. and i checked good things for every item on the rubric. but in the comments section i said that i thought the hotel should improve by prorating the charge for the internet; that if you only used 15 mins you shouldn't have to pay for a full hour! which you do, and there's only one computer, and it encourages guests to unnecessarily monopolize it, just to get their money's worth! so i came back tonight as we're waiting here to get our cars to the train - and he was working - and i said, can i use the internet just for 20 minutes? and he gave me a HUGE smile and said yes! and he said "pay what you wish" WHERE AM I? did he read the feedback form? or did he like my dress? or did something bad happen to him yesterday? WHO KNOWS! also i ate three little munchkin type things for dessert covered in honey, they were delicious! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007
2:27 pm	omg i really want to see this film. but will i remember? i'll be gone for the first week it's at film forum. http://www.filmforum.org/films/silence.html into great silence. (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 18th, 2007
9:20 am	slight girly drink hangover last night kevin took me to a bar in chinatown and then the tonga bar in the fairmont hotel. let me rephrase that: last night kevin pulled back a beige hemp sack and revealed the intoxicating, crooning, simulated thunderstorm making SAN FRANCISCO! i will have to write more later as i'm about to leave for a full day of meetings. but yesterday was filled with all sorts of luck, including finding my ATM card after i ransacked my hotel room. i hope today is just as good. today, my horoscope that randy forwards is all about my PROFESSIONAL life: "It's possible you'll be off on a business-related trip, or you'll travel with your mind and begin a fresh course of study. This might result in your coming to a fortunate turning point in your professional life, thanks to tonight's new moon creating an impact at a highly visible point of your chart. It may be that you're ready to let down your guard and be open to working in tandem with a partner, particularly if you're on a project that requires imagination." Yes, I am off on a business-related trip. Perhaps I will be asked to join someone else's company today or work on a project with Max. I don't need the cosmos to encourage me to do that. i leave you with this image, which i stole from someone's flick account: tonga bar (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
5:15 pm	www.astrologyzone.com TODAY is supposed to be the LUCKIEST DAY of the year for me? i'm missing something. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 15th, 2006
4:34 pm	during lunch i went to a talk by the author of the good german. there weren't many of us. i asked question, he had an interesting answer, we talked after. i will also read los alamos. my grandfather was sent to rutgers and then down there. he had to say he worked on cameras to everyone. and he never would answer any questions about it. only say, "it was classified." (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
12:10 am	william styron died. sophie's choice is one of my favorite books of all time. if you haven't read it, you should. especially if you live in new york. (Comment on this)