We thought we knew India — until we traveled south to Kerala. Kerala is a land that seems almost more like Southeast Asia than the India of our imaginations. The region is tropical, one hundred percent of the people there have at least a high school degree, and the region retains a strong colonial influence. While […]
THIS IS WHAT IT IS
This is the Samrat Yantra, which means the Supreme Instrument. It stands 27 meters tall with its shadow moving visibly at 1mm per second making it the world’s largest sundial. Checking it against the clock on our phones, the time on this sundial is remarkably exact — and it’s so large that you can literally […]
HERE’S A QUESTION: WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS?
Guesses below please. The answer will be revealed tomorrow. Thanks for playing.
OUR ALWAYS EVOLVING ITINERARY
The first half of our around-the-world journey followed a relatively fluid line through South America, Australia and New Zealand, up into Asia, and across to India. We think of it like a well-orchestrated piece of music. The second half of the trip is shaping up to play much more like jazz. We have far fewer […]
WE CRY IN PUBLIC: KELLY GEISSMANN (1978-2012)
Today we lost a great friend who died way, way too young. Now we are slammed with the peculiar pain of anticipated heartbreak. We knew all too well that Kelly was sick, that she was down to her final months, weeks, and recently days. We had mourned for her many times in anticipation of losing […]
THE MANY FACES OF INDIA
India! It seems as if our entire journey so far has been leading us to (and preparing us for) India. Now here we are, toughened by our time in Southeast Asia and ready for anything. We had been warned of the intensity of India, the crush of humanity, the poverty, the mountains of garbage — and […]
LOOK AT THAT MONKEY JUMP
Come with us on a trip upriver in Thailand, where our family of primates has an unexpectedly close encounter with another family of primates. (WARNING: Adult content. Sexual situations.)
HARD LESSONS: THE KHMER ROUGE
Nowhere has history come alive for us more than Cambodia. Just forty years ago, the Khmer Rouge swept in, ostensibly as the “Peace Party,” after the wars of Southeast Asia, and proceeded to exterminate two million of their own people. A generation was literally wiped out. The Khmer Rouge regime executed almost the entire professional […]
QUESTION: WHAT IS THIS?
On a hike through the jungle in Laos, we were introduced to a curious object. What do you think this is? (Get your guesses in now. We’ll be posting the answer tomorrow.)
ROAD MATH: TEST YOUR TRAVEL I.Q.
Behold the price of gas in Thailand. Here’s today’s assignment: Tell us the cost for a gallon of gas in Thailand in US dollars. Keep in mind, the prices you are looking at are for a liter. Use your currency convertor to find out how many Thai Baht you get for a US dollar. Then […]