The Rare Sights of New Zealand...2009 Traveling Winding to a Close

Hey all,

The semi-world tour is coming to an end in a few days and it is time to head back to NJ for Christmas! I last left you in the North Island of NZ but would now like to bring everyone up to date on NZ's South Island. The South Island has magnificent scenery and reminds me of Alaska, Montana and Wales at different times. There are immense numbers of sheep and very few people. Of the roughly 4.5 mm people in NZ, only 20% are in the South Island. Tourism runs the show and outdoor adventure is the staple crop of many towns...fitting given the scenery.

So I have been joined by a friend for the tour of the South Island, Serena, from NYC and a colleague in The Nature Conservancy Young Professionals Group. She is here on a 2 week vaca before xmas. We have done a big loop of the South Island and head back to the North Island tomorrow in order to fly back to the states.

There are many things to explain and discuss about NZ's majestic South Island, but this blog will restrict the details to the rare/most interesting sights along the way. One of the first stopovers was Mt Cook (located in the middle of the Island) which is the backdrop for "Helmn's Deep" in Lord of the Rings. We also did Bungy in Queenstown; cruised the Doubtful Sound overnight seeing the very rare Fiordland Crested Penguin as well as Fur Seals and Bottlenose dolphins. This part of the NZ is the Bottlenose Dolphin's southernmost range since they are a warm water species (the water isn't warm, we went for a short-lived swim off the boat). The Doubtful Sound is a larger and more secluded version of the famous Milford Sound. It is in Fiordland National Park which is one of the largest parks in the world. The scenery was unbelievable with steep hillsides carpeted in trees and laced with waterfalls that pour into the sound's waters below.

After Queenstown and the Sound we ventured to the West Coast and into glacier country. In this part of NZ the glaciers are located right off the shoreline in what NZ refers to as the "Southern Alps." The combination of location and elevation makes for a unique landscape as the glaciers are all surrounded by NZ sub-tropical rainforest! It is difficult to imagine and comprehend, but is true: 20 ft tree ferns on slopes that touch frozen ice. Today we hiked for 7 hrs on the Franz Josef Glacier which exists in some of the (if not the) warmest temperatures for any glacier in the world. The snow at the top of the peaks keeps feeding the glacier, and it will not be disappearing anytime soon (despite climate change and our world's inability to have enough guts to tackle the problem). Along the way we saw the Kea, the world's only Alpine Parrot. This tropical looking bird just hangs out on the snow foraging for food. They are one of the smartest animals in the world and certainly take the crown for smartest bird. Last but not least, along one of our many drives through cattle rangeland in the South Island we saw some "frisky cows." This did not seem like a rare sight at first but then we saw what was actually happening. One cow was mounting another, but from the wrong angle! Yes, there are so many things i can say here but will let you use your imagination for the sake of keeping this blog "clean"...but the cow was humping another cow's face. Icing on the cake of rare sights here in NZ.

To top it all off, this last 2009 blog entry will also host the last lesson of Aussie, British, Kiwi language for my less-traveled american friends and family.


Sweet As: A kiwi favorite. This really doesn't mean anything..."Sweet as ___" - who knows, you can fill in whatever you want. But they don't finish the phrase...sweet as is stated simply on its own. This phrase is used to mean, "ok', "cool", "thanks", and usually comes by itself or at the end of the sentence. Some foreigners think you are actually complimenting their dairy aire, but that is not the case, there is only one "s" in Sweet As.

Friends with Dorothy: I just learned this yesterday from a Manchester girl. She was very sweet and proper and clearly didn't use any offensive language. But she was explaining one of her guy friends that doesn't like girls and referred to him as being "friends with Dorothy"...as in the Wizard of Oz. I think this is great, and it is quite funny. A supposedly less offensive method of calling someone gay. Usually only refers to guys.

Sharpish: Technically i was reminded this one from re-watching "Snatch" (an awesome movie)...but this is a classic British phrase and it means ASAP. "Mate, get that for me sharpish!" "Mate, we need to leave sharpish!" We should definitely bring this one to the US...it just sounds much better with a UK accent.

Glacier: Last but not least. This word, obviously you know what it is but it is pronounced differently here. We say Glay-Shur - seems logical. They say Glass-e-uh. Difficult to explain without sounding it out for you, but still interesting to know the different accents. This pronunciation is fairly consistent for all the Commonwealth countries.

OK, see you back in the States. The plan for next year is actually to not travel as much, maybe live in Jackson Hole, somewhere in the US with lots of outdoor activities, most notably skiing and fly fishing.

Dave

Demystifying the Myth - New Zealand's North Island

Hey all,

I am back after a 6 day tour, with Active Earth , of New Zealand's "Far North" - the very top of NZ's North Island. And I am determined to set the record straight about the North Island!

The common myth about NZ is that you should not bother with touring the North Island and spend all of your time on the south island. A few reasons for this include: 80% of NZ's population lives on the North Island, the South Island has most of the Parks and conserved land, the south island is more majestic, etc. These are all true (but remember NZ has only 4.5 mm people and it is practically the size of Italy which has 60 mm people!). The fact of the matter is that the North Island is an entirely different ecosystem and is a sub-tropical rain forest (the south is more like the Alps, etc). In the North there are fern trees that grow 20-30 feet tall! They look exactly like regular backyard ferns, just massively bigger. There also are kauri trees that grow for up to 2,000 years and are the size of our sequoia trees. Honestly, they could have filmed Jurrasic Park here!

We spent 6 days hiking/kayaking/touring the north island, all the way up to Cape Reinga (the northernmost point where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean)...sunset there was spectacular. Just to give you a taste, the picture above is the view from my tent during our first night. We camped on a cliff overlooking the ocean, nobody was around. We went for a swim in the crystal clear waters. Since we are much further south than Australia the water was cold...60 degrees to be exact. I have never felt like less of a man if you catch my drift. On the last night of the tour we actually got to see a Kiwi - the iconic NZ bird. This flightless bird is quite rare and requires much conservation work because introduced predators like to make them a meal. Seeing a Kiwi is a very rare sighting and most NZers have never actually seen one in the wild. It was very exciting, especially for your very own bird man!

Although I have not yet been to the South Island, I hereby declare the North vs South Island myth bogus. There is beautiful scenery in this country wherever you go and the landscape is very diverse; differing from North to South. The next stop is fishing near Lake Taupo (also North Island) for a few days...then heading down to Christchurch for a tour of the South Island.

Hope things are well and that Thanksgiving was good for everyone. I spent Turkey day kayaking on the east coast of the north island, eating PB&J and chocolate covered banana cake. The scenery is better than being stuck in NJ but the food certainly doesn't hold a candle to mom's cooking!

later

dave

The end of Australia...off to New Zealand

Technically i am already in New Zealand, booking trips and preparing to enjoy the sights over here. But the end of Australia deserves an entry. After touring the Northern Territory i ventured back to the east coast (Brisbane) and met up with my buddy (Ricky) from my Kenya/Tanzania overlanding-safari trip back in June (he is one of my new British mates). We took a bus to Hervey Bay from Brisbane and booked a Fraser Island self-drive tour. Spent 3 days and 2 nights on Fraser Island which is a massive sand island off the eastern seaboard of Australia (about 1/2 way up the eastern coast and a UN world heritage site). We had an old Toyota Land Cruiser and jammed a total of 10 people in (with all their stuff) for 3 days. The group was composed of 4 Germans, 1 Swiss, 1 Chilean, 3 Brits and the token lone American. Overall it was a good group. Of the 7 dudes (yeah, we had a dude heavy group) 5 of us drove the manual 4wd on the sand, but we had one kid (Chris) who took control in the really tough driving situations. The island has not had rain for ages and the sand is very, very dry which causes most groups to get stuck multiple times. We actually didn't have any major problems and only had one slightly annoying situation when we got stuck behind 3 vehicles that didn't know how to drive and kept getting stuck every 50 feet. We eventually blasted around them after a bit of negotiation and pushing our own vehicle through the thick sand...we made the ferry off the island with 3 minutes to spare! The highlight of the Fraser trip (besides the funny drunk antics Ricky and I pulled off the first night) was Indian Head. This part of Fraser is a massive rock cliff that sticks out over the beach. You climb to the top and look down into the crystal clear waters. We saw 3 sharks patrolling (reef or tiger, hard to tell) as well as turtles, rays and a pod of dolphins. It was quite a sight.

After Fraser we took a nice 13 hr overnight bus ride to Airlie Beach which is a small beach town established for sailing to the Whitsunday islands. I am going to post whitsunday island pics on facebook because the water and scenery we experienced was unbelievably breathtaking. Since Ricky and i didn't book our sailing ahead of time we had to book different trips. He had plenty of time to chill but I already had the flight here to NZ and took the last spot on a large, old sailboat that was leaving the next day. The crew of our ship was very helpful and chilled out and our group was a nice mix. I spent much of my time with 3 Frenchies - 2 guys and 1 girl - you know, repairing relations across the Atlantic with our old ally. Our group enjoyed 3 days snorkeling in various spots around the islands as well as hanging out on Whitehaven Beach (pictured above). Whitehaven beach is the most photographed beach in Australia. The sand is perfectly white and the water is more blue than you can imagine - and filled with sand sharks and sting rays (don't worry we kept Steve Irwin in our thoughts and shuffled along the sandy bottom so as to not get a barb in the foot). The Whitsundays were a great way to end the ~6 weeks in Australia.

Overall Australia was an interesting experience, tons of new friends and plenty of amazing and diverse landscapes to experience. Looking forward to New Zealand!

Not to disappoint those looking for more from this entry: there will be a final entry of Aussie language for everyone's edification!

I know you are excited, it is ok, you can get excited at work, after all this blog is helping you kill the day, right?

1) Too easy! - This is a great phrase. There are quite a few variations of this Aussie phrase such as "It's too easy" or "easy peasy" and my favorite "Its too easy, lemon squeezy." Only a few Aussies I met actually use it (our tour guide up in the Northern Territory gets the award for most variations of the phrase and most frequent usage)! This phrase effectively is a variation of "thank you" or "take your time" or "no worries" depending on its use in a sentence. It is most frequently used as a version of "thank you" if you are accommodating to someone.

2) You're Alright - An Aussie version of "No Worries." If you bump into someone or get in their way or drop a pen or accidentally stab someone in the hand - they will just respond with "you're alight." Not as exciting on paper, but a good one to hear in person

3) Bugger/buggered - this is an Aussie and British phrase and has many uses. "Bugger off" can most realistically be translated to "f-off." The word can also be used in this context: "this bloke tried to dance in the club and totally buggered it" - meaning he screwed it up. They also use bugger as a noun - usually referring to animals or...u guessed it...bugs.

4) Chips - This is very important to the Brits and Aussies. Fries...what people sometimes in the US refer to as French Fries and what some nutcases in the US call Freedom Fries (and by nutcases I am referring to conservatives...you know the people in our country who shouldn't be allowed to vote such as the ones that think religion includes speaking in tongues and that all Muslims are terrorists or those that still think Saddam Hussein is harboring weapons of mass destruction). OK, strayed a bit off point there...but what we refer to as Fries are CHIPS. Yes, i know, makes no sense, but that is what it is.

OK, that is enough for now. The next update will officially be about New Zealand - hope to have some interesting pictures, stories, etc.

Havin' A Bit of A Walkabout - Northern Territory, Australia

Hey folks. I have been MIA for a few days, just finished a 9 day trip through the northern and central outback, going from Darwin to Alice Springs and seeing many of the sights along the way. Although this blog is not intended to be a Discovery Channel briefing, the story behind some of the outback in the Northern Territory is too interesting to be left unsaid, an attempt at humor can come after the history lesson.

The Northern Territory (one of Australia’s 8 states/territories) is 1/6 the landmass of the Australian continent. Yet, there are only about 200,000 people living there! (that is less than 1% of the entire population)...and 30% of those people are Aboriginals (not very well integrated into the society, but seems like Australia is making a much more heartfelt attempt to mitigate wrongs than the US is with it's natives). Our first (and most interesting) stop was Kakadu National Park. Kakadu is technically a tropical savannah that has extreme dry seasons (the temp was over 100 during the day) and extreme wet seasons (where a majority of the park is closed due to many meters of water flooding the landscape and surrounding structures). Honestly, the landscape and the birds remind me of Africa...It is a very hot and very harsh environment. The only thing missing are the large herds of animals and the carnivores that live off them. Kakadu is also a special place because it is a World Heritage site according to the UN and is designated as such for 2 reasons: 1) natural beauty, 2) "creative genius" from the many aboriginal paintings throughout the park. This is a massive place, roughly 20,000 square kms and it was designated a national park by the Aboriginal people of the region. In the 1970s and 1980s the Aboriginal people of Australia (in many cases) successfully argued in the high courts to get their land returned from white settlers. They had to prove an attachment to the land both in terms of subsistence and spiritual activities. They were given large tracts of land and Kakadu was originally handed over as aboriginal land to do with as they wish. In order to save their culture, produce revenue and protect the environment, the Aboriginal people of Kakadu agreed to lease the land back to the Australian Parks authorities and they now jointly administer the park for environmental and cultural preservation. Needless to say, this was a special place with amazing sights. After Kakadu we drove down to the "Red Center" where the landscape turns into desert and the land becomes dustier and drier. This is also where the famous Ayer's Rock (Uluru) is located. The trip was great fun, good sights and many new, fun friends.


OK - now we need to continue the language lessons from the first Aussie blog. I am also making the executive decision to include not only Aussie phrases but also British phrases that are worth writing about. After all, Australia was once under the auspices of the British throne.

1) "Sort of" - This is the Aussie version of "like." You know how everyone in the US peppers their sentences with "like" unnecessarily? The Aussies say "sort of." It is less prolific than some "like" abusers in the us and occasionally has its place in the sentence, but it pretty much is like...a filler word, sort of.

2) "Bloody" - There is no way of beating around the bush on this one. It is a substitute for F-cking...and no I don't mean the verb but the adjective. And seriously, relax, not trying to be derogatory, but the fact of the matter is people in the US drop the f-bomb a lot and in Australia and the UK they just say bloody. When you think about it the word sounds bloody weird, but it is not "foul" language per se. Some examples: "This bloody idiot pulled out in front of me." "I need to answer this bloody phone." "Why are there so many bloody Germans in this country."

3) "Bloke" - This is an important lesson because it incorporates some learning from the first lesson and requires a bit of distinction. Bloke means: dude, guy, man, etc. It should not be confused with "Mate" - which can also mean some of these things but in a different context. When you refer to your friends - you say "mate"..."I need to give my mate a call"; "Hey mate, how ya going?" When you are referring to another person as in "this guy said etc" or "this guy was walking down the street and got run over by my mate"...you can substitute "Bloke" for guy. Got it?

4) "Do One" - This is not aussie from what i am aware of, just British. But this is a good one because it is so terribly confusing. This means "to leave". The first time i heard it was hanging out in Sydney with these brisith blokes, one of which is my mate (you confused yet?). We were standing in line, there were lots of attractive girls around, i was terribly confused when they said it. "Do one?...uuuhhh." Nope, not what your thinking, but "you wanna do one" actually means "let's get out of here", "let's leave" or if you want to bring it back to the 1990s hip hop i am cool even though i am white phase: "let's bounce"....you could even say "let's skedaddle" if you are sort of over 50.

5) "Having a bubble" - Saving the best for last. This means: "you making fun of me", or "you laughing at me." It is British, technically cockney rhyme, but it is my favorite one. So when the British say "are you making fun of me" or "are you joking" they actually say: "are you having a laugh" (with the accent of course). So to get to bubble we need to do some rhyming. Laugh rhymes with bath and you always take a bubble bath. Here is the sequence: "Are you having a laugh" ---> "Laugh" rhymes with "bath" ---> "Are you having a bubble bath" gets shortened to "Are you having a bubble."
Another good rhyming scheme: Bees = Money...what? "Bees and Honey" - honey rhymes with money therefore Bees = Money. pretty good

I think we should bring some of these to the US, maybe "Bloke", "mate" and "are you having a bubble."

Off to the east coast again in a few days.

Hope things are well in the US

dave

Scuba Diving in the Land Down Under

Hey all,

Hope things are well back in the US. It is really rough getting on here in Australia, lots of sunshine, nice 80 degree weather, beautiful beaches, plenty of activities.

Last Sunday I flew from Brisbane/Byron Bay area (the end of my surfing journeys) to Cairns, which is in Northeastern Queensland, right on the ocean. It is a nice, laid-back beach town with a ton of diving and snorkeling tourism. You can also get to the rainforest from here which is north of the city in Daintree National Park and Cape Tribulation - an area well know because it is where the "Rainforest Meets the Reef." Seriously, the reef up at Cape Tribulation is right next to the beach and the rainforest goes right up to the sand. Much of the land is preserved and it certainly is breathtaking. But, i digress...this entry is about scuba diving.

On Monday, I got picked up by Deep Sea Divers Den and ventured off on my 3 day, 2 night journey to the Great Barrier Reef.

First, we got on a ~65 ft boat with 30 other people and powered out to the reef (Norman Reef) which took about 1.5 hrs. I thought we were just being transferred to the larger live aboard boat, but we actually started diving on the smaller boat. It was mayhem, there were 20 -25 people trying to put on their wetsuits and dive tanks. Then they said: "OK, find a buddy and jump in, if you want a divemaster it will cost you $15 per person extra." Huh? I have never been diving where they just throw you in the water without a divemaster, but whatever, the current wasn't too strong and they were willing to send out the small inflatable rafts to pick you up after surfacing. So we did 2 dives on the smaller boat, then got transferred to the massive liveaboard where we did 2 more dives that day. The last dive of the first day was at night after they started feeding the sharks offshore. We then did 4 dives the next day - i skipped the night dive in order to "snorkel with the sharks."

Yes, this comment requires a bit of explanation. So the first night, while they were preparing us to do the night dive, they started feeding the sharks (with leftover bits of dinner). By the time we jumped in the water, the sharks weren't around, we could only see a few off in the distance. So 3 of us decided to investigate the opportunity of jumping in the drink directly with the sharks. My roommate (Tim) and fellow scuba diving buddy (Matt) asked the manager of the boat to let us in with the sharks. He explained the process and told us we could do it. We didn't exactly jump in with the sharks, frankly they would have been scared away if we did. So we were allowed to lay on the large diving platform at the back of the boat and they lowered us into the water. We had our masks on and snorkels in and had the cameras ready. We stayed in the water for a good 15-20 minutes while the crew threw bits of food out right in front of us. There were at least 100 fish and 3-4 sharks that had a feeding frenzy at the back of the boat (right in front of our faces) as the rest of our boat mates looked on. It was quite intense and the sharks got comfortable enough to get quite close. These were standard 5-7 foot reef sharks that technically can rip us apart, but realistically are not going to cause any harm. There is no need for a cage unless you are bleeding, holding fish in your hands, or feel the need to provoke them. Needless to say, this was the highlight of the diving trip and you can view the video of the sharks feeding in front of us at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS7_Sh2_1TI

The diving trip was a great experience with a variety of enjoyable people. I am now back in Sydney partying with a few friends (actually won a bunch of money at blackjack last night as well...yeah, at 4:30 am) and will head off next week on another set of adventures, some alone and some with my travel buddy.

Later

dave

Heaps of Roos!!!!!

After a long hiatus, it is finally time to re-initiate the blog. Honestly, writing this blog from Australia is more difficult than previous locations (believe it or not) since there is nothing shocking or cultural about the experience, so i will serenade you with humor (or at least make an attempt). I was originally going to make the next blog entry a synopsis of Asia travel - but it is too late...and was also considering writing about living "at home" with the parents in NJ - that is just humorous, especially trying to go out in NYC from the burbs - what a mess. But the time is right for a proper Aussie blog entry!

So you will get a lesson in Australian language and other tidbits of Aussie-appropriate information.

Language lesson #1: (perhaps there will be more to follow over the next few months):

1) G'day Mate: Everyone know this phrase and loves to make fun of it. But let's examine the details more closely: G'day is pretty obvious - means: hello, what's up, nice to see you, or if your name ends in a vowel and you are from NJ it simply means - "OOOHHHHHH" - with some fantastically guido handshake or thug hug thrown in
Mate - another Aussie and British specific phrase (also common in NZ and South Africa too) that means: friend, buddy, bro, "hey girlfriend", "you my n$%&a", and of course the inimitable jersey special: "OOOOHHHHHH"

2) Heeps: Part of the title of the blog - I am sure you are scratching your head - "Heeps of Roos?" - what on earth does that mean? Well listen rocket scientists - Roos are Kangaroos - yes, we have seen a bunch of them. Specifically the Eastern Grey Kangaroo and they are the Aussie equivalent of North America's deer population. Very weird to see them, so crazily different to what we are accustomed to.
Oh yes, Heaps - that was the confusing one. In Aussie speak - heaps means: lots, many, tons, a variety.

3) Thongs: Seriously, these are flip flops. It was suggested that I bring my "thongs" during the first weekend and of course I naturally started making jokes about the leopard prints that i had, etc, etc - they didn't really understand the joke (also not a surprise). Flip Flops - ok - just one of those weird things over here. Like "Double-fisting" in the US refers to drinking 2 drinks at once and in Australia and the UK...well, let's just say it means something I can explain on an individual basis.

There are likely lots of other phrases, but these will do for now. Will write in for any other hilarious phrases at a later date.

Aussie Culture 101:

Seriously, not much to report here. This is almost as ridiculous as saying "American culture." Unless you consider packing a lipper, frat parties, rap music or the oxymoron of educated yet ultra-religious people culture - it is safe to say we adopt much of our culture from other parts of the world. Probably baseball and football (known as gridiron over here) are some of the more defining things that are "American". Australia is very similar to the US or the UK in terms of the people and the city vs. countryside dynamic. "Culture" over here is best explained by surfing, rugby, Aussie leagues football, and obviously the accent.

Not knocking the Aussie people or experience, just trying to give you a sense that this trip is really more about adventure than anything else...don't get me wrong the Aussie trip has been a blast so far and I am happy to avoid a language barrier and am not terribly interested in spending more than a minority of my travel time learning about cultures anyhow.

The majority of the last week over here has been spent surfing. Had a good weekend crew from all over the world for surf camp (pictured above: Italy, France, Germany, US, England) and am now about 5 hours north of Sydney with a group that takes you to find the best waves for surfing. The first weekend I did fine getting back into the swing of surfing (catching waves, etc) but yesterday I got absolutely crushed. The waves were really intense - they didn't look that large, but had a lot of volume behind them. I am beyond the beginner surfer stage and have pictures to prove that I know how to surf for real, but yesterday was crazy. Took me 4-5 hours of surfing to get a proper wave and not get crushed into the sandy bottom. Was fun though - i wasn't going to leave the beach until i rode a wave all the way through...but I have never been tossed around like that - even in the hurricane induced surf along Costa Rica last year.

Hope everyone is well. Australia is a great place thus far. People are laid back and know how to enjoy themselves. Will be surfing then scuba diving for the next week and will head back to Sydney to meet some mates (see - good use of Aussie vocabulary). Later

Dave

Deeper Into China's Mountains

The last few days couldn't have worked out any better.  During the last entry, the plan was to head to Yubeng - alone.  As usually happens when traveling alone, I met a larger group going on the Yubeng trek.  It ended up being a group of 5 Chinese travelers and me (the crew pictured above).  There were 2 guys from Hong Kong (Adrian and Tim; both young 20s and in law school) who spoke perfect English.  There was also 1 girl (Louise; my age) from Shanghai who spoke perfect English (and German) and who plans to pursue a PhD in anthropology in Deutschland.  There also was a young girl from inland China (no western name) as well as 1 guy from the Chinese army (i was told he was from the equivalent of our "Delta Force", but had been out for at least 2 years traveling his country...he didn't speak English so we did a lot of hand signals and grunting to communicate).  We all met for dinner and hopped in a mini van the next morning.  It was 1.5 hours to the hot springs of Xidang and then a 7 hour hike into Yubeng village (pronounced: u-bong).  Most of the hike is uphill with the last 2 hours a descent into the village.  This was definitively the most remote place i have been on my travels thus far.  Yes, Africa is very remote and they have far fewer resources, but East Africa is very accessible by 4x4 and there are dirt roads leading in and out of most places.  Yubeng is only accessible by horse or foot (only the weak take a horse - which are most Chinese "city" tourists - lazy buggers).  We hiked in by foot and carried our own gear.  Yubeng sits in a valley at the base of 4 sacred Tibetan peaks - Kawa Karpo and his 3 companions (these are all off limits for climbing to the peak because a group of famous Japanese mountain climbers died in the 1990s attempting to summit). 

 

We stayed at the Mystic Waterfall Guest House which is the last building (other than the Shenpu - a sacred temple) on the trail to the mountains.  This was very simple accommodation by western standards, but nice for the location - and the food was actually quite good.  We stayed for 2 nights and during our full day in Yubeng we climbed to the Sacred Waterfall.  This waterfall is sacred for local Tibetans (who are almost exclusively practicing Buddhists) and when you get to the waterfall you must walk clockwise through the water an odd number of times.  Needless to say, we all stayed true to local custom and stripped down to bare essentials and walked through the freezing glacial waterfall (it was sunny out, so we were just fine walked home half drenched). 

 

The next day we hiked out of he village and took a van all the way back to Shangri-La - passing quickly through Deqin and Feilai Si.  Along the way i decided to call the local guiding company in Shangri-La to see if they had any treks. 

 

And...the luck was in my favor, perhaps because i walked through the mystic waterfall!  3 random Americans were doing a trek to the Baima Nature Reserve the very next morning (i had been trying for days to get there and was effectively laughed because "nobody" camps out there).  But that is exactly what we did.  We had 3 days and 2 nights of camping; as well as a guide, cook and driver and good local Tibetan campfire meals.  We trekked for a 6 hours into the reserve during our 1 full day.  We had great views of the valley and surrounding mountains.  Our group was 2 guys and 2 girls; Christian, Maren and Shannon - they were all from the Rhode Island School of Design pursuing graduate degrees in Landscape Architecture.  We had a great experience with our local Tibetan crew and guide (Thupten - who spoke English quite well) and we also had quite a few laughs.

 

Exploring the Northwestern Yunnan Province here in China turned out to be exactly what i wanted to achieve.  Traveling alone has been an eye-opening experience because you get to meet many interesting people along the way.  The randomness of my travels and the lack of planning has also been fun, you would all be surprised how relaxed and go-with-the-flow these last few weeks have been.  One of my traveling companions commented (after I explained recent travels in Yunnan) that i travel "by the seat of my pants."  The last week or so couldn't be summed up any better than that and the randomness and lack of official planning has really added to the experience.  I now have plenty of new facebook friends and potential travel buddies after being in China (and India and Africa for that matter). Now off to Chengdu (the famous Panda research city) as a last stop off before heading back to Shanghai to fly home for family, friends, partying, weddings, and dare i say...a strict workout schedule! 

 

Tiger Leaping Gorge - to - Shangri-La

After parting ways with Eric I headed up to northwestern Yunnan Province to the city of Lijiang.  Spent one night at a nice (well-known) hostel run by a local Naxi woman and in the morning joined a random (diverse) group of 6 people headed to hike the Tiger Leaping Gorge along the Yangzi river.  Out of our group of 7 there we 2 Yanks, 2 Brits, 1 German, 1 French, 1 Dutch.  It was a fun group.  We spent 2 days hiking the gorge, hiking about 6-7 hours each day.  Let me tell you, this hike was no picnic and excluding the summit of Kilimanjaro, was probably the most physically strenuous of the hikes I have done on my africa, inda, china trips thus far.  The trail was from 2,200 to 2,800 meters ~(7,200 ft to 9,200 ft high) and it included a lot of steep ascents and descents along the way.  After the first day of trekking we reached the halfway point and stayed at the aptly named Halfway Guest House, which actually was a nice facility for being in a remote region and on a hiking trail.  The next day we set out early to reach the famous "Tiger Leaping Stone" which was at the bottom of the gorge on the river.  Legend has it that a tiger lept across the river using this stone as a starting or landing spot.  Who knows, there are no more tigers in this area to prove or disprove the theory and the river is ~40 feet wide at this spot (must have been a magical tiger).  After descending all the way to the river we had to head back up to catch a cab to town, this entailed hiking very steep trails and using ladders constructed out of wires that were bolted to the rocks, quite an experience.  But we all made it back to the top in good health.

 

After the gorge we parted ways with the Brits and German and 4 of us headed to Shangri-La - a remote town in Northwestern Yunnan.  The road along the way was in rough shape and the scenery reminded me of remote sections in Montana or the Swiss Alps.  This all made us believe that we would be entering a small remote town with a quaint feel.  Alas, China stimulus money has also hit the remote regions of the country.  It looked like Disneyland when we entered Shangri-La.  Tons of construction of new roads and buildings.  The buildings were new, yet the attempt was there to make them look "traditional."  Let's just say, that didn't work!  I guess these are the growing pains of Developing (and Developed) countries.  The economic growth necessary to keep living standards growing reduces the traditional feel of places and certainly ruins much of the untouched land.  Having said that, this area of China is still quite remote and there is much untouched land (including a new national park/preserve) and many sacred mountains that (theoretically) won't be touched.  Furthermore, Shangri-La and the more Northwest regions (such as Deqin, where i am currently writing this entry from) are very Tibetan.  It seems like the Chinese gov't is trying to keep the "Tibetan" feel for tourism reasons but is encouraging an influx of the Han Chinese residents and tourists (majority of China's population) to keep the Tibetan people in check.  Who knows the real answer, but that is the feeling i get from being here and knowing a little about the way in which China's unnecessarily paranoid gov't works.  If you want to read more firsthand about the development issue, here is a good website.  This lodge was recommended by Lonely Planet as a genuine place to stay in Deqin (7 hr bus ride from Shangri-La).  Apparently the rampant development, even of this remote Tibetan outpost, is causing issues: http://www.deqinlodge.com/closed.html

As stated before, I am in Deqin, it is raining, so no hiking today.  Tomorrow I head (alone) to Yubeng which is 1.5 hours by car and 5 hours hiking.  There are no roads to Yubeng and it will be at about 3,000 m elevation (10,000 ft or so).  The plan is to stay at the "Mystic Waterfall Hotel" which was graciously researched and recommended by my fellow TNC YPG colleague - Evelyn.  She will be excited that I am actually getting there.  I am excited to, will do 2-3 days of day trekking around that area.  Will post the hopefully amazing pics when i return. 

 

Oh yeah, random side note, my current travel buddy (Michelle, sweet girl from LA area, we are the only ones left over from the original 7) and I stopped by the "Migratory Bird Cafe & Bar" here is Feilai Si (right outside the town of Deqin with amazing views of the sacred mtn, Kawa Karpo, of the Meili Xueshan range north of the city).  The Migratory Bird was recommended by Lonely Planet as a good source of food and information.  It also proved to be a good source of entertainment.  As soon as we walked in a group of young, university-age TIbetans excitedly invited us to join them for food and drinks.  They had clearly been drinking already, so we joined right in.  1 kid spoke english pretty well and the 3 girls with him tried their best.  It was quite entertaining as the girls, whenever they wanted to speak with us, would try to tell us in english, and would get frustrated and yell at the guy (who we can call Chip, since i have no idea how to pronounce or spell his Tibetan name) to come translate.  Needless to say, they were very friendly and very fond of us and couldn't stop expressing how happy they were to drink with us and how they wanted to visit the US some day and even do world travel on their own.  This was a nice chance meeting and I hope to party with them again one night after returning from the wilds of Yubeng (Mom, don't worry, 2 people have already told me Yubeng is very well marked and all the trails are straightforward for navigation...also China's rampant development means my China Mobile mobile will almost certainly work.)

 

Ok, that is enough for now.  Hope things are well with everyone.  Only slightly more than a week left in China - eventually venturing back to Shanghai from the middle of nowhere - and back to the US just in time to party with James R and the girls in the Hamptons on Labor Day weekend, nice!!!!!!!!!!

 

later

 

dave

 

Travels in China - Eric's Last Day

Tomorrow is my brother's last day in China.  He has been here for 3 months, studying in Shanghai for a month, traveling for a few weeks and teaching English in a rural village.  We have traveled together for the last week; a few days in Shanghai, a few days in Beijing, ending our trip in the Guangxi province in Southern China.  We are staying in Xingping, near Yangshuo.  This area of China is relatively rural (water buffalo, people in traditional Chinese hats, lots of rice fields, etc) and is known for the limestone peaks that surround the region.  In fact, the Chinese 20 Yuan note has a famous picture of the limestone hills that are a 15-20 minute walk from Xingping village.

Over the last few days we have hiked up various hills/mtns and walked to rural fishing villages.  We also did a Cormorant fishing trip (please refer to Eric's goofy picture in this blog entry).  Quite an interesting ordeal; some random guy led us out to the river at night and to a boat with 10 birds on it.  The birds are Cormorants, water birds that are very adept swimmers and fisherman.  In China, these birds have been used for centuries to catch fish.  In order to prevent the birds from eating the fish a string is tied around their necks.  The string is just tight enough to prevent the birds from swallowing the bigger, more desirable fish, but leaves enough room to allow the birds to eat the smaller fish they catch.  The Cormorants swim along with the boat (never attempting to escape) and dive down to catch fish (the fish are attracted to the light at the front of the boat).  The birds must surface in order to eat and if they have a large enough fish (which you can see get stuck in their throats) the fisherman takes a long bamboo pole, grabs the bird by the attached string and hoists them into the boat.  He then very "gingerly" takes the fish out of their mouths (ha, just kidding, he is not nice to the birds, it actually made me cringe, seeing that i am the "bird man" and did spend a semester studying Cormorants while in college).  The fisherman and birds do, however, seem to have a nice symbiotic relationship.  The birds get to eat some fish and the fisherman helps them catch the fish with the boat's light (making their work quite easy).  Although this "Cormorant fishing" was not quite authentic, it was a reasonably accurate (although modernized) reflection of traditional Chinese culture.

It is too bad that Eric must leave tomorrow, but he is ready to go after being in China for 3 months and he is excited to get back to his girlfriend in DC (my parents also seriously need to breathe a sigh of relief once he gets home).   After Eric leaves, i will officially be traveling on my own without an organized trip (for the first time since the travels started in Africa).  The next 2 weeks should prove exciting, I only have a flight booked to the Yunnan province, no accommodation, no travel plans, only ideas.  Hope to meet some interesting people along the way and see some of the most remote parts of (non-Tibetan) China.  Until the next update.  See ya.  

dave

Circumventing the China Blogger Block...and Reflections on Asia

China won't get the best of this blog!  I know you have all been waiting in heated anticipation for the next entry.

Anyhow, without further adieu, wanted to update ya'll on these funny "Reflections on Asia" (which really just are reflections on some funny things in Northern India and my few days in China).

This is a random list without any classification or particular order, it is just funny, if you aren't laughing, you need to re-evaluate your life, seriously (or i just have poor story telling skills).

1) The plane from Delhi to Shanghai - The sheer amount of rude behaviour on this leg of my journey was unreal (and nothing i have seen on plane in the past comes even close in comparison).  There were mostly Indian men on this China Eastern Airlines flight, obviously the flight attendants were Chinese.  I don't know if the behaviour is normal for Indian men on a Chinese airline (i met and interacted with many considerate Indians on my travels there)...but this was outlandish.  The group of Indians around me were constantly ringing the Flight Attendant bell (you know, the little light that you sparingly use because you know it will really anger the flight attendants).  Perhaps this was their first time on the plane, or perhaps they didn't care (i think the latter).  But this whole group (sitting in coach) would ring the flight attendant bell for the smallest problem or request.  There was one (very overweight) guy who rang the bell at least 30 times in 3 minutes (this is not an exaggeration).  And the requests weren't the least bit urgent.  If they wanted more water (even right after being served, while all other customers were getting served drinks), they would ring the bell and yell at the flight attendants for more water.  If they were done with their water and wanted to get rid of their cup, instead of waiting like normal human beings for the trash collection, they would ring the bell and yell for the flight attendants to take their cup away.  I could barely comprehend how the rudeness around me.

2) The Chinese on Planes - On Chinese planes, the lavatories have directions on both english and mandarin.  Very difficult to misread these signs.  They also have colors (just like every traffic light on the face of the earth) where green mean go/vacant and red means stop/occupied.  This doesn't concern many chinese travelers.  More than once, i saw grown Chinese men, pushing the clearly occupied lavatory doors with reasonable force.  One even tried to throw his shoulder in it as he couldn't understand why the door didn't open on his command.  I guess these are the growing pains of developing countries!  In a similar vein, we saw a variety of Chinese people of the subway who were very scared of the escalators (both old and young) and who were very cautious/nervous about getting on these complicated "moving" stairs.  Some funny sights for parts of life that we consider so "normal."

3) Hello Laser - Obviously in all of these countries there are many people on the streets trying to sell what is mostly junk.  Same here in China as in Africa and India.  But here it is quite funny, because the language barrier is greater and command of english is even lower than in Africa or India.  When you walk the streets of Shanghai at night, there are guys trying to sell you toys and their main "attraction" is a laser pen (or something with flashing lights).  Their method of getting your attention is to shine the laser at your feet and say "Hello Laser" - this phrase is not separated as in "Hello, (pause) Laser" - but is one continuous phrase.  It is quite funny to hear people say it this way.  And i know most of you are curious...do they actually saw the "L" or is it more like "Herro Raser" - Surprisingly enough, when one hears "Hello" in China more often than not it actually sounds like "Hello" - very odd.

4) The best way to combat street sellers - This is a random funny, Eric Nicola anecdote.  But the best method for making the constant barrage of street sellers humorous is to speak to them in various English phrases they won't understand.  So when a street seller engages us and we say "No Thank You" he also ends the encounter with "I Love You."  Hilarious.

5) Michael Jackson - WOW - totally obsessed over here.  2 nights ago was our first night in the Beijing hostel and we grabbed a quick dinner, the girl working here asked us if she could put in a Michael Jackson video - it was more like "Rock-u-mentary" - but either way she was very excited.  About a half hour later i was talking to another guy eating dinner and he had been here 2 weeks ago, same video was playing!  Last night we had dinner here again, a different MJ video on the TV (all night)!.  Apparently, the death of MJ was very traumatic for Chinese youths and this is their way of remembering.  

6) Bad Driving - This is the understatement of the year.  I am utterly shocked at how appalling the driving situation is in Africa, India, China.  In Africa it is likely because they have no real idea how to drive, but there is enough space to make things relatively safe.  In India they don't know and definitely don't care.  There are tons of lorries all over the road and most of the drivers are sleep deprived, drink, high or a combination thereof.  Additionally, since we were in the mountainous regions of India, the driving danger was exacerbated by the small roads, steep cliffs and blind curves.  It was almost as if the drivers would wait until there was a blind curve to pass on a narrow mountain road.  Unreal.  In China, i think they may know what they are doing, but they definitely don't care.  Traffic enforcement is non-existent and traffic signals are obeyed only on occasion.  At any given corner all four lanes are trying to get through the intersection and if someone is in your way (pedestrian or vehicle) keep moving until they get out of your way.  

That is it for now.  Hope to have more updates and anecdotes in the future.  China won't keep this blog down!

Enjoy the rest of the summer.

dave

Off to China...

Flying to China tonight, this website might be blocked by the authorities, so will revert with emails or will catch up with everyone in early September.

Enjoy the rest of the summer, finally get to see the big Bro tomorrow in Shanghai.  There is a typhoon rolling through China, so we will see what happens, probably will be very wet!

dave

Post Workshop Extravaganza

After the workshop ended I had about 5 days to kill before heading to China.  Many students stayed in Manali after the workshop and travelled to various places with new friends.  A crew of 4 of us decided to travel together for a few days before heading off in our own direction.  My crew ended up being 2 other students from my class (Gaelle and KP) and Varun (“co-host/organizer” of the last night’s party with me). 

Gaelle is a very pretty, very sweet girl from Paris that currently works for Unicef in Senegal.  She is quite adventurous given her 4 day adventure with 3 other dudes around the Himalayan parts of India and her work with Unicef in Africa (she has been there for over 3 years).  KP is a smart dude from Bombay (yes, Bombay, nobody calls it Mumbai here in India...that I met).  He grew up in India and went to college in the US.  He has a similar story to me in that he spent a number of years in finance and is now mostly free of that life.  KP helped set up a real estate hedge fund in Mumbai and the success of that gives him the flexibility to pursue photography as he wishes.   Although not a professional in practice, he has some amazing pictures.   Varun, what can I say, he is the man.  He grew up in Calcutta and lives in Chennai, also went to college in the US and studied photography in India.  He is a freelance photographer and very resourceful and connected here in India.  Varun was the brains and the organization behind our last few days of travel in India. 

The 2^nd day after the workshop ended (the 1^st day was a relax and recuperation day) we went paragliding.  7 total students from the workshop went along for the ride.  We drove to Rhotang pass, which is 13,100 feet and a 3 hour drive from Manali (much of that time is actually spent waiting in traffic as the roads are small and very inefficient...not to mention packed with big trucks).  The views from up there are amazing with many snow-covered peaks of the Himalayas.  Most of the “tourists” heading up to the pass are Indian.  They get all dressed up in old fur coats, many of them with leopard prints, and take pictures of one another.  Since India is so hot, this is one of their chances to actually wear winter gear and it is quite amusing to them.

We launched on our paragliding trip about 7 kms below Rhotang pass.  We flew for about 40 minutes and landed down in the valley - quite a view from way up in the air.  We were with a group of very experienced paragliders and their leader was once (and maybe still is) the Indian champion for paragliding acrobatics.   Some of us did not “appreciate” the acrobatics as much as others (well, our stomachs didn’t, lets just say that).  Next time, Dramamine before paragliding!

The next day we awoke at 5 am and the 4 of use set out for our trek.  We hired a driver for 3 days and drove to the Parvati Valley.  This is an area famous for its hiking/trekking and we planned on figuring everything out when we got there.  After speaking with the driver and some locals we decided to spend our first afternoon climbing to Khir Ganga (Kheer Ganga, Khirganga, Kheerganga....spelled how you wish).  Khirganga is famous for the weed scene (no this is not a theme for my trip, just coincidence that the remote regions in India which are best for hiking are also known for the weed scene).  We hired 2 porters (I carried all my own stuff, relax, I had more than enough porters for the year while climbing Kili) and hiked through massive pine forests for about 4 hours.  Khirganga is a large opening above the forest and it is a holy place for the locals with some naturally occurring hot springs.  The accommodation is very, very basic.  You can just show up (reservations not required, or even possible) and pay 100 rupees ($2) for a wood/plastic covered shack with a wooden bed, thin (old) mattress.  Honestly, would have been more luxurious to sleep in a tent for the night, but luxury was not the point, this is how they do in Khirganga.

Anyway, Khirganga is beautiful and interesting.  It really is a bunch of hippies that sit around and smoke massive amounts of weed (weed that always gets top awards in Amsterdam’s yearly weed judging festivals).  You are surrounded by towering peaks, some of them snow covered, and you eat basic Indian food and sip Masala Chai morning, noon and night.  We took a dip in the hot springs and just chilled out.  It really was nice hanging with 3 new friends, everyone is relaxed and open minded and willing to just go with the flow.  It was a great way to round off the workshop..and some hiking/adventure was seriously needed after a week of “working” on photos and stories.

We planned to fly back to Delhi after returning from our trek and from there we would all drive down to the Taj Mahal before parting ways.  Well, India is known for flight delays/cancellations and the weather did not help our situation.  If it were the US or Europe, the flights would have been fine.  But budget Indian airlines are not as well equipped (or maybe the pilot was just too high to make it to the airport).  The flight was turned back to Delhi and our plans of a quick return were spoiled.  No worries, right, go with the flow.  We got our refunds and hired a driver for the next 2 days.  Instead of going to Delhi in one 12-hour shot by car, we decided to stop in the state of Punjab, in the city of Chandigarh.  This state is mostly inhabited by Sikhs and is a very patriarchical culture within of India.  The land is very fertile and agriculture is abundant.  We found a very nice country retreat (well, combination of Lonely Planet from Gaelle and contacts from Varun) and it was the perfect place to spend the night.  The place was a very nice compound with a pool (which is quite rare) and good food/drinks.  Punjab is really hot and muggy (actually that is an understatement) and the pool was the perfect way to cool off.

Overall, India has been great.  Lots of new people, lots of new persectives and an interesting country (both in terms of natural and cultural beauty).  I will certainly return to see the rest of the country at some point (winter is best when it is not so hot) and will also keep in touch with my travel buddies for future trips/treks around the world.

dave

The Workshop Comes to a Close

The Foundry Photojournalism workshop ended a few days ago and overall it was a great experience.  We all did a photo essay on a subject in and around Manali.  Many of the photos were impressive and some of the stories were quite interesting.  My story was about a Nepalese farmer, 22 years old, who lives on a 1 acre orchard owned by a local “businessman.”  He stays there 24-7 for the growing season and goes back to Nepal to visit his family at least once a year. It is a very lonely existence, he rarely interacts with others and he spends much of his time tending to the orchard and guarding the property.   (Will post pics of the story on my website if you are interested: www.davidjnicolaphoto.com ).

Other students did stories on Tibetan monks and culture, other India cultures around Manali, local hospitals, etc. Overall many of the students were impressive photographers and photojournalists.   Honestly, after seeing the work of many students during the workshop (as well as their past work and current websites) my photo skills have a LONG way to go.  I need to get some better photos especially if I am going to have a website that people actually look at!  Some people really have a unique perspective and it comes through in their photography.

Meeting everyone was certainly the highlight of the event.  There were 70 or so students with about 10 instructors.  Our instructors were well-known photojournalists that donated their time to come teach the class.  The students were very diverse, from all over the world and had many different levels of experience.   Some were freelance photographers or photojournalists and some were neophytes (i.e. me). 

The last night was supposed to be our big blowout party.  At about 4 pm I found out nothing was organized in terms of alcohol or late night partying. So I decided to take charge as the “Beer Man” and figure it out.  With the help of my new friend, Varun, we were able to make sure the party lasted until 5 am.  We got beer, alcohol, wine, mixers, etc all organized for the various parts of the evening and even were able to make sure the drinks were “mostly” cold (which is tough to do for massive quantities of alcohol in a country were fridges are infrequent and small and ice does not exists…at all!)  The party ended up being a great time and a great way to top off the week.  If my busy schedule of unemployment permits, I will seriously consider returning again next year as they plan on hosting the workshop in Istanbul or Sarajevo.

Haggling over Pennies

It seems ridiculous, but haggling over pennies is a very real part of traveling in the poorest parts of the world. This was mentioned once in a documentary I recently watched; "A Map for Saturday" (documentary produced by friend of some ex Blue Mtn colleagues). In this film the author travels for 360 days or so around the world and while in Thailand he explains how you haggle over even the smallest amounts of money.

I experienced this the other day, before realizing the absurdity of that situation. It was 8:30 pm or so, just finished shooting some photos and had a 15 min walk up a hill back to the hotel. A rickshaw drove down and I grabbed him for the trip up. I asked how much: "30 rupees" - before just saying "yes", I replied "20 rupees" - to which he promptly shook his head "No." Then i realized the ridiculous nature of the situation. 10 rupees is 20-25 cents! Does that even count as a rounding error? Needless to say, i took the 30 rupees ride (which actually was a rip off when compared to our normal 50 rupee rides to town).

One of the points made when we discuss the necessity of haggling for pennies with locals is that this is part the process. Locals will always haggle in order to get to the right level. Tourists, esp westerners, should haggle because the initial price usually starts at 2-3 times the local price (the price at which the good or service will trade). Even though it seems ridiculous to haggle over small amounts of money (by our standards) these "small amounts" are real money to the people. Additionally, it has been argued that foreigners who do not haggle over "small money" are making it more difficult for many of their brethren traveling on a tight budget. If a foreign tourist always trades at 2-3 times the price it will simply set the "white person" price higher than necessary in the future. This seems logical, but there also is a limit to how far one should push people who are very clearly living at much lower living standards. $10 grand per year in these parts of India will give you a relatively comfortable lifestyle.

Apparently, the lesson to be learned from all of this is: haggle with the locals, it is a natural part of the process. Don't feel bad about it...but also have some perspective on the situation. It isn't a big deal for a few extra dollars to go to those struggling to meet what we consider our most basic needs.

Weed, Weed, Weed...Oh So Much Weed!

The picture speaks for itself. There is weed growing all over the place around here. Don't worry Mom, i did not partake and don't plan to (another potential "Locked Up Abroad" situation that is best avoided). Manali is not known for its weed, that is Malana - have not been there yet, but it is apparently an interesting place. "Malana cream" is the famous weed from that place and that is pretty much all they do besides "being spiritual." The people of Malana allow tourists but they are restricted to walking on certain paths outlined throughout the town. Anyone who is not from Malana (even other Indians) are not allowed to touch the people of the town and even if you purchase something at a store you must put the money on the ground and get your change back from the ground. This stems from the town's spirituality where they believe that their God is the greatest and they believe all people from outside Malana as a "lower caste." Pretty intense. We would describe this as "racism" in the US, here in India it is "spirituality." This is all hearsay from the group, but speaks to how interesting Manali is (i know, the names of the towns are hard to keep track of). Manali (where i am staying currently) is a very touristy town and our focus at the workshop is to pick a story and act like a photojournalist. Had no idea what that meant before coming...but what it means for this week is that everyone is very intense and talks only about their "story." Some of the stories people are doing are great and informative, most of them are useless and boring and can never be sold (i am not even going to try). The point is that we "practice" being photojournalists. The one part of practicing photojournalism we are not doing enough of is drinking! People are working too hard, but that is what happens when you actually have to work on having a career, thankfully I am not going to bother with that right now. Photojournalism is very intense and requires days, weeks, months of shooting the same picture, same scenario, etc over and over again. You really need to have a passion for it. Think i realized Day 1 - no thanks. Great skills to have, great way to become a better photographer, but definitely a tough, uber-competitive career path where people struggle to make a living unless they marry someone with money or are the lucky few to become very commercial.

Ok, enough about that. I will update you on India, not on my boring personal adventures to find an alternative career.

More about India:

India is dirty and poor. It has an amazing cultural mix, especially here in the northern parts. There are people from Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan, other parts of India as well as plenty of ex-pats from US, Europe, Israel, etc. The scenery is quite beautiful but the landscape suffers the same plight as other areas of beautiful wilderness throughout the rest of the world (especially in the developing world). People need to live and need to use the natural resources to sustain themselves. This puts pressure on the wilderness and wildlife and there is constant conflict. India's approach is similar to that in Africa, command and control from the state combined with local corruption and bribery that eats away at the protection. However, since this is the Himalayas (many parts inhospitable except for the few very strong-willed people) there is a variety of protected land.

One of the main problems with India, even here in the northern parts is garbage. People also use the rivers for disposal. This is probably mostly due to a lack of education about the consequences but also is due to tradition. People in India have viewed rivers as having the potential to carry away sin, evil, problems, etc. Rivers are also very spiritual (which is great, but has bad unintended consequences with respect to garbage). As a result people think they can throw their garbage in the river and it will just go away. Well, technically it does (but that missing the point), but it just exports the problem downstream. Despite the rampant garbage, it is apparently much improved over the last few years than in the past! Wow, that's what i thought as well. In talking to some local guys that run an NGO, they explained that there is a concerted effort by the Manali municipality to educate the local people and stress the importance of allowing the town to pick up the garbage. They also have a recycling center, of which i do not know how impressive or productive it is, but surely it is better than nothing. In all these "problems" there is one underlying theme - lack of education. Better education will improve healthcare, environment, economy and living standards all over the world. That is easy to point out and difficult to actually implement.

Interesting Observation:

India seems much more receptive to foreigners than the places where I traveled in Africa. In some remote regions of Africa they are fascinated with foreigners, but westerners are mainly viewed with hesitancy. People in India seem to be interested in interacting and speaking with westerners. Obviously in both instances westerners are viewed as ATMs that will spend money on all the trinkets sold in the streets, but here in India they are obsessed with taking pictures with a foreigner. This mostly happens to women, especially those with blond hair and fairly pale skin, but it also happened to me one night. Apparently it is a nice novelty to have a white person as the backdrop on your Indian cellphone.

Struggling to come up with more of an update. Honestly, Manali is good for outdoor adventures (something i am really craving after days of "shooting" meaningless stories). But to stay here from more than 2-3 days (without an outdoor adventure) is total overkill. Excited to move on or at least get some hiking/fishing in after the workshop...then off to China.

later

dave

!ncredible !ndia!

Is that too many exclamation points? Whatever it is, incredible is an accurate description. But let's start ya'll out slowly. Arrived in Delhi 2 nights ago, nice hotel, everything perfectly fine. At 9 pm (on arrival) it was still very hot and terribly humid (technically it is monsoon season, but the rains are a bit late). So the next morning I had about 8 hours to kill before the bus trip to Manali northern India in the Himalayas, where the photojournalism workshop would take place).

I decided to walk. Really had no idea where I was going, but why not, had some dinky map from the hotel so decided to try it. There are tons of rickshaws and bikes driving by all day long, some carrying people to work, some aggressively trying to find a customer. A younger rickshaw driver who spoke very good English convinced me to hop in his natural gas powered, yet old school rickshaw. Honestly, i thought he was joking when he said he would take me to town for 20 rupees. It is hard to imagine what people mean when they say that India is cheap, but it is ridiculously cheap. 20 rupees is about 45 cents! (Later that day i bot 2 waters and 3 packets of cookies/crackers for 85 rupees, that is less than 2 bucks!). Anyhow, the kid that picked me up (his name was Ansar) proved to be most helpful and took me to a cell phone place to exchange my Tanzania sim card for an Indian one. That was the most expensive transaction all day, but electronics/cell phone related gear always is in these countries. He then tried to get me to pay him $30 for a full days worth of activities. Showing me the sights around the whole town as well as getting back to the hotel to fetch bags and then off to the bus station by 5 pm. That was a good 7 hours of work. I stopped bargaining when he offered $20 because it feels pointless to argue over a few bucks especially with people that are clearly less well off (understatement of the year). Most people think you could pay $10 for the full day, but still sounds like a good deal. I was able to tour much of Delhi and have him direct me to food stores, places to eat, cell phone stores, etc all for the price of a taxi ride in NYC from my (now old) apartment to the UES!

Well, Delhi is pretty crazy. There are tons of people and there is a ton of traffic. We saw some of the touristy tombs and buildings, etc but also went over to the bazaars in Old Delhi. I was slightly surprised that people in India are less concerned with white westerners walking around. After having been in Africa for 6 week where everyone is waving or scowling at the white person in town, it was nice that most Indians really couldn't care less.

The Indian government is pretty strict about the traffic pollution and most vehicles are required to use CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) which burns much cleaner than regular gasoline or diesel. Having said that, the lack of exhaust leaves your nasal sense wide open for the various smells that pervade Delhi, anything from the food to bad body odor to urine and other nasty human smells.

Overall, Delhi was a nice experience, the people seemed to be rather friendly. After a day full of sensory overload, I headed to the bus stop to meet up with the photojournalism crew. We all piled into an large bus with AC to prepare for the 14 hour trip. Yes, 14 hour bus ride. Well, the bus ride started at least 1-2 hours late tragically prolonging the pain of the trip. It was quite difficult to sleep as the roads outside of the city (on our way to Manali) were quite curvy and the bus driver was not shy about going as fast as he comfortably could around those bends.

Honestly, i thought the driving was bad in Africa, but it is worse here. It is hard to tell whether people just don't care or if they are not educated enough to know what 2 speeding cars colliding can do. The road from Delhi to Manali is a small 2 lane "highway" (which in this case is equivalent to a residential road in the US) and it is packed with lorries (i.e. trucks). These are not the 18 wheelers that we are accustomed to because the roads are too windy to allow them. They are, however, still pretty big (and the drivers aren't terribly forgiving or cautious). The lorrie drivers and our bus driver don't have enough patience to wait for open roads, so they do a bunch of blind curve passing while letting the horn rip. This was mostly effective...except for this morning. Naturally, I couldn't sleep on the bus, too much motion and at about 6 am we were approaching a curve. There were 2 trucks parked on either side of the road. 1 in our lane, another in the other lane (really stupid positioning, but as pointed out previously, people that drive in this country don't think...at all). There was just enough space to fit one car through. The bus driver cautiously approached the space and started to squeeze through. A lorrie driver on the other side decided it wasn't necessary to be cautious and he plowed right into us. Not even a chance to break. Luckily, nobody was hurt...but there was some pretty good damage to the bus. Needless to say, this delayed our already delayed (and very sweaty and uncomfortable) trip even more so. We unloaded everything because the bus driver couldn't get the bus started again with the steering wheel all jammed up against the seat. We eventually chose to get some private trucks for transportation the rest of the way and our 14 hour journey eventually finished in a total of about 20 hours. Quite an ordeal. Honestly, not that stressful since my new state of mind seems to be intense "chill" and relaxation. Obviously the heat was unpleasant and we all needed showers (and never want to repeat the experience) but this is what happens in developing countries, you have to just deal with it.

On a positive note, we did all make it safely to our destination and Manali is a very scenic place at the edge of the Himalayas. The last few hours was spent driving up the river valley (think the Beas river) and the mountains were over 1,000 meters high on either side with virtual straight drops to the river below. There was cultivation all the way up some of these mountain tops, pretty amazing to see. Some people even have baskets and pulley systems suspended over the river in order to get themselves (or goods) from one side to the other. The week here has just started and the jet lag is kicking in. Will check in later if there is any interesting news. Hope all is well.

dave

The Serengeti - A World of Difference

After leaving the relative hardship of Eastern Kenya's dry landscape and decreasing wildlife, I joined an overlanding tour with 23 other people that went from Nairobi to Zanzibar. Our first stop was the Maasai Mara, the famous Kenya Game Reserve that is in the south west part of Kenya and borders the Serengeti in Tanzania. After 2 days there we went to the Serengeti for a few days. These 2 parks comprise about 20,000 square kms and are the focus of most East African wildlife programs we would see on TV in the states. Don't get me wrong, these parks also have their issues with respect to decreasing wildlife and human-wildlife conflicts, but they seem to be in much better shape and the animals are much more abundant. Part of this is due to increased tourist traffic (more money is spent seeing these animals so the community increasingly benefits as a result). Part of the difference is habitat. The Serengeti and Mara (part of the Maasai Steppe ecosystem) have always been more productive habitat give the terrain and relatively abundant rainfall. Over the 3 days we spent in these parks, we saw over 40 lions, many different prides as well as many lion cubs (of various ages) as well as 3 leopards, 2 cheetah and massive amounts of zebra, wildebeest, gazelle, etc. The Serengeti/Mara parks are also famous for the large wildbeest migration that happens twice a year.

These trips were obviously enjoyable and certainly productive from a photo standpoint (the pictures are coming, don't fret, and you will be shocked at how good they are and how close we are to the animals...my 400mm zo0om lens helps a bit). This was also a positive experience after leaving the harsh reality of dead lions near Tsavo National Park. In the Serengeti/Mara ecosystem (slightly smaller than Tsavo) there are 3,000 - 4,000 lions, there are only 200-300 in Tsavo. Again, there are issues and they are the same issues that pervade all of Africa's famous wildlife areas (mostly related to poverty affecting wildlife), but after witnessing the Serengeti, conservation seems achievable.

Additionally, after returning to Tanzania, it seems fairly obvious that Tanzania is in better shape than Kenya. Both are obviously poor, but in the northern pars of Tanzania, where there is more abundant rainfall, people are not struggling quite as much. That, as well as Tanzania's much larger conservation system (39% of Tanz is protected whereas less than 10% of Kenya is), seems to mitigate the pressure on wildlife and help alleviate human-wildlife conflicts. There is still a lot of work to be done and people clearly need more economic and agricultural development. But the wildlife is relatively safe for now.

As for the trip, it is officially over now (i am actually writing this from Zanibar), i have lots of new British friends and we had a blast over the last 12 days. Plenty of wildlife, good times and the occasional night of drinking. It is sad to be leaving Africa and the group (most of whom are continuing on for another 15-20 days) but it will be nice to get home to NYC and see family and friends (also think Mom needs a breather from stressing about about my 6 weeks abroad). Only about 8 days in the states, then i head off again, hope to catch up with everyone while I am back.

Later

The Death of a Lion

Dear all,

Hope everything is well in your lives. Sorry to come back after 2 weeks of silence with such a macabre title. I will get to that later, but wanted to have a catchy title so you read the whole entry!

The last 2 weeks have been spent doing an EarthWatch Institute Project (Lions of Tsavo) on 2 private ranches that are just south of Tsavo East National Park (a very dry park in Southeastern Kenya that is about the size of Connecticut). We were lending a hand in gathering research data on the infamous Tsavo lions that live in and around the park. As in much of Africa, there is much conflict between wildlife and humans and that project intended to gather research to potentially alleviate conflicts and provide for better conservation.

Overall the trip was good. We had 2 Africa guides, 1 Principal Investigator (Alex) and a Safari guide (Simon). We did wildlife drives for 2 weeks on the private ranches which cover about 200,000 acres. We stayed on Rukinga Ranch (80,000 acre private ranch leased to a British man for 99 years that does not allow cattle grazing and is intended for conservation). We also explored Taita Ranch (120,000 acres with better habitat but they allow cattle grazing). We did night and early morning drives and saw tons of wildlife: Lions, Cheetahs (very frequent on the ranches), Jackels, Hyenas (including a rare Striped Hyena), African Wildcats (look like house cats), Servals (another small, rare cat) and Caracals (miniature Cougars that are extremely rare and even rarer to see). There was also tons of antelope, giraffe, elephants, warthogs, birds, etc.

So, for Tsavo NP (an area the size of Connecticut), why do you need to worry about wildlife outside of the park? Isnt that enough land to maintain healthy populations? No, it isnt, not for Lions which require massive territories and constantly move with the rains (Tsavo only gets 12 inches of rain per year, so water is a highly sought after commodity). Therefore, the private land surrounding the ranches are critical for maintaining healthy Lion populations (even though Tsavo is the size of Connecticut, they think only a few hundred lions live there, thats right, hundred!). The existence of wildlife on private ranches brings conflicts with humans, particularly with herdsman. Most people have heard of the Maasai who have been herdsman for thousands of years and they frequently have conflicts with lions, but that relationship has been going on for thousands of years, it is mostly natural by now.

In Tsavo (a very dry landscape) cattle have not been a part of the landscape and as the population grows more cattle are appearing. Taita ranch is home to 10-15 thousand cows and probably has a capacity for 1-5 thousand. So the land is overgrazed, the water holes are empty and the wildlife is stressed. Additionally, even the presence of cows is enough to scare away lions and prevent them from establishing terrirories, this added stress reduces the lion populations both inside and outside the park. In fact, only 2-3 years ago (when Taita ranch had no cows) there were 35-50 lions on the ranches, they now think only 5-10 occupy that habitat.

OK, so what? People need to live and need to graze their animals for food, right? Shouldn't there be a compromise? How can we even ask starving Africans to not graze cattle because Lions are being reduced in number? Well, it isnt that simple. The cattle on the ranches are from Somalis, not Kenyans. Because Somalia and the northern regions of Kenya are in such disarray, the country is being overrun with Somalis. The historical Kenyan tribes (people that already struggle to feed themselves in an unforgiving landscape) are seeing their resources disappear with the abuse of the Somali people that have started to flock into the country. In fact, the cattle on Taita ranch DO NOT feed the people and they DO NOT provide ample employment. A few herdsman make a pittance from some rich Somali man. He (and it always is a he) trucks his cattle in and pays $6 per year to graze that cow! But, the ranchowners dont get paid for the 10-15 thousand cows, only a few of them. Most are there illegally. So in the end, 120,000 acres (plus the cows that consistently venture over to graze on Rukinga) gets ruined to benefit 1-2 rich Somali men who sell their cows to Saudi Arabia (who have the money to buy cows because Americans are addicted to oil). So do the math, Lions (which support a large tourism industry) are being reduced in number so that no local people benefit and a few rich guys benefit (and some Saudis get fatter). Taita ranch used to be run as a safari camp. When that was the case, the safari company paid the owners of the ranche a set price to run safaris on the land. In turn they employed local people as cooks, mechanics, guides, security, rangers, other staff. At that point the Lion population was high. So there is a middle ground, people can get paid to conserve wildlife, they just need to be incented to do it, this is a tough policy in a place like Kenya where corruption is rampant and it is difficult to police the entire country.

So cows are a problem, not a surprise, same thing happens here in the US. But what about the title, "Death of a Lion." During our second week, we found a pair of Lions that were courting and mating. We came back early in the morning (on Taita Ranch) to monitor their behavior. We were following them for 2 hours or so, keeping our distance. They were so preoccupied that we clearly didnt bother them. Then after one of their "intimate" 30 second sessions of mating, there was all this commotion and crashing through the trees and roaring. We first suspected that another male lion had crashed the party causing fighting to start. Nope, then we saw the female seemed to be injured and was lying on the ground pawing at her face. Ok, we supposed they ran into a beehive and had a few stings, nothing life threatening. Then all of a sudden we saw the lioness struggling just like a dog trying to wriggle out of its collar...as if the lion had something around its neck. It did! The worst case scenario, a snare! We had been driving around the area with 2 people that had been studying lions for over 7 years and we didnt even see the snare because it was so well hidden. Before continuing with the Lion's fate, let me give some background on snares. This particular trap was quite an operation. The poachers laid a fence of Acacia thorns (which we humans could hardly see, but the animals can see clearly). They had 5 spaces with wire nooses in the spaces. The animals avoid crashing through the fence and go through the openings where they get the noose around their neck. The wire is tied to a large log which is dragged by the animal and proceeds to choke it to death. These snares are meant for small antelope, not lions, but lions get snagged nonetheless. The snares are set by people who need to supplement their income with "bushmeat." They sell this meat to the butcher in order to buy other supplies. 1 antelope goes for 100 kenyan shillings - about $1.50.

In our particular case the female finally freed the log from the bushes and went down to rest. We took a closer look to see that she had the wire wrapped 4 times around her neck. We called the Kenya Wildlife Service Vet who ensured us he would be by in about 2-3 hours. We all felt good (given the circumstances) and headed back home to meet the vet and bring him back. A lion can exist without food or water for a few days, so we had time. Our guides figured she would not move very far given her stress level. Her male companion was keeping guard, so there is nothing we can do without the vet and his tranquilizer darts.

We returned about 3 hours later to search for the lions. As we approached the spot, there were antelope and birds, too much commotion for lions on the area, not a good sign. Neither lion was where we left them. We searched for about 15 minutes, then finally i spotted her. On her back, completely gone. She had tried to move under a large tree for shade and the log got jammed/ Her reaction to this is to pull as hard as possible (and the brute force of a lion meant she was pulling very hard). This only tightened the noose around her neck and she suffocated to death. This was unbelievable. The guides had encountered lion snares before and have had success calling the vet in to take care of it. Normally there are a few days to work with to fix the problem. Not in this case, she died shortly after we left.

So no only do cattle case problems, but the bushmeat trade does as well. This trade is a product of the utter poverty that exists in African countries. People are trying to get basic supplies and they decimate wildlife in the process. This lioness was killed for $1.50 worth of antelope meat. Her existence (and her offspring) can provide jobs for many people if she were only conserved. The problem is that local people DO NOT benefit from her existence. They do not feel any hard if she is killed so it is worth the option to set the snares. Really quite sad. We need to figure out a way that incents people to conserve wildlife while benefiting from it, if not, we will only see large cats in zoos and museums.